Our Travels

I've had this laptop since Christmas of 2007, though it doesn't feel like it's that long ago the computer world says otherwise. I've had so many problems with this lovely HP. I've had the ram upgraded, I taken it in to have the memory cleaned to a hard drive and the latest headache is a message that keeps saying the computer memory is full when I hardly save anything on computer hardrive anymore! I've been trying to put off buying a new computer but now I can't view photos due to low memory... Very frustrating but I really didn't want to part with this machine. Oh well like all electronics these days they have a time stamp on them...our consumer society dictates that we buy buy buy. A lot of the time things aren't worth fixing as they cost about the same as buying a new one, like irons, vacuum cleaners, electric jugs.... Enough ranting this morning. Good Morning World:)

And so we're back to Square One as one brave lady in Samoa Sina Retzlaff speaks to the media with a bruised face from a recent beating by her ex husband the well known ex-Manu Samoa ex- Highlanders rugby player Brian Lima. It's disgusting that after she's divorced him he still did what he did. I saw Ms Retzlaff's picture with bruises and all on the Samoa Observer  site but what struck me is the determined smile through the pain. Domestic violence in Samoa and every where in the world is disgusting and I hope this particular abuser Brian Lima gets time in Samoa's horrid prison for what he has put his ex-wife and their children through. What bothers me more about this case and many other cases in Samoa is the fact people are quick to return the blame on the victim. Asking questions like, but what did she say or do to get a beating? The fact remains that a coward is the man or woman that beats on his/her physically weaker partner.  My journalist younger sister ha...

In celebration of our wedding anniversary hubby booked our little family into the Desert Nights Camp in the Wahiba sands in the Bidyia, Al Wasil region in Oman. It took us two hours and a half to get to the camp from Muscat. The dual carriage way after the highway was a little bit scary as dare devils overtake without considering oncoming traffic half the time. We got to the camp without incident. As we parked our car trying to sort ourselves out, a hotel porter showed up in a small cart and welcomed us to the camp. We loaded the cart with our gear and went in to the reception. We were received warmly and offered cool wet flannels to freshen up, a welcome gesture after driving through the sand. The camp was easy to find following the instructions given on their  Desert Nights Camp  website. As the golden sand dunes came into sight I felt butterflies as I was so excited to go back to the desert since 4 and a half years ago. Master Five was even more excited as he pointed to ca...

After putting baby to bed I thought I'd have a bath. I remembered a  beesline facial mask  I bought at a salon a few weeks ago and thought I'd use it. So I applied the product on my face and hopped in the bath. I felt stinging but I thought it was the product doing it's cleansing thing. After a few minutes I washed it off but my face felt hot and when I looked in the mirror a very red face was looking back at me. I tried to stay calm washed my face with more cold water to cool the burning sensation and was keeping the 'panic' at bay. I grabbed the aloe vera gel I have and applied it to a small part of my face and that helped. I held a cold wet flannel to my face to keep it cool and hoped it brought the redness down. I googled allergic reactions and low and behold yours truly was suffering from this. I'm so disappointed with myself for not testing the product first but having said that there's no warning on the packet that could have reminded me to test it b...

As I grow older I've been fascinated with retirement and 'old age'. I mean what is old age and what is expected of those who have retired. The norm seems to be people retiring and spend time visiting children and grandchildren or help raise them. However in this day and age this has really changed. For starters what is old age? We seem to think that old age is when people retire or stop working which is around 60 to 65! Retired folk that I know are fit, robust people. There's a study floating around  that found people died shortly after retiring and it is suspected that it's due to boredom and depression from change of routine and not feeling needed.  Looking around me at all the sixty plus year olds, I find highly unfair that retirement is forced upon them. It's unfair that age seems to determine people's usability(?). My mother has hit seventy and is fit, robust and a hard working woman. Somehow retiring or ceasing to work does not fit into her vocabula...

Sadly I got spammed last month! My gmail sent out a link for people to click on that sent out the virus to others. I just noticed it sent it to my blog as well! So I apologise is anyone got spammed due to my negligence to check this blog. -- ~Every moment, thank God.~

Wishing my beautiful sister a happy birthday today. So I read on your blog that you're going to be flat out on  your birthday so hopefully all goes well at the event and then you can have a well deserved drink and yummy dinner with your hubby when you're all done. Thinking of you today and wishing you a long fulfilling life. God bless. Love you

Funny how we all complain about Facebook and it's lack of privacy and what goes on there and yet we all pretty much have a Facebook page! How else would we know how irritating it can be! Well in this entry I beg to differ. I like Facebook, almost love it. I like how it keeps me in touch with family. Family whom I never met, I hardly know or with those I grew up with and then moved overseas. And it helps me keep in touch and reconnect with friends. Friend that I'm close to and new friends that I make along the way. The latter I find weird but this is about positives.  I like being updated on my family and friends activities all over the world. You get a perspective of peoples lives through their updates. I find that interesting. Seeing updates from a seasoned pilot flying all over Africa, to bored teenagers in Auckland. The social life of vivacious gay friends in London to doting mums in Fiji. From the struggles faced by a new lecturer in Canada to an aid worker in North Afri...

Back now after nursing baby, I put him back in his cot fast asleep, so I decided I still want to blog so here I am. Baby's been sick for a week. I took him to the doctor the very next morning he got a cold and well 4 days later he was no better. Back to the doctor for follow-up and change of medicine and he's back on the mend thank goodness. So my sleepless nights are coming to an end thank goodness. Poor bubs was so clogged up he just couldn't sleep well. Baby's now 5 months and a few days old, he's a big boy...very strong and healthy except for the odd cold here and there so counting my blessings that he kicked that one in the butt. But boy being a parent is really scary at times. Wanting to take the pain from your child is one of those superpowers you wish you had, to help them. The upside throughout baby's sickness is his appetite remained the same. Big smiles for that one as it generally means it's not serious. I was trying out this new doctor so will...

Enjoying my quiet time I decided to sit at my computer and update my blog and then baby cried, and cried and cried....

We started planning our summer holidays since my husband's leave application came through. Of course we're Samoan nothing's concrete until closer to the date of travel. Moreover we had the arrival of our second baby before we could fully confirm everything. We did appreciate that in Europe it's summer holidays for schools and work so places get booked out fast. We wanted to avoid hotels and do apartments so we can cook our own food at times and I find this a lot more comfortable than relying on hotel services and food. I found an apartment in Rome through Housetrip.com It's a site where people rent out their apartments and houses. I found us one that was very close to the Vatican City and still easy to reach the Colosseum and other major attractions in Rome. A lovely Agri-tourism place in Tuscany based in a vineyard with 10 apartments was found and our holiday looked promising from there. We got a two bedroom one as our friend was travelling with our family of four...

Oh my, our Manu Samoa are on a roll. Last  week they beat Scotland and today they beat Italy 39-10! It was an even game in the beginning though Samoa lead in the first half but by the second half Samoa went on to score 4 more tries! Manu Samoa played so professionally I was so proud. So they played some minor SA team 2 weeks ago and lost but I put that down to the fact that the boys had just come together before the game! So by the Scotland game they had ample time to train with one another and get to know each other. The real test would be next week against a tier one team: South Africa. Here's to the Samoan boys play a fantastic match next week.

When I think of blogging at the moment, all that comes to mind are my kids! It's so weird saying 'my kids', I guess it's due to having had one child for almost five years before our second pepe boy entered the world! Speaking of pepe boy now he's back to his normal sleeping pattern. It takes me an hour to put him to bed now rather than 4 hours a few days ago! And then he sleeps for almost 8 hours! I love it. However yesterday my 4 year old woke up with a fever. We gave him panadol and then he was himself again after 30 minutes. By the afternoon he had high fever again and off we went to see a doctor. Today our lounge is Tau's hospital room and he's still not well. Last night he was feeling sorry for himself. Sobbing he said he didn't like being sick and he's sorry that he couldn't cuddle and hold his baby brother nor 'help' me do things for him. He was so sweet it nearly broke my heart. Here's a four year old who's very sick and...

A lot of our friends have come down with the cold and so we too caught it. It's going around and well it's very hard to dodge it. Since my throat felt scratchy I quickly took the usual remedies to kill it before it got worse. I just didn't want my poor newborn pepe to get it too. Unfortunately 2 nights ago he felt a bit warm and so early the next morning we took him to the doctor. We got some medicine just to help him get rid of the viral infection he had. Luckily by today he's not too warm. Tonight however he is having trouble sleeping and well this happened a couple of times before and I must admit it freaks me out thinking... is this the start of a bad stretch! The life of a parent I guess. It doesn't help that one of my friends carries on about how her 'good' baby became colicky at 3 months! Thank you for the positivity...hag. Anyway here's to hoping my pepeboy feels better tomorrow. My big boy had his end of year concert at his Montessori kinde...

Vanity Obviously the new baby has kept me blissfully busy that I haven't blogged since baby's birth! But here I am again. Baby's now sleeping up to 7 hours at night and I love it and now I'm pushing my luck for I am still awake at 11pm when I should be snoozing to get enough beauty sleep. Which brings me to that subject...beauty... vain I am yes who isn't? right? Har! So baby's now 7 weeks and my uterus has just about shrunk back to it's pre-baby size according to the doctor and yes the tummy is still flabby but well that too will shrink(I pray:p) When my 4 year old sees my tummy he asks, mummy when will your belly button be like mine again? So unfortunately he's my judge now and well until he decides mine is like his then I guess it's all good...haha  Yes it's nice to finally be back to normal again...well almost I can't do strenuous exercise until much later according to my doctor. So until then I will try and start little and eat wel...

16 Apr 2013 4:11pm Everyone left baby and I alone this afternoon and I compiled an easy listening playlist to relax to with baby. I played an all time favourite in celebration Pale ua le So'o and felt the spirits of my grandma and strong ancestors, the mana of my mother and living supportive family and friends as I danced and sang on my bed and cried tears of joy, pride and gratefulness for the gift of life we have been blessed with once more. I cried that Manumailagi has arrived safely, I cried that he is perfect, I cried that he is strong and I cried for a future with him filled with love, joyful moments and endless possibilities. For this Blessing from Heaven I am forever grateful to our Heavenly Father. And together with Tauilagi I am complete and bask in God's Glory. Faafetai I le Atua.

Boredom So lately I find myself utterly bored! Yep over 7 months pregnant and bored! I wonder if this is my pregnant dilemma. I don't get nausea nor other common pregnant predicaments but I seem to find myself in moments of unfathomable boredom! It's really strange but I guess I might as well dwell in this sensation until pepe arrives and I'll be wondering when I had the time to be bored! I've been reading alot of novels and find TV boring. I've just read a Kate Atkinson novel for the first time and it's fantastic. Now I'm scrambling to find one more of hers so I can get lost in it.  Plans My son has two days holiday from kindy so tomorrow we're going to spend our afternoon at the beach. I'm looking forward to having a swim in the sea but not the sun exposure(mindful of sunspots and all)! Treats Today I came home and hubby showed me more mangoes and avocados that a friend of ours brought back from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Hubby went there las...

I'm now past my seventh month so not long to go before a wee loud person joins this household! I've been enjoying my morning walks on the beach breathing in that morning air from the ocean while the weather is fantastic. Two weeks ago I started pregnant yoga classes. I love yoga generally and am glad I found a good class this time again to join. The instructor is fantastic and is a midwife as well so she knows her stuff. I still find it so weird to be in a room full of pregnant women though! Anyway so I've been enjoying the stretching and waking up with leg muscle pains from some of the stretches which has been very invigorating. Last week however I found myself fighting back laughter(the fob in me at play here) when the instructor had us on our backs holding our legs and then telling us to breathe deeply and exercise the vaginal area. Like squeeze and let go, squeeze and let go. All I could think of was that I was going to break wind plus "am I really being told to e...

I'm way overdue to do my sugar level blood test. I've yet to do one during my pregnancy so I decided to do it today as hubby will be home to pick up Mr 4 while I spend the morning at the hospital. I stopped eating at 9 last night. I woke up to get my son ready and make his lunch yadayada at 6am and normally I eat a quick breakfast with him but today I had to keep reminding myself not to due to the test. I dropped Mr 4 and went for my morning walk with my water bottle but tried not to drink too much of it. I also tried really hard not to think of how hungry I was. I came home showered and drove hubby to his work to pick up his car then made my way to the hospital. They took the first tube of blood when I arrived and given the sugared drink to inhale. Yuck Yuck it was disgusting. The nurse told me I had to have my blood twice in two hours to my utter disappointment. I thought I was only there for an hour and now I had to stretch my urge to eat a horse and a cow to 2 hours! yike...

Yesterday my youngest sister gave birth to an 8lb+ baby girl in Samoa. I added this video of this beautiful song sung by Samoa Teachers Training College from the 50s that we grew up dancing to. I remember the endless Samoan dancing lessons with my mom to these songs on the old Record Player. It brings tears to my eyes that we couldn't be there to welcome our little niece and to be there for my baby sister but this song makes me look forward to the dancing lessons and fun we will have with all this little princess in the future. Praise the Lord for another beautiful gift to our blessed family. Fa'afetai i le Atua.