Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Hope your celebrations have been joyous. We have enjoyed lots of fun with Bertrams and Days. We have enjoyed reunions with friends and the girls have had plays friends Sarah & Natalia, Aimee & Jade, Holly and Darcie and look forward to others in the new year. Christmas Day we headed back to Mordialloc Baptist Church which was fun and familiar. We then went to Penny and Christiaan's for lunch and then back to Tamsin's for the Day family shenanigans. It was great to have all the cousins together. Zoe remarked "Isn't it so great we are all together again." I agree with you Zo-zo!

On Boxing Day we headed to Pomonal and had a day of Grandma and Poppa to ourselves before the Bertram gang arrived. Once again it was cousin heaven! We enjoyed lazy mornings on the deck, good food, great games, horsey rides, tree climbs, cricket (some love it), and plenty of visits to the hen pen and bunny cage over at the neighbours, swims at Halls Gap pool and even a trip to the Halls Gap Wildlife Park which was greatly appreciated by our little animal lovers. On our way home we detoured to afternoon tea and easy conversation with the growing Brook family in Kensington. Best wishes for the Feb baby, Sarah,Stewart and Henry!

PS. Suggestions for names for the Brook baby.

I'm thinking Edwin for a boy! or Leo.

For a girl ( if Milly is now not an option) perhaps Ellie, Sally, Ally, Abigail, Tabitha, Emmeline (with the intention of calling her Emmy if it somehow morphs into Milly that's not your fault) or Matilda (with the intention of calling her Tilly and if it morphs into Milly , again not your fault).

First Christmas in Singapore

We decided to have an early family Christmas in Singapore so we weren't transporting kids' present halfway across the world. So today began with presents around the (very little) Christmas tree and then in the afternoon we went to Goodwood Park Hotel for high tea. It was a lovely treat. Now we have our bags packed and in two hours we will be in a taxi to the airport. See you soon.

O Christmas Tree

Last weekend we managed to find a quiet evening to visit the Botanical Gardens. Different organisations from around Singapore have each decorated a Christmas trees with around 150 in total. Some have been very creative. Hospitals decorated trees with drip bags and disposable gloves, nurseries decorated trees with children's colurful gardening implements and embassies decorated their trees with flags and tiny dolls dressed in national costume. We were fortunate to time our visit with a school bands Christmas concert which we enjoyed listening to while having our picnic tea. Not long now and we'll be back in Australia. Only another four parties, one BBQ and one high tea before we fly out on Sunday evening. Tis the season to be jolly busy...

Life's a stage

On Wednesday morning at 8am, I was on stage talking to about 100 presales people from across Asia Pacific and Japan.  11 hours and 3000kms later I was in the audience, watching Alice and Felicity perform in their school concert.  They did an excellent job and I was so pleased I made it on time.

I spent the last week in Guangzhou, China at an internal conference for HP Software and Solutions.  It was a great chance to get together with my colleagues from around the Asia Pacific region and a definite highlight was the Presales Managers beating all the Sales Manager teams at the Formula 1 car building and racing activity.  We had to measure and cut out different pieces of the car from thick cardboard, construct the vehicle and then race against the other teams.  In our semi-final, the competitor's vehicle collapsed, making us the easy winner.  Imagine our dismay when the organiser made us immediately re-race again against another team, who beat us by a car length.  All was put right when Anthony Nonnis from Australia talked the organiser into giving us another chance, which the other teams voted on as being ok.  We then pushed through for a clear victory in the final!

In the Spotlight

A month or so back Alice wanted to audition for one of the main parts in the School concert. There were only four main parts and auditions were open to all students from Year 2 to Year 6. It was one of the moments when you want to encourage your child but not set them up for disappointment. Yes, I said, go ahead, learn the lines, try out and do your best but remember Year 6 students are going for the same parts. All weekend she practised her lines and experimented with actions and facial expressions and then auditioned. A few days later she was so excited, as was the entire Year 2 (and her parents), to learn Alice had got one of the parts.

Over the last few weeks we have gone over lines diligently. Alice was never too tired or distracted and would often bring me the script. There were a lot of lines for a Grade 2 and some of them very similar which made it difficult. Matt knew from the start that he probably wouldn't make the concert as he was in China for a conference but an early flight out meant he made the concert with 5 minutes to spare. So last night we were all able to attend the concert "Back to the Future". Four kids hop in and out of a time machine and in each scene a class performs. Felicity's class did the Middle Ages and Felicity was a very composed Maid Marian. Alice did brilliantly and was so confident and relaxed. It was a thrill to be there! Well done Alice - the hard work was worth it!

Family Fun

The Kennett family stayed with us for a couple of days so Paquita could run her first half marathon. Matt unfortunately only saw them one night before he had to leave for China. The kids all played great together creating dance shows, circuses, plays and art galleries. We enjoyed some of Singapore's highlights including a boat ride along the river and the lights on Orchard Road. While Paquita and my friend Jackie ran the race, Glenn and I found ourselves responsible for seven children. We dressed them all in green so that we could identify our little cheer squad members easily. Paquita's time was 2 hours 12 minutes but although we were at the finish line we never saw her as it is such a crowded race that about 10 people pass the line each 10 seconds so you can easily miss people. We saw Jackie though as she was in hot pink and she also spotted all the green people and came to kiss her kids before running across the line! Not a good run to try for a personal best because of the crowds.
















Glenn also managed to have a reunion with ex-girlfriend Tamsin over skype. Tamsin has quite a good choice in blokes - that's the second of her ex-boyfriends that's dropped by this year!