NZ Diary

A description of what I get up to in my new life Down Under

Friday, May 22, 2009

Oh my!

It's been aaaages since I spoke on here last - and during that time I've flown right round the world, met new members of the family, watched my first born get married (sob - want her here with me - very selfish I know), met up with friends and family and seen the end of summer!

It's bloomin freeezing here now!  Although the weather is beautiful here today - it's quite chilly morning and night - log burner is a burning each evening and there has been frost to greet me on my chilly work journey each morning!

The feijoas are falling off the hedge, mandarins are in season as are some other very nice fruits but I can't remember their names - round and orange (NOT oranges!) with green tomatoey type thingy on the top.  You have to skin them otherwise your mouth goes to cotton wool and they taste like sweet melon!

Went out for a loverly long walk today in the sun (Kev now has a rosey-red sunburned face - but I was a good girl and wore facial sun-cream stuff).  Really enjoyed it - this is the time of year for exploring - good fun!

Aaaah - I've just remembered - they're called persimmons!  Yum!  Made a load of feijoa muffins last night - scrummy!  Hard to describe their flavour - feijoas I mean - for those curious amongst you who are wondering.  Sort of appley and that yellow anti-biotic medicine flavour that kids are sometimes given!  Hmmmm.  

Work is soooo busy - still not quite caught up with myself yet!  Here are a few photos for you of our journey....

This is of our first meal in a  very pretty square in Frankfurt - the day we landed from NZ!  It was evening and it was HOT!  A balmy 25 degrees!  Not bad for Easter time!  Kev and I had a HUGE lump of pork complete with scratchings, sour kraut, mash and apple wine whilst the kids opted for sausage salad - wanting something healthy.  Turned out to be a plate full of different kinds of sausage with one limp lettuce leaf and a piece of tomato - lol!  They weren't impressed!  Well what do you expect from meat loving Germans!

Bro and sis deep in catch-up conversation.

The yellow umbrellas are where we ate (do you like the clever art work on the building behind us - they were doing renovations, but didn't want the square to be ugly).

It was a really pretty square and we were told by a local we should stay because at any minute all the bells of Frankfurt were about to ring - apparently it didn't happen very often.  That's why we decided to eat there.  I was imagining pretty bell ringing tunes from various corners of the city ......little did I know.......Well - at least dinner was a very memorable affair!  Couldn't hear ourselves talk or think for quite a while.....both during and after the meal.... lol!



I was sooo tired by the end of that meal - my head was ringing from the recent bellish cacophony, I had a full belly, and the alcohol and jet lag were well and truly kicking in.  We made a heroic trek back to the hotel and  I did really well to stay awake until about 7pm!

Oh - I must mention this - the hotel had lots of tv channels to watch (as they often do) including 3 of porn!  Whilst Kev was showering, I was innocently flicking through to see what was on tv that evening when - yes, you guessed it - I came across one of those channels - aaaah - as I quickly turned it over lest hubby walked in and wondered what I was up to - I flicked onto another - panicked and flicked over to get the third - jeez - I was wondering if it would ever end - luckily it did on the next flick - whew!  Can I just point out here - that it was a very nice hotel and a well known one too.  Lots of families were staying there.  Gosh - you'd have to be careful with the little ones eh?!  Of course, my two found those channels too and thought it all rather hilarious!  But they're all growed up now - sort of!

The next day dawned sunny and warm.  After brekky, we wandered around Frankfurt,









 over the river and visited an art and movie museum.  The movie museum was fab!  There was a whole section on the Alien movie and heaps of interactive stuff upstairs for us to play with - and we did - seeing as we were the only people in there (apart from a very serious middle-aged British couple and a security man who watched our antics with a very serious face, but never told us off, so that was okay then.)

This is a set from a famous American movie - Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, I think - had Sam Spade in it.  We had loads of laughs in here!  Here I am telling two ruffians off who were annoying me and my very important work.



Here is a video of Adam mucking around on the film set of something or other!  Sorry it's a bit blurry - I was filming the TV!



This next piece of cinematic fun was of my two darlings driving a car through the streets of somewhere.  




Finally - we hope you enjoy their very impressive acting on the flying carpet!




Relaxing by the river on a very warm evening - it had been a busy and fun-filled day.

Next installment of our fabbie, but oh too quick trip, coming sooooooon!

x Sue