Goodbye 2013…

Dear friends,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

thanks for visiting me here  at my little space throughout the year.  I hope your 2013 was everything that you hoped for.  Tonight I’m thankful that I have another opportunity to do life better!!

Bring on 2014.  Let’s do this…..

Well here’s a poem I want to share with you all.  I read it sometime ago and it’s remained with me. 

For 2014, I wish you health, happiness and peace.  But most of all……

I wish you Enough.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough “Hello’s” to get you through the final “Goodbye.”

(written by Bob Perks)

Christmas…..

Christmas came and went and we had a lovely time together as a family.

Happy Birthday Jesus!!

I hope your Christmas celebrations were lovely, peaceful and hopeful as ours was.

And now we’re counting down the days till we turn the calendar. 

Happy Friday and enjoy your weekend!

once a city of sailors, fishermen and pearl divers……..

Dubai is extravagant!

It’s beautiful and there’s no doubting it that there’s money in this city. In this country.  Their buildings (an architects delight), their malls and their cars – they flaunt them! 

We’ve been here a week now and we have had a wonderful time. 

My most memorable moment– my encounter with the dolphin.  So awesome and definitely an experience I will never forget.  And I don’t think my kids will forget it either.

Also crazy was our skiing experience.  And it was all indoors.  I know we went skiing in the Mall of Emirates!  Sounds crazy but the slopes were real, the lifts and the cold. – All real!!

It’s been great.  this weekend we plan to go dune bashing, camel riding, sand boarding and hopefully a BBQ in the desert.    I’m looking forward to it.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Been back 6 days…

and it’s  time to leave again.

I literally hit the ground running since I arrived back here last Friday.  Not after some drama though.  We were detained again at the airport.  Well it wasn’t me this time, it was my daughter.  But at least they didn’t hold us for 3 hours like they did the last time.

Anyway so there was a Christmas Party,   a farewell one too.  The we had a Santa’s Workshop, Santa party for the kids and the School’s Christmas Program.!!

all dressed up for a party

JJ concentrating on his reindeer craft.

cookies for the Christmas program.

But now that all is over,  it’s time for some down time.  And we are heading for some sun!!

I can’t wait.  I need a break.

Hope your week is going well and the Christmas season is really upon you now.

hugs.

Reunited….again

So my daughter’s travels went well and all went smoothly. 

I just love Singapore Airlines – I can always count on them

Well we’ve spent a few hours together on land and now it’s time to take to the skies again and head home.  Total travel time will be about 13 hours.  Layover time in Istanbul will be about 4.    So it’s going to be a long travel home, but we’re going home so all is good.

I’m hoping everything goes smoothly cause I have a Christmas party to get to, tomorrow night.

How about you?  do you have Christmas parties planned this month?  Do share…

p.s – Francesca I’m wondering why they’ve blocked your blog.  Tiny Woolf I would love to know why and get it unblocked but not too sure how to go about that.  I will let you know Francesca about joining.  I’m trying to put a CV bloggers list on my side bar so I guess I can access your blog through them!!

corner view catch up…

So yesterday I spent the day (well almost all day) in the Istanbul airport for a flight to Singapore.  I didn’t want to go through the hassles of applying for a visa so I spent the day at the airport.

And thank goodness for Starbucks and their free wi-fi and of course no websites being blocked I was able to log on to Francesca’s blog.  For some reason Fuoriborgo is ‘blocked’ back in Atyrau, Kazakhstan!  Don’t ask me why.

And so while I was there  I thought I would try to post a picture for today’s corner view theme and then decided to post pictures for the others I’ve missed. Most of them anyway.

So in case you’re wondering

Corner View is a weekly appointment created by Jane but hosted by Francesca.  It’s where bloggers from all corners of the world share their view on a pre-arranged theme. 

So No words just pictures.  Well a few words. !! Here we go….

Today’s theme: A view from my street when there’s a lot of snow.

Pets.  She is not mine.  She belongs to my neighbor and is a gorgeous dog.  whenever my kids ask me for a dog I send them over to my neighbor to get their dog ‘fix’

Favorite clothes.  Comfortable is important to me.

Self portrait.

Wine – well Champagne actually (and glasses).  This was one of the champagne testing things I went too. And if I remember correctly the bottles are in the order of how we rated them.

All the small things.  And the little things that make me happy.

Sacred spaces.  Yes, my bed is pretty important to me!! (I know I’m a little weird!!) 

What to do in Italy.  Couldn’t think of anything else!!

Roadside…  This kind of reminded me of home.

So there it is.  I miss CV.  It’s such an awesome meme and a wonderful way to see other parts of the world.  I keep on checking Fuoriborgo while in Atyrau but to no avail.

I’ll keep trying though and coming to visit you lovely people. 

wordless wednesday

right now

I’m in Istanbul!

I’ve been here a little over 9 hours and have about 3 more to go till I board the plane for a flight to Singapore.  Yippee, I’m on my way to meet Renee half way.  She’ll make her way from Sydney to Singapore and then we’ll both make the trip back home.   It’s long and tiring but we do what we have to do.

I’m excited.  I think she’s excited too.  I also think my daughter will be happy to be finally DONE with year 8.  Because she changed from the American curriculum to the Australian one she had to do the back end of year 8 again.  I don’t think she was too happy about that.  But it’s done and now we can all look forward!

Well December is finally here and even as I sit here at Starbucks drinking my Christmas inspired drink I can hear Christmas songs in the back ground.  It’s lovely!

Anyway I  hope your week has started well and your going strong.

BTW in case you were wondering – in my last post I posted about Movember – well just wanted to share that our community raised over 2 million tenge for the cause – which converted into just over 13 000 USD.  I thought they did great.  And the kids at school raised just under 60 0000 tenge. 

So Awesome!!

No ‘MO’ Monday Mile!!

Every Monday’s at school the kids from Pre-K to 8th grade all have to run a mile during their P.E class.

But today the kids had a “NO MO Mile” Monday!  Our community is participating in Movember – a moustache growing charity event to highlight men’s health.

They had options – wear a ‘Mo’ to school and be exempt from running the mile.  Donate ‘tenge’(local currency) and no need to run.

So over half of the school turned up with ‘mo's and money and said NO to the mile!!

smart kids….but they’ll be back at running their mile next week.

here’s  another photo of my kids with moustache’s.  I used this photo for a corner view so long ago.

Happy Monday!!

weekends are for….

dinner with friends, baking desserts for the dinner.

turning a casual cricket game into a little bit of a fun competition of Thermomix owners vs. NON Thermomix Owners!

never a dull moment here in our little camp!

Hope you’re weekend was a fun one too.

Happy Week.

almost 2 months…

WOW!

I can’t believe I’ve been away this long from this little space of mine.  Life is busy, but I’ll be honest, I’ve been lacking a little inspiration to come here and blog. To come here and share my thoughts etc.  Just nothing.

But all is well.  I leave in a couple of days to go pick up my daughter again.  Thanksgiving is just around the corner and then it’s countdown to Christmas.

Where has the year gone too?   2013 is almost over.  It’s hard to believe but that is life.

Well I thought I’d share some of my photo’s that I submitted in the hopes of having them selected for a calendar and little note cards that were printed for a fundraiser here.

The first 2 got selected for post cards and the next 2 were selected for the 2014 calendar.

Here are a couple more that I submitted but they weren’t picked.  The calendar turned out great.

Oh and incase you’re wondering – it hasn’t snowed yet and we’re already halfway through November.  But no one is complaining!!

Happy Day.

corner view - evening

**  Corner View is a weekly appointment created by Jane but hosted by Francesca.  It’s where bloggers from all corners of the world share their view on a pre-arranged theme.

Well for today’s CV I’m coming to you from Singapore.

I’m here to meet and pick up my daughter who made her trip from Sydney to Singapore and I made mine from Kazakhstan to Bangkok to Singapore.

We’ve spent our evening together, catching up. 

She has so much to tell me about school and her time away from us and  I want to hear everything she has to share with me. 

We even made a trip to the city on the metro into Singapore.

Also this is where we’re spending our night in Singapore, The Crowne Plaza.  Best thing about the hotel, it’s near the airport.  Handy when we have an early start . 

Tomorrow we start our trip back home to Kazakhstan!!

 

for more corner view, start with Francesca.

corner view - lunch

**  Corner View is a weekly appointment created by Jane but hosted by Francesca.  It’s where bloggers from all corners of the world share their view on a pre-arranged theme.

I’m late for the view this week, but here it is.

Well it’s been 2 years since we came to Dostyk village, in Atyrau and everyday of the week they come home for lunch. – both my kids and husband leave their school, and the workplace and come home to eat with me.

It takes planning on my part to make sure I have something ready for them but also to make sure I am home for lunch.  Everything is planned around lunch.  I think you could say this is our meal together at the table. 

Which makes dinner time  pretty casual cause everyone has something going on.

Of course there are days I wish they didn’t come home for lunch but I know I may not get this type of deal anywhere else. 

So for now, I just enjoy it.

For more CV’s head on over to Francesca’s.

monochrome monday

  It’s the beginning of another week. And I have a feeling it’s going to go by fast!

The weather is changing.  It’s getting cooler but the sun still shines and it really is lovely kind of weather.

I’m getting excited.   I can’t believe that i have only a week till I get to go meet my daughter half way to bring her back here for school term break.  I cannot wait to see her.

It’s going to be a busy week but it’s all good.

what does your week look like?

Happy Monday and happy week.

# I’m trying to use my camera more.  here are my photos for Monochrome monday – my glass jug.

And I’m continuing my count to 1000 over here.

weekends are for….

trying a new recipes with my thermomix.

baking snacks for the kids for the school week

and having fun at our Community End of Summer BBQ.

   

I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

corner view - away

It’s been a long summer, and it’s been a while since my last CV.  And it’s good to be back.

Well not only was this a long summer, but a summer of change for our family dynamics.

Renee has now been away from us for almost 2 and a half months.   It’s been different – for the 4 of us to be back here in Kazakhstan while Renee is in Australia. 

But she’s really enjoying boarding school and I’m so glad that she is.

For more on this theme start with Francesca our faithful host.

**  Corner View is a weekly appointment created by Jane but hosted by Francesca.  It’s where bloggers from all corners of the world share their view on a pre-arranged theme.

wordless Wednesday

i know this meme is suppose to be without words, but…….

received news from home that a cousin of mine passed away.  She was in a car accident and died instantly.  others that were in the vehicle with her are all alive but have critical injuries.

Life is precious.  hug someone today.  tell them you appreciate them and love them.  Tomorrow is not promised to us.

R.I.P. Betty.  Bamahuta.(good-bye)

and so it’s September

where did August go to?

Oh that’s right, it was a month in Bangkok and then it was getting my big girl ready for boarding school.

It feels like just yesterday we all went out for summer break with friends and families.  And  now we’re  back into schedules and routines and time is going by fast.

Do you agree?

 

Anyway with the turn of the calendar month it shows in the mornings.  It’s not as light/bright as it was a couple of weeks ago and the kids are telling me that it’s getting darker sooner.  It’s also cooler.  although summer here has not been as hot.  which we’ll take but it was just unusual.

You notice these things even when things are mundane. you notice these things.

Well here’s to another week.  We have our  “End of Summer”  community BBQ at the end of the week and I have to gather my props for some games for the grown ups. 

It should be fun.

I’m continuing to give thanks over here. 

Happy Week. 

The photo above is my sister and her kids with JJ and I at Bangkok Safari.  And yes that is a baby tiger we’re feeding!