Happy New Year!!! Looking back over 2010...

Hello/Ciao everyone!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well 2010 was a very exciting and busy one for us. 

We started 2010 with Iain having a split lip from some random guy who punched Iain in the mouth in our front yard, not a very good start to 2010.

My cousin Marie turned 25 in February.

We celebrated Easter at my Aunty Anthi's house, it was a huge family affair (Mum and Dad were in Kazahkstan).

Mum and Dad returned from a 1 year mission trip in Kazahkstan.

My cousin Kat celebrated her 30th at the Versace buffet on the Gold Coast.

Iain, Levi, Phoenix and I set off on our 3 month adventure from the Gold Coast Airport. 

A few days after we arrived in Florence, Josh and Holly welcomed baby Eli to the family. 

While my family were in Paris we heard that my sister had her 2nd  child a little girl.  Pepper is my parents first granddaughter.

We spent a week at the Cinque Terre in the sun, then came back to cool weather in Florence and a bit of rain.

I got to go to a dinner with some expat women in Florence and met Kimberly.  It was great meeting someone I had chatted to on the internet.  We were invited to Kimberly house for dinner and enjoyed wonderful crostini and pizza with her husband and 2 sons.

In our last week in Italy we spent 5 days with Paola (the owner of the flat we stayed in at Florence) and Sergio in Albugnano near Asti.  We visited the Alps and saw snow on the top of the mountains.  It was very cold in the Northern part of Italy in October.

When we left Florence it was very hard and we miss it everyday. 

London welcomed us with 24C and sunshine, the next day it was 12C and windy with a little rain.  We enjoyed London so much we would love to go back and spend a bit more time there and discover other areas of the UK.

After almost missing our connecting flight from London to Kuala Lumpur we arrived back in Australia to cool weather.  It has been raining ever since and only now in late December do we have warm weather.

We celebrated my cousin Andreas 30th birthday in November at the Fox.

For Christmas we headed to Rockhampton in the floods and rain to celebrate with Iain's family.

Now many towns in Queensland are flooded and many people have been evacuated from their houses.

We enjoyed a BBQ and games on the Wii with family for New Years Eve.

Our family at the Duomo in Florence-October 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all and I hope the new year brings joy and happiness.  Please keep safe and healthy.



July 11 2010 Gold Coast - Kuala Lumpur

We left the house at 430 and drove to Coolangatta Airport to arrive there at 530. We checked in and went through the scanners, Iain got drug tested. Glad it wasn’t me this time.
We ate Hungry Jacks for breakfast at the airport and waited until about 730 to go through Customs to the departure lounge. This is where they make you put all liquid items in a ziplock bag (inc. lip gloss, hand sanitiser etc…). And this is where I got patted down for drugs etc.. (every time I am in an airport this happens). By the way as I type this we are going through some turbulence on the way from KL to London (not liking it one bit, but God is with us).
Anyway back to it, we boarded the plane half hour late at 900 and took off at 930. The kids got there meals (prepaid) at about 950 to keep them occupied, it came with a mini chicken burger, popper and some sweet snacks and games. We got our meals (prepaid) about an hour into the flight at 1030 it was chicken, potatoes and green beans, quite tasty, but very small.
The boys played with their Nintendo Ds until they went flat then Levi sat by me and wrote his travel diary and did some times tables for homework (we are keeping up with the maths and English work for school). Phoenix slept for a few hours next to Iain, this was pleasant, when he woke he became a little annoying and wanted to pester Levi all of the time.
We landed in KL at 1530 as scheduled, zoomed through customs and found our ride outside of the baggage area holding a sign with Iain Hardy written on it. We drove away from the LCCT airport along the roads that were not busy and the scooters and motorbikes ride on the shoulder of the road (this was quite funny to see) and no one, not anybody uses the indicators they all just sort of move over the road wherever and whenever they like.
We saw a huge mosque on the way to our accommodations in Sepang not sure if it was Islam or Muslim. We arrived at our accommodation at 1630 and met Walter and Janet the owners of Jawadene Bed and Breakfast. As we drove into this gated community full (and I mean full) of brand new mansions I thought maybe we should move to Malaysia and have accommodation for people too (we could even afford a maid in Malaysia). After that short detour in the story, Walter gave us a tour of the house, pool, and our room (this was twice the size of our lounge room) there was a queen size bed and a double futon on the floor for the boys and a large wardrobe, some chairs and a great big ensuite with bath/shower.
We went out for dinner (a 15 min walk from the house) to a Malay/Indian restaurant that served us with Tandoori chicken and garlic naan bread (roti). This restaurant is one of those places that I know most of my friends and family would not look at twice because it stank of sewerage outside and there were lots of cats in the restaurant. But surprisingly after some very strong prayers we ate the food and it tasted fantastic especially the roti and no one got sick (hear that everyone I did not get sick, thank God).
If you don’t know me very well, I can eat just one thing that might have something new on it or mix my foods and get sick, it is all in my head and I know it (this is what annoys me the most). But I tell you what my faith in God is growing even stronger as we travel and have a safe and smooth trip.
After walking back to the house (I forgot to tell you it was 32 degrees) I was sweaty as and all I wanted to do was go to sleep. So I did and Iain took the boys for a swim in the pool. I think it was about 20:00 (2200 Bris).

in 2 weeks we will be in KL

I can't believe we will be in Kuala Lumpur in exactly 2 weeks. How the time has flown, it will probably go just as fast while we are on holiday and we will be back just as fast as we left. Hopefully it won't be too fast!
I have been given $$$ by many people to buy bits and pieces from different markets we may go to. I am excited to bring back some lovely fabrics, buttons and maybe even a doctors bag for a special someone. Just remember if you give me some money and the items are too heavy for my luggage I will use some of the money to post the item to you. So think about how much you want to hand over. :-)... if I can't spend money on myself at least I will have fun shopping for everyone else.
Iain wants to buy a Ferrarri cap for himself (he may buy one as a pressie for someone else), the boys want to see Pompeii and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. For some reason Levi really wants to go to Spain (He may have seen a doco or something on fox). I would love to be able to take him but we will see how the budget goes.
Speaking of budgets, when this trip is over and we actually do it on our budget I may start up a new blog on how to travel overseas (particularly in Europe) with kids on a small budget.
I think that sort of blog could really open some eyes and some people who believe they can't do it might see a glimmer of hope and give it a go. Just be BRAVE!!!