For Cold Lang Syne

Poor Audrey has been laid down with a cold the last couple of days. Amy also had one for a while and even I contracted a near-deadly 'man cold' for 24 hours or so. We're pretty much over our bugs now, but little Audrey has spent the last day coughing and sneezing. It's meant we've had to curtail our trip to Sarah's this evening for her New Years Eve party which is a real shame, but hopefully it'll mean Audrey will wake up in 2008 feeling a bit better.

Happy New Year Everyone!

A Lovely Christmas at Pene and Mike's

Audrey woke up early on Christmas morning with eager anticipation of the day ahead (ok, I'm stretching the truth a bit, being as she's only 4 months old).

Anyway, after pancakes for breakfast, we all sat round the tree and encouraged Audrey to 'open' her presents. Santa had been pretty generous to her, so we spent the morning playing with her new toys - although we did wonder whether she got more enjoyment out of the wrapping paper and ribbon(!?) - we liked the toys though!

We then caught a tram down to our friends Pene and Mike from the New Zealand Embassy. They had cooked a huge lunch for us and their family. Audrey enjoyed spending time with Oliver, Pene's grandson who is just a little younger than her. Similarly we enjoyed catching up and swapping stories with David and Alex (Oliver's parents).

Pene and Mike put on a fantastic meal with all the trimmings (including the turkey which they cooked on the barbecue) and I managed to have two servings of pretty much everything on offer.

One of Pene's sons, Tim had arrived the day before from New Zealand (minus his two bags which had been lost in transit) and did remarkably well to stay conscious until nearly 7pm.

At the end of the evening we pushed Audrey back home in her pram, all of us full of Christmas cheer and with very full tums!

Happy Christmas!

Rather than send one of those impersonal e-mails around wishing everyone a Merry Christmas - I thought I'd do it by blog! Here's a picture of Audrey (4 months old today) - no doubt this picture will be used in evidence when she finally learns the number of Child Protection Services.

As a special 'Christmas Present' to you all - here's a link to some more pictures of our beautiful daughter. Happy Christmas one and all.

Audrey goes to visit Maria

This is Maria Romanowska, who was our midwife when Audrey was born back in August. We all went to visit her today to thank her once again for all the help and advice she gave us when Audrey arrived. It was great to catch up with Maria, and she was really pleased to see how much Audrey had grown over the last four months. We really have a debt of gratitude to her. She is an amazing woman.

In the evening Audrey went to a Christmas party at our friend Patrick's place, but she was unfortunately still too little to be able to consume the yummy mince pies and mulled wine he had made (so her mum and dad kindly helped her out).

It's Chriiiiiiist-maaaaaaaaaaas!

Last night was the Bokano Christmas party - (the English language school where I occasionally 'work'). I met a really tall Polish guy there who asked me whether I came from London. When I told him I was from Wolverhampton his face lit up and he gleefully said 'Slaaade!'

It turned out he was a big fan of the Wolverhampton super-group Slade when they were at their pomp in the 1970s. He knew loads of their hits, 'Cum on Feel the Noize', 'Mama Weer All Crazee Now' as well as the iconic (and appropriate for the event) 'Merry Xmas Everybody' - probably the best Christmas song in the World Ever. We chatted for a while, but strangely not many other teachers were able/willing(?) to join in our conversation.

Trevor's Christmas Quiz

I've put together the attached Christmas Quiz, to allow people to while away the hours between re-runs of Only Fools and Horses, Mary Poppins and The Great Escape.

The quiz is fairly self explanitory, and I'll post up answers in the New Year.

You should be able to print a copy of the quiz from the picture below, or if you can't see the picture, by clicking here

Unfortunately the file sharing software I've used requires 'flash' so if you can't access the quiz by the two means I've suggested, but desperately want to play then send me an e-mail and I'll e-mail you a copy.

If you're in the Grace family then strictly no peeking!

When Amy met Lech

It's not every day you get to meet the President. Amy was present at a state visit yesterday, representing Australia and Lech Kaczynski was pressing the flesh with his country's Ambassadors and their juniors. I'm sure if Audrey had been there she'd have got a kiss!