Birthday Pictures

Juleen is now 2 !
Thanks for all the pressies and lovely (e) cards !
A few more pictures can be found here.

Juleen

Happy Chinese New Year!

2007 is the year of the pig - not a coincidence another baby Vandepitte junior, ;-)

I love the pub

My first real pub experience. Tastes like more, papa!

Happy Birthday Juleen (04/02/07)

Drawing from Nina

Soccer champion Nina (our nanny Sandra's daughter), has inherited the art and craft skills from mummy.
Thank you for another beautiful drawing, Nina!!

Unusual birthday flowers

Almost 2 years ago Juleen's grandparents planted a tree in the garden in Holsbeek - a special gift to celebrate her birth. Now end of January, a week before Juleen's birthday, and nature seems to be all but confused, looking at the beautiful flowers on her tree. Thanks for the picture pappie.

Busy Hong Kong

Last Monday I left to Hong Kong for a week, I had a global meeting on one of my most exciting projects. The first morning in the hotel when I woke up, I was very surprised to see the parc full of people in gym gear but not moving at all, just a very different way to get energised and kick start your day - in Sydney everybody is kick-boxing, jogging or doing bootcamps in the morning. Unfortunately I haven't been able to see much more of the city than the trips from the hotel to work, but HK has a great feel to it, full of energy and it lives at a high pace. I couldn't believe my eyes when I left the office at 10pm one night, the streets were overbusy (see pics), much more so than any time during the day. HK's heart beats at night and all people are out in the streets. The city is full of expats and they are very welcoming, they all have domestic helps that mostly live in (cleaning, cooking, nannying) and tax rates are only 13% - sounds attractive to me. On the downside, all people live in flats (houses with gardens are for presidents only) and the pollution is shocking. 360 days per year, they can't see the other end of the river (I was apparantly very lucky to experience 1 clear day, see pic2 vs pic3).

With love from Melbourne...

We had a great weekend in Melbourne with just the 2 of us. We enjoyed some shopping on Saturday and the 2 Australian Open games at night (both Aussi Alicia Mollik and Lleyton Hewitt lost their game). On Sunday, after a great brunch where we bumped into some other Belgians, we went to a lovely art&craft market at St-Kilda and bought a digdgeridoo (Frederik started practising in the hotel which wasn't the best idea...) from a genuine aboriginal man (who was very sure I'm having another girl). After a great museum visit we went for a romantic dinner in the European, it is amazing how much more you feel like being home in Melbourne as a city nad enjoyed some more tennis on Federation Square on our way back to the hotel. On Monday we enjoyed our last sleep-in (oh what a feeling!!) and went back to the courts to enjoy the very exciting games of Kim Clijsters/Hantucheva (yes, she won!!) and Blake/Gonzalez. So happy to see Juleen when we arrived back, apparently she didn't even have the time to miss us, she too had a very exciting weekend with Sandra's family.

Papa & Juleen week

Anouk was in Hong Kong this week, cooking up some new beverages. The perfect excuse for papa to declare himself "on duty" and leave the office every day at 5.30pm ... felt surreal. Lots of quality time for papa and Juleen and we managed to get through the week very easily!

Juleen will stay with Sandra & Danny this weekend, where she can play all day long with all their children. They also have a pool at home, which is great given the temperature peaks we are currently experiencing.

We will be off to Melbourne for a long weekend. A couple of sessions at the Australian Open, some sightseeing and shopping ... a romantic getaway!

Visiting Freya at Palmie

We spent two lovely days at Palm Beach over the Christmas break - 50 min North of Sydney. Palmie and its immediate neighbours Whale Beach and Avalon Beach are stunning beaches - with their rocky coast lines, great waves and narrow beach strips. Also known for its unaffordable beach houses and its very residential character, it is not the place where tourists spend their holidays. Luckily enough, we were invited by Henry & Fi to stay at their parents house. Fi saved us in Sep-Dec '05 when she looked after Juleen. Now she is a mum herself and we had a great time catching up while Juleen and Freya could play.


Juleen, Anouk and Freya - practising for bubbie II


Juleen with Hilda