Geronimo's Birthday

Yesterday Juleen went to Gerimo's birthday party (Geronimo - now 3 years old - is the boy on the picture next to Juleen). Geronimo's parents, Ramiro & Paula, had organised a fabulous party for the little ones : a petting zoo (little ducks, chicken, rabbits, a pony...), balloons, crafts, yummy food and a magnificent cake. The bar has been raised, once again ...






my first pony ride !

Jules says PEEKABOO !

Santa brought lots of gifts - but I have to wait till Sunday to open them :-(

The biggest one is sooo special I can't wait to tell you ...

... I am getting a little brother or sister in the new year !!!!!!

Mummy and daddy are so happy and excited! I am also getting a baby, b'cause my tummie is very big.

I have asked Santa for a real baby doll to learn to hold and feed a baby.

Almost Sunday ...

Breaking up Belgium?

From Crickey (Australian independent online media source) - Charles Richardson writes:

Last week's big story in Europe was a hoax "news" broadcast on Wednesday evening reporting the break-up of Belgium.

RTBF, the public broadcaster in the southern, French-speaking half of the country reported that the Dutch-speaking north had declared independence, leading to great consternation and even panic among viewers.

Back in 1938, of course, Orson Welles demonstrated that you can create panic even by playing on completely unrealistic fears, when a radio dramatisation of The War of the Worlds convinced many people that martians had landed in New Jersey.

A spokesman for the Belgian prime minister described Wednesday's broadcast as "very bad Orson Welles, in very poor taste".

But believing in Flemish independence is of a somewhat different order from believing in a martian invasion. Belgium is an accident of history: its northern border represents only the line that the Spanish armies held at the end of the Dutch war of independence. Logically, northern Belgium (Flanders) should be part of the Netherlands, while the southern half (Wallonia) should be part of France.

Logic, however, does not always rule in international affairs, and clearly many Belgians have developed a very strong attachment to their artificial country - hence the strong reaction to the hoax. The head of RTBF, Jean-Paul Philippot, admitted the following day that "the impact of the broadcast was greater than expected".

Nonetheless, the tide of globalisation is tending to break apart such artificial countries. The existence of the EU reassures people that independence need not mean isolation, and is a contributing factor to independence movements in such places as Catalonia and Scotland.

Belgium's federal arrangements are due to be renegotiated next year, and it is quite possible that wealthier, more populous Flanders will ultimately decide that keeping Belgium together costs more than it is worth.

If that happens, RTBF might get to run some of last week's footage as real news.

Sydney Zoo

It was about a year ago that we visited the zoo for the first time. Turned out that most animals were too passive to be noticed by Juleen ... but the views on the city were spectacular.

This weekend we returned and guess what ... the views are still spectacular! We paid up to become friends of the zoo which means we need to go at least 3x a year to make the numbers work. But Juleen (and her swimming pal Zach) loves the zoo and therefore we all do !!

Juleen and Dylan make X-mas crafts

 

New Zealand Trip - part 2 (final)

PART 2

After 4 days in Queenstown we travelled north, passing by Wanaka / Lake Wanaka, along the West Coast, to spend two nights and a day in Franz Josef. The Frans Josef and Fox Glaciers are unusual for several reasons - first of all they are still there, unlike most of the glaciers Al Gore shows in his movie The Inconvenient Truth! These glaciers are quite spectacular because they descend from the Southern Alps to just 200 metres above sea level amidst the greenery and lushness of a temperate rain forest. The 2 hour hike high up the glacier was truly amazing.

We then continued to Marahua, located at the entry of the Abel Tasman national park. We stayed in a small cottage (Pukeko Cottage) on the farm of Will and Jenny. This was arguably the highlight of our trip - to give you an idea of why it was such a unique location we copied some background info on the farm :

Will’s father built this house in 1962 (in Nelson) for his parents to retire to. In 2003 it was moved here and renovated by Will, to use as a holiday cottage. We manage the orchard organically, originally exporting our produce but now selling to local markets. Main crops are Kiwifruit, plums, pears, apples, mandarins, lemons and Macadamia nuts. All are available to buy in season along with some vegetables and organic free-range eggs.We have recently harvested 4 hectares of pine trees and have replanted with native vegetation to create habitat for native bird life. We have a predator-trapping program in place for possum’s, stoats and rats. As a result, we now enjoy increasing numbers of Kereru (native Pigeon) Tui, Bellbird (Korimako), Fantail (Piwakawaka), Tomtit (Miromiro), Grey Warbler (Riroriro) Kingfisher (Kotare), Morepork (Ruru) and New Zealand Falcon (Karearea). Within his area we have walking tracks that lead to some views that are quite pectacular and well worth the puff to the top!!

We recommend anyone who visits the South Island to stay in Pukeko Cottage. We had breakfast in the same cafe where Matthias and Christine had breakfast a year ago when they visited New Zealand.

We finished our trip in Nelson, a small but pretty town on the Tasman Bay, where we stayed for another 4 days. Some pictures of the final part of our trip can be found here : Pictures

New Zealand trip - part 1

PART 1
We flew from Sydney to Queenstown, on the South Island of New Zealand, where we stayed for 4 days. Queenstown calls itself the "adventure capital of the world" because of all the adventurous activities that are being offered, by everyone, everywhere. The city is surrounded by impressive mountains (e.g. the "Remarkables") and situated at the beautiful S-shaped lake Wakatipu.
We especially loved the deer park, the day trip to Glenorchy and Paradise, the walks and the great lake views from our apartment. The city itself is overly commercials and quite small - Queenstown's reputation is the result of a successful marketing effort focused on benji, snow fields and water activities. It proved a good starting point for our 2 week holiday.

For more pictures, click Pictures

Nonkel Akim

Bij onze terugkeer van vakantie wachtte Akim ons op in Sydney - op doorreis van Aukland (het in vele opzichten meer relevante maar ietwat minder spectaculaire noordelijke eiland van Nieuw Zeeland, terwijl wij en en een triljoen schapen op het zuidelijke eiland vertoefden) naar Japan.


Dat betekende barbie, bij zomerse temperaturen ...


... en nieuwe kunstjes leren : Juleen vroeg voor een pamper voor Big Bert (we zitten in die fase) en liep voor ze het wist zelf met 3 pampers rond.



Altijd leuk om nonkel Akim op bezoek te hebben ... maar wanneer komt meme Natje ?? ;-)

Reisverslag en foto's van NZ zijn op komst.

Nanny/au-pair wanted for 2 months

Help to all our family and friends... Our lovely nanny Sandra is going on holiday back to her home-country Urugay. She leaves on Feb 22nd and is not back until 22nd April. We are looking into temporarily solutions here in Sydney, but if anyone feels like spending some quality time with Juleen and us, you are more than welcome! 

Who am I ?

(it's a family thing ...)