France Switzerland & Holland

On Friday morning at 4am we drove in the car to Edinburgh. Then we had to get dressed and take our suitcases to the shuttle bus to go to the airport. When we got there we went through customs and did all that stuff. Then we had to wait in the departure lounge for about an hour - we played cards and sat and sat and sat, then Matt played on Dad's phone and we did the sudoku puzzles. We finished it.When we got to France we caught a train to our hotel and then we walked around the city and had a look. The next day after the next day we climbed the Eiffel Tower to the second floor - you had to get a lift to the top floor and we didn't pay for the lift. I liked climbing the steps but we had to stay at the top and Mum explained all these boring details to us - I just wanted to go down again.
When we got to zermatt in Switzerland we played in the snow. The snow felt soft, fluffy, crunchy when you step on it when it's been there for a couple of days. That day we hired our snow gear and got everything ready. Our coach said he'd be coming at 9am to the hotel to meet us except it got changed because the snow fields didn't open until 9.30am. So we got our ski passes while we waited and Matt and mine were free.

The first day we did boring stuff and I got sick of it by the end but the next day we did more fun stuff - we went down the mountain to the junior slope where we did all the boring stuff - I don't think I stacked it. The third day we did heaps of fun stuff - we went down a new slope and I only stacked it two times - it was pretty hard and very long. Matthew went head first into the soft snow when he fell. The last skiing day the clouds were really low on the mountain and it was so foggy we could barely see the ski slope in front of us. On another slope somewhere else that day Sam couldn't see the poles that marked the ski slope and he went through two poles on the same side and went right into the soft snow. It's really hard to get out of the soft snow because your skis are as long as your chest.

On the slope that we started on the second last day we went down both the slopes without stopping at the junior slope. When I was skiing I got so boiling and it was fun.

When we went to Holland we went on a hop on hop off boat cruise along the canals. We hopped off and went to this TunFun place. It's sort of like Kid's Paradise (in Perth) except it's got different things to do. It's got these little car type things that you sit on and turn the handlebars from side to side to start moving. There's lots of traffic lights to stop at. We had heaps of fun.
These are some of the words I've learnt from being in different countries. France: merci - thankyou, pardon - sorry, Bon jour - hello, au revoir(pronounced o revwah)- goodbye, bon soir (pronounced bon swuh) - after 6pm you have to say bon soir. German: gutten tag or tag it dosen't matter - hello, Danke - thankyou. Most of the people in Holland spoke French or English.

Stirling

On the weekend we went to Uncle Shaun and Aunty Linda's place from round lunch to Sunday night. They have four children, Joel who is 14, Luke who is 10, Zoe who is 8 and Joshua who is 6. Joel was out.

In the afternoon we went for a walk, then we watched a movie, then we had a bible reading, then we had the fireworks, then we finished off the movie, then we had dinner then we played on the computer, then we all had showers, then we cleaned our teeth, then we jumped into bed then our mum's and dad's said goodnight to us. It was 9:00 when we went to bed. In the picture next to me is Leah and next to Leah is Holly and next to Holly is Zoe and next to Zoe is Eve and next to Eve is Jared.

In the morning we had breakfast and got ready for the meeting. At the meeting Zoe showed me around the hall. The meeting place was down stairs the lunch was upstairs and the sunday school was upstairs. At sunday school we learned about 'baby Jesus'. We had a (short) story about baby Jesus then got onto the activity. Our first activity was to colour in a donkey, use double sided cellotape to join the (at this time we were sucking a lollipop) donkey together to make a puppet. Our second activity was to get 2 star shaped pieces of paper stick them on each side of a fat popstick. Then we were givven a box shaped thing and we put (stinky) hay inside. Then we were given some plasticine (mine was orange) to make baby jesus some other people had spare (pink) plasticine so I gave baby Jesus some pinnk hair and shorts...at the end of sunday school we were given a box of lollies to eat in the meeting. After the meeting ended we had lunch...I had soup and bread, then jelly and a couple of chocolates (that mum had brought). After lunch we played at the park that was at the end of the street. We were given some grapes to eat during the meeting. When we got back we had another meeting. It wasn't that long...while the second meeting went I changed baby Jesus into a ball, then a bee with pink stripes then into a butterfly. After the meeting we had a few grapes left over so we had a grape fight...we stuck grapes down another girls shirt she tried to get us back but we stuck one in her handbag and she went looking for it cause she didn't want it to mush under all her things...we stuck some more down her shirt and so on. (She did get a couple down our shirts). Then we went back to Uncle Shaun and Aunty Linda's place. We had to go basically straight away.

This is a movie of the fireworks.

The Lake District

At the Lake District we hired five bikes. We rode through the mountains and got filthy!Then we rode through mud puddles that were at least 5 inches deep, Mum couldn't even ride though a teeny weeny teeny puddle!

When Dad zoomed down the mountain(and I mean zooooooooooooooomed) he neary fell off his bike turning a sharp corner - some of the hills we climbed were very tiring. My shirt got so muddy that the mud wouldn't come out so now I think it will be going into the bin! We rode for about 2 1/2 hours - I don't think I'd do it again because it was mostly riding uphill but Sam loved it.

On Sunday morning we drove to the meeting past Lake Windermere. It was raining boots and umbrellas (ouch, ouch). We could see the Lake was higher than the day before and some of the fields were flooded already.

We found the meeting at last and went in. After each meeting they have lunch at the hired hall - there was a sports court in the hall with a room full of equipment to play with. There were two other children at the meeting - one was Rowan and his sister was Shara. We played soccer - girls onto boys. The score was pretty close - we think it was a draw. Rowan is 12yrs old and Shara is 14 yrs. Then we had lunch. It was yum. I had pizza and some salad, then for dessert I had a cherry liquer chocolate which I hated, then I had a bit of jelly and after that some ice-cream. This is Sam, Matt & Rowan.

When we drove back to Aberdeen while Sam, Matt and I were sleeping, Mum and Dad went through a place where the road was flooded over all the lanes on our side. Dad had to wait in traffic for an hour. Then further up the road and there were more large puddles over half of the lanes - Dad didn't think it was as deep as it was and went through it quite fast and his windscreen got covered and he couldn't see for a while.

While I was asleep in the car I was sleeptalking and went "doh, doh, DOH" with my eyes open and then smiled at Mum and went back to sleep straight away. Mum and Dad said they were laughing their heads off! Then later Sam mumbled a few things and started fighting himself in his sleep!

Stonehaven and Dunnottar Castle

Inthe background there's the boat harbour.

On Sunday after the meeting we drove to Stonehaven. Just as we drove into the town we saw this awesome playground. We wanted to go there but Mum and Dad said we had to wait until we'd been to Dunnottar Castle but when we got back it was too dark, so we couldn't go that day. Anyway then we had lunch, which was haddock(fish) and chips. Mum had a stomach ache after lunch (because she didn't like it). After lunch we built a sandcastle at the beach and then we walked up to the Castle. When we got there we payed the entry fees and went in. The thing I liked best in the castle was the jails. Mum told me that nearly two hundred people were brought to the jail because they said that they wouldn't agree to the king as their religious leader.This is a photo Dad calls 'ruined by mathew'. At least 37 men or women finally agreed to take the oath of allegiance and were released. Twenty five escaped, however fifteen were recaptured and two fell to their deahs during their attempts. The prisoners had to pay for their food and water, otherwise they would have starved to death. Some died. Later when they were taken somewhere else about 70 of them died from fever on the journey.

As we were walking on the pathway to the Castle we saw lots of bunny holes in the ground. Then we saw some rabbits but as soon as they saw us they quickly went near their burrows.

On the way back we saw two deer hounds - they came up to my ribs. They were grey in colour and had long, shaggy fur. Deer hounds used to catch deer in the olden days but now they're just pets.When we got back to the car there were some people surfing at the beach. We saw one person stand up and try to catch a wave in but fell over halfway there.

Climbing a Mountain & the Museum

We were driving along the road in the Isle of Skye on the weekend and we saw a mountain (well massive mountain to me). We thought we'd climb it so we did. We saw a deer at the top of the mountain. We were going to take a photo of it, but just as dad was about to, the deer ran away. This is a video of us on the top of the mountain the crackly sound is the wind blowing.

Anyway we got to the top and then it was time to go back down.(It was wet and mushy). We ran full pelt down the hill doing faceplants every now and again and once I did a faceplant, cracked up laughing and tried to get back up, but I was giggling too much so I fell back down into a puddle of water and got a wet bottom. Just as I had nearly got to the bottom of the mountain I stepped in a mud puddle and got my shoes dirty...they were wet for the rest of the day! We had to get changed into some new clothes because our other ones were soaked. Just as I was getting changed a car went by (on the narrow country road that not many cars used), I screamed and ran to the other side of the car.

On Wednesday we went to the Grampiam Transport Museum - it took half an hour to get there - it was in Aberdeenshire (the nearby towns to Aberdeen). At the Museum there were quizzes. The first quiz I did was one where you had to look for traffic light signs on the displays in the museum. The traffic light sign would have a question on it and I had to find out the answer to the question by reading the information about that thing. Then it would tell you what to look for to find the next traffic light sign. The most interesting thing I found out was that the prize for finishing the quiz was a lolly (typical! - Mum)....

There was a pentacycle - it had 5 wheels. The middle wheel is humungous and the other four wheels are smaller - two at the front and two at the back of the middle wheel. Do you know who used to ride these bikes? (the postmen).
I also saw the Mortier Organ - my guess at its size is that it was 4-5 metres high and 6-7 metres wide. It looked heaps cool. We asked them to turn the organ on and it was so loud I put my hands over my ears (look at the photo!).

There was an old fashioned black and gold car and on it was engraved 'Joanna II' (see the photo).Mum made us leave at 2.30 even though she'd said that we could at 3pm (we had to leave because we were playing hide and seek and trying to do even more quizzes to get more lollies, as they had just put some lollipops out which weren't there when we got our lolly earlier).

Here's a photo of what I usually do when we're at home or in the car driving. This picture is of me in pj's at 1pm!

The banquet and a bit of climbing-Ireland

On Monday Dad and Mum decided that we'd go to a banquet at Donguaire Castle (dong-gwehr).

When we got there we still had about an hour before we had to go to Donguaire Castle so we went farther up the road, where we saw a mountain. We walked up to the top; it was pretty rocky. Our legs ached by the time we got there.

At the top, lots of people had built cairns (keehns) to show they'd got up there. Cairns are rocks piled up on top of each other, they don't have anything to hold them together. Soon it was time to start heading back to the car.

When we arrived at donguaire Castle we went inside and we were given a drink of spicy cordial. It tasted pretty sweet, but it was nice! There was a lady playing the harp.

When we went into the Banquet hall we were given salad and smoked salmon. I hated the smoked salmon. Second coarse was soup with soda bread which is a heavy brown bread. Third coarse was chicken, vegies and chunky potatoes - they tasted like chips to me.

The fourth course was apple pie and cream. Yum.

Sam, Matt and I sang 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' up on on the stage - singing in tune with the harp. Then we heard some songs and poems recited (which were boring) about the area of Kinvara (that's the village where Donguaire Castle is).

Then a ring was handed out to the mother of the three children on the first row - which was Mum. The ring has two hands holding a loveheart with a crown on top. Now this ring is called the Claddough Ring (pronounced claddock) and you wore the heart facing out to show that you weren't married. If you were engaged or married you wore the heart facing in, to show that your heart belonged to someone already.

We had heaps of fun.

At Banchory

On Sunday after the meeting we went for a drive to Banchory we had lunch at a pub. Dad had bangers and mash, Sam, Matt and mum had a steak guinness Pie and I had battered haddock (fish) and chips.

After lunch we went for a walk and we came to the River Dee where there are falls. We saw a blue heron sitting on a rock in the sun and mum saw a couple of fish jumping out of the water, but they weren't big enough to be Salmon. We went down to the river bank and threw rocks into the water. Dad and Sam played chase jumping across the rocks mum got scared when dad jumped across the rocks because mum thought that he'd hurt his ankle again, but it was fun!

When we put our arms in the water to get rocks our arms froze. Well mabye they didn't freeze, but it felt like it!

Can you see the blue heron?

Glamis Castle [pronounced Glams Castle]

On Saturday we went to Glamis Castle. In 1372, Sir John Lyon was given Glamis Castle by the king and it has stayed his family ever since. Glamis Castle is one of the most famous castle in scotland. In every part of the castle there is at least one lion in each room except for the chapel. The reason why the chapel doesn't have a lion in it is because it was a room for all people to share as they worshiped god.At Glamis Castle once every year at the end of summer they have a country fair. I have to tell you the ground wasn't like the ground over in Australia not grass and paths; not one path was there and every now and again there would be some grass. Try and guess what was there, thick gooey mud and Mum was wearing her meeting shoes. the mud

We went on these little Quad little bikes, you had to go in a circle. The hardest bit was going round the corner down a slight hill. The Quad bikes had petrol to make them go. It was heaps cool.

we saw lot's of girls doing Highland dancing and a band playing Bagpipes.

Our postal adress is

68 Hammersmith Road

AB10 6ND

Singapore Merlion

We were going for a walk one day and there was a really big Merlion and inside you could explore it. We got to watch a movie about why they even had the Merlion in first place.

It's a very interesting story, I'll tell you the story if you like. Well it goes like this; One day the prince went out shooting with his men and he saw a deer so he chased the deer over the hill and suddenley he saw a beautiful island and new he must go there. So they went back and got lot's of food ready to go sailing and when they were half way there a big storm started and it wouldn't stop. The prince new what he had to do so he threw his crown into the sea to appease the gods of the sea. The storm stopped and they sailed on to the island and when they got there a lion was guarding the island. The prince was just about to fight when they both noticed that each other were somewhat royal. Singapore means 'lion city'.

That should tell you what the top half of the Merlion means!

Now I'm going to tell you what the bottom half means.

Back in those days Singapore peoples did lots of fishing and they were really good at it and they still wanted a reminder that they could do fishing really well.

That should have got your brain thinking.

Going on the luge - Sentosa

Hi guys!

Some of you will be thinking what on earth is the luge well I'll tell you. It's like a racing car and you have to drive it down a big hill. To stop you pull the handles backwards.

It's heaps cool!

monkeys!

here is a photo of one of the monkeys on the balcony below us.
cute hey!!!