THISILDO: January 2010

Dear All,

I have just finished reading my last blog to see where I left off. I can't believe that we have had Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year since I last wrote.

Thanksgiving was wonderful - we had the meal at Kelly & Nate's. Erin and Chris were there as were a couple of Kelly and Nate's friends. The meal was delicious, and the day was a lot of fun.
I stayed in Atlanta for 10 days and spent time between Kelly and Nate's and Chris and Erin's. They live only about 10 minutes apart which is very convenient. We had lots of fun and it was great to spend some quality time with Kyler. I admit to being a biased Nana, but he really is a beautiful child - he is so much fun and his verbal skills are awesome. He can carry on a conversation and he now speaks in sentences. When he phones me up now, he usually says "hi Nana, what are you doing". After I tell him, he usually tells me what he is doing, what he had to eat and what he watched on TV. He is also able to relate his little stories at day care to Kelly.
He told her yesterday that he scratched his best friend because they were playing too rough. Kyler and Brandon are told on a daily basis that they are too rough.

After Thanksgiving in Atlanta, I came home and celebrated Thanksgiving once again with my "Delton Family" - John, Alex, Woody, Emily, Tom and Linda. Woody's Dad and step-mother came too. We all prepared some dishes, but John and Woody cooked the turkeys (yep 2 - one deep fried and one oven roasted! We did not go hungry and John and Alex were very gracious hosts! Although it had been a very sad year, one only had to look around the table at both Thanksgiving meals and to remember absent family and friends to realise that we all still had much to be thankful for.

Eight days after returning from Atlanta, I headed to London with much excitement to see Damien and Lauren. I was bursting with happiness to see them again - I absolutely hate that we are all so far apart. Damien and Lauren only live 5 minutes apart, so that was very convenient.
Lauren had the day I arrived off work, but then had to work until we left for Egypt. Damien took time off and he had custody of me until then. It was funny to hear the kids discuss who would have custody of me........e.g. Damien you have custody of mum tomorrow morning until 12.30 and then I get her as I will be home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The day I arrived, we went shopping and Lauren and I finished our Christmas shopping. When she returned to work the next day, Damien and I went and did his Christmas shopping together. It is fun helping spend someone else's money.

I cannot remember the sequence of events whilst there, but we ate out a lot - that I do remember, and if I should forget, my clothes are a constant reminder. I am expecting to meet up with my toenails again sometime in the Spring!

We had one night at "The Old Goat", a pub near Lauren's place which serves excellent meals. The evening was a "Meet the dragon" night. That is, they bought along some friends to meet me - disrespectful children that I have! I also went and met Lauren for lunch and got to meet some of her work mates.

The most important person I got to meet whilst there was Anya (Anna), Damien's girlfriend. Anya is beautiful - inside and out and Damien is one lucky man. It took me less than 5 minutes to love Anya and I hope she will be around for a long time to come. Anya is Polish as is Lauren's house-mate Marta (who is also lovely). Damien had two housemates - Vickie who is South African and Cheryl who is Australian. Very multi-cultural little group and lots of fun!

On the 11th December, Damien, Lauren and I flew off to Egypt. It was just wonderful. The resort was beautiful - we were right on the red sea. There were around 5 swimming pools located within the resort complex, a health club, a beauty parlour, shops and a several wonderful restaurants. So Ho - a high class shopping and entertainment centre was just a 10 minute walk away.

All our food and beverages were included during our stay. Each meal was a buffet and despite our resolutions each night as we waddled off to bed - we all over indulged at every meal! The menu was varied on a daily basis, making it very difficult to resist temptation. Whilst the waiters (all male), were very attentive and polite, the drink staff seemed to lack some knowledge.Lauren and I frequently ordered pina coladas and it was rather like a lucky dip. Each one tasted great, but they were all very different - only the name remained constant! It seems, they just made what ever they wanted and we of course, were happy to drink them.

Lauren and Damien flew to Cairo to visit the pyramids, Sphinx and the museum. I did not join them however, as the guides stated that there was a lot of walking involved and I was not sure that my leg could handle it. They both enjoyed the day, although they did not like Cairo, they were awe struck by the pyramids etc.

The three of us, went on a tour through the desert to visit a Bedouin tribe. We set out on quads (all terrain vehicles). I was thinking that the desert would be a very smooth ride over the sand - this was not so! Wow, it was rather like driving over corrugated iron much of the way - a bone shaking experience. The guide told me to stand up and ride it and it would not be so jarring! Well he was right, but my arms were very sore the next day as were my thighs from standing and holding on. A real "Kodak" moment, I'm sure! After riding for approximately 1 hour, we alighted to have some water and take a camel ride. I was not going to miss that experience either............silly me............ It was difficult to even climb on the beast to begin with, then when he stood up - on my......it was scary. The ride was okay, but am sad to say, whilst riding him, I could think of little else, except how I was going to be able to hold on to the stupid handle, while he sat down to let me off. By this point in time, I was fully aware that sand only looks soft, so jumping off and rolling was not an option. Somehow, I managed to get off safely, and that will be my one and only camel ride in this lifetime!

After our camel ride, we once again climbed onto our quads and drove deeper into the desert (by this time, I was quite concerned about the lack of restrooms in the desert! Do remember, there are no trees to hide behind! Much to my relief when we arrived at our destination, they had indeed catered to the pampered western tourists and there were restrooms. We were seated on cushions inside an open tent and served Bedouin tea - hot and sweet and quite tasty to the dry palate. After that, we were all given a sheesha pipe to smoke and pass around (think they are also called hookahs???). Everyone had some (we each had our own individual mouth piece). The tobacco was aromatic and tasted of apples.

We were then entertained by African dancers, and belly dancers. We were forced to participate with the African dancers, which proved to be great fun. Damien was also dragged up by the beautiful belly dancer, whilst she attempted to teach him to belly dance. Although he protested, I suspect "he doth protest too much" and he too enjoyed himself. We have this entire day, quad, camel rides, dancing etc. on DVD, but am not sure who we will share it with.

We were served a sumptuous meal after which we drove our quads back though the desert, under a cool,dark but beautiful night sky. It really was a great day and a wonderful experience.
The rest of my time at the resort was spent lounging, reading and shopping at the markets. We had to bargain for everything, including taxi rides. It was fun to begin with, but became very tiresome. There are very few women in Sharm el Sheik, and for that reason, women are a novelty. Damien had fun, because various men offered to buy both Lauren and I. Okay, okay, she got a lot more offers than me. They made their offers to Damien. One guy offered 1,000 camels for Lauren and Damien said "heck mate, give me a carton of cigarettes and she is yours". We were later told, that we must not joke like that, so he just had to learn to say no. I did not like the way he hesitated when offered a million Egyptian pounds for Lauren and I as a package deal. Of course, it is worth way less in our money and I could not help but think, that is what saved us!!!

Our warm, balmy, lazy days soon came to an end and we returned to London after a long flight delay to find the car buried in snow! What a contrast.

Time passed very quickly on our return and the highlights were Lauren's birthday dinner at a lovely restaurant with around 20 of her friends, our wonderful Polish Christmas Eve meal, and our Christmas Day. Anya prepared our Christmas Eve meal by herself - several fish dishes, cabbage dishes, mushroom soup (to die for), pierogies and wonderful deserts.

Christmas dinner the kids had requested/ordered our traditional Christmas Breakfast and our traditional Christmas Dinner. Unfortunately, each of them had smaller ovens and Damien's would not fit the turkey, so we used both ovens at both houses and checked regularly. We timed it perfectly and both ovens yielded perfectly cooked, side dishes and the turkey at the correct time.

Another highlight of the trip was our tour of Stonehenge and the tour of a nearby village, topped off with a gourmet meal in the local village pub in front of the open fire.

As with all good things, my trip came to an end very quickly and it was with a heavy heart that I said good-bye to the kids. Hopefully, I will not have to wait another year before I see them.

Lauren has an appointment on February 1st requesting permission to come and visit us during the Summer - fingers crossed and lots of prayers please.

I returned home at around midnight on December 27th in time to do laundry, unpack and repack for my trip to Canada on 30th. It was nice to catch up with friends, if only briefly with some and in the ER with others. John and Alex and Tom and Linda and I went to dinner on 28th, and I arranged to meet Alex for lunch the next day. She arrived looking very pale and said she had fallen in her garage and hurt her elbow. Well with much persuasion from both John and I,(after we ate of course), we headed to the ER where they informed her that it was broken!!! She was heavily splinted from shoulder to wrist and came home here and rested til John finished work. She is still incapacitated and will be for another few weeks yet.

My trip to Canada was lovely , however, the weather was lousy- freezing. The roads were dangerous and icy for much of the time, however, we were still able to see movies, go bowling and of course, the old standby - eating out! I would have liked to have had a road trip to Montreal about 5 hours away, but the weather put a damper on that idea!

I returned home on the 14th and since then I have been busy catching up on mail/email,.phone calls and with friends.

On January 4, my neice Kerryn and her husband Mick welcomed a baby brother, for their son Owen. His name is Ellis Paul. He is a beautiful baby and a welcome addition to our great big family. Ellis has a hole in his heart and we are anxiously waiting to get further details. Prayers please.

Well I have attempted to give you the highlights without boring you all too much. The trips were wonderful and I could waffle on for hours. I have chosen instead to put lots of pictures at the end of this for those of you who are interested.

Love to you all,

Kathy

Damien & Anya