Bonkers in Honkers +

Quick trip to Sweden and Denmark

2012-02-13T13:48:00.009+01:00

Sunny and

Andrew & Samuel 4th BD

2012-02-13T12:15:00.003+01:00

The boys had a fun birthday party on Sunday with 12 of their mates. A magician kept them enthralled for 45 minutes and then gave each a party bag with whistles and horns. Twelve kids then proceeded to outblow and whistle each other.
The food, drinks and goody bags were very much appreciated as was the octonaught cake. A fantastic design featuring an octopus with tentacles out to eight cupcakes each with a cartoon character on top !

Sunny was very busy with all of the invites and organisation for the past few weeks and did a great job.

Mingyu had an epic water pistol fight with the boys afterwards.

Octopus Prime

2011-08-07T16:13:00.002+02:00

The Boys are into transformers, big time and 'Octupus Prime' is the man.

The photos are a bit random but let me walk you through them.

The photo of the boys and me was taken on a drive back from Malaysia, we stopped fr ice cream and ate in the park nearby. The clearing of immigration failed and had us in the immigration building in Singapore and the boys through we were in the police station and going to jail. Fortunately it was fixable an we had to go back to Malaysia to clear customs there before coming back through the Singapore checkpoint.

Next two photos are of the bike ride Danny and I took out to Changi village on the way we stopped at a temple. At Changi village we stopped at the food court and I saw a old lady preparing the chilli, lots of it, chopping it up finely for the soups.

The photo of Mingyu was on his day out, where he could choose two paid events and one activity for all of us. We went to Universal studios in the morning and had a great Korean lunch at a restaurant on the East Coast then we all played lego together later.

Honkers revisited

2011-04-17T08:54:00.005+02:00

Last weekend (8-11thApril) all the family went to Hong Kong. It was the twins first trip to Honker outside mummy's tummy. The weather was good and mid 20's temperatures, we ahd conjoined rooms in the Renaissance harbourview near my old office in Wanchai.
It was a action packed few days
Friday night after arrival included a power shop, and Sunny got most of the major acquisitions out of the way early.
Saturday we entertained the hotel guests in the breakfast restaurant with the boys up to full hyper mode and running around the breakfast buffet.
One of the highlights was a chopper ride around the island and new territories.

Saturday night we went to the market in Mong Kok and then went to Causeway bay for dinner in a swish Korean restaurant.

Sunday we headed off to Disney and had fun on a couple of the ridea and watching the lion king show and the grand parade.

Sunday night went back by train to sai wan ho, our old place and had dinner ther. Found a fabulous tapas bar on the waterfront promenade. Mingyu Sam and myself enjoyed sitting at the spanish bar and enjoyed a spanish pizza (spinach, smoked duck breast) which was sublime.

Monday we went into central for a couple of hours we stopped for a mid orning brucnch at Jaspers in soho and enjoyed a warm salmon salad while the boys drew pictures on the paper table cloth with crayons.

Mingyu and Dads Aquathon

2011-02-28T00:38:00.005+01:00

On Sunday 27 Feb 2011, Mingyu and I were up early and off to Sentosa Island Siloso beach for the our first Aquathon. It was the first race of of a three race series with aquathon, duathlon and finally triathlon with about 6 weeks between each event.

Sunny arrived with the kids just and Mingyu was finishing and the twins went to the beach, stripped off nude and were in the water before we could catch them. We eventually got clothes on them and they played in the sand.

Mingyu and I are firmly positioned in the midlle of the pack when it comes to the race standings and can only improve from here. Better get on the bike now and get ready for the duathlon a run/bike/run event in early April !

2 x 3 Years Old

2011-02-13T11:10:00.004+01:00

The lads got electric motorbikes for their birthday and spent all morning on them. Unfortunately Sammies had to go back to the shop for exchange and they were both up and running again for the birthday party,

The cake was a fire engine theme and enough to feed a small army too.

All the boys followed Mingyu to his room and he had them all marching to his orders within minutes.

pre Xmas Pics

2010-12-12T04:14:00.000+01:00

Walking with dinosaurs

2010-12-12T03:59:00.003+01:00

We had taken no chances and booked the seats to Walking with dinosaurs months ago. It was a matinee on Thursday 2 December at the Singapore Indoor stadium. It was also the first time we had all been out to a show together. Sunny prepared the snacks well and the kids were in pretty good form for it.

We went by taxi direct from the kids day care centre at Paragon and Mingyu came home from school early o he could join too. The seats were good and the kids pretty much watched the whole thing esp Andrew who turned to me at the interval and said 'Daddy I need more dinosaurs'. Even since the show, whenever we get in the car Andrew always asks if we are going to Walking with dinosaurs.

Sunny's Birthday

2010-11-25T14:50:00.003+01:00

Sunny's Birthday
Blueberry cheesecake
lots of candle blowing
Crazy kids
yummy Chinese food
bottle o bubbly

Mingyu's grade 5 exhibition

2010-11-25T14:34:00.002+01:00

Mingyu's school hosted a grade 5 exhibition where the students showcased the projects they had worked on over the past term. Mingyu's group display was on the topic of Social networking and Cyber Bullying and when Sunny and I met them the team of three students went through their rehearsed speeches outlining the content of the project. It was very impressive and I learnt something new about social networking and cyber bullying and how common it is.
Proud Parents
Sunny and Mingyu with the team display in background
This was a cool class tapestry rug designed and created by the students.
Katie is Mingyus teacher.

Flying to see great grand parents in Korea

2010-10-21T16:41:00.003+02:00

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Sunny took me and the twins to see their great grand parents in Boryeong. Grandma is ninety years old and grandfather is two years younger. The boys fell asleep in the car on the way to the hospital so we wheeled grand ma out to the car to see the lads spread out across the back seat of the car with Sunnys father looking after them.
It was great to see them and have a bit of time together.
Sunnys grand father looks like a character and walks around with a packet of cigarettes in his pocket and has a smoke with his mate in a wheelchair also in the hospital.

Lets go Korea 2010

2010-10-21T16:29:00.002+02:00

Ski Trip NZ - 20 years between pics

2010-10-21T16:25:00.004+02:00

Waterloo Wind Farm

2010-10-01T16:10:00.004+02:00

I was fortunate enough to visit te Waterloo wind farm owned and operated by Roaring 40's located in the Clare valley north of Adelaide. The site has 37 x V90-3 MW turbines and will provide enough power for 48,000 homes. It is an impressive wind farm built on two ridge lines a larger Southern ridge and a Northern ridge line. The pictures of me were take on top of the turbine at a height of over 85 metres above ground and give some perspective of the spectacular views. One of the nice parts of the job!

Update from Singers - a bad week for sedgeway

2010-10-01T15:46:00.005+02:00

It is probably due be the hot steamy weather and the massive late morning downpours that hurtle over sized rain globules to the ground with thunder and lightning that has everyone on edge lately.
We are experiencing some unusual events and not just from the skies;

Take Sedgeway for example, you know the two wheel stand on device that is the so called leader in personal green transport. It was a bad week for Sedgeway the new owner of the company drove his Sedgeway over a cliff but was described in his obituary as a true visionary, unfortunately unable to see this particular hazard. So too a colleague of mine took his family to Sentosa for a Sedgeway tour and found himself pile driven into the roadway and came to work with cuts and bruises all over his face and hands.

The Aussie rules grand final was drawn last week and the whole thing will be repeated this week. Lets hope they get it right this time and St Kilda show the Magpies how to play footy.
I was in Madrid during the final and had the chance to walk around the old part of the city and could not pass by the jambon museum. It's a curious place near Sol square where the decor on the walls and ceiling features thousands of hams. On one side of the place is a butchery and the other side is a bar service beers and ham in various shapes and sizes. I enjoyed a beer and jambon roll for 2 euro before heading back to the Eurostars hotel by metro.

Bonkers

2010-10-01T15:46:00.001+02:00

Our French friends II - Stanleys crab restauarant

2010-08-14T14:44:00.002+02:00

Our French friends

2010-08-14T14:34:00.002+02:00

Hi everyone

The two very cute girls in the photos are sisters and the eldest is my god daughter Carolyn. She lives in France and her little sister is called Eloise. The boys had lots of fun playing with them and the girls were really well behaved despite not speaking English.

Beach Bintan

2010-06-05T07:15:00.002+02:00

Funny Fellas

2010-05-03T15:08:00.001+02:00

Mingyu's birthday

2010-05-03T15:02:00.003+02:00

Boys enjoying having Phile George and the kids in town

2010-05-03T14:31:00.001+02:00

Speedy Samuel

2010-03-04T08:38:00.002+01:00

Boys Birthday

2010-02-16T11:45:00.004+01:00

Hi Everyone
Last Friday we celebrated the twins second birthday. The day started out with opening of a few of the presents including the helicopters and trucks. Both were a hit except Andrew wanted to change his red and white one for Samuels black one.
Later in the afternoon John and Sebastian came over and Mingyu invited two of his friends too. Later Liz and Issabella joined for dinner.

Few more pics over xmas

2010-01-25T22:51:00.000+01:00

Andrew lubba lips

2010-01-23T13:37:00.002+01:00

We took the boys to the supermarket this morning and had almost finished when Andrew started rubbing his lips and crying. He was getting more and more distressed and the whole area around his mouth was going red. We thought he had an allergic reaction to some food samples we tried moments before. So I took Andrew to find a pharmacy and get some anti histamine, after walking through the shopping centre there wasnt one to be found.
We went back down to the supermarket, found Sunny and the boys and she looked at Andrew again. He was still rubbing his lips and whingeing.
Sunny saw something in his lap and picked it up to find a green chilli half eaten ! Andrew had somehow chewed his way through a green chilli before deciding it was a bit too spicy for him.
We laughed with relief and i gave him a kiss, only to get the chilli oil on my lips too. He had picked a red hot spicy one !
After a couple of Chuppa Chups Andrew lips settled back down and he was good as gold.

Christmas morning at Danny and Linda's

2010-01-10T04:16:00.001+01:00

Misc Christmas

2010-01-10T03:58:00.003+01:00

Taste of Tasmania

2010-01-10T02:35:00.002+01:00

Having a Hoot at Hollybank

2010-01-10T02:24:00.003+01:00

Trina and Georgia came up with a brilliant idea to have a picnic at Holly bank. At first Dad did not want to join but during the course of the morning he changed his mind and we all went for a fun few hours. Trina hit the mark with the chips, roast chickens, bread rolls, salad and fruit to follow. After lunch we had a game of cricket and then walked through the woods to the treetop adventure park and back. Will put that on the to do llist for next time.

The Hobart Waterfront

2010-01-10T02:12:00.005+01:00

After lunch at the Taste of Tasmania the twins relaxed in their strollers while we took a walk around the waterfront.

Lunch at Stillwater Cafe Launceston

2010-01-10T02:00:00.003+01:00

Boys love bubbles on Grannys deck

2010-01-10T01:52:00.002+01:00

Late afternoon in Launceston and the boys are playing with mummy on the deck, trying to catch the bubbles.
They did not stop for over half an hour.

Merry Christmas

2010-01-10T01:16:00.005+01:00

It was a clear day in Hobart for christmas and the family gathered at Mandy Moo and Chita's new house in Glenorchy for a backyard lunch.
The food was a compilations of contribution from Emma's outstanding grape and asparagas with Haloumi salad, Trinas garden salad through to the lovely ham , superbly cooked Turkeys and veggies. Of course we could not finish without a course or two of mum's christmas pudding and the option of a berry topped home made ice cream from moo.
What a great day.

Andrews Sofa Art

2009-11-01T11:09:00.002+01:00

We bought the boys a black board today and Andrew decided that drawing on the sofa was a better idea. Here he is at work.

2009-10-04T14:22:00.004+02:00

At Home in Singapore

2009-08-14T01:44:00.002+02:00

The Family is settling into Singapore, Samuel got a new Paddington bear that straps onto his back. He was very proudly walking around with Paddington the other day.
Normally camera shy, Mingyu was caught in this picture after covering his face.
The lads in a rare moment together, side by side, normally a close encounter would results in a wrestle or a crash.
Andrew loves books and Samuel usually pokes his head in for a quick look.
Feeding Andrew is a combination of distractions from the actual food. Sometimes he eats a lot and other times he just zips his lips.

Dia wee Aah

2009-07-12T08:33:00.003+02:00

How do you follow a blog with such nice family photos and good memories of fun times in Singapore with Grandma and the kids ?..... Bodily functions you say ...??

Bodily functions usually are a more grounding sort of discussion point and so it is that we can dive into the bodily function of urinating. So lets get down to earth and share a little bit of our recent experience.

Samuel Stress test the Set Top Box
The cable TV man had just been to our apartment the day before and we decide to have two set top boxes installed, one in the living area and one in a small family room linking all the bedrooms.
This little family room is a convenient place to change the kids nappies without disturbing or offending anyone else and we leave the change mat and spare diaper or two there for changes.

It was on this Sunday after the installation that Samuel and I were in the family room part way through a diaper change and Samuel (hates diapers) wanted some free ballin time. So I let him walk around for a bit and soon he became curious about the new set top box sitting on the floor so he stood on it and proceeded to take a leak. After which he stepped down and nonchalently moved on.

I threw a diaper onto the machine to try and save it, turned it off and left it to dry. A few hours later Mingyu and I tried to restart the setop box, but to no avail.. then thankflly a few days later Mingyu managed to get it going again.

Dehli Bladder
I was in India last week and visited Chennai and Dehli, I had stuck to my friends advice to eat local food and not to go for the Western food. Everything went well, the curries , dosa and other treats were great. But after two days and then arriving in Dehli it was like there was a large amount of water that could not be held back any longer . Every 2-3 hours I was in need of relief ans exposed to some of the worlds less glamourous toileting facilities. Thank goodness it wasnt the full blown Dehli belly.... just dia wee aah.
After flying back to Singapore it was all clear and back to normal.. may have been something I drank.

Grandma in Singers II

2009-06-07T06:18:00.003+02:00

Sunny had been planning the family photo shoot ever since the boys turned one in Switzerland but we never got the chance until mum came to Singapore. We went out to the Korean photographers house near Changi and did a photo shoot in thepark near the house and back inside the house. Here are some of the results...

Grandma in Singers

2009-06-07T06:09:00.002+02:00

Here we are in Newton Circus after a big feed of tiger prawns, squid and chilli crab.

Singapore food courts

2009-05-10T10:58:00.002+02:00

Singapore is full of hidden secrets, some of them are the topic of todays blogs. On the fourth floor of Wisma Atria in Orchard Road and in the basement of numerous other shopping centres lies the secret to sustainability in Singapore. The food court, where nationalities meet and unite in the common cause for gastronomic satisfaction.

There are food stalls with cuisine from all over Asia, North to Japan and South to Vietnam and India. You wont find any Danish dishes here, nor will you find any Euro cheese, wine and biscuits. But who needs that when you have this plethora of aromas and flavours at your feet.

For around 3-7 bucks singers will get you a feed of decent proportion and full of flavour. Char Siew a Cantonese marinated pork with rice and green veg starts at around $3.80 up to the Korean Bulgogi beef with rice will set you back around 7 bucks.

For those with kids, there is the relatively guilt free prospect that the cleaners will not care that the babies have left a trial of rice and veggies behind them. This is a main reason why we have not yet taken the kids to a more formal restaurant. While their manners are getting better, even now they leave food scattered in a one metre radius on the best of days.

These establishments are pretty busy and difficult to find a high chair but so far we managed to try the following food courts

Suntec City - nice juices, lai cha (tea)

Kopitiam -

Singapura plaza - Nice Korean bib bim bap and japanese chicken curry

Tanglin - noodles

Vivo City - Korean and Cantonese Char Siu

Takashimaya - egg tarts and Dairy bell soft serve ice creams in a cone

Good eating !

Singers here we come !

2009-04-12T16:53:00.002+02:00

What a week ! It started with a Sunday night flight to Denmark, a 2.5 hr drive across to Lem and Ringobing and back. Packing up the house in Cham on Wed and Thursday with two nights in Lucerne and up early on Good Friday for the flight to Singapore.

It took two days to pack up the house and put it in a 40 foot container. I was surprised to learn we still had a bit of room left. We should have bought some more groceries from Switzerland to take back.

It was hot weather for Switzerland at around 22-25 degrees, unseasonably warm for early April. After the packers left each day Sunny and I would get out the paint brushes and start touching up the pain marks on the walls. On the Wednesday night we didnt finish until late but on Thursday we finished the paint and dumped the leftover rubbish before walking down to the train station and heading to Lucerne for dinner with Jinsu and the kids.

Funnily enough Sunny had a craving for Korean food so we went to the Korea town restaurant, on entry we were very suspicious that the food was actually chines but after meeting the Korean lady who owned the place we settled in. The kids had fun and we enjoyed the kimchi chigae, Bulgogi, ori (duck) and mandu (dumplings).

It was a warm evening so we strolled back past the cool bars and hotels in Lucerne. One place called the Hotel had giant portraits over the walls and ceiling in each room. We always find the cool stuff just before leaving. It was a similar experience in HK when we discovered the Top of the Town bar and restaurant with harbor views at 39th floor of the excelsior hotel in Causeway bay. Outside the music hall in Lucerne there were lots of people sitting in front of the fountain on the waterfront playing music, drinking and chatting. It was great and the view over the lake and the classical buildings of the casino, Montana hotel and Gutsch on the hill was spectacular.

We will have good memories of Switzerland

Friday morning

The taxi took quite a while to pack and we had over 150 kg of luggage including three strollers, 3 boxes and four suitcases. five of us sat in three seats while the luggage and driver took the remainder. We had priority checkin but it didn't help, the checkin took over one hour because Samuel had his own seat on a separate booking so they couldn't fix it on the system so they wrote out the boarding passes by hand, told us to take the rest of the baggage to bulky items and get to the gate asap. We rushed our goodbye with jinsu and pointed her in the direction of the lufthansa checkin as we raced for the passport control.

When we finally got to the gate we were the last to board and the attendant had the cheek to tell us to board immediately before getting our boarding passes back.

The flight was pretty long and the boys were totally out of their daily rhythm and slept all through the day we arrived and were awake all last night.

This afternoon I took them down to the pool for a swim and we had a lot of fun splashing about and floating around in the blow up toys boat. This seems to have tired them earlier so hopefully we can get a reasonable night sleep tonight.

A few days in Venice

2009-03-29T16:50:00.004+02:00

It was to be my final gig with Siemens, to present at the Global Management Conference for the Building Automation business unit. Location was Venice and we decided it was an opportunity to good to refuse, so we packed the whole family and Sunnys sister Jinsoo and made the drive down to Venice for a few days.

The Hotel was the Hilton Stucky, a recently renovated industrial building on the canal facing Venice. It was one water bus stop away from the car park. Of course there are no cars in Venice so once the mode of transport is water bus and eater taxi and of course the gondola.

The boys were fascinated by the view of the canal and water traffic from the hotel window.

We had a chance to go to St Marco square and walk through the tiny alleys, past the shops to the Rialto bridge. Andrew loved the bridge and especially the feel of the old worn marble hand railing.

After the Venice trip we overnighted in Milano before heading up to the outlet shopping in Fox town, I bought clothes for Mingyu and the girls bought prada purse and feraggamo shoes.

Last Day at the office in Zug

2009-03-07T14:10:00.002+01:00

The year went by at the speed of light, action packed the whole time. From getting married on 1 Feb 08 to having twins sons twelve days later, a few weeks after that moving the family to Switzerland with new job in a new country.

Yesterday was my last working day at Siemens, not only am I leaving Switzerland but I have hung up the boots with Siemens to be closer to families in Asia. The last 9-10 years with them have been an amazing run. When I joined in December 99 in Melbourne I was the only employee in my department, and my job was to start up an energy efficiency business which I did successfully before moving to Korea in 2003. The North Asian culture was fascinating and the work and living environment challenging. The long hours spent over nearly 3 years in taking the business from a basket case to global benchmark was a satisfying achievement. In Korea I was lucky enough to meet my lovely wife and we had some great time together exploring Seoul and korea. At the end of my contract I was interested to remain in Asia, despite being requested to move to the Swiss HQ.

I was lucky enough to land a job in Hong Kong and carry out a similar turnaround in the business in HK. Once again this was hard work but rewarding and satisfying and we received several regional and global awards from Siemens for the outstanding business performance and customer focus in HK. Living in HK was a buzz and through our friends we were able to enjoy the city, countryside, beaches and waterways.

So after two short years in HK the pull from HQ was getting stronger and the position on offer too good to refuse. It was the Global Head of Solutions (Projects) a business responsibility of a billion euro and over 8000 people. Again it was an interesting challenge, the work environment was so different from the megacities I spent the previous 5 years living and working in. Zug has 25 000 population and although small it has a phenomenal amount of offices and businesses. The transport and infrastructure around Zug is incredible, not surprising for one of the richest kantons in the country. Things happen at a different pace in the HQ, the discussion is always protracted and at an academic level, decisions strangely enough often made with insufficient information (ie from powerpoint) and hastily, depending on who shouts the loudest. We had a record profit year in my department in 2008 and we achieved a number of improvements on the HQ operations.

From a family point of view , Sunny had done an amazing job with the boys, most of it single handedly. I had also spent 6-7 weeks away from home in that time making it even tougher for her. Our lifestyle has adapted somewhat to the Swiss, for example we now eat lots of bread, cheese, cold meat and chocolate (at least no chocolate for me). We drink loads of bottled mineral water and an occasional glass of vino when the opportunity arises.

My final duty with Siemens will be to handover my job to an interim and long term successors in Venice on 19th March. We will use the chance to stay in venice for a couple of days and drive back to Zug after a stop and shop at the outlet shopping centre near Milano.

Next week I start my new job and attend their management meeting in Barcelona, after that I will have three weeks of introduction meetings in Denmark. During that time Sunnys sister Jinsu will come to Switzerland and help out with the kids. We then plan to leave Switzerland on the 10th April for our new home in Singapore.

Net stop for us is Singapore, almost half way between Korea and Australia. I will have a new role with a wind energy business that will include responsibility for Korea, North Asia, ASEAN, Australia, India and South Africa. They even have projects in Tasmania, so there will be more chances to get back to Tassie from time to time.

Fassnacht in Zug

2009-03-02T21:17:00.004+01:00

Switzerland fires up for Fassnacht each year in February when the locals come out of hibernation, forget their rules on cleanliness and whoop it up in a weeklong celebration. Mums, dads, kids, teens all get involved in fancy dress, playing music and preparing for the big street parades.

Mingyu joined the parade in Cham with his schoolmates to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the school.

Samuel, Samuel, Samuel

2009-02-28T08:53:00.002+01:00

At around 10.30pm we heard Samuel crying, Sunny went to the bedroom to check and I started to make a bottle, in case he was hungry. Sunny called out for me to come, I went into the bedroom with the light out so couldn't see what was wrong. Sunny was leaning over the cot trying to hold Samuel. Still too dark, I put my hands into the cot and could only feel his legs and couldn't find his head. I quickly turned on the light to see Samuel had split the material on the side wall of the cot and had his head and shoulders hanging out of the hole in the cot material. He was stuck and we had to lift him back into the cot backwards to get him out of the predicament. After a short grizzle he was ok and came to bed with us, but not for long. We quickly understood why he had split the cot material, from his constant rolling and kicking.

Oh well off to get the cloth tape to fix the cot now..

Madness in Milano

2009-02-17T21:08:00.004+01:00

We went for an overnight trip to Milan on Saturday. That morning we left Cham, it was snowing heavily and traffic was slow. But after going throught he Gotthard tunnel the otherside was bright sunny and well, relatively warm. Thes pics are taken from our walk from the hotel to the Duomo. On the way we stopped at a local restaurant and they were really nice to us and we loved the food, we had spaghetti Vongole (with mussels and pippis) scampi risotto and a thin crust pizza with spinach and ricotta yummo.

The Duomo was spectacular and there were Baci promoters handing out chocolates. After the Duomo we walked up to the high fashio street Via Montnapoleon and checked out the Zegna, cartier and few other stores. That night I had booked a baby sitter so Sunny and I could go out on a date. The hotel had lost the booking and there were no baby sitters, bummer. So we had a rather ordinary dinner in the hotel.The next day we drove back and stopped at Foxtown an outlet shopping mall inside the swiss border. Sunny and I had lots of fun in the ferragamo , Cerruti and Reebok stores.

Birthday part 2 - sledding

2009-02-12T16:31:00.002+01:00

How cool is it to have a first birthday party and step outside the back door and go sledding. Andrew and Samuel were waving their arms with delight as soon as we stepped outside. The snow had been falling ll morning and the sky had cleared long enough to give us a chance to jump on the sled and have some fun.

The next door neighbors saw us and got their sleds too and joined for a sledding party. Andrew had a ride on the sled with young Angela....

Happy Birthday Boys!

2009-02-12T16:17:00.003+01:00

The party started around 1pm with balloon chasing and bursting and then went to the sit down affair. Almost sit down,that is, until Andrew saw the birthday cake and couldn't help himself to stand up in his high chair and take a handful of cake. The cake was yummy creamy sponge with strawberries inside and a marzipan top coat for the face (phil thought you might be interested to see the swiss cake decorating techniques!).

PS the boys were born in the chinese year of the mouse hence the mouse cake and the swarovski crystal mice!

After the party we took the boys sledding.....

Kung fu fighter takes first steps

2009-02-11T21:54:00.003+01:00

Today is the 11th February, the eve of their twins first birthday. Sunny had a dress rehearsal for the birthday outfits today and the lads were quite excited with their new silky threads.

Samuel surprised us all with his first steps !

2009-01-29T21:39:00.001+01:00

Moo and Chitas wedding

2009-01-29T21:29:00.001+01:00

Xmas in Tassie

2009-01-29T21:13:00.002+01:00

Happy hippo

2008-12-11T19:46:00.002+01:00

See if you can spot the happy hippo amongst these pics. ...,?

Dashing through the snow

2008-11-30T20:22:00.002+01:00

Dashing through the snow in a plastic blue and orange sleigh, through the fields we go laughing all the way....

Sunday afternoon we went to a little place near Engelberg with the peak of the Titlis towering over us at more than 3000m. We saw a church near the road surrounded by a lovely snow covered hillside, perfect for sledding on. So we pulled into the car park and unloaded the brand new sled (German crafted blue and orange plastic with steering wheel and brake).

It was great fun and we started slowly to get a feel for how fast it went and how the sled handled.

Sunny surprised us all took it down the really steep slope and got air as she literally flew of the top of the hill. She screamed, then a few seconds later the sled reappeared without Sunny. Fortunately she was ok and eventually reappeared to give us the thumbs up. Impressive effort from mummy!

We took the boys down with us a few times dressed in their little eskimo outfits. They really enjoyed it, except one time when Andrew got a big spray of snow in the face. Event then he was ok, just murmured a bit and started licking the snow.

Mingyu and I got brave and went down mummys super steep course together, we were honking down the slope and even a minor adjustment to the steering wheel felt like we would go over.

The snow was really dry and soft so it was no problem to fall over. Just like falling into soft downy feathers.

Loony in Lugano

2008-11-16T21:29:00.005+01:00

What to do on a foggy Saturday afternoon in Cham ? We had just finished the shopping and about to have lunch at home when the epiphany came. Let's go to Italy for a real pizza and pasta dinner !

Sunny was a bit hesitant and Mingyu was excited to try some real italian food, the boys got dressed and away we went. The target was to go to Lugano a beautiful lakeside town in the Italian Swiss canton of Ticino, not far from Milano. So we didnt have to take our passports and visas since we could stay just inside the swiss Border. It wasnt long before we were out of the grey fog and into the bright sunshine looking at the jaw dropping view of lakes and mountains.

On approach to Lugano the GPS system insisted to take us to Licino, which fortunately was a small suburb of Lugano (where we took the foto of the all the boys ). However I shutdown the GPS and followed our nose down tot he old town of Lugano by the lake. There was a lovely waterfront promenade and behind the waterfront buildings a number of walking only shopping arcades opening out into piazzas.

It really was like being in Italy, for a start the people all speaking Italian, dressed differently and a lot more lively than downtown Cham!

We wandered through the arcades and had some super yummy gelati and later stopped at one piaza and had dinner alfresco, the boys could sit up in high chairs and were pretty well behaved. Andrew did get a little excited and lifted the table cloth long enough to tip a glass of wine over my leg. Dinner was pizza, pasta and wine.

Driving time from Cham was two hours each way and we stopped in Lugano from 4.30 until 7.15pm. In Summer I can imagine it would be very popular place.

Bicycle Police

2008-11-12T14:00:00.002+01:00

Mingyu was proudly announcing that he had done lots of excercise by walking to and from school twice in once day. When Asked why he did not ride his bike, his reply was the bicycle police would get im and make him write lines in german for two hours in the police station.
Why would they do that, we asked. Apparently the bicycle police had visited the school and told them about bike safety including having lights and reflector stickers on. Mingyu's bike did not have so he stopped riding his bike and started walking to school. Poor kid.
So today he can take his bike to the repair shop and get fixed!

Funny Words

2008-11-12T13:55:00.001+01:00

For some time now Samuel has been enjoying a good belly laugh usually each night around dinner time and usually from Mingyu pulling a funny face or even simply looking at him. He starts with a chuckle and continues with a full blown belly laugh with tears coming from his eyes.

Andrew has now just caught the same characteristic only his laughing is triggered by Sunny. All Sunny has to do is mention a word ie Pizza and he goes into the belly laughing fit. Yesterdays funny word was biscuit and that set him off laughing. I wonder what todays funny word will be...?

Funny Bubs

2008-11-03T22:22:00.003+01:00

Funny Bubs

2008-11-03T22:22:00.001+01:00

Berlin Hotel Room devastation

2008-11-03T22:04:00.004+01:00

The hotel room wasn't ready when we checked in so we sat on one of the lobby stools for an hour waiting, fortunately they served us some drinks. The boys had fun on the stool and on the floor, keeping the hotel staff amused.

We had breakfast on Sunday morning with my colleague and fortunately they gave us a big table in a separate room, the devastation was huge with food everywhere, over the table and floor from the little munchkins.

Mingyu had a swim in the new pool, it was very cool design and modern style.

Berlin Zoo

2008-11-03T21:48:00.003+01:00

Berlin has a sensational Zoo and Aquarium with Rions and tigers (as Mingyu says), polar bears, elephants, and all kinds of fishes. Nice grounds too and it was all at our doorstep of our Hotel !

Berlin Pics

2008-11-03T21:38:00.005+01:00

A must see in Berlin is KaDeWe (Kaufhaus Des Westens) a lovely old shopping centre with loads of goodies and a foodhall to die for. On the seventh floor is a supermarket with champagne bars scattered throughout for you to sip your fizz while shopping.

I met my former Korean boss in Berlin, he is now the CEO for Siemens in Germany.

First snow arrived today

2008-10-29T21:40:00.002+01:00

The first snow arrived tonight as the rain turned to sleet around six thirty pm and then to snow by 8pm. When I arrived at home, Mingyu was waiting to have his ass whupped in a snow fight on the balcony. He scored two direct hits to my head and whereas I could only score glancing blows. Who's whupping who ?

Better get the skiing kit together, could be an early winter !

BONKERS IN BERLIN

2008-10-20T20:58:00.003+02:00

How hard could it be to take a few kids on a plane to Berlin for the weekend, a breeze, a doddle you say ?

We had a 'learning experience'.

The fun really started in the airport at the security section when the stroller had to go through the machine. So we unloaded the babies and held them with the carry on baggage in the other hand and went through the machine. THe alarm sounded when I walked through with Samuel, the guard gave Samuel a scan and patted him down then took me into a booth for the same thing. Fortunately I kept my clothes on, the guard asked me to take my shoes off and put them through the xray before letting us continue.

We took a lufthansa small plane which means taking the bus from the terminal, Mingyu could not understand it especially when I jokingly told him we were catching the bus to Berlin.

Onboard we had to change seats around because there was not enough oxygen masks for all of us and the babies in the one row. This will be the same for the big flight to Australia so we will need to be in separate rows.

On the flight the boys got restless and were crying and complaining, there was two colleagues sitting nearby and they got an earful all the way. Afterwards one said we had our hands full with the boys.

At the berlin airport we picked up the baggage and went to the taxi rank, after waiting for a big cab the driver rejected taking us since he had no baby seats. We then resorted to catching the bus into town and walking up to the hotel. On the way we had a fish and chip break and a dunkin donut break in the space of less than 700m.

The hotel screwed up our booking for two adjoining rooms by leaving another guest in one of the rooms. We had to wait while they sorted it out and after 1 hour we were in a small room with the boys getting sleepier and crankier. I had to go to the conference and Sunny complained to the hotel and requested another rooms. She eventually got a suite and put the bubs to bed. When I arrived at 1130 pm they were all asleep. Around 12 Andrew started to wake and needed lots of attention to get back to sleep. For Sunny it was just a continuous tag team going from Andrew to Samuel and back for most of the night.

Home coming

2008-10-13T21:38:00.002+02:00

Last friday night I returned home from a weeks training in Germany to see Sunny and Mingyu holding sparklers in their hands from the balcony. They threw them from the eighth floor onto the ground, one nearly missing me by a bees knee. It was a dark night and the sparklers looked pretty cool from where I was standing.

2008-10-11T21:57:00.002+02:00

We celebrated Sunnys birthday last Saturday on the 4th October (real birthday on 6th). There was lots of yummy food and cakes, lots of swiss cakes. There was a chocolate cream birthday cake, a fruit torte and a blueberry yoghurt cake. Twelve people came over for afternoon tea. There was only one coffee served but several glasses of champagne went down before singing happy birthday. I hope you enjoyed it lovey.

Mingyu says he wants a hundred people over for his party !

Sunday is Pancake day

2008-09-27T22:17:00.004+02:00

I like thick pancakes, golden brown, with ice cream, maple syrup and fruit on top. The reaction from the rest of the Family indicates they get a thumbs up from them too.

I think tomorrow morning should be a pancake start to the day. Why not ?

These are pancake shots and after shots. You can see Andrew liked them so much he was pursing his lips for hours afterwards. Even Sunny and Mingyu stopped teasing each other for a post pancake pic on the porch.

Samuel

2008-09-27T22:04:00.003+02:00

Samuel is following along behind Andrew especially when it comes to crawling and physical development. Although he still has got the larger body weight he has only advanced to crawling backwards, while Andrew is in fast forward. But he has a great sense of humour and when he starts laughing he either cant stop or he laughs at the smallest thing, especially when Mingyu makes a face. Its a real belly laugh and he goes on laughing and laughing.

A few more photos

2008-09-27T21:53:00.003+02:00

Here are a few more photos, I did a quick check on the computer and we have 11,405 photos in 292 events. Good thing we have a MAC computer to handles the pics. The Iphoto is great at managing the photos in a easy to find way. It has some basic edit functions too, we mainly use the red eye removal function. Anyway these are obviously daytime shots and no red eyes so I will stop this rambling on and do a quick blog for samuel.

We got a visitor

2008-09-27T21:43:00.003+02:00

Gini called in for a night during her 40 day back packing adventure around Europe. She was in Geneva the night before coming to Cham and then went onto Prague by bus from here. It was nice having her to stay and she did apparently sleep despite the boys waking up every hour on the hour. It was a good excuse to crack a champers and relax for a few hours over dinner. Sunny was happy to see her ex colleague from Johnson and Johnson. I did not envy her, since she had run out of cash already and with Prague and Paris still, left on the schedule did not leave much room for any special treats. Sunny bought her a jacket to keep out the advancing winter and we searched the cheapest transport to prague. A student bus leaving from Zurich with an 11 hour overnight schedule.

Andrew called me Dad

2008-09-27T21:35:00.005+02:00

I got back home 930pm last night after an overnight trip to Copenhagen. Sunny and Andrew answered the door with smiles. We sat down in the living room and chatted for a few minutes with the boys on our knees. Then andrew said DAD, twice! Wow would have floored me, except we were already sitting on the floor. He said it and gave me a hug, so cute.

Andrews view of the world

2008-09-09T20:49:00.004+02:00

The lads are having a chat in their high chairs.

Andrew selecting a book from Mingyu's library .

Samuel thinks he is a turtle.

Boys new Toys

2008-09-07T17:36:00.002+02:00

This Saturday we went on an epic journey to Ikea in Spreitenbach near Zurich. We were in the store for over 3 hours including a meal break of meatballs and pomme frittes. The boys were ok for the first hour after that the crankiness level increased and increased. Then back to home with the kit including new high chairs for the lads, a red play tent , rug, photo frames and other bits and pieces.

Little Plastic Box

2008-09-07T17:15:00.002+02:00

The boys enjoyed time in the little plastic box, with smooth bottom surface and smooth floor it was a good combination for sliding along, powered by Mingyu. They had their Reilly dog on board to keep them safe and secure.

Mingyu's First Soccer match

2008-09-03T21:49:00.004+02:00

Saturday was mingyu's first soccer game, he proudly scored the first goal too ! It was a tough match against the Aegeri 9 year olds, most of which had those horrid rat tail hair cuts. They brought a secret player onto the ground in the second half to try and put our team off but the doggy had no impact, except on the goalie who had a few stressfull moments during a kickout.

Before the game I dropped Mingyu at the clubhouse and went in to talk to the coach and get the roster details. Mingyu got changed and then we walked around the facility and out onto the fields to see the team and coach. We couldn't find them and had almost given up when we saw the coach in the car park with a few other parents and the team. They asked if I was driving to Aegeri (a town 15-20 km away), we had now idea it was an away game so I drove mingyu up to Aegeri and then went back to cham to pickup sunny and the boys.

We got back in time for the second half and watched the Cham team finish with their first win for the season score 2-1.

The Bee in the Bakery

2008-09-03T21:35:00.003+02:00

Occasionally you find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Last Friday I thought I was in the right place at the right time, it was the neighborhood bakery in the evening and the idea was to pickup some bread on the way home. After choosing some bread and a few little tasty exras, I waited at the counter. I noticed the lady behind the counter looking above my head, then I felt a bug buzz near my ear. I moved my hand up to swat it away but before I could I had been stung on my ear. It was painful and the dopey lady behind the counter did not say or do anything except ask for the money.

Here was the result...and a bloody painful one too!

Zug Lake cruise

2008-08-30T11:11:00.001+02:00

6 months old

2008-08-23T16:48:00.000+02:00

It's the middle of August and the little lads have just reached six months of age. Already they can roll over, drink and hold the cup by themselves and entertain each other.

Andrew is adventurous and wants to climb underneath the sofa, while Samuel is more interested in food and TV. How different can these boys be ? So far the only similarity is the sound they make when they give a squeal of delight.

Black Hanky Boys make triathlon pact

2008-08-12T21:22:00.000+02:00

Last Friday night (during the beijing Olympic opening ceremony) the sms's started to cross the globe between Zug and Hobart on the very innocent topic of bikes, since danny had just aquired a new carbon fibre time trial bike suitable for triathlons. Before long we were chatting about the possibility of triathlons in Tassie over xmas. The gauntlet then went down for a team triathlon challenge at the upcoming Phuket triathlon in December. The grueling event features a 1.8km sea and fresh water swim, followed by a stinking hot, steep and hilly monster ride over 55km and finishes a super sweat soaked run over 12 km. We needed to complete the triad and called in the help of Johnny w in Singapore to anchor the team for the swim. A suggested team name of Black Hanky boys was unopposed and the pact was made. Go the Black Hanky boys !

Better get a wriggle on to train for that one, mmm. Haven't done anything like that for a long while.

Cranky Boys

2008-08-12T21:15:00.000+02:00

We read an article on comforting or controlled crying the other day and decided we would give it a go. The boys have been a little cranky in the evenings of late making it a tiresome experience for the whole family. Tonight we bathed them and fed them then settled them down in bed and let them alone for five minutes. Within a few minutes their little lungs were open and the sobbing started, not seriously but then grew in intensity. After five minutes I went to visit the loudest one, in this case Andrew and settled him again by finding his dummy and tucking him in. Being careful not to pick him up. So he knew we were around but there was no cuddling going to happen. So far so good, will give you an update on how it pans out, but we are looking forward to a quieter night !

Babies in Motion

2008-08-10T09:06:00.002+02:00

Hi I wanted to try and import some video into the blog.

Photos from the site are also on picasa try the link

http://picasaweb.google.com/sutton007/BonkersInHonkers?authkey=eNIffZB0BMs#

Madness in Munich

2008-08-04T20:25:00.000+02:00

I had another crazy idea to jump in the car and head off for a long weekend, this time we would go to Munich. Friday 1 August was the national holiday in Switzerland and we did the unpatriotic thing and left the country. We were a bit festive the night before having sparklers on the balcony, while some of the locals lit their fireworks in anticipation of the big day.

We left Cham around 10am and set the

navigation system for Munich. After ten minutes we hit a roadblock and had to take a long cut through Zurich, an extra 45 minutes to the 4 hour drive.

we arrived in Friesing, a little town 30 km north of Munich at 5pm that afternoon. The Marriott hotel was on a one way street not recognized by the GPS so we circled a round prior to finally seeing the road sign. The Hotel was under renovation and the only access was via the conference center and then after a load of steps. We also changed rooms in the hotel before finally getting settled around . I took Mingyu to town to buy some supplies for the kids and few snacks for the rest of us.

It is a lovely town with nice shops, cobblestone streets, cheap good quality restaurants and the obligatory church or two. We had a great meal in the warm evening air of the town platz with the church towering above us and cold beers.

Saturday was our Munich day and we drove the car into the centre and parked in a handy capped spot (car park sign said free spaces but did not tell us that these free spots had have a car in them from the overcrowding in the next spaces) in the Shannehalle next to the Viktuelmarkt.

We even wandered out of the old town and up to the English garden where we saw the open parks and a few nudie sunbathers. On the way back we stopped on Hofgarten a d went into a very charming looking old store called Alois Dallmeyr, /i bought a half roast chicken and some of the most expensive cherries in the world.

We sat on the grass and had a nice picnic, during which Samuel sat on my crossed legs. Unbeknown to me he had done a poo and it had leaked out of the back of his diaper and onto the crotch of my white shorts. After lunch we got up and I noticed the damage, it wasn't a pretty sight, or smell. after resusing the wet tissues with chicken grease and cherries we headed back to the car and to the hotel.

REILLY

2008-07-30T04:45:00.000+02:00

Reilly had an operation on Monday to remove two lumps, after the test one of the lumps on his spleen was cancerous. The diagnosis was a particularly strong cancer giving him chance of 3 months without treatment and up to 9 months with treatment.

Big weekend in the Erns (Bern and Lucern)

2008-07-26T21:59:00.000+02:00

The big weekend culminated in Bern today, but before we get to that it all really started on Wednesday afternoon when Sunny picked me up from work around 530pm and we decided to explore the city of Zug. To our pleasant surprise there was a lot of alfresco activities going on. We joined in at a little Wine bar facing a small square opposite Hotel Ochsen. There was a few tables and chairs outside and a small dining room inside where a wedding party, featuring an 7 month pregnant bride) was wrapping up their afternoon of frivolity. We sat outside in the warm afternoon sun and the babies behaved themselves while we enjoyed a glass of champagne. During the glass of fizz we watched the wedding party leave and helped ourselves to their canapes left over at our table. We decided that Friday would be a day off for us to visit Lucerne and hit the shops. Then we would go to Bern to pickup Mingyu from summer camp on Saturday and check out the lovely old town.

Friday afternoon the weather was sensational and we wandered through the old city of Lucerne and stopped to buy some summer clothes for the bubs. We saw a busker or two and then made our way towards the river. The boys had a meltdown in a department store and fortunately there was two directors seats and a table near the fitting rooms. This was perfect for a feed and change of diapers for each. Further along there was a very inviting cafe to sit refresh and watch the world go by from so we settled there, ordered a stiff drink and relaxed for a bit. After a quick shop for groceries we went back to Cham for an early night.

Saturday we went a was a bit further a field to Berne, before that we drove to Rubigen to pickup Mingyu from Summer camp. As we approached he was riding up the driveway and recognized the car.

The camp looked impressive with Indian teepees and forts, aqua slides on the grass, open fire, mess tent and porta loos. Mingyu proudly showed us his somersault on the trampoline and gave me a quick tour of the place. The organiser Martin came to say hello and gave us a summary of how Mingyu went with the camp and making friends, no problem from all accounts.

We had to laugh because the camp was run by religious group and they had taught Mingyu Hymns and gave him a cross to wear around his neck. Mingyu thought the songs were 'indian' (from the tepees) and had no idea what the cross meant. We suspect there was a a few bible stories around the camp fire etc, but these were all in german and somehow completely lost on Mingyu.

First words

2008-07-21T06:33:00.001+02:00

The bets were running on whether mum or dad would be the first unprompted word from the boys, how wrong could we have been. Today Samuel's first word was Mingyu or 'Gyu'. It was while he was in his mothers arms in the living room too that we heard Mingyu talking from his bedroom and Samuel simply said 'Gyu' in a kind of 'I know who that is' tone.

Samuel loves Mingyu and despite the way Mingyu holds him askew and plays a little roughly often resulting in a grizzle or tears. There are times when Samuel will belly laugh at the slightest thing Mingyu does. Including pulling faces, playing fames or speaking in gibberish to him.

In the afternoon we drove Mingyu to summer camp for one week, living in Indian tents with 40 other kids at a place called Rubigen near Berne. After leaving Mingyu at the camp Andrew then chimed in with a 'Gyu" acknowledging that Mingyu was no longer in the car with us.

Little lads getting larger

2008-07-19T19:13:00.001+02:00

Black Hanky boy

2008-06-26T22:20:00.000+02:00

Our street name in Cham is Kleinweid, means 'little meadow' in German and despite living in an eight storey building we are literally next to farm houses. At one of these houses is a strawberry shop. Mingyu and I decide to drop in and buy some strawberries for mum one day and found they had sold out. The shop lady said we could pick our own and gave us a punnet and pointed us in the direction of the rows of planted strawberries. While picking the berried Mingyu suggested we come back there at night as 'black hanky boys' to take the berries in black balaclavas.

The term has caught on and we refer to any undesirables as black hanky boys.

Don't you hate it when....

2008-06-15T14:26:00.000+02:00

This weekend the black friday bug bit and then continued with delayed reaction. Friday morning the washing machine had stopped working and making strange noises. OVernight was rough with kids waking and then when the doorbell rang at 915 we were suitably unprepared to receive guests. Two men at the door, one of them Gregor, Mingyu's german tutor, and his dad Erwin. Both looking fresh and bright while we scrambled to resemble normality. Saturdays are high pressure, because there is lots to do and little time to do them in. In Switzerland you need to be well organized for the weekends. Not only do you need to do the shopping (sometimes at 2 or 3 supermarkets) but you need to take the rubbish pre sorted to the waste station at the supermarket. All this needs to happen before the supermarket closes early saturday afternoon for the weekend. So when visitors arrived at 9.30am the schedule was starting to slip and hopes of taking an afternoon trip to Berne were fading fast.

The interview with the would be tutor was settled by 1030 after then it was skates on for Mingyu and I to get the pre sorted rubbish into the car and off to the first supermarket. Why two supermarkets well one supermarket is convenient and has almost everything we need, except baby milk powder and no rubbish depot. So we needed to visit the bigger market for unloading the waste and picking up the baby stuff. All this take 3 hours, yes 3 hours, then Sunny called saying she was walking the boys towards our direction with the stroller and would like a lift back. How she manages during the week with all the boys is incredible.

The rest of the day was like all the stuff you hate when

- your 4 month old boys wees on you

- the other one vomits on you

- one son does not recognize you

- the banana yoghurt smashes in the bag and gets on all the groceries

- the washing machine filter door opens with a torrent of water onto the floor..each time

- you forget to close the window in the kids room and its 15 degrees o/s

- your not sure which baby was just nappy changed

- dinner is always interrupted, minimum twice

- the Switzerland travel guide goes back on the shelf unopened

Paris in May 08 - a roadtrip

2008-05-25T23:09:00.000+02:00

What to do for an extra long weekend in Zug, why not pack up the younglings and drive to Paris? After a 700 km roadtrip with twins and a nine year old you really know you're alive, and don't mention the family bonding.

It was a bout one year ago when Sunny and I headed for Paris and spent a night at Frederic and Eugenie's (parents of my god daughter Caroline) house. Something must have been stirring from within because I had an urge to do it again, even with Mingyu and the twins.

It took a lot longer to get there than coming back, I guess that had something to do with keeping on the highways instead of driving through all the villages on the way there.

We stayed outside Paris at the Marriott near Disneyland, they had cute two storey town houses in period design and nicely decorated style. The boys were at home immediately.

Friday we skipped Disney thinking it would be more relevant a few years later to go to the shopping village. This is no ordinary shopping centre in the middle of nowhere its a megalopolous centre with 100 outlet shops and a huge shopping mall. If the drive wasn't enough for the kids then 5 hours of shopping was certain to push them to the edge of their endurance. Sure enough Samuel and Andrew had meltdowns. one time together in the supermarket and drew the attention of all the shoppers in a 3 aisle radius. They cried in all the cool shops too like Miss Sixty, Energie, D&G and did not say or do anything in the boring shops like Dupont. Ralph Lauren and and the shoe shop.

That night we were all but spent when Sunny noticed a swan and her babies heading up to the house. We laughed as the baby swans (there is a word for that ) tried to get out of the water most of them tripping and falling as they did so.

Saturday we moved out of the hotel and headed to Morrain Villers to meet the Family and my little god daugher caroline. We had a very nice day featuring lunch, girls shopping outing, boys computer games and dinner.

Rendezvous with GrandParents at Interlaken

2008-05-25T22:44:00.000+02:00

Sunny's parents took a twelve countries in ten day tour of Europe and we managed to meet them at Interlaken on Monday May 19th. I left work early at around 420pm and picked up Sunny and the kids. who were a little bit anxious, to meet the grandparents on time. As fate would have it we arrived early and they were still on the bus from the Jungfrau. So we fed the kids and changed nappies in the car-park behind their hotel. On their arrival it was all smiles and a few tears, Mingyu was very happy and we went p to their room for a 100 day celebration (traditional time for Korean kids reaching the 100 day milestone) for the twins. We had a white cake too, mmm.

Unfortunately the time was short and we had only three hours together before sad goodbyes and heading back to Zug.

Dad

2008-05-16T21:06:00.001+02:00

Supermum

2008-05-16T20:46:00.001+02:00

Samuel

2008-05-16T20:28:00.001+02:00

Andrew

2008-05-16T20:17:00.000+02:00

The many faces of Mingyu

2008-05-16T20:10:00.000+02:00

First Border crossing to the town of Colmar, France

2008-05-12T19:39:00.000+02:00

It was a long weekend in Switzerland and when the clock struck 4pm on Saturday afternoon, we thought, stuff it let's go to France for dinner! I recalled a tip from a colleague living in the border town of Basel that Colmar was a good place to visit.

Colmar it would be and I quickly printed off the direction from google maps and we loaded up the car with everything for the kids and spare clothes just in case.

It took less than two hours, we were waived through the vehicle inspection at the border and had arrived in Colmar.

We even got a car park just on the edge of the old town which was walking traffic only. Unfortunately the babies needed nappy changes and we used the nearby bus stop seat for a change table (see picture).

The town was beautiful with cobble stone roads, really old houses (one dated 1419) and lots of curious shops, one shop had only ginger breads. After walking through one street storm clouds came over and it started to rain. We ducked for cover of an alfresco restaurant and decided to have dinner while it rained. The rain did not get lighter and soon the tent cover was leaking, so we asked for the food to go and I ran back to get the van and drive it up to the restaurant to pick up the kids. We got home by 11pm tired but happy to have played in France for the afternoon.

May update

2008-05-11T10:07:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone, here are the latest snaps of the little lads in their bandanas with special appearances from mum and mingyu.

Mingyu's Birthday

2008-04-22T21:57:00.000+02:00

Mingyu's birthday party included dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant, he wanted spaghetti and pizza so we ordered both. Afterwards we went back to the apartment for the birthday cake.

Zug lake on Sunday

2008-04-20T22:55:00.000+02:00

Sunday we managed to pack up the kids and go for a drive around the lake of Zug, absolutely sensational scenery too. There was a particularly cute village of Immensee half way around that we liked the look of. That and the fact they actually had a backery open on Sunday morning too.

We stopped in Zug and wandered around by the lake and had a cuppa in the old town plaza .

Sunday afternoon mum wanted to go for a jog, for the first time since last year. And Later Mingyu amd I went out on the bikes for a ride into Zug and back.