Family Travel Adventures 2007

Jenny and I have decided to pull the kids out of school and take them travelling for a year. We leave this summer.

We've toyed with this possibility for many years. The idea is that there's more to an education than classroom learning. Our hope is that travel will challenge them and provide new experiences which help them grow and learn about the world. That's the theory. It's also just plain fun and a way to enjoy having the kids before they grow up and don't want to hang about with Mom and Dad anymore.

This does mean that we have to "home school" the kids for a year. It's a scarey challenge considering how hard it is to get the kids just to do their regular homework! We're now officially "teachers in training". R* will miss Year Seven and K* will miss Year Four. Both will return to their current schools when we get back and hopefully won't have a hard time catching up.

Our first trip will be back to Canada for a family visit in the summer. Then we'll come back to the UK and spend September and October travelling around the Alps and down the length of Italy. After a quick stop back in the UK, we'll then fly to Malaysia which will become our base for six months. From Malaysia, we'll do several trips which will likely include India, Australia and China. Later in the spring, we'll return to the UK and do some more trips around Europe taking advantage of the fact that it won't be high season.

As I said, we're still formulating our plans so things will change. I decided go public on this blog now since any ideas, contacts or help with the planning are welcome and might change when and where we go.

Blog 2007

Welcome to another year on my blog. Looking back, I've obviously been slowing down with the number of posts I make. I've been sticking more and more to travels and family stuff. It's a momentum thing really. I also don't want to keep whinging on about all the stuff that's wrong in the world. Anyway, it's 2007 and I expect to have a lot to blog this year!

Meanwhile, I've recently upgraded to Subtext 1.9.3 which has given me more antispam tools so commenting on all my posts is open again.

Merry Christmas!

As I started doing last year, I've forgone sending Christmas cards. Instead I'm using email and the phone to send my wishes and created a website to share some of our better family photo's. The savings go to charity.

Our chosen charity this year is Room To Read - started by an ex-Microsoft employee after he discovered a lack of books at a school in Nepal. Since 2000, the charity  has established over 3000 libraries in the developing world. They also publish local language children's books, build schools and provide long-term scholarships to girls. It's an excellent cause in my books (haha) and their website makes it very clear what they do.

Room To Read has won the Fast Company Social Capital Awards a few times. It's interesting to read what some of the other winners do.

R* Turns 11

R* turned eleven last month. Here's a picture of her with her friends at her laserquest party. K* scored the highest number of hits by camping in a corner and shooting everyone. Jenny played one of the games as its not everyday you get to shoot children!

I'm sure, like every other parent, when a birthday comes along you also reflect at how much and how fast your child is growing up. Some of her friends are almost as tall as Jenny and they're growing lumpy bits! Woah. At least they all still seem to think kissing is disgusting despite rumours about what happens on the bus. Nevertheless, she's gradually getting more independent.

R* recently quit St. John's Ambulance and instead has joined Sea Cadets. It's definitely more exciting and she's very enthusiastic. For a kid who's been raised in environments that celebrate individualism, it's been a bit of surprise that she's embraced the authourity, structure and discipline of Sea Cadets. I think part of it is the "grown-up" nature of the group. So we have a girl marching around the house now.

As for activities, she still plays the cornet and is in a beginners brass band. She's recently joined the school choir and she still has her weekly swimming lessons. I made her join a team sport and she chose basetball after unsuccessfully trying to convince me that chess is a team sport. We even had to consult the dictionary of the difference between "sport" and "game". But she's dropping it next term. She's not a sporty kid. Can't blame her with such pathetic role models as her parents.

She isn't into any hobbies in any big way. Between homework and after-school activities, she really doesn't get much time. She recently got interested in Warhammer and is collectiing a Dwarf Army. She likes fantasy world stuff and gothic jewellery. While not a girlie girl, she does like jewellery of all kinds. She wants a dog, laptop and mp3 player. No. no. maybe.

British Museum

Last month, K* had a day off school so Jenny and I took him down to the British Museum. He's been studying Egypt so we thought it would be good to show him the Egyptian collection, particularly, the Rosetta Stone.

I'd forgotten how long it's been since I last went there. It was before they did the big renovation which was years and years ago. It's quite a surprise to see the new interior. Very nice. The British Museum is a fantastic place and its reminded me I really should take the kids there a few more times to explore the other collections. K*'s attention span was good for about an hour and not a lot longer. The gift shop and the cafeteria can hold his attention for longer! Oh well. They will have to be short and sweet trips.

 We did get to wander around the hallowed Reading Room. It's quite awesome the number of famous people that have studied there but it does feel like a shadow of what it might once have been like. It has an air of a monument rather than a library.

Abdullah Ibrahim at the Royal Festive Hall

Monday night Jenny and I took my uncle and went and saw the jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim playing at the Royal Festive Hall. He was playing a solo concert as part of the London Jazz Festival.

He's a great musician. No doubt about that. He just plays continuously for the entire set without a break. Sometimes the music sounds more like classical than jazz; it's a fluid fusion that meanders between both and refuses to be boxed to any rigid style. I haven't heard anyone quite like him.  To me, it's a rather cerebral and contemplative style. Something you relax into rather than tapping your toe.

I'm impressed but in all honesty, I could have just stayed at home and played his CD. He didn't talk or interact with the audience. Yes, I go to concerts to hear the music but I also believe the performers should talk and personalise the event. Nothing happened that was much different than just playing a CD. A good CD on a very nice hifi.

A Sad September

It was a sad September. My Aunt who had been suffering with lymphoma for almost ten years passed away. She was a lovely woman whom we'll badly miss.

But I can share a funny story among the sadness. The night before the funeral, Jenny hung her clothes on the closet door handle ready for the morning rush to get out of the house and into London. The clothes were brand new and very specially chosen for this most solemn of occasions.

We woke up to discover the most horrendous crime. The cat had taken it upon himself to bless said clothes with a generous and most accurate blast of pee! The clothes reeked right to heaven. Now, it's rare that Jenny gets angry but she literally hit the roof.  The wrath of a woman whose carefully crafted outfit has been destroyed is not to be underestimated. It's a good thing I chucked the cat outside. If Jenny had caught up with him that morning, there would have been another death in the family.

We have no idea why he did it. Maybe he didn't like the smell of the brand new clothes and thought he could improve on it. Certainly is was the worst possible timing. Unfortunately, Jenny didn't have a very good alternative outfit but had to make do. It's taken a while for Jenny to forgive the cat but he's still banned from our bedroom.

I can hear Yolanda having a good chuckle over it.

Weekend In Berlin

So, as I posted earlier, I went to Berlin for the weekend with some mates. We picked Berlin as it sounded like it had a good mix of culture and nightlife. Since I had the time, I got saddled with booking flights and hotels. I picked a reasonably cheap hotel near the center of Berlin called the BB Hotel and booked it through www.bookings.org. There wasn't much availability as a big consumer electronics tradeshow was in town. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a very gay hotel in a very gay part of Berlin. I have nothing against homosexuality but given a choice, I don't want to be surrounded by guys dressed in leather and big boots. My friends were horrified and I'm never gonna hear the end of it.

Anway, I'm very impressed with Berlin. It's a very liveable city. I mean, I would consider living there. Transport was cheap and efficient. For 19 euro's each we had unlimited subway travel for three days including the trip to and from the airport. There's no one center to Berlin but there's lots of happening area's with their own things going on.

There first afternoon there, it rained so we went to the consumer electronics show. Hey, we're guys and it was a big toy show! The place was absolutely massive but there's only so many flat LCD screen's you can look at. Afterwards, we wandered down Skalitzer Straffe in the Kreuzberg looking for dinner and bars. Not a very good choice really.

The second day, we joined a Third Reich walking tour starting at the Brandenburg Gate. The guide was an American Ph.D. student who was studying the Third Reich. He was excellent. He showed us the plans for Welthauptstadt Germania and where it would have been built and told us lots of other stories. If you have any interest in WWII or the Cold War, Berlin is fascinating. We ended the tour at the site of Hitler's Bunker. There's nothing left and it's only recently that the location of the site has been acknowledged. Nearby is the poignant Holocaust Memorial. I wish we had had time to do some of the other walks.

That evening, we wandered around Potsdamer Platz where no man's land is being rebuilt into a metropolis and then went off to the Hackescher Markt where there's some very lively bars and restaurants.

The third day, we checked out of the hotel and had lunch on Unter den Linden - the famous street of old Berlin. We then squeezed in a bit more touring. First stop was the Jewish Museum. The building is shaped like a shattered Star of David and was designed by American architect Daniel Libeskind. It was worth the visit for better understanding Jewish culture and the long sad history of persecutions. Walking North we discovered the Gendarmenmarkt by accident. It's one of the grandest squares in Berlin. Not far away, we made it to Checkpoint Charlie and a museum there that chronicles the many attempts, some successful, some not, at getting across the wall.

It was getting late by then so we went back to the hotel, grabbed our bags and headed to the airport. There's plenty more in Berlin that we didn't see and I'd certainly be happy to go back a few more times. If you go, track down a copy of free guide called "Sandeman's New Berlin" which is a very handy English guide to the city.

Global Ecological Footprint

Nice succinct graphs of our global ecological foot. Particularly like this one showing countries in proportion to the resources they use:

Notting Hill Carnival 2006

The weekend after I got back from sailing was the August bank holiday weekend. Every year, we're usually away but as I was home this year, I managed to get down to the Notting Hill Carnival. It's one of the largest street parties in the world with about half-a-million people attending that Monday. Honestly, I've never seen so many people in one place before. Check out the official website.

It was relatively easy to get to. My buddy David and I took the train down to Paddington and then the Hammersmith & City tube line right to where the action was. To get home, we simply walked back to Paddingtion. Once in Nottinghill, we just walked around a lot shuffling along with the crowd. It's fabulous for people watching and a gold mine for photography. I found shooting with a small compact camera was rather difficult in this situation. The sun was too bright for the LCD monitor and the eyepiece too small for someone who wears glasses. Generally, you just shoot tons of pictures and hope a few come out. Here's a  superb gallery of carnival photo's.

Despite the huge crowds, we managed to see some of the parade which is good fun. Not particularly slick or anything but good fun. I have no complaints about watching scantily clad girls dancing along the street.  There's tons of ethnic street food and plenty of beer too. We even ran into a break dancing show in the park. The only difficult thing with the Carnival is the lack of toilets. Residents take advantage of it to offer their own for £1 a go.

If I was around each August bank holiday, I'd go every year.

Sailing the Channel Islands

I went sailing to the Channel Islands for a week last August. Originally, I was booked to go with the Hamble School of Yachting but they didn't have enough participants so they transferred me to the British Offshore Sailing School at no extra cost. This was an excellent deal since BOSS charges more and my impression is that BOSS is a bit more "hard-core".

The odd thing with this kind of holiday is that you never know who you're going to end up sailing with and a yacht is a rather intimate environment. Turned out John Williams was our skipper - nice bloke. There were two university students - Yeet from Turkey and Will, a history student going on law student, from Cambridge. There was also Giovanni, a somewhat eccentric Swiss pensioner who was not the easiest chap to get along with.

We got delayed leaving Hamble Friday morning as we were hemmed in by another learning yacht but we eventually got out past the Needles before the tide turned. Our goal was Alderney but we were head to wind and had to make our bearing Cherbourg. It took us 18 hours to cross the channel arriving at 2am! It taught me that I have no interest in long distance passages. I didn't mind the rain, night sailing or force 5 sailing but it's just not pleasant sailing for that long.

It was an easy sail to Aldernery the next day and the day after, I got to navigate us down to Guernsey. We had good wind with dashes of rain all the way. The area has wicked tides - third in the world for the tidal range. If you get your timing wrong, you can get in big trouble. Even an engine won't help.

After three days of intense sailing, the crew voted to take the fourth day off. John, Yeet and myself hired motor scooters and toured around Guernsey. It's a pretty island and would be a nice place to spend a week for a holiday. Lots of beaches. Plenty of old WWII installations. Quaint. It's how you might imagine England fifty years ago. People still sell flowers and vegetables on the roadside with a just a tin to accept payment. The seafood is excellent. The picture above is St. Peter Port where we were moored. 

The next day we sailed back to Cherbourg where I stocked up on a case of wine and we had a great night out drinking and playing pool. We had quite a bit of time ashore as the plan was to do a night passage across the Channel. Didn't manage to get a lot of rest in the day and we left the harbour around 8pm. Luckily it was a beam reach all the way back. It's a little scarey crossing the channel at night since shipping freighters do come up quickly and can pass you quite close by. They wouldn't even notice if they hit you.

I was too tired after my watch and fell asleep in the cabin. Missed the dawn but it turned out to be a lovely sunny day as we made our way back to Hamble, cleaned up the yacht and went our seperate ways.

It was a good trip and I'd be happy to do one again. I wouldn't cross the channel though. I'd like to try cruising around Brittany. It's great how sailing pulls together a bunch of strangers and makes you work as a team. It could be a nightmare but I think it turns out to be fun more often than not.

Upgrade

I've upgrade my blogging software to Subtext 1.9 after having some posting troubles. Links aren't working properly but I seem to be up and running again. Got a lot to catch-up on.

Gone To Berlin

Almost caught up but I've run out of time. I'm off to Berlin this weekend with a couple of mates - the guys I usually go skiing with. I've still got to tell you about sailing to the Channel Islands and I also went to the Nottinghill Carnival last Monday.

My flight with easyJet leaves at 6:30am which means I'm leaving the house at 3am! Arrgghh.

Bristol International Balloon Fiesta 2006

Our last little excursion before Jenny took the kids to Malaysia was a drive to see the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta.

I had first heard about this a few years ago and always thought it would be interesting to see. It's Europe's largest simultaneous launch of hot air balloons. Great photo opportunity. Unfortunately, the winds were too strong on the day so the launch was cancelled. And worse, my camera battery died so this is my only balloon picture! There's some more pictures on the fiesta gallery website.

What I didn't realise was that the fiesta is also a massive funfair. The kids went on a few rides and insisted on getting fake tatoo's. There was also a parachuting display and a stunt motorcycle display in the main field. Definitely a good day of entertaintment.

It was only a two hour trip each way with no major traffic queues. Might try again next year and I'll remember to charge my batteries!