Welcome to baby Luke

The big news of 2009 is the entrance of Luke Thomas - our first grandchild. Born on the 27th March 2009, I was able to get to Sydney to visit him on his first weekend. Nothing like being a Nana




Dark haired like his Dad - even if it may not last. And blue eyed like his Mum - also likely to change. It will be interesting to see who he ends up looking like. Votes are that he looks like Pa Berkie (Ian ) at the moment - but I think that has to do with the hairline more than anything else and that too will change.



Anthony is as proud as punch and is getting lots of exercise walking Luke around the block when he has a bit of wind. Luke has taken a liking to his sling which seems to help settle him when his tummy is playing up.


Fresh air is good for babies and he certainly seemed to get a bit of that during his walks in the first couple of weeks.

Jenny is doing a fantastic job with him and has now pretty well sorted him out so that the issues of the first couple of weeks seem to be behind them - mind you Luke does seem to have a mind of his own - which does not always agree with his Mum and Dad's desire for sleep.

He makes the most wonderful faces. Lost of frowns as he listens to the voices around him and lots of forehead wrinkles as he tries to work out what is going out around him. I'm not biased - but a very focused and intelligent little guy if you ask me!

Hopefully, being in the same country (if not the same state) will allow Ian and myself to see quite a bit of him over the coming year as next year may see us offshore again.

Anyhow - call back soon to see some updates on the photos.

Brisbane

I've been in Brisbane for about two months now. Ian is still in Italy trying to get the concrete shoebox completed. He was able to get out to Oz for a couple of weeks over Easter which provided us with the opportunity to catch up with the newest member of our family - little Luke Thomas. More of that in the next blog (as it is definitely an important enough event to warrant a full blog on its own).



Brisbane has never been my favorite Australian city - I expect thats because everytime we get transferred here something happens which takes Ian away and I am left here on my own. That said, we have a nice apartment. A bit on the small side but fantastic views.
It seems that every day the weather provides a different look and some have been quite brilliant. The sunrises are particularly impressive.....and yes I do get up early enough to catch them - regularly. The place is about 5 minutes slow walk to the office and in the middle of the CBD - lots of handy cafes, restaurants and nice river walks. Just need to get Ian over here so they can be fully enjoyed.

As mentioned earlier we spent Easter down in Sydney. Ian had his (getting older) birthday whilst we were there and Jenny (with Anthony's moral support) had organized a motorbike ride around the Harbour on a Harley. Anthony went along to keep him company and my job was photographer.
My two biker guys got dressed up in leathers, helmets and spent some time looking tough for the camera and then literally roared off over the horizon. They turned up one hour later looking as though they had a great time - until they had to get off the bikes and walked around to get back to the car. The bikes are great for the image but a bit tough on the suspension - leaving them feeling a bit precious in the rear end.

So, as much as they enjoyed the experience I don't think either of them are thinking of going out and buying a motorbike. (Ian did mention that it was just an age thing). The evening was spent at Anth's place with the entire family including Jenny's Mum Katie - a great day for Ian especially with the new addition to the family.

The following weekend Ian and I decided to do some local tourist(ing) and visited the hills inland from the Sunshine Coast called The Blackall Range. Stunning views and a lovely drive. We had lunch at a beautiful little cafe called the Poet Corner (or something similar) which overlooked rainforest and was surrounded by nice little craft style shops. Well worth the trip and now on our "take visitors to see" list. So if you do make it up this way whilst we are around this will be one of the day trips. Ian went back to Venezzia last weekend. hopefully he will get here for a little longer in about another 2 months

Back in Oz

Well its been a while since I updated this Blog. As many of you know ian and I only intended to be in Italy for approx 6 months. Unfortunately, plans do not always work out and the Project in Italy has extended well beyond expectations. This has resulted in Ian being retained on the Italian Project whilst I have started on the next leg of our Project travels. This time in Brisbane Australia - thats right we are back in Oz.

I arrived about 2 weeks ago and have organized short term housing (still have not got the TV working properly and am just about ready to give up on telstra in trying to organize a phone line (think I might stick to the mobile - a lot less trouble and many times less frustrating. Picked out and purchased a car and have just about found my way around the local area.

The apartment has a terrific view - though it is not very large - still there is only me for the time being so it will be fine. Work has started and is going well and Ian's project back in Italy seems to finally be moving in the right direction.

We're moving to Italy

The big concrete box that has kept us in Spain over the last 18 months is sailing away to Italy....so we go too. With just over 3 weeks to go, we are deep into the process of packing up gear to go into storage, clothes to take to Italy and sorting all those things we have picked up and don't really need (and furthermore can't work out why we collected/bought them in the first place).

To ensure we actually have somewhere to live when we arrive, we headed off to Italy a few weeks ago - house hunting. It was actually difficult coming up with options on the internet (which was a bit surprizing)....so using the great forums on traveladvisor.com I asked some of the locals for suggestions. One of the recommendations was for a place called Castel Venezze. This wonderful old villa (dating from the 1400s) has been "done up" as a hotel with the associated buildings converted to apartments.

We stayed at this wonderful place, got to know the fantastic lady who owns and manages it - Contessa Maria Giustiniani, and eventually arranged to make one of the apartments our home for the next .....well however long it ends up being. The gardens are really impressive and just to top it all off....Maria runs cooking classes focusing on the local Italian cuisine. So far there doesn't seem to be much down side - other than Ian will have about 40 minutes travel each day - but he seems very happy and looking forward to the experience.

The next few weeks will be flat out - what with study, shifting, the work requirements of the Paris contract, and finding time to watch the Olympics - but we are both looking forward to the next adventure - even though we will be sad to leave Spain.

Weekend in Brussels - March

Giving up waiting at home for Ian to get back from his latest trip, I decided to meet up with him in Brussels for the weekend before he headed off for his next Oslo meeting and I headed back for sunny Spain. We had spent a couple of days in Brussels a few years ago....but that was part of an organized tour...and as much as you travel through a heap of countries, you don't necessarily see everything you might like to. So...this time we were "doing our own thing". And of course, THERE WAS THE CHOCOLATES.

Our hotel was centrally located and we were able to walk to all the main tourist features. The first being the beautiful La Bourse (the stock exchange) which was just around the corner. Almost directly behind was the Grand Place square. This was the old heart of Brussels and is filled with the most stunning architecture from Maison Du Roi to La Maison Des Ducs de Brarant and the Hotel de Ville (the building was started in 1401 and was used as the town hall - fantastic). Furthermore the path between the stock exchange and the square is filled with chocolate shops....Ummmm Chocolate.......The square is still used for a flower market on Sunday mornings.

From here we followed the tourist crowd down to the statue of the "piddling boy". This famous little 18" or so statue has been presented with costumes from heads of state.......go figure.......Along with other famous small tourist features, it was almost impossible to get a photo without having "tom, jane and bill" also in the photo.

So we took a couple of quick snaps and headed along to the doomed glass roof of Galaries St Hubert where a great cup of coffee was available - right next to the ....you guessed it - the chocolate shop

We spent the rest of day looking around the lower town area; walking the Rue Neuve shopping street and along the Rue des Bouchers with its colourful stalls. The following day was spent in the Upper Town where the Palais Royal and the wonderful Royal gardens are situated. We headed towards the 12th century tower and the remains of the wall that had protected the old city and then along Rue de Rollerbeek towards the famous Wittamer cafe (which Ian conveniently walked straight past and we totally missed.....maybe next time.

Eventually reaching the place du Petit Sablon where lovely formal gardens include a series of bronze statues and looks back towards the Notre-Dame du Sablon. We had to go and find the statue of Gerhard Mercator as his 16th century map work became the basis of most modern maps of today (and Ian is an engineer - which I think explains all)

This beautiful Gothic church is famous for its stained glass windows which are lit from the inside at night and are part of the Brussels illumination tour.
The story goes that a young girl had a vision of the Virgin Mary which instructed her to take the Virgin's statue to the chapel which stood on the spot. The chapel became a place of pilgrimage and was enlarged between 1400 and 1550 - however the statue is question was lost in 1556.

From there we walked around the palace towards the building where Anne of Cleves was born and then along towards the Cathedral St Michel et Gudule which is Belgium's national church. There has been a church on this site since the 11th century and this particular cathedral is considered to be the finest surviving example of Brabant Gothic architecture.

At the time of year we visited Brussels the daffodils were out and the little part in front of the cathedral was filled with yellow flowers - really adding to the overall visit.

Brussels is a wonderful city with great sights, lovely gardens and fabulous chocolates. At some stage in the future I will investigate the history of Belgium and find out a little more about the catholic/protestant regional divisions and the development of the language focus of the various regions.

Weekend in Oslo - February 2nd 2008

Once again we were able to add a weekend being tourist onto a business trip. This time to Oslo, Norway. Whilst the weather is Spain is reasonably warm - sitting in the mid-teens, Oslo would be our first seriously cold venture whilst in Europe. With suitcases loaded with coats, parkas, scarves and gloves we headed to the cold north........and were not disappointed. We arrived on Saturday evening - after spending the entire day in various airports (we could just about have flown from Singapore in the same time frame), so woke up to our first views of the city on Sunday morning.

To our delight it had snowed overnight. This might not be exciting for most people - but for a couple of Aussies who have seen snow a couple of times in our lives (and me only once and never really been "in the snow" - this was great. So we crunched our way through the new snow to the tram stop and headed up to the Vigeland Sculpture Park. This beautiful park contains dozens of large sculptures portraying the human body in all its moods, ages, and relationships.

From little kids having temper tantrums or being piggy backed by parents; elderly lovers; men fighting; individuals contemplating and dreaming......really impressive. The park was magnificent with bare trees covered in snow; ducks swimming in nearly frozen lakes; park benches lined up dark against the clean snow.





After spending a couple of hours at the park watching the kids on sleds and the families out enjoying the snow, we headed off towards the main city centre and walked through the central promenade- past the university, museums, ice skating rink (where this little toddler (about 3) put everyone else to shame with his skating prowess - future Olympic for sure) and up the hill towards the Royal Palace. Unlike the Buckingham Palace in London, we were able to get right up close to the Palace and were even able to watch the changing of the guard from about 2 meters away.

The views of the Palace through the park were spectacular.

We headed up to the lounge on the top of our hotel which had views over the Palace park and out towards the fjord. A magic day.
Unfortunately the snow mostly melted over night and the city was not as impressive without its white covering. So the Monday was spent searching out the shops and finding my way around the commercial part of the city - as well as tryhing to find a coffee shop which would actually serve me (not sure what I was doing wrong - but there seemed to be a lack of service for those that were tourists). In summary, a great day on Sunday with the beauty of the new snow, Monday was not as impressive - however we did not spend any time near the water - that will be a spring/summer venue.

Long Weekend in Florence - January 4th 2008

Florence is a city that I have wanted to visit since I read the historical novel "The Agony and the Ecstasy" as a teenager back in Adelaide (a very long time ago). I had read that the entire city was a museum and now that I have finally been able to get there totally agree. We had landed in Venice and taken the 3 hour train trip down to Florence which was nice break from the normal flights. We had booked into the Grand Medici Hotel which was reasonably central and provided the old world charm with is so "Europe". Rather than try to see it all in 3 days, we had decided to see the Michelangelo Florence.
Starting from the square where his original formal training had started, we headed through the lovely streets and plazas to the S Lorenzo Piazza. Here, the Basilica of S Lorenzo, a rather ordinary looking building was well worth a visit. Michelangelo had hoped to decorate the facade of this church but never succeeded in fulfilling that ambition. He did however, design and build the Medici-Laurentian Library which is accessed from the wonderful old cloisters. The Basilica was beautiful and the apse vault in the Old Sacristy was interesting showing the star pattern from the night of July 4 1442. From here we made our way to the Accademia Gallery. Main objective here was to view the carving of David, which was every bit as impressive as expected.

We were not able to take any photos at the Gallery so the following day we (along with just about every other tourist) took photos of the copy of David which is found in the Piazza Della Signoria. Back to the Accademia - we were also able to view the partly finished sculptures of slaves that were intended to line to mausoleum of Pope Julius II and St Matthew. Of particular interest to me was the sculpture of Pieta di Palestrina.

Continuing to the Duomo (or Basilica of Saint Maria Del Fiore), we were able to spend some time looking around this exquisite building. There was a service underway which limited our ability to see all the interior - but it was still magnificent. The paintings on the interior of the dome,detailing the last judgement, were outstanding. During excavations in 1966, the ruins of an earlier Church was located beneath the Basilica which we were able to visit through the crypt.

In front of the Duomo was the Baptistery. This octagonal building is famous for its bronze doors which displayed stories from the New Testament. The Giotto's Bell Tower and S Zanobi's column were also located in the square next tot he Duomo.






The story goes that an elm tree which was located in the position of the column, suddenly flowered when it came in contact with the corpse of S Zanobu who was the Bishop of Florence.

Heading towards the river we were able to have a "proper" cafe latte in a wonderful old cafe. Home town of Melbourne has spoilt us with its Italian coffee shops - and it was great to have a "real deal" again. Over the river we found the Ponte Vecchio - the bridge which has been around since the 1300s originally housed the butchers of the city but since the 1500s has been home to many of the city's goldsmiths - so I had a great time looking (not sure Ian enjoyed it quite as much)

The next day we headed off to the Medici Chapel. This was spectacular and very unexpected. The initial rooms were interesting and set up as a museum housing many of the relics of the Medici family including the various Popes and Bishops who were family members. However, once we had stepped into the main Church area we were overwhelmed. The room opens up into the three story high marble hall. Totally unexpected and almost "over the top". From here we were able to enter the new sacristy which was designed and built by Michelangelo. The room contains a series of sculptures which were designed into the architecture of the room - The Madonna and Child, Dawn and Dusk, Night and Day and the Monument to Lorenzo - all magnificent.

From here we headed back towards the river to find the Basilica of Saint Croce. This Florentine Gothic building houses the tombs of Michelangelo and Machiavelli. Additional works by Michelangelo were housed at the Casa Buonarroti. The house was the residence of Michelangelo from 1516 and 1525 and was left in his will to his nephew who developed his private collection and designed the interior of the house around the pieces. The museum was opened to the public in 1859 and includes over 200 drawings, designs and paintings by Michelangelo as well as some of his very early marble pieces done as a teenager.


There is just so much to see in this city. Wonderful historic buildings, traditional lanes and streetscapes, magnificent works of art.......there is no way we could do it justice in a weekend. This is definitely one city where we will return - next time to spend at least a fortnight and see at least the rest of the major sights Florence has on offer.