Blue Mountains Family Holiday

For ten days over Christmas I and 3 of my siblings--Thomasin, Benjamin and Solveig--with our families holidayed in the two houses adjacent to our mum's! A special way to finish up our time in Sydney. Tigger is standing in for Yvette who sadly couldn't make it.

All 10 cousins! I'll list their names too because they are so cool: Marlena, Paddy, Imogen, Otto, Esther, Ildiko, Soren, Reuben, Autumn, Arabella. As you can see Reuben has been forced to stand in the photo and is having a complete breakdown, but they all really did have a glorious time together..

..except for when Soren ran into a door playing chasings. Unfortunately we pretty much neglected to take photos during our entire furlough, but we did think to take some of brave Soren.





Playing tourist



One glorious spring day we caught a bus to Parramatta, then a river cat to the city. We took a stroll through the Botanic Gardens and Phil led us on a sculpture tour through the city.







Good times at Baulkham Hills




We rented a townhouse through Wycliffe in Baulkham Hills

and enjoyed having family over each week, though the time went

by far too quickly. Autumn was born in Java so everyone finally

got to meet her.

Reuben also went to Preschool 3 days/week and absolutely
loved it!



One of the things we did while in Sydney was get some

motorbike riding training, to help us be safe on the crazy roads of Papua.

Jasper Road Public Oct-Dec 2012



Soren did 4th Term of 1st Grade while we were in Sydney. I was

so nervous for him and had to try so hard not to show it. He had

some tricky days but in all in all he enjoyed it, and by the end of

the term had made some good friends. It was lovely to be able to

walk to and from school each day.

Soren's teacher Mrs Jensen.

  

Culture shock! A classmate's birthday party involved LazerZone, Tenpin Bowling, hamburgers and TimeZone in quick succession.

With new friends Samuel and JiSang.

Kemtuik Cool

Jacob and his nephew David, a young Kemtuik University student.

Setting up to shoot a video clip for the DVD project.

Us Five

A friend recently said she wished there were more photos of our family on my blog. So, here we are: Phil and me at our neighbour's recent wedding..

Phil at work.

All glammed up..

..and sans 3-inch makeup.

Autumn's obsession with thumb continues.

Soren (6.5 years), self-portrait.

Autumn (15 months).

Reuben (4 years).

Reuben & I

Kakak-Adik (Big Brother-Little Brother)

Anything you can do..

..I can do too.

Kemtuik Day Trip

Phil's Mum and Dad at the Sosiri lookout, Lake Sentani on the way to Kemtuik.


Philip had no idea that Bernard (left) could speak English until John spent the day chatting with him.

It was the 33rd anniversary of Kemtuik Literacy. They launched the book of Matthew on mobile phones!

John took up the invitation to share a song--How Great Thou Art--and they sang along in Indonesian.

In nearby Besum local Javanese have harvested their rice and wait their turn to run it through this mobile processor. Husks come out one side, white rice out the other.

The vibrant colours of Genyem's local market.

Hotel Fun in Jayapura

View of Jayapura Harbour from our hotel window. Jayapura is the capital city of Papua province, an hour or three's drive from Sentani depending on traffic.


We were bemused to see this sign on the way to the army base lookout: If in doubt, better turn back.
General MacArthur brought an end to Japanese occupation of Papua during WWII. This is one of the tanks he brought ashore in Jayapura Harbour.

Dinner at our favourite fish restaurant. You choose the fish; they scoop it out and grill it for you!

Yes, this is for real.

But this is the real Jayapura.

TeeeeeVeeeee!