Packing up

I thought leaving the place would be the easy part, but oh no........ I am convinced I deserve a diploma in logistics after this last year, with the amount of sorting out, organising and coordinating everything takes. It is all driving me crazy. It is probably my own fault as I am trying to fit everything into the agenda at once or in one week. We are currently busy packing up the apartment her, and I can not believe the amount of stuff we have, and I am having to give away all our stuff and so many of Jack's toys. I pray to god that he will not notice, but he does have a really good memory and he will suddenly ask for a toy that he has not played with for months............At least it is keeping us a little busy in the evenings as there is not much else to do, and it takes away the attention to how flipping' hot the apartment is. We have all these fans on at full blast, but it just seems to blow hot air around. I can not wait to come home to rain......I miss my English weather and to snuggle up on the couch watching the soaps whilst the rain is bouncing down outside. Yes, I know I am not normal, but then again I have never claimed to be. Then there is cleaning the apartment and I obviously have to do a great job as I would like the deposit back. And then when we get back to the UK on the 9 of July we have to start all over again, but in the reversed order, clean the house and pack out. Gareth is sick and tired of moving so think we will have to settle down for a few years before we even consider going anywhere ever again.

Croatia

16-23 June. We spent a week in Croatia, Trogir to be more precis and it was breathtaking,stunning. We also went to Bosnia for the day which wasn't that exciting but yet another country.......We stayed in a gorgeous little apartment in Trogir with a beautiful view over the ocean from the balcony. The owners of the apartment were so friendly and nice.We also rented a car for the week so we could go off to other places and see more of the country. We drove up to a national park for the day and it was amazing, they had these royal blue dragon flies and they were every where. The water was turquoise and you could see fish,frogs and snakes swimming around. I was by the way not to impressed with the snake part.......Jack was beside himself so excited.We walked through the park on these wooden slats and bridges over ponds, lakes and amazing waterfalls. It just looked like this other world nothing you could imagine. It was also so peaceful in the park and I think I could have stayed there forever. We also spent a lot of time by the beach. Jack loved it in the ocean, and I think he was wearing every floating device possible. He also loved to catch little fishes with his net which he stuck in his bucket, we later let them go......On the Wednesday we decided to take full advantage of the fact that we had rented a car and decided to drive down along the coast to Dubrovnik, which is by the south coast. it was supposed to only take 3 hours as it was only 230 km, but the roads were so narrow and bendy it took 5 hours. It was a beautiful drive and Jack was happy enough with his little DVD player in the back. Again the scenery was just gorgeous and we were happy to be sat in a air conditioned car as the temperature rose to 38-40 degrees (104F). When we eventually got there we parked the car and walked into town, but it was so hot it was just unbearable, the sweat was just dripping down Gareth's back. So we didn't stay long. We got back in the car and drove around instead and then headed back to Split. Split was also an amazing place, it was this old town that had a castle wall around it, and lots of little tight walking streets, you could get so lost. It was also nice to walk down these little alleys as it protected you from the heat and the scorching sunshine. Jack also had some funny little episodes whilst we were there, one morning we were taking in our room and Jack came stomping into our bedroom and blurted out and really shouting. "Will you to be quiet, I am trying to sleep and you are keeping me awake, I can not handle this!!!!!!!!!!" He was waving his hand out whilst holding the other on his hip, I felt like a little schoolgirl again, and as he left Gareth and I burst out laughing, but that set him off again.........." Stop it, or I will give you time out"

Another afternoon we were sat having dinner and he blurted out " Daddy I am grumpy I want to go to bed", again Gareth nearly lost it with laughter and had to go into the bathroom 'cause he was beside himself laughing.

It is so obvious we really have to watch what we say as he copies everything and he is turning into this old little man........

We really enjoyed our time in Croatia and I definitely would like to go back. I believe the place is a hidden gem and lets hope it will not be ruined by tourists invading the place as it is an up and coming hip holiday destination.

Lake Balaton

It was time to look around beyond Budapest so the obvious choice was lake Balaton. It is Hungary's largest lake which stretches across 72 Km of the country and it is about 25 km at its widest point. We decided to go down to the far side by train. It was a gorgeous train journey as it was alongside the lake. We stayed at this great resort with a swimming pool and Jack loved being in the water. On the second day I think he spent about 6 hours in total in the pool, when he came out for some dinner he was so tired that he fell asleep in my lap before his food even arrived. We went down to the lake using a small footpath from the resort and spent a day swimming and just chilling by the water, which was lovely and hot. And even though it was a lake the bottom of the water was covered in nice sand and it wasn't to deep. We also find the people there so friendly and I got even get by with my little German. We had a lovely weekend and I would definitely go back

Like a pregnancy.........

I was moaning to my mum the other day, that time is just dragging now, the motivation is draining out of me little by little. And I think my mum summarised it perfectly it is like at the end of a pregnancy without the high blood pressure and water retention.... I really want to give a great handover of my job and position to my follower but it is getting more difficult by the day. I think I would rather watch paint dry. Apparently I am normal as all my other fellow colleagues that have moved on to better pastures have all felt the same. Arg..........only 13 days left. I am trying to keep busy by organising my life back in the UK, I did not know there was this much to do? I am more stressed now then when I got married.

I just don't know how they do it

We all now, have heard about the disappearing of the gorgeous little girl Madeline, and I think people must have a heart of stone if they haven't in someway found the story heart wrenching, I mean everybody knows somebody that would have a child the same age as Madeleine. I can't even begin to think what those parents are going trough, I have been following the case since her disappearance and every time I read up on her case I fill up with tears and get a huge lump in the back of my throat. I have also been following the Blog of Madeleine's parents and I just don't know how they do it, I take my hat of for them, how they find the strength. If this was my gorgeous Jack I think I would just brake down completely and there is no way I would be able to function. I just can't imagine despite all the evil in this world how anyone could be so spineless to steal or abduct a child??? It makes me loose faith in this world that there are such cruel people out there. This case has really got to me and I urge my friends and family to pass on the blog link below for Madeleine's parents to anyone they know,these parents need and deserve to find her, I just pray to God that nothing has happened to her. http://www.findmadeleine.com/ I also believe visiting the web side proves to the parents people are still out there supporting and praying for her safe return, so they don't loose faith.

Along came the friends

As you all know we came down in August and our first visitor was Hilde. Gareth and Jack went back to the UK for the weekend and I stayed behind entertaining my good old friend. We had a really nice girlie weekend and although it was October enjoyed some nice warm weather.After Hilde there was Beate she came down for my Birthday weekend and we enjoyed Budapest SPA in late November outside. It was so weird being outside in our costumes and it was snowing and steam was coming up from the thermal waters which hold a temperature of 30 degrees all year round, apparently the SPA water is so hot when it comes from underneath the earth surface it has to be cooled down. We also went for a Thai massage which was somewhat interesting. I thought it was supposed to be nice.......Me and Beate were in pain for days, but somehow we managed to still go shopping and Beate but a whole new concept to spending money "Good, on you girl". And then there was Victoria just nearly as spontaneous as me. I spoke to her on the Wednesday and I think she was her the next day. Again we had a great weekend with sightseeing and we even made it in for the Van Gogh exhibition. Later in February my brother TM and his girlfriend Camilla came for a week and they travelled over to both Vienna and Bratislava and we all had a fab time at the Spa again as my friend Sarah made it from the UK during the same week. Me and Sarah went to the Inter Continental for a 5 hour brunch and we saw Budapest in a whole different light...... Then we had peace for some weeks and the visitors started again with Beate and Hilde that had such a good time that they came back for more. We had such a lovely girlie weekend all three of us and I think it was the first time only the three of us was together. Closely followed Janine who came for a long weekend and she got introduced to all the splendid Budapest bars, Szimpla being favoured the best. Only days after Janine's departure came Peter and Sheelagh (Gareths parents) which stayed with us for 6 days. The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed some great sightseeing. And then Catharina and Rune came for a long weekend and I think we all overspent dramatically that weekend, but it was so worth it, the weather was gorgeous and we made it to the SPA again......And we all went to Inter Continental for the famous brunch. It was a really nice weekend.

Bratislava

We went to Bratislava on 26th of May as we thought we should see it before we went back. It was only 2 and half hours away on the train. The train trip was quite pleasant as it was nice to travel across Hungary and see more of the country, it also did help that we were on first class.......Jack was also enjoying his time as he has his own portable DVD player very convenient for little monsters. The weather was very hot, I would probably say a bit to hot, and we felt quite sticky as there must have been a lot of humidity. We got there and it was just a short walk and we where in the city. It was not very big and it probably only took a couple of hours to walk through it. We went up to the castle and there was a beautiful view over the city. People where very pleasant. But I am sure we saw more British people there than Slovakian as there where STAG parties every where. The city was colorful and lots of little "cosy" streets, but we didn't find as cheap as we thought. I really do think Eastern Europe is now catching up with the western Europe rapidly when it comes to money, although the salaries don't seem to be growing as fast. By the time it was time to go home me and Gareth were very tired after all the walking. Jack was just himself as he had been pushed around all day in his buggy. We contemplated several times to get in that buggy ourselves. Jack was as pr usual in his fine prime form winging and whining for the sake of it. I thought the terrible twos were supposed to give in at three?He would argue that black was white just for the sake of it......