Train driving

Evie was a little distressed when she realised that there was no driver in the train. Her nervousness turned to excitement the moment she understood that she was the one who had to drive it. Take a look...

Houston, we have landed

Well travelling with a 5 year old has its moments as many of you will know. Here is a little moment while we were in Houston airport which certainly got us both very excited.

High on the hill

Here's a pic of Evie riding her bike at the park a little up the hill from where we live. Mattias calls it the 'up the hill' park, as opposed to the 'home' park which is across the road. It's weird at times living in a long, narrow valley which even has it's own weather patterns from one side to the other.

This park is in two sections, the top one where Evie is riding on the volley ball court, and then its down a big hill to a football field. I've banned the very fun but exhausting 'throw the ball down the hill' game for now.

We can't complain for lack of a view...

Oh dear, sandbags...

After a particularly impressive downpour on Monday afternoon, Monday night saw sandbag action right outside our house. I guess to divert water from flooding houses down the hill on a future occasion. So the wall of sandbags are just there with no signs to take care of the sudden closure of half the road.

Last night in the middle of bible study we hear the sound of an almost accident with no follow through crash. Taking a look out the window, lo and behold, there was a taxi stranded on top of the sandbags. With barely functioning window wipers and only one headlight the poor guy hadn't seen the diversion. Out go Diego and John to lift the car up a bit so it can get off the sandbags. Good on you fellas! My question is, how long will they keep these diversions in place for?

We can watch tele...

This year the local soccer team has made it back into the national league, piquing John's interest in watching games. Tickets are a little hard to come by, so he has settled for watching it on the tele...small issue being that we get absolutely no reception in this house, seeing as we are in some sort of hollow. We don't want cable and we have the TV in the lounge room (as opposed to in each bedroom which is quite common here). And so began the joy of trying to get reception.

Bring out the 6m pole, find an electrician (or someone who knows about wires) and bring him up to the house. Buy a better antenna and off we go. Initial price - $5. One false installation (pole and antenna stuck up high in the sky but zero receptivity), next try is onto the roof with pole leaning onto the neighbours wall. The cable is poked through a gap in the roof and run all the way through the dining and lounge areas to finally reach the TV. Six hours later we choose which channels we definitely want and forego the others. There's even a cable channel in the mix by virtue of being able to tune into it?!

The guy gets ready to go and um's and uh's - it's been a lot of work for just $5 and we agree. So $10 it is and some lunch money thrown in - what a good job he has done to get us some tele. Happy John, not-so-excited kids who think football watching is somewhat boring, Karine placated thinking that at least it means Dad is around to help with the kids a little during the games!