Im on a roll, so here is another set of photos with descriptions below. We were far out of the big cities on this day and we went for another rickshaw ride, which was fantastic! Look out for the bride and groom that we stumbled across (noone else in our group saw that, which was cool!) Anyway, enjoy!

One more thing, the slideshow moves ahead pretty fast, so if you want to, press pause and that stops the slide. Also, if you want to look at a bigger version of the photo (they are pretty small. i admit), you can click on the bottom right corner (the picasa logo) and then click on the album name (this one is Japan 6) and that links to photos.

Hi All!

Im so sorry its been so long (and it has been A LONG time!) Im on holidays till the 11th of Jan so I wanted to achieve alot over the break, and this is one thing. If you are still interested in seeing the pictures from the trip, here they are from the next day (we are up to Day 5 now and we are still in Japan.) We started off in Kanazwa and visited a World Heritage Villiage and ended up in Toyama, which is a region close to Mt Fuji. The next few days are the nicest we visited in all Japan. Anyway, I have worked out how to add comments to the pictures to help explain some things and give you some tidbits into them, so hopefully that helps.

Enjoy!

Today, we did alot of travelling. We went to the Tojibo Sea Cliff. The locals really loved it. But, to us Australians, its was abit ..... Meh! And, wherever there is tourists, there is shops. But, to end the day, we went to the Higashi-Chaya Tea House District, which was just gorgeous! You will notice quite a few photographs of that area! And then we went to the hotel. Our itinerary never coincided with the local congregation meetings, so we never got to a meeting in the 10 days (we HAD meeting in the hotel - that is coming up soon). So, as we were travelling to the city (Kyoto and Kanazawa), the local brothers were called and they met up with us at the hotel. It was so nice! So, enjoy this day in Japan!




Things to look out for;

• One of the sisters that we met from Kyoto. She was one that we went to the show with the night before and they came to meet us again the next morning to wave goodbye to us. It was so moving!
• To make us forget that we were driving for hours, we did Karaoke IN THE BUS! I reluctantly shared in this activity. So did Kylie! They had a very limited selection of Engrish songs. But, there were THOUSANDS of Japanese songs. A funny thing happened when the tour guide (not a JW) played 'Happy Birthday To You!' - she couldnt understand why nobody wanted to sing and everyone was saying 'NEXT!'
• There is one photo in the group of photos of the tea house district that I just loved! In real life, the timber shimmered like it was gold. We werent able to capture it in photos, but I made a few versions of the same photo to try to explain how beautiful it looked!
• There were quite a few restaurants in Japan where you cook your own food. It was a mini BBQ in each table. It was quite an experience!
• At the same restaurant, there were a large variety of desserts. There was one that was a gluggy type that was described as resembling a breast implant (thats what it looked like).
• Again, a single bed.
• Some of the local brothers from Kanazawa. The young brother in the photo had these small plaques and he was writing in Japanese characters our favourite aspect of the fruit (is that the correct terminology we use now?) Instead of that, I got him to write out my favourite scripture which is Malachi 3:10,11.

I have some really exciting days coming up, so watch out for them!

Hopefully, you arent getting sick of these photos. We are up to DAY 4 now, and this was an eventful day. We visited the Hotsu River (we went on the Rickshaw Ride here), visited a Gold Temple (Kiyomizu Temple) and Heian Shrine (the orange one) and then we went to the Gion Geisha District. Before your eyebrows are raised, it was explained to us that Geisha are not prostitutes, but rather entertainers (though this is still uncertain.) That night, we went to a shown in Gion which was had some Geisha in it (as you will see in photos).

Some things to look out for (sorry they are not in order - I had to reorder the photos so that they were in chronological order);

• Belinda is eating GREEN TEA ice cream - i know it sounds terrible but I LOVED IT!
• We didnt know why the man was standing out the front of the orange temple and why he held a knife to my neck. But, at least Kylie took a photo of it! I guess - only in Japan????
• We spent most of the time with Belinda & Emmanuel and David & Bronwyn (see the group photo with six people)
• Lawsons is a convenience store across the road from our hotel - it has EVERYTHING (and really cheap). There was even a heated section in the fridge so you could get a can of coffee ..... HOT! I guess, only in Japan can you get something hot from the fridge.
• After a long day touring, what better way to relax and unwind by going to one of the many electronics stores and trialling the massage chairs ..... FOR FREE!
• The large group shot - that was the group that went to see the Geisha show. This is the show we went to see. There is one photo with men dressed in black with a puppet. That was really interesting.

Until the next installment...

I know - it seems SOOOO long ago that we were away. But, we had such a blast and I want to share it with you (in case anyone is still looking at this blog.)

Some things to look out for;

• First few shots are from our hotel room (see last blog).
• Osaka Castle Park - we didnt go outside, but it was SPECTACULAR to look at. I went a bit crazy with the colours of this place. It was such a MASSIVE place.
• I cant remember the name of the bridge (can any of our readers help?) but it is a replica of the SanFran Golden Gate Bridge.
• Some cool guys from our bus - John and Lauren from Frankston and Wayne and Ilona from .... somewhere in Melbourne.
• We went to a Sake Brewing factory. Its nice - locals dont seem to like it much, but I didnt mind it. Its nicer served warm.
• Went to Chintatown (does every city have one of these?) and a shopping district. Met a local brother. There was all of these exclusive shops specifically designed for tourists. We asked someone where the nearest 100Yen shop was and we walked about 10 minutes to get there. Then we had to RUN to get back to the bus (we were late, but we werent the last ones to arrive back.)
• Arrive in Kyoto. Went to the top of the tower and that was AMAZING! Cities in Japan seem to go ON and ON!
• Kobe Earthquake site - the city has been rebuilt, but there is part that has been left as a monument.

I have just completed editing photos from a Tea House district and without sounding like a braggart - those photos are GREAT! Look out for those in coming days!

Miss You All!

Hi Everyone!

We have some work going on at the Kingdom Hall, so I have been a bit preoccupied. BUT, I have gotten to editing our photos up to Day 3 of Japan. And, here are the selection of DAY 1 - Japan.

Now, Day 1 of Japan was not that extensive. You see, most of it was spent in Korea! We left about lunch time and then flew into Osaka. There were aboout 100 on our Japan tour and most stayed in for the night. But, one bus went into Osaka and saw a real city! The girls looked like cartoon characters - it was quite a sight! Im pretty sure that the tour guides took us to a red light district. Anyway, here is a brief summary of where we went in Osaka!

Some things to look out for;

• Girl in the red top is Laura (from Brisbane) and the girl in the Cyan top is Shorna (also, from Brisbane). One of the photos of Shorna is in the 100 Yen shop (equivalent to $2 but EVERYTHING in the shop is 100Yen - it as SOOOOOO cool!).
• One of the shots shows a little Japanese lady in the front of a building - we stopped that lady to ask where we could get some Okomiyaki (Japanese traditional savoury pancake). Instead of telling us where we could get that, she took us to a Sashimi restaurant and PAID FOR ALL SIX OF US!
• At the front of every restaurant was a little display of what food is served in that particular place - the display is ALL PLASTIC! It was so cool!
• There is a shot of Kylie and I in our dressing gowns. Every hotel in Japan had cotton Yukata to wear (in additon to the bath robes.) These are used as pyjamas.
• The last few shots in the album show the COOL hotel we were staying in! As you will see in some upcoming days, most of the rooms we stayed in Japan had SINGLE beds (I forgot how sound my sleep used to be! lol!) Anyway, there was bit of a mix-up at this hotel and we were actually given SEPARATE ROOMS! On SEPARATE FLOORS! So, Kylie, having worked in the hotel industry in the past immediately looked at which floors the rooms were on. We took the higher level (I think it was the 23 floor) and as it turned out, that was on the EXECUTIVE LEVEL! The room was REALLY nice! I tried to make myself a coffee in that room using coffee and a plunger I bought from Australia. I grabbed what I thought was a sugar sachet and put it in. Turns out, it was instant Miso Soup. Not the greatest taste sensation!

Enjoy!

I promised it and here it is! Sorry that the quality is not the best, but I havent quite worked out why the HD footage from our camera looks so ...... not HD! Anyway, here it is! Hope you love it as much as we did .... and do!

I was going to upload a whole heap of photos and explain them - but the pictures explain themselves. We have a WONDERFUL international brotherhood! And, there is no better place to experience that than at an international convention! So, there is about 40 pictures in this slideshow, so if you have time and the desire - have a look!

I added a few photos that are really special!


Do you remember this issue of the WT magazine? Do you notice anything different about it? This couple are from a country where the work is restricted and the WT magazine is banned. But, as you can see, the good news still gets there. We have it so good here in Australia! Lets continue to pray for those who face restrictions.


You might remember me talking in a few of my posts about brothers who refuse military service and as a result face jail terms. This will put a face to that! Both of these brothers will be going to prison in about six months. Please continue to pray for them. If any of you would like to contact them and send them messages, I would be happy to pass on their details and they would be delighter to receive your messages. We all look abit teary in this photo because this is one of the many occasions that we had a cry together! The brother on the left (Soo Min) and I exchanged lapel cards.


I mentioned in my previous posting that there were brothers and sisters 'assigned' to our hotel to make sure that we were ok. This is all of them. The blue bow ties were to help us to recognize them. They were so helpful!



The local brothers were so warm and used every opportunity to thank us and make us feel welcome. It was so very emotional!


The Sunday night of the convention, the local Incheon English Congregation hosted us for a night of hospitality. They showed us a film about the neutrality issue in Korea, played some music for us and we had some experiences related. It was so wonderful! In addition to some of the Australian brothers, there were some from Guam and .... somewhere else in Micronesia. Such a nice evening.

I want to upload some video footage from after the final prayer. It was the most amazing experience. There were the new Kingdom Songs being played over the speakers and everyone was waving and crying and hugging - it was a moment we both will NEVER forget! Anyway, I have to work out how I can do it without it taking three hours to upload ..... so stay tuned!

After that, I will get going with Japan. But, as for Korea, aside from the video, thats all folks.

We went to Korea Bethel and that was amazing - such a beautiful place! I cant remember how many people live there. The day we went, there were 2000 visiting, so it was a SUPER-quick tour! One of the main things that has stuck with me from Korea relates to Conscientious Objection to military service. Every male Jehovahs Witness in Korea who objects to military service (unless there are special circumstances) will be tried and sentanced to 1.5 years in Prison (used to be 3 years, has been reduced).


Over the years, the treatment in prison has slightly been improved. I wont go into details because it makes me cry. But, the picture above shows one of the torturing devices that were created to make the brothers compromise. It is basically an upright "coffin" - they were not allowed to lay down, were not allowed to sleep....


These are the current figures for those incarcerated. Right now, there are 527 of our brothers in prison, 100 are on Trial and 56 have been charged and await trial. This is 85% of all the witnesses worldwide who are in prison for conscientious objection. A total of over 14,000 brothers have been imprisoned over the years and 5 have died due to mistreatment.

Over the years, the media interest in the issue has increased and in 2000, the UN Court of Human Rights requested that an alternative civilian service be provided for Jehovahs Witnesses in Korea. At present, this request has not been met.

So, back to the tour of Bethel - it was really amazing!
Right at the end, we finished in the Bethel Home (i.e. where they live and eat) and we were directed towards these 'woods.' The sight was just beautiful. It was at the top of a small hill, there were about 500 there having refreshments in national dress of where they came from. There were Kingdom Songs being played by an orchestra. I closed my eyes, and the scene was exactly like the scene on page 35 of the bh book. It was just amazing.



Sorry, but none of the photos we took could quite capture the scene.


The guy in the middle is our new best friend Steve. He was so amazing! He was one of the local brothers that were assigned to our hotel purely to help us. And, help us he did! So, we thought we would try to help him by introducing and photographing him with five australian single sisters! LOL!

Then we were taken on a brief city of Seoul.

Our first stop was the folk museam. And, there was a massive group of people. As it turns out, they were all of the delegates from Indonesia who were also in town for the convention. It was all very emotional.

Nearby, there was a palace that we visited. I cant remember the name but it had alot of G's and K's in the name. Again, it was a rainy and overcast day (I LOVE PHOTOSHOP!)

We were taken to this tourist shopping strip which was VERY Korean (except for the Starbucks). And, then the heavens opened up. Fortunately, we went upstairs to a tea place and got some EXCELLENT shots of the street (I LOVE PHOTOSHOP!)

Have to go..... seeyou all soon! Did I mention that this is Day 2 of our trip???? Man, there is alot to go. Hopefully, I am able to keep you interested!

I have bowed to pressure and finally edited some of the photos .... I have completed Korea, so only Japan and Thailand to go. Here they are...

When we came out of customs in Seoul, there were about .... a hundred I guess. They were clapping, holding banners, gave everyone a flower welcoming us. Our friend Lucy, who went to a convention in the US, told us about this welcome and says she gets teary whenever she even thinks about it. So, we knew SOMETHING was going to happen. But, it was all VERY overwhelming. Just the START of the Korean OUTSTANDING hospitality! All of the Sisters were in the traditional dress (Han-bok). It was a VERY memorable evening! Our plane got in at about 10 at night and the word on the street was that there had been brothers at the airport since 8am that morning welcoming all of the delegates from the 25 countries represented.

We met these girls while we were lining up for the flight from Tokyo to Seoul. They were Japanese (not with the tour group and not witnesses). Kylie was practising her quasi-Japanese and they were very sweet. We met up with them after we arrived in Korea. They couldnt understand what was happening and why there were so many people welcoming. We tried to explain, but they were Japanese and had to take photos. We invited them to the convention and hoped they would come.

We had a free day in Seoul before our group tour started. So, here are some shots of what we saw! It was a very overcast day, so the photos turned out very drab (thats why I LOVE Photoshop!)

Sampling local street cusine (might I add, we didnt get sick due to food once!)

This was quite a cool place we visited! We caught a cable car up to the top of a mountain at the edge of town (or, what WE thought was the edge of town) to a lookout. The city you can see beyond is city we didnt know existed! Seoul was such a MASSIVE city! Anyway, at this lookout, couples prfess their love to each other, write their name on a lock, lock their padlock to the barrier and throw the key over the edge. Apparently, they will always be together after following this ritual......

Our friends (also from Melbourne) arrived and we spent heaps of time with them (Belinda and Emmanuel).

We went for a tour of Korea Bethel. Here are the stats for Korea. Its pretty amazing! More than 30% are regular pioneers.

Im getting tired now, so Ill finish later! Enjoy!

Well .... not quite yet!

We spent five nights in Phuket (which was great - photos are coming ..... I promise!) and now we are on our way home. We had an overnight flight from Bangkok, slept literally 15 minutes and then spent the day in Tokyo today. We are both absolutely WRECKED out of our mind and and we are waiting for our long back home. There is so much I didnt tell you about. Our tour, especially, was done at lightening speed and I wont remember things until we have photos and film footage (we have four 4 gig memory cards from one camera, two 2 gig cards from the other and five hours of video footage to sort through.

One thing I will tell you about briefly from Thailand was that we rode an elephant! It was VERY exciting! Ill try to upload the video when we get home!

So, we should be back in Melbourne tomorrow morning (sorry, i dont even know what day it is!) Hopefully, we are able to sleep on the flight tonight!

Missing you all.....

Sorry it has been so long since the last post.

Our last 2 hotels have not had Internet (that I could find with Japanese signs everywhere). We stayed in 2 different hotels that were in absolutely amazing countryside settings (I cant tell you where they were, because all of the place names are melding into one big unpronounceable Japanese name). In both of them, there was Onsen which is so relaxing.

We went to Japan Bethel a few days ago and yesterday, we went to Tokyo DisneySea (next to DisneyLand). We had an AMAZING day, and we hadnt planned it, so we LOVED it! And, now, we are at the airport waiting to go to Thailand. We desprately are in need or relaxation! Both Kylie and I have been sick and run down (I guess thats why we have those Assembly parts about vacations......) but we are looking forward to being in Thailand. So, Phases 1 and 2 of our trip are complete and Phase 3 is upon us now.

We posted back our third parcel today, so we have room in our suitcase for Thailand items (Judy - can you send the details of your tailor).

Thanks for all your comments! We miss you all and cant wait to upload some photos! Im looking forward to this years Australian Idol. I just checked who got through to the Top 12 and it should be a good year (yes, I know, I am sad........)

Hi there again! This update will be short and sweet.

Today was such an amazing day!

We went to some temples, some shrines and the Gion Geisha district and tonight, we were met by some of the local Japanese brothers and taken out for tea. After dinner, we took our local guides to a Geisha show in the Gion District. Again, we experienced the warm fellowship and the amazing culture. It was great.

We are off to Kanazawa tomorrow (unfortunately, not on the bullet train) so will write about our travels soon.

We were so sad that the convention finished! But, we didnt have time to be emoitonal for long because our tour schedule is VERY hectic!

The period of time immediately after the convention was great! The applause went for literally about 15 minutes, the tears were freely flowing and nobody wanted to leave. But, leave we had to as the convention was being handed back about one hour after the concluding prayer. The stage had been disassembled within ten minutes...... and everyone spilled out onto the concourse.

There was one brother i met whom I will never forget. His name is Kim SuMin. I had met him in the lobby of our hotel. After exchanging greetings, he told me that he was going to prison over the neutrality issue in six months as every young male Jehovahs Witness in Korea does. This literally made me cry. Which made him cry. Which made Kylie cry. Which is making me cry just thinking about it. Anyway, he found me after the convention and again .... MORE TEARS...... you get my drift.

CAPS LOCK IS NOT WORKING - SORRY, I AM NOT YELLING AT YOU......

ANYWAY, WE ARE IN KYOTO NOW. WE JUST LEFT OSAKA TODAY AND ON THE WAY, WE WENT PAST KOBE. OUR TOUR IS HECTIC! DONT KNOW HOW I AM GOING TO DO IT! MISSING YOU ALL!

The first day of the convention has arrived! It was so emotional (SORRY - you will be hearing alot of that). There was more than 51,000 in attendance at the Soccer Stadium - it was soooo great! Everyone travelled on the Subway, so it was really cool!

Interesting thing happened on the way home - I was giving out tacky Koalas to the delegates and I gave one to a lady who I thought was a witness - turns out she wasnt. But, she was so moved by it, she gave us a baguette she had in her bag. Then, we tried in our version of Korean (also known as speaking English slowly and loudly) and tried to invite her to the convention on the weekend. A brother standing nearby helped us and explained the whole convenion ........ Then, she handed Kylie her phone and spoke a friend of hers that was a witness already. We are having many experiences like this due to our wearing our lapel cards.

Went to Bethel yesterday and also to the Gyeonbokgung Palace (its big in Korea's history.) We also went to a traditional Korean show (dance and sing) last night which was AMAZING! Our friend Emmanuel was pulled up onto the stage and did a great job. We loved the show so much, we got the DVD.

Tried garlic wine tonight ..... hmmmm ...... at least we can say we tried it.

So, I hope the convention in Melbourne goes well. Sorry we cant be there, but Korea was calling us.

Can you believe it? We arrived! We are so excited!

We left Sydney on Monday morning and arrived in our hotel room before midnight that night. It was a LOOOONNNNG day! When we arrived, there were about a hundred local witnesses there at the airport welcoming us with banners and flowers and dressed in traditional Korean clothes. It was all very moving and very beautiful!

Today was a "free" day. By free, I mean that our itinerary for today was blank. But, we left the hotel about 10 and got back about 8:30. My feet are about to fall off. We had a wonderful day on the subway and saw some other sites around Korea. We finished the night with a cruise along the _______ river (not sure of the name). As if that wasnt exciting enough, some local Korean witnesses recognized the lapel card that all of the international delegates to the convention were wearing so it was great to meet up with them. What was EVEN more amazing was that in their group, there were 2 sisters from .... China! It was very moving to meet them.

I tried to upload some photos, but this is not possible from this machine. Maybe the next hotel we are in.

Anyway, its late and I must go to bed......

Before we left, I was going to email the itinerary around to family so that they know where we are. But here is a better idea - you can look at it yourself!

Are you excited? Can you understand why I am excited?

We will be FLYING on our way to Seoul, Korea!

I hope to keep you all updated on our travels. We are SOOOOO excited! Can you tell????

Man, this is a cool entrance to the wedding! What do you think?

As many of you know, we are going to the Seoul, Korea International Convention in August this year. But, we werent sure how many of the talks were going to be in English (we have since found out that the entire program will be interpreted into English). So, to make sure we got the convention, we decided to go to Bendigo. After a short 1.75hour drive, we arrived at our lodging. I wont say hotel, because it wasnt. I wont say motel because it was somewhere in between. It was nice.

Anyway, what can I tell you about the convention? It was really good! Really, really good! Alot different from other conventions we have been to in the past. And, Im really happy that we get to have the convention again!

So, below we have a new release being held by Kylie, Jessie and Angela - I have blanked out the cover so its a suprise for you! And, let me tell you, even though I had heard about it before, it was still a suprise!

We caught up with many people at the convention, including Dan and Bec Botros. As you can see from the photos below, Bec is heavily pregnant (i think I remember her saying there was eight weeks to go still - or was it eight days....) She already has a son (Noah) and he is ___years old (I dont know how old.) He is CUTE!

Now, the drama. Very Moving - thats all I will say. You will really enjoy it! I can reveal that it is a modern day drama based on the Prodigal Son account. I can reveal that because it has already been printed on the back of the Watchtower magazine advertising the upcoming convention. We knew quite a few from the drama including our friends Grant and Wanda (Grant is gesturing in this shot on the right of the image and Wanda is being obscured.)

And, here is a shot of us on the last day, after we realised that we dont have a photo of ourselves.

It was such a great weekend - the convention was GREAT, it wasnt as stressful as it is going into the city. The peak attendance was 3,094. On the Saturday, we were parked in an area known by the parking attendants as "the swamp." Why, you may ask? Because it is A SWAMP! It was a grassy, muddy area when we parked in the morning and it rained ALL DAY! So, you can imagine when we got back to the car, it was dark, and we trawled through mud and water to get into the car. It was still bucketing down with rain and I was soaked through. I worried about getting bogged but that didnt happen. The word on the street was that only one person got bogged and they had left 15 minutes before the end of the session .......... hmmmm!

I am seriously LOVING Master Chef at the moment. I was so inspired by last nights Pannacotta that I went on the website to get the recipe. I didnt end up getting the recipe, but I found this one that I am going to try. It looks BEAUTIFUL! It is a Sage Gnocchi.

I couldnt find the clip before, so this is half way through the recipe. If you want the full recipe, it is found here.

In other news, Carolina went to the food show and met some Master Chefs. Click here to see who she met.

Sorry its been so long for the updates. I wanted to give you part 2 to the hair story.

My mum said to my sister who had dyed her hair (see last blog post) "You should use conditioner in your hair - look at mine!"

"Mum, I have had a treatment - what do you think a treatment is? Its a CONDITIONER!" came the response.

My mum replied (and, as you read her reply, keep in mind what you learned about my mum in the last blog post) "No, not that kind of conditioner." Oh, dear! What on earth could she mean? She continued "I use Huggy in my hair - feel how soft it is!" Yes, its true. My mother uses fabric softner in her hair. Last night though, we told Kylie's hairdresser about it. And, she said that she had heard of people using it. This shocked us! Until she concluded the sentance by saying ".....ON WIGS!" So, there you have it!

Another exciting event on the night out was dessert. It was Nutella Pizza (see photos)

How does one make Nutella Pizza? You make Pizza Dough, Spread it with Nutella and then wrap over and then cook, cut and serve. And, yes, it was GREAT! Probably a little to sweet for me though! As you can see, the kids loved it!



The last thing I would like to tell you about was something that my dad showed me when we got back to his place after dinner (we travelled in the same car to the restaurant). See the pictures below.

Every year, my dad makes sausages. He buys the meat pre-cut (I wouldnt call it minced, the pieces are bigger than mince) but he mixes the herbs and spices and fills them. It used to be a big family affair on the weekends, but now that he doesnt work, he does it at his leisure.

The meat is pork and is one of the only occasions that I eat pork. And, the photo on the right shows a rare ocurrence - my dad smiling!


Until next time.....

Hi Guys! You have probably seen this already, but in case you havent .... here it is! It makes me SOOOO excited about our upcoming trip to Korea for the convention. Enjoy!

You might have heard me talk about my efforts to simplify......

Check out what I have for sale on ebay - you might just want to avail yourself of some of these items.

On Sunday night, we went to a Pizza restaurant in .... not sure where ..... Rosanna or something like that. You see, my dad got the K-Rudd stimulus package and decided to spend it on .... Food! What else? A lovely night was had by all. In attendance were the Bertucci Parents (Pasquale and Jeanette), their three children (myself and 2 sisters Angela and Marie [formerly known as Maria]), their respective spouses and children (if any). So, from a family of five, there are now 12.

There were so many things of note that made me laugh. In no particular order......
When we arrived, I noticed that my sister Marie had a different hair style. It was a lot shorter and appeared as though she had been swimming (you know the look?) I commented “You’ve had a hair cut?” The response was “Yes, and I used a hair dye that I found at Nonna’s house!” Say no more! Nonna died earlier this year. And, with Nonna – you never knew quite what you were going to get! For example – if you went into the fridge and saw a margarine container, chances are you would not find margarine in the container. So, while it might have said that it was hair dye, chances are it had some sort of acid or paint stripper in it. So, for the next while, she is not allowed to dry her hair because of the damage caused by the hair dye.

This reminds me of one more story from last night. Mum and Kylie were talking about a recent Oprah episode where the man was blue. He took colloidal silver and as a result turned blue. But, he said it was good for health – something like that. Anyway, mums latest craze is – you guessed it – colloidal silver. It’s a cure for EVERYTHING! Anyway, someone was sick so she gave them colloidal silver. And you’ll never guess – they weren’t sick anymore! Isn’t that amazing! She just bought a new bottle of the stuff, even though she clearly remembered that she already had one. Kylie is getting over a cold and she was coughing a bit so mum made her have some ..... Colloidal silver! While we were there, she found the original bottle. Kylie looked at the bottle ..... somewhat puzzled! She was puzzled because it had a nasal spray attachment. She asked “Is this a special colloidal silver nasal spray?” to which mum replied “No, I must have needed the lid for something else.” Like mother, like daughter. Just like you never quite know whether the hair dye at Nonna’s house actually is hair dye, you never can be sure whether the colloidal silver is colloidal silver.

It was funny for me anyway! More from that night soon!

In no way do I endorse the original singer. However, this version is the coolest! And, Im also VERY impressed with myself that I have been able to insert a you-tube clip into my blog - and it works!



And, by the way, whats the go with the "rapper" girl - she sings 2 lines and just stands there for the rest of the song. I guess she is doing as the song suggests - "Just Dance!"

fiji (388 of 476)
Originally uploaded by 2009_anasianodyssey

Back in Feb, Kylie and I (along with the rest of Kylie's family), went to Fiji. It was quite humid for most of the time. However, I am from Melboure. So, while everyone else had cocktails, I was hanging out for a coffee. And, of course, Kylie had to immortalize this for you all to see.

Who knows what she will take a photo of on our 2009 Korea/JapanTrip (coming soon - watch this space!)

Coldplay Concert-112
Originally uploaded by 2009_anasianodyssey

In case you dont, this is him. He is the one standing at the microphone.

What do you notice about this picture?

• I am wearing my fave blue velvet jacket.
• I am wearing my new fave red/white stripe shirt/
• I have an espresso in my hand
• I have a widescreen monitor
• I can wear jeans to work

Continue this list......

-107
Originally uploaded by 2009_anasianodyssey

We saw our friends Con and Lorena in Darwin at the wedding.

Just got a text from them saying that they were invited onto Circuit Work. How excellent is that?

They are THE COOLEST! You will ove them!