not counting...

Despite deciding on the menu at the last minute, my birthday tea came together quite well ~ sushi, satay and curry! Lovely afternoon with family followed by a lovely impromptu evening with friends.

And more importantly plenty of quality time with Donncha, Iman, Jack and Ayden.

Quick trip across to Miri the following day and instead of the usual seafood places, we took the kids to a proper restaurant - not a great start with the kids literally rolling their heads on the white table cloth but thankfully the food was a hit especially Jack's lamb shank which was so big we all had some!

The last time Iman was in this restaurant she was three months old and Aunty Mairead and Grandad were with us. Iman and I actually spent most of the evening in the lobby!

I share this birthday with a few other people I know but this birthday was extra special as I now share it with Iman, Jack and Ayden's first McCarthy cousin ~ Thomas ~ well done Emma and Sean !!

My Superheroes!

It was JIS book week and the kids have various activities including sessions with visiting author Alan Gibbons. The theme of the week for the Junior School was Superheroes and today they got to dress up as the superhero of their choice either 'real' or made-up. This is pretty straight forward for boys and most wore a superman/spiderman/batman costume and the like. The girls had to be more imaginative with some being, super fairies, super princesses and super mermaids.

Iman chose her very own character of "SuperReader" and Jack & Ayen chose their favorites. The last time they had a picture in hero costumes was 3 years ago in Jan 2008. The boys still have the same costumes though Jack could really do with a bigger one!

Iman's 8th Birthday

On Iman's actual birthday we had a family dinner. All the kids are older now and they don't go mad on birthday cakes like before. Ayden was the only one that had to be held back from the candles!

Iman's Birthday Weekend

Iman's had a fantastic weekend ahead of her 8th birthday tomorrow. On Friday afternoon we had a small birthday party for her and her friends, brothers and cousins all had a blast on the slide.

And today was the JIS InterSchools swimming competition. Iman did well winning one silver and three bronzes for her individual events and two golds with her relay team. So she was one happy bunny this afternoon.

It's all about participating and these girls had fun this morning

Iman going for gold in the freestyle relay in the rain

And to top it all she got her birthday present this afternoon - an itouch!!!

Maria G!!!

It was lovely to see some familiar faces yesterday - the last time we saw the Gwiasda family was in November 2008 just before they moved back to Germany.

We had just had breakfast at home but faced with so much food it became an early lunch!

Thank you Amin for lending me your camera (which I guess is now mine!!!)

So lovely to see Maria with Josie and Johanna.

Hopefully it won't be too long before we meet again!

And this was back in November 2008

A little blue...

We had a lovely few days in Hoi An. It really is such a special town and wish our family and friends would experience it for themselves. Our hotel Long Life Riverside was exceptional. In the dozens of hotels that we have stayed in as a family, I don't think any other hotel has met with our needs as well as this little hotel did and at US$75 a night we were happy customers. It was clean, spacious, friendly and helpful staff and the breakfast was surprisingly very good. In all everything was much better than the hotel we stayed in last year that was 3x the price. And on departure this morning, Iman and I were given a small gift each and the front desk staff came out to wave us goodbye ... something you don't get in a 5*hotel!

I would post more pictures but unfortunately we left the camera in a taxi today in HCM. We're still hoping that the driver would come back with it (wishful thinking) and the staff here at the Somerset are trying to find the taxi number from their security cameras. Luckily I have been downloading the photographs and on the card was only photographs from the beach yesterday and dinner last night. These things happen and when they do there's not much we can do but be thankful that all we lost is a material thing. We are all safe and well and that's all that matters. The person most upset by it was Iman and now says that I can have her camera.

So in this New Year's Eve from HCM city, we wish all our family and friends a Happy New Year and all the best for 2011. May this new year bring us all happiness and good health.

Day out at Red Bridge

Challenged by the cool weather and the kids eagerness to go for a swim we decided to give Red Bridge a try - restaurant, swimming pool to use and free boat ride - what more would we want?

The boat ride itself was rather slow due to be overladen with a group of tourists going for a cooking class but once we got to the restaurant we were awed by the set up and location. An open air restaurant/cooking school with swimming pool by the river in the middle of no where. And apart from the eager beaver chefs-to-be we were the only people there. And to top it all the Vietnamese food was excellent in taste and value.

The kids would have argued that the pool could have been warmer but all was forgiven with Jack's steering of the boat all the way back to Hoi An. Iman was not so keen but Jack took the task very seriously!

The Monsoon Beach

Had it not been for the rustic huts and persistent peanut sellers, we could have been at an entirely different beach compared to last year's tropical beach experience. It was cold, windy and the sea was a definite no-no. Still with the lack of sun, La Plage was just as relaxing with decent food and very cold drinks and the kids didn't seem to mind the weather having a ball playing in the sand!