Holiday in Kata, Phuket, part 1

There's nothing as good as getting away from average winter weather and getting a bit of warmth and sun to recharge your batteries. So even though Melbourne winter isn't really that bad, we booked a two-week holiday to Kata in Phuket with a 3-day stop-over in Singapore on our way back to Australia.

The main purpose of our trip was really to test our impulse time-share purchase in Phuket from when we were here in February... Premier Property has 2 properties available currently (soon to be 3) to choose from in Phuket. While we got a tour of their Bang Tao property back in February, we thought it would be cool to check out the Kata property and spend our free bonus week + the free week Yasmin won here...

Kata Premier Suites property - time-share apartments. We are staying in the top floor apartment above the sign (two middle balconies)

The property here in Kata has 18 apartments, so a nice and quiet place in walking distance to all restaurants, shops etc. in Kata, and only 500m from the beach, which is approx. 1.5km long - perfect for an early morning walk.

Area we live in - hard to believe you are in Thailand. Notice: no overhead electricity cables...

So far, we have mostly spent our days lounging at the pool working on our tans, but we have - already - picked out our favourite restaurant, which has extremely well priced food (European and Asian) AND well priced wine, which is a bit unusual in Thailand. It is called the Wine Connection. We went there last night for a nice dinner with a good bootle of Australian Shiraz for only 500 Bath!

Wine Connection Restaurant in Kata, Phuket

Tomorrow (Thursday 9th August), we are meeting with one of the member coordinators for Premier Property, so we expect to get some more in-depth information on how to use the time-share facility for properties all over the World.

We are also planning a sailing trip with a Chinese Junk to Phang Nga Bay on Friday, which is mainly known for James Bond Island. http://www.phuket.com/magazine4/tour.htm

More about this in the next blog entry...

  

Our little (un-invited) pet in the garden

It is finally summer in Melbourne :-) We are enjoying the warm weather very much, now that we have some fantastic outdoor areas in the garden to sun bake or sit and read a book.

As usual, the weather got quite hot around New Year's Eve - we had a stretch of 4-5 days with temperatures from 35-40 degrees during the day, and 25-32 degrees during the night!! 32 degrees at night when you are trying to sleep is not that comfortable! Hurray for our evaporative cooling, which kept the temperature in the house at a comfortable level.

We both had time off work during the Xmas break, so we were looking forward to relaxing a bit and maybe go on a few day trips to Bendigo/Grampians, but unfortunately first Yasmin came down with tonsillitis just before the Xmas break, and then Kasper caught it and was sick between Xmas and New Year. :-(

This year, we celebrated Christmas Day (25th) with Karina & Shayne at their place. On our way there we encountered a hail storm, and we could read in the papers that some parts of Melbourne had a "white" Christmas with lots of hail covering the ground so everything was white!! Some of the hails were as big as tennis balls, so the northern suburbs copped quite a bit of hail damage to houses and cars.

We had a wonderful time with Karina and Shayne, as per usual :-)

New Year's Eve we were just the two of us at home. We had planned a lovely gourmet menu, - for starter we had prawns with blue cheese wrapped in prosciutto and grilled on the BBQ, for main a juicy T-bone steak with home made garlic butter, Greek potatoes and bruschetta with artichoke hearts, red onion, tomato and parsley topping. For dessert, which we ate quite a bit later, a home made almond meal and pear tart, which tasted very much like the Danish "kransekage" that you get New Year's Eve, so that was delicious.

At 10 min to 12AM, we poured a glass of bubbly and went up the hill 50 m from our house, where we have views towards Melbourne CBD. Our plan was to catch the fireworks live while toasting in the New Year. As a bonus, it turned out that a lot of the locals of Sanctuary Lakes also had some fireworks, so for once we experienced a lot of fireworks while toasting in the new year! We could see the Melbourne fireworks in the distance, but the local show was definitely better :-)

This week, we both went back to work, so the holiday is over for now until February where we are going to Thailand, can't wait!!!

Yesterday, Kasper had lunch in the garden and when he got up to go back inside, he caught the head of a reptile on the lawn, and rushed back in. First thought was: "is it a snake?" But as it turned out, it was a little (or not so little) Blue Tongue Lizard, which are common in Australia. They live on insects and snails, and as we had a lot of snails here when we moved in, we assume that's why our little lizard has moved into our garden! It lives in the lawn edge, where there are some high pavers separating the lawn from the paved area.

Here is the little bugger:

January 8, 2012

There is a great article on the Blue Tongue Lizard here: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2000/02/01/2662923.htm
Luckily it is not dangerous, as Bailey seems to be quite interested in sniffing the grass in the corner of the garden where it lives... Maybe we can hope she will be able to scare it away...

Until next time...

New Residence in Sanctuary Lakes

It has been a while since we last posted on our family blog, so our move to a new house has prompted us to add a bit of activity to the blog...

We moved house on October 31, 2011. There were a few different issues that bothered us at the old location, such as hoon drivers, garbage lying everywhere in the estate without getting cleaned up, lose dogs running around, idiotic landlord, and the last 8-9 months we were there we had to put up with building noise and tradies' garbage as they were building a house on the block next to us. When we moved, they had just started building on the second vacant block next to us, so we were looking at another 8-9 months of the same noise and garbage situation, and basically had enough!

Needless to say, we were looking for a more quiet location, without garbage etc. and luckily we found a great location just 5 km from our old place in Sanctuary Lakes, which is a golf course estate. This means that most of the houses have been build either around the golf course or around the lakes. An added bonus is that the estate has its own security guards who patrol the estate every day/evening, so we don't have many problems with crazy drivers etc. We also have access to the estate's recreational facilities - indoor pool, which means all year swimming, yay, large gym and 3 tennis courts. Furthermore, there is a nice local cafe, where they have the best burgers (according to Elin) - their club sandwich is pretty decent as well :-)

The house is a double story house, and this is the first time we have lived in a house with upstairs and downstairs. It took Bailey a few weeks to figure out that she wasn't alone in the house just because we were upstairs... but now she seems to have worked it out and is a bit more relaxed about it. We have installed a security gate at the bottom of the stairs so she cannot try the stairs on her own. So she is usually transported in mum's or dad's arms up and down the stairs. It is quite nice having 2 stories, for one you get more exercise running up & down the stairs, and there is a better view from upstairs. We have golf course views of the fairway from the master bedroom, but even better views from the guest room with views of the Hole 2 green. Great entertainment when golfers land in the bunker next to the green :-)

The attached photo album will give you a good idea about our new home.

December 17, 2011

So far we are loving it here, it is more quiet, neighbours seem to be friendly, there are lots of large green trees when you look out the window, and our garden is bigger - it helps we only have one neighbour (3-4m gap between houses), and free space on the other 3 sides of the house.

Trip to Bright and Falls Creek, Autumn 2011

It's been a while since our last post, so it is about time we have a new post.

As some of you know, we had a very bad month of April, where I lost my job (for no good reason other than I opened my mouth and spoke my opinion), and then all of a sudden Coco went lame in her back legs and couldn't walk due to a disc problem in the back which is quite normal for dachhunds. After an expensive operation, it was initially looking good with her rehabilitation, even though we were looking at 4-6 weeks training. However, she got very aggressive and after a few close calls, I copped a bite in my nose landing me in the emergency rooms for a clean-up and some antibiotics to avoid infection!

This is how you look the day after your dog bites you...

Because of the aggressiveness and the bite, we took the very tough decision to euthanize Coco, so unfortunately we said goodbye to our little friend and family member on April 27.

My nose has gone down to normal size again now, but I have some very nasty scars, so I'm hoping they will disappear....

Apart from the whole Coco affair, both Kasper & I were looking for new jobs, and last week Kasper was offered a job as a consultant for Focus. He starts his new job on Monday 16th May. I am still looking for a new job...

Because Kasper starts work next week, we felt like getting away to experience and see something new (so we could all get our mind on something else than missing Coco) was a good idea before he starts his new job. We decided to take a 3 day trip to Bright and Falls Creek this week and we managed to find some pet friendly accommodation so Bailey could come along.

On Tuesday, we set off on our trip. You can see all the pictures here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=YasminTM&target=ALBUM&id=5606407188149327409&authkey=Gv1sRgCOyehrD_mqrnYA&feat=email

It was a very nice time of year to visit Bright with all the autumn colours, but we also lucked out and got to experience the year's first snow in Falls Creek!! :-) Very cold, though!

That's it for now. Enjoy the pictures!

Flooding in Melbourne

Friday night we had a little storm being pushed over Melbourne by cyclone Yasi, delivering heavy rain, flooding, thunder & lighting. This is how it looked when the sky opened:


The water came down so quick that we ended up with a pool of water sitting on top of our terrace.


The rain continued to fall for most of the night, and I was woken up at 5 AM from the rain just bucketing down again. When there was enough day light, I ventured outside to see how it all looked. Here is our street - this is the house across the road.


This is at the end of our street 50M away - the streets covered in water.


The lake at the end of our street - this time it went over the edge, as you can see here bench and walk-way covered in water.

Luckily, no damage to our house :-) ... or so we thought until I had to leave for work. Opening the garage, water started running out... so as it turned out, water had come from the garden through the garage back door into the garage, and because the garage door was closed, about 5 cm of water was just covering the garage floor. Luckily, no visible damage to anything, but Kasper all of a sudden got a little extra job getting all the water out of the garage.

Compared to the rest of Melbourne, I think we have been quite lucky with all the flooding we have seen on the news.

It seems the wet weather is over for now. The weather looks to be nice and sunny for the next week or so, so we are happy about that!

James' Baptism

On Sunday 30 January, 2011 Rasmus and Richelle had their baby son baptised. It all took place in the Lutheran church in Aberdeen Street in Perth.

Getting ready for church. James is the 6th baby in the Nielsen family getting baptised in the gown to the left.
Richelle, Rasmus, and James ready for church.


Inside the church

James handling his baptism very well eating and sleeping his way through it all :-)

And we all made it through the 1,5 hour long service. On the picture is from the left; Richelle, Peta (Richelles' mum), Rasmus, James, Mogens (Rasmus' dad), Eva (Rasmus' mum), David (Richelles' dad hiding behind Eva), Kasper, Nadine (god parents), and Nadine's boy (whose name I don't remember).

After church we went to Peta and David's place for a reception (it was too hot to go to the park), and we had some brilliant food and wine. Later in the afternoon I went with Richelle, Rasmus, and James back to their place where we jumped in the spa with a couple of cold beers before I had to catch my flight back to Melbourne.

Thank you all for a wonderful long weekend in Perth, next time please don't beat me up in card games - I get so worried ;-)

Visit to Perth

Last weekend of January Kasper went to Perth to visit Peter & Tenny, Rasmus & Richelle who was also having their baby son baptised.

Peter & Tenny had the house full of visitors, and we all had a great time.

Tenny & her mum cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Tenny's mum cooked nice Chinese food for all of us.

Leif & Christian. Christian likes to play with farfar :-)

Peter & Christian. Christian with brand new sunnies commandeering the iPad. It's hard to keep up with a 2,5 year old who speaks 4 languages and knows how to play Johnny Cash on an iPad :-)


It was very hot (36-38 degrees) all weekend so staying and playing in the pool was the best thing to do.