Competition time...

Time to place your bets...
Bump's arrival date?
Bump's arrival weight?
Prizes for the closest answers.

Seren's graduation

On Friday evening we had the great pleasure of attending Seren's graduation from Nursing at Melbourne University. She's worked so hard for the last 2 years so it was very exciting to celebrate this end!Before the ceremony, with A Lucy (who came down from Sydney) and with a very proud Mum and Dad.
Afterwards Nurse Seren had a word with her nephew about her achievement.We celebrated afterwards at a great Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant and some other of Seren's friends.
I have a great video of Seren receiving her degree but after spending an hour trying to share it with you I have given up and settled on these stills. Sorry.

A day at the farm

Last week I drove with Mum and Dad to the farm. We left Melbourne on Thursday afternoon and left the farm at 6am Saturday so we only really had one day there. But what a wonderful day. I woke early and enjoyed the early morning light...So did Tigger... (He loved being there so much! Lots of prowling through the grass and digging and sniffing.)
Then it rained for most of the day. The area is still badly drought affected so the rain was wonderful.
And in the evening the sun broke through on the horizon to give that beautiful red light, even as the rain was still falling.
There's no place like it.

My bump

As requested, here is a picture of my bump at 37 weeks (in the beautiful pink glow of a farm sunset).
He is very big and very active. We're both ready for him to come out...

My birthday

Here are some pictures from my lovely birthday lunch. Seren came up, bringing beautiful tulips and scrummy homemade pasta for our feast.
Dessert was apricot crumble and ice-cream. YUM!

And all finished off with Mum's famous chocolate birthday cake!
It was great to celebrate with family... though Victor was missed. (He's got his visa now so he'll be here soon...)

More Family

On the morning after the funeral I went with Dad, A Lucy, A Nancie and Mum to a cafe in Petersham near A Lucy's house. It was beautiful to see the three siblings so comfortable together after the end of a long and difficult week.I was struck on this visit by what a beautiful city Sydney is with the trees and water and sunshine. The walk back to A Lucy's house was no exception.
And it was the perfect time of year to enjoy the beautiful jacaranda trees in flower. They're amazing...

Family

On Friday, 7th November my Grandad died. He was 96 years old and there was enough warning for my Dad, Dad's sisters, and others to have time with him to say good bye.

I flew up to Sydney, with Mum, for the funeral, which was on Wednesday. All my cousins on Dad's side were there. Apart from Kathy (who visited me last month in Chiang Mai) I hadn't seen any of my cousins for nearly 2 years, so it was quite a wonderful reunion day for me.

Here are some of us at the lunch following the funeral. (Many thanks to Anna for taking such great photos.):

April...Ben & Sascha...

Bec and me... Tom...

Tom visits

We've just had Tom in Melbourne for the weekend which was really lovely. Lots of sitting and talking over cups of tea. And three Jones siblings all together in the one place!

I completely forgot to take any photos while Tom was here, so instead I'm adding the poster of the movie we went to see together. Mum, Tom, Seren and I had dinner together on Lygon St and then (minus Seren) saw "Burn After Reading". Good fun but a bit disappointing. (The movie, that is. The company was great!)

Haircut

Olinda Falls

Yesterday I went with Mum and Dad for a walk through the beautiful Australian bush at Olinda Falls.
It was so beautiful to be back amongst gum trees and ferns, with sulfur-crested cockatoos, parrots and kookaburras!
Afterwards we relaxed with tea and scones at the Miss Marple Tea House at Sassafras. (Isn't that a great name?)

Hello from Melbourne!

Here I am, sitting at Mum and Dad's computer in Broadmeadows, with Tigger purring on my lap. (He's very happy. He had been wrongly informed that I wouldn't have a lap for him!)
No pictures yet but thought I'd post anyway. Now I can use the internet every day! Such a luxury!

I'm very much enjoying the cooler weather and lack of humidity. I feel quite normal - a bit stretchy but not all stiff and swollen.
So far I've only seen Mum, Dad and Seren, but that has been wonderful. We all watched "Lars and the real girl" last night. I highly recommend it.

Goodbye Chiang Mai...

This will be my last post from Chiang Mai (for now), though probably not my last of Chiang Mai - I've been taking lots of pictures in the last few days.

For a while now I've had a morning routine of doing 3 or 4 laps of our land as a start to the day. It's only about 10-15 mins (depending on how hot it already is!) but it means that at least I get some walking in each day. In the heat and humidity excercise is not easy.

One day I took the camera with me and photographed the lovely grass flowers that are everywhere. I took a lot more than this but I've still never figured out how to get more than 5 photos in the one post. So this will do for now. (I have to go and finish packing - trying to get it all under 20kg!)

A little friend I found in the kitchen...

Sunshine House

Yesterday was my last teaching session at Sunshine House. And I have only 2 more days of counselling. (I'm flying out on the 24th.)

My teaching is part of the Life Skills Program to the target group of women connected with prostitution. I teach on self-esteem and relationship topics. For the last few months I've been teaching in Thai, which has been a great challenge but much appreciated by the women. Most of them are from hilltribes so often their Thai is not very good either.

As well as the Life Skills Program (which includes training in computer skills and Thai language) the women are taught jewellery making and sewing. Sales from their produce provide their income while they are with us.

I haven't included any pictures of the women, not because they are in hiding, and most certainly not because they didn't want them taken - some of them are such posers! But their lives are complicated. Some don't have full legal status in Thailand yet (coming from Burma), some have ex-partners who could cause trouble, and so on. So it's easier just to keep things simple.

I'm very sad to be leaving this job. It's been the best job I've ever had. I hope I'll be able to return to it when we return to Chiang Mai in a couple of years.

Happy Birthday Victor!

Well, it was a week ago but this is my first successful attemp at using the internet since then!

Here he is on his birthday with his cake and his present.

His cake was rather a disaster. Our oven is really worse than useless.

But the present was a resounding success!

My regular posy

This has become a favourite position for me. Because we don't have any comfy furniture my achy body and need to put my feet up (literally) mean that I can often be found here in my bed.

This shows my morning time, with tea tray, bible and dear cat (who's not always there but often). After the first photo was taken he repositioned himself...

I can also be found in this position each afternoon after lunch (when I'm at home), or whenever I get home, and at various other times through the day.

It's always so hot and my feet get very swollen these days, so feet-up time is very necessary.

Sunset

We don't get many spectacular sunsets here - I guess because the sun goes down so quickly - but we had a beautiful one the other night...

Kathy and Anna

We've just had a really lovely visit from Kathy and Anna Gallop. It was wonderful to have time with them and to get to know Anna. We even did some new touristy things including finally going on the boat dinner cruise.

I kept forgetting to take our camera out, but this was their departure this morning. (And you can see the edge of Victor's shelves...I'll get a better picture on soon.)

Muffin

I don't think we've ever introduced our blog followers to our dear dog Muffin. We've had Muffin for 3 months and he's about 6 months old. He's a pup of one of Victor's family dogs.