Thushari 1st birthday and name day 12th July 2008

we have arrived home, no sooner unpacked the suitcase, only to pack the suitcase again and drive over to Melbourne with Jemma in the back of the Toureg for the big event. After 9 weeks Thushari was not sure who we were and gave us the big stare, did not take long for her to thaw out and she was soon crawling over to me and climbing up my legs. When we left she was commando crawling and now she stands up, climbs, holds onto furniture, claps her hands, gives you a big open mouth kiss, waves goodbye, can say Mum Mum, Dadda, Ullo, and Anna (Nana) a little way to go for Grandma ! Hot off the press as of this morning she now has two bottom teeth come through, after many sleepless nights. Her birthday was a very special day, Lanthi and Lockie had gone to a lot of trouble to make it a very special day, about 50 people came along to help celebrate. A Celebrant narrated Thushari's story, Geoff read out the combined Grandparents wishes and Lanthi read out their wish for Thushari which was beautiful and thoughtful, not a dry eye in the house, it was all quite emotional. Mallika from Perth sent a DVD which was played, she told the story to Thushari about how she got her name.....it was a secret she told Nilanthi many years ago in Lobethal, it was her real name,( her parents preferred Mallika) lanthi declared that if ever she had a little girl she would call her Thushari after Mallika. Mallika has now included the name Thushari in her name, so it has gone full circle, Mallika...Thushari....Mallika, again, many tears, but what a lovely story to tell. Lanthi had decorated a box for all your wishes toThushari and I helped ice all the cup cakes with butterflies and flowers. Thushari looked beautiful and behaved perfectly on the day, eventually falling asleep on her Dads shoulder. We all sang happy birthday and had a champagne toast to a delightful little girl who was totally unaware of all her mum's hard work and everyone's wishes, but will one day sit down with her wish box and know how much she is loved.

We stayed in Melbourne for a few days, it was hard to leave, but having been away for so long we were also keen to get home.

quiet story time with Grandma and bunny.

Our week in Santorini was relaxing and a perfect end to our holiday. We stayed in Oia, a village about 10km from Thira, just as pretty with beautiful sunsets, but not as crowded with tourists. We had an apartment on the edge of the Caldera with no one in front of us to spoil our view, the weather was hot, did not think much of the beaches, so mainly stayed in Oia. Santorini was very expensive, so most nights we had a greek salad, bread, cheese and wine and dined on our balcony, balmy nights, a beautiful view and absolute peace and quiet. We caught uu with some friends of George's parents who live on Santorini, spent the day with them and went out to dinner with their two daughters who were a delight and spoke very good english.
Our holiday has been wonderful with many rich experiences, a few transport dramas along the way, but that is to be expected when you do it yourself. Living with George's family was quite an experience and despite the language barrier I managed quite well to communicate, even thanking them in Greek when we left. I loved all their stories and how they live together as one big family, they adore their chidren and work long hard hours to provide a good education for them, and in turn their children appreciate their parents effort. Greeks in general are noisy, love nothing better to cook for you and all sit around the table to eat good greek food.
Plitvice Lakes and Santorini would be the highlights for us, each quite different but unique. We now know not to book obscure guest houses in large cities, so hard to find, especially if you do not speak the language! All in all we did quite well in our travels and despite the crazy greek drivers managed to coe home without any major incidents!
Had a stopover in Singapore where I was ready to buy many shoes, despite looking at hundreds of pairs, only came home with two pairs, very disappointing. We both succumbed to plane germs, lots of people aroud us coughing, ended up with flu when we got home and sick for a week! Also having to adjust to ur freezing cold weather, after nine weeks of hot weather, its very hard to take and my sun tan is all covered up!!!!!! Stopped sunbaking after seeing all these hideous mahogany, leather skinned women, so dont want to end up like that!
When we arrived home, George went to the back gate and called Jemma, she looked at George with absoute disbelief as if he was a ghost, wen she realized it was him, she lay down beside him on her back and howled, told him all her woes and troubles of nine weeks, Lenni and I were in tears, she was so pathetic, clung to him for days and when she realized we were once again packing the car, decided to cry all over again, until she realised she was coming too!!!!!!!!!

Santorini.....end of holiday!

These are the 75 steep steps down to our apartment.

view from our apartment to the right

our balcony overlooking the Caldera

view from the apartment to the left and us on the balcony overlooking the Caldera

Paranga Beach Mykynos sunlounger and umbrella 8euros each

down in a tomb with Yanni at ancient Olyinthos

39C, very hot, Acropolis Athens

george doing what he does best!!!!!!!!

a swim and lunch at Kalamitsi beach

the beach at Halkidiki

george and Uncle Nicko at Halkidiki

hard to believe this jewellery is 5000 yrs old

catching up on diary time

George and Uncle Taki

one of the any lovely beaches near where George lived.

"cousin Yanni and Mosco

aunt Zoeitsa and Aryiro, "Star of Greece and Miss Greece

stayed in Lemeri, Greece

dinner at Monemvasia, Pelopenesse, greece

our 1x1metre bathroom in Monemvasia, sit on the loo and your feet are out of the door

coffee break nafplio greece

breakfast view from our balcony in dubrovnik

dinner in dubrovnik farewell to dubrovnik

some views of Trogir. We are staying in an old hotel furnished with antiques, right in the old town. Arriving here was quite an experience as it was market day and the traffic was horrendous, people cars trucks all going over this tiny bridge and fighting for a car park! Tonight we are dinng in the hotel, supposedly authentic cuisine and music!!
The drive from Opatije, to Zadar was scary, moutains to the left,steep ravines to the ocean on the right, winding roads, bike riders with a death wish overtaking on blind bends, however we followed the coastline all the way so it was quite beautiful. We passed through many villages that had been ravaged during the war, many buildings with bullet holes, burnt or abandoned. Last night we stayed in a villa in Sukosan, just outside of Zadar, the owners were so friendly and made us feel very welcome, they also had a german shepherd. Mama Anton reminded me of Yaiyai, she loved her flowers and garden, and although she spoke little english, she tried in Italian and was always smiling and giving us a hug. The village 5km outside of Sukosan had been bombed and villagers killed, they say there is still a real threat to this day for Croatia. We had a funny little waiter in Lovran who we christened Manuel, he looked so weary and harrassed, the waitress we christened Helga. Coffee and wine are pot luck, some good, some disgusting. Cover charge for each meal is 7kuna each for bread,salt pepper,olive oil, we reckon it will cost us $70 dollars by the end of Croatia. Directions have been hilarious, mostly wrong, some due to language problems, which has made for many illegal u turns, going down the wrong way o one way streets, and once going through a red traffic light!!!! Had to go to the toilet urgently in zadar in the fish market, the stench was overwhelming and stayed in my nose and stomach for ages.
We were looking forward to a meal in Plitvice of Paprika chicken and veal schnitzel, instead we ended up with greasy chicken and even greasier potatoes, which we christened the Greasy Goose as George reckoned it was cooked in goose fat. Petrol is $2.00 a litre.