Life + Times of Fenton et al.

Year: 2007

  • The real “Oma und Opa Story”

    Well I guess you all herd about Elijahs sad attempt to write about the visit we had from our grandparents, so I shall fill you in on what really happened.
    They arrived on the 24th of April 2007 at ca. 15:00 hours and I was sick from school when they arrived and was trying to cope with the noise pollution from Ari and Bryna.
    The next few days were quite ordanairy with me home sick, Bryna late for kindergarten and Mama and Granddad getting used to our house and repairing some stuff Dad had not got round to yet.This went on till Friday when I went to school and Bryna was early for kindergarten. Then one weekend dad decided to take them to Aachen and show them around. A few weeks later they went to Trier and looked at all that stuff there is to see you know the porta nigra and the baths and the amphitheater. a few weeks later they went to Paris with mum for three days and saw the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. In between seeing Europe and all that jazz they helped us in the garden and getting our garden “correct” as our landlady says.
    I’m sorry that I can’t give more information but i didn’t really pay attention.

    Joshua Glass

  • Bryna Recites ‘Die Mausfamilie’

    Bryna recently learnt a new poem at kindergarten about a mouse family. She even has some actions that go with it.

    If your German (or at least your Bryna German) isn’t up to scratch, the translation is roughly:

    This is Sister Mouse
    She has such big ears,
    Such a big, pointy nose
    And such a long tail

    The verses repeat mentioning Brother, Father and Mother Mouse. The final verse, spoken in the tiny, soft voice is:

    This is Baby Mouse
    Has such little baby ears,
    Has such a little pointy nose
    And such a little tail
    But then! *clapping* such a long tail!

  • Oma und Opa

    On the 24Th of April our grandparents arrived they were picked up at the Dusseldorf airport by Dad , Bryna and Ariana. By the time they got back Mum had afternoon tea finished. After we had finished all the cake we gave them a chance to have a sleep after their long trip over. But that’s abit boring so lets have some action on Friday the 27Th I the Almighty Elijah broke my arm playing soccer at a friends. So off to the hospital OH and the doctor said no more monkeys jumping on the and that i had broken not just 1 bone but an amazing number of 2 bones. So i couldn’t go to stake conference on Sunday because once I heard i had broken 2 bones it suddenly began to hurt. Well that doesn’t have much to do with mama and grandad but I’m going to go on because it very interesting. So on Monday no school for me to much pain Tuesday pain easing off but no school it’s a public holiday oho!!! Wednesday appointment at the hospital in Juelich they had no clue what they were doing so they sent me to the hospital in Eschweiler. They knew a bit more and said …. that ….. I ….. should ……. get operated tubule weed cricket cricket. So on Thursday I got operated but then the bad news came
    I had to stay over night in the hospital :(. But as strange as it may sound it actually wasn’t that bad. So on Friday I could go home we got home at about 1 pm. You might be wondering what they did when I got operated on well if you really want to know have fun finding out …………. OK I will tell you I got a pin right through my arm ow!!!!!!! 🙂 So well to tell the truth I don’t really know much about what my grandparents did so you will just have to wait till someone else writes a post about them. OK I can tell you one thing they worked a lot in the garden.:) But I think I will leave the topic at grandma and grandpa

  • Spain

    29/12/06 – 5/1/07
    The original intent was to drive — mostly because we are cheap — but a lack of a valid licence on my part and a “absolutely no desire” on Gaynor’s meant we ended up finding some last minute flights for slightly less than an exorbitant amount. Money aside (well money gone anyway) we decided to thoroughly enjoy our winter break and, though the initial circumstances were a struggle, Spain lived up to its end of the bargain in providing perfect weather and hospitality.

    We couldn’t get flights to Malaga together and so we flew me with the boys and Gaynor with the girls. Gaynor and the girls passed through Madrid while the men took the Barcelona route. The arrival times were all supposed to be close but with various delays it ended up a real mess. In particular, locating my brother Donovan who was flying in from the US turned out to be one long wait-fest. It wasn’t that he wasn’t in the airport, it was that we had arranged to meet at the car rental location and unbeknowst to either of us we were waiting at one each with no knowledge that the other location was there. Just as Gaynor and I were about to make a multi-run transit to the resort I eventually figured out the presence of the other car rental location (inside the ‘secure area’ of the airport), muscled my way back in (some guards are real softies when a grown man is crying) and retrieved said errant, unwitting brother.

    We managed to rent the cars without an international incident and set off — finally and gratefully — the the resort, about half an hour away. Unfortunately, the signage and directions were a bit vague at best and since it was now dark, locating the resort took an extra half hour as we alternating overshot and bumbled about. We still managed to squeeze in some dinner before collapsing and calling it a day.

    Soaking up the Sun

    For the rest of the week — apart from the glorious weather — we enjoyed late morning starts, late evening talks, jacuzzi sitting (interspersed with cold-pool dipping), walks along the beach, a walk through downtown Marbella, Sunday church in English and a fabulous dinner at a restaurant right on the beach. At the restaurant, Gaynor and Donovan went on an all-out splurge for a lobster paella which Gaynor describes as ‘delicious!’. We (well Donovan really) were feeling so flushed we even ordered dessert!

    We also took a trip to Ronda — dramatic, historic and Moorish, according to Gaynor. Her highlight was the museum in the Mondragon’s Palace — an old Moorish palace. The photo of Ariana and the orange tree was taken in the grounds of this this museum/palace. One of the highlights for the children was the visit to, and climbing over, the old city walls. They reminded Joshua of “Lord of the Rings”, which, quite frankly, isn’t that hard to do at the moment.

    Ariana and Orange Tree
    Ariana and Orange Tree

    We also toured some archeological ruins around Marbella. These included the remains of a 3rd century Roman villa and baths. The baths were at a different location to the villa and had a great view of the ocean. In fact, beside the baths was an old Moorish military look-out tower. We also visited the ruins of a 6th century Paleo-christian church excavated in the 1960s. The baptismal font, in particular, was very interesting. See our photo page (follow “Selected Images” link top-left of this page) for a picture. Donovan has also posted some pictures from the trip on his own blog.

    On New Years Eve, after Bryna had retired for the evening, we brought out some cheese, crackers and some fancy grape juice and had a session of “Three Questions”. This is where everyone, after day-long consideration, brings their written answers to the questions:

    • What was the highlight of the past year?
    • What was the lowlight of the past year? and,
    • What do you want to accomplish in the coming year?

    The written answers are passed to the next person who reads out the relevant answer as each question is discussed around the group. An encouraging way to bring in the New Year.

    So overall the trip was wonderfully relaxing. As usual, we had a great time together and add yet another recommended destination to our list.

  • Ariana does Hagrid

    Not quite a Bad Hair Day(TM) but Ariana’s coiffure had received a little attention from her sisters.

    It did remind us of a character popular with the children …

  • Next Please!

    For those that have been keeping score you’ll be aware that the end of this July will see the completion of my current employment contract. Further work with my current employer is not possible, mostly due to policy, bureaucratic and administrative reasons (You didn’t think keeping a Dutch-employed Australian in Germany was easy did you?). So, after a brief consideration of retirement, I’ve decided to press on in the workforce and am therefore currently engaged in seeking further work. I’d like to say I’m currently engaged in reviewing multiple offers but this hasn’t eventuated just yet. There are many factors that go into an employment situation when you are a physicist; a prime consideration is “Who employs physicists anyway?’

    The answer to that question is found all over the globe with realistic locations including the UK, the US, elsewhere in Europe and possibly even Australia. As a family we have decided to try to restrict the options to either German- or English-speaking countries. The transition for the children is probably the most demanding and to ask them to change schools, cultures and to leave friends behind is big enough — let alone a new language where you have little to no idea about anything for the first six months. Most of the children, of course, opt for a return to Australia to once again enjoy a closer association with family, sunshine and brutal sports. In the near future though this doesn’t seem all that likely. Ultimately of course it will depend on offered employment or a decided change in career.

    One of the big drawbacks at this stage is that we are in a sort of limbo. It’s more that we aren’t sure where we are going rather than that we are moving. Gaynor has become almost masterful at dealing with this condition — we’ve done it numerous times in the past — but still it’s not easy. Of course, this situation also means that those who were thinking of using a relatively cheap base for a tour of Europe should hurry up about it. 😀

  • Contact!

    Well strictly contacts. My most commonly worn pair of glasses recently defied any further attempts to keep them in one piece. Thus, requiring a new pair, I decided that instead I would see how I went with contact lenses. I have a trial period of a month with some soft, disposable lenses and I must say, after a short adjustment period, they are really quite comfortable. I’m also getting better at controlling my reaction to essentially sticking my finger in my eye when putting them in or taking them out.

    The peripheral vision is excellent but it’s still taking a bit of getting used to seeing myself clearly without glasses on. The feeling of walking around without glasses is not as vulnerable as doing it with blurred vision but it’s still somewhat ‘naked’.

  • movies and books I have seen/read

    So, where to start? I’ll start with books, the last book I read was a German book my class had to read, its called “Damals war es Friedrich” (pronounced Freedrish) by Hans Peter Richter (what a German name). It’s about a German boy and his Jewish neighbor Friedrich who were born during WWII. Just before I read “Damals war es Friedrich” I read the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy
    which took me about 4 months to finish but it was worth it. I did it mainly to watch the movies by Peter Jackson, it was worth it. I am also writing a book called the Lord of the Rubbers. (three guesses for what it is a parody of) I have also seed some great comic flicks lately: Spidermantm1 and 2, X-men 1,2,3 and Superman & Superman returns. The latest on my list of movies is another Peter Jackson film King Kong. On my list is still Fantastic 4, DareDevil and Indy Jones. Oh and i’ve also read Jurassic Park.
    Thats all for now
    Josh

  • Hernia(s) Ahoy

    Ariana underwent day surgery at a nearby hospital after our family doctor verified a small hernia on her lower left-side abdomen. The whole process was very quick and (as an outsider tends to sometimes think of Germans) efficient. Her doctor’s appointment was a Thursday afternoon, immediately after which the doctor called his surgical colleague at the hospital and set up an appointment for the next day. Gaynor took her along — since her German is better and the surgeon’s English wasn’t so great — and the operation was scheduled for the following Wednesday, very much to Gaynor’s surprise.

    The surgery went fine with Ari recovering quickly. Unfortunately the hospital was a little short on rooms and she spent some of her post-op period on a bed behind a screen in the hallway. She was ready to go home by 4pm, having arrived at 7am, and, naturally, was quiet tired and sore.

    About an hour after returning home, and much to our surprise and chagrin, Ari noticed another tell-tale hernia bulge on her right-side lower abodomen! Talk about timing, total lack of. She has an appointment with the surgeon tomorrow to discuss options and while she hasn’t complained about it, she is a little anxious and has asked that both parents be there for this one.

  • Licence Obtained

    While not quite the dynamic title of a James Bond book, I’m nevertheless pleased to have completed the final hurdle — the practical exam. You may recall the earlier ones — to receiving my German driver’s licence. It was actually the second attempt having failed the first one on the last turn into the testing centre’s car park a week before Christmas. To be sure it was cruel (and I felt in error) given that we were expecting to drive to Spain a week later. There is a minimum two week wait between tests.

    We agonised over our options for a couple of days and in the end decided I was too poor of a passenger to make it. So it meant that in the end we flew to Spain, instead of the expected total of 6 days in the car. Though more expensive it was, of course, much faster however we are still undecided if it was less stressful. It also gave me an opportunity to use one of my more recently frequent phrases when discussing the (now obviously simple) solution to a problem: ‘… and all it took was a whole lot of money.’ I’m still amazed at how many problems this almost trivial solution can be applied to.

    So now I’m driving again, much to Gaynor’s relief (bad passenger that I am) and for those alert readers who remember my commentary on the Australian driving learner caught doing 177 km/h, I managed 130 during the exam I passed, mostly due to the short amount of autobahn and the under-powered car I was in. 😀