Life + Times of Fenton et al.

Author: Fenton

  • 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. 😀

  • View from Europe

    I still follow quite closely the news and current events in Australia, using the ABC website almost exclusively for this. Two recent stories in a row made me think a little about what Europe currently means to an expatriated Aussie.

    The bombing at Madrid Airport made me sit up and take notice since Gaynor and the girls were only there the day before. Even though the bombed terminal was two kilometres away from the one the girls were transiting through it certainly made me stop and think about what it means to live and travel in such a place. While we feel closer, in some sense, to the centre of the world that also means being closer to world events, even the ugly ones. Certainly Europe has seen (and caused) more than its fair share of wars over the centuries and, in part, I put it down to the large number of sharply varying cultures crammed into a relatively small area. I am still amazed as how quickly culture and language change as you travel, even within a single nation. However, on the whole I think Europe does a pretty fair job of keeping it all in check — tolerance, building on common ground and the like — but incidents such as this bombing make you realise it’s not all roses yet.

    A story about a 40 year old learner caught doing 177km/h — according to the police (and look he probably was!) — also caught my attention. Despite growing up in Australia with a fair amount of government and traffic authorities’ propaganda, I’ve never believed that speed alone is dangerous. Since driving in Germany, especially on the autobahns (I’m missing them already!), I’m even more convinced of it. In my opinion the Germans, at least, take a much more balanced and reasonable approach. There are very strict rules governing traffic here and they view their driving much more as a social responsibility than as a personal right. The cost to obtain a licence alone is enough to make one value it.

    There have been many reasons why the time we have spent here has been very good for us and getting a different view of the world and life is certainly one of the top three.

  • I Wish I Was A Daffodil

    I wish I was a daffodil
    People would call me Billy.
    I turn my face to the sun,
    Now wouldn’t that be silly.

    a poem for english class

  • School Stuff

    This school year I have started some new subjects (Latin, geography & chemistry) and my classes have changed from last year. I’ve not done much study because I am too busy playing Runescape online. I have Latin with my old history teacher and he’s as blind as a bat and he reads a book the same way archaeologists examine old papyrus rolls. (Really really closely). he was absent for the 1st week of school for an eye operation and now he can see a lot better but he still looks like an archaeologist examining something very carefully. My other new teachers are all the same boring lecture giving people as most teachers usually are.

  • Christmas Plans 2006

    Heading for our second Christmas north of the equator and it still has a movie-like feel about it. Having grown up with Christmas during the summer time — and all the wonderful things that means — a northern hemisphere Christmas seems a bit like living in a movie. You know, you’ve seen many things in movies and if you ever experience it — say you get the opportunity to stay in a high-class hotel after having only ever seen them depicted in movies — then so many things that you know about but have never experienced suddenly become more real. The full-on winter clothes, everything spiced with cinnamon, snow, Santa actually needing a fur-lined suit; these all make a little more sense now.

    So having said that, we decided last year that we felt we’d like a break from the cold (mostly Gaynor) and are heading to Spain for a week just after Christmas. Thanks to a generous benefactor we’ll be shacking up in warmer climes, along with my brother who is flying over from the US. Gaynor notes that with his arrival here all my siblings (barring Alistair) will have visited Europe.

    So in light of the trip Gaynor has decided to “go easy” on the Christmas feasts. She listed the menu the other day and I’m not sure exactly what she means by the term but I’m looking forward to it! We are also going light on the presents — something I personally prefer anyway — due to the move at the end of July next year. More on that later perhaps. (No, we don’t know where we are going yet).

    So we wish you a happy and joyous Christmas time and of course, all the best for the New Year.

  • Blogger Hiccup

    Google have released an updated version of Blogger — the site and software which power this blog. During the change over many articles were ‘re-published’, so to speak, when we applied the new labelling system [1]. So if you subscribe to the blog via the Atom or FeedBlitz newsfeeds (see down the left-hand side of this page) then you will receive notification of all the ‘new’ articles. Feel free to ignore them or re-read them, as you wish. Just pay attention to the date at the top of each post so you know if you are getting something fresh or a history lesson!

    [1] You’ll see any applied labels at the bottom of each post. You can click on it to get all the articles so labelled.

  • Summer Holiday 2006

    OK, so we are a little behind in reporting some of our trips, including Bavaria, Paris and our summer holiday to Croatia — in reverse chronological order. So first one first let’s go through our haul over to Croatia.

    The purpose of this holiday was different to last year’s summer excursion. Last year it was all about getting to one of our most-wanted-to-visit places (Italy) and also get in a little bit of relaxation as well. This year the ideas were different.

    The drive to Croatia was broken up with a stay overnight at Augsburg — no sightseeing, only somewhere to stop, eat and sleep. We reached the campsite mid-afternoon the next day with enough time to set up tent, make some dinner and meet the neighbours. The people next to us were very friendly, greeting us in German (since they saw the car’s plates) and then switching to English when I explained in German that my German wasn’t so good. Turns out they were Slovak and were very kind and friendly to us our whole stay. Both the mother and father also spoke Croatian — which turned out to be very useful later in our stay — and the wife also spoke Hungarian! These Europeans!

    Pretty much from the next day the name of the game was do as little or as much as you liked. Gaynor, of course, had a book or four she’d bought to read. “Holiday” is a synonym for “book reading” in Gaynor’s language. Gaynor also enjoyed a swim in the bay first thing most mornings and considers it a great way to start the day. The children spent time in and out of the expansive pools of the campsite and various trips down to the bay shoreline for swimming as well. They had a great curly waterslide with water pumped out of the bay and this was an especial favourite of the children. Unfortunately not too many photos from around the camp as most of us were too busy with nothing to do but, to View over the baythe right here, you can see an example of the sort of sunsets we had to put up with.

    We did manage a trip or two into the town of Rovinj itself, working our way to the church and up the church tower. We seem to climb these whenever available with Gaynor staying at the bottom with Bryna and the other children coming up with me. Churches themselves don’t cost to go in but the towers usually incur a charge. The attendant did warn that the stairs were a little worn in places. I passed this information on to the children along with instructions to step on the outside of the stair if it looked a bit dodgy. I knew Elijah was listening carefully since I had never seen him move so slow when awake! He placed his foot gingerly towards the outside of every step as though it contained some volatile explosive. In the end I had to hurry him along, even though the stairs were pretty worn.

    As well as the seemingly obligatory visit to the church we also patronised a couple of restaurants, one of which — Figarola, as seen in the picture — is now our new favourite restaurant in Europe. We highly recommend it to you if you are ever in the area. Apart from the wonderful views, Gaynor was particularly impressed with the seafood risotto with all the of seafood sweet and tender, not overdone like so many other places. It was creamy and well seasoned with fresh herbs that rounded out the flavour to perfection. Other delicious servings included a pork schnitzel with a special seasoned crumbing (Fenton), grilled chicken breast in a creamy sauce (quite a departure for Mara from her standard spaghetti bolognese) and a pork and prawn kebab (Joshua).

    We really enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing time only wishing it could have been longer. The drive home included a couple of multi-hour waits through the mountain tunnels of Austria and another overnight stop in Augsburg. This time though we took in the town centre and the cathedral, which is home to the world’s largest and oldest stained-glass windows. We didn’t stay too long but still another pleasant memory to add to the trip.