Happy New Year

Josie accompanied her dad on a 'research trip' looking for Koalas on the remote St Bees Island, located on the Great Barrier Reef up North, and recording them with solar panel powered mobile phones around the clock. 

Barrière de corail, Queensland, Australie

 

After, 3 days of baked beans and toasts, she cooked breakfast on the Spartiate research centre barbecue right on the beach with the most amazing view on the turquoise lagoon.

Josie is cooking Breakfast in St Bees Island 

Josie goes to school

She finished Year 7, the last year of primary school and it broke my heart when she sang with all of her friends 'Forever Young' from Youth Group at the end of the Graduation Ceremony. That was the first time since she is litlle that I realised I did not want her to grow up anymore.

As for Oscar, I did the unbelievable for those who know me well: I became for a while his soccer team manager ... I barely know the rules, yes, sorry! Well, fortunately, we had two great coaches appointed for the Fireballs team, including Paul. And to prove that luck can go a long way against incompetence, we were even selected (by luck) to play a side-game at the Suncorps stadium in Brisbane before the Qld Roar vs Melbourne Victory. The kids were ecstatic.

Suncorps Stadium

2008 was proclaimed the International Year of Languages by the United Nations, and that was how I made a living this year : translating !

They taught me open source IT system administration concepts, I learnt IT new writing:

,-._ /\ 

/         *

\_.--._/

Red Hat Localization Team Brisbane

New Job at Redhat Pty Ltd

Paul has become a star including two appearances on TV about his sensors technology and a few conferences in down south in Melbourne, the US, China and New Zealand. Not much time for mountain bike training this year. If you would like to see a koala in a tee-shirt on ABC news and Paul talking about monitoring 'the heart of the environment', follow the link (if it is still vailable on line) :

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200812/r320164_1425365.asx

We started the year with a two weeks family holiday, wandering among the marvels of the ancient world and the 'screaming at you' realities of the new one, in Egypt, where the children had the best learning experiences you can get.

We end it with a big family gathering at home in a big Campucia Democratic with the grand parents, uncle Mike, Emil & Cristina, Manu and Didi, ... who will be experiencing a challenging tropical Christmas, indulging in juicy mangoes, barramundi on the barbecue, and sucking icy poles, revisiting their feeling of what Christmas should be, and this one promises to be exceptionnaly hot and humid.

To all my friends, I wish a wonderful and happy New Year 2009, hoping some of your dreams will come true, new additions to your families, and as Susan says at work : life is full of little surprises every day. 

    Today, Laura took me back from Wooly on her scooter as she saw me walking home on Bielby Road ... I felt like I was 14 years old again. Yesterday evening, Paul went to check that a young Python snake (1 metre) we may have injured while driving, was allright ... he was, but I wonder what we could have done anyway.

2008 has also been the year of friendship, since for the first time since motherhood, I have given my friends the place of honour, travelling around the world to see, and catching up with some of you and coming back with beautiful, crazy and soul deepening memories.

To my friends, I raise my glass !

Esam

                                                      

           The Egyptian trip did not stop in Egypt

Like most travels overseas, your trip extends after the physical trip itself as you slowly digest and understand all what you absorbed too quickly while on tour, but this time, there was more. 

Our Tour Guide, Esam, sent us a customer feedback survey, and announced a few months after the trip that he had been selected to run in World Best Tour Guide competition. 

                  

Esam means safeguard in Arabic, and he was looking after us in Egypt. He was taking pride in his job, and his love of Egypt was palpable. He had a great sense of details, could read people's needs before they could formulate them, like someone who can read the mind of other people - I put it on the account of refined social skills polished in a conducive environment - he was extremely knowledgeable about Ancient Egypt, Muslim and Contemporary Egypt, loved children, always with a great Egyptian smile as we seized each new day with delightful anticipation.

Esam Face Book Profile at the time - Marketing King (working for an Australian Tour Operator, he was calling his customers with a didgeridoo in front of a pyramid :)

As I said goodbye to him when our tour ended, it was one of these many painful goodbye when you know you are very unlikely to see the person again. Yet, a few months after, I received a beautiful letter from the Royal Geographic Society in London, asking me if I cared coming to honour him in October as he had been selected among the 3 best tour guides in the world, and that the winner would be announced there. 

Personal circumstances amazingly allowed it, so I did a stopover on my way to Paris to attend this event in London.

       

The Doors of this Humbling Institute

I joined the crowd... arrived a bit late, as I was a bit afraid for him, and entering that door was a bit of a challenge, funnily enough, so I lingered outside for a while, listening second handily to a Joan Baez concert next door. 

         

Esam on the stage with Bill Brisson

    

and he wan :) ... I was so happy for him, it meant so much to him, he was in tears of joy. I have made it, he said. He felt, as usual, 'responsible' ... to maintain and promote high standards for himself and others he intended coaching ... not sure what's next, he said. There were talks of a cultural centre for Egyptian children ... He was genuinely worried, happy but worried.

Happy that day

   

 I saw him at the cocktail party that followed the event, we were as shocked as happy about the win! This was also a chance to get reacquainted with other people from Norway I had met before during the trip.

                                                

          At the time, I had just finished a thesis on children literature translation: my argument was about the need to make children read about and experience other cultures, but told by people from other cultures directly, not through tales from other people's perceptions of foreign cultures. That is why I was so keen on them enjoying the knowledge and account from a local guide.

         I got more than I bargained for :) a life long soul mate

        This is the video I did for him at the time - on his request. It is now a good souvenir of this beautifully crafted family trip   
                                                                            
         https://youtu.be/WRknUHbumoc

Egypt with Children

On our way back to Australia from a six months stay in France, we decided to stop over in Egypt, joining a Tour marketed by an Australian company and designed for Children with their parents

This was the Plan: Cairo (Giza) to Aswan by night train, feluccas in Aswan (Isis Temple), drive to Luxor (Thebes), then a relax in Hurghada (Red Sea), and a short flight back to the Capital City.

Well, you may expect to see pictures of Pharaohs and Pyramids, ... but this is what we started with: relaxing our mind and body with local food, our first cultural acquaintance.

Then Giza pyramids, defiance to mortality

No needs for presentations :)

Train from Cairo to Aswan ... it started in a train station at night, and we woke up to this magical luxuriant landscapes ... just loved it. I am having breakfast on this picture.

Aswan - beautiful Aswan

Aswan - Isis Temple on the Nile River

Nile Magic

 

Little trip on a sandy patch with the kids .... picture from the height of my Camel ... turned out a bit perilous with my son suddenly out of sight, and then, flying by on a the back of a local on a camel galloping past me ... but nice sound of silence

This is one of my favourite pictures, of which I made a painting

                                                 

A touch of sophistication in the evenings, which fascinated my son and myself

 

Reading on rocks

 

                              

Luxor

We were surprised as our kids seemed to know more than us about Ancient Egypt mythologies, and asked so many questions.

More delicious food

Appetizers

Freshly cooked on a boat on the Red Sea

Respite with the familiar from time to time :)

 

Alexandria 

                             

Magnificent Mosque - Cairo

As our plane took off from Egypt, images in my mind of what we experienced were even more vivid, I knew it would take me a while to process it all, and that the trip had not stopped there.