TravelStream™ news feed for member bethfisher on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/bethfisher en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:18:31 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223787780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223787780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223787780/tpod.html Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:18:31 -0400 Family Trip to England 2008

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Grimsby, England, United Kingdom

Having fallen asleep a lot earlier last night than the night before, we weren't quite as tired when we were woken at 10.30 when Dean came in to wake us up. Laura had already woken up and left for work by the time we headed down for breakfast. Melanie had gone out to Tesco that morning to buy food for breakfast including coco pops and fruit juices. After we had eaten we returned upstairs to get ready for dad who was coming at 11.30. We quickly got dressed and packed our bags trying to find everything that had been shoved into the corners to make room for all our beds last night. As soon as dad arrived for us we had to say goodbye as Sophie was going to work for the day.

When we arrived home Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip had just arrived over and I put on the DVD of Hollowmen from when I was on that had recently arrived from Australia. We then had to get into our packing, trying to make everything fit in the suitcases. For lunch we had lots of toasted things, fried egg on toast, melted cheese on toast and avocado and sweet chili on toast. Once lunch was over with, Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip asked if anyone would like to come down to the park for a game of soccer. Celeste, Noah and I decided to go along while dad, mum, Nikita and Bronte were going to head off into town.

We grabbed Noah's large, inflatable soccer ball and headed off to People's part which was about a 10 minute walk from Willingham Street. When we arrived we headed into a greenhouse there where they displayed a range of different plants that you would not normally find around England due to the climate because it was exceptionally warm and humid inside the greenhouse. We then had a look at some of the animals there which included parakeets and chickens. It was then time to get down to business with the soccer match. The first game we decided would be England verses Australia with me stepping in as the neutral goal keeper to even up the numbers. After an exhausting game filled with skill and talent, Aunty Margaret kicked the winning goal for England, bringing the score from 5-all to a 6-5 win.

Before we started up our next match we played a game of penalty shoot-off. I couldn't believe how terribly bad I was, especially compared to Aunty Margaret who scored a goal every single time. After 3 shots each, I had missed all 3, Celeste had scored 1 goal, Noah 2 and Aunty Margaret 3. We then got down to business and started a new game - girls verses boys. Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip took goalie positions while Celeste and I versed Noah on the field. While you may not think this is a fair match up, Noah ended up winning the game hands down. We packed up our goal posts, Noah's shoes and our drink bottles, before heading on the walk home. Aunty Margaret took us past the house she had grown up in on the way home. Just as we pulled up at the traffic lights to cross over into Willingham Street, mum, dad, Nikita and Bronte pulled up in the car beside us. The race was on but the car beat us by a mile.

It was then time for us to return to packing and searching the whole house to make sure everything was packed. A short while later we were visited by Damon who dropped passed to show us his wedding video since we were unable to attend. We all squished into the sitting room with most of us on the floor to watch the video of the wedding and reception on the laptop. After we had watched the DVD, Damon helped us to find a place to order pizza for dinner as we weren't going to be able to head out for dinner tonight with all the packing we had to do. We put the order in and then said goodbye to Damon as he needed to head off to work. As we waved him out the door we were greeted by Leo, Elaine and Jacob who had come past to say goodbye. We pulled as many chairs as we could into the sitting room and not long after the doorbell rang again, this time it was Sophie, Dean, Melanie and Laura who had also come past to say goodbye.

Our pizza turned up much sooner tonight then it had the first night we ordered which was a relief because we were all quite hungry. We had a choice of cheese and tomato, meat feast and capsicum and corn as well as chips and garlic bread. We plopped ourselves down anywhere we could find to eat and with the amount of people we had in the house, most of us ended up sitting on the floor. Once everyone had eaten we cleared up the plates and the kids headed upstairs to use the laptop. The first person we had to say goodbye to was Laura who was heading off to the movies with friends. After hugs we waved goodbye and tears began to form in most people's eyes knowing that this was it. We had a lot of fun on our last night together, running a muck throughout the house, which wasn't overly appreciated by the adults, laughing and reminiscing.

As the night got later and later it got closer and closer to the time when we had to say our final goodbyes. First to leave were Leo, Elaine and Jacob after many, many hugs and tears. Getting Sophie out the door, however, was another story. Countless amounts of hugs and tears resulted in Sophie almost being dragged into the car. We waved as the cars drove off down the street and then returned inside to say goodbye to Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip who were the last to leave. By this stage, my eyes were really hurting from crying so much and it is unbelievable how close I have become to all my family in such a short space of time and how incredibly much I will miss them when I have left and headed back to Australia. After kisses and hugs, they hopped into their car and waved goodnight, but what could have been the best news possible for us was that their car didn't start. Unfortunately though, it didn't last long and after 30 seconds we were waving goodbye as the last family members drove off from Willingham Street.

We returned back inside for showers and to completely finish packing. Bronte and Nikita packed their overnight bags and headed off with dad to spend the night out, Bronte at Aunty Pat's and Nikita at Aunty Shelia's. Mum, dad and I then searched through every drawer, under every couch, behind every door and inside every cupboard to make sure that we had packed everything and left nothing behind. We set our alarms for early the next morning and eventually headed off to bed at 11.30pm after finally almost packing all the suitcases.
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Huddersfield, England, United Kingdom

We were woken up at 7am this morning by dad's phone alarm. We got dressed, had breakfast and clean our teeth before we began the final packing. All our pajamas and toiletries were packed away and all the bits and bobs found around the house were shoved into the first suitcase they came across. Eventually all the suitcases were packed and full to the brim. Dad began packing the cases in the car and even though the boot space was bigger than that of our car at home, we once again had trouble fitting all the suitcases and ourselves in the car. While dad worked at finding the best way to fit the cases, mum and I completed a final run around the house checking under beds and behind tables incase anything happened to be left behind. Just before 9am we were finally ready to go so we piled into the car and headed away from 314 Willingham Street, the house where my mum's dad grew up, for the last time.

Our first stop for the day was at Aunty Shelia's to pick up Nikita. After many hugs were given and final photos were taken, we said goodbye for now and hopped back into the car, waving as we drove away. Next stop was Aunty Pat and Uncle Graham's to pick up Bronte. We arrived to find the family ready and waiting for us with Leo who had popped round to get Noah to sign the AFL football he had left for Jacob. After a quick toilet break we headed outside for a final family photo to be joined by Elaine who had popped past incase we were still there. It was then time for us to say goodbye to Leo and Elaine for the last time. We piled into the car with Uncle Graham and Aunty Pat and waved to Leo and Elaine as we drove off towards Huddersfield.

The drive to Huddersfield took just over 2 hours with us stopping for petrol around 30 minutes away from our final destination. On the trip I used the laptop to update my travelpod and talk to my friends on MSN. At 11.20pm we pulled into Murray Road, where Carl and Eleanor live, but it took us awhile to actually track down the house. Turns out it was standing right in front of us but it looked nothing like in the pictures Carl had sent us because he had pulled down the scaffolding that had previously been up in front of the house. Carl greeted us at the door and helped us to bring out suitcases inside. My first impression was WOW. Carl's house was absolutely beautiful and although it was currently being renovated it was a fantastic house. We headed outside to say goodbye to Aunty Pat and Uncle Graham who were going to return our car back in Grimsby. We waved as the car that had become part of the family drove off.

Once the suitcases had been brought in we were allowed to explore the 4 story house. We traveled up 2 sets of stairs to the top floor where all the bedrooms where then down one from the ground floor to find the kitchen and dinging room. While we waited for lunch, we spent time on the laptop, piano and outside playing footy. Eleanor, Carl's wife, returned for lunch for which we had roast chicken, potatoes, peas, chips and gravy with ice cream and malteasers for dessert. Considering most of us hadn't had much breakfast, it was great to be able to get food into our systems. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing on the piano, using the laptop, watching tv and playing with the Alice in Wonderland Chess Set. At 5pm Eleanor headed off for a computer skills night course while dad, Carl and Noah played a game of indoor golf downstairs.

By 6.30pm we were all feeling really hungry and decided to get dinner organized. I took down everyone's orders then dad, Carl and Noah headed to subway, KFC, Chinese and Italian to buy food for everyone. When they arrived home at just gone 7, we sat downstairs in the dinging room to eat. I had spaghetti bolognaise, normally which is my favourite, but tonight I wasn't feeling too well. After dinner I felt really quite sick so I laid down on the couch in front of the TV. I started to feel worse and worse and well, I'm sure you can guess what happened next. I really felt much better afterwards. We decided that we would put on a movie for the rest of the night before we headed off to bed and we all agreed on Evan Almighty. Eleanor came home while we were watching it and joined us for the ending. I must say, it was a very funny movie. Once the movie finished at around half past 11, we switched the TV off and finished juggling everything around to make it fit in the suitcases. We pulled out everyone's clothes for tomorrow then headed to bed at midnight after we were all packed and ready to leave England bright and early the next morning.
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Manchester, England, United Kingdom

We were all awoken on our last morning in England at 5am this morning when it was still dark outside. I eventually dragged myself out of bed at around 20 past 5 and headed straight into the bathroom to get ready for the day. Once we were dressed and ready we made sure all our suitcases were full and zipped up with everything packed inside before heading downstairs for breakfast. Eleanor was kind enough to get up at 5am with us this morning as well and made us a yummy breakfast which consisted of eggs, bacon, toast and sausages. At 6.30am just as we were finishing eating up our breakfast, the taxi pulled into Carl and Eleanor's driveway to take us off to the airport. We dragged our suitcases outside and took our final photos in England. After the last hugs we piled into the cab and waved as we drove off.

The car trip to the airport took just under 1 hour with us arriving outside terminal 2 at 7.30am. We unpacked our suitcases from the car and headed to the Singapore Airlines check in counter. Once we had been checked in and our bags taken, we rang Sophie to say goodbye before she headed off to school. Next up we headed through security where Celeste got pulled up for having her toiletries case in her bag and lost almost all her stuff because of the 100mL of liquid/gel rule they have in place now. We stopped around the corner at WH Smith to buy lollies for the plane and we gave a quick call to Uncle Graham and Aunty Pat to say goodbye. We then headed to the boarding lounge to wait to board the plane. I set up the laptop to use up the rest of our 3 mobile broadband while we used the up the rest of the phone credit to call Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip & Aunty Shelia.

At 9.45am it was time for us to board. We were sitting in rows 37 & 38 on the right hand side of the plane. Noah sat next to the window in row 37 with mum in the middle and Bronte on the isle. I sat across from Bronte by myself. Celeste sat behind mum with dad in the middle and Nikita on the isle. The plane began taxing on time and took off at 10.00. When the in flight movie system was set up I put on the new Abilgal Breslin movie Kit Katerliage while I waited for the food to come. For lunch we had a choice of either mutton and potato or chicken and vegetable. I took the chicken but it wasn't overly nice. I must have been really tired because as soon as I had finished eating, I put some music on and fell asleep. I slept for about 4 hours only to wake up when they came past handing out drinks. As uncomfortable as I was, I fell asleep for another 2 hours, this time waking up as the snack kart came past. I decided to have chocolate and crisps before falling back asleep again.

I woke up 2 hours later feeling rather hungry again and after waiting for and eating my chocolate bar; I just couldn't get back to sleep again. I eventually decided to put another movie on and picked Harry Potter 1. The cabin lights came on an hour into the movie and they began to organize breakfast which was a choice of scrambled eggs or pork noodles. I had the eggs which tasted mush nicer than lunch. After breakfast was cleared up the plane began to descend into Singapore. I had only just reached the climatic point of the movie so I was very happy that they left the movie system on for most of the landing. The landing was the smoothest I had ever been on in my life; you couldn't even feel the plane hit the runway. The England part of our holiday was now officially over and it was time to enjoy our 3 day break in Singapore.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223742780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223742780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223742780/tpod.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:03:51 -0400 Family Trip to England 2008

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Grimsby, England, United Kingdom

After getting to be at who knows what time this morning we eventually woke up at 10.30am. I hopped into the shower before we all headed down for breakfast - Cheerios, toast and orange juice. After breakfast we headed back upstairs for everyone else to have the showers and to finish getting ready. We managed to find almost all of our stuff under the blankets and pillows and were almost ready when dad turned up for us at 12pm. We said goodbye to Sophie, Dean, Melanie and Laura and hopped straight into the car to head off to lunch with Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip.

We traveled into Cleethorpes to Steels, the fish and chips restaurant Aunty Pat and Uncle Philip had taken us to earlier in the trip. Coincidently we sat at the same table we had when we came 3 weeks earlier. We ordered our food and caught up Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip on everything they had missed out on in the last couple of days. To eat I had chicken and chips with peas and gravy. After Bronte and Noah had eaten their ice creams we returned home to plan out the rest of our day. Dad and Noah headed off with Uncle Graham, Leo and Jacob to see Grimsby Town verse Wycombe Wonderers. After checking my emails Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip dropped mum and me off in town at Freshny Place.

We first stopped into Bank where I tried on a dress and a few other things. I then took mum to the store I had brought my top from yesterday to buy a necklace that went with it. I had a little look at some of the other jewelry as well but brought the one I had picked out. Next we stopped in a book store to buy a present for Jacob. After receiving directions we walked to a store called internacionale to buy a belt. I had a look around and eventually settled on one and also brought a top. Before we left we headed for a quick look in topshop and brought a cookie from the same place Sophie and I had yesterday. Having no one to pick us up for another hour, mum and I decided to walk back to Willingham Street. We didn't really know where we were going but we managed to get back home in about 15 minutes without getting lost. When we arrived home I settled back on the computer to work on my travelpod after falling behind for being so busy and talked to my friends on MSN.

At 5.30pm we began to get ready for the big party that night. Once we were all dressed and ready with cameras fully charged we piled into the car for our last big celebration. We stopped by Aunty Shelia's to pick her up on the way then drove 2 minutes to the church. We attended church that night before the party dedicated to our safe return to Melbourne. After the service had finished we helped carry food into the community hall next to the church for a final family party. Everyone in the family had brought food down for supper and we had a range of different things to eat from sandwiches to cakes to crisps to quiche.

Once everyone had eaten Uncle Philip set up his guitar stand and sang for us while playing the guitar. He sang songs that took us down memory lane, that reminded him of the times when he lived in the house at Willingham Street. It was really amazing to listen to him sing and everyone enjoyed watching and singing along. I was next up to sing and sang I Miss You before Bronte sang 'Life's What You Make It' and 'Girls Night Out' with Sophie, Celeste, Nikita and I as her backing dancers. The n Uncle Graham got up to sing a couple of songs for us before we turned on the music and got the party started dancing to ABBA and Greece. We danced for an hour before plugging in the iPod speakers to play our dance favourite 5,6,7,8. Afterwards we hopped into a massive circle for the Hokey Pokey and everyone accept dad and Dean hopped up to join in.

After Jacob hopped up to sing Sophie and I took to the stage performing ABBA's 'Honey Honey' before all 7 of us kids took to the stage as the Von Trapp Family performing So Long, Farewell for everyone to wrap up the night. It was a thoroughly enjoyed performance and a call for an encore got us up to perform it again. It was really late by this time so after hugs and many tears it was time for us to say goodbye. We packed up the food and swept the floor before turning off the light and locking up before heading home. Once again when we arrived at Willingham Street we rushed to pack our bags and this time all 5 of us headed to Sophie's house for the night.

After dumping our bags in Sophie's bedroom and helping her tidy it up we set up the camera so we could show Laura, who had been at work tonight, the video footage from the party. We watched the entire footage of the night while mum and dad had a drink with Dean and Melanie. After the video had finished we said goodnight to mum and dad and headed upstairs to set up the beds in Sophie's room again. To make it simple, we slept in the same place we had last night, sticking Noah down the side of the bed. When Laura returned from taking her friend home, she brought her stuff in and slept next to Nikita. We planned to stay up late again tonight as it was going to be the last night we would spend together in a long time but instruction from dad meant we had to get Noah to sleep first. The only problem was though that when we turned the lights off all of us ended up falling asleep.
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Grimsby, England, United Kingdom

I was woken at 8.30 this morning by the banging and clanging of the construction that had started up again across the road. I headed downstairs for breakfast and chatted to Sophie on MSN. At 9am mum headed out for the day with Bernadette and Aunty Pat while I got dressed and packed my bag for the day. Since our trip to London didn't end up happening, when I was ready I got into the car and dad drove me down to Sophie's who had been given the day off school today. When I got there we headed up to Sophie's room while dad checked his emails in the study. We decided that today we would head round to Aunty Shelia's to film a music video with us and all the kids.

After dad left we hopped onto the computer and searched youtube to choose our song. We settled on Girls Night Out by Miley Cyrus and after watching the video clip we headed upstairs to choose outfits for everyone to wear. We sorted out and colour coordinated everyone's outfits before packing them up in a bag to take with us today. When we had all the clothes organized we hopped back on the computer to talk on MSN before we flopped on the couch to watch Gilmore Girls. Sophie's dad turned up at 12.10 to get ready for his game of golf with dad later that day. 20 minutes later Sophie's mum arrived to run us into town. We grabbed our bag full of clothes, makeup and jewelry and hopped in the car.

When we arrived in town, Sophie took me to some of her favourite shops including Topshop, Rivers and Bank. We headed upstairs took Warehouse where we tried on a few tops and ended up buying one each, thankfully dad had left me with some money. While we were shopping we bumped into Aunty Shelia's best friend Rose and we promised we would stop by later. Sophie found some jewelry that when well with her top and brought that as well to wear out tonight. After purchasing our tops we headed back downstairs to a shop to buy cookies to take to Aunty Shelia's with us before sitting down at the bus stop. We waited for 15 minutes before the 7 bus pulled up at the J stand.

We sat upstairs on the bus and traveled for 15 minutes before getting off the bus at what we thought was the right stuff. When we realized we had no idea where we were Sophie rang Aunty Shelia to try and figure out how to get to her house. Thankfully when we reached the end of the street Sophie knew where we were and after 10 minutes of walking we arrived at Aunty Shelia's. We found everyone sitting at the table around the back playing a game. We were very glad Aunty Shelia had food for us because we decided not to get lunch while we were out because we knew she would feed us, regardless of if we had had lunch or not. I had pasta for lunch with crisps, cookies and chocolates for dessert.

Once we were all fed Sophie and I handed out the outfits and we all got ready for our music video. We set up the badminton nets and had a game before we pulled it down to make a skipping rope. We did a little bit of filming for the video and took heaps of photos on the camera. At 4pm Damon turned up to take the kids home. Once he had left with Celeste, Bronte and Noah in trip one, Sophie, Nikita and I went over to Rose's to say hello. We talked to Rose until we saw Uncle Graham come in the front gate to pick up Nikita and after we said goodbye we returned to Aunty Shelia's to grab our new tops to show Rose. Aunty Shelia locked up and came back round to Rose's with us. We chatted to her for about half an hour before we had to leave to get ready for the disco tonight.

We walked back to Aunty Shelia's and rang Melanie to get someone to come down and pick her up. Laura turned up for us 5 minutes later and after saying goodbye we returned to Sophie's. We headed upstairs to get ready for the disco, both of us wearing the new tops we had brought today. Once we were dressed we practiced the song we would be performing at the party tomorrow night and packed my bag. When dad and Dean returned from their golf game, Sophie and I said goodbye and returned home with dad. I was thrilled to see Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip at Willingham Street when we returned home who had arrived today in Grimsby. I finished getting ready for the disco and after saying goodbye to Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip; we left for the disco following Aunty Pat and Uncle Graham's car.

It took us just over 30 minutes to drive there but when we pulled up we couldn't find the disco anywhere. Turned out that we were the disco - the DJ hadn't turned up yet. We eventually found out that the DJ had mixed up the nights and thought it was tomorrow so he wasn't going to make it. After we had eaten our jacket potatoes for dinner, Sophie, Celeste, Nikita, Bronte and I got up to dance. We spent most of the night dancing to ABBA and pop hits which were really the only good CD's that they could find in the church the disco was being held. After dessert which was a range of different cakes, I got up to sing life's what you make it followed by Bronte singing Girls Night Out and Uncle Graham got up to sing as well.

We spent the rest of the night singing and dancing along to all our favourite songs that came on but at 10.30pm it was time for us to head home. We said goodbye to Noah who was going to spend the night at Jacob's then piled in the car and returned home. When we arrived back at the house we all quickly packed our backpacks and hopped back in the car to travel to Sophie's to spend the night. When we arrived at 11.30pm we took our bags upstairs and set up our beds in Sophie's room. We pulled all the blankets and pillows we could find into her room and laid them out across the floor to make enough bedding for everyone to sleep in. Celeste and I took the bed while Bronte, Nikita and Sophie slept on the floor.

We said goodnight to mum and dad who headed off home and to Melanie and Dean as they headed off to bed. We had to be as quiet as we could while we played 'Knowing me, knowing you' which is a game where you have to try and answer questions about each person. We played the board game for 2 hours and when we heard Laura pull in the driveway from work we quickly hid the board game, turned off the lights and pretended to be sleeping as Dean would get up when he heard Laura come in. After Dean went back to bed Laura came in and we convinced her to play some of the game with us. At 2.45am after we had finished the game we said goodnight to Laura who sensibly headed off to bed while we packed up and turned the lights off. We laid in bed talking for ages while Bronte fell off to sleep and after another hour or so we all fell asleep as well.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223607780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223607780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223607780/tpod.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:04:26 -0400 Family Trip to England 2008

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Grimsby, England, United Kingdom

I was woken up at 6.45am this morning by Sophie's alarm but neither of us ended up getting up until 7.15. We got up, got dressed, did our hair and packed our bags before heading downstairs for breakfast which was Cheerios, orange juice and K-Time bars. We quickly cleaned our teeth before hopping in the car for Sophie's mum drove us to school. Sophie had asked her school if I would be able to come with her to school for the day and even though I was on holidays I said yes.

When we first arrived at the Humberston School we headed to admin to pick up a visitors badge for me. After I signed into the school we walked around to outside Sophie's first classroom where we met up with Sophie's friends. At 8.35 we headed into our first class of the day - physics. We learnt about efficiency and completed a practical activity in which we tested the efficiency of a light bulb. The light bulb was attached to a stand and we lowered it into a beaker of water where we tested the temperature of the water before and after 5 minutes and the current and voltage of the light bulb. Next up was IT where the class was working on putting together brochures for a made up company. Each class went for an hour and after IT we headed for a 15 minute tutor period where everyone was marked on their uniform and whether or not they had their equipment.

Then was 'break' which was like recess. We headed to the cafeteria where I brought a piece of pizza to eat. Break only went for 20 minutes and we spent most of the time walking around talking to some of Sophie's friends. Next class was English where we had a teacher that could not control the class, although the class wasn't one that could easily be controlled. We discussed an essay that the class was currently writing on Act 1 Scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet. After English we headed off for science again, this time biology where I learnt the correct ways to draw up tables and graphs.

After biology it was lunch time and Sophie and I headed back to the cafeteria. To eat Sophie had mashed potatoes and gravy while I had pizza again. Dad then rang on Sophie's phone so I had to walk around with my hood up so the teachers couldn't see that I was talking on the phone. I hung up with dad and not long after mum rang to organize picking me up. Sophie had a netball tournament after lunch so mum was going to come down and pick me up so I could spend the rest of the day with the family. We took my visitors badge back to the office and I signed out before waiting on the oval for mum to turn up.

Mum arrived at 1.40pm with Aunty Pat and Uncle Graham. I said goodbye to Sophie and hopped into the car. We arrived at Aunty Pat and Uncle Graham's and had drinks and biscuits while we waited for dad to turn return from Damon's with the rest of the kids. Once they arrived we all piled into the car and traveled down to the park. We got out Noah's footy and hopped straight into a game while Aunty Pat and mum went for a walk. It was great exercise trying to keep up with Noah and I managed to kick the ball really well a couple of times, I didn't manage to mark it though. We ran around for about half an hour before hopping on the biggest flying fox I had ever seen in the playground that traveled for about 30 meters. After a few goes on the flying fox I returned to the footy match for another 5 minutes we said goodbye to Aunty Pat and Uncle Graham and headed off to see Aunty Shelia.

Just before we arrived at her house we saw her waiting at the bus stop. We pulled up next to her and eventually convinced her that we would take her into town to the bank to save her from taking the bus. When we arrived back home an hour earlier that Aunty Shelia would have if she took the bus, we headed into the sitting room where she provided us with her home made jam tarts and almond cakes, chocolate chip muffins, ham sandwiches, crackers, bread sticks grapes and drinks. Once we were all full to the brim she gave each of us a present, mine was a set of bracelets, and a block of strawberry chocolate each that she used to send us for Christmas.

When we realized the time we said goodbye to Aunty Shelia and rushed to Sophie's house to pick up my bag. We ran in to say hello and after dad shoved us all out the door we piled back into the car and returned home. We quickly hopped in the shower and got ready to head off to Bernadette's for dinner. Once we were all dressed we jumped back into the car and traveled 5 minutes to Bernadette's. We arrived at 6.20pm with Leo, Elaine and Jacob arriving not long after. After getting drinks the 6 kids headed into the lounge room to watch Disney Channel while the adults talked in the back room. We put our orders in for pizza and set up the Wii fit where we each performed the 'body test' that told us where our center of gravity was, our BMI and out Wii Fit age. My Wii fit age was 16 which was perfect.

The pizza turned up not long after and tasted great. We had a choice of a variety of different pizza including cheese and tomato, meat feast, spicy chicken and vegetarian. We disconnected the Wii Fit and set up Mario Kart where Jacob, Noah, Nikita and I battled out in a race. I ended up coming in a close second. It was then time for us to say goodbye so after hugs and saying thank-you we piled back into the car and returned home for bed.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223388780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223388780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223388780/tpod.html Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:04:05 -0400 Family Trip to England 2008

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Grimsby, England, United Kingdom

I was so pleased to be able to sleep in this morning for the first time in a long time. I woke up at around 10.30am and climbed down the stairs to find most of the family in the lounge room. There wasn't much in the house for breakfast as we cleared everything out before we left and thankfully I wasn't very hungry. I took awhile to check and send emails and talk to my friends on MSN before I eventually decided to get dressed and ready for the day. Eventually everyone woke up, had breakfast and got ready and having the construction workers hammering next door didn't help when most of us wanted to sleep in.

At 1.30pm after taking forever to get ready, most of us were still tired from the long trip home; we piled into the car and headed off to Aunty Pat and Uncle Graham's house. When we arrived we headed into the house to meet up with Aunty Pat, Uncle Graham and Damon. After a few drinks we split into our car and Damon's car and began on a 5 minute drive to lunch. We were taken to a Chinese buffet restaurant on the sea edge. After we picked our table we headed to the buffet to stock up our plates with the delicious Chinese and also Indian food. I took a little bit of everything I could including fried rice, chicken curry, chicken and cashews, noodles, satay fried vegetables, prawn crackers and hot chips.

The food was fantastic and since none of us has had much breakfast we all ate heaps. Once we had eaten as much as we could it was then time to hit the all-you-can-eat dessert bar. Even though there was just ice cream you could cover it in 8 different sauces, chopped nuts, chocolate sprinkles and hundreds and thousands. I was pretty surprised when no one ended up going back for seconds because we were all super full after lunch.

We finished off our drinks then headed back out to the cars to travel to our next destination - the shopping centre across the road. The first shop we headed into was filled with discounted clothes from some of the top brands. I found a jumper I really liked and Nikita picked 2 tops while Celeste and Bronte found complete new outfits. I helped dad to pick out a few presents and after 30 minutes of shopping around we moved across to the shop next door. This shop was filled with heaps of shoes and Celeste brought a pair of knee high black suede boots. While mum and Celeste shopped around a little more, Noah and I had fun dancing to YMCA that came on the radio. We must have looked crazy doing the well known YMCA moves as well as chucking in a few moves of our own.

Once Celeste had purchased her boots and Bronte a necklace we piled back in the car and returned to Aunty Pat and Uncle Graham's. We sat down in the lounge room and enjoyed drinks and biscuits before deciding what to do for the rest of the day. Dad decided to take Noah down to the swimming pool to swim with Jacob after his lesson again and I decided to tag along. It was much warmer inside the swimming centre than it was outside and after we arrived we met up with Elaine, Leo and Jacob. Noah, Jacob and Leo hopped in the pool while dad, Elaine and I sat at a table and watched. They had a ball swimming in the waves and as soon as the slide was opened Noah and Jacob could not be stopped, running up and down the stairs for almost the rest of the night.

After Noah and Jacob had run Leo off his feet they headed into the change room to dry off and get changed to leave. We said goodbye to Elaine, Jacob and Leo and headed off home. We took a slight detour and stopped by Sophie's house on the way home to plan our trip to London for the next day. Sophie's mum had said she could have the day off school but after much searching on the internet and making numerous phone calls we found it would be too expensive to go to London tomorrow. We decided to postpone the trip to Friday to hopefully get cheaper tickets for then. Sophie and Noah set up the TV for a game of baseball on the Wii while dad had a coffee with Melanie and Dean.

A phone call soon came through that mean we needed to return home for more visitors. We said goodnight and drove back to Aunty Pat and Uncle Graham's to pick up the rest of the family before returning back to Willingham Street. After quickly tiding up the house Damon and his wife Vivian arrived with a huge box of chocolates for us. Damon and Vivian were thrilled to meet us as we spent awhile getting to know us. After half an hour of talking and laughing we had to say goodbye to them. Once they had left we finished tiding up before we headed off to bed.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223480640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223480640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223480640/tpod.html Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:46:11 -0400 Family Trip to England 2008

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Grimsby, England, United Kingdom

I woke up again this morning at just gone 10.30am. After checking my emails and updating my travelpod I got dressed and had breakfast. Dad was feeling horribly sick, I think I had passed on whatever I had, but he still drove mum, Nikita and I over to Aunty Pat and Uncle Graham's. When we arrived we decided we would return to Willingham Street to pick up the rest of the family and we would all head out for the day. Dad drove us back home and while we got the rest of the family ready mum and Uncle Graham headed to the car hire place to register the car in his name so he would be able to drive the car as well as dad.

When they returned home the 8 of us (minus dad) hopped into the car and headed off on the 30 minute trip to Brigg Garden Centre. When we arrived we walked upstairs to the biggest Christmas store I have ever seen in my life. The entire floor was decked with Christmas decorations and lights and looked absolutely incredible. The decorations were grouped by colour with huge 'rooms' for each of the different colours. It contained every Christmas decoration I could have imaged from tree decorations to Christmas trees to coloured lights and every type of Christmas ornament you could possibly think of.

After admiring the display we headed downstairs for more shopping. This store contained everything you could think of from clothes to ornaments, candles to jewelry boxes, chocolate to footballs. There even was an entire display of plants and hot tubs. Uncle Graham headed of with Bronte and Noah to the trampoline while the rest of the girls searched for presents for our friends and family. Once we had all purchased what we wanted the 8 of us headed to the back of the store to a restaurant for lunch. We picked our table and I ordered chicken and chips with peas and salad. The food came surprisingly quickly after we had ordered and it tasted really good.

Mum and I finished eating first and we headed back into the store with aunty pat to buy a present for Aunty Margaret and Uncle Philip. After much deliberation we chose mums favourite item there, a Galileo Thermometer that displays the temperature through floating glass baubles inside the cylinder. We purchased the thermometer and picked up the rest of the family before heading back to the car. When we arrived at the car, we realized that Noah wasn't with us but thankfully he came out of the door as soon as we turned back to find him. We piled into the car and took the science route home, traveling past many fields and old houses.

When we arrived back home Sophie and her mum were waiting there for me. I packed my bag for the night and left with them. We arrived at Sophie's and decided what we would wear when we went to Sophie's singing, dancing and acting school, Stage One. For dinner that night we had chicken, jacket potatoes and sweet corn with chocolate moose for dessert. After dinner we quickly got changed before waiting for our lift to Stage One. While we were waiting Sophie taught me some of the dances we could be doing tonight and at 6.50 our lift arrived.

It took us 15 minutes to drive there and when we arrived we began learning a dance to ABBA's 'Does Your Mother Know'. Once we had learnt that we ran through 4 other dances they had already learnt and I had a lot of fun trying to dance along even though I really had no idea what I was doing. At 8pm we had a short break before we headed off to the acting section of the night. Currently they are rehearsing for 'Oliver' and Sophie is playing Charlotte. They ran through the first couple of scenes a few times before we returned to the dancing and singing side. We ran through the dances we had practiced earlier again this time singing along with the songs as well. At 9pm Stage One finished and we were picked up by Sophie's dad. We dropped off Sophie's friend on the way that had given us the lift there and stopped by one of Sophie's dad's friend's houses on the way home. We popped in to say hello to Sophie's mum who was also there before we returned to Sophie's house.

When we returned home I finished off my dessert before we hopped on the computer. We chatted to some of Sophie's friends on MSN and I helped her with a science homework quiz before we headed up to Sophie's room. After we had our showers and got our clothes out for tomorrow we climbed in to bed and talked for ages before finally falling asleep.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223329080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223329080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223329080/tpod.html Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:07:40 -0400 Family Trip to England 2008

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Coventry, England, United Kingdom

We were woken up at 8am this morning when we got our wake up call from the hotel. I slept for another half an hour before I eventually dragged myself out of bed and began to get ready. As soon as we were all dressed and looking decent we headed down to the ground floor for breakfast which was the same as the day before - a choice of a continental and or English breakfast. Today after we had eaten we all decided to have a hot chocolate and once we had drunk it all it we returned back to our rooms. We cleaned our teeth then packed up our suitcases and backpacks. Somehow, every time it comes to packing we never seem to be able to fit exactly what we brought with us back in the suitcases.

We eventually figured out how to fit everything in, minus dad's shoes, and pulled them out into the hallway. We've started getting really good at checking over hotel rooms in the last couple of days as well as remembering to pack everything and once we were satisfied there was nothing left behind we took the cases down to reception and checked out. The days in England seem to be getting colder, which shouldn't really be surprising considering they are getting closer to winter, so we got the suitcases packed in the car as quickly as we could as hopped into the car out of the cold.

After 2 minutes of driving we pulled up outside Carol's house and quickly headed inside. We decided our plan of attack for the day and once mum and Bronte were ready the 8 of us piled into the car and began on our days' journey. Our first stop was one of mum's old houses when she had lived in Coventry. Once mum had had a look around we headed to our second destination of the day, another one of mum's cousin's houses. Catherine greeted us at the door and we went inside to meet Catherine's mother who mum refers to as Aunty Jean.

Mum was exceptionally excited to be able to catch up with Aunty Jean while we (the 5 of us kids) were excited to have found someone who had Disney Channel! So while mum spent time talking to her family we caught up on all the shows we were missing out on while we were in England. For lunch Catherine made us all ham and cheese sandwiches with crisps and chocolate rolls for dessert. At 2.30 we said a temporary goodbye to Aunty Jean and Catherine and headed to our 3rd stop for the day, Warrick Castle.

The drive there took just under 40 minutes and after a 5 minute walk from the car park we arrived at the castle. The castle looked amazing but after seeing a sign saying 'awake the ghosts of Warrick Castle' I wasn't too keen on entering. However when dad saw the sign with the prices of how much it was going to cost to enter he wasn't too keen on entering either. We eventually decided that having only an hour left to look through the castle it wasn't going to be worth it for the price we had to pay so we had a look through the gift shop before we headed back to the car. We were able to see most of the castle on the walk back which was all we really wanted to do anyway.

We piled back in the car and returned to Catherine's house to meet her kids that had returned from school. She has a 12-year old daughter Clare and a 16-year old son Jonathan. We sat down again to watch Disney Channel which is what remained on TV for most of the rest of the night. Catherine made dinner for 13 people that were in her house at that time which consisted of fish fingers, baked beans, sausages and chips which chocolate or banana muffins for dessert. After dinner Jonathan put the Wii on for a little while and Bronte and I sang a song for Aunty Jean and Catherine. It was then time for us to say goodbye and after a lot of hugs we piled into the car and returned to Carol's house.

After a quick toilet stop it was time for us to say goodbye to Carol as well. Dad put the last suitcase in the car and we followed not long after. We pulled out of the driveway just gone 8.30 and began on our long, much awaited journey back to Grimsby. We traveled for 30 minutes before dad pulled over for petrol and a drinks break. For the rest of the trip most of the family slept or listened to iPod's. We were pleased when 2 hours later we eventually began seeing familiar streets and when we pulled off the freeway we were so excited that we were almost home. Then we got pulled over by the police. I know what you're thinking, "David was speeding". But this time, you were wrong. The police officer said dad had been drifting across the centre line for 3 miles and they just wanted to check whether he was tired or had been drinking. Thankfully it was neither and they left us on our way. 2 minutes later we finally pulled up outside Willingham Street we were all relieved that we would finally be able to head upstairs to bed after our long 10 day journey through England.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223238240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223238240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethfisher/3/1223238240/tpod.html Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:22:55 -0400 Family Trip to England 2008

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Coventry, England, United Kingdom

I woke up at 9am this morning and began to get ready for breakfast. After showering, doing my hair and getting dressed I headed down with Celeste, Nikita, Noah and dad to breakfast. The choice for breakfast was huge, almost anything you could think of with the choice of a continental and or English breakfast. While most headed for the cereal and fruit I chose the English breakfast which consisted of eggs, bacon, baked beans and hash browns. Dad returned with the biggest plate of food I had ever seen and to no surprise he ate everything on his plate. Nikita ordered a hot chocolate and once she had finished eating, we headed back up to our rooms to finish getting ready while dad chatted to one of the people working there about interest rates and property...boring.

When we returned to our room we cleaned our teeth and packed our stuff away in our suitcases. It was then a fairly relaxing morning of chatting to friends on MSN and watching hysterically funny British shows on TV. When it had reached just around lunchtime we walked out to the car and traveled 2 minutes to Carol's house. Carol, Bronte and mum were waiting for us when we arrived. We headed in and sat down while Bronte and mum finished getting ready. Mum had slept in until 10am because her and Carol had stayed up all night talking.

Once we were all eventually ready we piled into the car and traveled just down to road for lunch. The restaurant had only just opened so there weren't many people there and we ended up getting fantastic seats at the back in a little section to ourselves. Not long after we arrived we were joined by Carol's brother Andy and his wife Yvonne and then by Carol's other brother David. We switched around sitting the adults at one end of the table and us 5 kids at the other. Nikita, Bronte and Noah got straight into the telling of jokes while I tried to catch onto the infamous 'incinerator story' that dad refuses to tell me about.

The food there was absolutely fantastic. I ordered 'kicking chicken' which was chicken and chips covered in a chill and garlic sauce. Although the meals were quite big, everyone ate everything on their plate and almost everyone made at least 1 trip to the salad bar. The dessert menus then came around and after the fantastic lunch no one was willing to hold back on the desserts. Nobody had really thought about the size the desserts would be and when they arrived they turned out to be the biggest desserts I had ever seen. They were served on the same sized plates that the lunch was served on and there was enough for 3 people to share 1 dessert and still be full to the brim.

After everyone had managed to eat their desserts we paid the bill and returned to Carol's house after 3 hours at the restaurant. While the adults chatted in the living room, the kids preferred to go on the computer, play with the dog or listen to our iPod's, which is really all we did for the rest of the evening. After another 3 hours of chatting, taking photos and videos and exchanging email addresses we finally said goodbye to Andy, Yvonne and David.

It was then time to think about dinner. Our lunch was so massive that we decided to settle for pizza for dinner, just a small snack to keep us going but enough for the people that were hungry. Dad and I headed 5 minutes down the road to the pizza place. The pizzas didn't take very long and we returned home about 15 minutes later. We ate while we watched the results show of Strictly Come Dancing. Almost as soon as we finished and cleared up we said goodbye to mum, Bronte and Carol and returned to the hotel. As it was still quite early when we got back to our rooms, we turned on the TV and watched the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire but turned it off when it got to the graveyard bit. After cleaning our teeth with switched the lights off and I watched a movie on my iPod before falling asleep.
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