Michaelangelo's David is returning to Italy after 2 years in the USA



 

After  a two year visit to the  United States , Michelangelo's David is  returning to  Italy . .

 

  

 

His  Proud Sponsors were: 

 

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Singapore Family

Whilst we were in Singapore we stayed with Jo-Ann's brother, Ah Sze, his wife, Ah Chan and their two children, Wei Qi and Yan Qi.

Just before we went to the airport, Wei Qi took some group photo's

L - R Jo-Ann, Richard, Mother, Ah Sze, Yan Qi, Mother, Ah Chan and Wei Qi

Richard and Yan Qi

Ah Sze, Mother, Yan Qi, Ah Chan and Wei Qi

Our Return to the UK

We left Singapore at 11:30 pm on Sunday the 1st June via Singapore Airlines, once again on the A380.

Yesterday morning, the 2nd, we arrived at Heathrow Airport in London at 6 am and took a bus to Reading railway station where my elder brother, Michael, kindly picked us up.

We had a good flight, both managing to sleep for some time.

After a good breakfast, we took Michael back to the station so he could return to Burgess Hill ready for work on Tuesday at Plumpton College.

After we got back home, we finished unpacking and then decided to take a short nap. 12 hours later we woke up!

The Official Mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

I am taken with the mascots - Fuwa - of the Beijing Olympics - I think they are really cute.

Designed to express the playful qualities of five little children who form an intimate circle of friends, Fuwa also embody the natural characteristics of four of China's most popular animals -- the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow -- and the Olympic Flame.

Each Fuwa has a rhyming two-syllable name -- a traditional way of expressing affection for children in China.

Beibei is the Fish,

Jingjing is the Panda,

Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame,

Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope

and Nini is the Swallow.

When you put the first syllables of each name together -- Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni -- they say "Welcome to Beijing,"

Patterns on the Beach

Patterns on the beach at Moeraki.

Singapore - Family Dinner

This evening we went to dinner at 88 Plaza with Jo-Ann's, mother and brother, Ah Sze, sister-in-law, Ah Chan, also with my favourite nephew and niece, Wei Qi and Yan Qi.

We ate marmite pork, fish head curry, prawns and deer.

Marmite Pork

Kailan with salted fish

Fish Head Curry

I had good fun teasing Wei Qi and Yan Qi. Bad uncle!

Wei Qi

Yan Qi

Dictating to this machine

This laptop has a system of voice recognition which I'm trying to use successfully.

However it is not very successful for me as it's still trying to learn my voice.

But it's still fun trying.

27th May - Singapore

Today we went to Marsiling Sports centre to swim a bit and then went to Clementi Hawker Centre and met Eng & Queenie for lunch, Jo-Ann had rice porridge and I had my favourite, chicken rice. We both had fresh sugar cane juice to drink.

Afterwards, we wandered around the IMM centre for a while, had a cup of coffee and then went to Jurong for some fruit where we met Eng's cousins Eddie & Kwan who ate us to the durian stall and picked two of the best durian to try.

Richard tried fresh durian for the first time and pronounced it excellent.

We also ate some mangosteen and took some home to eat in the evening.

The day was long and Jo-Ann is very proud of me for eating fresh durian.

26th May - Singapore

We did some more work on this blog, posted bra's to Angie in the USA and then met Lillian (Jo-Ann's collegue from Riverstone) for a Japanese meal followed by Haagen Dazs ice cream.

 

25th May Sunday Singapore

Went for a great lunch with Kah Wan, Evelyn, Ashley, Eng and Queenie.

We had a buffet lunch at Kings Copthrone Hotel. It was a mixture of local food.

We ate far too much and had to skip dinner.

On the way back, we stopped at Causeway Point to check out the Crocs shoes and decided to catch a movie.

We wen and saw the new Indiana Jones - excellent, full of laughs.

20th -24th May Koh Samui

We went to see Carol regarding our arrangement to Koh Samui – an island off the east coast of Thailand. Carol is from Contact Travel, she is able so helpful with our travel arrangement. Then to we went to NTUC supermarket to collect our replacement suitcases. Ours was damaged coming back from NZ. We got 100 S$ as compensation whilst the new ones cost S$70.

In the night we flew to Koh Samui. This is a beach, good for relaxing, island.

Our daily routine was: had breakfast, set our towel on the bench. Went for a walk along the beach then went for a swim. Had lunch from the hawkers on the beach, mainly consist of sweetcorn, a coconut and a mango. Then went for another swim. Went for a Thai massage (about 4 pounds). Went back to the hut to read. Get dressed for dinner along the beach. All the seafood restaurant had the same thing. Prawns, king prawns, lobster, sea bass, squids, crabs.... You must know how you wanted it cooked. Very reasonable price for a great meal.

19th May Monday Singapore

It was a bank holiday in Singapore; we were invited by my cousin Jacqueline for dinner with her family.  She made gyoza, (Japanese dumpling with meat and veg).  We also had cold tofu.  

18th May Sunday Christchurch to Singapore.

10 hours of flying.  As long as going to UK from Singapore. My poor bum!

17th Saturday Christchurch

Got up early and showered, hoping to avoid the crowd. We were pleasantly surprised that it was not at all crowded. Anyhow we have to get packing and cleaned the campervan ready to return.

We also booked a self contained floor for the night.  It was a luxury to be in a proper room again. We have a room that sleeps 5, a bathroom and a kitchen.

Our campervan was good to last us for a month. At least we did not need to haul our bags and groceries every night to the hotels. I know it was snail like, but we enjoyed the convenient and comfort of it.  It was sad to see it go, and then it was a relief as well.  Richard was a good driver, and he kept us safe when he drove.

My mum and I spent the afternoon re-watch the first and last chapters of our Korean soap.  This was a refresh to us of what happened 2000 years ago, when the gods first came to earth.  No Noah's ark and his animals.

16th May Akaroa to Christchurch.

Somehow the journey from Akaroa to Christchurch was much easier than going to Akaroa. Maybe we were expecting the worst going uphill and winding down hill.

We both agreed we could live in Akaroa – such a pretty little bay. It is like living in a post card all the time. But it still does not tick all the boxes of what we want for our retirement.

We watched at least 6 chapters of our DVD – Korean soap about 4 legends protecting the king and of course it was part of a love story, they sell movies.

We arrived at Christchurch Top Ten campsite. It was big. Check in was a drive through.

We took a bus to town. Guess what? Not much – coffee shops and gift shops and a great cathedral.

15th May Tuesday Akaroa

This part of the journey was the worst. In a few days time – 3 days, we were due to leave NZ. In some ways I would like to get home to creature comfort, but on the other hand, "when-will-we-be-back-this-way-again" feeling.

NZ is easy to see from the car, but it would be better by foot. This was something we did not do a lot. Certainly in every corner, you will find a view to suit you. We started to wind down from our trip and will stay in Akaroa going for a few walks and watch DVD. I wish I did this journey 20 years ago and was fit to go trekking.

We went for a walk to the local Catholic cemetery and then to the dissenters' cemetery (non-Catholic) nearby. Believe it or not, there is a Gurney buried in the Catholic Cemetery.

It was sunny.

Akaroa by night from the campsite.

14th May Wednesday Akaroa

Akaroa was important to NZ. A French whaler found this place in 1838 and negotiated with a local Maori to buy the peninsula. On his return to France, he formed the Nanto Bordelaise Company which organised 57 emigrants to leave on the Comte de Paris accompanied by the warship L'Áube for NZ. When they arrived at the Bay of Island (North Island), he was told of the Treaty of Waitangi and consequently the British Sovereignty over NZ. It was because of the fear of being a French Colony, the local invited the British to colonised NZ. The British sent a warship to raise the Union Jack at Akaroa. Some French settlers remained at Akaroa and joined by a large group of British colonists in 1850. The British beat the French by 4 days in colonised NZ. Some of the street names are in French and the Union Jack still stands.

We took a harbour cruise and saw Hector's dolphins,

fur seals and, white flippered blue penguins.

It was a quick way down to the town from the campsite, but it was hard getting back. The hill was so steep, we had to talk several rest along the way. At least it was sunny.

13th May Tuesday Fairlie to Akaroa

We came to Akaroa via Rakaia. You could see Arthur's Pass in a distance. Rakaia has the longest bridges (road and rail) in NZ crossing the Rakaia River and are about 1750m long. The Rakia River is a "braided river" as are a lot of the rivers in New Zealand.

From Fairlie to Rakaia, the road is flat. It can be quite boring. But when we arrived at the Banks Peninsula, it was more interesting.

We went to Kaitorete Spit, a mistake. The spit is 25km long, separating the Pacific Ocean from Lake Ellesmere. There is nothing to see. We had lunch instead.

As we carried on, the road got steeper and steeper and it started to wind upwards. When we got to the middle, all 3 of us held our breath and said "holy moly, we still have to get up much higher!" We could see the road vertically above us.

When we finally got to the top, with much changing of gears and urging on of the old van (and getting increasingly older and more worn out) we saw the entire bay in front of us. As the expression says– you do not know what is round the next corner.

Five towns below us. It was a fantastic view. We started to wind downwards to Barry Bay, then wind up a little towards Duvachelle, then again to Robinson Bay the Takamatua and finally to Akaroa and the Top 10 camp site there.

12th May Monday Oamaru to Fairlie

Route 83 was the route we took. We came across 3 dams. The first was Lake Waitaki, then Lake Aviemore and Lake Benmore. The water from these lakes was blue.

The scenery again was stunning. Saw Mount Cook in the far distance, and a whole range of mountains in front of us. We got to Lake Pukaki and decided not to drive up to Mt Cook. Instead we admired it at a distance.

We stopped along route 8 at the lookout point and had lunch and at the same time admire Mt Cook. It was beautiful. Tried taking photos, but the sun was so strong that it was hazy.

Someone had painted some to the rocks by the side of the lake, this was the best of them - a view of Mount Cook in the distance.

We the carried on to Lake Tekapo. We found the Tekapo canal and decided to follow it. The canal was long, going across 3 lakes – Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki and Lake Ohau. The driving expression from a sales lady at the airport at Christchurch was – like tearing along a perforation of a page.

The canal road was so straight and long. On our right was the Tekapo River and the left was the canal bank. The river bed was beautiful with autumn colours. The small pond by the river was so clear and we could see the bottom from where we were driving, some 300m above.

We stopped at Lake Tekapo. So did 2 bus loads of Japanese tourists. They were admiring the crab apples. Not a lot here except for a church and some shops. But the lake view with the mountain as backdrop it was a grand view.

Fairlie, named after the town first hotel owner in Ayrshire, Scotland. The camp site was small, but well kept. This was the only camp site we got get free internet. We normally had to pay NZ$2 for 20 minutes. This was why we were unable to check our mail or update this blog too often. Sorry....

It was a cold night; we had frost on the ground the next morning.

Richard went fishing by the river. Three big fish, about 6-8 lbs. One of them looked at his fly and when Richard was about to cast again, the fly got caught by the rock and the fish spooked. He did not catch anything but instead lost his sock, we had to go back the next morning to retrieve it.

It was Monday; neither of us missed work. I wished all our friend, families and likable colleagues were here to join us. We toast you with this beautiful country.