Our big holiday

We drove to Edinburgh and caught a plane to France. We walked to our hotel and in the afternoon we went to a big shopping centre (Gallerie La Fayette) where we bought some nougat and chocolates. Lots of displays were in the windows of the shop and were on a timer - there were teddies, soft toys all moving and doing things - it was for xmas. The next day was Saturday and we caught the train to the Arc de Triumphe and then walked all the way down the Champs de Elysse to the Louvre - a really big museum. We had to wait in line at the Louvre for an hour before we got our tickets. There was only one way to enter the Louvre - through a big glass pyramid and then down under the ground on escalators. After lunch we went through some side streets (St Michel) where there were lots of shops and restaurants - Dad bought us an icecream - Mum went to look for something she wanted but didn't find anything except fruit. We came back to this area for tea.On Sunday we went to the Eiffel Tower. We bought tickets to climb the stairs (we didn't want to use the lifts). I counted 330 steps going up and 300 going down - so all together there was at least 600 steps. I got to the second floor first out of our family - we couldn't go higher than that unless we went on the lift. We had a 360 view of Paris and could see the River Seine - it was really high up - it's 276.13m high. We only went to the second level which is 115.73m high.then we went to an Aquarium - we saw a couple of movies about sharks and polar bears - the movies were in French. I have learnt a few words in French - bon jour (good morning), oui - yes, sil vous plait - please, merci - thank you, sortie - exit. Then we flew to Switzerland, Geneva and caught two trains which got us to Zermatt. When we were on the train going to Zermatt it started to snow - we got some and ate it at one of the train stations. Snow is soft and fluffy and sometimes hard like ice - we saw black ice which is very slippery. Mum threw the first snow but it wasn't a proper snowball - I made the first snowball and threw it at Dad. On the first day we checked in at the hotel and hired skis, boots, poles and got ski passes to go into the mountain slopes. We played in the snow and made snowmen, snowcastles and had snow fights. Tuesday was our first day skiing - we went skiing every day from 9am until 4pm each day for four days in total. The first day we had Andrei to teach us how to use the skis and later in the morning I went down the beginner's slope with Dad and Andrei - I fell over about 4 times. Then we caught the chair lift back to the top and then after that we got pretty good at it and kept going down by ourselves and back up on the chair lifts. I loved it. Dad says in 10 years time we might go skiing again - I'll be 21! We took lots of movies of us skiing down the mountain and we went on two easy slopes that were joined together. This is the Matterhorn we saw in the morning we it every day. On Saturday we left Zermatt and caught the train back to Geneva and then we went in a shuttle bus to our hotel. We then went on a bus to the city and we saw lots of food, market stalls, sculptures, mirrors and lights near the River, there was also a running race. Some of the people were dressed up in costumes - sumo wrestlers, doctors and other things. If I was in the race I'd probably come firstor second (hmmm, mum's not so sure) - I'd just wear light clothes not dress up. The next day we had to get up early at about 5am to catch a plane to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam we bought some salted licorice to eat - yum! We went to a Jewish Museum - into the kids part, then the adults part. In the kids part we watched a couple of movies about Jewish foods and their kitchen rules, the s
habbat and some other things they do. We also went to a fun park and played there for an hour or more. We had heaps of fun climbing thru a dark tower and then dropping down through a net - Dad times us and my best time was 2 6 seconds. I also played soccer 2:2 with two other people who were there. Then we quickly bought some lunch and raced back to the canal cruise boat which took us to our hotel. We got our bags and went to the train station to go to the airport to fly back to Edinburgh. We arrived in Edinburgh at 6.30pm (which was really 7.30pm for us). We drove to the Mahers house to drop off our ski suits and pick up Matt's drink bottle - then we drove back to Aberdeen. We slept in the car and we got home about midnight. Now it's a week until we're in Perth again - I'm feeling happy about that but I would like to stay and do more skiing.

Aberdeen Ball Pit Experience

On Sunday, 25 October 2009 we went to Aberdeen Ecclesia for the meeting. After the meeting we saw there was a new play area in the hall - a ball pit. We went over to have a look at it and I pushed Matthew and he fell into the pit. Matt took off his shoes and threw them out of the ball pit and then everybody else got into the ball pit too. There were six people in the ball pit - Jo, Matt, Uncle Graeme, Aunty Kirsty, Jamie and I. We all had ball fights with the balls in the pit. We buried ourselves in the ball pit and people were jumping on each other because they couldn't see the other people underneath. The ball pit had protected sides and the balls were soft and squishy so no one got hurt. I loved playing in the ball pit because it was my first time in one in Scotland. Uncle Graeme was in the ball pit. He had lots of pens in his pocket. I got all of them but then he grabbed some of the pens back. Then Matt got them off Uncle Graeme and gave them all to me. It was like a game of keepy-off with the pens - it was fun as! Aunty Kirsty was taking lots of photos of us having fun. People were laughing and throwing balls at each other and some people threw balls back into the ball pit. Most of the adults were watching us play from the side of the ball pit.

Visiting Stirling

We went to Stirling to see Stirling Castle. It's built on a big volcanic piece of rock high above the city of Stirling. We just looked at the outside because we had to pay to go in the Castle. We didn't want to spend the money and time there as we were going to see another family who live near Stirling. This is the view of the castle. Then we drove to Alva Glen and walked a fair way up and around a hill to see a place called Smuggler's Cave. We saw a dead deer there - I wanted to bring home the jawbone with some teeth on it but Dad said no.
When we got to the cave there was lots of water rushing out between two rocks at the back of the cave and you could just see a waterfall behind that. It was beautiful. We also saw some waterfalls on the way to the cave - there are some photos showing this.

Then we went to stay at the Maher's house - they have 4 children - Joel 13, Luke 10, Zoe 8, Josh nearly 6. Luke turns 11 in January and I played with him most of the time. We played rugby.

At 5pm when it was dark we had fireworks in their back garden. Their dad, Uncle Shaun, set off lots of different fireworks and it was heaps cool because one of them had 100 shots after it zipped into the sky - it went zzzzzzz bang, bang, bang, bang, bang up to 100!!! There were lots of individual fireworks too - some were coloured, some were sparkly, some were like waterfalls. Some landed on the road and in the trees too. We also had sparklers and we had some food to eat too.

Then we had tea and went to bed about 9pm.

The next day was Sunday and we went to their meeting called Stirling Ecclesia. They have sunday school during the memorial meeting - that was different and it was fun. We learnt about Samson. We sat in the memorial meeting until the reading was over and then we went out for the lesson and came back in just before the adults had the bread and wine.

After the meeting we had lunch and then we wore off some energy at the park - kicking the rugby ball and playing on the field.

Then we went back for the public lecture at 2.30pm and then after that we walked up a hill to the Wallace Monument. This man Mr Wallace killed heaps of English soldiers - one man that he killed he skinned him and used the hide to make a strap for his sword. He also chopped off some horses legs as they ran across a bridge - he had a huge two handed sword.

Then we went back to the Maher's house and packed up and drove back to Aberdeen that night - it was a 2.5hr drive. We slept most of the way.

Inveraray & Neptune's Staircase

On the weekend of 17 October we went to Inveraray which is a small town near Oban. We wanted to climb the mountain/hill that overlooked the town. The photo on the left is the hill we climbed and you can just see the tower at the top. So we drove to the starting point of the hike at Inveraray Castle (see photo). As we started our walk Matt threw the tennis ball into a hedge and I had to get it, when I got it, I threw it and it landed in the hedge on the other side of the road. I then had to climb through that hedge and disappeared completely inside the hedge, climbed out the other side and got the ball. I nearly got stuck.

We started climbing and got into the forest where it was dark but you could see where you were going. We saw lots of trees, bushes and streams running down the side of the mountain and we saw a young deer but it ran away before we could take a photo. We also saw some sheep. Then we left the forest as we got close to the top of the hill and it was sunny. Mum was the first one up.

When we reached the top we climbed into the tower and took some pictures of the view below. We saw quite a long way away, we could see other mountains and hills and we saw reflections of the trees in the Loch below the mountain. It was a still day so the Loch was very calm. The view was great - I felt like jumping into the Loch from where I was. Then we went back down - us kids ran most of the way down the mountain and I was first down. This is the tower on top of the hill.

Then we drove to Neptune's Staircase at Fort William. At one end of the staircase there is a Loch which eventually leads to the Irish Sea and the other end eventually gets to the Atlantic Ocean. When there is a boat that needs to get from the lower Loch to the higher Loch the bridge over the road swings to one side so the boat can get to the first gate of Neptune's Staircase. The staircase has 8 gates. When the boat is in the first lock gate a man presses a button to make the bottom of the next lock gate lift up a little boat. This lets water into the lock gate where the boat is and that makes the water the same level. So then they open the lock gate and the boat drives through to the next step/stair or lock gate. Then they shut the first gate and get ready to open the next gate when the water is level. It happens 8 times before the boat gets up to the other Loch. The height difference between the lower Loch and the higher Loch is 20m. It used to be a waterfall before they made it the lock system. We saw a boat go from the 5th stair to the top of the staircase. If you want to get from the top to the bottom it's exactly the same. On top of each gate there are walkways for people to cross from one side to the other side. We all walked over. I liked watching the boat through the staircase to the top.

While we were at Neptune's Staircase we also saw the highest mountain in the UK (Ben Nevis). You can ski down Ben Nevis.

Loch Ness & up North

We drove for 3 hours to our Loch Ness hotel. We slept that night. We went for a little walk around the hotle. Then we had breakfast. We drove for 2 mins and walked up Craigmonie hill (150 metres high - this is the view from it) and then to Divach Falls - this took from 9am until 12.30pm - it was a looonnngg walk. We walked back to the car and drove to Urquhart Castle. It was built in the 1200's and the castle is in ruins. It was facing Loch Ness.
I think you will ask "Did you see the loch ness monster?" We did see the loch ness monster. Then we drove to Inverness and had lunch.

We went driving further north after lunch and came to the town of Shin. We walked to a waterfall called the Falls of Shin. We saw salmon jumping up the waterfall. One jumped all the way up to the top of the waterfall but he fell back down again. Other salmon were jumping part of the way up and then slithering back down again. Then we went to the playground equipment and tried the circuit - we all had a go doing our fastest. Then we had an icecream.

Then we drove to the highlands -we saw massive mountains and we saw some little creeks running down the side of the mountains and some little waterfalls right next to the road.

The roads were very windy and we saw a van that had gone too fast round a corner and hit another car. He was lucky there was a car to smash into because otherwise he would have driven over the cliff to the ocean...the Atlantic Ocean actually. We saw ambulance, constabulary (which means police) and fire engines racing to the crash. We could see all the drivers and they were alive but the car bonnets were very munted.

Then we got to the west of the Scottish mainland coast and we raced down to touch the water of the Atlantic Ocean - I beat Mum. The beach had lots of pebbles all over it - really smooth and no sand. We threw the rocks in and tried to skim some.
(By the way, we didn't see the loch ness monster.)

Duthie Park, Drive to Holyhead & Ferry to Dublin

We went to Duthie Park again the other day and visited the David Welch Winter Gardens - a huge display of indoor plants from many different climates of the world. Here are some of the different sections.

I took photos of the different types of Venus fly trap plants - there were at least 5 different types. Jo got a bumblebee to climb onto her finger and I took a picture of it. Then we took hte bumblebee and put it in the venus fly traps but the bumblebee didn't want to go down and climbed back out. I was taking a video of it happening and was very disappointed when the bumblebee came back out.

Another part of the gardens had strawberries growing in it but they weren't ripe - some had slugs in them.

We also found a plant called 'sleeping grass'. If you touch the leaves of the plant the leaves close up and after about 10 minutes it opens up again. The plant thinks there's danger. We took a video of Matthew and Jo touching the plant and you can see the leaves closing. At night the plant shuts its leaves and goes to 'sleep' and then opens them again in the morning.

Another section of the gardens had scented plants. When we touched the leaves of the plant it would leave a smell on our fingers - I hated the smell of some of them. You can see Jo and Matt sniffing their fingers.

We left Aberdeen on Thursday at 6pm and started driving to Holyhead. We arrived at the hotel along the way at about midnight. We had about 6 hours sleep and then we were up and driving on to Holyhead (in Wales). We drove through England and part of Wales and arrived in Holyhead before 10am. Here's a photo of a tower we saw on the edge of a mountain in Wales (taken in a moving car).

We listened to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and finished it just as we drove onto the ferry. Charlie was pretty excited when he found the last golden ticket.

The ferry that is taking us to Ireland is massive. We drove our car onto the ferry and there were heaps of other cars and vans too - there were two layers of cars on the storage deck. The trucks came on last. The ferry has five decks.

The river dee

On Sunday after the meeting. We went for a drive and had lunch. I had steak and guinness pie and soft vegetables.

We went and saw the river Dee. There were small fish jumping up the rocks as you can see in the picture. We went to some big rocks. Dad and I was playing chase and I jumped onto a rock which was one metre away and my foot slipped and it bent back and it hurt!!! I gave dad a skimming rock and it skimmed six times. Dad and Jo went in the water with there bathers on. Dad said"IT WAS FREEZING COLD". Jo said "It is all right". I wet Jo, Mum and Dad but not Matt sadly. We got to pull funny faces as you can see in the picture. You would think that I am basically off.

My bedroom

Hi Everyone
I thought I'd tell you something about our life here.

I have a bedroom to myself that looks out onto the road. There is a school over the road - I can see childen going to school everyday. The children wear grey pants/skirts or dresses and white shirts to school. I think our school uniform is better than theirs.

I have my desk to myself and usually have started my schoolwork before 8am and finish before 1pm.

There is a piano in my room which I don't play!

The other room that faces onto the street is where we play Monopoly and do our Bible readings...Dad has won two games so far and at the moment I'm winning.

We are working on our Monopoly SOSE project - I have finished Oxford Street and half of Regent St.

Matt and Jo are sharing a bunk bed. Matt's on top for 1 1/2 months and then it's Jo's turn. Dad and Mum are in the loft upstairs. We have small kitchen, a normal dining table and a very very big backyard - but lot's of it is garden and the fences are about a metre high, so balls can easily go over! One did on the first day.

When we're eating lunch outside there are lots of bees flying right near us, landing on us and our food. There are heaps of butterflies and insects, we've also seen some bumblebees too.

Our house is joined together with our neighbour and so are many others in Aberdeen. The streets are narrow and often two cars can't pass on the small roads. Some of the roads are cobbled roads and very bumpy.

We've joined at gym and go 5 times a week after our schoolwork - we play basketball, soccer, all kinds of sports including badminton. There's a 25m pool there - Aberdeen has no 50m pools!

On Wednesday night people came over for Bible Class - I could hear them having the Bible readings. Three adults came (altogether there were 5 people).

This is what we did in London

Thursday;
- Landed in London at 5am. Train and 2 taxis to the hotel.
- Breakfast, all-you-can eat - it was yuumm.
- We went and had a walk from our hotel (South Bank) it was a long walk but it was fun.
- We had a chicken and bacon sandwich.
- We played keepy off, the kids won the keepy off. Yeehaaaa!!!
- We read the bible.
- Dinner time. Yeeeeeehaa.
- We went to bed.

Friday;
- Breakfast, it was yuumm.
- We went for a walk to the drycleaner shop. We saw Big Ben, the bells were ringing at 10:00 and 10:30. We saw some magnets.
- Matthew is having a sleep.
- We went to the Museum of Natural History. There were animals which were stuffed. There were; dolphins, a big big blue whale, killer whale, elephants, a mammut, dinosaur, horses.
- Dinner time. Yeeeeeehaa - we had pizza and hot chocolate fudge brownie with ice cream.
- Bed time.

Saturday;
- Breakfast, it was yuumm.
- Bible reading.
- Buckingham palace.
- We had a picnic lunch at Trafalgar Square
- We saw professional performers doing Oliver. It was at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It was better than our Oliver and it was a lot lot better.
- Dinner time. Yeeeeeehaa
- Bed time.

Sunday;
- Breakfast, in the room
- We went on the train to the meeting in Bedford - one hour out of London. Saw Aunty Danielle and Uncle Carl.

- Meeting

- Lunch
- We went down to the river and the swans they were white not black.We played with the soccer ball.
- We went back on the train.
- Dinner time. Italian. Yeeeeeehaa.

Monday;
- Breakfast, it was yuumm. -

- We went on a city tour it was a double decker bus.
- Lunch
- We moved hotels to City Inn. YES YES.
- We went to have a walk to the river and then a boat ride. the man was funny.

- Dinner time. Burger. Yeeeeeehaa.

Tuesday;
- Breakfast, it was yuumm.

- We went and took photo of the places on the monopoly board.
- Lunch
- We went and took photo of the places on the monopoly board.

- We had a bible reading.
- We went to the gym.
- Dinner time. Yeeeeeehaa.

Wednesday;
- Tutoring online
- Breakfast, it was yuumm

- We went and took photo of the monopoly board.

- Lunch
- We went and took photo of the monopoly board.
- We went to the fitness room.
- Dinner time. Yeeeeeehaa.

Thursday;

- Breakfast, it's the best in the west.
- We went to the laundry mat.
- We went to the British museum.
- Lunch
- We went to the Science Museum. We watched the 3D movie. It was fun.
- Dinner time. Yeeeeeehaa.

Friday;
- Breakfast, it was yuumm.
- Taxi, Train, aeroplane to Aberdeen
- In our new home in Scotland.

Love Sam.L.

This is what we did in singapore

On monday;
- We went and had brekkie.
- pool, we all played on the water slides, then went to the beach where we swam to an Island. we got told off by a life saver.
- We went and had lunch it was yuummm. We had club sandwich.
- city tour the places were; Merlion-historical, Chinese Temple-incense, Gem stones, Orchid Botanical Gardens, Litte India.

On tuesday;
- We went and had brekkie.
- pool, we all played on the water slides
- We walked around sentosa.
- I held a python it's muscles were stronger than mine it was fun asss.
- luge + chair lift; We got to drive this car/toboggan. I came first.
- We saw a lizard in the rainforest.
- sleep
- We went on the singapore flyer we were up 165 meters.
- We had Asian meal-noodlles, chop stick. Matthew saw funny eating noodlles.
- Night Safari; We had a icecream, Jo went on stage to help.
- back to the hotel

On wednesday;
- We decided not to swim today. We went on the luge + chair lift again, two times! I came third and first (Dad crashed out)
- We went to the zoo we saw matthew's favourite animals, the tiger, lion and outher cat's.
- We went to the hotel and packet up. We saw monkeys and they pulled our shirts.
- Then we went to the airport.