Somlo Vineyard

Yesterday morning Curt and I sans kids and sans dogs, drove out to Somlo for one night. The reason for this visit was to sign the documents for 2 vineyards that we have just purchased. Our friends Sue and Peter already own there and have a beautiful home where they have entertained us and our family many, many times. The vineyards that we bought actually used to belong to some other friends of ours so we got it for a great deal.

When we arrived yesterday at about 12:30pm, Sue and Peter had a lovely lunch ready for us. We were laughing at the local cuts of meat. A little meat with your fat...

We hiked up to our new property today. We had been there many times before but it was nice to visit and look at it as ours... These first two photos are of Curt and I in front of one of our properties (one with the little house behind us and one with the view behind us).

Peter had the keys and showed us around. We then hiked up to the very top of the property which backs into a national preserve.

Here is the view from the top looking down on our little house with the valley below.

One of our wine cellars. I grabbed a few bottles of our Italian Reisling

Here is the cellar on the other property.

Above, Peter and Curt assessing the land while I checked out this fabulously huge cherry tree that will be perfect for a tree house.

Our lovely vines

Flowers that are blooming now. The first 3 are in Sue and Peter's garden.

Above is honeysuckle and one of my favorites, Peonies!
Below is a GORGEOUS peony. Love them.

I love irises. This is one of my favorite times in Hungary as they are absolutely gorgeous at this time of year. Above four fotos are all of our new neighbor's garden. Below is in one of our new vineyards.

These below are also on our new property.



Here are some posts from past visits to Somlo. Click here and here and here.

Surprise Beer for Dad

On Wednesday, when the kids were out of school, I had to drag them out to IKEA (one of my least favorite places to shop as it always takes so long and I come out with extras) after their tennis and Mia's doctor's appointment. I went for a rug for our spare bedroom. However, we ended up picking out a small cabinet for our bedroom.

Our master bedroom is quite small. My clothes barely fit and only a few of Curt's things (ie underwear, socks and t-shirts) fit. The rest of his clothes are downstairs in a wardrobe.

So, we decided to give daddy new drawers!! We bought a piece that would work really well in the corner next to our bed (in place of his nightstand). The box weighted 40 kgs so T and I had our work cut out for us trying to lift it into the car. Fortunately someone helped us lift it off the shelf onto our trolley but the outdoor IKEA guys were all too busy smoking and chatting to notice our need for assistance so we got on with it ourselves.

When we got home, we wanted to build it and surprise him. After an 1 1/2 we were only half way done and his return (just after 7pm) caused a stir of panic amongst the kids. It was funny as one always sat on look out for him to arrive. Terence then came up with the idea to leave a cold beer on the front steps with a note. I didn't see it until later and had to capture it on film! So cute. Not sure why he (and Mia) always space between words with a long line... Also thought it was funny that he missed an E in his name... ;-)



Needless to say, we had to break to let daddy in and eat dinner. I finished it later alone. This is the finished product and the reason for my terrible back pain...

Also 2 other random shots. One of my flowers that seems to rebloom every year at this time and I just adore!



And little Ali. Love how she sets herself up sometimes...

Filling in the Blanks

Started a post about Dubai Friends a while ago but just got a chance to 'publish' it... I cannot seem to get it up to the top as the date is according to when I started the post and not based on the completion date. If you want to view, then click here and it will take you down.

Latte Shapes

I forgot to include a photo of Ali's classy latte shapes. There are a few places in town (ie Costa and Four Seasons) where they make shapes in the milk like a leaf or a heart. After each latte that Ali makes, she calls out a shape (like clouds). Here she was proud of herself for doing a reindeer for Curt. Do you see it?

Chores and Talents

Like all of us, our kids have their great days and their not so great days. Trying to get them all doing their chores on a regular basis is an ongoing chore for me. They all do pitch in with feeding the dogs and cat; mopping; vacuuming; dusting; fixing their beds; taking out the garbage; emptying the dishwasher; taking the scraps out to the compost heap; gardening, etc. But some days are better than others. Some days they just don't seem to have any spare time but most days are pretty good...

Ali's latest and greatest is she makes coffee for Curt and I every morning. I am completely serious! She loves doing it and she is very, very good at it! Here are 2 videos demonstrating.







As we all know, making coffee for the parents isn't the most ordinary task for the average 4 year old. Well, here's another one of her talents... smelling corks. She has an amazing nose and we always give her the cork to smell. She has, in fact, been the one to detect a truly off and corked bottle. She's incredible and offers her talents anytime. Actually, whenever she hears a bottle being corked, she usually comes running. She also loves collecting corks - especially champagne corks. She picked up many that she found in restaurants, the street, etc while we were in Meribel, France. She has a collection. Again, she's not your average 4 year old!

Here she is demonstrating her skills (photo taken when she was only 3 1/2). She / we actually discovered this talent when she was just 3 years old in Feb 2009 while skiing in Zell am See. Most of you have probably heard the story so I won't go into it now...

My Little Mia

I just came across these 2 photos of Mia who is now 7 years and 4 months old. These photos must have been when she was 5 years old. She still has a heart of gold (most of the time) but at 5 years old she was just pure sweetness! Love these 2 photos of her.

Terence Videos of the Dune Bashing Adventure

The video below was from Terence's new camera. Again (it's an 'again' after you read the post below), I love seeing it from his perspective. The little boy is Tyler who is also moving to Dubai with his family this summer. Tyler's daddy works for Move One's Logistics.

The video is taken on one of our breaks from Dune Bashing out in the Empty Quarters desert.

PS Wendy, you are going to love this...



If you want to have a feel for what the ride was like (not the dune bashing part as this video was just our drive to the camp on a rather straight, even stretch), then watch T's video from the back seat of one of the jeeps.

Ali Swimming Video

I've just plugged in T's camera's memory stick into my laptop. There are 171 photos and even a few videos. I love looking through them to see life through his perspective. I will try and sort through and post over the next day or 2. In the meantime, I had to post a video that he took of Ali swimming. Unfortunately Curt only made it to the pool one day of the 2 weeks we were there due to his work schedule. The kids were so excited. I was happy to have a break as I had given tons of 'dolphin rides' to each of them. Even Ali let's me take her all the way down to the bottom of the deep end. She can hold her breath for an amazingly long time! We had a system that she pinched my shoulder if she was running low on air and I would quickly go back to the top. The deep end was only about 2 1/2 or 3 meters deep.

While in Dubai earlier this month, Ali's endurance for swimming really improved. She's always been a great swimmer and stopped wearing arm bands about a year ago but I still like her with either a noodle or some sort of flotation device (the small inner tubes are great) nearby. Her biggest achievement this time was swimming all the way across the width of the pool. The width was probably about 4 - 4 1/2 meters. The hardest thing for her was coming up for air. She's a great swimmer but she only just now how to incorporate her stroke with breathing breaks. Curt kept the noodle nearby for her to grab during breaths.

And, keep in mind that Terence did the filming.

Dubai Friends

Started this post a while ago, saved and forgot about. Just a few photos of our recent visit to Dubai and a day with our great friends. They are a family with 5 kids and a puppy. It is always so fun going over there and they all seem to mesh so well with our 3. It also seems to be the perfect array of boys and girls and ages of each...

Believe it or not, T is 2 years younger then Charles. Charles is the shortest in his class and T is the tallest in his. This is what you get when you put them together. They will only be 1 grade apart at the Dubai school so they'll probably see each other a lot on the play ground and school events.

Ali will be in the same grade with Alberta (the little girl in the above photo with her eyes closed).

BBQ Fun in early May

Back in early May - when it actually felt like May versus November like it's been the past 4 days - we had a great time at our friends' home for a bbq. There were about 13 kids and it was so much fun! The event was in honor of Harry who has just turned 11 yrs old.

Harry's dad, Jon, pulled out a tarp and made a home made slip and slide. It was a bit chilly but many of the kids did it, including Mia.

Ali was smart and watched in her robe (which she packed to take over). The photo on the below right is Ali with her Budapest BFF Molly (Harry's little sister).

I always take photos of people's shoes. Not sure why but think it'll be fun to look back upon. My foot, in case you are dying to know, is at 6 o'clock.

Cake time

And some more photos of our family and all our friends.

Always a fab, fab, fab dinner at the Coopers - salmon (which she brought back from Scotland) and steak both cooked on the barbie!

Update - including Mia's injury

It has been ages since I have last updated the blog. We returned from Dubai and then had a very busy weekend filled with bbqs and friends. This past week, I've had two girlfriends have babies, one girlfriend undergo a hysterectomy (it's strange - I'm at that funny in-between age) and a hospital trip with Mia. The fun never ends!

Right now in Budapest we are experiencing unusually cold weather. I'm sure it must be an all time low for Budapest in May. When I went to the gym this morning, my car's outside thermometer registered 6 degrees Celsius!! A few more and this freezing rain could turn to snow!! In mid-May! It's completely unusual. We've started using the fireplace again and are pulling out fleeces and long pants. This is very, very odd. I'm not entirely disappointed as we've had quite a few storms and I love thunderstorms!! Also, we've planted a lot of new grass and also some vegetables and the rain is exactly what they all need to sprout quickly.

Okay, I'm sure you are all wondering what happened with Mia. On Friday, I got a call from the school nurse. The conversation was in 1/2 French and 1/2 Hungarian. So, while all the way across town in Pest, I understood that she needed to be picked up and I should take her for x-rays. Did you know in most other languages the word for x-ray is rontgen after the inventor Wilhelm Rontgen?

Quickly I called my friend who works for Telki and scheduled to meet the orthopedic doctor and x-ray room for about 30 mins after getting Mia from school. The nurse was fine with holding her for the hour it took me to get to school and pick her up. I figured it wasn't life threatening so that eased my mind. It's still never fun to get 'the call' from the school that your child's had an accident.

When I got to the school, I found Mia sitting in the office near the front door drawing and waiting for me. There was another boy, who was apparently sick and waiting to get picked up, next to her. The head master of the school was also there to greet me. I made a very Curt-like crack and asked Mia, 'so, did you get in another fight?' I thought this was very funny but I only got strange looks. I assume the head master either thought I was crazy or didn't understand. Mia just gave me that look a child gives their parents when they are pleading to not be any more embarrassed then they've already been... This is our jobs as parents, isn't it? To embarrass our kids? It toughens their skin...

Seriously, I was happy to see she was still able to smile and she was very relieved to see me. She then apologized for having to pull me out of work. Isn't she so sweet? I told her not to be ridiculous and there was nothing that could have kept me away from coming to get her. I then assessed her injuries and signed a document (in French) explaining that it was her leg AND her arm! She had fallen while playing on the playground.

The head master was very concerned and kind and offered to help me carry Mia out to my car. I told him that it wasn't necessary and told him I'd keep him posted on our doctor's visit.

I was happy to see that there was a very short wait at the clinic and the entire process of consultation, x-rays (of her leg and arm) as well as the casting were all done in less than an hour! The charge to my insurance (if anyone is curious) is 50,000HUF or 225USD. We could have went to a state hospital and had it all go through our National Health cards for no charge but then I probably would have been at the hospital with Mia for 4 - 5 hours, if not overnight. The private clinic method was the best option for us!

So, as you have probably guessed, Mia has a broken arm - or wrist, as her medical report has 'csuklo' written on it. Actually, the doctor that was in the clinic when we got there only spoke very little English. It was adorable as Mia translated most of the conversation between him and I. The English medical report is being sent to me later this week.

Mia was great in the x-ray room too. The x-ray technicians loved that she spoke perfect Hungarian without an accent. This always gets lots of raves and attention as the Hungarians love when foreigners make the effort to learn their language. She was loving the attention and chatting away to them about how the accident happened at school, etc.

Since the break is not terrible and probably due to her youth, her cast is only required to stay on for 3 weeks - assuming all goes well. She was surprisingly excited to get a cast! Her friend in Dubai also has a cast and she's secretly been admiring it... Fortunately, it is her left hand and she is a righty so she has adjusted to it very well. Since her fingers are sticking out of it and her elbow is not covered, she is able to do just about everything. I think she's excited to go to school tomorrow and show it off.

Here are the photos of x-ray time (I got them doing her leg)...


Casting time....

And her smiling face today....
She's managed to do all her usual chores. Here she is below running out to the compost pile with Ali.

Initially I thought having a broken arm is not a big deal in this beautiful warm weather. I am now biting my tongue as the weather has went from summer to early winter. We'll have a challenge tomorrow getting her jacket over her cast but I think we'll find something that will work.

Our Last Night in Dubai

On our last night in Dubai we went and checked out one of the newest shopping malls - the Mirdif City Centre near the airport. I needed to get a few gifts for some people and the kids voted for this mall as they went with Erika, the sitter, and loved the play area. Since I'd never been, I went along with the majority vote. It was a long drive from our hotel (about a 65 dirham taxi fare) but it proved a fun adventure. I wasn't entirely thrilled with the choice of stores but they do have THE first Crate and Barrel (as well as a Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids) so that will be good to know for future home purchases. And, as I mentioned, their kids play area Cite des Enfants was great for our trio. I don't think the entire play section is finished but what they have is really entertaining and unique. I think it is affiliated with the Paris Science center that T and I went to a couple of years ago. I even blogged about it here.

On the way out of the mall's front entrance, they had these giant letters spelling out Mirdif. The kids loved climbing up inside of them. Here they are inside the letter F.

And, Mia in front of the letter 'M'.