Cheers!

We had a very happy Christmas - hope you all did, too!

Happy Christmas!

Lots of love to all of you, wherever you may be.
From All in Singapore. Xxxxxx
PS
Felix too ott to pose for photo in case you wondered where he was!

Just practising

Just trying to work out how to blog from my iPad . This was my first night in Singapore - hard to believe I've been here a week!

TODAYS QUIZ........

HERE WE HAVE PETES CAR.....BUT DOES ANYONE RECOGNISE THE REGISTRATION PLATE ? I WILL LEAVE THE ANSWER IN 'COMMENTS' SECTION... SO NO CHEATING..
HOPE YOUR ALL WELL AND LOOKING FORWARD TO CHRISTMAS.....PETE AND PAUL.

Five years

Miss you still. xxxxxx

• 

Granddaughter

Maize has come for a weekend sleepover. These are the toys she brought with her - should I be worried?

A Real Grown-Up Little Boy

#9 Saint Nicholas Street

BEFORE

AFTER

I'm all grown-up (not really) and moved into my first Big-City apartment! I'm in an old packaging factory that has been converted to residential units so it has lovely hardwood floors and exposed brick. I'm living with a good buddy from Uni and Anneli comes back from school to visit on weekends. It's really big considering what we pay and that its right down town but I think we're benefiting from the fact we're on the top floor, there's no elevator, dishwasher, and it's next to a naughty leather store!

I'm very much enjoying my new found job and independence but I must confess I'm writing this from Mum and Dad's, full of yummy pot-roast and I definitely miss the legendary Singapore Slinger's hospitality and the beach-bum life!

Canadian Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from Canada! We had the perfect fall weather for our last couple of days at the cottage this year and along with the boys we had Anneli and Pip's mate Jordan to help us attack the traditional turkey. The colours around the lake were gorgeous and Pip even braved the lake for a dip. We toasted all of you around the world of course...

Quick update!

My boy on his crutches and a cast after fracturing a bone playing soccer!! although he isn't able to be as active as normal he has put all of his efforts into annoying his mother:-) another first today, he got a love letter from a girl that is smitten with him at school!!! (I need to fix that I think!) Maddie just had her teacher conference with us and had glowing reviews much to her delight and she is now running cross country and playing soccer much to the shagrin of her immobile brother!! She also just bridged to brownies from daisies with he group which I somehow am co-leader of!! So all good here, manic with the house stuff but that will hopefully be over before the holidays and then we can relax and get a somewhat normal life back again!

Here is the not quite up to date but the latest that I have at present pics at the renovation blog site http://www.scholtenhouse.blogspot.com/

Hope all is well whichever corner of the world you are, miss you all keep thinking we should use this blog more and then the time just slips by!! love to one and all, be well and happy :-) H x

Tim, 17!

Thanks for the pix from the past Bev...But this is what the young man looks like these days, en route to a debating competition. He even drives himself to school now...Where has the time gone?

17 Today!

Happy Birthday, Tim! .... much love, Bev xxxxxx

17 Today!

Many Happy Returns, TIM ! ....... much love, Bev xxxxxx

PETES 65 TH BIRTHDAY

CELEBRATED IN SCOTLAND FISHING WITH JAMIE.(WHO FELL IN TWICE ! !) IT COULD BE DOWN TO THE WHISKY I SUPPOSE.... THE DANCE SHOWN IS TO APPEASE THE SALMON GODS.. ONLY EVER UNDERTAKEN AFTER SEVERAL WHISKIES...........IT WORKED AS YOU CAN SEE BY THE BIRTHDAY FISH..

LOVE TO ALL

MORE POSTS PLEASE

THE OAP IN THE UK.

Best Buddies !

Just a quick update from Portugal.
All Ok from Southern Europe, no riots yet, still stable currency !(LOL) and still sunny......

Hope you are all well, there have been a certain lack of posts recently, must be the summer everyone is too busy........

Max and Clare ae all great, Max won his first singles golf tournament last week (one very proud Dad), Clare is now working also for Quinta do Lago (quality control for the villas).
Mid Summer here is always mad, many friends, family and clients here, so many parties, dinners etc etc.

Full of celebs here too at this time of year, I was in the gym this morning racing with Sol Cambell (ex arsenal legend) on the treadmill ! Paul McGinley (ex Ryder cup legend) and many more to boot.

All quiet on the phone front, Dads in Scotland fishing again, he´s looking forward to the river conditions it should be a great week. Mums in US of A with skin and blister...their kids are back to school this last week , so their all catching up with the new house and some retail sessions.

I hope everyone is Ok, looking forward to seeing tuther half of the family over Christmas and New Year.

Big Bejinhos from Algarve.... :)

Love Jamie, Clare and Max.......

7 today!

Happy Birthday Maddie! Have a great day,
with lots of love from everyone at Spratton
xxxx

There is a thespian amongst us !!!
Jungle book a la Alarve International School.
Max´s leading Mogli role............
Played it wonderfully well darling.
Final show today, so fingers crossed.
He loved every minute and had a whale of a time.
Bought a lump to your throat !!!!!

Well done Max.

Stage school is calling.....

Short Video will be on You Tube shortly.........

Love to all

J C and M

The Wanderers Return

Pip and Anneli arrived back home this afternoon after what sounds like an amazing six weeks in Honk Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. A big thank you to Kirsty and Kev for family hospitality and many G & T's over the last few days. Anneli has to go to work tomorrow morning, but I don't think we'll see Pip surface much before tomorrow afternoon!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday 95th Pop! Warm wishes and fond rememberings from the residents and visitors of Singapore.

Introducing the 2nd generation of Canadian Bloggers! Finally passed the Asian internet screening and allowed into the Boughton Mill Blog. It may have taken quite a few self photo attempts and several corresponding G&Ts (see above and notice a little bit of Anneli's face in the top right) but we got a 'cheers to Pop' photo. We've been having a great time with Kirsty, Kev and the kids. Visited Sungei Buloh Wetlands reserves today and saw many the monitor lizard and other Singapore wildlife. Heading off tomorrow to continue our Singapore adventures and then we have a few more days before we have to head back to Canada and rejoin the working world!

Cheers to Pop from all of us down in Singapore!

95

Happy Birthday, Pop - still miss you so much.

All love, Bev

(So this photo must be about 92 years old!)

Renovations have started:-)

Thought I'd post again the link as we have updated our house blog again so you can see it in it's raw state!! www.scholtenhouse.blogspot.com for some reason I can't add photos on here tonight. Hope all is well wherever you may be, thinking of you all H J TJ and M xxx

Thai Time

More of Pip and Anneli's Excellent Adventures...
"It feels like we've done so much since I last wrote in Chiang Mai! We took the train down to Bangkok, in a second class sleeper with ac, which was really nice. We arrived in Bangkok at 7am and checked into our Guesthouse and then took off to explore. We had some amazing street food, toured markets and went to a few temples. The temples and palaces in Bangkok were massive. We went to Wat Pho, where in just one of the many buildings, lay the reclining Buddha. I can't remember the actual dimensions, but it was hard to get it all in one picture! We booked our train down to Surat Thani in second class with a seat and fan for overnight. It was wayy better than we were thinking it would be. All the windows on the train were open so it wasn't too hot. Wasn't very easy to sleep however as there are Thais walking the isles trying to sell stuff all through the night and are very loud! No, I do not want to buy a whole chicken at 4:30am on a train! Haha When we arrived in Surat Thani, we got right on a bus for a couple hours that took us to the pier where we enjoyed our first sights of the beaches and islands on a ferry to Koh Phangan. This is where we met up with some of our University friends, which was awesome. The Full Moon Party was ridiculous and awesome as around 20,000 people go to it every month. So it worked as a place to coordinate our travel plans for a couple days. I've attached a picture of the beach as it was when the sun was rising. People were still going strong! We retired to the rocks to watch the mayhem by this time. We were staying at a little place called JB huts, which was fantastic, it was about a half hour drive from the beach with the party, so we we're able to be free of the music when we left. Our hut had a beautiful view of the ocean from our hammock. And the beach was just 2 minutes away from our hut, although, more like 15 on the way back up. We stayed 3 nights there and then said goodbye to our friends and headed to the other side of the island. We had been looking forward to this place for literally months. When we were first researching places to go in Thailand we were on Google Earth on the iPad, and just kept zooming in on one spot in the ocean and it ended up being an amazing looking place, that we promised to go to, and here we are! It's called Mai Pen Rai bungalows, and is on the east side of the island that is a lot more remote. Unlike the other parts of the island that have electricity all throughout the day, Mai Pen Rai is in an area with electricity from 12-4 and 6 to midnight. So it gets pretty hot at night without a fan, but everything about it is worth it, because this is as close to paradise as I can imagine. We are staying in a rock side bungalow with a view of the bay and green hills and ocean. In order to get to our hut, you walk across the beach and then crouch and walk through a little hole in the rocks which leads to stairs that go up. Yesterday we went exploring on the rocks for a couple hours in one direction: we found a bat cave! First we just saw a cave and wanted to check it out so we hopped in the water and swam up to the surrounding rocks. We got up on the rocks, still aways from the entrance to the cave, and started getting close. Then we stopped for a second as we just realized that what we were hearing was not the birds, but the screeching bats! As we got closer, it reeeeeeked, and there were huge spiders. I just went far enough to say I'd stepped inside but I definitely didn't stay long. What an amazing adventure! Our place is in a national park so there are lots of things that are on our list to see. There are tons of waterfalls and we are going to rent kayaks to go explore around the coast and see a couple small islands that we've spotted that are really close to the coast. We have two more nights here and then we are taking a boat to Koh Tao where we will be scuba diving! If you want to check out the bungalows, the website is thansadet.com."

I don't think we want to know too much more about the infamous Full Moon Party...!

Sardines and prawns on the beach in Ferragudo, washed down with a beer or two ! LLLLLurvly.

"The old folk" on the boardwalk.. Dad was that pre or post "fainting"???

(ps don´t ask !)

Black pork and mum´s 1\2 a cow restaurant, decisions were being made here on Christmas 2011, so that´s why the serious faces. suprisingly washed down with a few beers!! and the BEST choccy mouse in the world !!

Love to all............ J C and M

More Running and Flying...

Here's the latest news from Pip and Anneli's backpacking trip in SE Asia...The top two pics are from their trek in northern Thailand and the bottom pic is in the world's highest bar in Hong Kong!

"Hong Kong was amazing. It was so helpful to have Cathy here to show us around. We took a picnic up to The Peak on Friday which was really fun. Talk about a meal with a view! Very comparable to 360 at the CN tower... Just that the food was a little more reasonably priced. We got to experience it in the sun, then engulfed in cloud, and then again when it cleared up and the light had faded and the city was lit up like a Christmas tree. So beautiful. There was also a spectacular view from the ferry which we took last night. We have about a hundred pictures of skyscrapers now! We also went for one drink at the VERY swanky Ozone bar on the 118th floor of the International Finance tower (the tallest building in HK at just under 500m and the highest bar in the world!) With drinks at $90HKD, we didn't stay too long. We did however take full advantage of the complimentary almonds haha. Stunning view of HK obviously and very cool as it was on the top floor and had a pseudo-outdoor patio with an open roof."

"We are currently in a cafe with wireless in Chiang Mai. We are hopping on at train at 6pm overnight to Bangkok. We are staying 1 night in Bangkok and then heading south for the islands. We had an amazing week in Chiang Mai. We are really going to miss it. The next day we made the pilgrimage to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep atop a mountain a little ways outside Chiang Mai. Incredibly beautiful. Grabbed a really yummy Pad Thai for $30 baht at the local market which subsequently put me on my knees for the night (luckily not until we got back to the hotel), and for the majority of the next morning. Once I could stomach a bowl of rice however, we headed out of town to visit the town of Bo Sang Village where all the beautiful umbrellas and fans are made. All were very beautiful but we decided pictures were cheaper and easier to take home with us than the real thing. We headed to the Chiang Mai night market again after, this time to do a little shopping for me. I much prefer the bartering here to the utter chaos of Bangkok and I don't think the prices are much different. I got 4 pairs of boxers for $9 CAN and a fake Rolex for $20 bucks that so far is keeping time perfectly. I really wanted to pick up a few Thai silk ties while I was here but so far I'm yet to see one that is less than 6 inches wide! Was that ever in style? Haha. Today we had a good wander around the back streets and along the banks of the river. Stopped at a pub for lunch as my stomach is stable but not to be pushed before a 12 hr 2nd class train ride! All in all have fallen in love with this place and am sorry to leave. Looking forward to our short time in Bangkok and then our time in the south. The only tickets left for our 14 hr train ride from BKK to Surat Thani are no a/c, non sleepers which will be quite interesting... Should be a long ride of clinging on to our valuables but at least it will save a bit of money!"

I think they're having fun! The 'More running' bit in the headline: I ran my 10th marathon today here in Toronto and managed to totter across the finish line in 3hrs 13mins, which beat my personal best by 8 minutes. I'm thinking of retiring on a high now...!

Love
Chip

Arh !!! the joy´s of sports day..... remember that ? egg´n´spoon, sack race, team relay etc etc.
Well Max enjoyed every minute of it, sun blazing, ice cream and all. Happy daze.........
M and D here now for 10 days so I expect some golfin´, drinkin´ and eatin´to be done.
I am sure they will visit Fuzeta, Katynan´s and PopJims favorite corner of Portugal, all with good memories of coffee and brandy in the square.... and Jamie fishes gasps at the price !!!!!
Love to you all, looking forward to catching up mwith my lond lost sis soon XXXXX J C and M.

Running and Flying

A busy morning...At 2am Pip and Anneli departed for Hong Kong on the first part of their six week backpacking trip around southeast Asia that will take them to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. They are really looking forward to spending some time with the Singapore Slingers at the end of their trip. And at 8am this morning Tim and Chip ran the traditional Yonge Street 10k race with 15,000 others, with Tim achieving his Personal Best of 41 minutes, over 2 minutes faster than his previous time and 35th in his age category. One very proud Dad of course!

Pip's Road Trip

Pip finished university this week and is now driving across America with his flatmate before his trip to the Far East with Anneli. Here's his update en route: We are currently in Lewistown Montana about 150 miles from Great Falls and about 8 or 9 hours outside of Calgary. We had a really long drive yesterday across 3 states but we saw some amazing scenery and stopped in some very cool small towns along the way. Met Jack who was the 74 year old owner of the gun store in the flooded town of Valley City North Dakota, the grizzly old gas station owner in Circle, Montana that has created a device out of a fly-swat to keep his store door from being blown open by the constant gale-force winds, and the lovely lady at the Jordan, Montana (pop. ~350) cafe and bar that told me that if I wanted something to eat in town I should go to the gas station (though she did think she might have a frozen pizza in the back somewhere). All in all a great day: we drove through Western Minnesota that resembles rural Ontario, flat, vast praries of North Dakota and Eastern Montana, scarred, barren, bad lands of central Montana and just poked our noses into the trees and foothills of the Rocky Mountains by the light of the moon. Anyways, I think we are trying to make it to Calgary today so that's probably where my next correspondence will be from. The plan then is to stay there for ~4 days before crossing the Rockies into BC. I'm going to grab the tail end of the free motel breakfast now so I have to sign off... I remember those days...!

Greetings from Kentucky!

Our recent trip to North Carolina, the kiddos had a blast seeing the ocean again Wilmington was a pretty cool town - makes us miss the beach on our doorstep!! but without further a do we came home to this ............................

our new 'project' getting the keys the end of this month and we have lots of work to get done but reminds me of an English stone cottage so excited to get started just hope the budget stays somewhat intact!!! We're talking new windows, kitchen, bathrooms, knocking out walls etc etc etc!! We'll keep you posted as we go! 70 years old which is ancient by US standards!! I'm guessing it'll either make or break us! Hope all is well wherever you may be we think of you all often wishing we were all a little closer together - love to you all H and gang xx

Here is a link if you are interested in following the progress as we go http://scholtenhouse.blogspot.com/ trying to set this up so let me know if you have problems viewing it.

Happy Birthday Kate

Remembering happy times on your birthday...Love as always, Chip, Dara, Pip & Tim

Where were we? (take two)

Another weekend, another trip...is this an easier where are we? Possibly not...!

Where were we?

Ok - your turn...Where were we last weekend?

Portugal Calling......

Wonderful Spring Oranges, while out on a bike ride with the boy......

The new Lewis Hamilton ??? I have never seen such a careful driver, never touched the sides or got over 4km\h, must have Nanny Flowers genes.......Not a bad thing though, he could have got Bottletops genes and we would have been visiting the Hospital (as I was the last time I went Karting with him !!!)

Carnival Candy Floss.......

PS.........Are we all sorted then for Portugal 2012 ???

Love to all.

J C and M