OFFICIAL PHOTO'S OF THE CLOSING CEREMONY OF KINGSLEY PARK GARAGE.

PHOTO 1.   A JOB WELL DONE(YOU HAVE BEEN.)

PHOTO 2.  I CAN MAKE JOBS DISAPPEAR JUST LIKE THAT ! !

PHOTO 3.  WHO SAID ENJOY YOUR TRIP ?

PHOTO 4.  AND FINALLY HANDING IN MY GLASS'S GUIDE FOR THE LAST TIME..

 

 

And then there were none!!

The Official retirement picture:-)  KPG is no more and as of Monday Dad can close the book on the KPG chapter of his life:-)  Well done boys on a fantastic 40 ish years in business, you should lock the door for the final time feeling proud of all you accomplished along the way, there will be more than a couple of 'punters' that will miss you ........................... may your retirement be long and healthy and include lots of visits to the USA:-)  Now get down the pub and celebrate and have a pint for us too, miss you all H xx

and there goes middle school!!!

Wow!  how time flies, Tyler's 8th grade dance tonight, graduation next week and then onto High School!  Not sure he isn't more concerned about which pre party and which post party to attend than any kind of school work at this point good job there's only a week left!! and with all those girls that look like they are 18 I wonder how he every concentrates on anything at school anyway!! :-) Those 3 years went crazy fast!!  Looking forward to seeing you all at Xmas, too much time in between visits really but who can afford airfare nowadays ($1,300 per person from here to UK!!).  Love to one and all 7 months will fly by and we'll all be sipping our cocktails on the beach ......... can't wait!!

Nepal was wonderful ~ weather good so we had excellent views of Everest. Extremely tiring (I'm still wiped out!) but well worth it. Lovely, lovely people ~ it's part of the Sherpa culture to respect the elderly so I might emigrate! Lukla flights were a bit hairy, but the helicopter hop was tremendous!
Love to all   xxxxx

The Deep Family Ancestry of the Robinsons

I have received my results from the National Geographic Genographic Project (Xmas present from Dara) which reveals information about our distant ancestors through DNA analysis on the Y-chromosome for paternal lineage and mitochondrial DNA for maternal lineage. It's amazing science! We now know that both our maternal and paternal ancestors migrated out of Africa into Asia 70,000 years ago. From there, the lines moved differently around Asia, the Near East and - at around 40,000 years ago - they moved into Europe. They interacted with the fading Neanderthal population so that 2.6% of our genes are Neanderthal rather than Homo Sapiens! Perhaps this explains why I like banging rocks together... I have a lot more detailed information available, so I'll bring a copy of the results to our Xmas gathering so you can see where our ancestors wandered over the last 70,000 years. If you're interested, here is the website link: https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/

Xmas get together

Hello all

It's woody. I've not put anything or read anything on the blogg before but it all seems to be about jim & Kate and keeping in touch - pretty much what the holiday over Xmas that was started by jim & Kate is all about. To celebrate their anniversary some 15 years ago, and a family that lives all over the world, we should get together on a cruise in the Caribbean and that's how it's meant to be. For me, i couldn't care less where we go and what dates we go and leave to come home and what date I start back to work, its about being together (Iknow thats not as easy for some, but we can all pull sickies, it is only once every 5 years) Because If we don't get it together, the next time we all see each other will be a funeral ... see u at Christmas ?!
Woody

93!

Love you, miss you always. xxxxx

Together Again!

It was lovely to see you last week and looking forward to truly seeing everyone at Christmas!

Where in the World was Dara?

This is a tough one - where was Dara last week? And if you want to have fun, suggest a caption for the photo!

What a Difference a Day Makes!

What a difference a day makes... The bottom photo is our street in the middle of the snow storm that dumped 32cm of the white stuff on Toronto on Friday. The middle photo is the scene on Saturday afternoon, 24 hours later: brilliant sunshine and a very different world! The top pic is Gibson enjoying his romp in the snow in the local park this afternoon. The snow was so deep that he could only move by leaping forward like a kangaroo...but he loved it...must be his Shetland Island heritage!

Re: next Christmas

We all need to post school/college/work holiday dates so that planning can start.
England: Dec.20th - Jan.8th.
You also need to state how long you want to be away; we would want ten days.

Happy Christmas x

Love to all x

Xmas in Mexico

Happy Xmas from a 14,000 foot summit in Mexico!
A Merry Christmas was had by all Canadian Family Robinsons. Pip and Anneli were at Anneli's folks with Gibson, whilst Dara, Chip and Tim were in Mexico as we managed to pre-record the Dec 22 Travel Shows. Tim and Chip clambered up Nevado de Colima, Mexico's 6th highest mountain and neighbour to North America's most active volcano. It was 30C/80F every day...but now back to minus 10C and 15cm of snow in Toronto.
Happy New Year to all the clan, wherever you are!
Love Chip, Dara, Tim, Pip & Anneli

Christmas Deliveries

Attention all parents of Under Age Robinsons....... Christmas presents are on their way by various means. Those in countries serviced by Internet deliveries may receive them ridiculously early. Those in far flung places accessed via snail mail may receive them frustratingly late .... All are on their way to you with love from Dara, Chip, Pip and Tim.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

The perfect Thanksgiving weekend at the cottage with the boys, Anneli and our traditional Thanksgiving friend Jordan...Perfect weather: cold and bright. Perfect colours ranging from green to yellow to orange to red.  Lots of hiking, boating, laughing (Jordan is an accomplished stand-up comedian), drinking...and of course eating. Poppa Jim and Katie Nanna would be happy to know that their old oak table is still hosting family holiday meals!

A Boy No More...

Tim celebrated his 18th birthday at the cottage this weekend! His first month of university has been great and he's full of self-confidence and...well, grown-upedness! Gibson had missed him hugely and was inseparable from him all weekend. It's wonderful to see him grabbing everything that college life has to offer with both hands - he's going to have an amazing four years!

Happy Birthday, Tim!

Wish you'd stop pretending to be all grown up - how can you possibly be EIGHTEEN?!!!!
Have a great day - love you lots xxxx

Testing from my phone

Happy birthday x

Lovely party......

......and lovely friends (just wish I could remember what they were celebrating!)
Wish you all could have been there.xxx

4 years old today!

Happy Birthday, Maizie!

China

Just a few pics of voyage up the Yangtze - fabulous!

Moving In Day

Today we helped move Tim into his new digs as he starts his student life at Queen's University in the pretty city of Kingston, about three hours east of Toronto. So for the next four years he will be studying everything from ancient history to philosophy.  Exciting times for Tim... and he'll now have to become an independent Robinson family blogger.  It's only been a few hours and we're missing him already!

We were on a road trip in Illinois last week, getting our kicks on Route 66, preparatory for the Travel Shows with Tourism Illinois on Saturday. Great scenery, great history and great characters en route.  Chicago, Mississippi Valley, Abe Lincoln adulation in Springfield...and of course Route 66 fun. Jamie Fish will also approve of our short excursion into Wisconsin as our Tourism Illinois guide got lost and took us most of the way to Madison! Pip has passed his hellish financial planning exam, which was really good news, and Tim is leading a group of young teenagers on a camp/canoe trip into the wilds of Algonquin Park. Hope everyone is ejoying the Olympics - the opening show made us feel very proud expats!

Summer getaway!

Just got back from a fab weekend Dale Hollow Lake Ky tubing and cliff jumping for a day then Gatlinburg to white water raft, and a gondola ride up the Smokie mountains and alpine slide back down!

Happy Big 40 !!

Just a quickie to say a big happy 40 to my 'young'!!! BRO, hope all the celebrating left you feeling 21 again!! - Lots of love and special hugs and kisses for your special day - H J TJ and M xxxx

Madison 8 Today:-)

Madison spent a girlie day turning 8 today, shopping with me and her 'BFF', they bought matching outfits, had their nails painted, did lunch and squeezed in a trip to the movies, then on to meet up with Daddy and Tyler for cake and presents, way to celebrate Maddie:-)  This whole kid thing is great except the years keep rolling by way too quickly and they grow up right under your nose, right when you are not expecting or ready for it!! Happy Birthday to our gorgeous girl:-) 

Be it resolved that the Planning Consultant for the 2013/2014 Family Convocation is in session...
Here are some initial thoughts:
1. Portugal - Algarve villas. I know the weather likely wouldn't be great, but it would be easy access for most, good value and we have resident experts to guide us.
2. A Landmark Trust property for all of us in the UK. Not exotic, but they have some very cool places if we plan sufficiently in advance. Check out their website.
3. Mont Tremblant ski village in Quebec. Good for kids learning to ski and we have a good contact for a group of large, luxury chalets.
4. Cruise. We've done the Caribbean and Pacific Mexico, so how about Hawaii?
5. Costa Rica. There's a good selection on all inclusive resorts or we could source a smaller accommodation to take over entirely. Lots to do for all.
6. Vietnam. Some good smaller and good value accommodations on the beach with day trip interests.
7. Bali. More expensive and exotic but again lots of accommodation options and K&K could guide us.
8. African safari. Prob the most expensive but worth a moment's consideration as there are now several excellent kid-friendly safari companies and the whole vacation style works well with kids.
So...let me know which ones you'd like me to follow up with more detail and I will get cracking!