December in Sydney can be lovely, or it can rain alot. We had our work christmas party on a boat on Sydney harbour.
A few hours on a boat on a grey and cloudly Friday afternoon, turned into hours of laughter, swimming off the boat and much entertainment in Darling Point park with a view of the harbour bridge in the background. I love the people we work with. The ability to have fun is a most important attribute in a team member.
The next day was David's sisters 40th birthday party and the cousins got to spend some time in hanging out together. They love it so! Photo credit on left goes to Sam Rock. Natasha the youngest cousin is missing form the shot.
The other important task of the weekend was to build the christmas tree. We do this each year using different things. This year we built the structure using books (see right).
The next weekend was the real thing and the girls got a rare chance to see their other cousins, daughters of my brother Michael and his wife Jill. My parents held their first christmas at the new house in Gymea in Sydney's south. My father David played Santa Claus, as he already has the beard in place.
Present giving came before lunch, with Alannah and Trinity both recieving a magic kits, so expect some performances using cards and top hats soon.
Other gifts included a Harry Potter lego set, Trinity's current obsession, and India particularly liked her pink mask gift, which has been worn quite frequently since.
This was a trip I did on my own, with no girls to chase me out of meetings. The girls stayed home with Nanna and Granddad, much to everyones delight, with visits to swimming pools and church fetes in Sydney.
Auckland was lovely, with two days spent in a function center in a place called Eden Gardens. I met the key people in our New Zealand business, who at one point carried me. The next day was a conference for some of our trained coaches where I gave my first keynote for a long time (not sure I have ever done one, as normally David's forte). We had the annual awards, with some 'cracker' prizes. Two of our coaches and trainers, Tia and Jhanna with their 'trophies'.
The weather was beautiful, the people lovely, and the gardens peaceful and serene. There were chickens running around the gardens, following around potential new friends. Just what I needed after only a week in Sydney, back from New York.
I then flew to Singapore to meet up with David and our team in Asia to do some strategic planning for the growth of the business next year. We also met our Indian partners, who we are starting a joint vengture with next year. Then David and I returned home to see our girls, for some good clean family fun.
The girls and I caught up with David after arriving in New York. We settled in for the month of October with the girls excited to be attending Blue School.
David and my time was incredibly busy, with less of the normal sight seeing and entertainment I try to pack in to our trips.
The US business has stepped up to another level and we were busy keeping up with the growth and changes. We hired two new high level staff for the North American business, as well as closed some deals with great clients.
We did take one sunny Sunday to go uptown to the Cloisters, an art gallery and part of the metropolitan museum, specialising in medieval art. The guide books give much talk about the unicorn tapestries, and suggest these are an excellent draw card for kids. What they didn't mention is that in all of the tapestries the unicorns are being captured, tortured or worse. Not ideal for little girls. There was also a wonderful tasting garden full of edible plants and herbs. Another high point was right next store, in the art gallery called Dietch. There was a temporary photographic studio set up, with lights, makeup table, and other amazing photographic resources, so we booked the studio for a few hours and took some photos, which will be shared at a later date. The girls enjoyed being on both sides of the camera. I also got a new camera though this one is bigger and harder to take around.
We went off to Brooklyn for a BBQ and backyard bonfire, with some old friends, Jess and Adrian, then David and I whizzed off for quick trip to New Orleans for an Organisational Development conference for two nights while 'aunty' Marni looked after the children.
The week after it was the NeuroLeadership Summit in Boston which was an amazing success and . Three days of neuroscience and wonderful people. We even had a dual off with gospel choirs for the gala dinner.
The kids got to spend quality time with Sophie the babysitter and tireless reader of Harry Potter. They walked the freedom trail, visited the grainary graveyard as well the Boston Children's museum. The weather was freakishly warm for Boston in late October and the trees and leaves were beautiful and varied.
The weekend of our return to New York was Halloween. Some of the crew from the summit came down and we went out to Wicked the musical on Saturday night and walked some of the parade through Greenwich village dressed up in our finest on Sunday eve.
India was dressed up as a princess and Trinity dressed as Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. I have no good photos of this night sadly. David dressed as a southern rocker with a mullet and I was a pirate. Trinity walked all the way up to 9th Street with Gracen, her 'older sister' who lives in the apartment we share in Soho.
The girls were sad to leave Blue School, however the sunshine and warmth of Sydney coming into summer heals many things. David will follow us home via Germany and Singapore.
The female Rocks are on the move again after almost a full school term in Sydney. We headed to Munich in Germany to work with a client as well as deliver a train the trainer program for our growing European team.
From Trinity (edited by Lisa):
We went to Munich, and on our first day we went to Oktoberfest, where we looked around at the rides. India was asleep.
We went into a big noisy hall, with a big band and a lot of really drunk people who were dancing and standing on tables. The music was from an Oompah pah band.
We went into a restaurant where we had chicken and chips, and mum ordered a really big beer. Everyone was wearing the national dress, the ladies were in a dress called drindl and looked pretty, and the men's clothes had straps and shorts called lederhosen, which were really cool.
We went on the Ferris wheel after India woke up. I went on a dodgem car for the first time and I bumped into a lot of walls. India got upset because she was too young to go on. We went on horsey's together and had ice cream and love heart necklaces that we could eat.
It was really fun. Trinity writing finishes.
We went to the Deutsches Museum which was perfect fodder for the next day, which was rainy. There was an amazing mining exhibit that was long, and looked as though we were travelling through underground mining tunnels, with different periods of mining technology.
Upstairs there were airplanes, including the first flying machines, huge boats and even replica space shuttles. Downstairs in the basement was the kids section, with water play, musical instruments and plenty to keep the kids from falling asleep from the jet lag.
I then worked for three days of training and the kids got to play with the new toy - an ipad, including movies to entertain them, while a German speaking babysitter looked after them.
We have now arrived in New York to meet up with David. The girls are loving Blueschool, but more on that next post.
We arrived in Singapore two days before our annual Leadership Retreat event and with much jet lag. The girls were handed to babysitters, though these sometimes includes RCS staff, which were firm favourites by far. We had approximately twenty five people from around the globe for three days talking about how to grow our business and launching new products etc. By the end of it most people were exhausted and ready for a break. We changed gears and went into a train the trainer process for another couple of days - then it was time to rest.
David had missed the last two days to work with a client in KualaLumpa. We met back in Singapore and from there went straight to Bintan Club Med, voted our 'best ever holiday' last time around. And it did not disappoint. The food is outstanding, the pace slow, the people memorise all children's names and on holiday happy occupied children make for happy, relaxed parents.
Trinity found a new best friend with Ester a french girl living in Singapore. They hung out together constantly and loved playing on the beach until after sunset each night. The girls got to perform in a couple of shows.
Trinity sang 'I can sing a rainbow' while another girl signed. They also faced an air guitar championship. India didn't quite get it though, see the video below.
On our final full day in Singapore we went back to the Zoo. We fed giraffes and elephants and Trinity got a long kiss from a sea lion. It doesn't get much better then that.
Straight from snowy Sunshine into the arms of a frozen New York, supposedly avoiding the Sydney autumn and winter but shockingly cold!
We arrived and Trinity and India went straight to Blue school. We had found a wonderful (Australian) babysitter for our entire stay - the sweet Sophie. The school term had only three and half weeks until the US spring break. We took advantage of one of the school excursions and went to the Poets house in Battery Park, lower Manhattan. 50,000 books of poetry to read and photo copy free of charge, open to the public. There was a kids room with questions to trigger poem writing for kids. Trinity wrote her first poem:
We dance, we sing, we play all day Then the bell rings for a school day And then what happens? And then what happens? We have a dream and what is in that dream? A sloth eating her lunch at school Then we wake up and all is quiet We think our dream is really a flight
Trinity Rock, 28 May 2010
The girls took flights of fancy and roamed Soho and Tribeca in princess outfits. The art in the streets always amazes me. Such a vibrant city with the street sometimes being the best canvas for artists trying to break through.
Thankfully the city warmed up pretty quickly. In fact it was pretty extreme as weather changes go. The next week we hit 30 Celsius most days and so we journeyed to water fountains in local parks to cool off. This seems to be the NYC way - minimal public pools, and lots of water fountains in most parks.
David and I took a couple of breaks from the girls to enjoy the delights of New York. We went to an off Broadway show 'Our town' which was wonderful and heart wrenching. We also got to see the reprisal of 'Hair' which was surprisingly great. Again an incredibly moving show, with David reliving learning drums to the soundtrack with the drummer onstage after the show.
Because of David's crazy travel schedule the girls and I got to hang out together and go site seeing. We visited Chelsea markets for ice cream then the Highline for a green diversion.We also found a grooving carousel that had just opened up in the same area, on the Hudson river near the west village. We ate dinner on the Frying pan, an old boat that had been salvaged and strapped together with two others, and a perfect summer evening for a beer watching the sunset.
The girls took the time to write some more poems.
The Highline Tell me what thoughts? A train on the Highline Grass amongst the threads A bee hums The wind blows a scarf The railing like keys of a piano Dancing a song on the rails Trinity Rock 30 May 2010
Mum I want to go over the waves to our house, to get home and bring her into the sea and climb the rocks with her
India Rock 30 May 2010
Because our annual leadership retreat was shortly, I was hard at work preparing during the week. Weekends were a different matter. The girls and I hitched a ride with Ashley and family, Blue school staff member out to Storm King. It is an enormous sculpture park in up state New York. We drove along the Hudson valley for an hour, looking for bears, and deer on the way with no success. It was an end of year event for a Blue School sub group called paintings and picnics. The temperature was around 35 Celsius as we walked around the grassy park and then trammed around the grounds pasts amazing sculptures and installations.
Because of the end of the school year, there were school art shows and weird and wonderful events, including an end of year play (left, Trinity as a tiger), as well birthday parties being squeezed in before everybody breaks for holidays.
My favourite was the 'happening' that involved the students and parents making a spider web in a class room and then role playing flies (parents) and spiders (kids). The Blue school is also moving over the spring break to a new building and the children took time to imagine what the new school should be like (see above right for the suggested design in progress).
We also got the chance to catch up with my old friends Marni and Jess, with a rooftop BBQ on our last weekend. Trinity found a firm friend in Leo from Germany (second from the bottom on slippery dip, with India at the very top, with photo credit to Marni Hine). Marni is about to move to Australia late in the year so one of my NYC friends will no longer be there! Luckily she is planning to spend some time in Bondi.
So far this trip we have already been to San Diego for 3 days for a conference and meetings, Calgary for 3 days for David delivering a program and a talk and now Banff for 7 days of rest and recuperation.
Last year I requested that David take this week off. It includes my birthday (1st), Trinity's birthday (7th) and mothers day (2nd sunday of May), so this really is the big family week of the year, at least in my book. David decided that the perfect week would be in Banff, as he surely loves to snow board. So we booked into the Sunshine Village Lodge, the only ski in accommodation in Banff, and the only field still open so late in the season.
The snow to date had been fairly poor with a base of 150cm only. But it started snowing from the time we arrived and only stopped in patches for the whole time we were there. With 20cm of powder over our time there, we were happy. There was a wonderful day care place for when the girls couldn't face the onslaught of snow each day, when it was too cold to deal with a lesson. And they loved it. Because it was the end of the season the day care had space and toys enough for 40 kids, and only the two girls on some days to enjoy the attention of the carers who, like all the other staff on the mountain seemed to be Australian.
The girls had toboggan runs there too, and India would have occasional ski lessons during her stay in day care, which she loved. By the time she left she could keep her ski's together and laughed loudly when gaining speed going downhill.
Trinity on the other hand, took on the snow board for the first time and had three lessons over the week. It was a hard debate between boarding and skiing, won over ultimately by the understanding that boarding was 'cooler' though a bit harder upfront. On the last day she travelled all afternoon with David on big mountain runs, and loved it.
Each day after the lifts had closed we sat in the hot tub, with occasional trips out to make snow angels in the snow. The weather was magic with snow falling most of the time, and with sunny patches too. And because it was spring the sun did not set until 9pm.
David and I got to board in 2ocm of powder, the best snow I have ever been on, with an awesome mountain or three to choose from. Our favourite was Goat's Eye mountain, which was pretty much pure black diamond runs. From Alpine slopes at the top, through frozen creeks arounds the side, tree filled gullies and lots of jumps, we had a ball. This is my second trip after having kids, and I really found my feet again on the board.
Trinity's brithday was the last full day on the slopes and David started it with an snow cake with icicle candles that were blown out.
David took Trinity snowboarding for the afternoon, then we went down the mountain for a special night out in the town of Banff itself, finding a nice vegetarian restaurant called 'Nourish'. She had a great day.
We then left early the next morning for our next adventure - Blue School in New York.
Below is a video of India skiing and Trinity boarding - I am sorry it is sidewards, but I dont know how to change the orientation!
Our Singapore business continues to grow and David is there frequently to deliver to one of our biggest clients globally. Luckily we are only an hour ferry ride away from the quiet and beautiful tropical islands of Indonesia.
We decided to take a well deserved long weekend from our busy schedule to Bintan. The timing was not perfect, as we hit some pretty solid monsoon rain the first two days, but then it cleared and we got to enjoy a resort near a major shipping lane.
The girls had a ball, with the kids club, face painting, t-shirt painting, sand painting and model painting. They painted anything that moved. They even made friends with a local monitor lizard feeding it tinned tuna.
David and Trinity also took time to focus on creating an acrobatic performance in the pool.
The beach was lovely aside from sand flies, and pollution including floating tar globules that were quite hard to wash off. David took Trinity out on a jet ski, which involved 10 minutes of screaming. We also snorkeled, kayaked, bogey boarded and body surfed after the water had cleared from the rain.
We ate at the restaurant on the beach at night as there was a festival on with nightly performances of various islands music and dancing. The girls enjoyed the shows so much they occasionally joined the dances up front.
After the long weekend we caught the ferry back to Singapore in a very mellow mood. I tried going shopping in the mall next store, but it was all too much so we retreated to the pool to gather enough strength to deal with normal life in Singapore.
We stayed at the Amara hotel in the city, and I had meetings at the bank and with the accountant (the glamour side of our business), and the kids had a babysitter from the hotel who took them down into the depths of the hotel basement into the housekeeping department.
We stayed on the club floor of the hotel, where business people usually stay. We used the facilities fully, though with more noise and movement then most. A three and seven year old don't tend to mix well with business people having quiet meetings. But you cant have everything.
Sadly India became a little sick, vomiting with a slight fever, but no dampening of spirits. I got to see the new Singapore office, a temporary facility while we source a more permanent option. Our new operations manager Eileen was also there (new business card in hand). And Angie was at the coffee machine, happily using the perks of having an office finally.
Then the girls and I flew home, knowing that we will be back soon enough.
be lovely, or it can rain alot. We had our work christmas party on a boat on Sydney harbour.
The next day was David's sisters 40th birthday party and the cousins got to spend some time in hanging out together. They love it so! Photo credit on left goes to Sam Rock. Natasha the youngest cousin is missing form the shot.
The next weekend was the real thing and the girls got a rare chance to see their other cousins, daughters of
my brother Michael and his wife Jill. My parents held their first christmas at the new house in Gymea in Sydney's south. My father David played Santa Claus, as he already has the beard in place.
ic kits, so expect some performances using cards and top hats soon.
