family – Page 24 – trippingdifferently

i realised i forgot to post my Christmas Letter 2014… so here it is:

Christmas 2014

HIHI

How are you? We hope this finds you well and enjoying this holiday season together with family and friends; remembering that the reason for the season is Christ our Lord!

In last year’s letter, I said 2013 was about stepping up to changes. Well, 2014 is also about stepping; stepping OUT into new things / roles.

Let’s start with the biggest and most recent news of the 2014 – we bought an apartment! Yep, a home to call our own. It’s a nice little 3 bedroom place with a large open concept living / dining / kitchen area, on the ground floor of a sweet little 1930s house, with a small garden at the back. We got the keys middle of December and plans are to move in near the end of January.

Last year Sandra talked about setting up an online shop to continue her support of special needs orphans. Well, it happened! On 21^st March 2014, Angel Crafts Shop was opened! Check out the website at www.angelcraftsshop.com and let us know what you think. Sales has been okay for a first year. She hopes it will pick up in the coming year so more can be given to the orphans.

Sandra also started an internship at the local playgroup in our village as part of her Playgroup Leaders course which she started in 2013. It was once a week for 2 hours. There were stressful times but overall it was a wonderful experience and she learn a lot. The lady who so kindly allowed her to intern there is great and very supportive, so much so, Sandra has an opportunity to start an English-speaking playgroup right here in our village in the coming year! Stay tuned!

Tobias has stepped out into many new things too. He has taken up Unihockey since February and Squash since August. Which means he is no longer doing Judo, but it’s okay, he much prefers these 2 sports he is involved in now, even though there is a steep learning curve for both. And for the last 10 months or so, Tobias has also been going to a Chinese class every Saturday morning during the school term with one of his best friends. This has really helped keep his interest in Mandarin and he is doing quite well in it, even thought he doesn’t yet speak it fluently.

Walter had a difficult start to 2014. He was quite seriously ill, losing lots of weight quite suddenly. And for a while the doctors didn’t know why. After weeks, they finally diagnosed Hyper-thyroid. Now he is on meds and doing much better. But to be so ill was very new for him and we are all so glad he is in a stable condition now and back to normal, or better to say a new normal, as he has to be on these meds daily for a couple of years at least.

Walter has a new role in church – he was nominated and elected an elder in our church. We are still unsure as to how this will impact us as a family but we look forward to be of service to people in our community.

And as a family, together with our church, we have come along side some dear friends (whom Sandra got to know through orphan advocacy) to aid them in their work with special needs orphans in Ukraine. The Johnsons arrived in Ukraine just a couple of weeks before the riots and uprising of November 2013 broke out. They stayed through it all because they knew God wanted them there. Our church stepped up to support them financially and recently, through serving a Thanksgiving dinner to about 40 persons, we raised enough to get them a van so they can continue their work (their means of transport up till now was very difficult to arrange for). So proud of how our church pulled together for this wonderful event! Read more on their website http://www.wideawakeinternational.org

On a sad note, yes there is at least one a year, one of our 4 mice passed away while we were in Singapore in August. Ruby, the little albino one, passed away without warning. It was sad that Tobias and Sandra could not be here. At least, Walter was able to bury her next to our 2 Gerbils who passed the year before. And Patch, Patches and Sam carry on strong and healthy.

With regards to our travels as a family, we had to forgo a ski trip to Austria due to Walter’s illness but made up for it by taking a short few days rest in April on the island of Majorca in Spain. It was warm and lovely. We were there before peak season, so it wasn’t overly crowded which is great cos we were there for R&R and nothing more.

Then of course, we made our annual pilgrimage to Singapore to be with family and friends and eat ourselves silly 😉 It was nice to explore a new neighbour since my in-laws moved into a smaller place but at a more convenient location.

And in October, a couple of friends from Singapore were going to be in Venice and asked us to join them which we did, for 4 days in Venice! It was the fulfillment of Sandra’s dream to visit this enchanting city before it is lost to the waters. Lots of walking but well-worth it!

Walter still travels a fair bit for work – this year mostly to South Africa and around Europe. And of course, he still enjoys his work. Worship-leading is still part of his responsibility at church, when he isn’t traveling.

Tobias continues to enjoy school but he is learning that friendships and social interaction can be complicated. We try our best to help him understand and navigate these gray waters. His violin lessons are going well and he has done a few concerts with the ensemble this year.

Sandra still teaches at Sunday School and continues to advocate for special needs orphans.

Well, that’s it from us.

Wishing you a most Blessed Christmas and an Amazing New Year!

Please do stay in touch and let us know what has been happening for you.

With love,

walter, sandra & tobias

So here’s the 2nd installment of our holiday adventures this Autumn. Read about the first week here.

Our little family trip to meet a couple of friends in Venice is the major highlight of that second week and that is what this whole post will be about cos there isn’t room for anything else 😉 AND… it will be in picture summary, otherwise i could go on and on and on and on…

Now sit tight and enjoy the whirlwind version of our first time in Venice:

It was a very rainy 6-hour drive into Venice. The Italian expressways actually have minimum speed limits – you have to drive at a certain speed to drive in certain lanes. i thought it would be very unsafe but actually if everyone followed the rules, it seemed to work well and kept the traffic moving quite efficiently. Oh, and the tolls… wow! When you drive on Italian highways, be prepared to pay and it helps to have coins. And watch that you get into the right lane when passing through the toll gates – they have specific ones for those with passes and those without and those needing to pay cash.

We finally get there and park on the parking island – no cars allowed on the actual islands of Venice. You can find out more about getting to Venice here.

We catch the very little train (sort of like an LRT for my Singaporean readers and like a small tram for my Swiss readers) into the main bus station on Venice. Buses only go up to that point and then they turn around and go back to the mainland. So our first glimpse of Venice was of the industrial area.

We found the “hotel” and discovered that it was not a “hotel” or even a bed and breakfast – it was a very enterprising Indian man (he is quite nice) renting out rooms in different apartments which he owned. The room was nice and big and comfortable so no complains there. i only wished the insides of the cupboards were a bit more dust free. We shared a toilet/shower which was clean and nice, and to my surprise we didn’t meet with much time conflict with regards to it’s usage with other renters.

The view from our small balcony was of the rooftops of Venice, which i found very interesting and i could imagine people of ages past running across them to get away from whatever or whoever they may have offended – oh, intrigue!

We got settled and decided to wander the streets and find some dinner. Walking is the thing to do in Venice. The other option is the Vaporetto – water buses. Our advice is to wear good comfortable walking shoes and buy the Travel Cards so you can hop on and off these water buses anytime you want to.

Of course, we crossed many canals and bridges and i LOVED all the different types of bridges, wooden ones, bricks ones, ones with iron railings etc…

We settled for a family-run Trattoria, the grandmother did the cooking – it was simple fare but yummy! And didn’t break the bank.

i have read that eating out in Venice can be expensive and unsatisfying – we have found that while there are the expensive Ristorantes, there are also other options such as a simple Pizzeria or a small cafe which can serve decent food at a fairly reasonable rate. Oh, do note that in Italian there is such a thing as a cover charge and a service charge. Most places have one or the other, BUT some have both, which can make the final bill high.

See the above picture of the casino with it’s very own jetty – those are the places where people don’t even think about how much the bill would be… they arrive in Venice and get driven around in private boats! We saw a lot of Chinese tourists in private taxis.

Here are the sights of the Grand Canal as we took the water bus to San Marco’s Square. i so enjoyed being on the sea again! It was interesting watching the Gondolas navigating around the faster boats and watching some Gondoliers in training.

This is the very famous San Marco Square – there are loads of pigeons everywhere and even a geniue “bird-lady” – she reminds me of the one in Mary Poppins who sang the song “Feed the Birds”. It was also nice to sit at one of the cafes (yes it was a bit pricey) and enjoy the live music. We concluded that the different bands must coordinated with each other so they don’t play at the same time cos the music does carry across the square.

We visited the Doge’s Palace and oh my, what opulence! There was an interesting clock in one of the rooms where a part of the adminstration met; the clock only have one hand. We couldn’t figure out how it works. The armory was also quite interesting.

This is the view from the Bridge of Sighs – it was a prisoner’s last view of the outside world. The bottom picture (in the above collage) is taken from the outside, looking at the Bridge of Sighs.

We walked through the prisons and noticed there were lots of different types of cells, some with wooden beds, some are small rooms and others are just huge empty rooms with nothing but rock walls and floor. The ticket into the Doge’s Palace also gives you entry into 3 other museums at the Square. But we didn’t do the rest cos there was a bomb scare that day and they closed those museums. i do believe our tickets were valid for another few months but i can’t confirm that.

i thought the water-bus-stops are very interesting. And i’m constantly amazed at how the buildings are really built right up and into the water itself. The above are views of San Marco Square and the area around it from the water-bus.

We visited Lido – the only island which has a beach – which i thought was strange for a group of islands. But we didn’t get to it cos it was a long walk from where the water-bus stops you and at the time we went, all the shops were closed. It seems that between 12noon and 3 or 4pm, the store-owners all decided to hit to beach – hehheee 😉 Anyhow, we abandoned the walk to the beach cos we really didn’t know how far away it was. i only found out that we actually made it halfway when we were on our way back.

The other interesting thing to do in Venice is to wander through all the narrow alleyways and find little glimpses of everyday life. We wandered upon a Montessori pre-school one time. And another time, we saw a whole group of little children on their way to school – they gathered along a canal-way and seemed to waiting for what Tobias called their ‘School-boat’ to take them to school. See the left picture above, see the Hebrew words, that’s the start of the Jewish Quarter or better known as the Ghetto.

i concluded that people come to Venice to see the charm of a city that is sinking and crumbling. Everywhere the walls are peeling and you can see water damage on doors and wooden beams holding buildings up. It must be difficult to keep up with repairs with the sea water eroding away everything and as you can imagine, fixing a floating city isn’t an easy task.

We also visited another famous site – the Rio Alto Bridge. It is full of people trying to get the classic shot of Venice. The bridge also houses some interesting shops, all very touristy of cos. But quite interesting to browse through.

One of the amazing things we found in our wanderings is in the above picture – see the camera and various tools – guess what they are made of… they are made of chocolate! And the shop smelled so amazingly delicious! i can still smell it… i don’t believe i could eat such beautiful creations.

And speaking of creations, the lovely island of Murano houses all the glass-makers of Venice. And they make wonderful things. There is also a Glass Museum – unfortunately it was under renovation and most of it was closed when we were there.

Tobias was so taken with their work, he stood and watched for a long time. He even bought a handmade glass unicorn with his pocket money. There is no need to pay to watch these men at work. You just need to walk the island and there will be a few open doors where you can just watch. Don’t follow anyone who says he will guide you to the best one. Those usually come with hard-sell sales pitches.

We also visited Burano – this island is known for it’s lace work and its very colourful houses. Aren’t they pretty? Not a lace person myself, i didn’t really shop around.

But we did find a tiny little shop where the owner is a glass-maker (certified Murano glass-maker) – he makes the cutest glass food and prettiest bracelets etc… Tobias spent so long watching him, he decided to have a photo taken with Tobias, who was, of cos, thrilled!

Oh, last but not least, we had the most yummy Gelato ever! Our friend had found the recommendation off the web and we set off, wandering through the many narrow walkways and streets of Venice to find it. And it was well worth the long walk and the extra 0.50Euros! Here’s the address: Salizzada San Lio, Castello, 5727, Venezia, Italy – YUM!

Now i leave you with more classic shots of Venice! Ah… i miss those waterways already – we’ll be back Venice, we’ll be back 😉