Summer 2007 Summary

Well it has been a while.....

After Dad and Mom (Carter) visitied in June we have been fairly busy. In July we spent the whole month waiting for Summer to arrive, and it didn't arrive. We have decided after 4,5 years that we really need to start making borewors as it is must in a home.

Carter's Borewors factory

Quattro watching us make wors!

Al and Walter have taken up skateboarding again...

Al trying his tricks at the skateboard park in St Neots.

1st weekend of August we had Patrick and Adri (our SA friends who live in Ireland) visit us for a few days. Summer finally showed up for this weekend. It was brilliant we visited one of the local pubs on the Thursday night and then this was followed by a weekend at the caostal town of Great Yarmouth...this was an exerience and a half....

At the Bridge House in St Neots

The Hedgehog we found in our garden on the Friday

We were expecting a traditional old english seaside town but instead found Las Vegas wannabe??? yip there were endless cheap looking casino's and games places, really wierd we felt like we were in a different country and a different decade. But as we said it was an experience. We headed there unable to find a B&B so we packed an overnight bag in case we found somewhere to stay. And we did find somewhere to stay but this was a whole other experience...

Chant's and her new hat

Las Vagas wanna be

Paddy still a kid at heart but not in size!

It was a bit grubby to say the least, the showers were tiny and we had to share a bedroom with Paddy and Adri, not a bad thing but poor Al and Paddy slept on camper beds which were not that comfortable there were lots of disturbances through the night. Cars racing by and roudy pub goers goign home and then Walter woke up hearing a neighbour shouting some unrully stuff early hours of the morning??? Then came breakfast the only one brave enough to clean the plate was Al. I think all I ate was the toast and the egg. Was glad to have packed my bag and got out of that place.

We did however find a really nice beach just a few miles down the coast. it had soem lovely sand to make us a bit homesick for the beaches in SA and was packed with people. we took a leisurly stroll on the beach and had some icecream. mmm was a good day.

The decent beach we found.

This was follwed by the trip home and then a Potjie. Monday Al and I had the day off so we woke up to Al and Paddy making us a breakfast of note before some sad goodbyes at Luton airport.

The chefs making our breakfast.

But we have still been busy.

We have bought a NEW house. yes a brand new house due for completion end of October 2007. so Al and and I have been bargining with the developer and finally got a decient price for it. it is a 4 bed house with en-suite and a seperate shower in the family bathroom. very seldom find that here in this country. downstairs it has a fairly large loung and then a kitchen/dinning/familyroom with folding doors leading out to the patio and a large garden. Just last week we got the approval for the mortgage and we are due to exchange contracts next week. It was hard to know what we were buying in the begining as at first we couldn't enter the house but ove rthe last few weeks we have been able to visit ove the weekends and go inside the house. It is great to see the progress and get a reall feel for the house. wow what a great space we will have. I am getting excited but moving is a daunting task and to think about everything we have to have in place before then is stressful. Also we have discovered that when selling ahouse in this country you don't get a whole day to move in to your new house. Basically what happens is that you pack your entire house into a van and drive to the estate agent will all your belongings in the van drop your old house keys off and get the new ones only after this is done! Hey? This is how it is done here.

Our new house still under construction

We also had a visit from Walter and Gaylene's SA friends who live in Germany. it was a full house with 6 adults and 14mth old little boy. It was good to meet them. Walter and Gaylene took them to Windsor Castle and London but we spent a day with them in Cambridge punting on a very busy River Camb.

I think that is all our news for now hopefully I will update you before we move house again so that you are able to see our new house and I am not sure when we will have the Internet up and running after that.

Switzerland 2007

Well finally the day came for the Carter-Fyvie family holiday to Switzerland...but FIRST our kitchen had to be revamped by 'Die Manne.

And then it was an early morning to catch our early morningflight to Switzerland. All we can say is that it was good to be back (we were there last year Sept). it was an amazing 5 days.

Day 1 we took the scenic route to Lauterbrunnen, where we had hired a chalet for our stay. The highlight of the day must have been the hair raising passes we went over, as I said it was the scenic route and then of the unexpected walk THROUGH a glacier.

The little hole in the centre is the entrance.

The icy blue was incredible!

Day 2, we awake to sunshine and caught the very early train, 6:50 to the Top of Europe. It was an awesome experience the coldness (-8) the views and the feeling of being at 3500m up was truely and experience we shall never forget.

TOP OF EUROPE

Alan with his parents out in the snow.

Us after a well earned lunch.

On the way down we stopped off at Wengen a village above the Lauterbrunnen Valley and tasted some Swiss pastries.

Day 3: We spent most of the day walking above the Lauterbrunnen Valley towards Murren. The day started with a cable car ride up the valley cliffs later a cheese farm stop, a Hot Chocolate stop and then the rain set in for the rest of the day forcing us to take a hair raising cable car trip down the cliff and back into the valley.

Walking in the rain

A Mountain field for making hay.

Day 4 we travelled 20min to Grindlewald to spend the day walking in the alps. We caught the cable car to First and then walked to Bushalpsee. On our return trip we decided to rather use Trottie bikes as our mode of transport than the cable cars. it was definitely a highlight of the trip. Basically we hired them from a station called Bort. the trail is 4,5km long and a drop of 700m... we ended the day with a good old SA Braai.

The view from our balcony

A family pic on in the Swiss Alps
Two little Snoggles with Swiss caps on.

Trottie BikesThe Swiss Alps

Day 4, another glorious day of sunshine. as they say, make hay while the sun shines, so the neighbours were making hay in the field next door to our chalet.

Making Hay

Alan, Walter and Gaylene enjoying a sunny relaxing morning.

Time to Leave our wonderful Chalet, thanks to Wiese's for a wonderful stay.

Our Lunch time stop at the lake near Interlaken.

Final goodbye to the Swiss Alps until next time!

Good to have family here!

Well Alan’s sister Gaylene and her husband Walter have finally arrived here in the UK. It all started off with a really early morning leaving home at 5:45 am on Sat the 19th May to collect them form Heathrow. It all worked out very well, as we arrived in at arrivals at Heathrow Walter and Gaylene had just walked through arrivals.

Walt and Gaylene

Sunday Walters brothers Simon and Richard came from Birmingham to enjoy a BBQ at our house. Our main entertainment for the day was Walter and Gaylene running out the front of the house to get a look at the ice-cream van just as they had done the previous day when the postman delivered our mail. They are astonished by the fact that our postman drives a little red van, just like Postman Pat. Not sure what our neighbours thought of the new residents.

Richard, Walters Brother
We spent the rest of the week catching up with them resulting in very late nights, never got to bed before 12am.

Saturday the 25th May Alan and I decided that we would be tour guides for the Fyvies and show them around London. It was another early start to make the most of the day. We did a Hop on Hop off bus tour around London, just so that they could get to see the main sights of London. Unfortunately the weather decided not to play along and it turned to winter by the end of the day. We finally headed home after a very long day. But just before we hopped back into the car we decided to introduce the Fyvies to Starbucks coffee… mmm.

Al and Chants on the Tour Bus

Sunday we again spent the day in London went to church in the morning and then on to see Portobello market, where the movie Notting Hill was filmed. We attempted to find The Blue Door but couldn’t quiet remember what it looked like so we took pictures of lot of doors in the area. We then headed to Harrods where the rich and famous shop. Gaylene and I introduced the men to a few new designer names with lovely price tags like £1500 for a handbag? We then headed for the Kripy Kreme donuts on the ground floor, only to be amazed by the decoration in the food halls.

Krispy Kreme Donuts!

From there it was off to visit the Queen at Buckingham Palace, the lights were on but no one was home. By this time the temp was starting dip below 10degC so we decided that it was home time. But this time my travel skills for London did not do the trick, maybe it was because I was tired. So we basically ended up walking right around Buckingham Palace before finding the right bus stop to take us back to our car. And the Queen has a huge back garden!

Monday was a holiday here so we decided to brave the cold winter conditions (in the summer time) and go tour Cambridge. We managed to find parking, the Lush Shop, the Disney Store, Hotel Chocolat and the museum. By the time we exited the museum the temp was a mere 7degC apparently colder than the Arctic Circle. So we found a coffee shop to warm up in and then headed back home. Not the best day to tour Cambridge.

Our day out in Cambridge

I think next on the list is to take the Fyvies to Trooping the Colour in London on the 15th June, then Dad and Mom Carter arrive on the 20th June (2 more weeks to go) and then the much anticipated Carter/Fyvie family holiday in Switzerland the 25th – 29th June.

Just some pictures

Just thought that since the blog is called AlChantsQuattro I had better post some pics of Quattro.

Quattro on his 1st day home (6 weeks old)

Quattro being silly (8 weeks old)

New collar and tag! (4 months old)

Sleep time ZZZZZZZ.......

"Not the camera again!" (7 Months old)

Quattro all grown up now (1 yr old)

Finally some news

I know that I started this and then never really posted anything... doh!

Well Alan and I have had a busy few weeks we are preparing for Walter and Gaylene's arrival in May. 3 and bit weeks to go. And then we are looking forward to Al's Dad and Mom visiting us again. We decided to invite them over as it is Big Al' s 30th Birthday this year! And we are taking a Carter Fyvie family holiday to Switzerland in June! We are all too excited, and who would have thought that our 1st family Holiday would have been in Switzerland.

Alan is busy training for his 3 Peaks Challenge in May. Basically it is for fundraising and a team from Irvine-Whitlock is going to try climb the highest peak in Scotland, Wales and England. They have to try climb all 3 of these in 24hr!!! rather him than me. He had a training weekend 2 weekends ago.

Other than that we enjoyed a lovely sunny Easter weekend with Steve and Sam. Spent Friday playing Golf, Steve and Alan assembled a new BBQ for us so we could enjoy our 1st Braai of the season. We spent Saturday at Whipsnade Animal park and had another Braai in the evening . Sunday morning awoke to Alan making us breakfast on the Skottle we then went Cycling 28km around our area! ....We had to work off all the food we had eaten over the weekend.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Al's new BBQ

Alan, Steve and Sam at the Whipsnade animal park

Easter Sunday Al making us Breakfast

Not much other news I am sure that we will update the page once Walter and Gaylene arrive.

Welcome to our blog.

Just thought that this would be a great way to keep in touch with family and friends so that you can follow our story so far....

We will post some news soon

Hope this becomes a success