Tuesday 26 March 2013

'The World Is Amazing'

On Sunday, totally of her own accord, Kezia drew this picture of the world, and wrote "The world is amazing because you can learn a lot". Our wonderful, wonderful little girl, full of curiosity, interest and enthusiasm. Ace.

"So Cool!"

Kezia designing tickets and a poster to advertise our band's concert 'for our London fans' (!). We had an exclusive performance of her song, "So Cool". Kezia sang and played guitar, Mummy was on drums and Daddy was a "back singer".

Our local lake last weekend - winter shows no signs of abating - aargh!

Saturday 16 March 2013

Austria & The Czech Republic - the touristy photos

Last weekend, Steve and I went on our annual foreign footy jaunt. The football photos are further down, but here are a few touristy ones to start with.

Picture postcard Vienna, though it wasn't picture postcard weather. These horse drawn carriages were everywhere.

A couple of the unremittingly grand buildings that make up central Vienna. The national theatre...

...and the parliament.

The two traditional Vienna coffee houses we visited. The Cafe Sperl....

...and the Cafe Central (with one of its older customers)

The Hotel Cryston in Vienna. It could do with a bit of a refurb, though my view of it was affected by rather a large hangover!

Our carriage awaits. This was our train from Vienna to the Czech Republic. "The weasel" !

The 11:02 to Znojmo - not exactly rush-hour!

St. Nicholas's church in Znojmo (er, with me in front of it !)

The Pension u Cisare Zikmunda - our brilliant hotel in Znojmo

At Znojmo castle, before it started raining

The view of the river gorge

Leaving Znojmo - a beautiful town

Back in Vienna, we had time to go to Schoenbrunn palace. It is massive!

Just love the sign pointing the way to the Schloss, just in case anyone hadn't figured out where it was!

Me in front of the 'Gloriette' at Schoenbrunn. This is basically the summerhouse!

Kezia was very pleased to see this Austrian version of Dr Bear (in a chemist's window display)

One last (or first) football one.....

I nabbed this from the Znojmo FC site. It was taken by the club photographer, Libor Duchon. Steve and I are in it. Top right hand corner, top row of people, just to the right of the guy in the green jacket, and more or less straight upwards from the main footballer's outstretched fingers. I have a blue metal post growing out of my head!

Tuesday 12 March 2013

This year's foreign football jaunt - the football photos.

Steve and I just got back from our annual foreign football trip, which this year was a double-header to Austria and the Czech Republic. We saw two good matches and we have now seen games in 14 UEFA countries - just 39 left to go! I took lots of tourist photos as well, but here are the football ones to begin with.

Game number 1: Admira Wacker v Wolfsberger AC in Austria.

The main stand at Admira. 1,900 fans were at the match.

An action shot. Wolfsberger, in white, won 1-0 with a late goal.

Another match shot. The referee ruined the game as a spectacle by showing 8 yellow cards, all for nothing.

Game number 2: Znojmo v Karvina in the Czech Republic.

The Karvina players carrying their own kit into the ground.

The wooden ticket desks at Znojmo. 920 fans turned up and made for a good atmosphere.

I love this photo. It was pouring with rain and it looks as if no-one else was in the stadium.

A couple of action shots from a very wet first half.

Znojmo won 3-0, with a hat-trick from ex-Czech international Marek Heinz, who was making his debut for Znojmo - not bad!!

The main stand at Znojmo - they serve the best bratwurst I have tasted anywhere - delicious!

Me at Znojmo - a great club. We really liked it there.

And finally, the tickets to the two matches. It was a great trip.

Friday 1 March 2013

Fame for Opa

Kezia's 'Opa', my step-Dad Ron, is a vet whose name is R.J. Lowe. Imagine our surprise this evening when the latest reading book that Kezia brought home from school, "Poor Floppy" (Floppy the dog is ill) had a vet in it called J. Lowe. Imagine our even greater surprise when the vet turned out to look more or less exactly like Ron. I hope he is being paid royalties!

Outside the vet's

In the operating theatre

Up Close

Our grown-up girl at the park - look how long her hair is getting!!

Kezia had great fun visiting her friends Hannah & Tamsyn in Epsom at half-term