Thank you Teddy

Just to let you know, I have uploaded 2 more photo albums, one from each Thailand and China. Trust you enjoy them.

And finally, it seems fitting to finish off our little jaunt with this great quote from Theodore Roosevelt...

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

I think he was thinking of arguing with his wife about who's turn it was to do the dishes, but never mind... I think it fits so well with how I'm feeling. We dared greatly. We stumbled. We strove valiantly. We spent ourselves in a worthy cause. I'm glad. I'm also very very tired. 

We are having reverse culture shock. Our lives are not the same as they were. Many routines will force themselves on us... school lunches, work, bills etc. But we are aiming to Dare Greatly, even as we live here... 

Is it possible?

We are interested in knowing if you have been reading our blog whether you could just send me a quick email to say 'I was'... 

Thanks for coming with us.

We're COMING...

Well, our hour has nearly come.

It is lunch time here in Beijing, and in a couple of hours we'll be leaving for the airport. Bangkok is our destination. We have only to eat breakfast and lunch, and play in the pool for a few hours, then we'll be on the plane home. A long overnight plane to Sydney and then a short trip to Adelaide. Arriving Monday 29th Dec. Qantas flight QF751 from Sydney arriving Adelaide at 2.15pm. Bring your banners. No fanatics please....

By the time we touch down we'll have travelled over 75,000 km, been in 16 countries [including Australia], been for 24 plane flights [only 2 of which have had personal tv screens!], visited with 11 sets of friends, eaten in cafes, restaurants, hostel rooms, from street carts, sports stadiums, train stations, airport lounges, and subways. Been to western loos, eastern loos, and natural loos, flushing, non-flushing, and supposed to be flushing but not... dragged and pushed the kids [and each other] to museums, lookouts and departure lounges. Been to amusement parks, thai boxing gyms, temples, shopping centres, all-hours doctors, natural icons, world icons and curious little shops. Swum in pools, lakes and beaches. Skated on frozen ponds, tobogganned down iceflows, seen frozen waterfalls, and waterfalls inside mountains, walked through rainforests and up volcanoes. Climbed skyscrapers in Manhatten and been in mudhuts in Mozambique. Ridden in trains, taxis, buses, cable cars, rickshaws, planes, shuppas, tuk tuks, sumos, minivans, bicycles and skate-cycles, elevators and escalators. Been below ground, on ground and above ground. Had smooth flights, short flights, rough flights and long flights. Been called Whitey, Farang, Hauli, Gora and Muzoongoo. Had fantastic times and very low times, missed you and not missed you. Taken about 9000 photos and nearly 12 hours of video [I'm not even sure if I'm game!].
And so much more.

We are SO ready to be home. I hope our tennants haven't changed the locks... ha
For those of you who've been keeping up with my ravings all these months, thank you. For those of you in Adelaide, we'll see you all very soon, and for those of you who live in other less fortunate places, thanks for being in touch with us since we left in July.
From him and her.

Beijing.... jing... jing

It was positively summery here today at 3C, up from a high of -7 yesterday when we flew in... actually it was about -12 when we got in at 6pm. Just about died.... Aaron was the only one in the Beijing airport in shorts... he was cold, but he certainly turned heads...
We went to Tian'men Sq today as it's just on the next block, but Zoe's new shoes [read: don't buy cheap in Thailand!] were giving her blisters... so we then decided to bump the Forbidden City to the end of the week and go shoe shopping... can't have everything! The Sq is huge by the way, but so was the shoe shop... it is China after all... ha
Tomorrow we're going somewhere else famous, I can't remember where exactly... feel like I'm dropping the ball a bit... may be the temp... temp... tt tt tt emp.
We are really looking forward to being home. We are excited at seeing the Great Wall on Wed, and our friend Joy, who we are seeing for Christmas Day. We might not get our snow, but we certainly are getting a COLD Christmas.
Remember, there are still a few shopping days for our welcome home presents... ha
[that was a joke by the way] [you know, the bit about not knowing where we're going tomorrow...]