Out and About in San Antonio

Hi,its been a while since our last entry so we thought we would give you a flavour of our life here when we are not travelling.  Recently we have the opportunity to celebrate birthdays and important events with some of our friends here.  As you know Beverley works for Aspen Medical USA and have the pleasure of working with great colleagues.  Soojin Min, our finance director, recently celebrated her birthday so we all took her out to a birthday lunch.  This was her birthday cake.

This is happy Soojin enjoying her day.

Another member of staff is Shelby and this is her birthday cake.

Lynn and Ed we have know for 20 years and they joined us for Lynn's birthday.  We all met when we were posted to Fort Sam Houston.  Lynn and Ed were both in the US Nurse corps and on our frequent trips to San Antonio we have always meet for lunch or dinner and shared a drink or to.  They are wonderful people.

Back to Soojin who recently became a U.S citizen.  We were privileged to be invited to the ceremony and here is the photo of us all with a very new American.  The group consists of Soojin, her husband and daughter ( her son had a cold so was home with grand mother), Pat and us.  Following this we went out for a great lunch.

Recently HQ Australia sent Andrew (in the middle) over to travel with Butch (on the right ) to a conference in South America.  It was a good opportunity to get a photo of Wayne, our operations director, Butch (the boss) and  Andrew.  It was interesting to hear an Australian accent again.  Do we really sound like that?

You would have seen these guys before in earlier blogs.  Yes it is Albert and his precious boys Adrian and Cameron.  These kids are a whiz with Lego's and were proudly showing dad their handy work.

This is what it looks like.

This is really what it looks like.

This is more of their handy work.

Its now baseball season and Texas A&M is Albert and Mary Alice's alma marta.  One of the A&M players is a fellow by the name of  Johnny Manziel (Johnny Football) who is great on the field but tends to push the envelop a bit and gets into strife every now and then.  This is a helmet that he signed which he was not supposed to.  Albert is now the proud owner of this and it will be worth a fortune some time in the future.

We had to have a group photo with said helmet.

Both Adrian and Cameron play base ball and this is what an evening practice looks like.

No blog would be complete with out a photo of food.  This was an Asian meal at P.F.Changs.

The next big event on the calender will be Halloween.  The shops have all of their wares on sale even the Hardware stores (this is Lowes)

Even hanging from the ceiling.  It will be a scary event.

So until our next entry, stay happy and well.

Beverley  and Ross

Oslo Norway

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to spend a week in Oslo the capital of Norway.  Norway has a population of some 4,707,270 and Oslo has a population of just under 700,000.  It is very historical city with lots to see and do.  

There are many grand buildings.

As it was summertime there we many open street cafes surrounded by brightly coloured flowers.

While the are many Mercedes, Volvo's and Audi's on the roads there are also a number of smaller electric cars who plug in when they park.  The city streets a narrow and provide little opportunity  to park.

There are many beautiful old homes in various part of the city.

This is the University of Oslo named after Edvard Munch who was an artist and painted many pictures for the university.  This year celebrated his 150 th year and dotted throughout Oslo were examples of his art work.  To read more of Munch have a look at www.munch150.no/en/About-Munch-150

Oslo is also a city of statues.  They are everywhere as well as many beautiful parks and being summer there were hordes of tourists from may parts of Europe enjoying the sunshine.  Norway usually enjoys a very short summer of about 3 months duration so everyone was making the most of the good weather.

It is also a port and as well as the large cruise ships which birth here there are many elegant sailing ships to be seen.

 We took the opportunity to see and do as much as we could and we visited the cultural village which provides a look into a bygone era.

Here there are examples of old homes.  These being of the late 1940's.

Incluse of their underware

Service Station.

Traditional Folk dancing in front of the old school house.

Then there was the earlier days with buildings dating  to Circa 1300

The horse drawn carriage of the day.

Even the proverbial 'pig in mud'.

Norway is the home of the Vikings and no trip is complete without a visit to the Viking Ship Museum.

For more information regarding this part of history have a look at www.khm.uio.no/english/visit-us/viking-ship-museum

Dotted around the city there are fruit, vegetable and flower markets.

There are also several elegant churches such as the Kirkeni Sentrum Lutheran Church which was built in 1858.  On the weekends it serves food to the homeless.

Oslo is also the residence of the Crown Prince.  It was built in the first half of the 19th century and has 173 rooms.  To know more about the palace have a look at en.wikipedia.org/wik/Royal_Palace_Oslo

It is guarded by smartly turned out soldiers.

Oslo was also the site of a terrorist attack in 2011 when Anders Behring Brevik, 32 years of age at the time set off some bombs which killed 7 people and wounded another 209 then he made his way to an offshore holiday island and shot many people.  This took pace at the building you can see in the photo, a government building.

Oslo has many fine eating establishments.  One we frequented on several occasions is the oldest restaurant in the city having been built in 1700.  It is called the Gokslad Oseberg.

To know more of this historic restaurant have a look at www.stortorvets-gjestgiveri.no/en

One of the other restaurants we frequented had been a very old pharmacy.

It is called the Cafe Tekehtopa and is owned by folks from Turkey.  It had a great atmosphere and very friendly staff.

Here is  Shardi  with Ross on our last evening in this beautiful city.

Travelling is about going to interesting places, soaking up the culture, enjoying the food but mostly it is about the wonderful people you meet.

Best wishes to all,

Beverley and Ross

Around Home

Since our last blog we have been enjoying staying at home and spending time with our friends.  Cameron turned 7 years of age a couple of week ago and you can just see the top of his head as he examines the gift his mum and dad gave him.  Adrian looked on with anticipation of more fun times spent with his brother.

Recently there has been a new addition to the Valadez home in the form of a cute puppy called Eevee name after a Pokemon character.  She really enjoyed playing with the wrapping paper.

We recently had the opportunity to share in the birthday celebrations of Joan Ratner PhD whose husband, now deceased, was the first paediatric surgeon in South Texas.  Joan, her son Adam and his wife Varda run the Patient Institute in San Antonio.  The patient Institute is a not for profit organization which assists folks navigate the complexities of the US health system.  To know more of this organization have a look at  www.patientinstitute.org

 We also had the opportunity to catch up with Randy and Wanda Reynolds who some will know as they had a 3 year posting to Australia in the early 90's when Randy was in the USAF.  Ed, Wanda's father and Janette and Wyman Curry also joined us at our home.   We had a great time.

We are surrounded by a number of different critters and are frequently visited by squirrels who enjoy the food we put out for the variety of wild cats who transit through our yard.

This black and white cat has adopted us and is here every morning for breakfast and stays all day.  She particularly liked our garden pot to sleep in.

She enjoys it even more now we have flowers in it.

Weather wise it is hot with temperatures in the high 90's.  We have had some recent rain so everything is still green.
This will be our last summer in Texas as our E3 Visa expires on 10 Jan 14.  It has been a wonderful opportunity to live in our home and to enjoy good times with the many friends we have here.
So if anyone is still wanting to come to San Antonio for a vist while we are still here you need to get here before we leave.

All are welcome and your bed is ready for you.
.
Cheers Beverley and Ross