Our year with cancer

New family hobby - gymnastics!

Nina just starting on the bar

can she make it up to the higher bar? It's a long way!

Still so small she needs a little help!

Would anyone bother to read this blog?

I know, it's quite ridiculous ... why have a blog if you never update it? Well, I have two and neither has been updated for a good while. If you are one of the strange people who thinks this blog is even worth visiting, then sincere apologies for the lack of updates! Since last posting life has been its usual chaotic, busy, at times frantic self ... the day centre has been pretty busy especially in the colder months, Johanna and Philip have had their second baby, Nadia May and "spare time" is something of a rarity.

We have had a fair number of visitors and volunteers staying with us over the past few months and renovation work in progress in the downstairs part of out house which has meant quite a lot of hard work and mess. Among our visitors we have had my auntie Janet (my godmother) out for a visit,though she slept at my mum's apartment, and also my uncle Bill came for another visit - I will post some of his lovely photos just as soon as I work out how to do it from my new computer!

My laptop has broken down several times and thanks to an insurance policy we took on it when we bought it has been repaired several times. The most recent time, however, the shop gave us a voucher to replace it instead ... which means I now how a lovely Asus notebook (or is it netbook?) which converts to a tablet! (or is it a pad?) I like it a lot and it works with Android technology so will be very flexible ... now to learn how to use it and post on my blogs more often!

Rafaela's Second Birthday!

Unbelievably our wee grand daughter Rafaela was two on 7th September ... where did those two years go? She is a wee treasure, a total bundle of mischief, strong willed (like her mummy!) and incredibly cute (and I'm not at all biased!) Although we see Philip in her, she really is a lot like Johanna at that age but much fairer, she has very pale white almost transparent skin like Amy and photos of Amy at the same age get mistaken for Rafaela she's so similar though Rafaela has a really cheeky look!

our girls!

kids everywhere ... Gabi, Daniela, Rosanna, Rafaela and Yasmina

Easter in Romania 2011

We had a lovely family Easter, we missed Amy who came out for a surprise visit just before Easter but sadly had to leave before Easter weekend. As you can see, we painted eggs, we made our own chocolate eggs, we had dyed eggs on Easter day at Nelu and Mariana's. Both in Timisoara and Arad there are lovely markets set up at Easter with real bunnies in an enclosure for the children (and adults) to admire and coo over!

Alba Iulia

Took a weekend away to take my mum and our volunteer, Abby for a wee break. My mum hasn't been very well recently and Abby has worked very hard at the day centre for the past three months so I felt they deserved a break.

Our original plan to go to Sighisoara was shelved as I had not been well and felt that the drive would be too long for me just for a weekend. We decided instead to go to Alba Iulia, a city four hours from Arad with a fascinating history. As you can see from the photos, there were some pretty amazing sights - the old citadel was very impressive and we all enjoyed walking around the walls.

Kenny and Alina engaged!

After almost three years going out together, Kenny and Alina got engaged. We are all delighted, Alina is already part of the family, none of us could imagine her not being around, so its great news for us all.

Lovely song by an old friend

Revelion at the Primaria

my pal Conor's Jacobite shield ... fab!

This is 10 year old Conor MacLeod's Jacobite shield ... all made by him with only a tiny bit of guidance from my dear husband ... isn't it great? Check out Conor's new blog on www.conormacleod-thereisonlyone.blogspot.com

about time too!

Having just written a very quick post for the 'vis de copil' (a child's dream) blog out of shame at having left it so long since updating, I then glanced at this one to see that it's been even longer since I updated it ... much longer! Shame on me and apologies to anyone daft enough to want to read my ramblings ... What can I say in my defense? Not a lot really, other that we really have been so busy that we are unaware of time passing. We were in the UK for a visit in late August/early September and then again in October to meet with our Scottish support group and trustees. I also was away for a conference sometime between then and Christmas and Kenneth was away doing eye testing in another city ... then Christmas was the usual blur of frantic activity with parties and shoebox gifts. I will make a New Year's resolution right now to update more regularly and to post more photos ... watch this space!

our 26th anniversary

Kenneth secretly planned a day off for us last Friday for our anniversary. We met in the morning and he gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers but when he shared his plan to go away for the day and told me that Amy was covering the day cente I said I already had a commitment. I had promised Irina that I would go to the handing over of the keys ceremony for the new social apartments. Kenneth came with us to that and then afterwards he had a phone call from the builder doing the work in the basement medical room - if we paid the money on Friday it would be cheaper as on Monday the "Value Added Tax" was going up from 19% to 25%! So that was the better part of the day gone, though we did manage to go for a coffee together and sit a while.

mummy, daddy and yasmina on the road

Recently we have been so tired that we have been struggling to keep going. Kenneth has been ill twice in the past year, last spring and early summer with vertigo (no don't laugh, it's very debilitating, nothing like the James Stewart film!) - he had slurred speech and couldn't walk properly. Then he was quite seriously ill again at Christmas and through January with flu, bronchitis and pneumonia ... so, finding ourselves with a week free of teams/visitors, we decided to take a wee break. We went to the travel agent and found a last minute holiday in Greece if we could drive ourselves there. So we did! We left the travel agent, went home, threw a few things together and set off.

After 24 hours of driving we arrived at the Atrium hotel in Greece and had a lovely few days of relaxation. Yasmina quickly made friends with everyone - they all thought she was adorable. All day long she played in the pool with her new German friend Ana-Lena and had a great time! She made frequent visits to the bar to ask for ice ... not juice, just ice! The barmaids, two from Romania and the other a local girl, all spoiled Yasmina!

We were very excited to be going to Greece and thought it would be wonderful to see some of the ancient ruins that we've always heard so much about. We made one trip to the early Christian church at Solonos (pictured), two trips to the nearest Lidl and a drive one evening to an old village, but sadly that was it. Too hot and too tired we spent the rest of the time swimming and lazing around (and playing darts!)

We met some lovely people from Germany, Russia, Poland, Australia, England and Romania, including a Romanian dentist who is working in the UK to pay for his new dental practice in Arad! His name is Teo and is very kindly offered his help in setting up out medical/dental room in the basement.

We drove home via Macedonia and Serbia, passing through some truly spectacular scenery and as we waited at the borders, we reminisced about the old days when Hungary and Romania were not in the EU and border crossings could take a long time! As you can see, Yamina was completely worn out from all the fwimmin in the fwimmin kool ...

a rare day out ... to Hunedoara castle

One lovely rainy day in April ... or was it May (the months just seem to run into each other and we feel as if it was only just Christmas!) we took an afternoon out as a family. At Philip's suggestion we went to Hunedoara castle, about three hours drive away. Vlad Tepes, the Romanian prince on whom the Dracula legend is based was once imprisoned in the castle! It poured with rain all the way there and our picnic lunch turned into a quick snack at the McDonalds in Deva (where Johanna bumped into one of her two best friends from university days!).

We arrived at the castle as it had just closed ... earlier than usual because it was a holy day! However, on plodding our way in convoy over the drawbridge, Yasmina and Rosie leading the way, the man on the gate took pity on us and let us in, and the rain finally stopped! It was breathtaking, as was this view from the castle!

The gift shop was amazing and not at all tacky ... filled with the most beautiful traditional crafts

and the courtyard of the castle would be hard to beat for it's aesthetic appearance!

Amy enjoyed posing in this lovely archway ... she'll kill me for including this photo, but serves her right, I say!

Johanna, Philip and Rafaela too ... sleeping soundly in the backpack (teach your daughter to appreciate history!)








Kenny and Yasmina ... huddled up against the cold!







Amy, Rosie and Yasmina and a fabulous stairway!

back at last!

Just quickly to say we're back! After much illness and computer and Internet problems, at last we're up and running again. I hope to update properly soon but in the meantime if you want to see photos of our new baby why not have a look at Johanna's blog ... www.morepjs.blogspot.com

Yasmina ... our little princess!

I was looking at photos of Yasmina and wondering at how much she has changed. Babies grow up so quickly! This photo is from a day out with Amy and her friends, isn't she gorgeous?

with Philip's dad

While looking through photos trying to decide what to put on the blog and came across a few taken in September last year while Philip's dad, Malcolm was staying with us for a few months. It's not great quality because I snapped it on my phone, but I like it. We took the circus arts team up to a mountain resort called Moneasa to perform for children with special needs at a camp there. I took Johanna, Philip and Malcolm with me so that Malcolm could have a day out and a change of scenery from the flat terrain of Arad. We went to the "Outlaws cabin" restaurant for some hot soup sitting next to the log fire ... lovely memories.

Rafaela's blessing

Last Sunday Johanna and Philip has Rafaela blessed in church. As usual with the crazy Clokes there was a wee mix up - the pastor had apparently mixed up the dates and waited in vain for them last week. He said this week's service was too full and could they wait til next week ... but Johanna said "no, not really ... my godmother already made the cake!"

After the service we had a light lunch at a well known local venue ... yes, ok it was the day centre! Just family and the godparents and Shaneka, our Peace Corps Volunteer. Johanna asked her dad to take another photo of the four generations, my mother, me, Johanna and Rafaela - all first babies and all girls, that has to be quite unusual, no?