Ballooning over Oxford

Anton arranged a suprise birthday treat for us to go ballooning together over Oxford. It was the most exciting and yet relaxing experience all at once. Would definately like to go again and a real recommendation to all. Once landed back on ground we went to investigate Oxford which is a really pretty town and were able to take a visit the first ever Oxfam Shop which is located in the heart of the city. It was the first charity shop opened in Oxford and the the first ever charity shop to be opened in Great Britain, by a man called Joe Mitty. (click on the image to see more pictures)

Charity Walk- Breast Cancer

A friend of ours Lisa asked us to join her on a charity walk for Breast Cancer through Kew Gardens. with fabulous weather, company and an exhibition of Henry Moore Sculptures, what more could we have asked for... (click on the image to see more pictures) To see the Henry Moores outdoor exhbition at Kew Gardens: http://www.kew.org/henry-moore/

Cannes

I have just returned from sunny Cannes were I spent a few days with my folks. The last time I was there was a good few years ago and I had forgotten how beautiful it is. Within 40mins you are able to reach Cannes from Nice airport and it so easy to access St. Tropez, Antibes, Monte Carlo and many more small towns all the coast by train. Also there is a host of local attractions from Picasso's House to the Fondation Maeght Modern Art Museum in St Paul de Vence. The people were so friendly and gave me and my mum ample opportunity to practice our French. A must for a return visit and with the hubby... (click on the image to see more pictures)

London Iluminated Night Carnvial

Anton and I headed out the Illuminated Night Carnival which was part of the celebrations on the Thames in London, great stuff. There were was some fantastic floats and local entertainers. Real family fun and not big a crowds to contend with... (click on image to see more pictures)

Camara Kenyan Trip

I am back a few weeks now so I felt it was high time I get my photos of my experience in Africa with Camara uploaded to share with you. Thank you to all who sponsored me for my trip. Before our departure each of the 11 team members was given a laptop to give to someone who we felt would put it to good use. Here's a story about one of the people who receveid a laptop.

One of the members of the team Tom had choosen Ambrose, who was a teacher who had received Camara training at Loreto school in Mombasa. Ambrose had come down to the accomodation we were staying early one Saturday morning to give Tom a gift for receiving the laptop (a Kswhalli/English translation book). As Tom was out I accepted the gift on his behalf and ended up having the humbling experiencve of speaking with him myself.

Ambrose is originally from a village called Maliki in Kitale which lies around 15 hrs north west from Mombasa. He regularly makes the journey by nightbus from Mombasa to his hometown at weekends (when he’s not teaching) to work in an organisation he has set up called Maliki Youth Group. This is a voluntary run organisation that serves the street children of Maliki in giving them training and support in order to keep them off the streets away from drugs and prostitution. Most of the youths are orphans who are affected or infected by HIV AIDS. Maliki Youth Group have set up a brick laying course, football club and counselling services. Ambrose talked with such enthusiasm and optimism with me for some time about the youths. All the people who work within the organisation like Ambrose are involved on a voluntray basis. They are currently building on other ways to help the youths, hopefully one of which be a Camara Computer Lab!!.

All for now, Eils x

Women's Mini Marathon

Monday last was a damp old day in Dublin but nothing stopped the 40,000.00 odd women that took part in the Women’s Mini Marathon. The crack was mighty and it was great to see all the different charity tee's as I jogged along. Click on the photo link across to get photographic evidence of me getting over the final line in a record time (for me) of 1hr 10mins... It would be great if you could please sponsor me by Clicking Here!! (This money is going direct to Camara as I have already donoted the money needed for my the trip in June, counting down the days now!!)

Fermanagh Skies

Venturing a little closer to home I had the offer to go to Fermanagh to visit my nana with my folks and what a great weekend to do it, with glorious skies. We ended up having a little stop on the way to a place that some of you may remember. The Manaor House, were Anton and I had our wedding. We had a lovely walk along the Lough Enre and also enjoyed watching the dog (Star) torturing the local ducks!!

Eileen & Rachael Ski Hols

Last minute booking arrangements arranged by Rachael (so lucky to have a cous that is an amazing organiser) and yippee, we are on our way to the slopes. Destination – Courchevel, which is a beautifully positioned village in the French Alpes. There are x3 resorts within Courchevel and Rachael had recommended we took the highest, Courchevel 1850 with the view to hopefully getting the most snow due to the unpredictability with the European snow this year. Courchevel itself has a great variety of slopes, the highest being 2738m. But what makes it more enjoyable is that it has accessibility to x3 others mountain ranges including: Meribel, Val Thorens and Les Menuires. Our apartment was conveniently located a 2 mins walk from the main ski lifts and was actually for 6 people instead of 2 so we had a lot of space!! Last min deal Rachael picked up. Our shower was good and powerful which is always a must when you come back from the slopes sweaty, but why oh why do they insist on having showers in baths so you are resorted to sitting in a bath like a twit while you are supposed to be taking a shower?? Day 1 We were lucky to have blue skies but a little too much on the slippery side as the snow was melting away. If we had managed to get up early we probably would have got better snow conditions so better not complain. Very cool, there was a runway in middle of the mountain. We stopped to check out a cessna plane take off as were skiing past it. You maybe able to spot it, the little white dot!! Day 2 Over breakfast we mapped out the day's skiing deciding to ski over to the nearby mountain range, Meribel. On arrival we treated ourselves to mid morning beverage but as we sat chatting the clouds closed in and it started to snow pretty heavy so we decided to cut our time short and head back home to Courchevel. Rewarding ourselves on our return with a tasty Crepe. one of the many food delights France is great for!) Day 3 more overcast skies and plenty of snow falling, it would have been heaven for snow boarders!! I had a great couple of hours skiing, even if I could not see were I was heading too. Then out again that evening for our last meal of Steak with melted Rochfort and some more good French wine, bliss... For any ski lovers Courchevel is a great a resort for skiing with a great variety of restaurants to choose from though you have to hunt out for the cheap ones as the majority of choices on the menu are from €30 upwards for the main meal, a little on the steep side!!. Also it's not for the party goers among you as it is a very family orientated. Overall we had a very chilled holiday. NOTE: If any of you are passing through Geneva airport there is a great Cafe upstairs on the right BEFORE you enter departures(as the one inside departures sucks!!) Thanks for all the great chats cous, looking forward to doing it again next year!! Eils xx

Last Stop Vancouver

Final destination Vancouver city with the beautiful mountains as a backdrop. One the weekend of arrival we met with a friend of Anton's from work called Paul who offered to take us up to a local mountain called Cypress to go skiing. Only a 30 mins drive away with amazing powder snow all around us. Needless to say we had a fab day of ski together. Afterwards our hungry mouths were feed by Kara (Paul's wife), who cooked a fabulous 5 course meal for us all. Wonderful stuff!!. Thanks alot kara you are a true professional. The rest of the week Anton went the office of the company he works for called Finavera, while I worked from our hotel room, though I did manage to get to the Vancouver Art Gallery to see a great show by photogrpaher, Fred Herzog and also a wonderful exhibtion called Paint. I also got to have a stroll around Stanley Park. During the week we had a lovely meal with a work collegue of Anton's called Gary and his wife Carolan who runs a Dog Rescue facility, doing some really amazing work!. On Friday we ended the work week with a trip to an ice hockey game with Paul and Kara. Thanks guys another great night out and a chance for Anton to see his home team 'The Canucks' play. We debated on whether to go to the snow at Whistler on Satuday but as it is a 2 hr drive away we opted to do something closer to home and had a great morning with Paul and Kara snow shoeing at a another local spot called Grouse Mountain. (Check out the fab views in the photo's). Anton not feeling too well took the night off and I managed to catch up with another work friend of Anton's, Fiona. We went to this great little pancake place and over scrumptious had a good natter. As Anton had a work meeting the next week we delayed our trip back by a few days. Luckly enough there was supposed to be a British Airways strike so alot of people had cancelled their bookings so we managed to get four seats each on the way home, Yippee!

Australia Blue Skies

Third Stop – Australia (Business Class) how travel should be!! Yes, we were upgraded and I realised what really sleeping on plane was like. On arrival we met the newest arrival to the family as we were picked up by Anton’s sister Larissa, her partner Jeroen and our nephew Yannick, a beautiful baby boy of 9 months. After a little chat over breakfast we headed over see Anton’s grandmother known as Bub’s (Babushka is Russian for grandmother). We had arranged to go to mass with her to celebrate Russian Othordox Christmas and afterwards went for a walk through Hyde Park back to her apartment, were we celebrated in true Russian style with Anton’s parents with Heering, Salmon, Pelmeni (small balls of minced meat covered with the pastry) and vodka, tasty!. Finally our last stop for the day was over to Anton’s friend from Ireland Dave (AKA Davo), were we also finally got to meet Kath his lovely girlfriend from the UK and their Rhodesian Ridgeback Bonnie. We had a good catch up and quickly settled into what would be our new home for the coming x2 weeks in Sydney. It was the perfect spot in a place called Manly and we were located 5 mins from the sea and 25 mins from the centre of Sydney on the ferry (which is a really enjoyable ride). Thank you so much guys for letting us have your fantastic abode!! Over the coming weeks we meet up with an array of family and friends. So Big Thank's to:

- Larissa and Jereon for arranging the fab picnic at the Sydney outdoor festival

- Tegan and Greer for the lovely breakfast down at Manly. Congrat’s Greer is such a lovely baby.

- Michelle, Jeff and Max for a wonderful first Barbie in Aus (and Liana for some great conversation). I am still dreaming about your amazing house, well done guys!

- Grant for traveling up from Canberra, hope the romance is going well!

- Jo for making it up to Sydney to catch up

- Ben for coming up from Canberra and do some surfin’

- Christine for having lunch with us, still interested in hearing more about your business idea!

- Anton’s folks, Robin and Mike for bringing Eileen snokelling and body boarding (am missing it already!) and also for arranging to have all the family and friends for Robin's bday.

- Larissa and Yannick for catching up with me to go to the art expo. I think I was little more taken with Yannick and his beautiful smile than the art.

- Leah and Gerard for a good natter over coffee, congrat's on the job promotion!!

- Ian and Elizabeth for coming out for dinner (even if we could not hear ourselves speak!)

- Dave and Cath for making us so at home in their abode, and thanks too for all the wonderful barbies!!

- Tim for being for coming up to Sydeny to catch up with us. It was a pleasure as always!

- Jan, Cole, Anna and Marco for showing us your wonderful home and giving us a beautiful breakfast.

Looking forward to seeing any of all of you over the next year in London or Dublin!!

Would love to have wirtten more about all our experience but as usual I was little behind ib getting this together!!

Scuba Diving - Leyte

Second Stop – Cebu, one of the islands of the 7,107 islands of the Philippines. On arrival at the airport we met up with Anton’s friend from Singapore, Ian and his friends – Ben, Paul and Claire. After a brief hello we all hopped into a taxi to the local port to where we would be taking a boat over to the island of Leyte (our final destination). But soon after arriving at the port we realised we would not be going anywhere due to torrential rain and unpredictable seas. A little frustrated and tired we headed to a local hotel to stay the night and had a good feed to cheer us all up.

The next day was clear skies so we were on our way across the waters. On arrival we were collected by private transport bringing us to SoGod Bay. We drove through busy villages (Parungi's) surrounded by luscious rainforest and rice paddies. Our lodgings were intimate with a capacity of up to 14 guests, consisting of separate rooms all facing the beach, so beautiful.

I had a wonderful instructor called Phil Mcguire (good old Irish name for a Aussie from Canberra) who was teaching me over the 4 days of my PADI Openwater Course. I was hooked immediately with Scuda Diving. You really feel like an astronaut under water!. While I was taking my course the other guys were off adventuring on a number of dives including one which they were able to see whale sharks (check out the amazing photos in the album thanks to Paul's fantastic eye).

As we were there for News Years we went out to see a local fireworks display. We were joined by a number of very excited local kids, which made it all the more fun, if not a little on the dangerous side.

Most evenings I spent studying for my PADI course while the other guys took part in a mini tournament of Pictionary, were Paul established himself as a graphic design genius with his quick handed sketches (Paul - we bow our heads to you, Oh Pictionary Master).

The cooking was very much ‘western style cusine’ through out the week but thoroughly enjoyable and it always managed to satisfy our hungry mouths after a day of diving particularly the Mango Flot Dessert. But eager to try some local food we asked the cook to do a special evening of Pilipino food, in which she was delighted to accommodate us in. We asked the staff to join us and had a wonderful evening of chat and an amazing array of local dishes with a mix of fish, meat and vegtables dishes, along with some locally caught coconuts of course!

When our time at SoGod Bay cameSoGod Bay came to an end we said good bye to all the staff including Dopey and Shirley and Barbara (x3 resident dogs). We were sad to leave our beach hide away but were looking forward to seeing Anton’s family once again in Aus...

Hong Kong Delights!

Hope this finds you all well. I have finally got together a little log of our adventures this Jan 07' ...

Our first stop - Hong Kong. We headed to Kowloon (a peninsula on the Chinese mainland) to meet up with a friend of Anton’s, Maanar who took us out for Dim Sum (Chinese Brunch). The experience was one which I hope to be able to repeat again as everything from the presentation, variety and taste of the food was delightful. Thanks so much guys!. Afterwards we wandered around the city firstly to see the spectacular view across to Victoria Harbour and then a quick tour around the city markets. Then back to our hotel at the airport for a couple of hours sleep before our onward journey.

Start

It is in fact my wonderful wife that came up with the name circlestate (I don't know if she stole it, but I Googled it and didn't bring up anything meaningful) . In any case I think it is great! To me it invokes in me a number of thoughts: how we, the privileged few, have inherited the ability to travel anywhere we desire on this globe; how all of life is really just a cycle and last but not least how my antics sometimes lead to a condition where I run around in a ever diminishing spiral ;). Eileen wanted to send this link out to everyone much soon, but of course me being the "slightly" controlling one wanted to make sure I had my say first. So here it is and I am going to start my blogging with a tribute. It was in 1994 I first came to live in the UK and it was during this time that I met a wonderful woman. We used to take long walks looking at nature and some of the architectural heritage of Briton; we spent time play games like croquet and and cards, but most of all we spent long hours sitting in front of the fire talking about everything from drug use to how to make bread and butter pudding. Her name was Mary Smith (pictured) and on the 1st of December 2006 she was buried aged 100. You may be thinking that is perhaps it is somewhat of a sombre way to start a blog, but Mary was inspiration. She was a lady who had lived through 2 World Wars and a century of the rapid change and to speak you would have thought her just a very wise 18 year old. I saw her on and off for the last 12 years and was fortunate enough to see her one last time a couple of days before she turned 100, recording her reciting paragraphs of poetry which she had rote learnt. Mary, despite our infrequent discussions, I always really enjoyed your companionship; you really were an incredible person and I will always cherish the time we had together - I will keep the memory as a light lest I loose my way. My hope for this blog is to give all of our friends from around the world a place to come and see what we are up to with our lives ;). Anton.