ToyVoyagers - Travelling Toys - Little Things on Big Adventures

As you may or may not have known Sara took us all to Dubbo today for a whole bunch of jobs she had to complete. She did it today instead of Friday, in which it was originally planned for... they decided after they got the jobs done to go to the Old Dubbo Gaol which she had never been to before... so this was totally new to her... it's quite a historic little piece of work right in the middle of town... so it's time to go and find out what this little (or not so little) museum is all about...

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After Sara paid for our admittance into the museum (thankfully it didn't cost anything for all of us to come along - although we stayed in the bag most of the time... Sara will show you what we saw along the way... here I am with the map of the gaol and the self guided tour information was on the back... I'll read it out to you as we go through the gaol...

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Once we entered the main gate we turned around and got a photo, it's called the "West Main Gate", this is what the self guided tour map and information told us about it...

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This section was completed in 1887. The main timber gates are the original gates and many of the wooden pavers are original. Note the small gate within the iron gate. This is where prisoners and visitors would have entered the Gaol until 1929 when it was replaced by the Eastern entrance.

...The guy in the office told us to first go to what was called the "Infirmary" or the hospital of the old gaol, when we walked in we heard this voice... it was an old goast of the gaol he told us about the gaol and what we can find there... it was really interesting to learn about it... kind of freaky too..

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When we turned we saw there were some paint scrapings... so what is the significance of that you may wonder? Well, they scraped away the paint to show the original paint, which was the orange/red colored paint, then through the years they painted it the other different colors than you can see... this is what that sign says next to it...

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Paint Scrapings were carried out to identify previous colour schemeds used in the Gaol. Peeling back the paint has revealed the following sequence of colours and possible dates.
1970's Pale Green
1940/50's Pink
1930's Emerald green above and below a cream line
1880's Red and Orange with a stone color above a black line

Next stop off was the Vegetable and Food store, which was right next to the infirmary...

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In 1885 the prison diet consisted of wheat bread, an overcooked mixture of maize meal, vegetables and meat juices, known as hominy. As a minor gaol, prisoners at Dubbo were allocated a different diet to those of the larger labour prisons with less meat (1/4lb on Wednesdays and Sundays served with rice). Prisoners also received a ration of salt, sugar and soap. Bread and water was considered a low diet and issued for punishment or when ill. From the late 1890's the produce from the vegetable garden was storedhere for use in the kitchen next door.

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This area originally housed the Gaol's kitchen. There were two prisoners who worked as "Cooks Assistants" under lock and key. All meals were prepared here and then issued to prisoners in their cells.

Finally out of the first area of the gaol, it's time to move onto the more interesting areas of the gaol... we got to see the original gaol bell, which is located on the northern end of the building. When the gaol was closed in 1966 the bell was used at Newnes Prison Farm. It was returned in 1974, restored and re-erected in it's original place...

Next stop is the prisons well, this was used by on average 2-4 prisoners at a time that were responsible for pumping and distributing water throughout the gaol... this is what the plaque said right above the well...

In 1865, when the gaol was a 'holding lockup', consisting of a construction of some eight cells, the prisoners had no water supply in the existing gaol and were obligated to borrow water from a property close to Dubbo, hauling the barrels by bullock dray. However, due to severe drought, the property owner objected to supplying water as there was insufficent quantities for his own use. The then Member for Dubbo, Mr. George W. Lord, wrote to the Minister for Public Works, requesting a well be sunk in the gaol yard.

Now the next stop on the self guided tour was something that was originally not part of the Dubbo Gaol, but something that was used during the time that the Gaol was opened, and it is dated back to the early 1900's it's the portable cell...

Originally from the Pilliga region, this is a typical example of the portable cells that were commonly used across the state, particularly in the far western areas. This size is also similar to the original first lock up in Dubbo in 1848.

Right next to the portable cell was a washtub and a vegetable garden...

Prison reforms in the late 1890's resulted in the development of prison vegetable gardens and farms at most NSW prisons. They were part of an agriculture training program designed to give prisoners a specialised skill for later employment. This garden is a reconstruction of where it is believed once stood the original vegetable garden. There is also a suggestion that area outside of the walls was also converted for vegetable production.

A formal garden also existed outside the hospital block. Both were maintained by prisoners as part of their daily work.

Next were ready to get into the more interesting areas of the gaol, the actual cells and dark rooms, and all that interesting stuff... welcome to the male division...

The entrance of the cellblock is the oldest portion of the gaol. It was built in 1871 and initially housed the warden, his family and four cells. The building now comprises 14 cells of differing sizes and two dark cells, used for solitary confinement.

Next stop were the dark cells, or also known as the solitary confinement cells... they were totally black, even the walls were painted in black and there was a sound of some chains dragging along the ground when you walked in there... really quite eerie when you think about it... this is what it looked like by using the flash... Sara read a plaque that said that prisoners that were put in solitary confinement for as much as 21 days let out once a week for a nice meal before being put back into the dark cells. It also said that prisoners would tear off a button and throw it against a wall, and then search around in the pitch black cells to find it, and then throw it again as a game to keep themselves from going crazy...

The use of the solitary confinement in dark cells was officially discontinued in 1896. However, there is evidence that it, and the use of the mouth gag, was still practiced in 1900 in Goulburn Gaol despite being considered inhumane.

As you enter the long hallway with all the cells, the first cell on the right side was known as the Condemned cell...

In this cell there was an animatronic character that was called Thomas Moore, who was one of the prisoners that were convicted and put to death at this gaol. His death was actually one of the deaths that was quite memorable for the people witnessing, he was 67 when he was executed and it was said his head was "removed" from his body when he fell through the trap door of the gallows. Quite shocking.

There were three cells that showed normal prisoner conditions during the times that the gaol was opened, there were times that the gaol was so full that they had three or more prisoners in each cell...

...in this picture you only see one prisoner, but there were two others in the corner and three beds side by side. The beds were literally just wooden planks, and quite uncomfortable I'm sure...

In the next cell was something they commonly used as a punishment (one of the many forms) used mainly during the 1880's... the whipping stool... there was even a painting above it representing the times it was used...

The whipping stool was used in both regional and city gaols throughout the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries. The prisoner lay across the stool and his wrists and ankles were manacled to the device. This prevented the prisoner from moving or resisting the punishment. Prisoners were then flogged using a leather tawse. Flogging could occur as part of the punishment issued by the courts or be inflicted for misbehaviour once inside the gaol.

The next cell over was the one padded cell in the whole gaol, at least that's still as it was when the gaol was opened...

The padded cell was added in 1886 and was used to house violent and mentally ill inmates, known as lunatics. Records indicate that a 68-year-old labourer was imprisoned at Dubbo Gaol for over a year suffering from melancholia, an illness currently known as depression. By 1904 official documents noted that the "system of dealing with lunatics in goals was (still) unsatisfactory.

As were leaving the male division of the gaol you could almost miss the next exhibit, it was known as a watchman's telltale...

The small green metal Watchman's Telltale, located on the outside wall of the male cell block, was used as a security device. Wardens inserted a key into the aperture and wound up the spring within. If this procedure was not repeated on the hour, the spring unwound and set off an alarm bell, alarming the watch officer that either the warden had come to harm, or that he was not doing his duty. These were also located at the western end of the block, and the remand yards and outside the former library.

Throughout the museum if you look along the edges of the gaol, you can see statues of prisoners trying to escape over the walls of the prison...

...although that wasn't the best place to escape, as right near it was the Watchtower...

The watchtower dominates the north eastern corner of the Gaol. Wardens entered this tower from a flight of fifteen wooden steps outside the Gaol wall. Use of the tower was discontinued in the early part of the 20th century. Another watchtower existed in the southeast corner of the Gaol in the 1890's but all traces of this bulding have vanished.

...next stop is the much smaller female division...

The small female area comprised of an exercise yard, covered shelter, clothing store, ablution block (bathroom), kitchen and two cells. The display shows the maximum capactiy of the female prisoners.

Within the female division was an area where you heard about the hangman, who had no nose, and the 8 men that were condemned to death at the Dubbo gaol, it was quite intereseting to listen to... next were going into what is known as the gallery of the condemned. This is where they have information about the men that had died, age, date of death, date condemned to death and the date they were executed with information about their crime...

...and there was information about the gallows that were used...

Eight men were hanged for murder in Dubbo Gaol between 1977 and 1904. One or two appear to have been ruthless and calculating murders. Others claimed to have killed in self-defence or in passion. But under the law at that time, no mitigating circumstances were recognised; the penalty for murder was death.

But was the penalty applied equality to all? All the hanged men were poor and uneducated; most beloged to minority groups, and prehaps it is no coincidence that they were often those most generally disliked at the time - Irish Catholics, Aboriginal people and the Chinese. They struggled to survive on the harsh margins of an alien society, with no influential friends, no money and no resources. Some may have been mentally ill.

Would they be convicted of murder today? The evidence against many of these men was only circumstantial - one was found with a dead man's possessions, another was the last man to be seen with the victim. There were rarely any witnesses, and community feeling ran high against them. In one case the policeman chose to pursue the offender rather than seek medical assistance for the victim. As a consequence the victim died adn the offender was charged with murder. Interestingly, in at least two cases, the community at the time thought that the punishment was unfair, and sought to save the condemned man. Today men and women are still found on Death Row all over the world. Do you think their deaths serve a worthwhile purpose?

Going back outside again, we got to see the exercise yards that were mentioned earlier in the self guided tour...

Male prisoners only used these yards. They were rquired to complete 1 hour of exercise per day and were separated by classification of crime and sentence. From 1934 prisoners were required to do their own laundry in exercise yard 1.

Another part of the museum that was hard to see unless you were really looking, the roll call lines...

The two red lines painted onto the cement near the south eatern end of the male cellblock were used as the assembly point for the daily roll call of prisoners.

Now something a bit more eerie, but quite interesting to actually see... the Dubbo Gaol Gallows...

These were erected for each execution. When not in use they were stored under the courthouse. Like the hangman's kit, the gallows are unique to Old Dubbo Gaol. It is not known when the gallows were first erected or when they were dismantled, but they were in use over a period of more than 30 years - from the 1870's to the early part of this century. The gallows are approxmiately 16 feet high, with a base of 12 feet by 9 feet. The top bar is 10 feet wide and there are 13 steps up the platform from which the felons "took the drop".

Here's a plaque showing the names and dates of the men condemned to death, and the date they were executed...

Nearing the end of our tour, was some original artifacts from this time, from this gaol and from other gaols in the area at the time. This is known as the "hangman's kit"...

The hangman's kit displays the ropes, nooses, and other tools of the trade used by the State Executioner to preform his macabre duties. The items in this display are all original artefacts that were used by the hangman and his assistant.

Right near the area with the hangman kit was a covered area that was known as the prisoners labour area of the gaol...

Male prisoners were kept occupied with labour such as woodcutting, gardening, book binding, and tailoring. These tasks were also designed to retrain inmates with a more useful trade to take up upon their release.

Last thing to see as your ready to exit the gaol and onto your way was the pillory...

The item was donated to the Gaol many years ago. Although this form of punishment was not standard practice for prisons, it makes for a great photo opportunity!

Well, we just had a really long day and we got to see and learn a lot of things about Australian prisons, especially back in the day, which was really interesting especially since that is what Australia is known for, when England sent their prisoners to Australia as a form of punishment... very interesting... I hope you enjoyed that mom! I'll write again soon, Monday were off to Sydney...

steffi* Posted Dec 14, 2007, 11:40 pm	Hi! I'm Resi, a squirrel from Austria! Normally i'm staying in Graz, but my mum is currently at home in Upper Austria. She is a student (20 years old) and is now staying at home, because there are winter holidays for students right now. I'm very exicted going on my trip around the world!! my mum will post pictures from where i live now, before she is sending me off next week! greetings from upper austria so far! Resi My Itinerary: PLEASE don't forget to enter the latitude and longitude, so that i have a great map ) PS: If you want to send souveniers, please send it directly to Steffi, because otherwise I'll be to heavy and my back starts to hurt THANK YOU very much! you've been great hosts!! * Carlissa - Florida: departed * Shana10214 - Florida, USA: departed * wmphimu - Washington DC, USA: departed * rothko - Texas, USA: departed * Michele_one_L - Rome, NY, USA. departed * Charda - The Netherlands departed * sararingham - Australia departed * JaymeC - Japan departed Currently staying with: ellienpaul09 - Manchester, England
steffi* Posted Dec 15, 2007, 7:42 pm	i promised some more pictures of myself in here. so here they are! i also love my new neclace, with the pretty flowers on it! I really really like the christmas preparations here. i'm allowed to help steffi to find the right number everyday and have yummy chocolate. it's also snowing outside, but it's too dark and cold now to go outside. i hope that the snow won't be gone by tomorrow!!!
steffi* Posted Dec 16, 2007, 1:16 pm	finally i'm leaving for florida tomorrow. so i had to say good bye to the cats (they actually are not as big as they look on the pictures ) and guess what?? there really was still a bit of snow outside! but nevertheless, i'm very looking foward to seeing warm and sunny florida! take care my little resi!!
steffi* Posted Dec 17, 2007, 2:50 pm	I've just returned from the post office. resi is now on her way to florida. it might take her like 15 days or so. i hope she arrives safely at carlissa's house!!
steffi* Posted Jan 9, 2008, 9:18 am	Resi has not arrived in Florida yet. i really hope she didn't get lost. actually i think, that it's the post services' fault, because they slowed down everything during christmas so carlissa: pleeeeeeease let us know immidediately when Resi arrives in Florida, so i don't have to worry anymore!! THANK YOU! Many greetings, Steffi*
carlissa Posted Jan 15, 2008, 4:11 pm	I have arrived in Miami! I sure am glad to be out of my traveling bag! It was so dark in there and I was scared I would never make it to Miami! But I am here now, so don't worry! I was greeted by Prince Charming, Picado, and Mittens. Prince Charming lives here and Picado and Mittens are visiting. I was hungry after such a long journey, so I found the nearest oak tree to look for acorns, but since it's winter, there weren't any on the tree. My host said she had some nuts she would share with me:
carlissa Posted Jan 20, 2008, 11:53 am	I went to Miami Metro Zoo today with Picado and Mittens. We saw lots of animals and had lots of fun! Here I am with the rhino: I read all about the komodo dragons: A hippo tried to eat us! And we played with the elephants:
carlissa Posted Jan 26, 2008, 8:24 pm	My host took us to see Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden this morning! Here I am with some pretty flowers: I saw a colorful tree stump: I wanted to pick some papaya, but they weren't ripe yet: And I read a sign about water lilies: All the walking around and the fresh air made me hungry, so I joined Tiger The Best and Frankenstein for lunch. I had a turkey sandwich on a coissant. I didn't like the turkey, so I gave it to Tiger and Frankenstein. The lettuce, tomato, fruit sauce, and coissant was good, though!
carlissa Posted Jan 29, 2008, 7:53 pm	This morning I played with some of the animals (besides my host) that live here. My camera was a little wonky, but I did manage to get a few pictures. Here's Rambo, he's a German Shepherd: Here I am with Salem, the witch cat. Her eyes don't usually glow, but she must be possessed today! After playing with Rambo and Salem, I took a nap with Kit Kat.
carlissa Posted Jan 29, 2008, 8:33 pm	It's Ladies Night at The Melting Pot on Monday night, so a bunch of us went there for a delicious fondue dinner. We had the Wisconsin Trio Cheese Fondue and the Mediterranian Cheese fondue for dinner and the Cookies ‘n Cream Marshmallow Dream and the Dark Chocolate Raspberry fondues for dessert. What a treat! Here we are waiting for dinner to arrive. Mittens, Tiger The Best, Frankenstein, and Smith are with me. Here I am with Mittens in front of the chocolate fondue pot:
carlissa Posted Feb 9, 2008, 1:39 pm	Today my host took me to the park at Matheson Hammock! The park is enormous - 351 acres! Here's the sign at the entrance of the park: The oak trees in the park are beautiful! I saw a squirrel! Can you find it? I thought a hammock was what people in Miami hung from trees to lie on, but I found out that it can also be forested land surrounded by marshes: I saw some pretty birds: I went for a walk on some of the nature trails! Here's a little house at the beginning of the nature trails: Here's the beginning of the trail:
carlissa Posted Feb 9, 2008, 1:45 pm	After we went to the park, my host had to pick up her bicycle from the shop. When we got it home, I went for a ride on it!
carlissa Posted Feb 9, 2008, 2:21 pm	We didn't have time to see the beach when we went to Matheson on Wednesday, so we took the bicycle to the park and rode down to the beach. Here's the bike path: Here I am at the beach: The view of downtown Miami and Biscayne Bay: There are lots of big boats in the marina: The marina office: I saw a sailboat in the bay:
carlissa Posted Feb 9, 2008, 2:51 pm	I've had a nice time in Miami, but it's time to travel onward! I am on my way to visit Shana10214!
shana10214 shana10212@gmail.com Posted Feb 12, 2008, 12:38 am	Hello! Resi has safely arrived in Tampa. Resi was so happy to be out of that envelope, even though it was a short trip here. She was greeted by Chloe(my hosts dog), my host Andrea, my host's mom, and 2 other family members.
shana10214 shana10212@gmail.com Posted Feb 16, 2008, 6:38 pm	Gosh! After being in an envelope for a while, I think I need a little snack. There is nothing better then some yummy thai food. Andrea has also let me rest in a nice comfy chair.
shana10214 shana10212@gmail.com Posted Feb 18, 2008, 2:22 am	Happy Valentines day!!!!!!!!!!! It is big here in the US. Andrea came back from school with lots of candy to share with me.
shana10214 shana10212@gmail.com Posted Feb 25, 2008, 1:02 am	Wow! For the "Sunshine state" there was lots of rain today
shana10214 shana10212@gmail.com Posted Feb 25, 2008, 1:04 am	Today the rained cleared and it was nice to go outside.
shana10214 shana10212@gmail.com Posted Feb 25, 2008, 1:13 am	Hello Mommy, Being the girly squirel I am, we went shopping today Also, Andrea bought that dress for a party. Hugs, Resi
shana10214 shana10212@gmail.com Posted Mar 1, 2008, 2:19 am	Hello! A new friend arrived today to visit. Meet Chocolate Chimp! I talked to him about toyvoyagers and tips for jetlag.
shana10214 shana10212@gmail.com Posted Mar 1, 2008, 2:22 am	Hello Mommy! Guess what???? My host is taking Chocolate Chimp and I to the Renisance festival tommorrow. It is a festival where people dress up, it is to celebrate the time a long time ago. It will be fun and I am sure there will be great photo chances. Bye, Resi
shana10214 shana10212@gmail.com Posted Mar 6, 2008, 10:29 pm	I went to the Rennisance festival today! It a festival dedicated to the times along time go in europe. We went with Andrea, her mom, buggy4526, Chocolate Chimp, and some other friends. That pastry is called spanikopita.It is a yummy spinach greek pastry.
shana10214 shana10212@gmail.com Posted Mar 6, 2008, 10:32 pm	Hello! A new visitor arrived today. Her name is Marcello and she is from Australia. We helped her climb out of her box.
shana10214 shana10212@gmail.com Posted Mar 10, 2008, 2:36 pm	Today, Andrea put me in another travel bag and I was yet again shipped off. I left as soon as the PO opened. Here is the last picture of me in Florida. I hope for a safe/fast journey to VA. Resi
wmphimu Posted Mar 12, 2008, 7:28 pm	Hello from Virginia! After a quick flight, I arrived today at Mara's house! And look who was there to greet me - Calixte and Plaid Moose! It's a lot colder here than in Florida, but I'm happy to be here!
wmphimu Posted Mar 16, 2008, 4:58 pm	I have been having so much fun in Virginia! Yesterday, Plaid Moose decided we should all take a trip into Washington DC to see some of the sites! First, we took the metro into DC. I checked the metro map to figure out our route... Then we got on the train! Because Mara lives in the suburbs, we had a long trip, and had to switch stations a couple of times. But it meant that we got to see a couple of neat things...the Masonic Temple in Alexandria and Washington National Airport! Finally we were crossing the Potomac River and into the city
wmphimu Posted Mar 16, 2008, 5:02 pm	Our first stop in Washington DC was for lunch! We went to Chinatown - here I am at the Chinatown arch! After lunch, we were ready to go to the museum! Our destination for the day was the National Portrait Gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian. Plaid Moose told us that lots of people think that the Smithsonian is one big museum, but it is actually LOTS of big museums! This one is all art. It also has a very beautiful atrium that has been in the paper a lot. So we stopped there first. It was the perfect place for a squirrel like me! We looked the gallery of portraits of American presidents. I liked this very famous one of George Washington Mara says that this is the picture of George Washington that is on the $1 bill! And we all liked this sculpture of bears! The biggest excitement of the day was a very strange portrait of Stephen Colbert, a popular tv show host. I have seen his show a couple of times since I have been here - he does a political satire show. Plaid Moose says that as a joke he tried to get the portrait of himself from his set put in the Smithsonian, and they hung it up here, at the entrance to the bathroom! The funniest thing was how many people were in line to get their picture taken with it! I waited too - so here I am with Stephen Colbert!
wmphimu Posted Mar 16, 2008, 5:23 pm	It was such a beautiful day, so after walking around the museum, we decided to walk around the Mall a little bit. Plaid Moose told us that the Mall isn't a shopping mall - it's a big grassy area with monuments and Smithsonian Museums around it! The Washington Monument is at one end... And the Capital Building is at the other! We also walked through the garden at the Smithsonian Castle - the main building for the Smithsonian museum!
wmphimu Posted Mar 22, 2008, 10:39 pm	Everyone here is all excited for the NCAA basketball tournament (college basketball). They call it "March Madness," and everyone goes nuts for it! People fill out brackets to guess who will win, and there are lots of contests and games with it! So, Plaid Moose, Calixte, and I decided to play too! We filled out our bracket based on the mascots - we all like animals a lot (and don't know a lot about basketball) so it seemed like the way to go! We picked West Virginia University to beat Wisconsin in the final. West Virginia won their first two games...and here we are watching Wisconsin play this afternoon!
wmphimu Posted Mar 29, 2008, 11:43 pm	What a day! This weekend started the National Cherry Blossom Festival. The Cherry Blossom Festival celebrates the gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Japan to the U.S. and is a huge festival every year when the trees bloom along the tidal basin. So we all went into DC today to see the trees and the Jefferson Memorial! Here I am in front of one of the beautiful trees: And here I am along the Tidal Basin with the Jefferson Memorial in the background!
wmphimu Posted Mar 30, 2008, 10:34 pm	Well, today is my last day here in Virginia. One of the things I have been really enjoying is playing with Mara's rabbits. Freckles & Cinnabun have become good friends - I will miss them almost as much as the other Toy Voyagers! We took some pictures playing today...can you tell how much fun we are having?
wmphimu Posted Mar 31, 2008, 11:02 pm	I left Virginia today to fly to Texas! I have had a great time in Virginia, but I am looking forward to the warmer weather in the south! Hopefully I will arrive quickly!
rothko Posted Apr 14, 2008, 6:33 pm	I just arrived in Texas! I was really glad to get out of that envelope!
rothko Posted Apr 14, 2008, 6:37 pm	Today Sara took me along to work. She works in a coffeehouse called Scooter's. Her shifts vary, but she ends up opening the place quite often, which means she has to be there at 05.30!! It was really hard getting up that early, but the coffee was REALLY GOOD!
rothko Posted Apr 14, 2008, 6:39 pm	This evening, Sara took me along to her painting class! It was so much fun -- so many different colors to play with!
rothko Posted Apr 14, 2008, 6:43 pm	This evening I got to go along with Sara to another coffee shop to meet with some other artists. They all make \"artist trading cards\" which are little cards (64 x 89 mm) turned into tiny works of art. People use collage, paint, fabric, anything they can think of! It looks like a really fun hobby. Here I am with a few different cards.
rothko Posted Apr 29, 2008, 12:51 am	This evening I went with my host to the Alamo Drafthouse Theater to see the sci-fi movie "2001: A Space Odyssey." It was very interesting. The Alamo Drafthouse is a really cool movie theater -- in front of each row of seats is a narrow table and you can order drinks and food there during the movie! It's one of the things people love about Austin.
rothko Posted Apr 29, 2008, 12:55 am	Today we went to an art fair! Hundreds of artists from all over the US exhibited their works to sell. It was really fun and Sara enjoyed talking with the other artists about their techniques and materials. She bought a little tiny painting, too.
rothko Posted Apr 29, 2008, 12:58 am	Today I met a real live squirrel! It was so exciting!!! Her name is Shannon and she told me she had just given birth to a couple babies. She didn't talk very much because she had to eat lots and lots of food so she could nurse the babies successfully.
rothko Posted Apr 29, 2008, 1:02 am	My hosts decided they wanted to get a bird for a pet! So we all went to the pet store and they decided on a grey budgerigar (parakeet). He's really pretty but very, very shy!
rothko Posted Apr 29, 2008, 1:07 am	April in Central Texas is a beautiful time! Beautiful wildflowers grow everywhere and it's an amazing sight to see. The most common of them is the Bluebonnet -- it seems to be a tradition to go out and take pictures of each other in the flowers every spring. Sara took my picture!
Michele_one_L Posted May 27, 2008, 4:34 pm	Hello Mom! I arrived in Rome, New York just a few minutes ago. I just wanted to let you know that I'm okay. I'm off to take a nap and explore my hosts home. I'll update with pictures later.
rothko Posted May 28, 2008, 6:11 pm	Well, it's time to go. I had lots of fun in Austin! Now it's off to New York state. I said goodbye to Chester Budgie before heading off to the post office in my envelope. I'm excited to see my next destination!
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 3, 2008, 12:23 am	This morning I arrived at my new host's home. Boy was I surprised to see so many TV's awaiting me. I hope I can remember everyone's name...so far I've met; Bellatrix, HitchaRideMo, Mausi, Muumipeikko, Pebbels, TheoSheep and Willy Wau. I've been told that there a few other TV's that live here but I haven't me them yet. Few...I better go lay down, this was a lot to take in on the first day!
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 8, 2008, 3:50 pm	A TV arrived today! We were excited to see who it might be...Our host opened the envelope and inside was one of her TV's Gilbert! He was cute but very shy. He seemed happy to be home and our host seemed very happy to see him.
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 8, 2008, 7:06 pm	Today we took a little drive to visit our host's in laws. Michele said that she doesn't like going to their house but that she goes for her husband. They live in a town called Potsdam. It's rural so there isn't much if anything to do there. At least we got to tag along...
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 8, 2008, 7:24 pm	Tonight we were going to sleep in an RV! Michele's in laws don't have a guest bedroom so it's either we sleep in the RV or in the car. Michele said she was not sleeping in the car! Since Daryl and Michele weren't tired they decided to play card games. We were excited because we could play too. Gilbert, Muumipeikko and Bellatrix help shuffle the cards. Pebbels, Willy Wau, HitchaRideMo and I helped deal, while Mausi and TheoSheep gave you a card on your turn (if you needed one).
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 8, 2008, 7:35 pm	Finally it was morning! Michele was up early getting everything ready to load into the car. One would think that she didn't want to be at her in laws any longer. We all sat on the couch in the RV and waited to be loaded into her bag.
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 8, 2008, 8:08 pm	It's been a slow and boring week for us. Our host has been trying to find a job and going on interviews so she hasn't had a lot of extra time for us. Tonight she told us how sorry she was. To try and make up for it she gave us some ice cream! Ice Cream is pretty good but we told her that she will have to do better than that.
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 8, 2008, 8:31 pm	Today Pebbels left! We said our goodbyes and wished Pebbels well.
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 11, 2008, 1:08 am	Today we had to say goodbye to Muumipeikko, Mausi and HitchaRideMo. Surprisingly they were all going to the same place. We said our goodbyes and wished them all well.
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 22, 2008, 2:17 am	It's been a pretty uneventful week! Our host has been searching for a job so we've had to fend for ourselves lately. It's been okay since there are a couple of TV's here. Today it was SOOO hot out! Our host's husband put the air conditioner in so we didn't over heat. Since it was so hot they decided to grill instead of cooking inside. Thank goodness! For dinner our host's husband made hamburger patties and we got to watch. It was interesting....He added all different types of ingredients and sauces, it sure smelled delicious!
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 22, 2008, 2:27 am	We didn't dare go outside in the heat to help with the hamburgers. Michele said that her husband will take care of it. Phew.... Once everything was ready we gathered at the table for a bit of the burger. We were told that if you are going to eat something unhealthy then you also need to eat something healthy. The salad was okay, but the burger was out of this world!!! Michele's husband is a good cook (shh...don't tell him though).
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 22, 2008, 2:54 am	After dinner Michele's husband asked if we wanted to go outside and toast marshmallows? We really had to think about it since it was so hot but we decided that it would be fun. Boy, when you add the heat of the grill to the temperature it's unbearable! We got a little help and we were thankful! The marshmallows were warm and gooey.... It's just what you need to get your fur tangled. Luckily that didn't happen to any of us.
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 22, 2008, 3:59 pm	As we were getting ready to go back inside we saw a little squirrel on the porch. Since I was the only one who could speak squirrel, the other TV's sent me to talk to him. I approached him and as soon as he started to speak I was IN LOVE!!! I don't know what it is about him but he really gets my tail in a bunch.... Sigh! I think.....well I think that he's the one for me! I've heard you just know when you meet the right one. I can feel it he's the one! I heard shouting when I realized that it was the other TV's. They were asking what is his name. I had forgotten that anyone else was around. I told them that his name is Chipper and that I'm in love!!! Someone yelled you just met him how do you know that your in love? I told them you just know. Our host asked him if he wanted to come inside so we can get to know him better.
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 22, 2008, 4:20 pm	This morning our host was cleaning in her spare/computer room when she yelled "OH NO!" We had no idea what could be wrong but she came out carrying a small box. She told us that she received this box a few days ago and put it in the spare room when her mom came to visit. There was a long pause that was filled with guilt and sadness! She told us that there is a TV in the box! She quickly opened the box to see who was in there...... We were all expecting the worst but 2 pink ears popped up. It took awhile but finally we saw that it was Candy Cotton! Everyone was able to breath a sigh of relief. Candy Cotton was healthy and well, she told us that she slept a lot and read her travel journal to pass the time.
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 22, 2008, 9:10 pm	This evening we decided to play Disney Monopoly. It was SO much fun! Gilbert, Theo Sheep and Bellatrix were one team and Candy Cotton, Willy Wau and I(and Chipper) were the other team. They used Nemo as our token and we team used Sully and Boo. Sadly after a few hours of playing they weren't doing so well. They had a lot of property with traffic cones (houses) but we weren't landing on them very often. But of course they kept landing on their properties. We were the winners!!!
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 22, 2008, 9:33 pm	For some reason it was cool out today! We aren't complaining after all of the hot weather we've experienced lately. For lunch we shared some ramen noodles with our host. They were yummy but a little difficult for us to eat.
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 22, 2008, 11:08 pm	An envelope arrived today and we just knew that it was another TV! To our surprise there were 2 TV's in the envelope....It was our host's TVs RonnieNHammie. They seemed happy to be home and we were happy to meet them.
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 22, 2008, 11:24 pm	Our host got a new job recently and today we got to ride in the car with her to the studio where she will train. It was raining out and we heard on the radio that it was supposed to rain all day.
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 22, 2008, 11:46 pm	Another envelope arrived today! We were excited to see who it could be. Michele said that had no idea who it could be. We watched as our host opened the envelope....out popped Bene. He seemed very happy to be here. Of course we welcomed him with open arms!
Michele_one_L Posted Jun 26, 2008, 5:47 pm	Today we said goodbye to Bellatrix, Willy Wau, Gilbert and Ronnie N Hammie. It was sad to see some many go at once, but it was for the best.
Michele_one_L Posted Jul 22, 2008, 12:51 am	It's been pretty uneventful around here lately. Our host hasn't been able to take us anywhere so we've been at her home hanging around. Luckily there are other TV's here to play with. This afternoon we decided to help our host with a notebook she signed up for on www.postcrossing.com. It's a question notebook, which means the person before Michele asked 10 questions and she has to answer them, then ask 10 questions of her own. Bene was in charge of gluing. Po was in charge of making sure the page was glued down smoothly and I was in charge of writing the new questions. Chipper decided that he just wanted to watch.
Michele_one_L Posted Jul 26, 2008, 12:08 am	Today was laundry day so we decided to help Michele fold the clothes. We got a quick ride in the laundry basket from the basement. It was fun while it lasted.
Michele_one_L Posted Jul 26, 2008, 12:16 am	We hopped out of the basket onto the bed and saw a sleeping dog! OH!!!! We dared Po to get close to the dog. We figured if the dog woke up Po could use his Kung Fu on him. We were so scared for Po, who knows what the dog would do if he got a hold of him.
Michele_one_L Posted Jul 26, 2008, 12:29 am	Po approached the dog (we were told his name is Riley) with care. We grew scared with every step...Before we knew it he reached the dog. Luckily the dog didn't move! Po was more confidant than ever so he decided to get a little closer.... OH NO!!! The dog's eyes slowly opened....Po was frozen in fear. After a few minutes Riley's eyes closed back up. Po said if we wanted our picture taken with Riley then we had better come quick. We didn't know when we would get another chance to come so close to this wild beast.
Michele_one_L Posted Jul 26, 2008, 12:35 am	Michele saw that we were playing with Riley and laughed! She told us that Riley is more afraid of us then we are of him. She told us that we needed to move so that she could change the sheets. No sooner did we move and the dog went to hide! What a scaredy cat! Or dog!
Michele_one_L Posted Jul 26, 2008, 12:50 am	We asked if we could help change the sheets. Michele told us that there was nothing fun about it, but that we were more than welcome to help. Once all of the sheets were off the bed, we got a little crazy! I can't explain what happened but we all started jumping and rolling all over the mattress. Even Michele's other animals joined us. It was SO much fun! It didn't last very long because we had to get the new sheets on the bed. Here we are posing together.
Michele_one_L Posted Jul 26, 2008, 1:04 am	Our host was able to go to the post office today and when she came home she said that she had a surprise for us. We couldn't wait to see what kind of surprise it was.....It was another TV! His name is Cool Jules and he's a passenger on the USATVT.
Michele_one_L Posted Jul 26, 2008, 1:23 am	Michele's husband came home last night from a business trip (he was in England for 2 weeks), so they decided to go out to breakfast this morning. Her husband said that he wanted to go to Friendly's so that's where we went. We shared a big orange juice with Michele and an even bigger breakfast! We will all need to take a nap after this....but we were told that there was no time for naps. It was going to be a long day of running errands.
Michele_one_L Posted Jul 29, 2008, 7:54 pm	After breakfast we went to Hallmark and the bank. Nothing exciting happened at either of those places. Our next stop was at BJ's wholesale club. It was HUGE!!! Anything you've ever wanted in large amounts. Luckily Michele knew what she was looking for so it didn't take us very long. After BJ's we headed back to Rome to unload the groceries and have lunch.
Michele_one_L Posted Jul 29, 2008, 8:07 pm	This afternoon we took a short trip to the pet store. Michele and Daryl were looking for some special treats for Riley. We also made a stop at Target and Walmart but Michele's camera was having some issues so we didn't get our picture taken.
Michele_one_L Posted Jul 29, 2008, 8:18 pm	Today we said goodbye to KungFu Panda.
Michele_one_L Posted Jul 29, 2008, 8:27 pm	Today was our last day in NY! We are heading to Europe...hopefully this is only one of many more stops for us. I'll never forget NY as that is where I met Chipper... Maybe if we get married we can come back and honeymoon here. Toodles....
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Jul 29, 2008, 8:44 pm	We arrived in the Netherlands today! It was so great to have our first journey together! It is so much nicer than travelling alone. And when we were cold on the plane we cuddled closely together. It was just amazing. But now we're here and I hope we're gonna have a great time!
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Aug 4, 2008, 11:51 am	Last weekend we went camping. Our host was a First Aid volunteer at an event called 'Castlefest'. Our host didn't have much time to take a lot of pictures, but she took some, so you can see where we've been. Since we were camping at the location, this is everything we had to bring. Luckily we went by car this time. On the first day we met this cute thermos. It was strange. I think this penguin would prefer cold drinks, but he contained coffee! These weapons are used in LARP, which stands for Live Action Role Play. These swords are covered in foam so that they don't hurt if you get hit by them. This horse looks so cool! This construction is a 'stool of witches'. Here you can be tested whether or not you are a witch. Here you can see the main stage. This is where many bands performed during the weekend. Among the bands that performed there were 'Omnia' and 'The Transsylvanians'. In the First Aid tent we met this nice couple. They look pretty cool, right? He is really scary! You can't even see his face! Girls playing the harp. Some other girls with a large weapon. This tree had a man in it! Or was it a treant? I don't know exactly what it was, but he had this really dark grumbly voice. The Wickerman statue was burnt on Saturday evening. Unfortunately we weren't there at that moment, because we had to stay in the First Aid tent. These helmets and weapons were for sale. I think this man was hung there as a warning for others. It looked pretty frightening to me! The polar man and this dog looked pretty good together, but the man was only posing with the dog. People dressed in the most splendid outfits. Here I am in the First Aid tent. There was this one place where they had this big basket with Giant Microbes. We even saw some siblings of the TV Synapse. Here I am posing with the Giant Microbes that the First Aid people bought. Uhm, it's not that comfortable here between mange and louse. These are the materials they worked with this weekend. This is one of the two beds used for patients. Suddenly we heard this loud roaring outside of the tent. What could it be? Oh no, it was a real dragon! But our host told us that this was a trained dragon and it was safe to pose with him. Well, I didn't feel too comfortable so close to him. And now we're back home, safe in Leidschendam again, far away from knights, goblins and dragons. Phew, I think I'm gonna need some rest to recover from this weekend.
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Aug 6, 2008, 7:04 pm	Today Ceryni left us. He has been with us for a very long time and he has seen many things. He has been to London, Amsterdam, Leiden, Ommen, Lisse and Almere. That's quite a journey for one TV! Yolanda found it especially hard to say goodbye to Ceryni. She became quite attached to him. Ceryni is now on his way back home! Safe travels, Ceryni!
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Aug 9, 2008, 6:30 pm	Today we ate pancakes for dinner! Look at this yummy pancake with apple, raisins, sugar and cinnamon. It tasted as delicious as it looks Last Monday it was our host's boyfriend's birthday. He got these flowers as a gift from his work. I think they're very pretty. In the evening we watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Aug 11, 2008, 2:28 pm	Today we went to a country-festival called Floralia in Oosterhout in the Southern part of the country. This is the biggest country-festival of Europe. And do you know what the best part is? My host told me she doesn't even like country-music, but she went there as First Aid volunteer, together with her boyfriend. We left at 7 am in the morning We walked to the busstop where the bus was supposed to leave at 7:36 am. But unfortunately the busdriver had overslept and we had to wait a full hour for the next bus! We could have slept an hour longer! Our host wasn't too pleased with that, also because it meant we arrived an hour late at the event. But, we took the next bus and went to The Hague Central Station. This is us on the train. Do you see these big coffee cups behind us? They contained cappucino and they were really yummy Well, this is me in front of the big stage. I don't know what the band is called that is performing here. There were lots of people here and lots of them were in Western outfits, like these two ladies. Some of them were also line-dancing. Why do you have to look so solemn during dancing? Is it forbidden to smile in the world of country? The festival was held in a special garden. The rest of the year this garden is open to the public and people can even garden here themselves. So we walked around a bit and it looked very pretty. Our host wanted us to pose on the ledge of this well, but then she looked in to see if it was a real one, and it sure was! It was really deep! So we just took a picture this way. That was way safer. In the afternoon we watched the performance of this English band, called the 'Swing Commanders' at the small stage. It was really a lot of fun. They even sang a song from Jungle Book! The one where King Louis sings with Mowgli and Baloo that he wants to become human and wants to learn how to make fire. It was so much fun. All the women in the band could play all the instruments. They would change instruments with every song. It was truly amazing. This little tea-house was right next to the small stage. Looks pretty Dutch, right?
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Aug 14, 2008, 7:35 pm	Today we went to the cinema! We even met Wall-E and EVE! We really enjoyed the movie. It's really like a modern fairytale with all these robots. All of us really liked it. We also saw the short Pixar movie 'Presto' before the movie started. We had a great time. After the movie we walked around The Hague for a little while. We saw this statue. We also saw these old-fashioned phone boots. This is me with the statue of King Willem II. Here I am posing in front of the Dutch flag. These are all the flags of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. This is 'Het Binnenhof'. This where the Dutch government convenes, so all the major decisions are being made here. Do you think this seagull knows this mountain of ice is fake? This is a coat of arms of the Netherlands. You always see a lion in these pictures. And while we were on our way back to the tram we walked past these sand sculptures. This bird doesn't really care about the figure of Justice. This is the logo for the city The Hague. This building is the Peace Palace; or at least a sand replica of it. There is a statue of this little boy elsewhere in the city. Here you can see the 'Binnenhof' from another side. And we also saw McDonalds! With a pigeon on the logo
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Aug 14, 2008, 7:58 pm	And then when we came home today it was time to say goodbye to Harvie and Bellatrix. We were sad to see them go, but it's good they're gonna continue their travels elsewhere. Bellatrix is going all the way to Australia, while Harvie is going home for a short while to tell his mother all about his travels in Europe!
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Aug 17, 2008, 6:41 pm	Tonight we had a fondue Bourguignonne. This is so cool. We had TV-sized food! We grilled the meat on the device you see on the table. We had a great time.
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Aug 20, 2008, 7:59 pm	Hi! Sorry for not updating for a couple of days. We've just hung around the house, watched some TV and basically relaxed. It's bad weather outside, it's raining a lot and there is no sun to be seen here. But the temperature is very agreeable though. This is what we had for dinner tonight. It's a typically Dutch dish called 'andijvie-stamppot'. It consists of potatoes, endive, bacon and cheese. It was really tasteful.
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Aug 20, 2008, 8:05 pm	Today we ate pizza! Our host's boyfriend made the topping himself and it tasted delicious!
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Aug 27, 2008, 8:27 pm	Today a new TV arrived from Germany. Her name is Hoppity. We first fed her some carrot and after that we took a picture together.
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Aug 27, 2008, 9:00 pm	Today we went to a pop-festival! It was called 'Zand' and it took place in Almere. There were several Dutch artists. We saw Nick en Simon, Alain Clark, Ilse de Lange and Jeroen van de Boom. We had pretty nice weather during the day. Only in the course of the evening it started to rain. That's when we left Here I am during the performance of Ilse de Lange. My host found a videoclip of that day, one of the performances we saw. It's a performance by a Dutch artist, so then you can hear something of the Dutch language and music : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sKlE3-VyZo This is a pretty picture, don't you think? And at night we tasted some Dutch MacDonalds food. The Dutch BigMac tastes just like all the other ones
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Sep 2, 2008, 10:26 am	Today Jadzia Tam left the Netherlands for a long intercontinental flight by airmail. Here we are saying goodbye. Since it's our host's birthday next week, she participates in a Round Robin on Postcrossing for people whose birthday is in September. And these are the cards she sent to the other people. Aren't they nice and colourful? The card with the peacock was for her mother, not birthday related, and the package on the left contains Jadzia Tam
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Sep 2, 2008, 4:57 pm	Today we helped our host with putting the pictures in the photo-album of the vacation in London. Neither of us has been on this vacation, but it wasn't like we had anything better to do, and we liked looking at the pictures of our fellow ToyVoyagers. Help! We're all entangled! This smells weird...what kind of food is this? But, in the end, we managed to finish the album. Just two months after the vacation, that's not too bad, is it? Of course we had to eat something after this hard work. Our host said we could share this sandwich together. She told us it is something really Dutch. The sausage you see is called a 'rookworst'. There is no real English term for it, but the dictionary gives 'smoked sausage'. It's made of pork meat usually and here it is served with a mustard-sauce. It tasted really great! Since it's my life-mission to get to know all sorts of tea, my host said she could help me with that. She told me she really likes to drink tea and has many different flavours. I thought she meant she would have like three or four different flavours, but look at this! And that's not all! I know she's a Postcrosser and apparently she also swapped some tea with some Round Robins and Tags on the forum. Some tea she says! Look at this! I think I can consider my life mission to be completed now, don't you think? So we decided to have a little tea party. We also invited the bear from London, because he of course likes tea, and Yolanda. Don't you just love this Winnie the Pooh shaped biscuit tin? This bear was really happy to finally have some real British tea again. He said it had been too long ago since he last had some This is us together with some 'Hot Love' tea. Phew, hot and steamy it was! Of course, rabbits don't usually drink tea, so Hoppity chose some green 'Green Leaf' tea. That's at least somewhat close to cabbage. And Yolanda drank some Peppermint tea. We had a great party!
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Sep 7, 2008, 8:05 pm	Today a new TV arrived and it's a very special one! It's a braincell called Synapse! Our host didn't really know what to feed him, so we decided to give him a book to read! Our host says it's very important for braincells to be stimulated. This book about Dutch procedural civil law must certainly do the trick!
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Sep 8, 2008, 8:15 pm	Our host had her first class of the semester today, so she took us along with her to Leiden. This is me in front of a typical Dutch windmill. Our host still loves this view. It's so Dutch.
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Sep 15, 2008, 9:08 pm	Today two new ToyVoyagers arrived! They are called Roots Bear and HitchaRideDooey. We wanted to welcome them with a group picture. But we were missing one TV! Synapse, where are you? Ah, he's reading again. Come here, we need you to welcome these two new TVs. So we finally got a group picture together. Our host apologizes for not doing many updates lately. She is working a lot, even six days this week , so things will get better...eventually.
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Sep 18, 2008, 7:13 pm	Today yet another ToyVoyager arrived! His name is Henry the Adventure Hound. He has already met Roots Bear and HitchaRideDooey before, so it was nice for him to meet them again here. Tonight we watched an online video of Prinsjesdag. It's a Dutch tradition where the queen tells the government and everyone in the country what the policy will be in the next year. First she travels in this golden carriage. And this is the Queen of the Netherlands: Queen Beatrix.
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Sep 21, 2008, 8:07 pm	Last Friday a new tv arrived, called Beatritsche!
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Oct 3, 2008, 11:06 pm	Today we received a box by mail from Germany! Our host has participated in the Random Acts Part 2 challenge. This is what she received: And look at these pretty flowers she also received today:
Charda charda1982@gmail.com Posted Oct 23, 2008, 7:50 pm	Today we left the Netherlands! We said goodbye to all the TV-friends. Maybe we'll meet again!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Oct 31, 2008, 1:15 am	Mom! We have arrived in Australia! It's quite warm here, which is kind of weird, since it's Halloween, isn't it supposed to be cool and rainy? Oh well... well there are lots of other toyvoyagers here - I'll update again soon with photos. :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Nov 1, 2008, 3:10 pm	Today we all went to the dog park... it was VERY warm today, it was around 95' degrees in Sydney but they have the wind from the ocean when there is any... we are more inland and no rain so it was very very hot outside... we decided to take the dog to the dog park and just let her run like crazy... here I am at the dog park... ...as you can see the dog, and Sara's husband Daniel were getting quite the workout... I'm not in the photos because Sara was zoomed in quite a distance... in the first picture you see that huge hill? They were up there when the photos were taken... pretty crazy the distance her camera can zoom in... ...and here's a picture of her 6-month old beagle puppy called Anni... isn't she cute?
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Nov 1, 2008, 3:37 pm	Well after the long day at the dog park (even a few hours felt like much longer in that heat) we celebrated Halloween... Sara got some candy for her, Daniel and us to share... Halloween isn't as widely celebrated down here as - nothing like it is in America. We've never gotten trick-or-treaters... in the bigger cities and suburbs they do sometimes but nothing like in America so no worry about that here... we just sat down ate some nice candy, burned the jack-o-lantern and watched scary movies... :-) ...there was some pretty scary looking candy... there was gummy vampire tounges, gummi eye balls, that looked really realistic... freaky!... some skeleton lollipops and some marshmallow scary creatures like a witch, a vampire, a skeleton and a pumpkin... it was quite yummy! I hope you had a good Halloween mom! :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Nov 1, 2008, 3:59 pm	Today was a nice day, much cooler than the past days so Sara decided to take us all to the park... she went to a park that wasn't as full of people since they stopped off at Cook Park and it was packed because of a wedding so we went to a much smaller park called Memory Park... Sara swore it was called Moulder Park... but apparently not... it's really nice and green isn't it? ...we also got to see some strange looking beetles... they kind of look like they have a tribal shield thing on their back don't they? Well, they're harmless so we left them alone... :-) I've only been here a few days but sorry for not really updating earlier, Sara's been trying to get over this cough she has so all of the toyvoyagers are staying together and just having a chat and resting a lot... it seems a bit too hot to do much else... but Sara says were going to be going to Dubbo next week, and then Sydney the week after... it's going to be a busy next few weeks... write again soon mom! Miss you!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Nov 9, 2008, 8:51 am	As you may or may not have known Sara took us all to Dubbo today for a whole bunch of jobs she had to complete. She did it today instead of Friday, in which it was originally planned for... they decided after they got the jobs done to go to the Old Dubbo Gaol which she had never been to before... so this was totally new to her... it's quite a historic little piece of work right in the middle of town... so it's time to go and find out what this little (or not so little) museum is all about... After Sara paid for our admittance into the museum (thankfully it didn't cost anything for all of us to come along - although we stayed in the bag most of the time... Sara will show you what we saw along the way... here I am with the map of the gaol and the self guided tour information was on the back... I'll read it out to you as we go through the gaol... Once we entered the main gate we turned around and got a photo, it's called the "West Main Gate", this is what the self guided tour map and information told us about it... This section was completed in 1887. The main timber gates are the original gates and many of the wooden pavers are original. Note the small gate within the iron gate. This is where prisoners and visitors would have entered the Gaol until 1929 when it was replaced by the Eastern entrance. ...The guy in the office told us to first go to what was called the "Infirmary" or the hospital of the old gaol, when we walked in we heard this voice... it was an old goast of the gaol he told us about the gaol and what we can find there... it was really interesting to learn about it... kind of freaky too.. When we turned we saw there were some paint scrapings... so what is the significance of that you may wonder? Well, they scraped away the paint to show the original paint, which was the orange/red colored paint, then through the years they painted it the other different colors than you can see... this is what that sign says next to it... Paint Scrapings were carried out to identify previous colour schemeds used in the Gaol. Peeling back the paint has revealed the following sequence of colours and possible dates. 1970's Pale Green 1940/50's Pink 1930's Emerald green above and below a cream line 1880's Red and Orange with a stone color above a black line Next stop off was the Vegetable and Food store, which was right next to the infirmary... In 1885 the prison diet consisted of wheat bread, an overcooked mixture of maize meal, vegetables and meat juices, known as hominy. As a minor gaol, prisoners at Dubbo were allocated a different diet to those of the larger labour prisons with less meat (1/4lb on Wednesdays and Sundays served with rice). Prisoners also received a ration of salt, sugar and soap. Bread and water was considered a low diet and issued for punishment or when ill. From the late 1890's the produce from the vegetable garden was storedhere for use in the kitchen next door. This area originally housed the Gaol's kitchen. There were two prisoners who worked as "Cooks Assistants" under lock and key. All meals were prepared here and then issued to prisoners in their cells. Finally out of the first area of the gaol, it's time to move onto the more interesting areas of the gaol... we got to see the original gaol bell, which is located on the northern end of the building. When the gaol was closed in 1966 the bell was used at Newnes Prison Farm. It was returned in 1974, restored and re-erected in it's original place... Next stop is the prisons well, this was used by on average 2-4 prisoners at a time that were responsible for pumping and distributing water throughout the gaol... this is what the plaque said right above the well... In 1865, when the gaol was a 'holding lockup', consisting of a construction of some eight cells, the prisoners had no water supply in the existing gaol and were obligated to borrow water from a property close to Dubbo, hauling the barrels by bullock dray. However, due to severe drought, the property owner objected to supplying water as there was insufficent quantities for his own use. The then Member for Dubbo, Mr. George W. Lord, wrote to the Minister for Public Works, requesting a well be sunk in the gaol yard. Now the next stop on the self guided tour was something that was originally not part of the Dubbo Gaol, but something that was used during the time that the Gaol was opened, and it is dated back to the early 1900's it's the portable cell... Originally from the Pilliga region, this is a typical example of the portable cells that were commonly used across the state, particularly in the far western areas. This size is also similar to the original first lock up in Dubbo in 1848. Right next to the portable cell was a washtub and a vegetable garden... Prison reforms in the late 1890's resulted in the development of prison vegetable gardens and farms at most NSW prisons. They were part of an agriculture training program designed to give prisoners a specialised skill for later employment. This garden is a reconstruction of where it is believed once stood the original vegetable garden. There is also a suggestion that area outside of the walls was also converted for vegetable production. A formal garden also existed outside the hospital block. Both were maintained by prisoners as part of their daily work. Next were ready to get into the more interesting areas of the gaol, the actual cells and dark rooms, and all that interesting stuff... welcome to the male division... The entrance of the cellblock is the oldest portion of the gaol. It was built in 1871 and initially housed the warden, his family and four cells. The building now comprises 14 cells of differing sizes and two dark cells, used for solitary confinement. Next stop were the dark cells, or also known as the solitary confinement cells... they were totally black, even the walls were painted in black and there was a sound of some chains dragging along the ground when you walked in there... really quite eerie when you think about it... this is what it looked like by using the flash... Sara read a plaque that said that prisoners that were put in solitary confinement for as much as 21 days let out once a week for a nice meal before being put back into the dark cells. It also said that prisoners would tear off a button and throw it against a wall, and then search around in the pitch black cells to find it, and then throw it again as a game to keep themselves from going crazy... The use of the solitary confinement in dark cells was officially discontinued in 1896. However, there is evidence that it, and the use of the mouth gag, was still practiced in 1900 in Goulburn Gaol despite being considered inhumane. As you enter the long hallway with all the cells, the first cell on the right side was known as the Condemned cell... In this cell there was an animatronic character that was called Thomas Moore, who was one of the prisoners that were convicted and put to death at this gaol. His death was actually one of the deaths that was quite memorable for the people witnessing, he was 67 when he was executed and it was said his head was "removed" from his body when he fell through the trap door of the gallows. Quite shocking. There were three cells that showed normal prisoner conditions during the times that the gaol was opened, there were times that the gaol was so full that they had three or more prisoners in each cell... ...in this picture you only see one prisoner, but there were two others in the corner and three beds side by side. The beds were literally just wooden planks, and quite uncomfortable I'm sure... In the next cell was something they commonly used as a punishment (one of the many forms) used mainly during the 1880's... the whipping stool... there was even a painting above it representing the times it was used... The whipping stool was used in both regional and city gaols throughout the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries. The prisoner lay across the stool and his wrists and ankles were manacled to the device. This prevented the prisoner from moving or resisting the punishment. Prisoners were then flogged using a leather tawse. Flogging could occur as part of the punishment issued by the courts or be inflicted for misbehaviour once inside the gaol. The next cell over was the one padded cell in the whole gaol, at least that's still as it was when the gaol was opened... The padded cell was added in 1886 and was used to house violent and mentally ill inmates, known as lunatics. Records indicate that a 68-year-old labourer was imprisoned at Dubbo Gaol for over a year suffering from melancholia, an illness currently known as depression. By 1904 official documents noted that the "system of dealing with lunatics in goals was (still) unsatisfactory. As were leaving the male division of the gaol you could almost miss the next exhibit, it was known as a watchman's telltale... The small green metal Watchman's Telltale, located on the outside wall of the male cell block, was used as a security device. Wardens inserted a key into the aperture and wound up the spring within. If this procedure was not repeated on the hour, the spring unwound and set off an alarm bell, alarming the watch officer that either the warden had come to harm, or that he was not doing his duty. These were also located at the western end of the block, and the remand yards and outside the former library. Throughout the museum if you look along the edges of the gaol, you can see statues of prisoners trying to escape over the walls of the prison... ...although that wasn't the best place to escape, as right near it was the Watchtower... The watchtower dominates the north eastern corner of the Gaol. Wardens entered this tower from a flight of fifteen wooden steps outside the Gaol wall. Use of the tower was discontinued in the early part of the 20th century. Another watchtower existed in the southeast corner of the Gaol in the 1890's but all traces of this bulding have vanished. ...next stop is the much smaller female division... The small female area comprised of an exercise yard, covered shelter, clothing store, ablution block (bathroom), kitchen and two cells. The display shows the maximum capactiy of the female prisoners. Within the female division was an area where you heard about the hangman, who had no nose, and the 8 men that were condemned to death at the Dubbo gaol, it was quite intereseting to listen to... next were going into what is known as the gallery of the condemned. This is where they have information about the men that had died, age, date of death, date condemned to death and the date they were executed with information about their crime... ...and there was information about the gallows that were used... Eight men were hanged for murder in Dubbo Gaol between 1977 and 1904. One or two appear to have been ruthless and calculating murders. Others claimed to have killed in self-defence or in passion. But under the law at that time, no mitigating circumstances were recognised; the penalty for murder was death. But was the penalty applied equality to all? All the hanged men were poor and uneducated; most beloged to minority groups, and prehaps it is no coincidence that they were often those most generally disliked at the time - Irish Catholics, Aboriginal people and the Chinese. They struggled to survive on the harsh margins of an alien society, with no influential friends, no money and no resources. Some may have been mentally ill. Would they be convicted of murder today? The evidence against many of these men was only circumstantial - one was found with a dead man's possessions, another was the last man to be seen with the victim. There were rarely any witnesses, and community feeling ran high against them. In one case the policeman chose to pursue the offender rather than seek medical assistance for the victim. As a consequence the victim died adn the offender was charged with murder. Interestingly, in at least two cases, the community at the time thought that the punishment was unfair, and sought to save the condemned man. Today men and women are still found on Death Row all over the world. Do you think their deaths serve a worthwhile purpose? Going back outside again, we got to see the exercise yards that were mentioned earlier in the self guided tour... Male prisoners only used these yards. They were rquired to complete 1 hour of exercise per day and were separated by classification of crime and sentence. From 1934 prisoners were required to do their own laundry in exercise yard 1. Another part of the museum that was hard to see unless you were really looking, the roll call lines... The two red lines painted onto the cement near the south eatern end of the male cellblock were used as the assembly point for the daily roll call of prisoners. Now something a bit more eerie, but quite interesting to actually see... the Dubbo Gaol Gallows... These were erected for each execution. When not in use they were stored under the courthouse. Like the hangman's kit, the gallows are unique to Old Dubbo Gaol. It is not known when the gallows were first erected or when they were dismantled, but they were in use over a period of more than 30 years - from the 1870's to the early part of this century. The gallows are approxmiately 16 feet high, with a base of 12 feet by 9 feet. The top bar is 10 feet wide and there are 13 steps up the platform from which the felons "took the drop". Here's a plaque showing the names and dates of the men condemned to death, and the date they were executed... Nearing the end of our tour, was some original artifacts from this time, from this gaol and from other gaols in the area at the time. This is known as the "hangman's kit"... The hangman's kit displays the ropes, nooses, and other tools of the trade used by the State Executioner to preform his macabre duties. The items in this display are all original artefacts that were used by the hangman and his assistant. Right near the area with the hangman kit was a covered area that was known as the prisoners labour area of the gaol... Male prisoners were kept occupied with labour such as woodcutting, gardening, book binding, and tailoring. These tasks were also designed to retrain inmates with a more useful trade to take up upon their release. Last thing to see as your ready to exit the gaol and onto your way was the pillory... The item was donated to the Gaol many years ago. Although this form of punishment was not standard practice for prisons, it makes for a great photo opportunity! Well, we just had a really long day and we got to see and learn a lot of things about Australian prisons, especially back in the day, which was really interesting especially since that is what Australia is known for, when England sent their prisoners to Australia as a form of punishment... very interesting... I hope you enjoyed that mom! I'll write again soon, Monday were off to Sydney...
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Nov 11, 2008, 8:34 am	Today we were taking another trip, this time to Sydney... we stopped off quite a bit to get some nice photos of whatever we could along the way... Sara decided first stop would be Bathurst, we would see if we could spot some kangaroos... and we did... sadly when I tried to get in front of the camera the kangaroos bounced off... they didn't seem to want any of that... ...as you can see they saw Sara get close with us, and got a bit spooked so moved on back... we'll try again on Wednesday when we're going to Bathurst for a longer trip... we'll see if we can get in the photo this time! :-) There is more to come... just hang tight! :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Nov 11, 2008, 8:54 am	Next stop was Lithgow, which was about an hours drive from Bathurst... honestly, there's not too much there, but Sara decided to show us something she's always liked for part of Lithgow, which is the Lithgow's Miner's Lamp... here I am in front of it... ...since this is the backside of it you can't see it all that well... it doesn't look much different, although this is what it looks like from the front... ...not much different as you can see... but you can see the windows at the bottom... there's a little bit of cloth thats is lit by an orange lamp and a little fan to make it look like a flame... kinda cool... :-) Otherwise Lithgow there isn't much to see... we're only at the half way point of Sydney now... watch for more updates. :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Nov 11, 2008, 9:14 am	Next stop was in Sydney's Blue Mountains... they're in the outskirts of Sydney, a lot of people don't really think much about the outskirts, let alone thinking there is a huge mountain range that goes through before you get to Orange, Bathurst and even Lithgow... well, welcome to the Blue Mountains... it was time to visit one of the big tourist spots for people visiting the Blue Mountains and Sydney... the Three Sisters... a huge rock formation... ...can you see it? It's behind some trees, but Sara had to take photos in an odd spot as it was quite full near the view point so she didn't want to loose any of us... so she then walked over and got a proper photo of it... isn't it pretty? Also you can tell in the distance why they call it the Blue Mountains... :-) The Three Sisters comes with an old aboriginal legend... this is what it is: Long ago in the Blue Mountains there lived three little Aboriginal sisters. They were Meenhi, Wimlah and Gunnedoo, whose Witch Doctor father was called Tyawan. Only one creature was feared by all – the Bunyip who lived in a deep hole. When Tyawan had to pass the hole, he would leave his daughters safely on the cliff behind a rocky wall. One day, waving goodbye to his daughters, he descended the cliff steps. On top of the cliff a big centipede suddenly appeared and frightened Meehni, who threw a stone at it. The stone rolled over the cliff and crashed into the valley. Birds, animals and fairies stopped till as the rocks behind the three sisters split open, leaving them on a thin ledge. The angry Bunyip emerged to see the terrified sisters. In the valley, Tyawan saw the Bunyip close to his daughters, so he pointed his magic bone at the girls and turned them to stone. The Bunyip then chased Tyawan, who found himself trapped, so he changed himself into a Lyre Bird. Everyone was safe, but Tyawan had dropped his magic bone. After the Bunyip had gone, Tyawan searched and searched for his bone – and he is still searching. The Three Sisters stand silently watching him from their ledge, hoping he will find the bone to turn them back to Aboriginal girls. As you look at the Three Sisters, you can hear Tyawan – the Lyre Bird – calling his daughters as his search for the lost bone continues. Here are some of the views around the Three Sisters... it's quite beautiful isn't it? Well... were almost in Sydney now... just a bit longer... sadly we weren't able to see any of the big famous things like the Harbor Bridge or the Opera House but you can see what Sydney looks like at least... :-) Write again soon!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Nov 11, 2008, 9:43 am	Well... we were finally there... well no, not really Sydney is a HUGE city full of smaller suburbs, the actually city of Sydney is pretty small which is just the CBD, which is what everyone sees, the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, all that fun stuff... lots of huge buildings and very expensive shops... :-) Kind of like Rodeo Drive in Hollywood... lots and lots of expensive shops and tourists... Sadly, we weren't able to visit that - Sara and Daniel had an appointment at a dietician and allergist for their son Andrew at the now famous hospital RPA (Royal Price Alfred Hospital) - why is it famous you might ask? Because it's got a TV show on every Thursday... Sara enjoys watching it... it's got some pretty crazy stuff from what I've seen of it... lol... ...that's mainly what a lot of Sydney looks like, very similar to Orange actually... very old looking buildings... Sydney is a mix of old and new buildings... as you can see... ...we were also very very close to the Sydney CBD, we got to see the Sydney skyline while we were driving but it was quite hectic driving around Sydney, especially this close to the CBD, you take one wrong turn and your in a different suburb and lost... ...now, you might wonder what that strange looking tower is in between the bigger buildings... it's called the AMP Tower, also known as the Centerpoint Tower, it's right in the middle of Sydney... you wouldn't have any idea, but people walk along the top of it, it's called the Sydney Skywalk... Sara honestly thinks people are crazy, there's a part with a walkway that's clear so you can look straight under you... so creepy! Then again, Sara's not fond of heights... ...but as you can probably imagine, Sara had a good time navigating their way to Camperdown, without one wrong turn (without using the map even)... then when we got there... we couldn't merge... so we drove into another suburb and got lost... so there was a lot of this: If that doesn't look scary, I can guarantee you it is... haha... well, I'm back in Orange now, safe and sound it was quite a long day... we're going to Bathurst on Wednesday though for some mystery shopping, and some more kangaroo searching... and maybe a bit more, we shall see won't we? :-) I hope you enjoyed my trip to Sydney! :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Nov 13, 2008, 1:58 pm	Today we took another trip to Bathurst it's a 45-minute drive from Orange, and that's where Sara always sees the kangaroos, and where thousands of people flock each year to see the famous Bathurst 1000 races each October... well, Sara decided since we were going in again it was time to visit the famous race track... So here I am in front of the famous sign (on the side of the mountain) and the entrance of the track, which people can drive on all year round, and actually some people have to drive on to get to their house... funny isn't it? :-) There was this really strange noise behind us while Sara was taking photos of us in the above photo... then she turned around and there were two magpies making some strange noise... after thinking about it for a little bit she realised it's still around the breeding season for them and they're very good about swooping you when you get close to their nest.. thankfully none of that happened, but it was pretty strange... Well, there was another thing to see before we drive on the track... something new to the "Motor Racing Museum" right next to the track... it's a statue that's of the late Peter Brock who was famous for driving the track and winning 9 times... he's known as the "king of the mountain"... here's the statue... ...and here we all are in front of the statue... Well... now it's time to finally see the track for ourselves... So as you can see it's quite the track... and to know people go around that at around 200 to 300 kilometres per hours is crazy... especially in that "drop" downhill, it doesn't look like it, but it's quite steep around the mountain... and then the straight at the end, people get really fast up that... there's a speed limit for most people on the track, a lot of people walk the track or ride bike on it every day so you have to be careful around the corners especially... but that definitely was quite the experience... well next thing, were going to have a search for kangaroos... ...there was a lot of the kangaroo crossing signs around... ...but sadly there were no kangaroos to be seen this time... I'm just glad we got to see some on Monday! It was so hot today, it was actually 8 degrees above average for this time of year in this area... so it was extremely hot and apparently the animals thought so too... oh well! I'm glad I at least got to see some while I was here! Well, I hope you enjoyed my trip to Bathurst, I'll write again soon! <3
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Dec 14, 2008, 7:00 am	We decided to take another trip to Bathurst, for another mystery shop... as you know usually Sara takes all toyvoyagers onto the Mount Panorama race track... but for some reason it was closed... we had a bit of a look around and they were having a race today... not the HUGE Bathurst 1000 but some smaller race... we couldn't do much but stand back and watch... The famous Mount Panorama sign, this is right in front of the starting gate... and then we saw some of the race cars... I'm not in these photos because Sara was so zoomed in that I wouldn't have looked like anything but a blur... sorry about that! But I can promise, if I'm still with Sara next month we'll be going back to Bathurst and hopefully this time we can see some kangaroos too! :-) We also got to see the newly famous Peter Brock Statue he died a day or something after Steve Irwin died in 2006, he died in a race but he was known as "king of the mountain"... so they made him a statue an put it up for this years races in the beginning of October... ...just as we were leaving we saw another race car coming in... it means this must not have been anything but qualifying but it was still cool to watch for a while... I hope you enjoyed my time in Bathurst... hopefully I'll go back again soon! Write again soon mom! Miss you! :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Dec 14, 2008, 7:20 am	The weather has been really crazy the last few days... when we went to Bathurst it was really warm out - cloudy but very very warm... the last few days it's been really rainy and cold... with very high winds... the weather changes here are so crazy sometimes... but hey, I'm enjoying the cooler weather while it lasts... :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Dec 18, 2008, 7:25 am	Today we took a very unexpected trip... Sara had to plan quickly as they only realized they were going yesterday... but we had a lot to see this time... I won't tell you where were heading as it was a big trip but our first stop was Bathurst... this time Sara actually saw some kangaroos... ...the kangaroos were a LOT farther than normal this time... the first photo the photo was taken with a 12x zoom, the other photos it was 48x zoom... if that also would explain why I'm not in the photo... I would say I'll never get enough of seeing these little (or not so little) guys. :-) More to come...
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Dec 18, 2008, 7:37 am	Maybe you have an idea of where were going now? You look at the map and you probably already know... but next stop was Lithgow, we stopped to see the huge mining lantern again while we got our bearings before moving back onto the road... here I am in front of the mining lantern... if you can see where there used to be a "flame" is now a Christmas tree... :-) We had to go to the bank as well to pull out a bit of money so we had to go and search for the bank down the main street of Lithgow, this is what the rest of the town looks like... ...looks not much different from Orange and Bathurst... nor does the middle of Sydney - lots of older buildings... with Lithgow, even though it's much closer to Sydney than Orange and Bathurst a lot of the business have gone out of business... it's very empty... kind of strange isn't it? Hold tight there's still way more to come! :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Dec 18, 2008, 7:49 am	Welcome to Sydney! We're here... well... not quite yet... were currently in the outskirts of Sydney in the towns of Penrith and Paramatta... pretty large cities though... here are some of the photos from Paramatta as we were going through... sorry were not in them it's hard to take photos so quickly as your going through the towns... ...you wouldn't know from these photos but navigating through even the outskirts of Sydney is very hard sometimes - one wrong turn and your in another suburb and totally lost... lol there's another little while before were there - but first we have a stop off to make...
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Dec 18, 2008, 7:59 am	We were going to Sydney to look at a car - our current car needs a lot of fixing up so were getting another one that uses LPG (propane) for fuel, so fuel is half the price... so were going to see a 2000 Ford AU Falcon, the newest car we've ever had... where we were seeing the car was in Riverside but we decided to check out a bay called Tambourine Bay right down the street... it was quite beautiful! :-) Here are some trees around the bay, these ones are interesting looking aren't they? ...but what's cool are these trees... ...these are called Morton Bay Fig Trees... they're native only to Sydney and one of the original trees that Sydney was full of before it became really civilized.. aren't they cool looking? As we were going a small walk down to the bay here's what we saw above the trees... and of course here I am in front of the bay... isn't it pretty? the water was also very very warm... it's amazing to think the ocean could be so warm...
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Dec 18, 2008, 8:12 am	This wasn't just our first time going through Sydney like this - this was also Sara's... we had just gotten our GPS navigator so Sara and Daniel cruised through Sydney and were able to see somethings they never thought they see - and places they never thought existed... so next stop was Cockatoo Island... when they were driving through they realized one thing... it's a very rich area, there were HUGE houses and they all looked very expensive... Sara made her way down the hill with us and almost jumped out of her skin when she saw what was there... ...Sara hasn't ever had a chance to show some toyvoyagers the Sydney Harbor Bridge like this, and it was a beautiful view point of the bridge - it would be an awesome place to sit if you were going to see the fireworks on New Years Eve... The other photo is of the AMP tower and the Sydney skyline... sadly you can't see the opera house from here... but there's more to see... how exciting is that? After we went to Cockatoo Island and saw the awesome harbor bridge and the AMP tower we went to a point called Onion Point... there wasn't much to see - we had to walk along a dock to see anything and this was the view... As we were heading back to the car we saw these really strange flowers? Aren't they pretty though? ...there's more coming... :-) Write again soon!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Dec 18, 2008, 8:20 am	We just happened to be going right through the central business district of Sydney... which is to put it lightly very scary to go through... lots of traffic, lots of people, lots of roads... people don't usually like to drive through it... you walk or you taxi or bus it since it's so confusing... but the GPS put us directly in the centre of the CBD of Sydney so Sara got a few shots before going back out of the CBD heading towards our next stop... here are some of the shots in the middle of the city... ...we were getting a bit lost and we only had a little bit longer to spend at our next stop... plus we kind of got lost... but there's more to come! :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Dec 18, 2008, 8:29 am	Well next stop was Balls Head... sounds like a funny name... really quite actually but Sara was amazed by the sights she saw when we were up at the "peak"... there was a lot of steep hills around where we were driving and then bang! We were there... these are some of the things we saw... ...here's the Anzac Bridge... Sara's never been on it but it's one of the other more famous bridges in Sydney.... ...we also got to see a much closer shot of the AMP tower... ...as you can see there is a lot of cargo ships going in and out of the harbor as well, here's one of them... It was a really clear and hot day despite the darkness of the photos (we were in a lot of trees) as you can see there were a lot of people on boats and at the beaches today... ...and as we were driving back down... we saw something that made us pull over... I only had a very short time to take photos or I would have gotten all of us out of the car for a photo but this shows how close we were to the harbor bridge and the opera house... Isn't that just gorgeous? Too bad we couldn't see the whole opera house as was planned for today... but this isn't it? Sara took us to see something a bit more exciting (she thought anyways)... back on the road...
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Dec 18, 2008, 8:43 am	Last stop today was Manly Beach, one of the most popular Sydney beaches... it was very beautiful... one of Sydney's most famous beaches is called Bondi beach, but it's usually so packed that we don't even bother... there was sadly not much to do for us little toyvoyagers so we got a photo and then we went back to the car so we weren't taken or hurt by being left on the beach... here I am in front of the beach... isn't it gorgeous? ...before we went back to the safety of the car one of the seagulls decided to come and check us out - I think he thought we were food... ...here are some other shots of the beach... isn't the water so pretty? It was also very very warm as well... sadly Sara and everyone wasn't ready for the beach so they couldn't go very deep in the water... but Sara enjoyed taking photos... ...and just as we were about to leave a whole bunch of people came in from what seemed like out of no where... there was maybe 20-30 kayakers... some professional, some more or less beginner but it was quite fun to see them coming in and out. Sara thinks they were practicing for a triathlon... they had a lot of fun playing in the waves... We had spent over an hour at the beach, it was time to head home... it was going on 7pm and it was a 3 and a bit hour drive home... it's been a long LONG day I hope you enjoyed seeing Sydney through my eyes... we hope to go back again next month! If I'm still here I'll get to see a bit more of the Sydney beaches! Write again soon mom, we have another big trip coming up at the end of this month! Miss you!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 10, 2009, 5:38 am	Today we took another trip to Bathurst and boy it was a REALLY hot day... it got up to 34'c with absolutely no wind... I couldn't believe it! Just sitting around everyone was sweating. Thankfully Sara's new car has air conditioning so we had the windows up all the way to Bathurst while she was listening to music. Because we were in a rush we got a few errands done first but then we went and saw some kangaroos... Sara says she has never seen kangaroos this close before (while in Bathurst)... so we all were in the car looking out since they were... RIGHT there... here I am... that gives you an indication of how close to the car they are when I'm in the shot... ...here are a few other photos Sara took of the kangaroos... mostly while in the car but the moment she got out... well you can see what happens... she actually got a few feet closer to them before they all bounced off... how cool... :-) Sara told us a story about her around 2.5 years ago she went down to the South coast and was actually able to pat some kangaroos... wild kangaroos... their were around 5 kangaroos, one adult, and 4 babies or juvenile joey's and she just walked right up to them and fed them and rubbed their head. It was amazing. :-) So this was awesome as well for her and us... Well, remember when we went to the race track last time and we couldn't get on it? Well... this time we could... as you can see it was open this time... :-P here I am on the way to the race track and the view showing us the track is open to tourists today... ...So we decided it was time to go around the track... sadly I couldn't sit on the dashboard like Sara usually puts the toyvoyagers but this time it's a new car and their dashboard we easily slip around and the window was open. Sara didn't want any of us to be lost... so here's some pictures from around the track... Well that was mainly our day in Bathurst. We didn't want to spend long outside we could feel our skin burning even under all our fur. It was kind of surprising how hot it was! :-/ Crazy! Sara doesn't like the heat much either lol... Also as you can see on the track there's houses and everything on the inside of the track. People rent those houses out during the famous Mount Panorama Super Cheap Auto 1000 Races and they go on holiday. People will rent them out for heaps of money each October... there's vineyards and even wildlife sometimes in there. Kangaroos are commonly seen on the race track which can end in disaster as I'm sure you can see why... people walk the track all the time as well (when races aren't on obviously). Also the view from the top of the mountain is amazing isn't it? Well I hope you enjoyed my trip to Bathurst.
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 10, 2009, 7:33 am	It's just before Christmas and it's time to take a trip... me and my toyvoyager friends are unsure about where were are going but Sara insists we are going to have a lot of fun... here I am as we are driving through Molong. ...as you can tell it's very dark and rainy... but through these photos I insist you'll see how random the weather can be in this part of Australia...
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 10, 2009, 7:42 am	Next stop was Wellington, a larger town than Molong... I guess around the same size as Orange (with 38,000 people). There's sadly not much to see or do here but here I am... ...and here are some photos as we are driving through the main street of Wellington as you can see there's not much to see. Although we had no time to stop we were already running a little late.... so moving on...
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 10, 2009, 8:12 am	First off, sorry I'm not really in any of the photos next... Sara had a hard time getting in and out of the car with a 2 year old let alone with all of the toyvoyagers... we saw most of it - but the pictures really tell the story. :-) Enjoy! Well... we have arrived in Dubbo... after a 2.5 hour drive were finally here... we've been through rain and sun and it's already pretty hot here. Dubbo has temperatures that are very similar to Africa. So they have a major breeding program with the African animals. They successfully breed a lot of endangered animals so the heat is normal but quite uncomfortable... :-) Well we've arrived at the zoo... In these photos you can see the entrance to the zoo... it kind of looks a lot like the entrance to Jurassic Park doesn't it? Also the little cars you can rent to drive around the zoo. Since the zoo is so huge you can either drive, walk or bike around the zoo... Well now that were at the zoo, it's started to rain... the wild dogs were underneath a tree keeping dry... not many animals were moving much since it was raining so much... Well we decided to move on anyways... we can't stop the rain... but then it REALLY started to come down... we were standing near the camels and Arabian sheep when we ran to an enclosed area (at least the top of us was covered). ...the animals didn't really enjoy it so grouped together... and then it started to hail... so they all ran in every direction. You could barely see them even though they were right in front of you... crazy... ...and then we decided to deal with the rain (after the hail) and ran down to see the black rhino. Which is one of the babies that were successfully bred in the zoo... obviously he's not a baby anymore... Within 5 minutes... it was done raining, the sun was out and it was heating up. Within 5 minutes the rhino went from soaking to totally bone dry (as the photos show)... so we decided to go and visit the Arabian sheep and camels again... Then the giraffes... Sara was going to feed the giraffes today but was 30 seconds (literally) too late for signing up... so she was a bit sad about that since last time they missed feeding the giraffes as well... but they did come pretty close anyways... This next photo shows you what the zoo looks like with the less dangerous animals. So the giraffes, zebras, any "safe" animals (more or less) you could get quite close... you could stand on this hill and then the fence was below... it's quite an amazing experience... but this shows you how close the giraffes can get to you (they've gotten even closer)... Sara then went and saw a talk on the hippos... the females are separated from the bull hippos which are extremely territorial. The zoo keeper told them about how the hippo population in the Democratic Republic of Congo went from 29,000 hippos in the 70's and 80's to 700 hippos last year when they checked. It's kind of sad really... they sprayed some water in their mouth since they really enjoy that it's almost like a massage for their mouth. Also shows off their amazing teeth... this picture is one of the bulls... Next stop was the less endangered white rhino... he was all alone but the group of the others was in some shade... not sure why he didn't want to be there... but obviously he did because he walked over there a few minutes later... Next stop was the cheetah's... now where's the mom? Sadly the mom died during complications while giving birth to one of the two cheetahs... via emergency c-section... so they had doubts the babies would survive. So they had someone stay there 24 hours a day 7 days a week to take care and feed the babies every hour on the hour... thankfully they made it... even without a mom they're very happy little cats... ...and then we got to see the African elephants. They were doing a talk on them at the time I took these photos so you can see all the people and the zoo keeper and everything feeding them. I love elephants they're very beautiful creatures... ...next stop was the Siberian tiger. Sara hasn't ever been able to see him before... he's always been hiding and sadly it didn't take long before he went and laid down in the shade where he all but disappeared. You can tell how hot it is when the tiger is panting... :-P Near the tiger are the bongo's... the baby was there - who wasn't there the last time I visited in October... isn't he adorable? The first time Sara visited in February 2007... she saw the African Water Buffalo in the water. It was so hot all of them were packed into the water to keep warm. You could barely see them. Obviously it wasn't that hot... but they weren't moving much... Next section was the "Australian Animals" section. There's this big "walk" where you walk through where there used to be kangaroos on the ground and koala's in the tree. But for whatever reason it's only koalas now. You have to walk up pretty high and you can see some koala's sitting in the tree... sleeping of course... :-) Next stop was the emu's... they were also quite close to the edge. Sara was only a few feet from one of them (obviously not the one pictured)... Sara loves emu's they're so graceful for such a huge bird... ...and then next to the emu's were the kangaroos... they weren't very active at all either... but now you can see the grey kangaroo (which are the ones I've seen in the wild) and the larger kangaroo, the red kangaroo. Which are native to Dubbo and more of the 'outback'... :-) One of the last stops was the galapagos tortoises... they're HUGE and they have breeding program here too... we got to see 4 different tortoises while we were in this section... you can see two videos here and here... they're both quite short but it shows all four of the tortoises, two of which are in the photos below... Well... obviously we didn't take photos of all the animals... they have like 3x more animals than are currently pictured... but I had fun it was very warm but it was very informative as well... I hope you enjoyed the photos! :-) Write again soon! :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 15, 2009, 4:41 am	Hi mom! Well my journey around this area has ended and I'm off to the next host along with Argoyle she's very friendly so I cannot wait to see where I'm going next. Sara says I'm off to an American military base and will be hosted by JaymeC in Okinawa, Japan. I hope the trip won't take too long! Write again soon mom! Miss you! :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 18, 2009, 5:26 am	We decided we should take a trip to Sydney. It was Daniel and Sara's 4th year wedding anniversary (tomorrow) but she decided to go a bit early since they could get some baby sitting. So we left early and got to Sydney around 11am (lots of traffic) and as we started to get into Sydney we got to see two famous landmarks in the distance, the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge and the less famous Anzac Bridge. ...and before we knew it, we were going over the Anzac Bridge. Sara had never had the chance to go over it before so it was exciting... here we are about to go under the bridge... After the Anzac Bridge we were thrown right into the middle of the Sydney CBD... there are lots of HUGE buildings, it's amazing really... here are some photos of the Sydney CBD from the freeway going through it... In the distance you can see something that looks like a tower, that is the Sydney Tower or also known as the AMP tower. You walk around the edge of it - some of which has a clear walkway so you can see straight down, it's called the Sydney Skywalk. This picture shows Darling Harbor... ...and this is going right through the middle of all the huge buidlings. It's amazing the height of them when your right next to them isn't it? ...and then we did a quick turn and after a few signs Sara realized we were almost about to head under the Sydney Harbor Bridge as well... Sara quickly rolled up her window for our safety and put us on the dashboard so we could get pictures of us going over the famous bridge... Sara hasn't ever been on the Harbor Bridge (on purpose anyways) because it's always the "scary" part of Sydney where it is very easy to get lost. Thanks to the GPS navigator though it's made it simple (more or less) to get through the CBD of Sydney... ...almost there... ...almost there... ...and there we are... we've now traveled the Sydney Harbor Bridge! How awesome is that!... Well now we're almost at our destination... it's time we get a park and get our way to the ferry... we're not done yet! Write again soon! :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 18, 2009, 6:04 am	Well after what seemed like forever driving around we finally found a park. It was a kilometre away from where we needed to be... thankfully it was mostly down hill but the uphills were massive when they were... I'm sure glad we were in a bag because the heat was just shocking and the walk felt like it took a while but we got there JUST in time... we are now getting ready to board the Manly Ferry... last time we went to Sydney we wanted to do this but for some reason couldn't see what was right in front of our eyes... haha... well here we are, top deck, front row center... Isn't the beach front and the water there just gorgeous? It was more amazing than that even... it was such a beautiful blue!... Off we go time to set sail... I wonder where we are going? Here are some of the photos taken throughout the trip... there was a lot of cliffsides and open ocean, and sailboats, and buoys, and lots more to see it was an amazing trip... you can even see one of the ferry's coming back from where we were going to pick up and drop off more people... ...and then suddenly were getting ready to dock... it's suddenly apparent that were going to be visiting the famous Circular Quay... what's amazing to me, is that there is a military base right there near the Quay... I didn't know that! ...and as we begin to dock Sara takes a few more photos of the quay from the boat... there was a HUGE cruise ship right next to the harbor bridge... it was amazingly big... Sara said she thinks that's the cruise ship we saw in the photos when we were at Manly last time... she thinks it's the Pacific liner that visits all the smaller Pacific islands including places like Vanuatu. How awesome... ...Sara also got a couple photos of the bridge... in the first photo it's obviously the bridge. The second photo is the reminents of the fireworks on Sydney Harbor on New Years. You can see where the sun would have been... if you didn't see it you can see it in this video if you can't tell it's the thing spinning in the middle, which was a sun this year... it was quite beautiful... and the last photo is the close up on the top of the bridge. You can see two teams of people walking up the bridge on another famous touristy thing to do in Sydney... the Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb... You can't be at this dock without getting a picture of the beautiful Sydney Opera House though can you? Well now that we are finally docked it's time to get off the boat... the seagull said goodbye to us as we deboarded - time to spend a bit of time here before heading back... Write again soon! :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 18, 2009, 6:16 am	Well now that we are in the CBD of Sydney again, and more specifically Circular Quay it's time to visit some of the shops and see what Circular Quay has to offer us... we got some ice cream from Baskin Robbins and then headed out towards the Opera House... this is how far we were from the Opera House from the boat dock... not that far but on a hot day you feel every step of it... ...once we finally got there I got a picture of myself with the opera house and the sydney harbor bridge... here I am... ...we decided to see a few of the shops... and we saw a few entertainers... these ones were the most interesting to me... they're aboriginal people and one of them is playing the digeridoo a lot of the time aboriginal people hate their picture taken because they believe it's like a gate way to the souls - I'm not really sure... but these ones didn't mind getting their picture taken so Sara took one for us... We also got to see some famous stuff around the harbor... one of them being Luna Park which is located right below the Sydney Harbor Bridge... We also got to see some water taxi's... Sara has never been on one but would really like to one day... they look quite fun don't they? We also got to see some of Sydney's other tourist attractions, the Jet boat ride where they take people around the harbor in a speed boat with lots of twists and turns... looks quite fun... :-) We decided it was too hot to go searching the tourists shops for something for Sara's family instead they decided they'll come back again soon and do that - on a less hot day... so Sara got some videos... one of the Sydney Harbor seen from the ferry (on the way back) and Sara also got a video on the ferry ride back to Manly... you can see that video here it was VERY windy on the ride back to Manly... we even got splashed a few times... it really kind of felt good though on the hot day that it was... But on the way out of the ferry we saw something pretty cool... we got to see a real pirate ship! How cool is that? :-) Well have a check out of those videos (they're pretty short) and you can see more of our trip to the CBD... more to come though... we're on our way back to Manly now... write again soon!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 18, 2009, 6:32 am	Now we are safely back on land in Manly... Manly is a very beautiful beach but instead of having all of us run back to the car (95% up hill) we had Sara's husband do that while we waited near the ferry dock and got a few photos of us at the ferry dock and the pretty calm side of the Manly beach (the other side is about 1/4 of a mile straight the opposite direction)... here I am in front of the ferry dock area.. ...while we were waiting there was a few seagulls, and one of the seagulls kept staring at us but you could only see his head... it was kind of funny... Here is a photo from the beach front as we were coming back into dock. You can see the beach we are currently standing on in these photos... amazing isn't it? We were standing under one of the trees though trying to get some shade while we could... Finally Daniel arrived and we drove a short distance and thankfully found a park pretty quickly got 2 hours of parking and got some photos... first was the chance for photos of the beach and a small panoramic video of the beach... you can see that video here... it became very windy on this side of the beach... but it felt nice especially when they got in the water they told us. They didn't want us to get lost so after the photos and the videos the camera and the three of us were put in the car to stay safe... here I am in front of the Manly beach... Here are a few panoramic shots showing from left to right what the beach looks like from where we were standing... as you can see it was pretty busy that day... As you can see in the last shot Sara managed to get a seagull in there... that wasn't on purpose and Sara actually think the seagull really adds something to the shot. Very beautiful sights anyways... and the water is so dang pretty isn't it? It was very warm as well... :-) ...and here are a couple more shots from the beach before we got put away to safety so we didn't get lost or blown away (when Sara and Daniel were in the water)... ...well that was our trip to Sydney and the beaches. I saw some amazing sights and I'm glad I got to see more of this stuff before traveling onto my next host... tomorrow I'll be off to Japan! :-) I hope to see some more fun stuff there and maybe even some beaches... :-)
JaymeC Posted Feb 1, 2009, 5:43 am	Dear Mommy, I arrived with Argoyle and Chipper in Okinawa, Japan! We were greeted by Bally who was excited to have some more company. Jayme told us first off we needed to do some work in the children's room while they were asleep. We were going to rearrange some shelves and put up a toy net for the stuffed animals. Look at these poor pitiful stuffed animals, they need a better home! First we moved one of the beds and the shelves over next to it. Jayme moved the furniture, but we took care of the cars. Then Jayme put up the toy net. We got to rest and relax in it for awhile. Then we tried to hurry the toys into the net. Wait a second! The little ones are going to get squished. Big ones first! Okay now little ones! Whoa, we almost ran out of room. Hiding in the toys we found a toyvoyager! She explained her name was ChiChi and she was supposed to be released into the wild ages ago, but Jayme's son had hid her in the other toys and she'd been patiently waiting. Hopefully we can help her get released. After setting up the toy net we were very hungry so we went to make dinner. First we got the meet cooking with onions, garlic, and teriyaki sauce. In the mean time we got some beans, brocolli and lettuce chopped up in and in a bowl. Then we combined it all and let it cook. Served with brown rice it was very yummy! Jayme said we'd need the energy, hope we have some more updates soon! More soon, Resi
JaymeC Posted Feb 1, 2009, 10:48 am	Mommy, I know I'm in Japan, but today we visited a Chinese garden. It was quite pretty. First we had to stop for just a quick lunch since we were all hungry. They had this very pretty building where we walked in. And aren't these dragons neat? There were LOTS of little ponds. Of course we had to stop and feed the fish, Jayme's children wouldn't calm down until we did! Isn't this view pretty? They had lots of little statues around as well. Here's another pond... They had this statue here, we're not sure of who it is though. We stopped to take a break for awhile... And they even had a waterfall! Chipper and I had a wonderful time! More to come soon! Love, Resi
JaymeC Posted Feb 1, 2009, 8:34 pm	Dear Mommy, Today we tried to go see the cherry blossoms at Shurijo Castle. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been cooperative this week and most of the blossoms had been blown off as they appeared. You can see the little bit left here. However we did still get to see Shuri Castle. It was the main castle in the Ryukyan Kingdom. It has been destroyed 5 times and rebuilt, most recently during World War II. Here's the entrance gate to the castle walls And here's the steps up to the castle. Jayme said those steps are very dangerous when its wet (you can see it was rainy!) so we should take the back way and walk up the path instead. She didn't want anyone falling. They had a marker by the back entrance. And here's the gate! Aren't the flowers pretty? This is the outside of the castle. We didn't pay to go in because they're repainting lots of it, so it doesn't look very nice with the scaffolding, etc. They had these flower emperor and emperess outside From here you can see the main city of Naha I had to stop to use the restroom, and look at the faucet! Here's a better photo. Finally we stopped by the visitors center on the way out. We got to see the Shisa there. Shisa are the protector lion/dogs of Okinawa. They were originally a Chinese custom. They're always found in pairs on or around every building in Okinawa to protect the inhabitants or visitors. The pairs are always male and female. You can tell this one is female as it has its mouth open to allow the good spirits through, the male has its mouth closed to capture the bad spirits. More soon, Resi
JaymeC Posted Feb 5, 2009, 5:18 am	We got to see the Superbowl! Well, kind of. We didn't get to see the commercials because they don't show them on the Armed Forces Network (the tv they get on base), but we got to see the game! It started bright and early at 8am, so instead of typical superbowl food we had cinnamon rolls. And isn't this neat? Jayme let us borrow some jerseys she got at burger king last year. She's got the whole set, so I got to dress up to support the Steelers and Chipper dressed up to support the Cardinals. There go the opening ceremonies! The coin toss. Then the game! And the Steelers won! WOOHOO! Oh... but Chipper was kind of sad. First we tried to cheer him up with some pizza. Then we tried taking him for a walk. He laughed a bit at the teddy bear we found. And he enjoyed laying in the sand with me. But finally started having a good time while we cuddled up in the tree... no singing please. See the buildings there? They hold lots of sporting events here. We stopped for a little break on this bench. And we took a picture of this statue. Jayme thinks its a phoenix. More soon, Resi
JaymeC Posted Feb 13, 2009, 6:01 am	Dear Mommy, I'm sorry I didn't write sooner, but Jayme's been very busy! We decided to try to help her and she instructed us while we cooked. We were going to make what Jayme called Jayme-enchiladas since its not a "real" enchilada recipe. First we browned the meat. Then we added enchilada sauce (from a can), and a little cheese. We put this mixture onto some tortillas And rolled them and put them in a pan. We a little more sauce on top and more cheese and then put them in the oven to crisp In the mean time we made some simple cheese quesadillas for the kids since they don't like spicy sauces. We put some cheese on more tortillas And put them in a little oil on the oven to cook. Yum! And the enchiladas finished as well. Don't they look yummy? Jayme said we'll be taking a special trip next. I hope its fun! Resi
JaymeC Posted Feb 13, 2009, 7:17 am	Jayme said today we're headed to the Churaumi Aquarium. Apparently its very famous, and one of the largest attractions on Okinawa. It was a very long drive up north but we made it! Here is the view from the aquarium entrance to the ocean below, isn't it beautiful? We went in to find the largest coral tank in the world that is lit by sunlight. Wow! Here it is. And here's some more. These are clown fish, but they must be just babies because they weren't longer than half a pinky. Finally we got to the main show piece, the whale shark tank. It was the largest in the world until the one in Atlanta was completed, now its the second largest. However, it still has the largest viewing glass in the world. We were sitting way up high in the seats available, do you see the whale shark? Here's a better picture, and you can see the people below looking at it. They're right up next to the glass. While we were there there were diver's in the tank cleaning, you can see how big they are compared to the mantas in the tank. After watching for awhile at the viewing area, we went into the cafe. Here they have seats right next to the tank and you can sit and eat lunch or enjoy some icecream. I know its dark (the flash would ruin the view of the tank!) but here I am having icecream. Even after we finished the icecream we just sat and watched the fish for awhile. After seeing the whale sharks we headed outside. They had sea turtles you could see out here! There is a drop off behind us that is the sea turtle nesting area. Isn't it beautiful here? The water was so clear, and the sun so bright! Then we went to the dolphin show! Here I am at it. Jayme had to zoom in to take these pictures of the show, aren't the dolphins cool? They had a few different types, unforutnately Jayme doesn't know their names since she doesn't understand much Japanese. We took a walk along the grounds then. Here's a pretty spot we found with a little pond. We also found a gate into the Okinawan Village, but Jayme's sons were getting very tired then so it was time to head home. On the way we got to see some of the flowers made up to be sea creatures! Here's a manta ray. And a turtle. And isn't this a cool shisa? I'm sure we'll have more adventures soon! Resi
JaymeC Posted Feb 21, 2009, 8:38 pm	Dear Mommy, I'm sorry I didn't write you sooner! It's been very busy here. First I'll start with telling you about Valentine's Day. We were sitting around reading more about Okinawa Then Jayme asked us for some help! She had to get valentine's ready for Jacob's class. So we went to work. What a mess.. There are six children in the class, so we split everything up into groups of six Then we bagged them up and tied them and attached the card! Do you notice something? The hearts didn't fit so we got a bit of a snack! Yum! Just as we were finishing up, Chipper surprised me with flowers! Aren't they pretty? I gave him a fun card for Valentine's Day Hm... it's too rainy today to see a sunset, but hopefully sometime soon! Write more soon, Resi
JaymeC Posted Feb 21, 2009, 8:44 pm	Dear Mommy, Jayme and her husband said we could go out on their Valentine's Date with them! They were supposed to go snorkeling, but because the weather wasn't nice they decided to go ice skating instead. First we had to read the rules Then we had to wait, we got there just as they were cleaning the ice. Wow! Look at all those people! It was very busy because of the rain, but Jayme and her husband had lots of fun while we watched. We rode with Jayme for a bit, but she got tired first so we all sat down to wait for her husband. Then we went out for a late lunch. This is called Taco Rice. Its one of the odd foods Okinawans came up with to pull in American service members to eat. Its white rice on the bottom with taco meat, cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes. It was very yummy! Write more soon, Resi
JaymeC Posted Feb 21, 2009, 8:54 pm	Dear Mommy, The weather has been very icky! We got a brief period of just gloom today and decided we needed to get out of the house a bit. We went to a place called Ryukyu Mura. Here I am at the entrance. And here is a pretty building on a raft in the water, I know you can't see the water and stuff too well The biggest part of Ryukyu Mura is the parade showcasing small bits of typical Okinawan parades. First the emperor and emperess come out to sit down to watch the show. Then this karate dude came out. Did you know karate was invented on Okinawa? Next came the old man and the dragon. They made the dragon do tricks catching a ball! Then came the Eisa Dancers. Eisa is a drum dance done on Okinawa, its very pretty. Finally some people came out and did another dance, Jayme wasn't sure who they were. And they got the crowd to join in! It was such fun. After that we went up a path to a place where we got to learn about Habus. Unfortunately it was very dark and the pictures didn't really come out. We did get to watch a 3D show of a Habu fighting a mongoose though. We walked back through a small version of an Okinawan village where they were selling Okinawan crafts, but we had to hurry it looked like rain! We ducked into one building near the exit to find out it was where they made Okinawan pottery. Look at all those tables and clay! Here are some Shisa on the outside that were made inside. There was also a man outside pushing an water buffalo around, but we're not quite sure why. I hope you enjoyed learning about our visit! I'll write again soon, Resi
JaymeC Posted Mar 1, 2009, 11:46 pm	Dear Mommy, Jayme has been busy so we decided to help her around the house some. We helped with the laundry. Then we did some dusting, we found this neat Capital building. Jayme says its a puzzle she got her husband for their anniversary. They would take it apart, but now the kids use it as a parking garage for their cars. We snuck some cookies to help out Jayme with her diet Then we had to do the vacuuming! Jayme doesn't have a regular vacuum, she has a roomba. Have you seen one? It goes around and cleans up like a little UFO. We took a ride on it. Jayme says we'll be headed to the park next since we got all the cleaning done! Resi
JaymeC Posted Mar 1, 2009, 11:59 pm	We took a nice long walk at this place called Comprehensive Park. Remember our last visit there? This is a totally different area of it, its very big! Can you find all 4 toyvoyagers in the tree? This walkway leads down to a rock beach, but we didn't go down that way today because we were following one of the trails. If you look, you can see the ocean though. We kept walking and came along this little fish pond. Usually Jayme says they stop to feed the fish here, but they forgot the fish food today. Guess the fish will have to wait awhile for their next meal. It had some very pretty bridges though. We took a break here and all sat on a chair for awhile. While we were walking past the fish pond, there was a building with this neat gate. Jayme says its called a torii gate and they're found all over the island. Sometimes on the ancient castles, and sometimes at the entrance to homes. We sat and took another break near some flowers. It was a very long walk! Finally we made it back to the car! I'll write more soon, Resi
JaymeC Posted Mar 2, 2009, 12:32 am	Today was to be our last day in Okinawa! It started with a hello to Bobbie as well as two little lost pandas. They were in the free pile on the first floor of Jayme's building. We explained to them all about toyvoyaging, and they decided they wanted to be among the wild toys released on the weekend of May 1st! Then we had to give them a bath in case they picked up any germs downstairs. Out they came nice and clean! After that Chipper and I had a little bit of alone time and the rain finally let up enough we were able to see our sunset. Just from Jayme's apartmet, but a pretty sunset none-the-less. Then it was time to climb into our envelope and bid the other toys goodbye. I hope we have fun adventures with our next host too! More when we arrive, Resi
ellienpaul09 Posted Mar 16, 2009, 4:44 pm	Hello mum! Chipper and I have arrived safely in England. We are tired after our journey but we shall post some pictures soon! xxx
ellienpaul09 Posted Mar 20, 2009, 1:55 pm	Hi from Manchester, England! As you can see we arrived safely and met up with another Toy Voyager all the way from Japan. He is called Piyo. We went for a car ride with him to visit our host's university where she studies. We also met with Harry the Hedgehog and he showed us around. We have been having a lovely time and one night we even went to see a band at a party!
ellienpaul09 Posted Mar 20, 2009, 2:00 pm	On Tuesday my host was having an interview at Manchester United football club. She wants to serve beer and wine to visitors. She was lucky to get the job she applied for and afterwards we had our photo taken outside the football ground. We sat on top of her car and smiled
steffi* Posted May 12, 2009, 9:51 am	HELLOOOO!!! Chipper and I arrived home safely after 1 1/2 years of travelling!! thanks to all the great hosts we stayed with! It was an awesome journey around the world!! many greetings to all af you, resi, chipper and steffi*