The Shifting Sands

It has been an interesting few days. Chris arrived home from Denver Colorado on Saturday, just in time to prepare for Ada's birthday. We were lucky enough to go to a yoga class together on Sunday, Bikram Hot Yoga. Yoga done in a 38 degree celcius room. How welcome was that?! Snow was falling outside and I felt like I was in Melbourne - well almost - the instructions were in German and if I was in Melbourne I would have been swimming not doing hot yoga! That afternoon it was time to try the lake - it had looked frozen for a few days and there were a few tentative footprints around the edges - enough to encourage Chris, Lucy and Ada to want to walk across it! When we got there another family was Ice Skating in the middle - that should be enough of a go ahead. We did walk on it - quite a lot really - every so often though, when the ice softened to slush - I took a little run for it! Chris and Lucy just kept throwing the baseball to each other! We found Ice Skater

Ada and Lucy started school at BBIS (Berlin Brandenberg International School) on Wednesday 6th January. It was minus 7 degrees celcius and dark! So far so good with Ada in a younger than expected group (for now) with a delightful teacher and plenty of support staff. Ada kept them all engaged on her first day telling lots of stories! Who knows who featured and what they were doing!? Lucy tells me after day two that school is great but don't hold my breath as things could change! She has a male homeroom teacher - her first male teacher after seven years at school. She has already joined a group of girls and is enjoying the diversity of her peers and her curriculum having started german and french lessons on her first day! The ice inside and outside of the car and on the roads at 7.30am in the mornings is rather a challenge in these early days. Finding that windows wont open, windscreen wipers wont work and that at minus 11.5 this morning it is just too cold to do

Happy New Year to all our family and friends. Or as the Germans would call it - Silvester. Hmm, I will know what that means by next new years I promise. So far I can assume it means - buy masses of fireworks and let them off in the streets from midnight en masse, then at exactly 1am STOP what you are doing, drink a glass of champagne and then go home. Do not pick up the empty cases and do not let off any more fireworks - at least that is what I saw from my window. Backtracking a bit though we took the girls into Berlin to Legoland and to see an OV (original version - english speaking movie) at the Sony Centre a few days ago. Loved Lego land and can't wait to take my nephews there - even the grown up ones! Sony Centre is built on the site of the 'no mans land' between east and west so is quite new and is surrounded by monuments to The Wall. It is 60 hectares and is quite amazing to have such a large area available for construction in the centre of a large c