Disney on Ice-S's special Date

We really enjoyed our evening out with S. We did have a lot of rain and wind walking to the parking ramp and waiting in line outside. As always, Disney did a fantastic job. They performed many of the Disney Princess stories, focusing on Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty and Little Mermaid. S was mystified by the costumes and the beauty.






X was very happy to stay home with the sitter, play astronaut and watch his movie pick.

School Assembly-Remembrance Day

The topic for S's school program was Remembrance Day. Program was very nice and S had a nice speaking part. She read loudly and clearly.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them.



In the United Kingdom, two minutes of silence is observed on 11 November, observance is on the second Sunday of November, Remembrance Sunday. Ceremonies are held at local war memorials, usually organized by local branches of the Royal British Legion – an association for ex-servicemen. Typically, poppy wreaths are laid by representatives of the Crown, the armed forces, and local civic leaders, as well as by local organizations including ex-servicemen organizations. We call this Veterans day and of course it is celebrated by many countries to mark the end of WWI and in remembrance of all wars.

Disney Skating Party in Nottingham

The greatest of friends. We couldn't have been more blessed in meeting these guys.

X loves to "fly." Mostly you hold him up between your
legs and he swings his legs, while you skate in peril.

S was getting the hang of it. She and I really need our own skates.
(For shame being MN and not having skates!)

After skating we ate at the Pitcher and Piano, a restaurant in an old church. Beautiful. We also walked around Nottingham and enjoyed the mild weather. It is a nice, small city.

How We Amuse Ourselves

We have been playing Astronaut nonstop.

It is the space under our desk. See the buttons:)

X and V put in a new toilet seat. Finally, no more danger of falling off.
(And for those that remember, no I am not pregnant.)

Buzz and Barbie fly on the zip line!

Bonfire Night-Think 4th of July

We had a great night with the H family, celebrating Bonfire Night (hmmm, should we be celebrating the saving of the king and a great defeat of the Catholic cause:) Fireworks, rides, bonfire and plenty of treats.

November 1605, the infamous Gunpowder Plot took place in which some Catholics plotted to blow up the English Parliament and King James l, on the day set for the king to open Parliament. King James I was expected to be a positive force for Catholics, but wasn't. The story is remembered each 5th November when 'Guys' (for Guy Fawkes the most famous conspirator) are burned in a celebration known as "Bonfire Night".

Halloween

Halloween is a quiet night here. We had good weather and
went to about 12 houses (maybe 6 were home with candy.)
We spent the morning checking out a health club, we didn't join.

Our neighbor

Our neighbors on the other side

One of the houses we trick or treated had this jack-o-lantern, pretty clever.

Cyprus III

Can you believe I am only posting about 5% of our pictures from Cyprus!

We took a submarine ride. It was lovely.

A little treat

We toured the pirate ship

Rented waterslide boat.

The kids watched movies at night while we played scrabble.
Both kids got swimmers ear

They had some really beautiful churches

We left for the airport at 4am, arrived at the airport and went for dinner. We had a tough first night sleep. X fell out of bed. Our second day we swam, bought groceries at a local shop and swam and bbq and swam.....Then we spent a few hours at a mini carnival. Bed at 11:30. The third day was spent at Nissi beach. And so our days went swimming and watching movies and playing games. We did take a submarine ride, tour the pirate ship, and crossover into Northern Cyprus.

Cyprus -North vs South

Having Ice Cream in the illegally Turkish occupied part of Cyprus or Turkish Federated State of Northern Cyprus, depending on your point of view. Cyprus has a fascinating history, never an independent country until 1960. Most the information about the Turkish invasion is pro Southern Cyprus, but if you read closer, Greece had over thrown the Cyprus Government, giving Turkey the incentive to invade. Always two sides... Sadly, the US Ambassador was killed during the conflict. Again, depending on your view, it was intentional or an accident. His University age children were staying with him when this happened.

Thanks Wikipedia:

In 1878, ... the United Kingdom took over the government of Cyprus as a protectorate from the Ottoman Empire... In 1925, following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Cyprus was made a Crown Colony. Between 1955-59 EOKA was created by Greek Cypriots and led by George Grivas to perform enosis (union of the island with Greece). However the EOKA campaign did not result in a union with Greece but rather an independent republic, The Republic of Cyprus, in 1960.

In 1960, Turkish Cypriots were only the 18% of the Cypriot population. However, the 1960 constitution carried important safeguards for the participation of Turkish Cypriots to the state affairs, such as the vice-president being Turkish Cypriot, 30% of parliament being Turkish Cypriot, ..creation of separate local municipalities so that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could manage their own municipalities...Internal conflicts turned into full-fledged armed fighting between the two communities on the island which prompted the United Nations to send peace keeping forces in 1964; these forces are still in place today. Turkey invaded the island in 1974 and seized the northern third of the island, Turkish Cypriots in the south would travel north and Greek Cypriots in the north were forced to move to the south. The de facto state of Northern Cyprus was proclaimed in 1975 under the name "Turkish Federated State of Northern Cyprus". The name was changed to its present form on 15 November 1983. The only country to formally recognise The "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" is Turkey. Turkey has repeatedly violated numerous UN Resolutions^[6] and refers to the Republic of Cyprus as the "Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus".

After the southern, Greek speaking part of Cyprus became a member of the European Union, it adopted the Euro as its currency ..replacing the previously used Cypriot Pound; whilst the northern area continued to use the Turkish Lira and on January 1st 2008 the New Turkish Lira.

The most interesting part is the story of Famagusta:

During ... Turkish invasion of Cyprus of 14 August 1974 ... overrun by Turkish tanks and in two days the Turkish Army was in Famagusta. The town had been completely evacuated by its Greek population who fled before the intervening army and after the town had been bombed by the Turkish air force.Unlike other parts of Northern Cyprus, the Varosha section of Famagusta was sealed off by the Turkish army immediately after being captured and remains in that state today. The Greek Cypriots who had fled were not allowed to return, and journalists are banned. It has been frozen in time with department stores still full of clothes, now many years out of fashion, and hotels empty but still fully equipped....
...The population of the city before 1974 was 39,000. Of this number, 26,500 were Greek Cypriots, 8,500 Turkish Cypriots and 4,000 from other ethnic groups. After the invasion, in 1975, the population was 8,500, all of them Turks.

Museum dedicated to freedom of Northern Cyprus

Pictures of the "ghost town." It was strange. A large city, alive with tourism and most the country's industry, left empty with cereal bowls on the table, for more then 3o years.