Muollo Blog
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Rock on Bernie!
Better rocks eh?
Well, when we went to Universal Studios we went on the Jurassic Park ride 5 times and got even more drenched than you!
But seriously, sounds like you're getting around alright. That New York, New York roller coaster is quite intense isn't it?
Look forward to the photos (especially of that 'do).
J & D
Update from Bernie
Congratulations to the Rayner family - that is wonderful news.
Still here in Hollywood - we're staying in a hotel right behind the Chinese Theatre. Have found Tyrone Powers footsteps as well as the Marx Bros.
Went to Universal Studios yesterday and went on all the rides. The Waterworld show was pretty awesome - I watched it twice.
I went on the Jurassic Park ride twice too and both times got drenched. To dry out I went to the Backdraft show.
Lots of pretty good rides but nothing on Disneyland!
Also went on the studio tour.
Went into a show and then when we came out it was dark!! The smoke from fires had been blown over and the sun disappeared - it became bright red and had the effect of the moon.
Very sad these fires as more people lose their lives and homes. Hard to believe we drove by two of them just as they started.
We went down to Santa Monica Beach the other day and it is supposed to be the cleanest air in the City. We could hardly see the pier!!! The smoke was that thick. The news informs people to stay indoors.
Went to Venice Beach today. I wouldn't go again but I assume it is better in Summer.
We're off up the coast tomorrow towards San Fran and hopefully the road we are travelling on hasn't been closed.
Have done lots of shopping, bought lots of new clothes and have had a new haircut while here. Lynn won't recognise me when I get back! (It can only be an improvement surely?! - Lynn)
Still enjoying myself which helps.
That's probably it till I get back to the UK or I might say hello again from San Fran where we're going to Alcatraz the day before we leave.
Lots of Photos to come (and photos of me on better rocks than those Joseph are on!)
Bernie
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Rayner family is growing!
Yes it is official now. Joseph had some inside information a while back, but we are expecting another child; end of April, first week of May by my calculations. I just spoke to a midwife last night who we know through church and she is ""taking me on; so that is great news. She knows my history etc.
I have been keeping well. Actually right at the mont is very novel because I have no children. Anton is sleeping and Anna and Teresa are both at kindy. Thank goodness it seems Anna is improving. I left today after only a few minutes and she had a smile on her face. It now Anton who doesn't want to leave. She is going three mornings now which will make a difference.
The latest classic moment:
I have been taking a pill in the morning for enerygy etc. and Teresa asked "Why are you taking that pill "? to which I replied ""Because I am going to have a baby ?"" She looked a bit concerned and said: ""Will we get pregnant too ?"" because they have Vitamin C pills each morning with their breakfast. I reassured her it was not going to happen.!!!!!!
Anton is fabulous at the moment. His language is amazing. He clearly pronounces the line ""I don't like it ""
Anna is improving. We are having real difficulties with the girls at night and are thinking of separating them. They are up and down and up and down. It is tiring. daylight saving doesn't help.
Anyway got to go . Need to pick up children.
Lots of love.
Mary
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Back in Old Blighty (Great Britain)
Well all good things must come to an end. It's freezing here!
Glad to hear you dodged those wildfires Bernie. I was trying to figure out how to ring you from Phoenix airport but it was all too difficult.
Having just spent 2 nights in a tent in the Grand Canyon I can sympathize with Salve Vinaccia Paul. I'm not much one for roughing it either. After our guide told us about a friend of his who got stung by a scorpion in the Canyon (it was like having broken glass flowing through your veins for 12 hours apparently) I was paranoid about getting one in our tent.
Quite addictive this hiking lark though - by the end of the third day I didn't want to leave the Canyon. Of course we took a heap of photos - here's a sample.
Will write more soon.
J & D xxx
Monday, October 27, 2003
Nelson Trip
Hi Guys,
Well I flew to Nelson on Saturday, for our annual game against the Nelson Italians. Didn't know until we got there that we were staying at a Backpackers. Didn't bother me but a few people were put out. Salvi Vinaccia and his wife checked out and stayed at a flash hotel instead.
The game was a bit of a shocker, we got smashed 6-1. They had great strikers which killed our defence for pace.
Had a good time socially though.
cya
Paul
Update from Bernie
G'day all.
I don't have any photos to put on here yet but Wendy has taken a few hundred so there might be a few eventually. I'll try and block the photo of me wearing my Goofy hat meeting Goofy at Disneyland! They didn't have any Donald Duck hats and Wendy had the Pluto hat.
I've only taken 180 photos so far.
Have been very very busy.
Brief summaries from leaving San Fran - in no particular order!
Obviously we went to Disneyland for a whole day. I went on all the rides including the Indiana Jones ride. We also got to meet (and have our photo taken with) Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, Donald Duck, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. Wendy got Eeyore, Tigger and Pooh's autographs!
We stayed to see the disney parade too.
We're off to Universal Studios on Tuesday and to the beach tomorrow.
Went to Yosemite which was beautiful. We got there late at night and Wendo managed to hit a bat on route with the car. We just missed an owl too. The following day we had a coyote walk out in front of the road like he owned it. We also just missed a lizard and a big spider I reckon was a tarantula.
We also had a deer run in front of the car and leap a fence.
Yosemite was beautiful.
We went to the Grand Canyon as mentioned and went for a walk along a cliff face literally a metre from a sheer drop with no fences. The Grand Canyon was beautiful too.
I've had loads of rocks to play on!
We stopped off at Lone Pine and saw where westerns such as "How the West was Won" was shot - massive boulders there to play on! You could just see the indians hiding there.
In Las Vegas I went on the New York New York roller coaster which begins and ends in the hotel complex - that was amazing!
We saw Lord of the Dance live and Trent Carlini (Voted the best Elvis impersonator in the US). He was awesome.
Tom Jones cut the concert short halfway through due to a sore throat! He was very rude about it. We got to hear about 6 songs though including Dellilah - and Wendy got a full refund.
We drove through Death Valley and I got my photo taken at Dantes Peak overlooking Death Valley. I was sitting on the very end of the rocks. Great views. It was only just over 100F then.
We stopped off at Calico Ghost Town - population 9. Walked about and had a look at the old silver mining place. When we got back to the car it was 117F.
It's been 100F+ on most days and I'm sure you've seen about the fires. We were lucky to get through from Las Vegas to LA. We drove past the fire as it had just started.
Went to Mexico for the day - horrible smelly place with people trying to get you into their shops every 5 metres. Can see why people want to leave.
Went on a tour today of celebrity homes - it was truly awful. We did get to see Johnny Weismullers place and his pool that went all the way from the back yard to his living room.
The smog here is choking - awful.
Lynn (Doreen), We've found Tyrone Powers star and it was very embarrasing taking a photo of it!
The basketball was pretty good - to see the LA Lakers (lose) to the LA Clippers. Shaq O'Neal, Karl Malone and Kobe Bryant amongst others.
The ice hockey was awesome! We were sitting on the 3rd row right behind the "sin bin" bench so players came and sat right in front of us when they had been naughty. Also got close up views of crunching body checks into the screen. And just the one fight which was so funny! Everyone just held off till the players fell on the ice. There were proper punches - no hand bags. I could watch that again.
Time to go now although we have nothing planned for the evening which makes a change.
I hope everyone is well (including Felix).
Bernie
Friday, October 24, 2003
For Bernie
Here's a photo of Felix for Bernie. Felix has been sick for the last 2 days and misses his dad!
Got a text from Bernie the other night and it said "I'm in Mexico. 115 degrees"!!
Hope J & D are having a good time over there too.
Tuesday, October 21, 2003
We're still winning :)
Hi all,
I'm getting more and more jealous everytime I log onto the blog!! Can't wait to see more photos!! :)
The kids go back to their mums tonight, it's been good having them for the last 2 weeks. Just a shame that we still had so much soccer still on and couldn't do much other stuff. Still, there's plenty of time over summer.
The Wgtn womens team beat Nth Harbour 3-1 on the weekend and are joint top of the table, we have canterbury and central this long weekend so more work to do yet :)
Safe travels to everyone :)
Lisa
Hello from Utah!
Hi all,
Welcome to the blog Mary and Simon!
A quick note from Bryce Canyon in Utah. D. and I have spent a good part of 2 days driving through Arizona to get to Utah. Some fantastic scenery along the way (photos to come).
Spoke to Bernie briefly on Saturday - he was on his way to the Grand Canyon for the day.
Tommorow we are doing a hike in Bryce Canyon (some rock climbing may be in order). Looking forward to it! Will write more soon.
Love
J & D xx
Monday, October 20, 2003
back from holidays
A quick note, having set up so Mary can use this. She is out at a Plunket Ctee meeting so i am home alone. We had a great time away in Taupo last week. Missed the rain that hit the country for the first part of the week, and caught 4 brilliant warm clear sunny days. Did lots, including going up to Whakapapa and taking the kids up the ski lift for a picnic lunch and some sledding. They had a blast and tried severl other new things such as a hydro slide (with Dad), hot pools (stinky!) and painting each others hair. Oh, the delights! then a lovely hot Sunday in Wellington where we lazed at 175 all Sunday afternoon.
Hope you are all well
Simon
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Back from Germany
Just got back from Germany. 9 of us went over to see The Mission play in Berlin and Hamburg. Did all the touristy stuff in Berlin and here's me trying to buy a green trabant (my all time fave car) and at the Brandenburg Gate.
Also did Checkpoint Charlie and went up the huge tower in Berlin. V Nice place.
My friends got very drunk on huge buckets of frothy cheap evil German beer and I tried to keep them out of trouble, but failed miserably and one managed to have a fight with the band during the gig. (Not uncommon). For some reason we weren't on the guestlist in Hamburg... I'm sure they'll start talking to us again at some point. Maybe.
Whilst certain people are jollying off round the US I'm still trying to finish my masters dissertation (I got a month extension - horrah) and then I'm off to Milan to celebrate handing it in. Hope to go see AC Milan v Juventus whilst there.
Lynn
Monday, October 13, 2003
G'day from San Francisco!
Hello all,
I'm typing this e-mail as the internet is free at our hotel. I'm keeping a diary of everything we are doing so will be able to write a report at some stage.
But briefly I am having a fantastic time and fortunately time is going by slowly so far.
The weather has been unbelievable for this time of year. Perfect sun, no clouds and mid 20's.
We've been on a tram, walked around Fishermans Wharf, been up Coit Tower, (very importantly - we've walked down Filbert Steps), been in both Washington and Union Square and today we went to the Golden Gate Bridge and the gardens there. The Bridge is absolutely amazing to look at. Am pretty tired tonight after I reckon we walked about 10 miles today.
Off to Alcatraz when we get back at the start of November. Off on a ferry tomorrow and are keeping a tight watch on expenditure. There is so much to do from just walking about.
It is Columbus Weekend here and the Italians are having a good time! There was a procession of Warships in the harbour and an Air display over the harbour which was pretty impressive. Loads of people about.
Have cooked our own meals the last two evenings to save some money. It was my turn tonight.
We're having a great time listening to lots of very very thick Americans, particularly those people from outside San Fran visiting for obviously the first time - they might as well be visiting Fiji! Bloody tourists.
We pick up the car on Tuesday and drive from San Fran to Sutter Creek. Then on Wednesday and all of Thursday we are in or around Yosemite. We're staying in Las Vegas on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We are off to the Grand Canyon on Sunday for the day - so we'll try and bump into J&D. They've got my mobile nb and it works over here - although I doubt it will work at the Grand Canyon!
And Wendy has got me a special present! As we are staying at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas there's a certain person having a concert there - Tom Jones - and we've got tickets. Should be very entertaining!
Lynn - you and your mother better bring plenty of taxi / bus / tram money for your trip next year as the hills here are an absolute killer!
Sorry - this is a long one again.
Lisa, well done to you and your team.
Paul, I hear about Connor from Darren. Poor Connor!
Take Care all and I'll post again at some time!
Bernie
Nice photos guys!! Have a great trip, we're all jealous over here as spring has well and truly kicked in, it's absolutely peeing down :(
Good news though, the Capital Soccer Senior womens team that I'm managing downed the Aucks 1-0 yesterday which is fantastic. They are last years champs, we made em look like chumps! Great big photo of us celebrating the goal in the Dom Post, I'll see if I can get a copy to post on here :)
Have a good trip J & D, I'll expect to see more photos of Muollos on rocks very shortly :)
Lisa
refined, yes you do look suitably pissed.
safe travels to you guys, and have a great time. the grand canyon will be awesome and danie you will struggle to get joseph to stop climbing rocks everywhere, in fact you will probably have to leave him behind.
bernie, i would have voted for arnie too. i loved his speech he did about terminating the previous governor.
damon was funny this morning at creche, he arrived and saw his friend oliver down the end and he told me he was just going to give oliver a hug so he did.
last week he arrived and another boy, Connor (Debra Smucar's son) came up to him but damon just turned his back to him and said i'm not talking to you. Before creche the next day I told damon that he had to say hello to connor but he said that he wasn't his friend.
Sunday, October 12, 2003
A quiet night...
A refined Saturday evening was spent by D. and I and some friends at our local watering hole 'The Spinning Wheel'.
The cover band did do a mean version of "Take The Weather With You" by Crowded House which had everyone singing
along.
Off to the Grand Canyon on Saturday - will be keeping an eye out for Bernie.
Love J & D.
Wednesday, October 08, 2003
I didn't know Andrew Masseurs had a first child! Has he named his son after our wonderful and highly regarded All Black's Captain? haha!
It feels fine to be 30 except my body isn't allowing me to play much footy at the moment and I play from weekend to weekend. At least that means I don't have to go to training!
As Lynn said we won our Cup game on Sunday 7-1 so my Sunday league side have a record of W 3, D 1 and L 1 so far this season - it's all downhill over the next few weeks.
I will be on a plane in 48 hours and flying over to the Arnie aftermath. That should be fun. I would have voted for him.
I am glad to see that Bianca and Damon are enjoying their stay at your place Paul and Lisa. Thank Bianca for my birthday letter and tell her that she can't spell :o)
Right back to work at 6.30pm!
(There are some negatives to going on holiday - although my desk is the tidiest it's been since I went to NZ 10 months ago!)
Bernie
Hey Bernie, just letting u know that there was a birth notice in the paper the other day for a second boy for Andrew Masseurs, I think the name was Reuben but don't quote me on that.
Monday, October 06, 2003
Hey everyone. Great photos Joseph, I'm taking the laptop to mum's tomorrow so will log on and show them.
Bernie have a great time in the US
Bianca & Damon are staying with me at the moment as Joyce has just left for Oz for a couple of weeks. It is great to have them here and they are enjoying themselves.
Well off to bed now, talk later.
Paul
Sunday, October 05, 2003
Just testing to see if I can blog...
Bernie's footy team won 7-1 this morning and he didn't break his leg which is good news 5 days before he flies to US!
Lynn
BTW, the reason I am up at 1:25 am on a Sunday morning is that we have just been in London
saying farewell to our friend Michelle who is going back to NZ. We went to Satsuma and then to The Boardwalk which closes at 3am but Danie wanted to catch the last tube home so we did.
Welcome aboard Bernie!
You don't have much luck with the footie (watching or playing) do you?
How does it feel to be 30?
J. oo
Saturday, October 04, 2003
That was hard work, but I'm here now.
We've just got back from London and another thrashing. We lost 7-2 in the morning for the Internet Foxes. I had to select the side. We had 3 players from the Wimbledon AFC Internet team playing for us. 1 from Derby, and 2 players who hadn't played for 2 years so it was quite a team. I only had 7 players out of 12 tell me they played up front. No wonder we lost.
It was 2-1 to us at half-time though!
Then the game in the afternoon was awful and we are more than likely going to be relegated this year - although we had 4 key players out injured and hopefully they'll be back soon.
Now I have one game tomorrow and then 5 days before I fly out. I can't wait!
Friends of ours have just had their first child. (Joseph chatted to Rich at my party)
Daniel James Sheehan (photo hopefully attached in some way at some stage). Very cute and someone (not me) is getting broody.
I hope this works and I might post a hello message or two from America when over there as we need to get to an internet cafe to do our Leicester Anorak League answers!
Bernie
Hello all!
This is the first post in the Muollo blog.
Danie is out running and I am sitting at the computer on a cool grey Saturday morning in London.
Last weekend we visited Bernie and Lynn for Bernie's 30th birthday.
That cheat Van Nistlerooy ruined the Saturday but we had Bernie's surrpise birthday on Sunday
and there was a great cake baked by Lynn (well not really - but she did provide the photo that they
made the icing out of)
Anyway, I'll be sending you details soon of how to post stuff on this blog. Please feel free to post whatever
here - stories, cool web-links (geek out!). If you want to post photos, scanned art by nephews and/or
nieces etc. then I can show you how - it's easy.
Love
J & D xx
