Monday 6th October - very special day! Pete’s birthday plus Charlie arrived in town
! Charlie Maiden is Lizzie’s brother for all of you who remember Lizzie & Patrick. Charlie flew in from Las Vegas where he had been attending a work conference (hard life for some eh!) and made the very wise decision of visiting us before returning to his home and wife (Barb wish you could have joined Charlie on his little jaunt!) in Brisbane, Australia. In celebration of Pete’s big day (61 yrs young) we dined at La Griglia restaurant and had a great night.Tuesday 7th - John went off to day 1 of a 2 day work program and I drove Marg, Pete & Julie to the airport where they were flying out to New York. Charlie and I then had the day to ourselves and I drove him around giving a quick tour of our neighbourhood – we lunched at Café Express on West Gray and enjoyed afternoon tea at The Path of Tea. That night the 3 of us had dinner at Vietopia with the Supper Club, enjoying the company of Dawn, Paul & Carol, Robert & Peggy. (Big day of eating out – yum yum!!)
Wednesday 8th – Charlie & I were invited to a business lunch with Liz & Cheryl to meet a prospective EDNer, Bruce. We dined at Indika, an Indian Restaurant on Westheimer and had a great time getting to know Bruce. That afternoon Charlie & I drove around Glenwood Cemetery (the resting place of Howard Hughes and many others!) plus checked out the Heights area and were home in time to pick up John before heading out to a raw foods potluck with Nancy, Michael, Joe, Dina, Tambra and lots of other people. Charlie is certainly getting a variety of food – Vietnamese, Italian, Indian, Raw…….. and he’s only been here 2 days!!
Thursday 9th - Happy Birthday Barb – wish you could have celebrated it with Charlie and us here in Texas! Oh well, maybe next year. In the afternoon John, Charlie & I visited NASA (
the Johnson Space Centre) and then drove down to Galveston. Wow – we saw first hand the full force of Hurricane Ike and the damage it caused. There were still boats sitting in the middle of the main road, the main street closed with not one shop open, the foreshore where we had holidayed just weeks earlier was hardly recognizable – our little jetty lookout was totally gone, so many buildings no longer there. Mother Nature certainly can be ruthless. Driving out of town we saw the huge area where the trucks were carting all the rubbish and then the tent area set up to feed and house so many displaced people – it certainly was an eye-opening experience to us. From Galveston we drove to Kemah. This was another hard hit area and the Kemah boardwalk was totally closed. We found a Greek restaurant nearby that was open and we dined there before heading back to Houston after a very eventful and thought provoking day.
........................Before and after photos of 'our' jetty
Friday 10th – This was a special EDN day – they were having a ‘showcase’, exhibiting all they are about to potential clients at a nearby Hilton Hotel. Charlie joined in for the day and was very impressed with the whole presentation. John was also very happy with how the day unfolded. Later that afternoon we farewelled Charlie at the airport after having spent a wonderful week with him and then drove home to pick up Bruce and take him to dinner.
It was another big week of fun and food!!!
Saturday 11th – This morning we walked 12 miles with HoustonFit training, starting at 4.30am!!!! It was a great walk and my fastest yet. Today I broke the 15 minute mile (only by a few seconds!) – a really great time for me. When we finished we had to attend an EDN photo shoot – Kenny was taking photos of activities used in EDN workshops to use in a manual he is putting together for all the staff. Then it was home for a sleep before heading out to Lydia’s 40th birthday party. We picked up Nancy on the way and had a wonderful night meeting Lyd
ia’s two sisters (who had flown in from Colorado as a birthday surprise) and lots of Lydia’s friends and family. The highlight of the night was when Lydia was told to sit in the special birthday chair where she was to just smile and say nothing and guests were asked to come up and say how they knew Lydia and what was so special about her – it was amazing and all videoed which will be a wonderful keepsake. It was so lovely to hear people express their thoughts – especially to the person who is still living – more often than not so much is not said until the funeral!!Sunday 12th – vegged out all day and ate in!!!!!!! It was great.
Thursday 16th – Anna and I attended our first International Connections get-together – a group of expats who come together monthly to meet new people and to get to know more about Houston. We met so many new people – so many Australians!! The guest speaker talked about the American voting system – very interesting and very complicated and very timely as the elections are only 3 weeks away. It is certainly a very exciting time to be here in the USA – who will be the new President???? After the meeting we went to lunch with 7 of our ‘new friends’ at PF Changs in the Highland Village – it was very enjoyable and we look forward to seeing them all again next month.
Friday 17th – just packing and getting organized as our plane leaves in just 5 hours. Las Vegas here we come………
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