27 Sep 2011 – School Lunch in Australia 🙂

Irmo Elementary School serves grades K-5 in the School District of Lexington and Richland Counties. It is among the few public elementary schools in SC to receive a distinguished Great Schools Rating of 9 out of 10. The school community has reviewed this school and given it an average rating of 5 out of 5* At present the school is under construction and the kids are in portables.

http://www.greatschools.org/south-carolina/irmo/741-Irmo-Elementary-School/

Today, was given the pleasure to lunch with Katy and Ellie at this school. Have heard much about Katy‘s gifted class teacher Mrs Paddock and it was good to meet her. Katy had explained that time-out in her class is Australia, a brilliant concept to teach young minds about the history of how a land of convicts can be transformed to a fantastic country.

Told Denise, an Australian school teacher friend about it as she has been in time-out most of her life! She is now keen to exchange constructive learnings with the 4th graders here in Irmo. How wonderful when gifted teachers like Mrs Paddock & Denise can exchange time-out places. Maybe the time-out for Denise’s class can be with the Cherokee Indians 🙂 🙂

We are the intelligence that has evolved in time out of the space and matter of the solar system and specifically the earth – Barry Long

26 Sep 2011 – James Magnus HALL

Sun: James was baptized at Faith Presbyterian Church, 1811 Dutch Fork Road, Ballentine by Pastor Karl McAllister. James was happily wide awake until the pastor carried him, then he fell asleep! The Hall family and close relatives occupied an entire pew with a full congregation during service! Except for Katy, baptized in 2002 in St Stephen’s Lutheran Church, the same church where L&J got married in Orlando/FL, the other 4 grandchildren are all baptized in FPC here in SC.

Appreciations to L&J for hosting a lovely luncheon at home packing the house with families and kids. Jeff gave a good speech as to how James Magnus got his name! Everyone seemed to have had a good time and it was nice to catch up with Rich, L&M’s stepdad. The last time we met was at L&J’s wedding, 14yrs ago!!

Babies are such a nice way to start people – Don Herrold

25 Sep 2011 – James Baptism Day

Okra = Lady’s Fingers, ie the edible ones 🙂

Sat: SC’s largest parade started by the Lake Murray-Irmo Woman’s Club who was looking for a way to raise money to build a new library. The festival feature rides, festival food, arts & crafts etc. Money raised by the festival is put back into the community through civic and school organizations, scholarships and improvements of public areas.

http://www.irmookrastrut.com/

The ancient Irmese were a farming tribe who lived off okra and there is even an Okra Man in this mini state-fair. Did my donation by buying US$40/S$52 worth of tickets to use for rides and food. Do actually like okra, deep-fried or slimy 🙂

It’s been a while since the last catching up with Jeff’s family, good to see (right to left) Kathleen/Jeff’s maternal auntie, Terry/dad and Dee/stepmom. Kathleen told us how to de-slim okra, by quickly tossing them with tomatoes and vinegar!

So few people eat okra (more radishes are grown in this country) that it never even makes it onto the lists of Top 10 hated foods – Julia Reed

23 Sep 2011 – James is 2 months today!

With six grandchildren one really feels and qualifies to be a SENIOR. Sharing this with other fellow seniors 🙂 🙂 🙂

LOVEMAKING TIPS FOR SENIORS & PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE SUGGESTIONS ARE NOT FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE !!!!!

1. Wear your glasses. Make sure your partner is actually in the bed.

2. Set timer for 3 minutes, in case you doze off in the middle of the act.

3. Set the mood with lighting. (Turn them ALL OFF!)

4. Make sure you put 999 on your speed dial before you begin, in case of heart attack!

5. Write your partner’s name on your hand in case you can’t remember.

6. DO NOT BURN CANDLES. You will need all the oxygen in the room for yourself!

8. Make all the noise you want… the neighbours are deaf too.

9. Do not make any appointments for the next few weeks afterwards, so that your back has time to return to normal!

(This is in BOLD so you can read it successfully!!)

Have a wonderful weekend and will post pix of the grandchildren when I get the chance to take them, ie when not playing with the other 4 grandchildren or carrying and doting on baby James 🙂

21 Sep 2011 – The Palmetto State

South Carolina/SC is a state in the USA that borders Georgia/GA to the south, North Carolina/NC to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. With a pop of 4,625,384, SC has 46 counties in an area of 32,020 sq mi/82,931 sq km and its capital is Columbia.  The state bird is the Carolina Wren and Yellow Jessamine is the flower. Also known as the Palmetto State, it is rich in history going back to the 1700s when it was settled by English settlers from Barbados.

Linn & family lives in Irmo, where the Cherokee Indians once roamed the waterways and woodlands of this area while following the Cherokee Trail. A suburb of Columbia 12 miles outside of the city center with a pop of app 11,039 in an area of 4.1 sq mi/10.7sq km. Chartered in 1890, the town was named for 2officers of the local railroad whose names were IReall&MOseley.

Mon&Tue: busy getting to know my 5grandchildren better!

Wed: breakfast@Bruegger’s. A peaceful! morning walk around the Town Park and surrounding area with just Linn while all the kids were in school and nursery 🙂

Welcome Center with a wall mural of the railway & a train; African Methodist Episcopal/Young’s Chapel

Town Hall

Town Park with its floral 1) Swamp Hibiscus. 2) Abelia Kaleidoscope. 3) Castor Bean plant. 4) Zebra grass. Appreciations to Elizabeth Killen/Greater Irmo Chamber of Commerce & Rick Woodley/Woodley’s Garden Center for providing the names.

The United States as we know it today is largely the result of mechanical inventions, and in particular of agricultural machinery and the railroad – John Moody

20 Sep 2011 – Safe & Sound in Columbia/South Carolina

Sun: the traffic jam was terrible to get to LGA airport due to VIP (Obama etc) coming into NYC for meetings! Left 6th Ave at 1715hrs and was stuck in the town traffic for over an hour. Thank goodness Super Shuttle (US$19/S$24) usually estimates plenty of time to catch the 2035hrs flight. Uneventful 2hrs direct flight on Delta using 25,000 mileage of my Delta SkyMiles arriving CAE 2235hrs on time.

What a delightful way to be greeted this Mon morning, Katy & Ellie getting ready for school and Katy printed out The Halls’ News – note what Jeff was doing 🙂

Linn Hall’s mother, Amy Lam, is coming over!!!!! Her children, Katy, age 9, Ellie, age 6, John, age 4, Sophie, age 2, and probably James, age 0, are very excited. Ms. Amy Lam’s arrival is making Linn Hall have the family clean up. Linn Hall is cleaning the kitchen, Katy and Ellie are cleaning their rooms, the bathroom in Katy’s room, and did their laundry, and John is cleaning his room. Sophie and James took a nap. Jeff Hall, the father, read Calvin and Hobbes.

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Fall is coming!!! The days are getting cooler!!! The 3rd weekend of September is very cool out. Katy Hall is very excited for the winter!!! She thinks some of her siblings agree. This winter, she says to herself, I really, really hope it snows!!! Let it snow!!!

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Yay!!! On September 25th, James Magnus Hall will be baptized!!! The Halls are having people over after church, at Faith Presbyterian where James will be baptized by Pastor Karl McAllister.

17 Sep 2011 – Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District

Fri: dinner@Panca***good Peruvian food on 7th Ave with dishes from the fusion ethnicities that inhabit Peru, ingredients and techniques from Asia and EU. Thank you Kat & Greg for delicious dinner.

Sat: The Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District is bounded by Varick, Vandam, MacDougal and King Streets and is characterized by the quality of its Federalist and Greek Revival architecture. One of them is a lively Queen-Anne style building, 29 King Street Grammer School No 8 built in 1886 is now a block of condo. The whole building is a protected historic monument; very charming and lucky me who gets to stay here.

6th & 7th Avenues and the surrounding areas are colourful and interesting, well-worth walkabout on this cloudy afternoon. Even managed to get a walk-in and needed hair-cut for US $20/S$25!

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe – Anatole France

16 Sep 2011 – Happy Bday to a wonderful sister-in-law, Ivy!

Goodbye baby, M&B and friends in Norway for this time round. Local train from OSL S to airport costing NOK 110/S$25 (would have cost twice as much on Flytoget/AirportExpress but half the time to get there and theonly option if in a rush!). Flight from OSL-KEF, 2hrs 40mins with 1hr layover in Iceland. Flight from KEF-EWR was delayed for an hour and arriving into EWR after 6hrs in the air. Airfare from OSL-EWR with IcelandExpress, NOK2,033/S$455. Super Shuttle from EWR to Manhattan, USA$23/S$29.

Arrived late Thu evening into Manhattan and woke up to a beautiful day. Walked towards Ground Zero Memorial site but lines to get in were just not what was in the mind. So has to be another time round to get into the grounds! The day was just so beautiful with strange clouds formation, it was such a delightful walk on 6th Ave down to Church St and back.

I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above; those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love – William Butler Yeats

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry – Elizabeth Frye