Vienna Day 1 - Hotel Kaiserhof and the old town

July this year brought our Silver Wedding anniversary. We had talked about a party but as our friends and family are so wide spread we didn't think it would work. Instead Mirek suggested we take a trip to Vienna where we went on our honeymoon. So on the evening of our anniversary we drove down to Gatwick ready for an early morning flight. We stayed overnight in Crawley and after a brief delay the flight got us to Vienna midmorning. We were booked into the Kaiserhof hotel. It proved the perfect choice. Close enough to walk into town but far enough away to be very quiet. I think they put us in a honeymoon suite.

We had a lovely room with a huge canopy bed and soon after checking in they delivered champagne and fresh fruit. We couldn't have been happier. We spent a while settling in then walked into town to explore.

The hotel was close to Karlskirche which we passed everyday and took lots of photos of.

 I'd done a little bit of prior research on Jugendstil, the Austrian and German version of Art Nouveau and was interested in visiting some Jugendstil buildings. I wasn't disappointed. Close to Karlskirche on Karlsplatz are the famous pavilions by Otto Wagner.

Not too far away we found ourselves outside the Kursalon where we'd waltzed in 1985 and then in the Stadtpark which brought back many memories. The architecture there is beautiful and there is a famous Strauss monument.

There was live music as we walked through and the smells of traditional Austrian food. So we checked out the menu and went back to eat later after investigating the rest of the old town. Then we walked back in the twilight taking more pictures.

This is Karlskirche again. We have a print of it somewhere that we bought after visiting it on honeymoon. Mirek took pride in getting these twilight shots with his new camera. No apologies for all the photos of it included here as it featured heavily in our holiday. And yes, that is me in the picture (my best side!)

Rounding up the year

When I started this blog this last year it was intended as a whole family effort to be regularly updated with all our news. I'd asked Matt to write a post about his various cars and motorbikes and he got as far as collecting the photos but nothing posted so far. So here I am rounding up the year with a bit of a summary of what we've all been up to.

Mirek's year has taken a familiar course. He's still Superintendent Registrar at Basford Register Office, although the service is changing and there is going to be a major reorganisation which will completely change the way he works. His Tuesday nights and much of his free time at home are still devoted to Bestwood Male Voice Choir. This August they had a very successful exchange visit with Rotenburg Kantorei from Germany. They were with us for four days and brought not only their mixed adult choir but a junior choir too. We hosted their Musical Director and her son. They are very talented people and the visit was quite a whirlwind of concerts and social events.

My job has changed little this year, with my working day split between working in pre school three mornings and after school club every afternoon. But there's much more to life than work for me now and much of my time has been spent in the pursuit of my passion for craft. I've made some brilliant new friends through my hobby and have met up with them on various trips, the latest being a weekend crafting retreat in Darlington. That was total indulgence.

We've all had various bits and pieces of holidays this year, though no family holiday this time round. I went back to Venice with my sister, Karen and our auntie Cynthia in April.

Peter had a bit of a disastrous college trip to Amsterdam in February. It was organised by the college students' union and should have been a great experience. But before the trip his friends dropped out and his girlfriend, Hannah, was not able to go at the last minute. The coach was delayed when they were due to leave and we left him with no one he knew in the early hours of a very cold morning. It didn't improve much after that. The hostel was a dive and he was relieved all round to get back home, although it did come to light later that he'd been on a pub crawl and visited the sex museum! Later in the year he went to Portugal with his mate Billy who he's been friends with since they started primary school. That was much more enjoyable for him.

Matt went on his first holiday without us in the summer. He and his girlfriend Alex had a week in a caravan in Great Yarmouth. It was his first experience of having to look after himself and they didn't really want to come home.

Mirek and I had our first break without the boys in August. We had a cottage in Shropshire close to Much Wenlock. We visited Church Stretton, Ludlow and Bridgnorth. On the way there we broke the journey at Wightwick Manor in Wolverhampton and coming back we called at Bournville in Birmingham. For August Bank Holiday we took off without the boys again and had a long weekend in Oxford. I'd wanted to visit for a while and it was everything I'd hoped for.

Matt's job has gone well this year. He was promoted in February and became assistant manager of the Broadmarsh branch of Yeomans in Nottingham. It seemed to be the step he needed so we were surprised when he came back from holiday talking about a career change. He seemed to have itchy feet for a while but things seemed to change when he worked on Yeomans' Camp Show in the summer. He spent 3 weeks working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week in a field in Calver in the Peak District. He was working alongside his old manager from the Ilkeston branch and it was a bit of a turning point for him. He lived in a caravan for those 3 weeks and I think things were tough. But he loved it and is talking about trying to do two shows next year if the shop can spare him.

All this year Matt has been building a new motorbike from scratch. Every day parts arrive in the post. At first it was just a frame, which he kept in his bedroom. But now there is virtually a complete bike up there and I hope he's not planning on riding it down the stairs! Here it is on one of its rare excursions out of doors!

His old bike was unrideable for a while as he was interchanging parts between the two. I'm pleased to say though that he now uses his car much more than the bike. In the summer he sold his first car, a Peugeot 106 and bought a much more comfortable Ford Focus, which he loves.

In September his girlfriend, Alex, went off to university in Cheltenham. Sadly, communicating over the long distance proved very difficult for them and they've since decided to go their separate ways.

Pete went back to Derby College in September for his A2 year. He has dropped photography and is taking Graphics, Environmental Science and IT.

This is Pete's Graphics exam piece from last year. It is inspired by a pub sign and is made with acetate and wire.

He has applied to study architecture at university next year. He has had conditional offers already and it looks as though he may study here in Nottingham, although he also applied to Sheffield Hallam and the University of Sheffield. Visiting their Open days in the summer was a bit of a nostalgia trip for us but I was shocked at how much the student experience has changed since we studied there.

Peter works weekends at Yeomans in Long Eaton, which is Matt's old job. He's hoping to stay there next year to help out with his finances. He turned 18 recently and we all went out to celebrate but he decided not to have a party.

Me with my gorgeous son

Pete and Mirek

Matt, Pete and Pete's girlfriend, Hannah

He's recently started driving lessons with Hannah's instructor.

I'd love to know you've visited the blog as it's all too easy to lose touch with folks. Please leave a comment here or if you'd like to email us, it would be great to hear from you.

Jo - jo.rus@ntlworld.com

Mirek - mkmr67@ntlworld.com

Matt's Birthday

Today was Matt's 19th birthday. We like to have a bit of a family celebration at least but Matt's not one for partying anymore. We had to surprise him last year and this year he said he didn't want 'a fuss'. But we liased with Alex and decided we had to mark the day. It must have been meant to be because everyone had the day off. We booked for 8 of us to go and see the new film Twilight and then on to Pizza Hut. Of course this meant having to invent some ruse to get Matt into Nottingham in the first place. At first he said he didn't want to go out because Joe was coming round. Joe was in on the secret but came round with Matt's pressie to keep up the pretence. It took all of us to persuade Matt into town after that. He should have been suspicious but he wasn't.

The film was a very well made vampire/human love story. Peter and Hannah have read all the books and were determined to see the film as soon as it was out. So this was 2nd time around for them. Anne was disappointed there wasn't more gore but seemed to enjoy herself. By the end of the evening the youngsters had made quite a lot of pizza disappear. Matt said he felt guilty about being so reluctant to come out but had a nice day.

When Matt was born back in 1989 we were discharged from hospital on Christmas Eve. With a new baby in the house, Christmas almost passed us by. Hard to believe just how many Christmases have passed since then.

Pete and Hannah

Matt and Alex

Joe and Anne

School etc

I've never been one for publishing my thoughts for the entertainment of others. Having never kept a diary, I was quite adverse to the idea of "blogging", but under pain of death, I have finally surrendered my deepest, darkest thoughts to the internet.

I am now 17, my birthday a few weeks ago now, and have just come to the end of my first term at The Joseph Wright Centre, part of Derby College, no more than a 10 minute walk from the city centre.

I left my secondary school, Saint John Houghton in Kirk Hallam, Ilkeston, with an A* in Additional Science, a B in RE, and straight A's in all my other subjects. To the surprise of both parents, I have developed a strong creative and artistic side over the last couple of years, resulting in a grade A Art and Design GCSE after only being predicted a grade B by my teacher.

As requested by mother, the ring leader of the blog, here is a photo of my final Art piece that I made during my 10 hour exam. My entire project was based on music, and this piece is inspired by Roy Lichtenstein, famous for his Pop-Art comic book strips. You can see more of my work here.

This has now led me on to study A Levels in Graphics, Photography, IT and Environmental Studies. For those who don't know (and there seem to be a fair few), Environmental Studies is, surprisingly enough, the study of the environment. It's basically a cross between Geography and Science, but to give you a better idea, so far I have learnt about conditions for life on earth, wildlife conservation, life processes and land resources. I am pretty confident in the subject and my GCSE grade A in Geography has been a big help, getting me a grade A in my Environmental Studies mid-term assessment.

I also achieved a grade A in my IT mid-term, dropping only 8 marks out of a possible 60, a result I am most pleased with, having only done a short course IT GCSE, but again achieving a grade A.

Graphics is a very fast paced subject and I have just completed my second project. As yet I have no actual grade, but have had some positive feedback and am on target for my ALPS grade of A/B, a traget grade for all of my A Levels.

I chose Photography as it combines creative and technical elements which i thought I would be much suited. As it turns out, it is the subject I am struggling in most, but that's not to say I'm doing badly. Having recently taken over Matt's part time job at Yeoman's Outdoors in Long eaton, I'm left with little free time to go out taking photos which has reflected slightly in my first project, entitled "Habitat". I am currently workink at a high C/low B grade, which I am pleased with, but I know with a little more effort and better time management, I'll be able to improve on this throughtout the year.

My "other job"

I'm continuing to enjoy my time with the choir. I started singing with them 16 years ago last month! and I've been their Musical Director for 11 years! How time truly flies. They're a good bunch of blokes to be with ..... and the singing's not bad either. No, seriously, they sing really well and it's a pleasure to be standing in front of them at concerts. It's a very rewarding experience, particularly when the audience genuinely appreciates the end result and takes the trouble to tell you so.

Last year we had a fantastic and truly memorable trip to Rotenburg an der Fulda in Germany on a local council twinning visit. The trip was perfect in every way: weather,hospitality and friendship, good food and drink (well, beer!) and some great concerts too. We are really looking forward to hosting our German friends over here next August.

Mirek's first ever blog

Yes, I know, what a boring title for this momentous leap into the depths of modern technology, but there you have it -- hello, world! Unlike my wife's (hereafter known as Jo) busy life of card-making (or rather constant experimenting) and blogging, my existence is much less artistic.


My work in the registration service continues (at the same office for the last 12 years) but things are constantly changing and there is rarely a dull moment. Apart from the daily stuff of legal preliminaries to marriages and civil partnerships, conducting of such ceremonies, issue of certificates, generally dealing with the public at large, attending meetings (oh yes!), vetting premises for ceremonies, solving people's computer problems (sorry, typo, trying to solve), conducting staff appraisals (yuk!), not being able to balance the monthly imprest account (I have acquired many new grey hairs), I also get to mess about a bit on the council's public website by writing text and supplying images about the registration service. Oh, and occasionally I also vacuum, sweep the main entrance, change the fluorescent tubes and, just this month, help hang the new 10 feet long curtains in the ceremony room. If' I'm lucky, I have an hour for lunch on a Friday. Well, it's varied!

Venice

It's taken us years to get round to it but we finally made it to Venice. Believe it or not, this was the first time Mirek and I had flown together and the first time we'd been abroad together in 16 years.

We flew out on Monday 27th. Twice to be precise. On the first occasion we were about 30 mins into the flight when the captain announced there was a problem with depressurisation and that the plane would have to return to Gatwick. Luckily, they found us another plane quite quickly and we only lost about 3 hours of our 3 day trip.

We took a local bus to Venice-Mestre which is the modern mainland town associated with Venice. We'd read enough beforehand not to expect Mestre to be picturesque. But we'd also read enough to have high hopes of our hotel, the Golden Tulip Tritone. We weren't disappointed. Although the hotel was immediately opposite the railway station it was very quiet. The three of us shared one room which wasn't huge but very nicely decorated and very comfortable. We missed breakfast on the last day because we had to leave too early. Shame because the breakfasts were superb. Buses and trains left from just outside the hotel and took just a few minutes to get to the island of Venice. We had a travel pass for the buses but found the trains much more comfortable.

It was dark before we arrived on the island on Monday but Venice is just as enchanting in the dark. Sadly, we didn't quite get the hang of night time photography. I'd heard it was easy, recommended - compulsory, in fact, to get lost in Venice. To this end, I believe maps are deliberately misleading. We meandered through Venice looking for somewhere to eat and finally settled for Pizza in San Stefano. We then walked on until we got to Piazza San Marco where we took the vaporetto back to the train station.

On the Tuesday we couldn't believe we were met by sunshine. The weather forecast had been bad. We jumped on a vaporetto straight away and did the photo trip down the Grand Canal, getting off at Rialto to explore the shops and market.

We then toted all our souvenirs round San Marco, taking more photos before going back to the waterfront for coffee and cake. To save our legs we jumped on a vaporetto then and visited the church of Il Redentore on the island of Giudecca before going back to the hotel to rest before dinner. Mirek had memorised the address of a restaurant we'd spotted earlier and we retraced our steps there in the evening. The plan after that was to make our way back to Rialto but we walked round in circles for ages and just when I thought we should be round the corner from Rialto bridge (according to that map!)we found ourselves on the edge of the Piazza San Marco again! We thought we'd make the best of it and jump on the vaporetto there but sadly, we couldn't get into the square itself because it was flooded and there was quite a gap between the raised walkways and the path we were on. Several people stripped down to bare feet and walked through but not us! We did an about turn and walked back across San Marco to get the vaporetto. It was probably the last one that night. But it didn't get us back in time for the last train and we had to wait half an hour for a late bus.

When we went back to San Marco in the morning to visit the basilica and the Doge's Palace the square was still flooded. It's a regular occurrence at high tide, apparently and they are well prepared for it. We used the walkways to get to the Campanile and went up to the top. The views were superb and well worth the ticket price. We followed it with a visit to the basilica where we went out onto the balcony and also saw the museum with the original bronze horses. Fantastic.

The Doge's palace was impressive too but I'd opted for the audio tour which was informative but hard work and I gave up about #31! I think there may have been parts we missed but I was losing the will to live. All in all the square was the most incredible place for photos. Having done all the sightseeing on our list we went back to the Rialto bridge for more souvenir/pressie shopping. We also found a lovely shop/workshop selling books and other items decorated with Italian marbled paper. After dinner we returned to the hotel for some creative luggage packing. Most of our presents (and 4 masks I'd bought for myself) were delicate and had to go in hand luggage. Luckily, I'm married to the most efficient packer in the world. If anyone can get a large square peg in a small round hole it is Mirek!

We hadn't wanted to come home on a 6.20am flight but by the time we booked, the alternatives were not affordable. So we set off at some ungodly hour for Marco Polo. I think everyone had been told, as we were, that the airport didn't open until 5.30am. So we had to queue so long to check in that we only just got through security in time to board.

This time the flight was uneventful and we arrived back in London in time for breakfast. One of the first jobs I did when I got home was to check prices for a return visit in the not-to-distant future. I think that says everything about how much we enjoyed the trip. Mirek and I took about 700 photos between us. You can see a small sample of mine here.

Since we came back everyone has asked us if we had a gondola ride. No, we didn't. We weren't too bothered and they were expensive. But next time we will.