Tübingen is a beautiful University town just outside Stuttgart, Germany, and is renowned for its punting boats. These boats, pictured above, are called Stocherkahn and are very similar to the Oxford and Cambridge punt boats. I had the pleasure of visiting this beautiful town because one of my friends went to University in this picturesque town.
Where have you been to see a friend and stumbled across a beautiful place off the beaten tourist track?
This week’s vintage comes to you from a little church in Vienne, France. Europe is an amazing place to find hidden treasures, stunning churches off the beaten track.
Do you have any favourites?
Dandelions are one of my favourite flowers – I love making a wish!
What is your favourite flower?
I had the pleasure of living in Lyon for 5 months and this is a view down the beautiful Rhône River that I was lucky enough to look at everyday, riding my bike over Pont de la Guillotière.
As mentioned, last week I visited the Monet exhbition and it set me down memory lane, thinking of my trip with Emma to Giverny, to see Monet’s stunning garden. We visited in June 2011 and it was a perfect day. Not a cloud in the sky but lots of shady weeping willows to hide under. I don’t think I have ever taken as many photos of as many different flowers as I did that day!
After leaving the land where they say Fish & Chips funny, we went to the land where they say Ketchup, sweater and eraser!
My first American school was Broken Arrow Elementary School in Shawnee, Kansas. We lived in the suburbs of Kansas City, Kansas, and it was as awesomely mid-western American as you can get. I loved living there! I loved no uniform, the seasons (the above photo was from an ICE STORM!), the class parties (we had one every holiday- Valentines, Halloween – you name it!) but I especially loved my friends there 🙂 A few of them feature in the below photos but not all of them. They made the four years there incredible!
This was my first Halloween in America and I went as a witch – I’m on the top left!
Kelsey was my buddy on day one and became one of my best friends!
One of my favourite things in Kansas, was horse riding! This Helen, or as sometimes refered to as, Hell on Wheels! She was a spunky horse but was a beautiful spirit. The reason I’m wearing fancy dress was that this was the Halloween horse show and we had to wear costumes! Once I even gave my horse a lighting bolt and made him wear glasses so he could be Harry Potter. That was beautiful Skip, the first horse I ever rode.
Another highlight was Girl Scouts! We always went on camps and had sleepovers. This was a particularly good one where we to Nebraska and went to this awesome Space museum.
This is another girl scout camp and one of my favourite photos with one of my favourite people, Stewart <3 <3 <3
Here is Kelsey & I at our Sixth Grade camp, Wildwood – the closest I ever got to a traditional american Summer Camp & it was awesome! Obstacle courses, bonfires, bunk beds, hay wagons and talent shows!
In Fourth Grade, we all published books with all of our written work in them and this was our ‘Book Launch’! Still have that book!
This was our Fifth Grade concert – Stewart, Kathryn, Me, Kelsey and Laura – but I can’t remember the theme but I know we loved it!
These next two photos were us getting ready to go to Wildwood, Sixth Grade camp. I especially love that I have a shot with a YELLOW SCHOOL BUS! Yes we ACTUALLY rode those and they actually have no seat belts! I love the photo above – there are three Amandas!
Soccer was another highlight of my time in Kansas, one that I have only just started playing again. Was a lot of fun, rain or shine, to play with those girls.
Finally, at the end of three years, it was time to graduate from Broken Arrow. We got special certificates and awards but the coolest thing about our graduation was making our own hats! You can see them in the photo below. Each of us braided our own ribbon to hang off it and added pictures of meaningful things about our time in Elementary School. I loved that school and the people I met there but it was time for Middle School!
Off to Hocker Grove it was! I was only there for a year because we then went to the land where-everyone-thinks-you-ride-elephants-to-school-but-really-we-rode-in-mini-buses!
But before then, I had a taste of America’s huge schools. I’d come from a 100 strong year level, now went into a 300 strong and if I’d kept going, in High School it would have been 1,000 strong!
This was on our french field trip right before I left – loveeedddddd French here and this is what started my love affair with the language and country!
And this is a photo from one of my classes- English I think!
But this is my favourite photo from Hocker, after the play we put on which included scenes that I had written for the play. This is where the theatre bug bit me! While I’m not as involved as I was, this is still a very special photo to me! It includes my favourite people from Hocker & Emma and Maggie!
Next post will be down the Bangkok Memory Lane! Hope you liked this one!
Today is my Graduation from university and it marks an end to 17 straight years of formal education. So this post, in the tradition of #tbt (throwback Thursday), is a little trip down memory lane to how it all started 17 years ago and this a way to say thank you to all of those who have supported me on this journey!
Before school, there was Kinder, which I loved – sand pit, animals coming to visit, painting, playing Mary in the Nativity play – what wasn’t there to love?!?
Then there was school! All in all, I went to 6 schools, never went to Year 2 or Year 8, but did Year 4 twice, Year 5 1 1/2 times and Year 10 1 1/4 times 🙂
This is me on my very first day of school at Chatham Primary School, accompanied by my beautiful younger sister, Emma and of course, Humphrey Bear, who is still just as cuddly now as he was then. I had a lovely 2 years at Chatham, playing on the monkey bars, putting my name on a brick in the amphitheatre, and telling secrets under the slides. I went to Chatham for 2 years – Prep and Year 1. I first learnt how to write here but two of my favourite memories at Chatham were making paper chains with printer paper and playing on the playground with the Warner girls!
At the end of 1997, we moved to Wellington, New Zealand, and my accent started its journey around the world. To this day, it still can change at the drop of a hat. In Wellington, we went to Queen Margaret’s College, our first all girls’ school. You had to wear a tie from Day 1! Emma started school in New Zealand and below is a photo of our very first day there.
It was a lovely school and we both loved it. When we had to leave 2 and half years later, both of us were quite upset. After all, it was here that I started reading Harry Potter.
Can’t believe all of these photos were taken over 15 years ago! Happy Graduation to everyone else graduating with me tonight!
Am in Sydney today so to celebrate, I’m posting a photo I took a few years ago late one night, whilst walking across the Harbour Bridge with my boy 🙂
A continuation of the Thursday theme of digging through the hard drive and I came across this gem from the last time I was in Paris and spent an evening gazing at the stunning Eiffel Tower with Emma. I know it has been photographed by millions, but I still love this shot.
On a Thursday, in the tradition of Throwback Thursdays, I plan to dig through my hard drives (wish it was boxes) and come across some old photographic friends. This is from quite a few years ago, 2007 in fact, up in Sydney. I’m still proud of this shot. Hope it brightens your Thursday!
Amanda recently photographed Christmas products for my website. I’m absolutely thrilled with the outcome - the photos are gorgeous, professional and creative. Amanda was so fun to work with, I can’t recommend her enough. Thankyou!
