February skiing....Port du Soleil (French Alps)

Many many many years ago, I skied and managed to damage my knees, after which, I swore, I would not ever ski again.  Schools take children skiing from Doha, so no matter how much pressure was exerted on me by Teagan, no one, not anyone could ever, except for Teagan herself, convince me that I would ski again.

Holding true to my failure and fear of on-going pain, I gradually eased (NOT) myself back onto the fibre planks holding metal sticks and attempted to follow my ten year old.  I do console myself, that I did somewhat better than Ross who did not make it off the nursery slopes and returned his skis two days later to enjoy the ambience of books and beer in the local restaurants!

We enlisted the services of Henri Gordon the downhill snowboarding champion for France in the 1980s.  He guided me down the blue and red slopes ensuring that I was determined never to ski red again but boosting Teagan's confidence so much that no doubt I will ski those reds again (as it turns out skiing is "an activity that is special for us both Mum!")

We took the cheap option of self-catering and self booking flying Lufthansa from Doha and renting our skiis from the local ski outlet in Petite Chatel (France) a one hour drive from Switzerland.  The ski field we enjoyed the most was Prex la Joux.

And yes, Teagan intends skiing next year!

Unfortunately, many of my GoPro clips were corrupted in transfer but I think I had enough material to work with.




201602 February 2016 Skiing in Port du Soleil from Kirsty Merriman on Vimeo.

Teagan turned 10 yrs old...

Life prior to Teagan was somewhat different; need I say more! An interesting fact is that she grew absolutely and exactly to a ten-fold increase:  2.52 kg up to 25.2 kg on her tenth birthday.  Our gift to Teagan was a weekend trip to Atlantis in Dubai which is about a 5 hour drive away, or 40 minute flight for a family day in the waterpark.


Tenth Birthday Weekend Trip to Dubai from Kirsty Merriman on Vimeo.

Still catching up....Christmas around the Canaries

As Christmas approaches, Teagan pleads to travel to New Zealand.  Unfortunately, the time and cost are usually super steep.  Initially, we had planned to travel to Singapore, however, with my tendency to bronchitis and the very very heavy haze, we cancelled our plans and shopped around for some Northern options.

Fortuitously, at the time, several super discount specials threw themselves out of my computer screen and we picked up a cruise around the Gran Canaries and super duper cheap flights to Heathrow (and cheap they were!).  It was interesting to note that we got the entire package, the majority of our meals, entertainment and transfers covered in the deal and under our original budget.  It does pay to become a home based desk travel agent with the odd loyalty programme!

Flying O. Airlines (never again, though), we made it to London and after a couple of days, joined Queen Victoria and her exceptionally elderly passengers for what turned out to be an absolutely fantastic cruise.  Whilst, someone within my travel group stated: "there is so much grey hair in this lot you could stuff all of the mattresses with it", the demographic proved to be a blessing.  There was no rushing, use of manners was high, and everyone was on board well before departure and the children had a constant audience especially over the Christmas celebrations where many of the older group were without immediate family.

Christmas around the Gran Canaries December 2015 from Kirsty Merriman on Vimeo.

Following on promptly....

Following on promptly from our 2015 Summer holiday Part 1 video, comes Part 2.  With family in New Zealand, we can not readily miss a visit to Dunedin even if it means travelling south from the Arctic Circle.  Thankfully Teagan is a fantastic wee traveller, not even blinking at super long flights with lengthy layovers.  Her biggest issue is being far from her furry Doha based babies;  Gwen and Dede.

Embedded is the second installment of our summer.  One full week in the Isle of Wight, a full week at a Guiding Camp in the New Forest and six weeks in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Next task is for us to prepare our Xmas video!




Summer 2015_Part 2 from Kirsty Merriman on Vimeo.

Summer 2015: Cruising to the Arctic!

August 2015 was a significant month for Ross and me, as we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary.  Due to school holidays and exhausting heat, celebrations were in July when we could be together.  Following significant negotiations with our Halfling we all agreed on a Disney Cruise (yeah right!) up into the Arctic Circle (yes, this was Ross and my input).  Combined with a few other activities, we made it a Go!

This is the first part of our Summer Holiday 2015:  Doha to London, over to Copenhagen, into the Arctic and back to England for a week's old fashioned beach holiday while we waited for Teagan's International Brownie Camp in the New Forest.

Would I go on a Disney Cruise again?  Highly, extremely unlikely.

Was it a really good cruise and worth recommendations?  Absolutely, top marks, exceptionally well run, superb condition, great care of passengers, fantastic safety for children, superb staterooms.

Why wouldn't I do it again?  How much forced happiness (and piped music) can a good old Southern Kiwi take?

Would Teagan do it again?  Absolutely, totally!

Does Teagan prefer Cunard ships to Disney ships?  Yes, because of the Kids Zone on Cunard - shock horror, she was not swayed by rampant commercialism.


Summer 2015 Part 1_Overwrite from Kirsty Merriman on Vimeo.

Our next big adventure is upon us, so now its time to load our Nepal video....

Quite understandably, we have been hesitant to post our video of our Nepalese adventure in April.  Teagan and I met with our long time "Besties" and spent one of our most fabulous holidays ever, together.  It was merely seven days after returning, that parts of Nepal were devastated by the earthquake.  Since then, we have been in touch with our trekking company and gave our donations directly to one of the affected villages.  No one we trekked with was physically harmed, but many were very badly affected.

Here is our video for you to enjoy, it was absolutely fantastic and we were truly lucky in many many ways.



Nepal April 2015 from Kirsty Merriman on Vimeo.

Overdue videos... they were complete but just not loaded....

Since my last post, there have been two prepared videos.  One of our November trip to New Zealand and our Christmas 2014 video.

As I didn't specifically ask for approval from some of my New Zealand movie stars, I will not be sharing that movie on this site, however, I am loading our Christmas movie; England to New York and back!  So please enjoy.


Christmas 2014 from Kirsty Merriman on Vimeo.