Barton Adventures

2011-08-31T04:39:00.000-07:00

Thomas Merks Barton was born on June 22nd 2010 - a healthy weight of 8.9oz via c-section in Peninsula Private Hospital Frankston, Victoria Australia.

We were lucky to be at home in Australia over our school holidays for the birth, so family and friends could share our gorgeous new edition to the Barton family :)

Eddie's classic comment when he first met his brother "But mummie, Thomas is not a train?"
He really believed he would have a tank for a brother...

2008-12-22T02:26:00.000-08:00

After our quick visit to China we had to call in and see Geoff and Erika from Kuwait also They work at Hong Kong International school and it is set in a stunning part of town. They live on campus but the views are amazing and Geoff's science room has about the best view we have ever seen
They looked after us and took us out to celebrate Halloween. Hong Kong makes Manila look like a hick town. Everyone was dressed up and the party continued well after we left to sleep. We surprised Ross and Cherie (happy birthday Chezza) as we had not seen them since Kuwait. Greta to catch up it was like we had never left. Very cool that when we left Kuwait so many of our friends got great jobs in interesting places. It's even better to be able to catch up wherever we visit around the globe. Would love to return the favour one day.

2008-12-22T02:16:00.001-08:00

We are finally back home for a few short weeks. Great to get out the city and breathe the fresh air. Santa visited the neighbouhood but apparantley JB said it was a bit hot under the suit. Rob and Deb's little daughter Meg said she was very happy as the real Santa was there this year, as it is usually Pete from next door. A few beers on the deck at Flash and Jane's to ready ourselves for the madness when the tourists invade our quiet place by the sea. Little Eddie is getting more chatty by the day but he has a bug at the moment that means he is not himself. It's good as it's not too hot so we hope he will get better soon

2008-12-22T02:02:00.000-08:00

As we missed the Olympics we decided to head over to Beijing and check it out. We stayed with out mates from Kuwait Mark and Sue Edwards who are now working at The Western Academy of Beijing. A great school and coincidentally JB's mate Phil from Istanbul back in 1991 is the VP of middle school and his wife Amanda is the ES VP. Sam Edwards is famous from Kuwait and he is a legend in China. much to Mark's disgust he did not teach Eddie to swear but the boys looked after the little man. Jack lent Eddie his drum kit and the little man took to it like he was Animal out the Muppet show. Sue and Mark organised Mr Wang to drive us around the city and we squeezed in lots of sightseeing. Bloody cold on some days and Eddie was the star in many Chinese photo albums as they just had to have their photo with the cute white boy. The great wall was magnificent and we had a bluebird day for a change. Thanks to the Edwards organisation for showing us around such an amazing place. Eddie was even used as a distraction in the markets to take the pressure of his mum and dad to buy stuff

2008-12-22T01:58:00.000-08:00

We stayed with Sommer in her parents place and were looked after really well by the whole family. Our intentions was to spend some time at the lake house (which every Canadian seems to own) but we ran out time. It was a welcome change from hotel rooms to sit out the back and watch Eddie feel grass on his feet. Sommer took us around the sights of Toronto, we didn't get up the tower as it was too long a wait. Cool city very similar to Melbourne in size and feel.

2008-12-22T01:53:00.000-08:00

Wow what a beautiful place, this would have been before tourists got there! We can't believe what has happened to such majestic scenery. After seeing the Grand Canyon, Sedona, New Mexico and Washington State we were used to spectacular views. The falls are stunning but the hotels, crappy giftshops, freakshows and assorted groups of tourists getting the Maid of the Mist treatment really really ruin what could be a stunning spectactle. Maybe go there in the middle of winter to escape the crowds. Not a place we will go back to in a hurry.

2008-12-22T01:45:00.000-08:00

We made our way over to Haggersville Canada to see where the famous Fred Biggar comes from and was surprised to see it is a nice little place, all the better now Fred has left.Sandy was staying there and we had a nice cup of tea(beer) out the back of Fred's mum's place We then took off to catch up with a few people we used to work with at The American School of Kuwait. Dave and Andrea were the lucky ones and left Kuwait early and they have a great pad there out in the farmland, but close to Niagara Falls. We were lucky to have a barbie with Deina and Steve also. Amazing how everyone looked so well and the kids all got on famously. Who knows when we will catch up again as Canada is so bloody far away from Australia. That afternoon Sommer took us to the wonderful Niagara Falls

2008-12-22T01:35:00.000-08:00

As part of the Carver travel experience we set off from the good ol US of A to Canada ay. The high speed ferry was the craft of choice and due to a large swell the crossing was a little rough for a few people. Tara was less than impressed with JB insisting that he should eat a fresh prawn roll. He went outside and was calmly standing at the bow with the wind and spray in his face when the ticket collector(who thought she was in the first class cabin of an airline) informed JB that the captain had his eye on him. Apparently I may have been a threat to national security out the back of the boat and somehow my prawn roll could have caused damage to the engine. Even when he came back in the woman stared him down until we were safely in Canada. We know why Victoria is such a popular venue. A beautiful little town, although full of tourists but a place that we would love to spend more time in

2008-07-26T15:16:00.000-07:00

Class nothin but class. We were trying to get Eddie a hook up with Pebbles and Bam Bam

It is just too bloody big to take a good photo, especially with Eddie at my feet wanting to crawl to mummy

The grand canyon was a long drive from Mikes place and photos never do the place justice.It is the sort of place you just sit there and say "What the?" Be nice if you didn't share it with thousands of others. Best to go at the end of winter and the north rim is much quieter. Eddie loved playing in the dirt.

Speaking of which, JB donated 148 bucks to the Arizona highway patrol for a trumped up charge of following too close to another veh- hi- kewell.

2008-07-26T13:10:00.000-07:00

After taking some serious hits at the factory outlets we cruised into Montreal. Stayed in the old town and checked out the old places. Pretty much a tourist trap but the old buildings have been well preserved and you feel like you are wandering down a street in the provinces in France. Of course we had to see the local version of Notre Dame which according to one local was where Celine Dion was married. We miss all the big gigs! It's amazing how all the places in the world have the same crappy stores with the same stuff, just with a different city name on the snow cone

2008-07-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

Times square
The Apple store line was 3 to 4 hours long just to get in and buy an I phone

Eddie chiiling in Central Park

Chrysler building and NYC skyline

Sometimes we do stupid things and trying to see New York City in two days in definitely over optimistic. We hooked up with Johnny Cronin who we met in Manila and he generously let us stay at his place. A great spot right near Central Park and we walked all over in the heat checking out as much as we could in the short time we had. Tara got her fix of galleries checking out , The Metropolitan, MoMa, The Guggenheim. Eddie had fun on the grass in Central Park playing with his favourite cars.We also took in The Empire State Building and had to wait an hour and a half, Eddie entertained the lines with his new mastery of waving. Far too little time but there is always another time to catch up in such an amazing place

2008-07-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

Now in Lambertville New Jersey which is apparently The Antique Capital of New Jersey. Tara had to an Understanding By Design curriculum course so JB was Mr Mom for the week. Cool town with plenty of history. Went down to the coast, and of course the swell from the hurricane had just passed. Probably just as well because you are not allowed to to surf between 9am and 5pm. Makes you realise how good we have it good at home

2008-07-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

Not exactly surf city up this neck of the woods

Always beer thirty when Big Al and Donna are around. Their drink of Gin and Mike's hard lemonade certainly helped the two legends sleep well at night!

Real fair dinkum Aussie photos mate. Stone the flamin' crows digger . Is this really what seppos think of us, c'mon Mick Dundee took his knife to New York decades ago.

Big Al and Donna head back home in their home away from home
Pretty cool way to take the kids out for a stroll
Where ever you go there will be boys who wanna show off their lack of driving skill. This guy got bogged down the axles twice, trashed his transmission and only got out of the rising high tide from a helpful 4 WD who towed the clown out

After the road trip upto Victoria we caught up with Al' s folks on what is the described as the longest beach in the world. We did not have the heart to tell the seppo's that we have The Ninety Mile Beach not far from us at home. It is a step back in time with the stores and tourists come up from Seattle for some coast time. Saw an Aussie couple dressed up as Mick Dundee fleecing the yanks of their money with very ordinairy photos of a crocodile where you could place your kid in its mouth for 10 bucks. Even had a pet wallaby that they were calling Matilda the kangaroo. Don't know how they got around the export laws as last time I checked it was illegal. We were embarrassed to be Aussies as this couple started singing "Give me a home amongst the gum trees" as we wadered off shaking our heads.

Middle of July but way to chilly to have a splash. Eddie flew his first kite. Thanks to Big Al and Donna for looking after us like we were their own kids.

2008-07-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

After a long drive with the assistance of google maps we got out of New York up to New Hampshire and caught up with Kristen and Dave Feron from Manila. They have a beautiful place in the woods and they showed us the sights. Great coastline and of course missed the swell of the summer by two days. Eddie had a cool time with his girlfriend Hannah and was sad to see her go.

2008-07-26T09:06:00.001-07:00

Pity you can't get this stuff in market at Seattle home through Customs
Eddie remarking how he likes the view in Seattle
Mt Rainer is a big unit in a stunning part of the world

Wiley waiting for the cheeky squirrell Wiley returning from a missionto see what logging is doing for the beauty of the region
Al testing out JB's lack of photography skill
Al with the new invention that starts fires, obviously we can't name it for patent reasons
Camping at Mt Rainer in an amzingly beautiful camp ground. Eddie's forst experience was a little brrrr. Thanks to TD for the Hawthorn beanie his noggin was nice and toasty Leaving Mt Rainer with a Mt Rainer Beeeeeeeer

We are now in Portland Oregon and starting our road trip with good friends Al and Courtney Carver. This will be our third trip since our epic to Chamonix then Morocco with them. This time they have an ankle biter called Wiley so I sure he will be showing a few tips to Eddie on how to get maximum mischief.At least this time Al found JB and he didn't have to spend the night in the airport. Stayed the night at Cort's sisters and Greg and Whitney proved to be fantastic hosts looking after us like we were family, starting off with delicious rasberries from their garden and great Portland beer. Would love to return the favour if they ever get to Manila or Oz.

Hope Obama wins it for you Greg and baby comes out well Whitney!

The trip took us up to Seattle via Mount St Helens (could not see due to rain) and we camped at Mount Rainer national park, one of the nicest camp spots in the world. Bloody cold for us as we were used to the heat of Arizona. Still lots of snow around and Eddie loved it.

We took off towards Victoria and everyone was seasick on the ferry, but this could have been due to JB eating a fresh prawn roll and the smell wafting through the door. The Captain had his eye on JB as apparantley you are not allowed to enjoy yourself anymore.

2008-07-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

Wow Who needs to go to Paris?

Ah Vegas...... the bright lights, people happily enjoying themselves on the one cent slots, the lack of laughter, the delicious food ...... Yeh well the lights are bright and what do you expect staying in a place for 40 bucks a night? Sam's gambling place is off the strip and is a good place to stay just for the night as we head to Portland tomorrow, it even has it's own water fall and of course the light show comes on every two hours and tourists take there snaps at the closest thing to a natural scene they will probably ever see. We found the first rule of travel here in the US. Don't try and cut in at the buffet line even if it is only just in the futile attempt of trying to find the one tasty item that has not been deep friend or coated in cheese. You may find yourselves on the end of some unwarrented comments from Chuck and Delores as they gorge themselves for the 5th time. Did I mention the free soda....... Ah well to each their own

2008-07-26T08:40:00.000-07:00

Some big pricks in the desert
Sedona lunch stop Eddie testing out someones hammock
His first Harley
We kept our doors closed in some parts

Mike and Eddie out the back of his place

Mike's place Sonora desert

Airforce base scrap yard (where we get all our parts for our F1 11s)

Roadrunner
Sonora desert

Thanks to Mike for putting us up in his house. He and Caroline live in a fantastic spot right on the edge of a national park that makes you feel like you are miles from anywhere. The drink of choice was Negro Modello and Eddie had a good time recovering from his cold up in the mountains. He saw his first roadrunner but unfortunately Wil.E Coyote was after the poor little guy so you have to look hard to see his picture. We then took off north and JB got pulled over for travelling too close to the car in front. A lecture from the state trooper was followed by a donation to the Arizona justice system of 144 bucks...

Sedona beckoned and we both think the colours are the same as central Australia, bloody hot too. A must drive if you are in this part of the world before the tourist madness of the Grand Canyon. As usual Eddie made lots of friends along the way as we stopped off at a few galleries.

2008-07-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

Hola amigo's.

We are back in the good ol US of A. Just a little south of the border with Mike Schuetze our boss from Kuwait days. He has been a star and taken us to all the out of the way places and been a legend. Off to the big ditch aka Grand Canyon today

2008-04-20T05:34:00.000-07:00

Crikey it has been so long since we last filled some space with the ramblings of what we have beeen upto. Promise that all will be corrected this week.eddie has two teeth now so I better get this update done before he goes for his driving licence

2007-11-03T02:06:00.000-07:00

We had a holiday at the end of October and decided to try our luck and load up all the stuff we thought we woukd need to get out of town for a few days. We went up to San Antonio and stayed in a brand new resort on the beach. The Edster loves the car and didn't stir as long as we were going over 80 kph. Tara watched Eddie from the back seat and JB amazingly arrived at the right place, eventually after missing the turn off.

The resort is http://www.puntadeuian.com/ and it has a good pool nice rooms and right on the beach in front of the surf. Eddie wanted a surf so it took us a while to get the courage to put him in, eventually he had a wave break over his head, only a little one though. He was a little trooper and ent for a swim afterwards, but was a bit slack and didn't actually complete any laps! Something we will work on for next time .
Nice to get out of he city and it was an easy drive back as all the locals were out visiting there departed relatives. it's a classic as all the families have bbq's and visit the graves of family and friends.
Check out all the latest shots of Eddie in the imaginately named "Eddie updates" on the right in the picasa links and you can copy them for your fridge

2007-10-08T16:44:00.000-07:00

Proud nanna Merks having a play

Eddie is now a week old and mum has finally got a minute to get on the computer. There will be some more pics of our beautiful boy with family and friends in Manila as soon as he gives me a bit of free time.

Here's mum and dad after 3 restfull days in Asian hospital, ready to leave and take our first drive in the family truckster. Didn't even get lost, thanks to Fred Biggar's uncanny sense of direction

2007-10-07T07:41:00.000-07:00

Well well we have finally got a spare minute to post the latest image of our little bundle of sleep deprivation................

Eddie Merks Barton arrived in this crazy world on October 1 at 7.30 am.He came out into the world with his dad's long oval head C section at Asian Hospital in Manila. More posts to come obviously as mum and dad are getting used to this whole child rearing business. It used to be so easy to hand over someone else's kid when they started screaming or pooped, now we know how it feels. Eddie is so cute and we are so lucky he is really not that much trouble. He sleeps for two hours, wakes up and says gimmie some of those mumma, burps, looks up at us, smiles and fills his nappy then cruises off to sleep. A classic little ankle biter if ever there was one!

Tara is doing really well and keeps jb amused when she needs to express using the pumping machine, jb is just a big kid really, easily amused.

At the moment Tara's mum is here and combined with heaps of our friends popping in thereis plenty of help around

So over the next few posts all you will see is pics ofthe little man in various poses

Thanks to everyone who has sent their best wishes, life is certainly fantastic for us right now

2007-08-04T23:43:00.000-07:00

We are back in Manila and when we get time we will update all the Bali stuff sorry about that. Exciting news as you can see from the last post Tara has an expanding belly and it is all due to the little man growing inside her, well JB had a little to do with it too. We trundled off to Alabang on Saturday to The Asian Hospital to get a couple of snaps of what the little fella looks like. The first attempt saw the little man covering his face with his hands so Tara went for a walk, ate some chockies, drank some OJ ( I know highly technical) and hey presto it worked. So here we are and you can see the little ankle biter up close, I am sure he is saying, "Get that bloody camera away from me" Pretty amazing technology these days.

2007-07-02T04:12:00.000-07:00

We arrived back from Bali in June and we had to unpack in Melbourne winter. It was just too cold so we decided to pop up to see our friends Gaz and Deb Quirk at Mt Coolum. They moved up there years ago, like half of Queensland. Gaz and I used to run surfing for the kids in Mornington Tech each every Friday arvo They had just returned from their amazing trip around the world so we were keen to check out the pics and catch up on all their travels. It was fantastic to stay at their place, being woken up by birds and hand feeding the cheeky kookaburras that came to visit every day. Great days on the beach paddling their new kayak and surfing and generally doing bugger all. Can't wait to get back up there next year. If you want to see a very well put together blog check theirs out at http://www.gazanddebsworldtour.blogspot.com/
Sunset at the top pub in Noosa
JB in need of a steamer at Noosa, yep he has gone soft
A Bay peace away from the Noosa crowds
Gaz and Deb waiting for the tide to come in so they can float out the Noosa river
Mumma Tara A Bay belly, three months to go
JB on a massive 1 footer taken by Gaz with his new waterproof Olympus
Rosella outside Gaz and Deb's place

Secret spot Sunshine Coast had it all to ourselves too!

2007-05-06T01:37:00.000-07:00

Getting a little cheeky in Donsol

We cruised down to Legaspi recently to dive with the

whale sharks. They migrate every year to the plankton

rich waters. They were hunted in the past for their meat

but thankfully the locals are making more money out of

tourism than fishing for them, so they look after them.

We are spoilt at home diving with dolphins

and seals so we are hard to please and initially thought this

whole thing may have been over rated. They are called

sharks but they are definitely placid whales. We were

amazed at these gentle giants. One was over 11 metres long and let

us swim along with it for ages.When they get sick of you

they just cruise deeper into the murky water

One of the best experiences we have had. A must

for any ocean lover

2007-05-05T04:38:00.000-07:00

The view from the beach at Sangat Island is as good as it gets

2007-05-04T23:31:00.000-07:00

Off with Fred , Sandy and Craig to the underground river, classic Filipino trip
The surf at Sabang of course JB did not have his board, the body surf was ok though

Within the Philippines- there are over 7100 islands :)
Our first real trip was in October with our good friends Sandy Van Nooten ( who actually grewup going to school 10 minutes from JB) and Fred Biggar ( the first Haggarsville local we have met) to Palawan - an island chain south west of here. We started at a place called Sangat Island for diving and relxing, check it out on this link; http://www.sangat.com.ph/
We then traveled to El Nido another beautiful beach location; http://www.elnidoresorts.com/accommodation3.aspxWe then followed typhoon swells and rain past Port Barton on a truly epic trip

Check out our school on this link; http://www.ismanila.org It is a great place to work with awesome facilities, especially compared to what we have been used to. It is like a college or University rather than a school. Tara has a great art room and JB loves the great fields for PE. The staff are great and we enjoy the weekly 'slurp' social hosted each week at a different appartment or house. Our apartment is two storey and located in the commercial centre of town. The bonus is we are only 10 minutes drive from work in the morning. In the arvo a bit longer but we weave our way through the traffic on our motorbikes. Yes that's right bikes, baby. Not exactly Hogs, but they get us around town swiftly. For out of town use we hire drivers and taxis to escape. We will bring you up to date with some postings of where we have been and what we have have been doing this year, which continues to go so quickly.

Gidday to everyone that knows us. We have finally got organised and joined the world of the blogger. The links are to Picasa so you can happily enjoy the photos and movies from the last three years goings on
Our website www.jbandtara.com will be around for a while(if JB can get it fixed) but this will be the main conveyer of useful and useless information to the world. We are outa the Middle East where we had some amazing experiences and met some fantastic people. We moved to Manila in The Philippines in July 2006 and we are so happy we made the move. Close to home, well sort of, at least we are the same time zone. Lots of amazing places to visit and the people in this country are very welcoming.
Hope you can put up with our ramblings as we get this blog happening.