My work

Loving my work.

Guess it time to show my face

Well what can I say, it been a while since I blogged so I thought I'd best drop by!
So work is great and is keeping me very busy, and I love the fact that I just fitted into the village life, it's like I've always been here. My neighbours are great and the surrounding countryside is stunning.
I feel I'm back where I belong with the cows and in the country, the girls have settled and mike had made friends everyones happy!
But i am surprise I seem settled and anyone that knows me would probably say the same!
Well bye for now I'm up at 4

TINA

KINGLAKE

So I'm heading down memory lane today, as we prepare ourselves for  the last week in this house! Scary I know!
So one of my awesome achievements was when I got the opportunity to be able to go to King lake and do some volunteering with the rotary club! Now for those who don't know King lake got destroyed in the black Saturday bush fires in 2009 and Volunteers are helping rebuild there town.
I jumped on the bus not knowing a soul on there, but we are all there for the same reason to help those that need it! I joined the gardening Group and we got our house to do and it was this beautiful old lady Dorothy, what an amazing lady, lives alone with her dog lake, and she would bake for the community! So it was time for Us to give something back to her.
This Garden was massive over grown and burnt trees that well they were massive!
We spent hours doing Dorothy's garden and she loved having us around and listening to her stories! To this day she still doesn't quite understand how she got to keep her house when her neighbours around her lost everything ! I think someone must have been watching over her!
We gave her, her garden back and what a pleasure it was doing it!
And the team of people I worked with was awesome and we went back to revisit Dorothy and finish off what we started. Grace, Hamarnie and Michael came up with us the second time!
Was awesome!!

Tina

The team! Michelle taking the pic

This amazing Angel we found in  the rubble

Barbra and Chris

Rotary coach and other volunteers

Grace fell in love with lake

and that's the front

There she is Michelle

the revisiting crowd! Michael taking the photo

Well 12 days to go

Wow so this has come round fast and slow all at the same time. The house is starting to feel empty with all the tiding and sorting things out. Packing the odd suit case and ready to start a new chapter of our lives.
Grace will start school in september and hamarnie will have Kinder opps nursery, all of a sudden they are both grown up!!

the last couple of weeks has been crazy with stressing about getting work, and so very pleased to have a job which is Dairy farming and also a cheese farm, check out the site Quickes I think ill be in heaven! I have my date to move in and also to start and all this before we hit september. And I'm getting the feeling that it is all coming together nicely and just ment to be! I really didnt think i'd be moving Back to the U.K any time soon, so will i settle this time? I hope so, But the friends that really do know me, call me a roaming gypsy or free spirit, wild at heart. I tend to think t hat i go where the wind takes me, for now Devon and i really can't wait.

Picton castle

York

Ashburton NZ

Add caption

ALL HE WANTS IS TO MEET HIS SISTER AGAIN (Part4)

So you would think that it would be easy getting grandad over to the Ukraine, well know because sometime thing are not simple and are a pain in the ass!!!
So my Grandad isn't a citizen of the U.K even though he has been there well forever! He has a green card, which is permission to stay in the U.K! He doesn't have a passport British or Ukrainian, that reason is because he has no birth certificate. And if he did have or get a Ukrainian passport he wouldn't be aloud back in to the U.K!! Yay for  you if you got any of that!
 So its taken a lot of patients a lot of paperwork to get the permission and invitation to get there. What makes it so hard is that their not getting any younger and the Government really aren't keen for Ukrainians that disappeared during the war to come back, and reunite with families. Also the Russians wanting to take back the Ukraine. Geez give them a break! 

So yet again we are playing this waiting game, which is very frustrating, Grandad doesn't understand why its taking so long, also his sister doesn't understand either!
Well finally after 2 years of red tape and paperwork, Grandad got his permission and he had flights booked and was on his way! thanks to bob sopel who has made it possible is amazing!!

So Grandad is in the Ukraine at this minute spending time with his sister, and his having a ball! Saying life is good and probably full of vodka too!! I'm so pleased that he got there because for a while we didn't believe this would happen! his like a different man!
I can't wait to see some photos of them back together and i placed my order for pysanka eggs, photos etc! he gets to celebrate Her birthday in Aug and then heads back home!

So grandad doesn't know I'm coming home next month and mum and I with Hamarnie ( who he hasn't met) are going to surprise him and pick him up from the Airport heheeee! Cant wait to here all about it!
So i don't have photos yet, but here are some pictures that interest me and will enjoy learning more about my Ukrainian family.

pysanka museam

kalush

I think this belt is awesome

Thanks for reading, But can you imagen nearly 70yrs later been reunited with a sibling! Crazy!!


Tina

Someone really needs to stop messing with the camera

Ok so it doesnt matter where I put the camera Grace always finds it! so you never know what you going to find!! Today this is what I found.

Someone's is very pleased with herself

Hamarnie,
            you can now ride your bike! YAY looking  awesome racing down the pavement shouting I win every time regardless of if your last well second as you race Grace!
Daddy had fun teaching you and is very proud xx.

you first bike

love your determination

ok so this time you did win

Happy Monday!!

Well yesterday I ran the Run Melbourne Half marathon (21ks or 13 miles)
I really cant believe I ran that far or even for that length of time! I've hit a new craziness!!
 So I did it 2:38 hours and place 4179!!

If I can do it Anyone can!!!!

Tina

Julie,me and Kelly the girls i started with!!



yes a nice big metal!!

Michael did his first ever fun run 5ks under half an hour! very proud of you x!!

ALL HE WANTS IS TO MEET HIS SISTER AGAIN (Part3)

Well one thing I've learnt is that i hate waiting!! Oh yes!!

So Irene ( the awesome lady from ukraine.com) had emailed me about her and some students doing a field trip, and  they wanted to do Holyn and another little town, and maybe see if they could locate some family! or even his sister. The words she used was interrogate the locals!! Thinking that's a bit harsh, but that's there translation!
So i gave Irene all the information I had and also the old photo of Nustazia and left it to a stranger and her students to go find this person!
What have I done??
From that Day I spent every spare time I had looking on the forum and checking my emails ! Days felt like weeks I JUST WANT TO KNOW GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
A couple of months later I did receive an email from Irene but It wasn't great news, they had found relatives in  the area and of course Know one knew of Nustazia vasyliv, GUTTED!!
Irene had told me that she had left a photo of Nustazia at the local post office in Holyn and left her number in hope that someone would recognise her or herself go in!
So the waiting game begins again..............

Then on day I get the Email from Irene on  the 3rd Aug 2009 NUSTAZIA FOUND!!! Oh My God I couldn't believe my eyes, I must have read the Subject 10 times before i opened the email.
This was 10 days before her 80th birthday how crazy!
First i told mum about this and then Grandad, bless him he was in shock and it took them a while to actually get on the phone and speak, He was finally back in contact with his sister!!
So now we need to get him over there to meet his sister! That's not an easy task either!!

Till next time.........

Tina.



Nustazia aged 8



Nustazia age 80

ALL HE WANTS IS TO MEET HIS SISTER AGAIN (Part2)

So here we go part 2

So I spent many years gathering information on Grandad, the place he was from and his family.
I learnt a great tip and that was to let Grandad ramble on about his life and I would take notes.
  There's a lot of blanks that are hard to fill in ans we can always work on that!
I've spent time writing to the Ukrainian embassy to see if they could help! I never heard back from them, very frustrating when you spend hours writing a letter and then translating it in to Ukraine Grrrrrr!! I've also tried calling several times but they don't understand English and i sure don't understand Ukraine.
   Its quite soul destroying trying to get help and there's know one to help!
I took a break from all this as it was really getting hard and we lost Nanny which was really hard on all of us! Grandad took it personally and really he shouldn't, she died of cancer at 65 god bless her and life isn't fair as I'm learning pretty fast!!
Anyway back to Grandad, I moved and I would talk to Grandad every week and would go on about Nanny so I started the search once again on finding his sister, He would have something to live for. I didn't tell him what I was up to Just in case it wasn't good news!
Yay I got a computer so now i could start get information and looking at places in the Ukraine where Grandad was from and Also found a Ukrainian forum, Ukraine.com and they wrote English AWESOME!! So Ive spent many days weeks months and a few years on this forum getting them the information to help me understand Grandads culture and Beliefs, the land and countryside!
There was one awesome lady that went above and beyond to help me piece things together asking questions about Grandad and his sister, her birthday and place she lived when they were younger! She is a  lecturer at the Lviv (Lvov) university and Genealogy is what she does!

Until next time..................

Tina

Remini POW camp where grandad spent 2years in ww2.



My Grandads father Vasyl Vasyliv.





Nanny (sybil) and Grandad (petro)



Holyn Ukraine Grandads home

Grandad going back to Wellingore camp where he spent his time when he first shipped over to England! that was  the canteen!!

ALL HE WANTS IS TO MEET HIS SISTER AGAIN (Part1)

Many years ago I remember listening to my Grandad and his stories about how he lived in the Ukraine, when he was a young boy.

He told me that when he was 14 during world war 2 by his father to runaway as far as possible bad as war was breaking out!

So off his goes with a rucksack on his back with very little and runs away in to the mountains, and into hiding!

He Leaves behind his sister who is 8 and his mum and dad, i don't think he ever thought that he'd be gone for so long!

It's hard for grandad as he doesn't always remember everything and his stories are very bitty with big gaps, bless him.

But i try and take note of important details!

He's in the mountains thinking he is safe and well hidden from the Germans,And he wakes to find that he has been captured by the Germans, they take all his belongings away from him and leaves him with 3 photos, his dad, mum and sister! So from here its ity bity ! He gets Taken to Remini Displacement camp (Italy) where he is POW for 2 years.

After 2 years they sent POW people to all different countries to work and live, well Grandad ended up in England where he was working on a farm in Linclonshire, He eventually meets Sybil (my nanny) and get married!

Grandad had no contact with his family in the Ukraine There After!!




So it's always been a touchy subject with Grandad as he tried many years ago to try and trace his sister, to see if she was alive or past on! After having no luck he things the worst, and stops searching!!




It Broke my heart to see Grandad so sad after we lost nanny to cancer ! He spends every morning at nanny's Grave and i thought, this can't be it for Grandad.

So here comes interfering Granddaughter to take on something that could be impossible....................................Until next time.

Anastasia aged 8! this is the only photo grandad had of his sister.

Petro wasyliw (vasyliv)
This is the youngest photo we have of grandad

So what happens when you see Peter Powers

So what happens when you go a see Peter Powers? Who I here you saying!! Well he is the number one hypnotist in the world apparently!
So I've always wondered if it was true that people could really be hypnotised and made to do daft things!! Well I volunteered!!!

And its true you can and I was!! And happy to be entertainment for my friends Lol!

feeling safe at the hands of Corona

Then this happened

trying to find the church

fed up with people giving me wrong directions

How awesome is my car??

All flushed as i sit with celebrities at the Oscars!!
I was so pleased to have won 3 Oscars that night!!