Mamma Kerr

Circa 1982

This is a photograph of my sister and I with our gran, which I think was taken in the summer of 1982, when I was ten years old and my sister was four.  It was taken in Gran’s back garden.

This photo makes me chuckle because you can clearly see that, even though there’s six years between my sister and I, we were often dressed the same.  Check out those rather fetching terry towelling shorts!  (All the rage in their day!  Honest!  LOL)   I like how we’re colour co-ordinated!  And what about those lovely knee-high socks?!   Also, you’ll notice that my sister and I had the same ‘pudding bowl’ hairdo!!

I particularly love this photo because it brings back lots of fond memories of my lovely gran, who is sadly no longer with us.

This photo was taken during the school holidays.  My sister and I spent much of the school holidays at our granparents’ house because Mum worked part-time.

We used to always visit my grandparents on a Friday evening and it was always great fun!  Gran, Grandpa and my uncles, who still lived there at the time, would always be laughing and joking.  My uncles always liked to wind my gran up with practical jokes, and I loved it when she would get a fit of the giggles!

You can join in the Friday Photo Flashback blog hop at More Than Words and/or you can join the Family Friday blog hop at Peterson St Louis.

It’s Friday Photo Flashback day again! Yay!

Today, I have dug out a photo from one of my favourite holidays ever – My trip to Egypt in July 2002.

Here I am at the World famous, Great Sphinx, on the Giza Plateau.  What a fetching outfit, eh?  LOL

I have always been fascintated in Ancient Egypt and the pyramids since I have been a small child.  My Grandad had served there in WWII, and he had a beautiful scrapbook full of photos of the pyramids and temples.  I was awestruck.

In later years, as a Latin scholar, I loved to learn about life in Ancient Rome and Greece.  As an adult, I became hooked on documentaries about Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt on the Discovery and National Geographic channels.

I visited Egypt with my husband and our friends, Liz and Tam.  It was the summer after the 9/11 attack on New York, and so my mother ( a born worrier) was a little apprehensive about us travelling to a muslim country.  Indeed, the terror attack had obviously deterred a lot of tourists from travelling to Egypt, as we found the tourist areas a lot quieter than expected.  The lack of tourists, though terrible for the Egyptians (tourism is one of their main sources of income), was very fortunate for us.  We had our own personal tour guide and transport throughout our trip, which was far better than jostling amongst the throng of a tour bus party.

We spent a week in Luxor, which used to be called Thebes in Ancient times.  We stayed in the beautiful Sonesta St George hotel on the banks of the Nile, and enjoyed trips to Luxor and Karnak temples and the Valley of the Kings.  I felt very emotional visiting these famous landmarks that I had seen on screen countless times.  However amazing the filmcrews of documentaries are, they simply cannot do these sites justice.  You have to be there, physically, to truly appreciate the sheer scale and majesty of theses ancient monuments.  They are truly breathtaking!

After a week, we flew to Cairo to stay in the Pyramid Park Hotel, near the Giza Plateau.  I honestly had tears in my eyes when I spotted the Giza pyramids in the distance, on the way to our hotel.  We spent four days based in Cairo, where we visited the Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx, The Step Pyramid at Saqqhara, the Bent Pyramid, the Red Pyramid, the ruined ancient capital of Memphis and the Cairo Museum (where the famous treasure of Tutankhamen is displayed).  We also had a tour of mosques in Cairo and a trip to the market.  It was a whirlwind magical experience!  I loved every minute of it!

We then flew to Abu Simbel to see the huge temples built by Rameses The Great.  These temples were carved into the rock on the banks of the Nile.  However, they have been moved in recent years, when the High Dam of Aswan was being built.  If the temples had not been moved, they would have been flooded by the Nile because of the dam.  The mammoth task of re-siting the temples is just as awe-inspiring as their initial construction!

We ended our holiday of a lifetime with a three-day Nile cruise, where we stopped off to visit other monuments and temples.  It really was the most amazing trip – one which I would urge people to consider.

If you’d like to take part in Friday Photo Flashback then please click here to visit the host – Alicia at More Than Words.

Thanks for stopping by!

Yes, I know it’s Saturday…. well actually, it’s almost Sunday!… but I’ve just discovered another fantastic meme / blog hop and I just couldn’t resist joining in the fun! I couldn’t possibly wait until next week!!

Friday Photo Flashback is the brainchild of Alicia at More Than Words.  She thought it would be good fun to scan and share our old photos and the memories they hold.  I think it’s a wonderful idea, and I’m thrilled to take part in this. 

My photo offering this week is an old school photo from Primary 4, when I was 8 years old.

I am in the front row, third from left.  Check out my lovely ‘pudding bowl’ hairdo and those fetching shoes!!  LOL

This photo provides many happy memories for me.  I loved my primary school years, and I especially loved my Primary 4 teacher – Mrs Lawson.  She was my teacher in Primary 3, 4 and 6, and was definitely THE best teacher I ever had!

Thirty years on (gee, I feel ANCIENT!!), I am still in touch with many of my school friends (mostly through Facebook).  Indeed, I am still in regular contact with six of my classmates from this very photo!

If you would like to take part in this blog hop, then please follow the instructions below.  If you are visiting me from the blog hop, thanks for stopping by.  I’d be grateful if you’d leave me a comment to say “Hi!”

To join the blog hop click here.