Teaching children about how to save money

A mate of mine recently wrote an great article on a simple “kid friendly” way to help children learn to save money and how to use it responsibly. I particularly like the “Give” section, as it’s not all about saving just for ourselves. If you have kids (or know someone who does) then this is a great idea and you should check it out here Money Boxes Pocket Money System For Kids.

Personally, I think we can all learn a lot from this article…

Holiday to France 2008

In 2008 my wife and I took a holiday to France. I have never been to Europe before, apart from on business, so I were really excited. Paris is beautiful, breathtaking and overwhelming. The French are really nice and we had very little trouble getting around and communicating with people, even though I only know a few words in French.

We spent 2 days in Hong Kong on the way there to try and minimize the Jet-lag as flying from Sydney to Paris is about 24 hours on planes with an 8 hour time difference. Hong Kong is great. I have only been there once before and it really is amazing to see it again.

We then flew on to Paris for a 6 day stay. We stayed at the Waldorf Trocadero about 10 minute walk from The Eiffel tower and the Arc De Triomphe. The hotel is great and it feels like a little French hotel and really gave us a feeling of being “in” Paris. The Australian dollar (as it is) made it a bit expensive for us, but it was worth it.

We walked heaps while in Paris, the first day we must have walked about 30 K’s and it’s a great way to see Paris (get a Lonely Panet Guide!!). It is such a beautiful and interesting place and when you are walking around you get to mix with “real” people and see all the little stuff you might miss if you just take the train or a cab. The trains, by the way, are fantastic… I don’t think we ever waited more than 5 minutes when we had reason to take one. We saw a lot of Paris, but it really is one of the most amazing places I have ever been. Just overwhelming! I think you could spend a lifetime there and only just scratch the surface. For me, I really enjoyed the Military Museum attached to Napoleons Tomb, along with everything else of-course.

We then visited Nice, on the Mediterranean, for a couple of days and took a day trip to Cannes during the film festival. We did not see anyone famous, but it was still really cool just to be there and get the “vibe” of the place. We then took the Eurostar train to London for a couple of days. London was interesting and we “took in a show”, Chicago, at the west end… that was neat! Growing up in Australia with English parents I knew all the places and it was just fantastic to actually see them for real!

Here are some photo’s if you interested. I hope you enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/pcfinch/France2008

Trip to Kakadu 2007

In July 2007 we went on a 3 day bushwalking and Camping trip to Kakadu national park in the Northen territory, Australia. Kakadu is an amazing place and is what you think of when you think of Australia. Most of the park is off bounds to tourists and campers, as it is Aboriginal Land, but what is available is well worth seeing.

http://picasaweb.google.com/pcfinch/Kakadu/

After leaving Darwin, we started at Corroboree Billabong for some Crocodile spotting and then headed for Maguk waterhole for a swim before collecting some firewood and setting up camp for the night. The next day we went on a bushwalk to Jim Jim falls. It’s a 900m climb up a sheer cliff and then a 4km hike out to the top of the falls. It’s not easy, but the falls are great.

The last day we experienced some of the aboriginal culture and went to Anbangbang to view some rock paintings. It is almost unreal to think that some of the paintings are 10’s of thousands of years old and, hopefully, will be there long after our culture is long gone. We were going to head out the Ubir for see some more paintings but we had a bit of “tire trouble” (A flat). It’s was a bit disappointing to miss the paintings, but it’s all part of the trip and makes a good story.

Photos of Japan

Last year (2006) my wife and I went to Japan for a holiday. I have only ever been there before on business and this was the first time I have ever been there as a tourist. In short… I loved it! Japan is amazing and the people are wonderful, friendly, and helpful. I thought I would put up a few photo’s of our trip.

http://picasaweb.google.com/pcfinch/Japan

We started at Toyko, an amazing city that just seems to go on for ever, and then visited Takayama which is almost the opposite is scale. Takayama a small town(by Japanese standards) in the hills. It is beautiful! Form there we went on to Kanazawa, a city best know for all it’s work with gold leaf and, as we discovered, great seafood. If you ever go there you must check out the seafood markets! We then went to Hiroshima and visited a beautiful little island called Miyajima, famous for it’s “Tori gate in the sea” and then on to Kyoto (the old capital) with a day trip to Osaka.

Japan is an amazing mix of old and new. We were walking through Tokyo, one of the most modern cities in the world, and there are people walk around in kimono’s, and old temples everywhere. The most surprising, and nice, things was how safe we felt in all the cities we visited.

I hope you like the photos… I really want to go back!