Give it mustard!

After many hours of driving Amanda mad with the drone of me practising scales up and down the fretboard on my guitar, I decided that a small headphone amp would be the solution. I needed something that would fit into my moulded guitar case, and some distortion would be a nice-to-have. Obviously it needed to be cheap.

So, after trawling about on the DIY guitar projects areas of many websites, I happened upon the Ruby amp at runoffgroove.com. I nipped down to the local electronics shops, and less than R50 later I had all the parts I needed. Well, almost all the parts. Some scratching around in the pantry yielded the final component - the enclosure!


Above, you can see the volume (left) and gain (right) controls, with the input jack (which doubles as the on-off switch) and the 2" speaker - all 0.5 Watts of it!

Here is the top view, showing the headphone jack (which mutes the speaker) and the "spoon lid", which doubles as the 9V battery compartment cover:


It is a surprisingly effective amp, and had its first public outing last night at a work farewell function. Very impressive for such a simple (and cheap) design...

Update on Alex - Bumper Edition

As requested, here is a batch of recent photos of Alex. He is starting to laugh a lot and we are enjoying him thoroughly. Due to this being a bumper update, I will not be giving individual commentary on each photo.

We Friends "Dad and Me" Day

Morgan invited me to the Dad's Day at her school this morning. The children put in a lot of effort to make the Dads feel welcome. They sang songs for us and we were read the special things they liked about each of their Dads.

There was a great turnout and I can safely say that we all had a lot of fun.


After some arts & crafts, playing outside and a cup of coffee, Morgan presented me with a slab of chocolate and a beautiful bookmark.

I feel like the luckiest Dad in the world!

Weekend in Richards Bay

We spent the weekend up in Richards Bay to touch base with the Hemsworths on their farewell tour of South Africa. We also got to spend some serious quality time with all our friends from Richards Bay and Empangeni. It was like we had never left...

The garden at Hillton Manor was wonderful and was a big hit with the kids. Mark treated them to a first-class tea party.


It also came complete with a wendy house, jungle gym and swing!


The young(est) man, of course...


Reign is less of a toddler every time we see him. We're probably not making the trip up North often enough...


It was a wonderful time, catching up with the Hemsworths on their plans for the U.S. They're moving to Woodstock in New York State. Fortunately, their departure date has been postponed, so we will be seeing them again in June.


A rare photo of Amanda and I!


We had a wonderful braai and caught up with our Thandaza family.


Norman applying seasoning.


Me expertly manipulating our meal.


Cindy celebrated her birthday and got to have two sessions blowing out the candles (once for the adults and once for the kids). The Newmans were our hosts and, as always, they were an incredible blessing to all of us. We cannot recommend Hillton Manor Guesthouse enough.


Morgan and Nicholas enjoyed viewing the yachts at the Small Craft Harbour.


The kids had great fun with all their old friends from Zululand. Here they are terrorising the patrons at the Small Craft Harbour.

Alex and his Dad

A rare photo opportunity for Alex and me.

He's looking as cute as ever.

See the resemblance?

Farewell to Pa

Sadly, we went to Mtunzini recently to say our farewells to "Oupa" Hannes. His passing was very sudden and schocking for all of us. He has certainly left a big hole in our lives.


It was a beatiful, sunny Zululand day and we scattered his ashes at the spot where he always used to go fishing when we lived in Mtunzini. We like to think of it as his corner of the lagoon.


It was a fitting farewell to a man that had an immeasureable impact on our family.

New Photos of Alex

After numerous request for updated photos of Alex, here they are.


He's still keeping Amanda up and generally giving her a hard time, but the routine is slowly starting to appear from the chaos.


Alex was living dangerously on Sunday, after I returned from the Glenridge Camp completely exhausted. It seems I balance well in my sleep...


It's hard to believe that he's already 6 weeks old!

Morgan's 6th Birthday

Morgan turned 6 years old today. With Alex being born on the 26th, we now have two birthdays within a three day period every year!

I joined her at school for her Birthday Ring. I got to spend some time with her classmates, who were very friendly and polite.



When she got home, she was presented with her birthday present - two biscuit-coloured zebra finches! Her Mom selected a beautiful green cage for her - all I had to do was pick it up.



After we had visited her Mom and Alex at the hospital, I took Morgan and Nicholas to Spur for supper. Morgan was surprised by a loud group of staff wishing her a happy birthday. Her attempts at blowing out the sparkler in her dessert failed.

Happy Birthday, Morgan!!!

Alex Coakley is Born!

At 8:32am this morning, Alexander John Coakley (we call him Alex) was born. He weighed in at a pleasing 3.79kg. He is 51cm tall and aced his Apgar test (both of them, actually).



We are delighted at his full head of dark brown hair. He arrived with only a small scratch on his forehead from the forceps, but other than that he was in perfect condition.



Amanda pulled through really well - she never ceases to amaze me with her endurance. I certainly would not have weathered the birth as well in her position! (AT ALL!)



After some initial hesitance, Morgan and Nicholas warmed to their brother. They have been a delight at home helping where they can (except it would be nice if we could get Nicholas to stop jumping on the bed!).





Alex's Grandpa was with us for a few days leading up to the birth and the Big Day itself.



Our friends and extended family have been a delight since Amanda returned home with the baby by supplying us with dinner every night.

Amanda's Mom is staying with us at the moment, and she is a great help to Amanda.

My second Midmar Mile

This year's event was markedly different to the previous year due to one (fairly important) reason - I didn't put in enough training.  By a long shot.  Evidence:

The net result is that I got a rush of blood to the head, moved to the front of the group at the start and proceeded to get flattened by the swimmers behind me!  The fact that the prevailing wind was from the right and this happened to be the side that I breathed on did not help.  A mouthful of wave is fairly counterproductive.

My result for this year was a colossal 35,000 milliseconds faster than last year -  a time of 43m48s.

But do not fear, in the immortal words of Arnold - I'll be back...