Midlands and Karkloof

We went on a trip up to the Midlands. The first stop was the Rotunda at Cedara - a great stop for excellent farm wares, pies, ice cream and beautiful wooden furniture.

Next up, we viewed the Howick Falls, which are stunning!

We also took a trip up to Karkloof. It was a slippery trip to the base camp for the Karkloof Forest Canopy Tours. This adventure outing is definitely on the cards for us next year.

There was a stunning view of the area from the mountain above the Karkloof Forest.

We returned to Howick for lunch.

Nicholas in the saddle

Jurgens gets the winning shot of Howick Falls

Three generations in one photo!

The view from the Karkloof Forest

Christmas 2005

We had the Du Preez family down for Christmas. It was great for Morgan and Nicholas to have their Ouma and Oupa with them over this time.

Delia and Jurgens also spent a few weeks with us, which we enjoyed. Many hours were whiled away playing Need for Speed Underground 1 & 2 and Jurgens played the latest release of Civilisation.

I also got a lot of help from Hannes with making all the ladders for the jungle gym (more on that later).

We had an absolute feast on Christmas Day!

The kids were spoiled with all the presents from their grandparents and family. It was their first BIG Christmas.

Nicholas and Morgan after opening presents

Delia and Jurgens at lunch

Ouma and Oupa

Dad relaxes with Morgan

Mozambique Getaway

A few of the guys went up to Mozambique this weekend. We went to "Ponto do Nowhere", which is just North of Ponta Mamoli. It is a pristine stretch of coastline with untouched beaches and crystal clear water. I managed to relax totally within three days.

We had a great time together with no real schedule to speak of. Which is probably why we had a great time. On Saturday we snorkelled on the reef of the southern point of the bay. It was totally awe-inspiring. The snorkelling in this bay is as close to SCUBA as you could get!

Quite a few of the photos are courtesy of Thorr. Thanks!

The Mozambique border post

Getting ready to tackle the sand roads

View of the beach

Good road surface!

Sunset on one of the lakes in the area

View from Signal Hill towards Ponta Mamoli

Preparing to snorkel

One of the "bridges" on the way back to the border post

Febrile Seizure

Nicholas suffered a febrile seizure this afternoon. It is, without a doubt, the most terrifying experience I have ever had. You feel totally helpless.

Nicholas spent the evening at Parklands Hospital. Amanda stayed with him and Morgan and I enjoyed the evening together.



We also had some excitement a few days ago. Barely 48 hours in the new house and there was an attempted theft of Amanda's car. Fortunately, our neighbour across the road saw the thieves at work and fired warning shots. They got such a fright that they left their phone, shoes and tools behind. We are very fortunate to have the neighbours that we do. There is also a very strong patrolling presence in the area from the various security companies. We have joined up with the best security company in the area.

PS: See Google for more links to information on febrile seizures. This is "must" reading for parents or prospective parents.

Grampa Visits

Dad came over this weekend for a visit. It is our last weekend at Claverton Hall.

Next weekend is the big move to our new home!

As always, the kids enjoyed him thoroughly. We went for dinner at the Butcher's Block and the food was exceptional.





We had the "Costaplenty" family (John, Kim and Jamie) over for dinner. Kim made us a scintillating dessert and everyone had a lot of fun playing with some homemade play-dough.

We Friends Fun Walk

I took Morgan to the We Friends Fun Walk this morning. It was great fun. Lots of Glenridge parents were there. Excellent fare was on offer - especially the wors rolls!

Amanda and Nicholas joined us a bit later for some tea.

Morgan was fascinated by the menagerie of animals on display. Both Morgan and Nicholas got more than their money's worth on the jumping castle.

Oh, and Nicholas is walking a lot more.

Nicholas is Standing!

Nicholas finally decided to start standing. He still favours crawling about and does not seem convinced that walking is a good idea. I will keep you updated when he finally starts walking.

Morgan is most impressed with the new development

Pat's Baptism

A few weeks ago, we held a baptism for Pat on Tekwini beach. It was a fairly cold evening - particularly for those of us in the water!

Afterwards, we had some snacks, cake and good coffee at the Mugg & Bean at Suncoast.

TJ and Morgan

Claire and Liliana in deep discussion

Cindy, Tyrone and Tracey

Fish enthralling his audience (Thor and Wendy on the right)

Bruce, Nicholas, Nick and Pat

Young Man Gets a Haircut

Nicholas has just had his hair cut again by his Mom. He is looking very dashing. Morgan is very well, but she bumped her chin on a chair and now sports a nasty bruise.

Nicholas and Morgan having fun

Young Blue Eyes

Little Heartbreaker

Nicholas working out the escape route

Morgan loves her brother

Playing with someone else's toy at a birthday party

The New House

Seeing that I have not heard much about the new house lately, it is a good time to remind myself of it by posting some pics. They were taken in pretty poor light conditions, so they are overexposed, but you will get the idea.

Different angle of the front garden showing more of the house

View of the front garden

View of the house from the street

View of the park from our bottom gate

We are, naturally, looking forward to moving in. The packing process has begun already even though we are only moving at the end of June. Well, it is more of a throwing away process than a packing process. I got fairly mercenary with stuff I hadn't seen for a while the other day - and I am regretting it already.

We've got three bedrooms, a sun room, open plan lounge/dining room, kitchen, bathroom, guest toilet, outside room (the future bachelor pad) and a single garage plus car port. This house will cover the bases nicely!

Apache Patchy Boy

I have to share this little piece of happiness with you. It is possibly the single worst and at the same time funniest music video I have ever seen. Amanda and I both find it hysterical.

Apache - Tommy Seebach Band
Updated to Youtube link

I am truly grateful that I was not old enough to bop to this particular tune in 1977. Read more of the legend that was Tommy Seebach.

And while we are waxing lyrical about the 70's, do you remember these Weight Watcher diet cards? Sadly, I do. They were stored in a blue plastic box with a transparent lid. As with the author of the site, I also don't remember actually being served one of these recipes. Some people are far too clever - I wonder how much money they made out of this...

Out of The Club

I got lambasted last night for posting the photos of The Challenge on the Internet. I think I am officially an ex-member of The Club. It seems that I will no longer be trusted to keep Mum on matters cullinary.

Oh, well. They were good friends while it lasted :).

At the moment, things are crazy at work. I am at the point where I am not sure what to do next, so I sit here in a panic doing nothing. Very useful response.

We have less than 25 days before the start of the implementation of the project. I will be moving to site in the next few weeks, which should be interesting (as in the Chinese curse).

Nicholas is starting to walk around if you hold his hand. He seems hesitant to try it unaided. And he is cutting his first molar. Teething is really a challenging time for parents. I look forward to the day that this process is finished.

Boy's Night Out

Some of the guys got together for a boy's night out two weeks ago. After much contemplation and discussion, we decided to take on the challenge being run by Circus Circus Restaurant at the SunCoast Casino.

The Challenge:
A kilogram of rump steak, a large bowl of chips and 1 litre of cooldrink in 45 minutes. Do it and its free, don't and pay R99.

Six of us took the challenge, two (wisely) sat out. Four succeeded in the 45 minute limit, of which I (shamefully) was one. Needless to say, I will never do this again.

Afterwards, we went go-karting at Action Traction. Nothing like a couple of kilos of food rolling around in your stomach at high G's to keep you very honest.

Andrew

Some Background Info

Just to get you up to speed as I have started this blog in the middle of a hectic period of my life.

• I am an Electrical Engineer for a Paper and Pulp company and I am working on a Paper Machine rebuild at the moment (R1.5 billion). It is the first project of this magnitude that I have undertaken and has been a learning process of note.
• My little family is in the process of purchasing our first home. Up to now we have been renting accommodation. The reasons we started looking were: a) the market prices for housing have increased rapidly in the last year (37% average); b) I wanted to buy a new car - so it was either a car or a house. Other than that, we were pretty happy in our flat on the Berea.

If I have to be honest, I would say that this blog is primarily for me. I am hoping that family and friends will visit. I am hoping that you will enjoy or get some edification from reading my ramblings. But, ultimately, this is an outlet for those little things that make an impression on me. I am certainly not the most interesting person to walk the Earth at the moment - but I would like to share my experiences.

I will tell you a little more about the house and our plans for it in the next post.

Bathroom Blues (sucking lemons)

We went out last weekend to look for fittings and sanitaryware for the bachelor's pad we are going to renovate in our new house. We had lunch with our good friends, Bruce and Liliana and their son, Judson. The two boys (Nicholas and Judson) are nearly the same age and entertained us by eating the lemons used as garnish on our meals.

Morgan and Nicholas (he's eating a lemon)

I have never realised how expensive bathroom fittings can be. Just our preliminary research has been eye-opening. But it will be fun putting the pad together.

The First Thoughts

Looking at the blogs of others piqued my interest, so I thought it might be interesting to add my ramblings to the voices of others.

I am the proud father of my first-born daugther, Morgan, and my son, Nicholas. I am also the fortunate husband of Amanda (for the last 6 years).

Anyway, I am going to get my thoughts together and make this much more interesting.