Nomads ............ free to roam!

Its nearly the end of July and we’ve spent all of this month (and a couple of weeks in June) up in the Northern parts of South Africa. At the moment we find ourselves at Mabalingwe Game Reserve just outside Bela-Blea (Warmbaths) in the Limpopo region. We’ve been blessed by some friends who have shared their Bushveld home with us for a few nights - and have thoroughly enjoyed the quiet, relaxation and game drives. We’ve enjoyed spotting the animals in their natural habitat, including nyala, bushbuck, heavily pregnant zebra, giraffe, buffalo, rhinoceros, monkeys, warthog and an awesome variety of birds.

This trip has been primarily a business trip. We came up north with a trailer full of the products we’ve recently imported from China, hoping to find customers in the big cities. We’ve spent many weekends selling our goods at one of the flea markets, have met with numerous hiking clubs and leisure clubs and also visited numerous retailers and end users. It hasn’t been as fruitful as we would like it to have been, but hopefully some of the fruit of our labours will still manifest in the months that lie ahead.

We’ve spent a handful of days doing ‘touristy’ things and have enjoyed showing our children the place where we grew up. Some of our highlights were a visit to the Oriental Plaza in Johannesburg and driving through downtown Braamfontein (with our doors locked and valuables well hidden!), a visit to the Pretoria Zoo and a picnic in the gardens at the Union Buildings and a handful of picnics with precious friends. We’ve enjoyed visiting with a handful of ‘old’ friends and also family, introducing our children to many folk for the first time. The children have made new friends along the way and loved the fun and adventure as we have gone along!

Jeana and her Mom .... 

Lunching with Hle (who is on summer holidays from Dubai) at Magnolia Dell

Enjoying a fun evening with the Turner clan

Pretoria is very unlike George. At the moment it is extremely dry (it is a summer-rainfall region), dusty and very brown. George is always green and we’ve experienced rain very often almost all year long! Pretoria hasn’t had much of a winter this year, so the days have been lovely and warm (± 24°C) and the night temperatures, although cool, haven’t brought any frost or numb toes. One of the other major differences is its size! It seems to take ages to get from one side of Pretoria to the other, while a drive through George can’t take longer than 15 minutes in the worst of traffic. Pretoria is huge! And that means there are lots of people, lots of cars and LOTS of traffic. We aren’t used to driving on 6-lane highways and dodging kamikaze-style drivers who are always in a huge hurry! We’ve found it very stressful.

Experience has confirmed that Pretoria is still a much better place to be than Johannesburg. Its much cleaner, less congested and doesn’t feel as unsafe as Johannesburg does. We’ve actually found Pretoria to be quite safe and have enjoyed our time here very much. Our day in downtown Johannesburg was not as relaxing an adventure, we were warned by a merchant to hold on to our belongings and felt very uneasy and were so glad to head home when we did.

We have really enjoyed our time here, have loved connecting with special people and exploring new territory! We have one last night in the Bushveld before we head back into Pretoria to spend 5 last nights with friends. On Tuesday next week we hitch on the trailer and head back to George, via Kimberley (where we will overnight).  We’re looking forward to seeing our homeschooling and community friends especially …. We’ve been gone a long time, but have loved our African travels.

Eeeeek ...... its gross being sick!

How we take good health for granted! We are a strong, healthy family who walk in the blessing of health and very rarely are sick. So when sickness hits - and takes its time to affect most of the 6 of us! - it isn't a familiar battle!

Last Sunday, when the children were out with Bronwen at the Botanical Gardens, Jed was nauseous and needed to throw up. One tries to rationalise why .... But as I helped him shower during the early hours of the morning it became very obvious that he had a tummy bug of sorts.

It seems this tummy bug is part of a flu strain doing the rounds here in Gauteng, and it drained Jed and kept him in bed for 2 whole days. He fought fever for the first day and slept for that whole day too!

By the 3rd day Jed was on the mend and starting to eat again. That night though, Aimee vomited at the dinner table, the start of her 4-day bed-stay. I felt really nauseous and weak too when I went to bed that night and didn't get much sleep. Aimee also had a middle-of-the-night shower and we used every towel in the house cleaning up! I spent the whole of the next day lying in bed with her, sleeping on and off for most of the day. She too fought fever for a good day or so! She continuously wanted water but couldn't keep food down and so didn't want to eat until a few days later.

I was only in bed for the one day but took a few days to get back into eating solids and resting to build up my strength again!

Then on Sunday morning Dieter woke feeling like a bus had run over him! He had a huge headache and his body was aching. He spent all day Sunday in bed, while Aimee and I chilled in front of the television together and the boys all went to church with Kevin and Caroline. Caroline came in before she left or church and prayed for Dieter and our family - and he definitely made the quickest recovery .... Thank you Lord!

We're on the mend after about 10 days at home, eating very little and feeling drained. I have a list as long as my arm of the things I want to do and EAT!! Now we can start to meet up with family and friends and do some galavanting!

10 Days in ....

Its been 10 days since our adventure in Pretoria began, an its been an interesting time already!

Our friends, Kevin and Caroline, spent the first week of our visit away in Cape Town and we were totally spoiled with 'home alone'! The 'holiday-vibe' kicked in big-time!! We decided to lay low and rest, only driving to the nearby shopping centre to stock up on groceries.

The estate we're living on has some lovely walkways and natural 'veld' (forest? ... Not field!) Connecting the various pockets of houses and not far down the path outside our backyard is a lovely green mass of grass and a small playground. The climbing frame is an small obstacle course and houses a sandpit in its shade - the little ones could spend all day there! We've also done a lot of ball throwing and mini-cricket matches with the kids, which has been great fun! Its such a treat to have this just 50m away from the house! (We do have open park lots in George but they don't have any play equipment worth mentioning and we find ourselves having to dodge dog-poo more often than is tolerable!) So, we're loving these facilities!

We've been so blessed to almost immediately have visits from Zani, Rizi and Paultjie, our cousins. For hours on end, on consecutive days, we enjoyed each other's company and small meals together. Ethan and Aimee particularly enjoyed visiting Rizi's horse, Sundance, and loved the walks they took with him. Aimee has asked everyday since, as soon as she wakes!, when we can see them again!

We've also spent some chunky time with Bronwen, which has been so refreshing! She's come over and spent lovely long sessions with us chatting, playing in the park and sharing meals together. A huge highlight was when she collected the children from us at the market last Sunday and treated them to an afternoon of fun at the local Botanical Gardens. They had so much fun together!

Out and About with Bron - so much fun!

We have many friends to catch up with ..... Looking forward to more fun and memory-making moments! Also looking forward to sharing something of our 'history' with our children ..... showing them where we grew up, schooled and where Ryan and Jed were born.

Road Trip to Gauteng

Last week I sent an email to my family in Dubai and the UK to keep them up to date with our movements. Things have happened really quickly and our preparation for this trip kept us very busy .....

Hi there precious family,

Want to just make sure you're all 'in the loop' about our current plans. Things are happening fast and furious and I'm not always sure who I've told what .... So here goes:

Tomorrow morning we are all driving up to Pretoria. We will be overnighting in Bloemfontein and staying at the 'holiday homes' at the Correctional services (prisons!) On Thursday we'll arrive in Pretoria and are staying with our good friends, Kevin and Caroline Coughlan - for the first week or so. Suzi (from Dubai!) and Anthea (from Valhalla) have also offered for us to stay with them so we will be moving around.

The reason we're travelling to Gauteng is because we've found a stall at the Hillfox Market (Weltevreden Park) on the west rand. We'll be trading there this Sunday and Monday, and then every Saturday and Sunday from then on, in hopes of selling of our 3-in-1 jackets and powerbanks.

We have about one-third of our stock with us, and plan to return to get more stock in a couple of weeks or so. We aren't sure how long we'll be in Pretoria, but only really have till the end of August to sell the jackets before summer weather kicks in.

We're in for great times of catching up with family and friends, as well as visiting lots of 'attractions' with the kids. We also plan to meet with key retailers about our products while we are there.

We are still on BBM/Whatsapp and only a call away ....
Lots of love and hugs and kisses from
Us6onthewaytoPretoria xxxx

Bohnanza

Well this blog is about a German card game called Bohnanza.

I was first introduces to Bohnanza by my too best friends Jacob Timothy Lange and Lukas Daniel Lange who owned a set, I soon came to love playing it.

Then a year and 5 months back we (my family and) moved to S.A, south Africa is a beautiful country and were we live is on the Garden Route which is the most beautiful place South Africa I think!

And you might of heard this but my Mom used to say when we experienced the first winter, that she thought we had gone to England instead of South Africa.

Well back to the main story, Bohnanza! Well having a love for card games and board games I decided to look for a set on Amazon.co.uk but they costed over R200  and I didn’t have that kind of money so I looked on the internet for pictures of the cards such as Green bean, Blue bean, Garden bean, black eyed bean and chili bean and found out ho many cards of each are in a pack and was going to print them and laminate them but then at the dinner table one night I told my Grandparents about my idea and they told me that there friend was going to Germany in june and that she had a daughter living there who could find it and the give to her mom so that she could come back with it for cheaper I waited and waited and we found some more people who were going to Germany and  then we found of a lady from the Dutch association who was in Holland at the moment and in Holland there was this online shop were you could buy bohnanza there or the could send it to you sp we asked her if she could pick it up there for ten Euros and bring it back with her and she did. So after long waiting spans I will get it today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got it - have played a few games already and am LOVING it!

Coming up for air .....

I can’t even remember the last time I blogged. I initially started this blog because we had very minimal access to the internet and it was my way of communicating the everyday happenings in our lives with family and friends.

That changed a lot in August last year when I was given a Blackberry by my Dad – now I can contact most of my family by BBM or Whatsapp, can receive and reply to emails and also do basic internet searches. I do a lot more reading now that I have more access to blogs and newspapers, which is also great. It’s wonderful to be in regular contact with my family (who are all abroad) and also friends dotted across the globe.

The last few months have been hectic for us as we now juggle homeschooling, running 2 businesses and try to live lives that are meaningful to others too! I’m only blogging today because its Sunday and we’re home and trying to take it slowly!

We’ve been working through some of Sonlight’s science with our friends Zian and Adine and have been meeting twice a week for an hour or so before footie to experiment with cells, batteries and light bulbs. Its been exciting and we’ve had great fun together! Its been such a privilege to help them get through the science syllabus and also such a blessing for us to be able to share the journey with them. I’ve also been reading ‘Diary of an early American boy’ with the boys and its been very, very interesting! I personally think every pre-teen should read this book! I know quite a few people who are getting a copy for upcoming birthdays!

I’m hoping to be able to order some new curriculum soon and had great fun reading through the Sonlight catalogue! We love what we do!!

Kiddie Gourmet is going very slowly but we are beginning to establish regular orders. That’s great news for many reasons. One of them is that can offer fresh batches of meals continuously. New customers are also enquiring and will hopefully open up the market for us a little in this word-of-mouth-Mafia we live in. I really believe in our products and love preparing them and can sell them with great confidence!

Venture Active is our other ‘baby’, and is operating in full swing! Our stock has arrived and is neatly arranged in a storage facility we’ve been blessed with. We’ve sold our first batch of 3-in-1 jackets and have since worked hard at getting them listed on online stores and they are now also available in at least one retailer here in George. We are very eager to sell them at one of the many markets South Africa hosts, possibly the Saturday market in Segdefield (beginning of June) but are open to traveling up country to colder places if that is possible. Watch this space! We are also working hard to get the portable power banks and safety wear our factory in China manufactures into the right stores/stockists locally. We are learning a lot as we go along and are grateful to have the time and space to make mistakes and learn from them. This is very exciting.

In between we make time to meet up with fellow homeschoolers for picnics, take Ethan and Ryan to many football practices a week, take Jed to archery lessons, meet weekly with our ‘Community’ (homegroup) from JoshGen in Mosselbay, and visit with friends as the opportunity arises.

Just this week we organised a cycle challenge for fellow homeschoolers in our neighbourhood, and on Friday morning 15 children on bicycles were exploring our neighbourhood indicating all sorts of strange things on their maps, identifying streets and solving challenges along their way. Another of the happy days we are living out here, and one that was meaningful in so many other ways.

All in all there never is a dull moment and I don’t ever find myself alone and bored and looking for something to do! For the most part we’re working all day every day and by early evening I am exhausted and looking forward to bed time!

I don’t believe we’ve come here to just hibernate and retire …… I do believe God wants us to be of support and encouragement to those He brings our way. One of the things I felt earlier this year was that this would be a year of ‘giving of ourselves’ especially to other homeschoolers. I’m hugely challenged by this as there are many needs around us, but its awesome to be able to give of ourselves in some way and help each other along the way.

This week we signed our own 24-month mobile internet contract and now have an internet connection of our own. Its not un-limited but we have 3Gigs a month to help us with our businesses and other stuff. Now I’ll be able to use the Kindle I was given by my Sis and her family for my birthday last year. And I might even be able to blog more often (between midnight and 5am!)

We’re well and enjoying the adventure!

Kara and Aimee on a Camel

Ethan starts his sailing career

Birthday fun with Ludwig

Jed in his element - jumping castle fun!

Ryan taking a very brief break from adventure and action

Ouma Malan

I began typing an email to my immediate family this morning and realised that there are so many other friends and more distant family who know us that might like to 'be in the know', so I thought I would do a quick blogpost.

This morning, at 4:30am, our Ouma Malan passed away.

Ouma Malan is Dieter's maternal grandmother, and was his last living grandparent. She was great-grandmother to our four children, who have loved getting to know her a little better in the last year that we've been back in SA. She has been fairly healthy and of sound mind and enjoyed a good, quiet life until very recently. About 2 months ago she developed a chest/lung infection and was eventually hospitalised so they could monitor the fluid build-up in her lungs and treat the infection. It was discovered that her heart was also severely deteriorated and only functioning at about a third of what it should.

She recovered nicely from the infection but needed a continuous supply of additional oxygen to help her breathe. About 2 weeks ago she was released from hospital to the Sick Bay at the retirement village where she has lived for the past 14 years or so and they have tried to keep her as comfortable as possible.

We're very sad that she is no longer with us but delighted that she has gone to be with Jesus for eternity. No more pain, no more sickness, no more tears ...... just an eternity spent worshipping the saviour she deeply loved.

Goodbye Ouma Malan.

Our last family photo with Ouma Malan (seated) in December last year.

Back on-line

Its been well over a month since I wrote a decent blog post, how time flies! Ouma and Oupa were away for the first 2 weeks of March and took the Internet Dongle with them (one of the benefits of having mobile internet!). We just lay low for those 2 weeks, prepared for the fact that our only communication with the outside world would be on our Blackberrys. One – of the many things – that I can’t do on my phone is sign into and write a blog post!

I did have the opportunity to use the internet a couple of times at my friend Walda’s house, and used those times to load photos of our daily lives. I far prefer visiting with Walda to working on the laptop and can’t usually load large quantities of photos on the connection that we have at home, so it seemed to work well.

Its been a tough 8 weeks or so! We’ve all taken turns to have the flu and it hasn’t been fun! I think it started with Jed and just when he (eventually!) began to get better, Ryan and Ethan got it. It was a nasty thing, which lingered for ages! The only medication we bought was a bottle of cough mixture for Jed, and when it was all finished it didn’t seemed to have helped at all! So, when Ryan began to cry with earache and a throat infection, I quickly did some research and really went out of the box. Have been thinking that was for the longest time, but it’s the first time I made my own ear drops! I found that a concoction of coconut oil and garlic simmered together and strained works fantastically and within 24 hours we had the ear and throat infection beaten! (Prayer also contributed a lot to that healing, I know!)

The boys were all just about recovered when Dieter spent a day or two in bed fighting off the symptoms. Just when I thought it was all over and was celebrating the fact that Aimee and I had been spared we were both hit from behind and almost smacked to the floor! Its been yuck! At one stage, about 14 days into the flu, I thought it would never get better … but 3 weeks later my sense of taste and smell is returning and I can feel I’m doing much, much better. We’re nearly there!

Lots has happened in the past 8 weeks or so, despite lots of ‘down time’ to try and rest and recover. We’ve had tons of grey, wet days and have just enjoyed the opportunity to snuggle up and relax. We’ve watched all 5 games in the T-20 one day-series between SA and Pakistan, a good handful of great movies and lots of travel and décor programmes on Fine Living!

We spent one weekend in Jongensfontein at a church camp with about 250 other people from 5 different churches in the Western Cape. It was a lovely weekend away, in an awesome spot right on the beach! Was great to get outdoors again, and we enjoyed great teaching and worship, but also good times with new friends.

Ouma Malan has been very sick in the past month or so, and spent 3 of those weeks in hospital in Mossel Bay. We’ve popped in to see her a few times over the past few weeks and are glad she is resting and as comfortable as possible in the Sick Bay of the retirement village she lives in.

We’re also working really hard in preparation for our Import venture which is about to happen any week now. We’ve had our fair share of learning curves, and they have been steep! But right now we have successfully registered our business, have all the necessary official documents in hand, have opened a business bank account and have applied for our Importer’s Permit. Our shipment sailed from China this past weekend and is expected to arrive in Cape Town on 30 April, so by the beginning of May we will have products in hand to sell ….. its all very exciting! Its also been awesome to see God’s hand in orchestrating it all and providing for us through the partnership of very generous people. I’m excited to see how this all unfolds.

We’ve just had a short break from our usual term-time routine and today began to get back into the swing of things. Its so exciting to see Aimee understanding and remembering the phonics and math we do together – today I really saw breakthrough! Ethan is also making great progress in his math and phonics and loves the challenge. He hasn’t been to keen on the reading but has just found he is able to read a whole book (a little one!) and that was exhilarating. Ryan pulled out a Sudoku book this weekend and is wrapped up in the challenge all over again, and he and Jed have just learned about Pi and terminology relating to circles. Challenging stuff that they’ve understood so easily! Jed is still reading faster than we can supply books and doing research to make his own version of ‘Top Trump cards’. Never a dull moment in our home!

Diet has spent quite a bit of time lately helping some friends work on the house they are building. It’s a wooden house and Dieter is excited about what they are doing and loves helping out! He’s also enjoying the preparation research as we try to find retailers who can stock our products and make repeat orders possible.

And I am enjoying the wonderful people God has brought into my life for this season of our lives. These are precious friendship and precious people and I’m appreciating that friendship and the times we spend together. My main love language is definitely ‘Quality Time’!!!

And so, Autumn starts and we get ready for winter with a lot of rain and grey cloudy days. It seems George has 9 months of Autumn and 3 months of spring ….. I know we have all 4 seasons here, but summer and winter are both so short here, they only last a few days! The leaves are starting to change colour and fall, and this is the most exciting time of the year to go walking around the neighbourhood because one finds the most amazing leaves, branches, nuts, etc that have fallen from the trees. But, we don’t walk that much anymore since all 6 of us are now riding our bikes around the neighbourhood periodically! Exciting!!

Making memories of the 'ordinary'

Aimee and Teddy riding in the driveway

Jed takes a moment out to pose for a pic

Ethan's first exercise after being sick for a long while ... in his element!

Sooooo much fun, Mommy!

Catch me if you can!

Such a big girl now!

Having fun at Judah's cowboy party

Cowboy Ethan - all dressed up and rearing to go!

.... it's Sheriff Ethan now!

Having a splash in the Great Brak Lagoon

Aimee enjoying the water too!

Exploring the Montagu Pass

Having a peep at the old Toll House

Our George

Lots of little signs like these every now and again .... possibly names from the Voortrekker days

My boy!

Our precious 4 ... enjoying it all!

Stopping to talk to the donkeys

There is no way I took this photo, was probably Ryan - I think its so cool!!!

Lying low ....

Our days are never dull, but often I don’t think our day will be of much interest to someone who will pop over to read this blog. So I don’t write. When I look again a whole week has gone by!

Highlights of the week gone by include a 2-hour visit with Walda and Sylma last Monday afternoon, `feet up’ drinking Rooibos on Walda’s back verandah while we sort of watched the children swimming. That was real food for the soul! Am so blessed with great friends!

We celebrated our homegroup leader’s birthday when we met together on Wednesday evening – it was a very impromptu celebration organised by the lady whose home we met in. It was great fun! It was special be able to pray with Eugene and share scripture and encourage him.

Jed was ill a fornight ago and is much better. He’s just a very chesty cough still and its overstayed its welcome, long ago! Last Thursday Ryan developed an ear and throat infection which was so sore that he actually cried in pain. I made some eardrops using coconut oil and garlic which worked very well and also doused him with tea made with honey and coconut oil. Lots of prayer of course, too! He’s doing a lot better, but his cough has also overstayed its welcome (and its new!). Ethan woke with a very sore head yesterday morning and we chose to spend the day resting and watched a couple of movies. He vomited twice in his sleep last night but then slept well for the rest of the night. He was very weak and sore still today and spent most of the day on the couch resting. This afternoon Dieter ‘crashed’ after lunch and needed a nap. We both felt exhausted and weak, but he needed it more than me. He woke feeling like a bus had run over him and feels he too is coming ‘down with something’. This is our week of nasal drops, ear drops, warm teas, honey, lemon and coconut milk. So, we’re just lying as low as we can and trying to recuperate.

Its been a busy day, we spent the morning making over 50 tubs of playdough and this afternoon I’ve been playing Mom’s taxi. Am looking forward to a good night’s rest and another semi-chilled day tomorrow.

PS: I typed this last night but never got a chance to post it. This morning I made another 50 tubs of playdough with Ryan and Jed, fun! Dieter is lying very low and feeling yucky but Ethan is on the mend. Ryan is desperate to get back to football but I have managed to convince him to wait one more day! Still lying low ......

Happy Birthday Adine!

For weeks now the boys have been looking forward to Adine’s 12^th birthday and party. The party plans have changed numerous times, as have our gift ideas. This past Saturday the big day arrived, and with great excitement.

Adine invited her friends to celebrate her birthday with her at her home and the theme dress was ‘something you’ll never see me wearing again’. I think our children were the only ones who made something especially for the occasion, and we had great fun doing it. We spent most of Friday designing and making different items to wear, and had great fun. It was an inspiringly creative day! Our end products weren’t anything spectacular, but they were each individual child’s own idea and that was special.

Ethan, who doesn’t procrastinate, was the first to get to work. He pulled out a grey t-shirt and some fabric markers that were a Christmas gift from his aunt, uncle and cousins in Dubai. He created a police vest and added some writing, badges and equipment using the markers. He drew the handcuffs, belt, police badge, etc himself and they were good! He also cut and stapled some card to make a headpiece that said ‘Police’ on it, and wore it over a blue cap once the elastic was attached.

Jed was next and his idea was simple. He wanted to dress as a doctor and we cut up a blue recycling rubbish bag to create a jacket. He then cut some buttons and a pocket out of paper and stuck them onto the jacket. He finished off his outfit with a blue hair net and a white theatre mask … he did look more like a theatre nurse, ‘crocs’ and all!

Ryan decided he wanted a suit made out of paper. So he stood like a statue for what seemed like forever while I taped many pages of the local newspaper together and created a suit jacket and long pants. He said he felt more like a robot because he couldn’t bend anything too much as the paper doesn’t have the same ‘give’ in it that material has.

Aimee picked a dress that too small for her and already in a bag to be given away (something she'll definitely not ever wear again!) and wanted to make a little crown so she could look like a princess. We recycled the top of an egg box and she painstakingly coloured it beautiful!

Princess Aimee

 

Adine was in her element on her special day, and when I asked her she confirmed that she’d had an amazing day and loved her party. All the children made an amazing effort to put some fun, vibrant outfits together – outfits they wouldn’t be seen walking around town in! It was great fun! 

Something you'll NEVER see me wearing again - with Adine, the birthday girl

 

Adine had made her own birthday cake together with Vicky, a family friend. She wanted something layered, like a wedding cake. They did an amazing job and Adine was very proud of the outcome!

Wow, what a beautiful cake! Well done Adine!

There was lots of fun and laughter all afternoon as the children swam and ate yummy party food. Moms and dads sat chatting in small groups on the back verandah and in the dining room where a delicious spread of tarts and snacks was available to the adults.

It was another one of those celebrations that leaves everyone involved delighting in good food, good company and good fun! What a wonderful celebration! Happy Birthday Adine!

Missing Cyprus

I miss Cyprus more some days than others. I’ve been missing Cyprus a lot lately and I’ve just recently realised that this week it will be exactly a year since we left Cyprus and headed down South. A whole year!

There are some of our personal belongings that I miss. I miss our lifestyle with frequent summer trips to the beach and frequent park outings and picnics. I miss cycling with the children to visit friends or go shopping. I miss buying very reasonable fruit and veggies in big quantities for €1,70 outside the Frutaria. We miss the food, especially taramasalata, tahina and Yvonne’s home cooking! I miss our trips around the island, especially across to the Northern part of the island when we had visitors.

But most of all, I miss special people. Most of the other things we miss we can live without or find alternatives locally, but the friends we made can’t be replaced as easily! For the first time even the children are talking about going back to Cyprus on holiday and I really wish we could.

So much has changed in Cyprus since we left. The church we were part of has closed down. A lot of our friends have moved on, either returning to their home countries or moving on to work in other parts of the world. The financial crisis has hit Cyprus and people are really struggling to get by. There is a lot about life in Cyprus that would have changed for us in this year.

I know, from past experience, that returning to something you’ve left behind is never the same. Things change, people change ……….. people leave, new people come and things are never the same. So, I suppose what I’m really missing is life as we knew it in Cyprus and the people we left behind. Friends really are a gift from God …. And we’re missing our friends a lot!

Weekend wandering .....

It’s 3pm in the afternoon and is dark and grey outside as the clouds have darkened with the promise of rain. Thunder rumbling in surround sound confirms something is going to happen soon. We’ve had a lovely day out and I’m glad we’re home and indoors before the heavens open. Dieter was up early this morning and went for an 8km bike ride with a friend in the forest nearby before we had breakfast. After we had eaten breakfast and were all showered and ready for the day we headed out on a well-planned mission. We stopped first to stock up on picnic supplies for lunch, buy a birthday gift for a little friend who is celebrating his 4^th birthday on Monday and look at some cricket bats. Then we stopped at the Outeniqua Farmer’s Market to say hi to a little friend who runs his own games stall there. We bought a smoothie or a hot drink each and some little tartlets, a selection of cheese cake and apple crumble, and found a bench near the kiddies play area and spent our time there chatting with a couple of homeschooling families. Ethan and Aimee tried their hand at a couple of the games at the ‘games stall’ and came away very happy with their ‘prizes’.

We then popped into the mall with a couple of purchases on our agenda. The first was for Jed who has now purchased his first camera, a little Nikon AX500. After doing research on cameras, both new and 2^nd hand, this special was perfect for his budget and needs. He is very keen on photography and can’t wait to experiment with his new toy. The next huge priority was a birthday gift for a pre-teen girl who is celebrating next weekend and loves all things arty. We managed to find her something we think is really nice and hope she will get hours of fun out of! There were a couple of other stores we went into before rushing across town to get Ryan and Ethan to their football match.

Dieter, Jed, Aimee and I had something small to eat while the boys warmed up for their game and then we went out to stand next to the field and watch them in action. Ryan offered to play goalie for the u15 team as both their goalies didn’t arrive. It was a very hard game with the opposing team dominating and attempting to score often. Ryan had to work very hard in the bigger goal box. Twice one of his team mates tried to avert a goal and almost scored an own-goal. It was a nail-biting affair! They ended the game 7-0 down. Ethan played for his usual team, but there were only 6 children on each side and neither team had a goalie. I’m sure it will be considered a friendly. Ethan worked very hard running across the big field for most of the game. He was exhausted when the game was over, but had great fun! The games ended just as the drizzle turned into hard drops of rain and we were very glad to get in to the warm car!

So, we’re all indoors while the rain pelts down. Dieter has the tent up in the garden to test if it is waterproof and is busy pumping up mattresses so that he can spend the night in the tent with some of the children. I think Jed and I will stay indoors – he still has a really rough cough and didn’t have a good night’s sleep last night because he was coughing so much. Who knows what the rest of the weekend holds in store, but it has started busily!

PS:  Yesterday afternoon we went down to Victoria Bay so that we could have a swim and the boys could use the boogie-boards. Dieter and Aimee tried to swim in the tidal pool but after seeing many jelly-fish decided to rather swim in the sea. Ethan and Ryan spent a lot of time together boogie-boarding on the waves and had so much fun. Jed and I relaxed on the grass, sitting comfortably in our little wooden chairs. We also played some cricket together with the little ones and the sons of another homeschooling family we have met who were sitting close-by. It was such a fun afternoon. Just after 6pm we packed up and treated ourselves to some KFC before heading home and turning in for the evening. What a great start to the weekend!

Picnic fun at the Botanical Gardens

I’ve learnt that the best way to organise a social get together is to find one other family that will definitely be able to join us … and then throw out the invitation far and wide for others to join us. I did just that this week. I arranged with Annelie and her 3 boys to join us for a lunch-time picnic at the Botanical Gardens, and then invited every other homeschooling family I have contact details for.

Wednesday was a lovely sunny day and the perfect day for a picnic. The botanical gardens makes a perfect venue …….. There are lots of nooks and crannies for the little ones to explore and animal life to discover, some nice green grass to play and run around on and lots of trees to shade our picnic mats. I counted 8 families that came to join us, with a total of 25 children who were either playing cricket or feeding fish or on outdoor expeditions galore. It was a wonderful afternoon. It was great connecting with other moms too – most of us haven’t seen each other since before Christmas!

Here are some photies of our time together …. Just a few!

Full of smiles - my boy!

Jed - being interuppted as he chats with Karla

Aimee in her element !

The dudes enjoying a game of cricket - Ethan's wide awake and ready for that ball!

Annerie and Ami

Vicky and Annelie catching up

Lots more heart to heart mom chats in progress

Food, fun and chatting galore

A super-duper day!

I usually lie down with Aimee when she goes to bed at night and stay until she falls asleep. The other night, just before she fell asleep she whispered in my ear, ‘Tomorrow is going to be a super-duper day!’. And she was right!

She was excited because she knew that the trampoline mat had been re-stitched and was ready to put back onto the trampoline. (The trampoline has been out of action for about for about 3 weeks and we’re all looking forward to being able to use it again!) Something else was happening too, can’t remember right now what it was, but this is how our day looked eventually:

After breakfast I popped into town. Now that our business registration has been completed, we need to open a business bank account. I’ve nailed it down to 2 possibilities, either FNB or Nedbank and went to investigate both. My hopes of opening an account that day were dashed by the news that I need to wait for some lengthy documents which are probably in the post as they are needed to open an account. I found FNB’s bank charges to be far less than Nedbank and am very impressed by their innovative approach to banking, will probably open the account there when the documents arrive.

I then popped into Edgars and found a lovely pair of denims and some underwear. That was easy enough! I got home just before tea time and was immediately roped into helping install the trampoline mat. It’s quite a process and took at least 3 strong arms to fight against the tension of the springs and get the mat hooked on. Without a rope, we would have never have been able to do it! It’s up and in use already and the children are all so glad to have it back! We love our trampoline!!

Just after tea Dieter spotted something on the neighbour’s wall: a ‘blouaap’. A monkey, about Aimee’s size with a tal about a metre long! It was quite a sight to behold. We aren’t far from the forests or the river that runs through our neighbourhood, but we are almost exactly in the middle of the neighbourhood and a bit far away from the buck and monkeys that others get to see. This monkey was clearly out of place, but comfortable walking from one yard to the next – and I think we are the only people who actually saw it! It was an amazing treat!

One of our neighbours has recently sold her home and the new owners have decided to cut down many of the trees that fill the front yard. The activity brought an unusual noisiness to our neighbourhood and provided an exciting distraction to our normal daily routine. At one stage we actually took a walk across the road to get a up close view of the activity and it was great fun!

Later in the afternoon Aimee, Ethan and I had great fun doing some painting together. They lay down on the floor so I could draw an outline of their bodies on some newsprint and then they each painted on some clothes and accessories. The outcome was amazing! I cut out Aimee’s outline and she was thrilled …. Here was a life-size picture that looked so much like her, oh, she loved it!

When Dieter took Ryan and Ethan to football, I cut Jed’s hair for him. He’s still not feeling 100% himself (has a dry cough and fighting off fever every now and again) but he really wanted a haircut. He looks so smart again, my handsome boy!

The day ended with a lovely meal of lentils and flatbreads which we enjoy wrapping into a roti with some greek yoghurt. Aimee and I spent a good hour rolling and frying the flatbreads and I was really glad when time came to sit down and take a break in the evening. I often don’t blog because I don’t think that we’ve done anything worth recording, but I realise that each day is filled with moments of wonder that I will want to remember a long time from now.

Another day in paradise!

Ethan doing some careful work on the bench he put together

The new pipe is in - fill up the hole again guys!

Calling in the back up help .. .everyone grab a shovel!

Aimee hammering away and having a great time