Kitted out for the next short while

Yeah, we have sunshine …..what a lovely warm, sunny day. Big smiles all round! Tomorrow might even be a good day to go to the beach!

Dieter had another doctor’s appointment today and we decided to join him on his trip into town and visit the library. A neighbour sneered at me the other day when I told her I was using the resources at the library to assist me in schooling our children. I’m not sure what she’d consider adequate resources, but after 10 years abroad and the lack of English libraries in foreign countries, George’s little Municipal library is absolutely amazing!

Ryan and Jed are exploring the Eastern Hemisphere this year, and we’re busy exploring China so I came home with books on Modern China, The Yantze River, Calligraphy, the Dalai Lama, Marco Polo and Beijing. We also have a South African Map Skills book which has already been great for learning about some South African Geography. Jed has  a nice thick book on knitting which teaches various stitches and has some excellent project ideas, and I have one of James Dobson’s books on puberty that I plan to read and then work through with the older boys.

It took me ages to find the English sections in the library and work out how it works, but there are many wonderful books for Ethan and Aimee to read too – we came with 9, some of which have many stories in each book. I also borrowed 2 books on honesty that I plan to work through with them. So, we have our work cut out for us!

We then made one other stop at a little shopping centre in town and eventually (after searching for over a week!) found a stationery store that sold a calligraphy marker pen. We bought two of those so that Ryan and Jed can get working through the Calligraphy book we borrowed from the library. You can’t imagine the excitement!!! And next door was a wool shop, which also sold the most beautiful collection of buttons and ribbons! Jed chose three balls of wool to use for knitting or crocheting. So we returned home all kitted out to keep ourselves busy for weeks – or maybe months! My next mission is to find out where one buys art supplies like paints and glue and paper and stuff …… oh, the joys of relocating!

Another lekker weekend!

It was really good to see René again yesterday, and to meet her husband Jean and their little boy Lucas. The last time we saw her was over the most scrumptious breakfast at her home in Centurion on our last summer holiday to SA in 2005, just months after she’d been to visit us in Sharjah. We have history! And its just wonderful to meet ‘old’ friends and not to have to do the pleasantries and be able to just pick up where we left off. Jean is a great guy and 13-month old Lucas is delightful! Zak, their dog was an instant hit with the kids too, who are really enjoying everyone else’s pets!

Dieter felt like ‘bunking’ church today, so we stayed home. We spent most of the morning lazying around and after lunch I noticed that the little ones were still in their jammies! Inbetween the lazying, I made a potato salad and cooked up some butternut, in preparation for our lunch. Dieter put a honey-mustard marinated flattie chicken on the braai – it was delicious! We moved the garden table into a shady spot on the lawn and had lunch outside. A huge bottle of Crème Soda rounded the meal off quite nicely!

After an afternoon nap, we took a walk to the local DVD store to rent a DVD to watch after dinner tonight. We’re watching ‘Tornado’, a South African production, and its wonderful to see so many familiar places and hear so many familiar accents!

And another weekend comes to an end, let’s see what the new week brings. Some sunshine? Please!

It's still raining - a week later!

Yesterday was another one of those overcast, drizzly days. Oupa and Ouma decided it was a great day to take in a movie and treated us to a midday movie at the local mall. We hadn’t heard of ‘The Lorax’, the latest animated movie to hit the big-screen here in SA, but Ryan and Jed had seen the trailer in Cyprus when they went to watch ‘Puss in Boots’ with Maria and Nikolas and were very excited to go and watch it. We popped into Pick ‘n Pay and bought some chips and chewies to smuggle into the movies in our backpack and were pleasantly surprised. I’ll leave the movie review to one of the older boys when they next blog, but I will say that the story was very thought-provoking and positive and we all really enjoyed it. It was also very humourous and exciting at times which kept us all on the edge of our seats – well, almost!

I felt really tired yesterday and could have done with a verrrrrry long afternoon nap, but that didn’t happen. At one stage Aimee wanted to lie down and we did, but that only lasted for about 10 minutes, which left me feeling like I’d been run over by a bus.

The little ones and I took a late afternoon walk with two of the neighbours and one of their dogs, Sheila. They are crazy about Sheila, a young sheep dog who lives next door. We were gone for a good half and hour and it was good to get outdoors. Many of the people in this neighbourhood go for a walk in the afternoons, some walking briskly and others taking a leisurely stroll with their dogs. It seems that if you are on the streets at around 5pm, you’ll get to see most people!

Just before bedtime the heavens opened and the rain bucketed down for a long while. We awoke this morning to more rain and its been that way all day. One of my favourite British friends commented (after reading my blog sometime last week) that she was surprised that I like the drizzle and that it reminded her too much of Britain. Well, this morning I was convinced we’d been duped and were smuggled into Britain while we weren’t looking instead of being in South Africa. Its been over a week now since we had a full day of blue skies and sunshine and the continuous grey skies and on-off drizzle is driving me crazy! I was amazed when the load of washing I did dried in a few hours the other morning – and very grateful! I’m consoling myself with the thought that we’ve only had 3 days of any serious rain, the rest were just teasers and did very little to wet the ground or fill the water reservoirs. And today its starting to feel cold! Seems like summer might be over!

We’ve had a lazy morning at home, each finding something to keep us busy. This afternoon we’re off to visit with a friend and her (new) family that we know from 3Ci days in Pretoria. Its really nice to know we have 2 good friends from those days a short drive away from where we now live in George. The other friends we have live in Knysna and we hope to visit them soon too.

I had better go and put some warm shoes and a warm top on before we leave in a few minutes to visit with our friends – I am beginning to feel a little cold.

Shjoe, we love our friends!

Its been 5 weeks since we left Cyprus and the ‘holiday-feeling’ seems to be lifting! Yesterday, as we drove home along the beautiful Garden Route, Ethan asked when we were going home to Cyprus. Again I had to explain to him that this is not a holiday, that we are not going to be returning to Cyprus to live there. ‘I’m missing my friends, Mommy’, he said. I think we’re all experiencing that ‘missing-feeling’. (I remember my friend Sheila telling me that her younger children had done the same when they first moved to Cyprus a few years back. I thought Aimee might not have understood the finality of our move, but now I realise Ethan doesn’t really understand it completely either.)

They say things happen in threes and I might be writing today’s blog entry too early (as the third one might still be in process!) Today 2 friends have called from Cyprus to say hello, taking me quite by surprise! When Yvonne called this morning I was so excited to talk to her on the phone, but when I got there and heard her voice I just burst into tears – tears that flowed often during our conversation. Oh, how I miss her! And Maria! And Nikolas and the girls! Oh, we miss them all. (We also haven’t had much contact with them since we left, so it was really good to hear from them!) I realised that as we keep ourselves busy on this side doing our schooling and exploring, meeting people and going places, we don’t have to think about how much we’re missing our friends in Cyprus. But, we really are!

Just a few hours later Oupa put Skype on to make a call and called to say Jane was calling. It was wonderful to hear her voice too and we had a quick chat catching up on things that have happened since we last chatted via email. Her side of the connection was broken quite often as she spoke and I was often left guessing how the pieces of her sentences fitted together, but we managed to have a good chat anyway! And that was the cause of my 2^nd good cry of the day.

Shjoe, we really are missing our friends in Cyprus. As beautiful as SA is and as nice a time as we are having, today I’m really wishing I could pop into a friend for a few hours and just chill over a cuppa while the kids play with their friends. So, while we may have left you and you may be getting used to the quiet that has created, do know that we love you and miss you very, very much!

PS:  And it is no coincidence that the last of the boxes we shipped from Cyprus arrived today, I’m sure!

Autumn arrives in style

Today marks the official start of autumn …… and we can begin looking forward to our 2^nd winter of the year. Today was also a public holiday in SA and we used the opportunity to drive East along the Garden Route to visit Dieter’s aunt who lives between Knysna and Plettenberg Bay. This part of South Africa is truly breathtaking! The lakes and marshes, the green hills and valleys, the Indian Ocean and long, white beaches, the lagoons and baboons along the roadside were really exciting to see again.

It was lovely to see Dieter’s aunt and cousins again and to spend a good part of the day relaxing together. Despite the overcast and cool weather, the children insisted on having a swim and had an absolute ball in the pool! We had a delicious lunch together and then the children went back outdoors to run around in the gardens together while the adults sat chatting over tea.

On our return to George we stopped at some of Dieter’s parents friends who live just outside of Wilderness. Their 2-hectare plot is up on a hill overlooking the hills and greenery around the Wilderness area and on it they have built a lovely home and cultivated a very beautiful garden. (It is possible to be supplied with electricity, but water either has to be drilled for or collected when it rains.) They have a lovely indoor pool and the children had another wonderful swim while we waited for Oupa to finish helping his friend deal with some internet. The field mice and bird life kept the children entertained as they played nearby in the garden and bush.

PS: Last night we dressed rather neatly and attended the 30-year celebrations of the George Men’s Choir. Oupa has been singing in the choir for a few years now and it was really special to see him in action! The evening was also a tribute to the choir’s director who has led the choir for the past 30 years and it was an very emotional occasion. It was alright for Dieter and I who both speak and understand Afrikaans (as a lot of it was in Afrikaans), but I really understood why the children felt a tad bored! A lot of the talking and singing was in Afrikaans and some of the songs were even in other languages (both indigenous and international) and we didn’t understand them. And I must be honest, I couldn’t even hear the words of  a lot of the songs that were sung in English! It was fun, cultural and wonderful to see Oupa in action!

A Brand new week

My day started with ‘3 Cups of Tea’ , a book that a friend gave Dieter for Christmas. He has finished reading it (and really enjoyed it!) and has passed on to me. It’s the story of Greg Mortensen, an American man who decided to build a school for a small, forgotten village in Pakistan. I can’t put the book down when I start reading it – which has resulted in many a late night! And since I didn’t read anything last night, I convinced myself it would be alright to read a few pages before getting out of bed this morning.

This morning we continued our discoveries of China and also did some Math. I have also started reading an auto-biography of Marco Polo to Ryan and Jed. Ryan fell asleep while I was reading today ….. it’s the first time he’s ever done that! It should get better as we go on J

Dieter had another appointment with the psychologist this morning and it seems to have gone well. His Mom dropped him at the hospital before going to work and he walked home afterwards. It’s a long walk and he was really tired when he got home. So far its gone quite well sharing Dieter’s parents car, hopefully it won’t be too long before we have wheels of our own.

I think the highlight of the day was the hour-long episode of ‘MacGyver’ which the children watched just before lunch. We had told Ryan and Jed of how we used to watch MacGyver as children and they’ve watched some episodes on Youtube over the last year – and really enjoyed it! Watching an episode every week day before lunch is a real treat!

Weekend: Done and dusted

Today was back to ‘work’  after a nice, relaxing weekend. The constant, fine drizzle continued for most of Saturday morning and we were all indoors finding things to keep ourselves busy with. Dieter put another shelf in Ryan and Jed’s cupboard, Ouma built Aimee and Ethan a little house under the dining room table (using sheets/blankets for walls) and they played for hours in and around it. At times I was the ‘shop-keeper’ for Ethan and Aimee’s game, but mostly I was reading magazines/newspapers/pamphlets. Jed put down the knitting needles and tried some crochet for the first time since we’ve been here and Ryan was re-organising his clothes cupboard in between the odd job assisting Dieter or Oupa fixing things.

Aimee, Ethan and I made a chocolate cake together and we dug into it soon after waking from a long afternoon nap. Then we took a walk down to the local Spar and back – it was good to browse around the supermarket and compare prices and variety of food stuff. In the evening we watched a couple of videos with the children. ‘The Pebble and the Penguin’ was Ethan and Aimee’s treat, and Ryan and Jed laughed their way through ‘Beautiful People’.  I couldn’t stay awake though and left after about half of the 2^nd video and went to sleep!

Yesterday we visited Liberty Church, who relate to NCMI. We had visited the church 6 years ago when we were here last and really enjoyed it, so we thought we’d start our church search there. The welcome was wonderful and it was nice to be in a bigger church again (there were about 160 people). A small band of 4 musicians lead us in worship, which was vibrant and very Jesus-honouring, it was great. The children (and I!) all visited the Sunday School while Dieter sat and listened to the sermon which ended in the presentation of some new deacons. It was not long at all, and a lot happened in that time. We didn’t stay for coffee afterwards, opting to leave in the lull just after the meeting ended, which isn’t great as we didn’t meet or speak to anyone, but I think we’d done about as much as we could for the day.

Ouma cooked up a storm for lunch yesterday – and I think I heard Jed say about half a dozen times that it was absolutely delicious! We all thought so too! The chocolate cake was all finished by late yesterday afternoon as we shared the last 3^rd of it with some friends who popped in for tea.

It was an early night for all the children after a weekend full of Wii, DVDs and much running around outside in the garden which gave Dieter and I a chance to watch a video together in the evening. We were trying desperately to keep awake to watch it till the end, but really did enjoy it. (We watched ‘The Score’ with Robert De Niro!) And that was our weekend, done and dusted!