Quote of the day

“You can’t put fairy wings on a sheep”

Of holidays and day trip

Hello to all our regular readers.  We hope the white space of the past two months hasn’t put you off too much!  A combination of a lot going on and laziness is to blame, mostly the latter.

When last you left us we’d been playing Wii Sing and Disney Sing It.  Having cut back on our efforts to avoid a South African ASBO our attention turned elsewhere…

The brain is a bit fuzzy as to everything that has happened in the past couple of months so expect a few entries (and plenty of photographs).

Quick Status Update:

• Guy – still working too long and too hard but since he isn’t meeting several of his targets obviously not too clever (his words not mine)!
• Charly – still fed up with her fitness levels.  Not helped by falling over a couple of weeks ago on the small step outside the apartment and managing to get what the doctor reckons is a hairline break in her ankle.  Now enduring six weeks of wearing an ankle brace.
• Rhiannon – in February had no wobbly teeth and now has 4 wobbling plus 1 coming through behind her milk teeth.  She is still loving school and doing very well.  Her colouring and drawing are improving a lot and her fear of swimming has mostly disappeared, helped by her school lessons and swim gala performance where she came a close second.  She was using a float and had one of the high school girls swimming next to her, but did a great job and could have won if she hadn’t been so busy talking to her friend in the next lane as she swam!

• Phoebe – is still a little devil, adorable and loved by everyone but a wilful horror at other times, and unfortunately going through a bit of a tantrum phase if she doesn’t get her own way on everything.  No more hospital visits yet though!  She is having great fun at school and has just started “Playball” on a Thursday afternoon, learning basic ball skills.  Next stop, Arsenal Ladies Team Nana!

Phoebe tries her hardest to go head first into the pond

• Apartment – now lit again after the landlord had most of the fittings replaced – those of you contacting us on Skype unfortunately will get a clearer picture of our faces from here on.  With the lights fixed the next problem was the leaking ceiling last weekend!  Our upstairs neighbours did some work on their balcony and have some built in flowerbeds that were not sealed properly hence a day of dripping brown water over the sofa.  For now that is sorted as well – just the ants to get rid of but we think we are fighting a losing battle there.
• Monkeys – still around – their latest home invasion was to steal Charly’s crackers from the lounge when she was out the room for a couple of minutes.  They proceeded to eat the crackers on the balcony in front of her.

Tina (sister / sister-in-law / aunt to the various members of our family) visited for 2½ weeks at the end of March, bearing gifts of Easter eggs, Clarks sandals, a replacement iPod (after Guy left the old one in the car (where inside it hit 40ºC plus and the display subsequently failed), two DVD boxsets and Super Mario Bros Wii.  Be warned that we expect this sort of service from all visitors – bookings welcome and Amazon orders ready to be placed.

During her first week here the girls were still at school so a few lazy days were had before she ventured off on a day trip to Lesotho, taking in the Drakensburg enroute.  This meant that Tina had ventured further afield in a week than we had managed in 10 months!

For the first week of the school holidays Guy actually took 4 days off.  The shock was so much he still went into work for an hour on the Wednesday before Easter to show his face at a leaving do for someone who’d been at the company for over 30 years – he then met up with everyone else to watch “How to Train Your Dragon” in 3D at the cinema.  Phoebe seems to cope very well with the cinema as long as she has some popcorn in front of her.  Her technique for coping with the more scary bits was to lift the glasses up so her vision was blurred, but she would put them back on again fairly quickly.

From the 26^th to the 29^th March we went on safari, or at least headed 3 hours north to Rhino River Lodge (does exactly what it says on the tin except that the river was dried up), situated on the outskirts of one of the largest reserves in the country (not on a par with the Kruger, but the Hluhluwe (pronounced shushluay sort of, apparently that’s the closest non isiZulu speakers get to it) Umfolozi (pronounced umfalozi) are pretty impressive.  The humid summer in Durban was easing off but when we arrived at the lodge the temperature was 39ºC.  We stayed for 3 nights full board, and made the most of it!  On arrival we went straight to lunch and then got straight onto the off-roader for the afternoon / early evening game drive.

The warm weather appealed to the wildlife as well – we saw both black and white rhino, zebra, warthogs, impala, nyala, kudu and the eyes of a crocodile!

Having taken games with us to play expecting a few quiet nights in we ended up actually getting to bed early (for us) each night, since the combination of 6.30am game drives, 3 multi-course meals a day plus a lot of fresh air and the heat knocked us out. BTW much to the slight horror of one American lady also at the lodge, meals included impala (in a pie and casserole) and warthog (yummy sausages).

We also saw a large number of spiders during the game drives, mainly two particular varieties, the Bark Spider and the Golden Oak spider.  Those of you with a fear of spiders (Charles) please look away now:

There were no elephants in Rhino River’s part of the larger game reserve when we visited, but we did get to see a few giraffes during our stay.  We also went out the reserve to visit a family of rescued elephants and all took turns to feed them – Charly even got a lift:

On the Monday we skipped the afternoon game drive and went to a large cat rehabilitation centre, where there were African wild cats (which look like large tabby cats); serval (a bit like small cheetahs); caracals (pointy eared lynx that can jump several metres) and cheetahs (who we tried feeding Guy to and who Tina wanted to steal).

When we got back from the safari we went on a day trip up into the Valley of a Thousand Hills to a “traditional” Zulu village

And on another day took  a trip to Durban Botanical Gardens, where Guy actually relaxed!

We Sing

Well it’s 8pm on Sunday night and Guy has just turned his laptop on for the first time this weekend, not bad.

We tried the Wii this afternoon and it seems, touch wood, to have magically repaired itself.  For those of you who don’t know the mechanism for putting the disks in and out broke because our wonderful (sarcasm) Phoebe put a plastic sequin in the disk slot, she is now out of the dog house, just about. We have spent the afternoon terrorising the neighbours with several hours of Karaoke. A nice(depending on your taste) mix of songs from Rhiannon’s game where we sang songs form Hannah Montana, Camp Rock and High School Musical, then from my game songs like Kylie – Locomotion(must teach Rhiannon the dance), Lady GaGa – Poker Face(easier to sing than I thought it would be), Blondie – One Way or Another(really difficult to sing), Coldplay – Viva La Vida(Guy sings this way better than me), The Automatic – Monster(really funny) and many more including Shampoo – Trouble(the girls love this song Guy and I grin and bear it).

More swimming this weekend, best way to cool off a bit, girls still coming along nicely, now we just have to convince them not to swallow half the pool,Rhiannon unintentionally, Phoebe intentionally, roll of eyes. Oh and I managed to hurt my back on Saturday because Guy and Rhiannon were off getting hair cuts while Phoebe and I went to start the supermarket shop and she almost fell asleep in the trolley (after her late night Friday) but kept bumping her head so I ended up carrying her for 45 minutes whilst pushing the trolley and doing the shopping and while she may still be a light little thing (2 stone, 28 pounds or 12.7kg depending on what you work in), after that long and with her being just dead weight, you really feel it.

More Photos from the archives, prize if you can work out which one is which

I’m a fruit loop

I must be mad, I’ve been complaining about the ridiculously early mornings and having to get the girls ready for school and out of the house by 7am so what do I go and do? I volunteer for car park duty at Rhiannon’s school which means we have to leave the house at 6.45am! like I said must be a nutter.

Not a lot else happened this week, Hope you all have a good weekend and you never know we might actually manage to keep Guy at home this weekend, and not surgically attached to his laptop.

UPDATE:

Not going to say that not a lot has happened, ever again.

It’s half past nine and we have just put the girls to bed because I have just spent over 2 ½ hours at the hospital with Phoebe (she is fine before any of you go into a panic). She was playing with Rhiannon and they decided to go up on to the top bunk of their bed and Phoebe leant over too far and fell about 1.5m to the floor and landed on her chin. She has a graze/friction burn on her chin and 2cm long cut on the inside of her bottom lip.

In 6 years we have taken Rhiannon to the hospital once, in just 3 years this now makes 4 times with Phoebe. Yes Mum before you say anything I know she is like me, accident prone.

Busy, Busy, Busy.

I took the girls to see “The Princess and the Frog” at the cinema Saturday morning.  It was good and the girls enjoyed it, although Phoebe got a bit fidgety for the last 20 minutes or so but I think that’s because she ran out of popcorn – note to future self don’t let her start on the popcorn till the film actually starts – she ate more than Rhiannon and I combined!

Then after doing the weekly supermarket shop and when Guy got back from work, yes another Saturday morning in work, we all went out for dinner to Spur which is a Tex Mex/Burger restaurant which the kids like because they have a kids area with a small bouncy castle, climbing wall (Rhiannon nearly made it to the top without any help)  and a slide. Guy and I like it because they have staff who look after the kids in the play area.

We were going to go to the beach after lunch but it was just too hot (32°C plus you add 3 or 4 degrees for the humidity factor) so we went to the pool instead.  Mum, you are going to be so proud of the girls, you said you wanted 2 water babies and while we’re not quite there yet they are coming along in leaps and bounds.

Just to put it into context, for those of you who don’t know, before Christmas Rhiannon screamed if she even got a bit of water splashed on her face, now, she jumps into the deep end of the pool with no one to catch her just an inflatable hoop round her middle. We bought her some goggles which I must admit I was a little dubious about but she goes right under the water, waves to Guy or I, gives us a big grin, and then comes back up and half the time she doesn’t even pinch her nose.

We’re still not great on the actual swimming but both girls are happy to “swim” round the pool with a hoop round their middle without Guy or I holding on to them.

Then in the evening Guy and I went to see Eddie Izzard (English stand up comic for those of you who don’t know) at the ICC in Durban. Most visiting comics, musicians etc tend to stick to just Jo’burg or Cape Town so woohoo to Eddie for coming to Durban. He is also back to being funny again which is a plus because a couple of years back in my opinion he lost the funny. My word, did he complain about the heat (in a humorous way) – the general thrust of his gig was as per usual the entire history of the planet with pot shots at the Bible, e.g. “there probably was a big flood and some bloke called Noah who built a boat, but the whole 2 by 2 thing just doesn’t work.  I mean, why hasn’t the Discovery Channel tried to do one of their historical recreations on this…”  Cue highly amusing ramblings about the press (including CNN and the BBC World Service) interviewing Noah and the animals as they come off the ark after 40 days and 40 nights of flood – or as Eddie put it “it’s really just 40 days isn’t it, you don’t normally book a hotel for, say, 4 nights and get asked if you want the 3 days as well”.

We got the DVD of this tour at Christmas but held off watching it until we saw him live so not sure if everything is the same, he did admit the first 10 minutes or so were mainly ad-lib but you can never tell with stand ups.  One of the funniest bits related to a deviation from a discussion on God talking to Moses via the burning bush to superheroes and the Fantastic Four.  “The Human Torch – says “Flame On” and bursts into flame, fair enough, but also gains the ability to fly.  You may as well be able to go “Cheese on”, transform into a being covered with cheese and have the ability to scuba dive!”

Anyway, we both thoroughly enjoyed it and reckon there must have been a fair few Brits in the audience, since several people got a reference he made to John Craven from Newsround (children’s news programme presenter of the 70s to late 80s).

Quiet day today I think although poor Guy is back in work again this morning and will be doing more work after we get back from going out for dinner again (too hot to cook). yes mum I will be going to the gym this week.

UPDATE:  Too hot to cook but we still had a roast dinner!

Okay, so I didn’t manage the next day but this isn’t too bad.

Not a lot happened the last couple of days; my only comment is to praise whoever invented air conditioning!  My goodness it’s hot.  We have also had some really impressive thunderstorms and unlike when Guy lived in Mobile where the daily deluge of rain lasted about 20-30 minutes, here it absolutely buckets it down from about 5pm to midnight.

Just remembered a Phoebe funny from when we first got back here after Christmas: The girls run in all excited, “oh there’s some presents to open”, says Rhiannon.  Phoebe on the other hand runs into the bathroom, sees the wooden stool we have in there so she can reach the sink, hugs it and says “oh I’ve missed you stool” and then proceeds to give it a kiss! I give up on what goes through that girl’s head.

Ps I have added some photos to an earlier post and I was looking through some old photos and found this one taken in May 2007 its so cute i thought i would post it

OK I have no excuses, I’m hopeless, (Sorry Mum) I will do better and try to remember to write something everyday.

So we’ve been back a couple of weeks and rather that trying to recap every thing from a very busy few weeks all in one go, I thought I would just try I tell you about it over the next few days.

Rhiannon and Phoebe both started school and don’t they look sweet on their first day. (Yes that enormous blue box Rhiannon is holding is in fact her lunch box)

Both girls seem to have settled in fairly well (at least once I’d explained to Phoebe after her first day that she had to go again the following day, she thought she went once and that was it!).

Rhiannon is enjoying swimming and having no problems with anything academically as the are only doing stuff she has already done at school in England.  Phoebe is exhausted and enjoying proving that she is nothing like her big sister, prime example being when I picked her up from school last Friday and she was completely filthy, her response to why she was so filthy “the boys made mud, and I jumped up and down in it”, I have washed that set of clothes 3 times now and the marks still haven’t come out because the mud is sandy and kind of dark orange.

Another update tomorrow I promises.

Birthdays, Christmas and New Year Oh My

OK, so I thought I should do at least 1 post while we are back in the UK.  (Guy believes I should have done more.)

In the weeks leading up to coming back to the UK we repeatedly told Rhiannon that it would be very cold but was unlikely to snow …  (will insert picture of girls playing in snow when I get back to SA.)

On the first morning we woke up in England 10cm of snow had fallen overnight.  She is never going to believe us again!

Slight excitement on the way over with our flight getting cancelled but luckily Guy’s work sorted it out and we were bumped onto the later plane and were only an hour later arriving in England so Mum and Charles got an extra hour in bed before they came to pick us up from the airport. Both girls behaved well on the flight so fingers crossed for the same going back.

Had fun for my birthday (no longer in my twenties sob, sob) – Mum bought tickets to the Cambridge Arts Pantomime, which is what we traditionally did for my birthday when I was a kid (and I still am in some respects).  It was very funny and despite us all being in the front row and two of us (Rhiannon and I) celebrating birthdays, the Dame decided to pick on Danielle throughout the proceedings (it was her own fault since the first time he/she came on stage Danielle laughed the loudest at his jokes). It was the first time Phoebe and Rohan had been to the theatre and both of them were very excited and thankfully behaved beautifully.  Phoebe was clapping and dancing in her seat throughout.

Present wise my 30^th will be remembered for my getting a karaoke game (We Sing) plus a pair of microphones for the Wii and taking great pleasure in beating my sister on it!   Rhiannon got a Disney karaoke game for the Wii so I expect we will be scaring the neighbours when we get back to Durban (thankfully the walls are brick so the sound doesn’t carry too much provided we keep the patio doors closed!).  Also got a couple of DS games and for Christmas a new camera (current one is okay but not compact), so expect more pictures being posted in the future.

Guy arrived on Rhiannon’s birthday (23^rd) after having similar fun with his flight.  In his case he checked in at Durban and despite when he checked 2 hours earlier everything looking okay, was told his flight from Johannesburg was delayed by 14 hours and he would be put up in a hotel.  On getting to Jo’burg he was actually put on the later flight the same as we had been and thanks to a tail wind on the flight was only 30 minutes late rather than 14 hours!

Rhiannon celebrated her birthday in suitable 6 year old style – dinner at Pizza Hut!  Her main presents had already been unwrapped in Durban – an interactive globe which tells you information on populations, national anthems, area, currency, leaders, etc., and includes quizzes to test knowledge.  She also got a Hannah Montana guitar but her favourite present appears to be a small toy cat which came with its own hairdryer!

We have had a great Christmas visiting family – on Christmas Eve I had the joy of driving Mum’s Ford Focus (my old car) from Harston to Taunton (220 odd miles) where we spent Christmas with Guy’s Mum and sister (and Tina’s dog Maggie).  We didn’t go out much the first couple of days because of the ice and bad weather so amused ourselves opening lots of presents and eating silly amounts of food.  Following Phoebe waking up every 20 minutes Christmas Day night Boxing Day was a bit of a wash out but we had fun on the 27^th going to “Cleary’s”, a farm park / small amusement park just outside Exeter.  We spent most of the day running after Rhiannon and Phoebe in the indoor play areas, chasing them through small gaps and down slides, over rope bridges and into ball pens.  So at least we can say we got some exercise! (will insert another picture)

We got back to Mum and Charles’ on Monday (28^th) and have had a couple of quiet days mainly playing card games and board games, having a quick go on Wii Sports Resort (they got a copy for Christmas as did we) and, well, eating even more!

Not sure what the next week and a half will bring (quite possibly a bit more snow!) but hopefully visiting Danielle, Martin and Rohan at some point (assuming they make it back from Stoke which looks like it might be under snow) and seeing Guy’s Dad next week (he gets back from a cruise on the 4^th so won’t see Guy who has to fly back on the 2^nd but will see his granddaughters).

Yesterday (30^th) managed a brief trip to Great Notley, delayed slightly after the M11 was shut due to escaped pigs!   The girls were very shy around Daniel, Tommy and Charlie but were fine on seeing Amy again.  A longer visit is planned for the 4^th of January to hopefully catch up with more people there.

New Year’s Eve will be spent playing more games here in Harston (Absolute Balderdash beckons for its annual airing!).  Hope everyone has a fun evening and all the best for 2010.

Let the lie ins begin!

Woo hoo! Today was Rhiannon’s last day of school, so for the next 5 weeks I don’t have to worry about getting 2 little monsters dressed, breakfasted and out of the house by 7.15am.  Unfortunately once those 5 weeks are up I then have to get 2 little monsters dressed, breakfasted and out of the house by 6.55am ahhh! Far too early to start school. On the plus side I can be back in bed by 8am and I have 4 blissful hours of me time.

Despite being in the Southern Hemisphere our ability to procrastinate has continued unabated.  Christmas cards were bought 3 weeks ago, but as noted in the last entry we only starting writing at the weekend and this year’s generic letter with obligatory picture of two very cute little girls only got finished on Monday – we’re posting the cards tomorrow!  With the Scudder females flying to England next Wednesday it’s likely the cards will only just arrive before Guy does the week after!

Guy’s leg is still misbehaving so he now has an appointment with an orthopaedic specialist since the drugs didn’t work (isn’t that a song).  Latest hypothesis is some form of “compression” or trapped nerves in the leg causing the muscle spasm.  Might have MRI scans to go with the x-rays come next week…worst case scenario the leg is still playing up in two weeks in which case Guy will attempt a free upgrade to business class!

The weather returned to generally wet by Wednesday.  It is apparently unusual to have the rainy season go on this long but maybe it’s our influence on things.  Since we were listening to Radio 2 over the internet this morning and heard about the “freezing weather” predicted in England next week heavy rain probably goes some way to acclimatising us for the return, although not really because even when its raining we are still running round in shorts and t-shirts.

Not much else to report other than Guy wanting to demonstrate his still juvenile sense of humour.  He saw a van for a parcel service (The Courier Guys, no relation) which had the slogan “We can’t wait to handle your package!” and found this amusing for some reason.

Ps Happy Birthday Charles hope you liked the Jib Jab we sent you and weren’t offended by being called old.

I can see clearly now the rain has gone

Nerny nerny ner ner we‘ve got sunshine! Yes, after nearly 2 weeks of solid rain summer seems to have arrived. The temperature jumped nearly 10 degrees over night (over 30ºC today), unfortunately the humidity has also soared. However, we are not going to complain that much since we have a pool and the ocean on our doorstep!

Owing to the under-attendance at the party last week and my baking blitz our pre-Christmas diet now consists mainly of healthy dinners surrounded by a large intake of birthday cakes, oat bakes and cup cakes – although we did offload some of the oat bakes and remaining Rocky Road on Guy’s work colleagues last Thursday.

Also last Thursday Rhiannon had another busy day. Early in the afternoon was the ballet group show (annoyingly her new school does not have a ballet class so we are looking around for a new one) and in the evening was the “Bring and Braai” (braai being the South African term for a barbecue) Grade R Christmas / Leaving Concert. It was a traditional English barbecue event, since the rain decided to start just as the coals got to the right temperature for cooking over!

The concert was one of those where you have to go “Aaaaah” several times – it consisted of a variety of shepherds, angels, kings (only 2 for some reason, the one on the scooter didn’t make it), a Mary, Joseph and the obligatory baby doll Jesus singing a range of carols and Christmas songs with what sounded like a 70s “Carols go Pop” backing track. There were no speaking parts per se but Rhiannon did get a starring role as the Angel Gabriel, opening her arms wide next to Mary and almost concussing one of the 2 Kings.

The rainbow of angels was quite entertaining, consisting as they did of red, yellow, pink, green, purple, orange and blue angels – proper education rightfully took second place to a rainbow song that allows for better rhyming! Yes Danielle that silly rainbow song I think I sang in virtually every pantomime with Mrs B.

The Grade R all got gifts at the end, consisting of pencil cases with the usual stationery range (Rhiannon seems to have collected enough in recent weeks to open up a branch of WHSmith) and T-Shirts with the names of everyone in the class printed on them – the names were written on the template by the children, Rhiannon’s name taking up quite a small space compared to others on the basis that she felt she had a long name so didn’t want to take up too much room. The sentiment is fine but based on some of the other efforts she could have been a bit more expansive.

Phoebe made the most of the “jungle gym” equipment before and after the concert. We warned the headmistress how much of a handful Phoebe would be and she told us that most parents made the same observation to her about their second children! We are hopeful that we can channel Boo’s energy into gymnastics and “play ball” in the new year. One of the other mums has promised me a number for Durban North Gymnastics Club – Nana Bow can vet it next time she is over!

Guy has somehow managed to injure himself without trying. Sometime during Thursday (definitely the most eventful day out of the last 4 or 5) he developed a pain in his hip and since that evening is now having muscle spasms and almost continuous pain from his right knee up round his thigh. After x-rays today it looks like it is not sciatica as the doctor thought on Saturday, but whilst good news it does mean the doctor isn’t sure what is causing it but has prescribed some one a day anti-inflammatories that would probably work on an elephant!

Over the weekend we finally started on the Christmas cards we were going to send last weekend! A shortage of decent printer paper has halted proceedings temporarily but we aim to get them posted Wednesday so they should just get to the UK ahead of the Scudder females who arrive back in 10 days on Thursday 17th December…not that we are counting down or anything!

The most excitement we had today was the air conditioning being serviced at long last (was due in August). Still, only just getting the hot weather for real so not too much of a problem…Did we mention it was hot and sunny here?!