Okay well that is it for me for this year... in a few hours I'll be on a plane heading north (more or less). If I have access to a pc I'll post updates, but I am planning on spending my time on other things.
Hope you all had a terrific Christmas and all the best for the New Year.
See you in 2007.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
'Tis the season to be silly... tra la la lala
I have been on leave for a week now and for most people leave is a time for them to unwind, slow down, relax and recharge... however my week has been one of the most chaotic I have had in a while. Seeing as I will be away for 2 weeks I have been spending as much time as I can with my kids this week which has included everything from my boys birthday party, Carols by Candlelight, shopping, movies, clay cafe, beach, swimming, aquarium and everything inbetween.
I AM EXHAUSTED.
My little angel was spoilt as usual, gifts galore and a cake he loved. I have been trying to upload a pic of him with his cake but as yet blogger aint playing with.
Carol's by Candlelight is a yearly event at Kirstenbosch and a Cape Town institution. Every year about a week before Christmas thousands upon thousands of people congregate in the beautiful gardens in the spirit of the season. Anyone who lives in this beautiful city or visits it over the festive season, and has not yet attended this spectacle truly does NOT know what they are missing.
This is the third year running that I have gone, and the second that I have taken my kids along, and it is now becoming a family tradition. It normally runs for 4 consecutive evenings around the 16th of December. We arrived on Sunday evening around 6PM with a full picnic and heading off to meet with the friends waiting for us, and were confronted with the sight of people lined all the way up the hill and back down behind us waiting to get in. IT WAS PACKED. Everyone having a festive time... eating, drinking and merry making were definitely the order of the day (or night). Around 8PM, conveniently also around sunset, candles are lit and the carols are underway... led by the Cape Town Concert Brass Band and the Cape Town Male Voice Choir. What a sight to behold... thousands of candles swaying to the sound of carols being belted out by everyone there. If you haven't yet gone... GO NEXT YEAR... you will NOT regret it.
The Clay Cafe in hout bay is another fantastic spot to take your kids, or yourself, if you are looking to be creative for an afternoon. It is a pottery studio up on the hill overlooking the hout bay valley and over to the ocean where they make, paint and sell delightful african theme pottery. They also have a cafe where you can go and paint your own. You pay for the bisque and get 3 paint colours to use and then your imagination does the rest. Once you have created your masterpiece they fire it for you and then you return to collect your piece 2 weeks later. The kids absolutely LOVE it. They even cater for birthday parties... which is how we were first introduced to it. Another must do if you are in Cape Town.
Otherwise I am UBER excited about the upcoming trip, and if I am honest a little anxious. I know it is going to be great, fantastic, an experience to remember forever... however this is the first time that I will be leaving the kids for that amount of time... and it is the first time that I will be traveling alone (once there I will be meeting with a friend) but I have to get myself half way around the world by myself. And although I know I have nothing to be anxious about and that I am more than capable of looking after myself, I am still a little anxious. And then to top it all off... I checked the weather forecast for Jordan and Syria and I AM GOING TO FREEZE MY BACKSIDE OFF. When everyone else is coming to Cape Town at this time of year to bask in the 28 deg sunshine everyday... I will be leaving it to go to temp's of between -5 and 15 deg. Layering, it is all about layering :)
I AM EXHAUSTED.
My little angel was spoilt as usual, gifts galore and a cake he loved. I have been trying to upload a pic of him with his cake but as yet blogger aint playing with.
Carol's by Candlelight is a yearly event at Kirstenbosch and a Cape Town institution. Every year about a week before Christmas thousands upon thousands of people congregate in the beautiful gardens in the spirit of the season. Anyone who lives in this beautiful city or visits it over the festive season, and has not yet attended this spectacle truly does NOT know what they are missing.
This is the third year running that I have gone, and the second that I have taken my kids along, and it is now becoming a family tradition. It normally runs for 4 consecutive evenings around the 16th of December. We arrived on Sunday evening around 6PM with a full picnic and heading off to meet with the friends waiting for us, and were confronted with the sight of people lined all the way up the hill and back down behind us waiting to get in. IT WAS PACKED. Everyone having a festive time... eating, drinking and merry making were definitely the order of the day (or night). Around 8PM, conveniently also around sunset, candles are lit and the carols are underway... led by the Cape Town Concert Brass Band and the Cape Town Male Voice Choir. What a sight to behold... thousands of candles swaying to the sound of carols being belted out by everyone there. If you haven't yet gone... GO NEXT YEAR... you will NOT regret it.
The Clay Cafe in hout bay is another fantastic spot to take your kids, or yourself, if you are looking to be creative for an afternoon. It is a pottery studio up on the hill overlooking the hout bay valley and over to the ocean where they make, paint and sell delightful african theme pottery. They also have a cafe where you can go and paint your own. You pay for the bisque and get 3 paint colours to use and then your imagination does the rest. Once you have created your masterpiece they fire it for you and then you return to collect your piece 2 weeks later. The kids absolutely LOVE it. They even cater for birthday parties... which is how we were first introduced to it. Another must do if you are in Cape Town.
Otherwise I am UBER excited about the upcoming trip, and if I am honest a little anxious. I know it is going to be great, fantastic, an experience to remember forever... however this is the first time that I will be leaving the kids for that amount of time... and it is the first time that I will be traveling alone (once there I will be meeting with a friend) but I have to get myself half way around the world by myself. And although I know I have nothing to be anxious about and that I am more than capable of looking after myself, I am still a little anxious. And then to top it all off... I checked the weather forecast for Jordan and Syria and I AM GOING TO FREEZE MY BACKSIDE OFF. When everyone else is coming to Cape Town at this time of year to bask in the 28 deg sunshine everyday... I will be leaving it to go to temp's of between -5 and 15 deg. Layering, it is all about layering :)
Friday, December 15, 2006
Holidays, cakes and tattoo's
YEAH, today is my last day at the office, I am already in holiday mode. I won't see the inside of this place for another 3.5 weeks. HELL YES, this is long overdue.
Last Sunday the weather and water conditions turned out to be perfect and so we managed to go diving after all. Man it was great to be in the water again. We went to Oudekraal with a few other new divers (it was their very very first ocean dive) so a great way to get back into the swing of things as we took it very easy. The water was perfect with about 10m of visibility, however this also meant that it was quite cold (11 deg to be precise)... thank God for the 7ml two-piece wetsuit that attempted to keep me above freezing level. We also had the pleasure of seeing a baby electric ray... very rare to catch of glimpse of these around here, and if it wasn't for our dive instructors keen eye we would have missed it completely. Plans are to go again this Sunday... let's hope the weather plays along as it is the last chance I have before going away.
11 days to go... 11 days to go... 11 days to go... soon I'll start counting the hours, then minutes. I am soooooooo excited, although I realised yesterday that I need to stock up my winter wardrobe... but where do you think I can get winter clothes at this time of year (remember we in sunny South Africa are in the full swing of summer). When most people come here to escape the cold and snow I am doing the exact opposite. Oh well.. that is my mission for next week... find some winter clothes.
As for tonight... it will be taken up by baking the big-boy a birthday cake for the party tomorrow. He keeps changing his mind though as to what kind of cake he wants... so has left it to me to surpise him. I will post some pictures here once it is done.
Then finally... the tattoo hunt. I have found a few options but am still struggling to make up my mind. So... I am seeking input from all of you as to which one you like most... .I am leaning more and more to no. 9 (the numbers are beneath the images). I also quite like the Kanji symbols here.
Last Sunday the weather and water conditions turned out to be perfect and so we managed to go diving after all. Man it was great to be in the water again. We went to Oudekraal with a few other new divers (it was their very very first ocean dive) so a great way to get back into the swing of things as we took it very easy. The water was perfect with about 10m of visibility, however this also meant that it was quite cold (11 deg to be precise)... thank God for the 7ml two-piece wetsuit that attempted to keep me above freezing level. We also had the pleasure of seeing a baby electric ray... very rare to catch of glimpse of these around here, and if it wasn't for our dive instructors keen eye we would have missed it completely. Plans are to go again this Sunday... let's hope the weather plays along as it is the last chance I have before going away.
11 days to go... 11 days to go... 11 days to go... soon I'll start counting the hours, then minutes. I am soooooooo excited, although I realised yesterday that I need to stock up my winter wardrobe... but where do you think I can get winter clothes at this time of year (remember we in sunny South Africa are in the full swing of summer). When most people come here to escape the cold and snow I am doing the exact opposite. Oh well.. that is my mission for next week... find some winter clothes.
As for tonight... it will be taken up by baking the big-boy a birthday cake for the party tomorrow. He keeps changing his mind though as to what kind of cake he wants... so has left it to me to surpise him. I will post some pictures here once it is done.
Then finally... the tattoo hunt. I have found a few options but am still struggling to make up my mind. So... I am seeking input from all of you as to which one you like most... .I am leaning more and more to no. 9 (the numbers are beneath the images). I also quite like the Kanji symbols here.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
My Baby is 4 today
I cannot believe just how quickly the last 4 years have passed by. I must be doing something right though to have such a wonderful little angel in my life.
Happy Birthday My Boy
Friday, December 08, 2006
Searching for Inspiration
Maybe it is just this time of year and my brain is slowly shutting down in preparation of the upcoming holiday (YEAH)... maybe it is the combination of too many functions (read alcohol) and not enough sleep... but I have been struggling to come up with any decent topics to write about and hence the SILENCE for the last week. Anyway, I am just going to ramble on here a bit about the goings on, or lack thereof, lately.
Well, as of last Friday, we are officially part of the B.I.G-Fish company and it is pretty much business as usual, except that they seem to be having some difficulty getting me onto their network which means that the WEALTH of information etc that is supposedly available for us is still out of my reach. Business as usual also means that I am once again left with NOTHING to do. We had started working on a new release of our project - as we had nothing else to do and instead of sitting here warming up the chairs we thought we would get some constructive work done knowing full well that the contract would eventually get signed as it is a rather critical project. HOWEVER B.I.G-Fish has decided to review all contract information and has told us to stop all work on this until it is signed.... expected D-Day for the big signing is end January (MAYBE). Thank God I only have one more week to sit here being a human-chair-warmer.
I am now getting extremely excited about my upcoming holiday. I'll be spending a week at home with the little'uns before Christmas and then on 26 December - off into the great blue yonder for 2 WHOLE WEEKS... Just me... No kids... No BEFH... No Work... No Nothing. This is soooo long overdue.
Oh... on another note... my wayward dive instructor got hold of me again this week. Now this is a LOOOOONG story, but basically I started a course early last year and just never finished it... for various reasons. I have done all the dives required with him and more... and had all but one lecture to complete and then to write the exam. Well he is now running another course that I am slotting into. This meant lectures last night to cover the topics I hadn't done yet, weather permitting a dive on Sunday and then the exam next Tuesday. I just realised this is the first time I have mentioned my diving here... that might be becuase the last time I got in the water was in February (long before I started this blog). I LOVE IT. It is one of the most amazing experiences I have had (and could ever have). To be under the water with only yourself (and your buddy), the peace and tranquility, the life... all you hear is the sound of your own breathing and maybe the occasional speed boat... It is truely amazing.
As for the upcoming weekend... busy busy busy again... starting this afternoon. Our team is having a end of year spit braai (the last in the silly-season-work-functions for me). Then tomorrow, myself and Ms C are going for a pamper session complete with facials and manicures/pedicures... this is my treat to her (and myself) as it was her birthda last week. Then on Sunday a dive if the water looks good... and inbetween all this I need to recap on all my dive notes in preparation for the exam on Tuesday.
Okay, well that is enough of my rambling for now :)
Well, as of last Friday, we are officially part of the B.I.G-Fish company and it is pretty much business as usual, except that they seem to be having some difficulty getting me onto their network which means that the WEALTH of information etc that is supposedly available for us is still out of my reach. Business as usual also means that I am once again left with NOTHING to do. We had started working on a new release of our project - as we had nothing else to do and instead of sitting here warming up the chairs we thought we would get some constructive work done knowing full well that the contract would eventually get signed as it is a rather critical project. HOWEVER B.I.G-Fish has decided to review all contract information and has told us to stop all work on this until it is signed.... expected D-Day for the big signing is end January (MAYBE). Thank God I only have one more week to sit here being a human-chair-warmer.
I am now getting extremely excited about my upcoming holiday. I'll be spending a week at home with the little'uns before Christmas and then on 26 December - off into the great blue yonder for 2 WHOLE WEEKS... Just me... No kids... No BEFH... No Work... No Nothing. This is soooo long overdue.
Oh... on another note... my wayward dive instructor got hold of me again this week. Now this is a LOOOOONG story, but basically I started a course early last year and just never finished it... for various reasons. I have done all the dives required with him and more... and had all but one lecture to complete and then to write the exam. Well he is now running another course that I am slotting into. This meant lectures last night to cover the topics I hadn't done yet, weather permitting a dive on Sunday and then the exam next Tuesday. I just realised this is the first time I have mentioned my diving here... that might be becuase the last time I got in the water was in February (long before I started this blog). I LOVE IT. It is one of the most amazing experiences I have had (and could ever have). To be under the water with only yourself (and your buddy), the peace and tranquility, the life... all you hear is the sound of your own breathing and maybe the occasional speed boat... It is truely amazing.
As for the upcoming weekend... busy busy busy again... starting this afternoon. Our team is having a end of year spit braai (the last in the silly-season-work-functions for me). Then tomorrow, myself and Ms C are going for a pamper session complete with facials and manicures/pedicures... this is my treat to her (and myself) as it was her birthda last week. Then on Sunday a dive if the water looks good... and inbetween all this I need to recap on all my dive notes in preparation for the exam on Tuesday.
Okay, well that is enough of my rambling for now :)
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