Xmas function

Last week we had Carl's company year-end function. Normally year-end functions are rather boring affairs simply to be endured, certainly not to be mentioned on a blog! This one, however, deserves to be shared....

We went river rafting on the Vaal River. While it is not the white water of the Zambezi, it was such a fun day out!! We were so lucky with the weather! The previous week it had been pouring with rain and maximum temps of only 12 degrees. We would've been VERY miserable! As it turns out, the sky was blue and temps went up to about 26 deg. Perfect!

We arrived there (near Parys) at 9am and had a nice brekkie. Afterwards, we donned our helmets (very sexy!) and life jackets and got loaded into an open truck for the very uncomfortable drive to the start of the rafting. Once we had been given a briefing by the guide, we were off!

If ever you want your staff to completely relax and throw off any facade - this it the outing!! It is impossible to look lovely with those helmets, and it is impossible not to just have fun - splashing other rafters, taking on the rapids (and falling out - Carl!!), throwing hyancinth at each other etc.!

We did about 12kms, and the last stretch took some serious effort. By which time we had completely worked off breakfast and were ready for lunch! After lunch, there were 'awards' and Xmas pressie giving, then we headed back home to JHB to retrieve our kids.

What a great day!

We're gonna be rich!

Yip. Last week Megan went out to work and brought home the bacon.

OK, that's not really the whole truth! Here's what actually happened:

The Grade 4's at the kid's school held a 3 day Entrepreneur's Sale. They could work alone or in groups and it was entirely up to them as to what to sell, how much to sell it for, how to advertise etc. etc.!

Megan worked with her two friends Ryan and Marco. They decided to call their stall MMR Claus (for Megan, Marco and Ryan). They even made up a song for their stall to the tune of 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town', which they then sang to the school to encourage them to come to their stall!!

Ryan's mom, Debby, runs a party business and as a result has many contacts in the Chinese Market world! Which means she was able to purchase a lot of stuff for very low prices! Then we all got together and the kids decided how much to sell each item for, they made a banner, and covered boxes in Xmas wrap for displaying the products. Interestingly enough, it was the cheaper items which enjoyed the bigger mark up. The biggest mark up was 208%, and the smallest was 29%. On average, they marked their products up by 96%.

Most of their stuff sold very well - takkie key rings were the first to go, followed shortly by syringe pens. The slowest items to move were the little rubic cubes. Luckily for this group, Debby bought back any unsold items at cost, so at least they didn't make a loss! Also, Debby let them sell some of her stock on consignment on the last day of the sale and they could keep the profit. I'm not sure real life is quite so accommodating!

The group managed to make a total profit of R531,30, which worked out to R177,10 for each of them. Which they get to keep and spend during the holidays!

It was fascinating to see some of the other stalls - one group raffled a MOUSE!! And apparently did very well! Other stalls sold fresh pancakes or pies; some had Xmas decorations, many had sweets, and toys; some sold jewellery and a couple were more action stalls - fishing or balloon popping for prizes.

All I know that it was a frenzy last week - with having Megan manning a stall, and Ali spending like a man with no tomorrow!

Not for the faint hearted!

Last post I told you about Gemma's dog fight. And told you about the incredible fact that there were no wounds to be seen!

On Thursday, Carl got home from work and pointed out that Gemma had a very swollen face, and on inspection, we could feel that there was a great big abscess under the skin where she had been bitten. So on Friday, I took her off to the Vet. On the way there, her abscess popped (fortunately she was in her crate, so it was quite contained!). And there for the world to see were two HUGE gaping holes!! I was mortified and kept telling the Vet that I had checked her so carefully and there were no wounds and what a terrible owner I am, blah blah. She listened to my confessions (Forgive me Dr. for I have sinned!), shaved the area, cleaned out the holes, gave her an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory and then told me what she thought.

Turns out, she believed me about the wounds story, but the bruising from the bite must have been so severe that the skin died, and an infection set in underneath, creating an abscess. Which created a whole lot of pressure, and so it popped through the weak points - the two bite wounds.

Hah! Vindicated!

I have to put in this picture, but my apologies for those of you with sensitive stomachs!!!

The 94.7

For those of you non-Joburgers out there, the 94.7 is a massive cycle race organised by our local radio station, 94.7 Highveld Stereo. The truth is that the race was actually 96.5km, but don't let the public know! So, Carl and my two brothers, Roland and Bruce, and 26 000 other crazy people took to the streets of Joburg for this race on Sunday 15 November (you can see it has taken me a while to get around to writing about it!). It was a clear, boiling hot Highveld day and by all accounts, the race was longer, steeper, hotter and tougher than last year, but apparently still enjoyed by all (OK, most!!). Carl did his race in 3:11 but was a bit disappointed as he was hoping to break 3hrs. To me, it was an excellent time, and the most important bit was that he beat my brothers! Not that we are comparing or anything!
Check out Carl leading the pack (OK, so you can't see the thousands of people in front of him, but anyway!). GO DELOITTE!!
For the spectators, it was great fun! We went up to a nearby water point and got to see all three men (plus thousands of others!) ride by. It is a great thing for Joburgers, because we spend so much time behind our high walls and electric fencing that we never really get out onto our streets! Sad but true!
The most dramatic moment came when our puppy Gemma got attacked by another Jack Russell and I could NOT get this dog to release her! What was more scary is that there were two other really big dogs right close by who also wanted to get in on the action and take a chunk out of our baby!! So, I was fighting off the two big dogs and at the same time trying to get Gemma away from the attacker. And let me tell you, Gemma was shrieking like she was being murdered!! It was terribly scary! The kids were crying, I was yelling and the dogs were snarling. Not nice! The minute I got her free of the other dog, we literally ran back to the car and hot-tailed it home. On arriving home, I cleaned and checked out Gemma from head to toe, and there ware no puncture wounds! Incredible! Did I say no puncture wounds? Well, I lied - only the wounds were on ME not her!!!! Turns out my foot got bitten (punctured), as well as my finger (bad bruising only). I only realised that once we were home! So, I then cleaned myself up, took a shower, popped two Rescue Tablets to calm myself and we headed off to Waterfall Estate to meet Carl at the end of the race! Whew! What a morning!

Here is Carl looking very lean and mean on his bike!

The Vaal (again!)

We have just enjoyed another pleasant weekend at the Vaal, this time with my folks, brother and his kids. The weather was once again fairly missy, but we did still get out on the boat. Austin skied like a champ, and Liam managed to get up, although not stay up! He gets a medal for trying though!!


I have to include this photo, which I took with my cell phone, of our other member of the family on the boat. She looks like she's ready for lift-off (Gemma, that is, not Megan!).

Other than that, we did some paddle-skiing, fishing, cycling, braai-ing, sleeping, eating, chilling!

Y'know, the usual!

The do-ers and the don't-ers

We had our school's White Elephant Sale this past weekend. Which means that for the past few months people have been bringing all their old junk (sorry, treasures!!) and dumping it in a trailer in the car park. Which had to be manned. And then the stuff had to be sorted. And then carried up to the store room above the church. And then resorted. Priced. Cleaned. Etc!!! Are you getting the picture?
The amazing thing is that the bulk of the work was done by so few people! Mom keeps telling me that's life and stop complaining, but it never ceases to amaze me how little some parents do for their kid's school! I get it that the working mom's can't exactly take time off during the day to do all the above mentioned work, but at least on the Saturday they could've come and helped with the selling. But no! I eventually had to corner people to ask for help, but they unashamedly said no, they have other commitments! Person after person after person.
The good news is that the sale was a great success and we made R54000!!! Megs and Ali each got R50 to spend for the morning, and that kept them amused for ages! Megan bought a Willard Price book on arrival, and pretty much spent the rest of the morning in her own little world (as usual!). Even I got some real bargains - so the whole thing was not a complete waste!
Thanks to those of you who donated stuff towards it!
OK - done grumbling!

A weekend at the Vaal

I saw something this weekend at the Vaal that I haven't seen before, in three years of going there......Yip, sunrise!!

Why, you may ask? Well, we took our puppy Gemma down with us. She slept in her crate in the kids' room, but at 5:15am I heard snuffling and decided that getting up at 5:15 was a lesser fate than getting up at 6am to a crate with a poo and a wee in it! So I quietly removed Gemma from her bed, and took her outside for her to do the necessaries. Which she did. And then I spent 45 mins playing with her, until the kids woke up and took over their duty. At which point, I returned to the place I should have been all along - my bed!

Saturday was very laid back (for me. Carl did a 92km training ride). We took the boat out and I had my first water-ski of the summer. Brrrr, the water was still pretty cold, and I am a total wimp. But I still had fun, and still popped out the water first time. As did Carl. The kids didn't even try.

On Sunday Carl had invited his work colleagues down for the day, which was pleasant, even though it was totally hectic (for me!). We decided to do all our entertaining, including braaing and eating, down by the water's edge. However, this involved carting all the required equipment down. Hmmm, very busy, especially when I kept forgetting things!!

I think they all had fun? Carl took some of them out on the boat, some kayaked, others just chilled.

Gemma had some time on the kayak and even had two swims - one on purpose (she lept off the front of the kayak) and the other by mistake (she lost her balance and fell off).

Mpumalanga

Those of you who read Roland's blog will have already heard about this trip. However, the people who went were clearly divided into two groups - those who cycle and those who don't!

Let me tell you about the weekend from the latter group's point of view!

Roland, Carl, Hennie and Jason decided to embark on a mad-cap, hare-brained idea of doing a cycling tour through Mpumalanga (yes, that of Robber's Pass fame!). Much excitement in the organising, and the time for the great 'tour de mpumalanga' arrived.

Carl went down on Thursday with Roland, Caron and Jason, along with the van der Merwes. I believe their accommodation and food was fabulous that night, although I cannot comment as I was not there! The next morning the little troupe of intrepid cyclists set off and cycled an obscene amount of kms up and down some obscenely steep passes (for those of you who really care, check out Roland's blog for the graphs of the routes and profiles - I kid you not!!).

However, the jury is still out as to who had a tougher day - I left JHB at 2pm, drove solidly on my own with the kids for 5 hours through JHB traffic, rain and past accidents to arrive in Graskop after dark. Fortunately, Carl and Roland came and met me in Graskop because the last little bit would have been very confusing. Whew! So, to add to my not-so-nice afternoon, I was confronted with the fact that we were sharing a tiny little wooden chalet (read VERY NOISY!) with Jason, whom we had never met. That wasn't so much the problem as the only toilet was en suite to Jason's bedroom!!! Those of you who know me, know that I am a girl who enjoys her luxury and privacy and here I had driven through hell and high water to be confronted with neither!! Anyway, once I was over the shock, it was super to be there. And it turns out Jason is a pretty nice guy after all!

I arrived with dinner (pre-prepared bolognaise - so I couldn't even have turned around and gone back home!!) which we all wolfed down and headed for bed, after enjoying some time sitting around the fire.

The next day the cyclists set off again and after some time reappeared, claiming that the weather was terrible and they had to change their route (naffs!). Once again, if you want the low down on the cyclists, refer to Roland's blog!

Those of us who stayed behind - Dee and her kids, and me with Megs and Ali, enjoyed what the accommodation had to offer (other than the toilet which I could now freely use before Jason returned from his cycle!!).

The chalets were on a working silk farm, so we did a tour of the farm.

The biggest saving grace, however, with 4 kids on a rainy day with not much to do, was the jacuzzi!! Lovely! They wallowed for hours while Dee and I chatted and read.

Caron escaped the chaos of the kids and chose rather to drive at a snail's pace behind the cyclists - for which we wives were extremely grateful!

Once the cyclists were back we did the obligatory visit to Harrie's Pancakes in Graskop, and then had a whopper of a braai in the evening!

The next morning was a disappointment for the cyclists because they had planned to go up Long Tom Pass, but the mist was just too thick and dangerous. Instead we converged on Dullstroom for lunch and wended our weary way home wards!

I fear that Carl had a super time and that this may be the first of many such weekends!

Mitzvah Prize Giving

Yet another Mitzvah event has been a highlight of my year, and a restorer of my faith in this crazy country of ours!!

Yesterday was our prize giving. And let me assure you, it was a prize giving like you've never seen before! The afternoon started with a series of songs, dances, poems and speeches done by the pupils. Then we had a speaker, a woman my age, who was one of the first students to go through the Mitzvah School. She spoke so well, and directly to the students - how she knows about their lives in Alex, she had the same up bringing and hardships, and yet, here she is, so successful, due to a combination of hard work, and SA being the land of opportunity! She said very firmly, that poverty is no longer an excuse to not do well in life!

Then all the prizes were handed out. It is always agony for me to decide on who should get a prize (other than the top student, that's easy!), and I always feel like I've let someone down by not choosing them. Anyway, the maths prizes were not the highlight of the afternoon (I know you can't believe it, but it's true!!). Rather, one of our boys who is a Geography boff has been given a scholarship to study town planning, with his tuition in first year paid for, as well as tuition and work experience for his second year. This boy's mother was so over-whelmed that once the bursary was awarded she went up to the stage, and weeping, threw her arms around the man who awarded the bursary. Well, there was hardly a dry eye in the house!

The school was also so lucky to have been given four bursaries from Boston College (3 x R10 000 and 1 x R15 000!) which were awarded to some top achievers. Boston is fantastic as it offers heaps of short courses which, if not these pupil's final destination, is an incredible start to their lives! Lastly, our dux scholar was awarded a full bursary from a company called ZenProp, which covers tuition, books and a living allowance for 3 years for the course of her choice!! Itumeleng, who received the prize, is such a hard worker and has been so determined this whole year, that I really hope that she manages University. She has all the right ingredients!

What an inspiring and quite overwhelming afternoon! Once again, I wish more of you out there could experience this slice of South Africa which fills my heart with JOY and HOPE!!

At long last!

Now, don't you go falling over. I am finally posting some news that is not all about my PETS!!! I have started to get that life I was talking about!

We did alterations to our house last year, and I got the builder to build us a lovely stone fountain in our new backyard, which I was going to mosaic.

OK, so it took me a year, but it is finally done! I am very pleased with the final product!

Deja vu

Now that we have only one puppy to watch, we are noticing some alarming similarities between Trixie and Gemma.

One of Trixie's most characteristic poses has always been lying on top of Lucy. We are pretty used to seeing it now, but whenever we have new guests, they are always amazed!

So, blow me down if young Gemma does not do EXACTLY the same thing... lie on Lucy as if she were her own portable rug. Incredible! Other than that, Gemma is settling down well without her siblings around. She went to her first puppy training lesson this week, and I'm not sure who was more in control - Megs or Gemma?

While I'm on the subject of pets, I have GREAT news about Grumpy Jack! He has been adopted by my VERY WONDERFUL friend Lesley and her kids, Cayley and Matthew. He was driving us so crazy that we couldn't handle him any more. Les has an aviary and agreed to give it a try having Grumpy in there. Well, that jolly old codger has weaseled his way into the cage of their inside cockatiels, and has taken a particular shine to one of them! Les assures me that all is well - I hope it stays that way! In a weird way, I miss him (after all, look at how much trouble I went to to catch him that time he escaped!) but I think he, and us, are much better off now. I'm not so sure about Les? I hope its not the end of the friendship!!!

and then there was one

They are gone! My babies have flown the coop and gone to their separate homes, and all we have left is little Gemma, Megan's baby. Here they are yesterday having a quick last drink before heading out into the big wide world!
Tracker went to Megan's friend Marco, and his sister Gabby.








Thato (now Scamp) and Ntombi (now Rosie) went to Ryan and Bryn.

Today, Mary Anne (a friend of Heidi's) came with her family to fetch Jigsaw (now Bolt) for her son Daniel.

So, while we are so thrilled with their new homes, and are so lucky to have found such good homes for all of them, I am feeling very heart-sore. These babies completely took over our lives (mostly mine!) for 2 months and now I think I have empty nest issues.

Admittedly, one puppy is a whole lot more manageable than 5, but somehow the house seems so quiet.

To answer those who are wondering - NO, I will not do this again. I am taking Trixie to be spayed in the next month or so. However, I have promised Megan that when Gemma is around 3, she can have a litter of puppies with her (I think I will have recovered by then!!).

Thank you to all of you who have shared in the development of these little guys - the highs and the lows.

Now I guess I'm going to have to get a life!

time marches on....

I cannot believe that we have only a week and a half left with our babies! What ever am I going to write in my blog????

They are now 6 and a half weeks old. I know many breeders sell their puppies at this age, but we really feel that 8 weeks is a much better option (beside, we couldn't bear to get rid of them now!).

Needless to say, they just get cuter and cuter!! The pen (as mentioned earlier) is working like a charm! They love being in there! And now, instead of carrying them all to the pen, we call them, and we have 5 little brown and whites with waggly tails following us! We are also letting them cruise around the back yard and in the house a bit more which, while wonderful, is a good indication of how far they really are from being house trained! I think it will be a relief when we have only one little one's poos and wees to clean up. 5 is pretty hectic!

The only time they are ever still is when they are asleep!

(Right) Megan's little Gemma having fun with my camera strap (hence slightly out of focus!!)

Dikhololo

Contrary to popular belief, we have not spent our ENTIRE month staring at our puppies - just most of it! For the rest, we have had my sister Heidi and her kids out from the UAE, and have actually been doing quite a few activities (Science Museum, Lion and Rhino Park, the Vaal, a day at Mount Grace spa (Heidi and I only!!) etc).

But, a highlight of her time here was our week at Dikhololo, which is a Nature Reserve outside Brits. Another highlight was that Heidi's husband, Darrell, flew out for the week as a complete surprise to everyone!

As it is a Nature Reserve, we were able to go for long bike rides through the reserve, and come within metres of giraffe. kudu, impala, eland etc while on our bikes. Quite an awesome experience! There were 14 of us who went out on bikes each morning - all from the same family (my brother Bruce, and his 3 kids, Heidi and Darrell and their three, Carl and I and our two, and my Dad!). Many passers-by thought we were a church group! Last year, we had no Darrell or Carl, and we were very cross with ourselves for not telling interested parties that we were actually a Mormon family and Charmaine, Heidi and I were Bruce's three wives! Darn! This year, there were too many husbands to get away with that story!

Other than the bike rides, we enjoyed the heated super-tube, and heated indoor pool, putt-putt, tennis, walks, birding, reading etc etc.

I highly recommend Dikhololo as a fabulous family getaway! Thanks to mom and dad who made the whole thing possible! Needless to say, we took up a lot of chalets!

TOO MUCH POOP!!!

Yes, Trixie is officially no longer our very handy poop scoop! I am! However, after an innocent conversation with my friend Katy about her mom's puppies being in a pen in the garden, a light bulb went on in my head, and yesterday, it was action stations at our house! Megan and I went to fetch a spare kennel from my folks, and some mesh from the Hardware store, while Carl and Ali went to buy some ready-to-lay grass. We then converted one of my future vegetable garden patches into an outdoor playpen for puppies! Hurray! They seem to be getting the hang of this pooping on the grass thing! We do bring them in over night, but it has halved the mess!

Puppies are now 4 weeks!

After our very sad week last week, I have to report to you that our 5 remaining puppies are just getting CUTER and CUTER!! It is incredible that in just one week, each pup is now mobile, starting to eat solids (hurrah, I can hear Trixie cry!), and getting a personality (or is it doganality???) of their own! Poor Trixie is no longer just a feeding/poop cleaning machine anymore, she is now officially a TOY! With many nice bits to chew on - ears, teats, legs etc. Not to mention all the chewing/play fighting amongst the puppies themselves. There is no respect for the sleeping - if one wants to play, they all play! However, there is a great flurry for about 5 minutes, and then they all crash!

Of course, there are down sides to this stage... Trixie is simply not keeping up with all the mess created by these growing 5, and so much cleaning/replacing of newspaper is required by us!

Our biggest baby, Thatu, now weighs 1.24kg! Well done Trixie!

I am also happy to report that we are over-subscribed for homes for them (us being one of them - Megan has chosen Gemma for her own)!

A very sad day

As you should know by now, if you've been following our blog recently, Trixie had 6 of the most beautiful puppies ever born.

Tragically, one little girl, Wesidudla, died yesterday, after falling off my niece's lap. It was very traumatic for everyone - I was by myself with the kids so had to load all 4 kids into car, plus puppy and race to the vet. Unfortunately, she was already dead by the time we got there. As to the exact details, it's hard to say, but it is just one of those awful, unexplainable accidents. I am torturing myself with 'if only I had' or 'if only I hadn't', which is no real help to anyone, as it doesn't change anything.
As you can see from this photo, she was really deserving of her name 'hey fatty'!!

Anyway, we are still blessed to still have our 5, who are growing and thriving!

Mitzvah Matric Dance

Carl and I attended the Matric Dance for the school at which I teach, The Mitzvah School, on Saturday night. For those of you who don't know, it is a school for underprivileged students (sorry, lenners), from Alexandra Township, started up, and mainly sponsored by the Jewish Community (hence the name, Mitzvah, which actually means 'good deed'). This Matric Dance is a highlight of their year, and even the poorest students manage to find the money to come along. The school has a cupboard groaning with donated evening dresses, suits, shoes and bags, so the pupils can get a stunning outfit for free, and return it once the dance is over. All the pupils transform from Cinderella's and Frogs into handsome Princesses and Princes! Honestly, the transformation is remarkable (esp since half of them wear wigs or have their hair braided for the night and it is so difficult to recognise them!!).
The amazing thing about the dance, and which is why I am bothering to write about it on my blog, is the wonderful attitude of the students. When I had my school matric dance, the teachers were to be greeted, and then avoided at all costs! These kids are quite the opposite. I don't think I've ever smiled for so many photos with my pupils (I mean, with the MATHS teacher, who would ever have thought??), and even on the dance floor, the kids just accepted, and included these weird, poorly co-ordinated white teachers of theirs with such warmth and enthusiasm!
I know everyone is prone to gloom and doom about SA, and to be sure, there is plenty to be gloomy about, but these kids raise my hopes for the future of this country! If only everyone could be exposed to this positive side of SA!

An update....

The arrival of our babies has taken over our lives! Not that they are any work for us yet (Trixie does everything, for now!), but we find ourselves sitting and staring for ages on end, just not able to tear ourselves away and actually do anything useful! The timing couldn't be better, because the children are on holiday, so whiling away the time watching puppies is a great holiday activity!
You may not think that anything else exciting has happened in our lives, but actually, we are enjoying a visit from my sister and her kids from Abu Dhabi, but you know, that does pale somewhat in comparison to our babies (sorry Heidi!!!).

They've arrived!

For those of you who have been waiting with baited breath for Trixie's puppies to arrive, and even for those of you who haven't, they all arrived safely from 12:30am onwards, on Wed 29 July. We woke the kids up for the great event (well, it wasn't so great for Trixie, I don't think!), and we all watched, agog, with the wonder of mother nature, and the miracle of life that unfolded before us! Trixie was the consummate mother and did everything just perfectly, as did her pups. And they didn't even have a hand book/website/gyne/paediatrician to consult. It does make one pause to wonder, if, with all our information and modernisation, we humans have completely lost the natural instinct of having children?

The two boys (Carl and Ali) faded after pup number 2, as there was nearly a 2 hr wait between #2 and #3, and I think the boys just ran out of enthusiasm! Megan and I sat patiently waiting it out. # 3 and #4 arrived only 7 minutes apart, and, on seeing how peaceful Trixie was, we declared 'show over' and went to bed (about 3:30am). Only to wake up the next morning to not 4 but 6 beautiful and perfect little pups!! Well done Trixie!

They have now all been named and are weighed on a daily basis. Two have already put on 50% of their birth weights. Their names, in birth order, are: Tracker (male); Wesidudla (female - meaning 'hey, fatty' in Zulu! Carl calls me that, he's dead!!); Thathu (male - meaning three, as he was born third, and happens to have 3 spots on his back!); Jigsaw (male - named after a jigsaw shaped spot on him); Ntombi (female, meaning 'girl' in Zulu) and lastly Gemma (female, after a diamond shaped spot on her head).
Aren't we the luckiest family?

Skiing - Africa style!

We have just returned from a fabulous weekend skiing in Lesotho.

For those of you who have never been to Lesotho, may I suggest that you add it to your list of '50 things to do before I die'. Lesotho is known as the Mountain Kingdom, and the drive into the resort is one of the most spectacular (and nerve wracking!!) I have ever had! Lesotho is also a classic example of rural Africa (at its best and worst) and I am pleased to report that the resort itself, is slightly more sophisticated than the huts pictured below!

We were also lucky enough to be joined by Carl's folks (yes, I am serious - I've got great in-laws!) who joined us from the Natal side - driving up Sani Pass and into Lesotho from that direction. For those of you who had a trip like that planned on your list of '50 things to do before you die', I suggest you remove it asap, unless, of course, you would like to change your list to: 'the last thing I did before I died'!!! By all accounts, the road was absolutely dreadful and completely isolated. Carl was about to get into the car and go searching for them because they took so long to arrive. And, of course, no cell phone signal! Fortunately, they arrived safely, but had the wisdom to exit Lesotho in the North which, while further in distance, was a much safer and quicker drive.

We also had with us the daughter of family friends of ours, Fhionna, who is out from Scotland on a holiday, and we invited her to join us.

Lesotho does not have enough snow to ski on (plenty all around) but is cold enough to keep it, so the snow on the ski slope itself is made from snow cannons. Which is just as good as the real thing.

Other than a serious problem with our accommodation (the agent double booked our chalet, but fortunately there was a spare one, so we weren't forced to camp in sub-zero temps!!), we had the time of our lives! Saturday was very busy so we had long waits at the T-bar. 20 mins wait to ascend, 1 min descent. Sad hey? On Sunday the crowds thinned, and by Monday we skied straight to the front of the queue and headed back up.

Fhionna, being 22, sampled the night life of Afri-ski and made some good friends along the way. Somehow she managed to get herself free snowboarding lessons while we were there, and was then invited to stay on with these friends until Thursday. Carl and I felt like over-protective parents and haven't stopped worrying since we drove away on Monday. However, she is a young adult, and I don't think such a fabulous opportunity comes knocking everyday. Oh to be young and live spontaneously!

It was such a super time! But, back to reality with a bump. We now excitedly await Trixie's puppies which are due any time now.

Good news!

If you recall a few articles ago, I mentioned that we were hoping to have a litter of puppies with our Jack Russell, Trixie. I'm pleased to announce that Trixie is with child(ren). We returned home from our half-term break, and discovered a very chubby, slightly subdued little Trixie! We're thrilled, but I'm not sure she knows what she's in for! However, she's getting lots of love and attention from us, and I don't hear her complaining!
Will keep you posted - due date is about the 28th July!

Megan's Contribution...

[newspaper article]
BREAKING NEWS!!!!
Hamster steals bombs!
Apparently, a hamster called Pip, in the grade 4T class, Kings College and Preparatory School, Gauteng, South Africa, is illegally hiding tiny bombs in his toilet roll. It appears he is sneaking out of his cage at night, and robbing the local explosives store. Nobody knows why he is doing it, but we have some suggestions, like he is an evil mastermind, his cage is too small, so he is trying to blow it up to give himself more space, and, he thinks dynamite will make class more fun. We are still trying to find out why he is doing it. The whole of grades 4 and 5, are not allowed to go to school, in case the bombs are set off. Pips very words were: 'squeak, squeak, squeak!' We think he pleads 'not guilty'. You will be informed if we find out any more about this case.

By Megan
This article was inspired by the grade 4T's new class hamster, Pip.

Worst mother of the year....

That title has to go to me after today. I would challenge other mothers to beat this, but that would mean a whole lot of kids out there fearing for their lives!!!
I was de-scaling my iron in the kitchen while the kids were hanging around. I squirted with the squirty button and Ali responded with a 'hey, that's cool, mom'. And so, you will NOT BELIEVE what I then did..... I pointed the squirty thing at him and squeezed, thereby squirting a large amount of descaler right into his eyes! I have been known to do stupid things, but this one pretty much takes the cake (other than the time I let Ali, age 2 or 3, eat a hard boiled sweet, on which he choked and I thought he was going to die there and then - remember that Girls???).
So, once he started writhing in pain, and I realised what I had done, it was straight to the sink for some serious flushing. It didn't work so well with the water running, so I ran a sink and made him submerge his head and do a lot of underwater blinking. Problem was, that involved coming up for breath, so I went and got his snorkel, and there was Ali, bent double over the kitchen sink with his head underwater and breathing through his snorkel!
Bent double, as I'm sure you are with laughter at the picture of what was happening in my kitchen today!
Anyway, he seems OK now. The doctor said to monitor him and bring him in tomorrow if he is in pain.
Fortunately, I have Carl for a husband who made a comment along the lines of:
'oh well, at least the scales have fallen from his eyes!'.
I always warned Carl that things are most likely to go wrong on my watch!

Meg's Birthday

As mentioned in the post before this, Meg turned 10 last week. So, Saturday was the great party. I am delighted to report that as they get older, the parties get better and better. As in, fewer and fewer kids and the ability to do more interesting things with them. Hooray, no more enormous parties where catering for the moms is more stressful than having forty 3 year olds trashing your house!!!

Megan chose Sci Bono as her party venue of choice this year, which, over and above being a great venue, is FREE on weekends! For those who don't know, Sci bono is a hand's on science museum in Newtown (central JHB). The drive there is pretty dodgy, but once there, what a place! My folks joined us, and there were 8 kids in total ( so a 2:1 ratio of kids:adults - not bad!).

There are so many displays involving magnetism, electricity, sound, brain teasers etc etc. Carl felt that the kids didn't exactly get the ultimate learning experience out of each display (and said on more than one occasion that he can see why they make these displays tough!) but the kids had a blast. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking:

The squonky mirror is always a hit!

Ryan and Louise trying to get the stick from one end to the other without setting off the alarm.

The kids load testing the suspension bridge!

This picture looks weird, but Ali and Louise are playing 'virtual soccer'.

Marco making a picture out of magnets and the other trying to guess what it is.

The ultimate highlight! A Murray and Roberts house to build out of foam bricks and cement. Much co-operation was required and it was fun to watch the kids sort themselves out! Not much intervention required (except to stop blood being drawn, of course!).

I think fun was had by all!!