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!!!