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Appreciation of Life, Family and Friends

January 13, 2010

So here we are already 2 weeks into the New Year! Wow – time flies. I trust that everyone had a blessed Christmas and an enjoyable New Year celebration. I hope that 2010 brings you much happiness and success.

So much has happened in the time I’ve been away I’ve been struggling to decide what to blog about first. I decided to start the New Year off on a positive note and blog about friends, love and appreciation.

While we were away I was really battling with a signal of any sort. There is an Edge/GPRS signal in Badplaas but just barely. Vodacom did install a booster aerial but it causes more hassle than it’s worth. It boosts the signal from 2 bars to just about full Edge, but it also causes the signal to bounce between 2 towers which either results in total loss of signal and dropped calls or timeouts with internet. To say that I was frustrated with this state of affairs is an understatement of note.

However, as with all things in life there are lessons to be learnt. I spent quality time with my son. We swam, we played Scalextric, we fished, went looking for “goggas” and it was wonderful. I learnt to appreciate him as a child with his inquisitive mind and incredible insight all over again. What an awesome son I have. I also realised just how much my blog and twitter friends mean to me. Not being able to be a daily part of your lives was akin to being in jail. I felt cut off from the world and my friends. I was lonely and missed the daily interaction more than I anticipated.

While feeling sorry for myself, I would sit on the stoep in the early morning before the staff got to work and switched on music and vacuum cleaners, I would enjoy my coffee and do some bird watching. This is the view that I wanted to share with you on those glorious mornings.

View to the left of my chair

View to the right of my chair

There was a Kingfisher that used to sit in the tree opposite my chair and catch goggas. I didn’t really have the proper lens but I tried to get some shots of him to show you.

Kingfisher in the tree opposite my chair

During this time away I had lots of time for reflection. I learnt:

I love my son very much and he is truly the most precious gift I have ever received in life
I am blessed by having so many “cyber” friends in my life who show an interest and take time to talk to me and comment on my blog
No matter where I find myself in this world, despite any difficulties I might perceive I have, they are far outweighed by the blessings in that same situation
Above all, people matter. Words of encouragement or sympathy may seem so small, but they can change the course of someones day
Be quick to forgive and love, it will always result in blessings for you

Thank you my cyber friends for being a part of my life. I love and appreciate you all.

Tags: appreciation, family, friends, love
Posted in Personal | 5 Comments »

Christmas Day Celebrations

December 27, 2009

Christmas was very different from the norm for me this year. I did not spend it with family. Instead my son and I went to the bf in Badplaas. The bf’’s daughters joined us in Badplaas. The youngest was just a barrel of fun and got us properly into the Christmas spirit by pouring us “kersboompies”. Yes it was as hectic as it sounds. She found apple sours, which is green, and cherry sours, which is red and poured a shot of each into glasses. We were then instructed to pour them both into our mouth and shake our heads vigorously and then swallow. My goodness, it was a head rush of note. The vigorous shaking of our heads didn’t do much to keep us perched on our bar stools either. But it was loads of fun, we had good laughs and eventually got to bed at 01h30 Christmas morning.

My son woke at the crack of dawn, extremely excited that Father Christmas had actually found him and delivered his presents. After our Christmas Eve celebrations I was in no mood to get up, but I couldn’t disappoint my little man. He was totally spoilt. He’d asked Father Christmas for a remote controlled front end loader – which he got. The bf really went totally overboard and bought him a Scalextric set. It was so sweet to watch. He was so excited he could hardly contain himself and was jumping up and down like the energizer bunny. My saving grace though was that I had bought him Ice Age 3 on dvd. We had to charge the batteries for the front end loader (mercifully) and so the next best thing to do was to watch the dvd – with earphones on! I told him I had no clue how to put the Scalextric set together. I was lucky enough to score another hours sleep before having to get up and prepare for the Christmas lunch.

Joy beyond words when opening gifts

Christmas lunch was superb. The restaurant staff cooked and we took full advantage. I could totally get used to sitting outside enjoying some wine, and then being told lunch is ready and going into the restaurant and sitting down to a 3 course meal. The food was divine, and we ate our fill. Such a bonus – I didn’t even have to do dishes!!

Table Decorations

Enjoying good food, good wine & good company

After lunch the bf went to have an afternoon nap. Thank goodness, because he was not in a totally fabulous mood the morning, after the night before. The girls and I took our kids to the pool. Again much fun was had with pushing each other under water, giving each other “wedgies” and just generally fooling around. When the sun was setting daughter no 3 and I put together a few of the leftovers and took it to the pool where we all sat and carried on eating, drinking and having a totally rocking time.

My Son Swimming like a pro

All in all, it was a good day and I relaxed and had fun.

Tags: celebration, christmas, family, food, fun
Posted in Personal | 3 Comments »

Oberholzer Family Shoot

December 8, 2009

On Saturday I had the pleasure of doing a family shoot for Ronet and her family. Ronet won the shoot as a prize that I sponsored for the Cut of Africa Cut-a-Thon in aid of Pathways School. They have 2 beautiful teenage daughters who are so different. M was all “girly” in high heel shoes and prettily made up. D was more your typical teenager and dressed totally the opposite. But these girls have the most beautiful eyes and are incredibly photogenic. Once they relaxed, working with them was such a pleasure. I had the most wonderful time – truly lovely people.

Here are just a few of the shots that I took.