Dec 06 - December Parties

The Shell year end function had a casino theme so we all had to get dressed up, black tie for the men. Graham looks rather dashing!!!

Of course, being a Shell function, there has to be a Ferrari thrown in somewhere.

After the Shell function, it was Nat's 30th (Nat is my mad Ozzie friend and colleague). She had an 80s theme party and it was quite embarrassing as Graham and I were the only ones who lived and jolled through this decade but could not remember what we used to dress like? (great fashionistas we are ). Nat's hubby was in Ghostbusters kit, Nat was a roller skating princess and Emily (Nat's cousin) was a happy 80s girl.

Graham went as Alice Cooper and I was Tina Turner (I think they were 70s but seeing we are so old we could afford to be old fashioned and a decade behin). The worst thing about Graham's outfit was that I had to go to the petshop and ask them if the collar I had chosen 'fitted a man'. I blush to think what they were thinking and it was all quite innocent but I don't think people ask them that kind of question in Egham petshops.
Alice, Ghostbuster and Father Xmas... well at least Father Xmas is always in fashion.

Tina Turner, Alice Cooper and Nat's sister-in-law, Catherine..

Oct/Nov 06 - Ronald's Visit

By the time Ronald came out to visit us, summer was past and the beautiful multi-coloured autumn had not quite kicked in yet, so he had to dace the lovely London grey... but off he went down the banks of the Thames out Staines way, luckily he likes boats so he had plenty to marvel at (if only...what the hell do these guys do out here in this miserable weather??)

He spent a few days with us and then we ventured up north to see Karin and spend time with her on her birthday (in her birthday chair below...but not in her birthday suit!)




Breakfast in Guisborough...



Little Boet got the Cleveland tour...such a beautiful coastline but the seagulls mug you all the time, nevertheless Ronald braved the Whitby coast..




No sooner was he getting used to th Northern English (quite close to Brakpanites in the 70's...), he and Karin ventured off to Paris for a new adventure.


Yes Ron, which blooming way do you go when you are a poodle chasing your own pretty tail???

Karin braving that pretty icy little breeze in front of our lady.

After exploring Paris, Ronald came down south again and we dragged him off to London for Bonfire night. It was starting to get prettu dark already but we took a boat from Westminster out East to Greenwich.

Graham dragged us up this hill in the dark but luckily Ronald was well equipped for the dark, I just couldn't understand why his flashes weren't green and red so we would know which way he and we were facing in the dark... talk about 'Flash Laudin?'

We arrived at Blackheath Common quite by accident....heath of Easter fayres for 100s of years, but also where a lot of Black Plague bodies lie fertilising the grass beneath our feet. However, we joined the traditional crowds to look at big crackers and catherine wheels lighting up the sky.

The church on the common looked quite gothic ( I have vague memories of the common when I did the London Marathon in 2004 although then all I was looking for were the porta potties due to a bad case of terror...well nerves...) with the moon behind it.

Flash! Bang! Pop...and then we went home...

Aug 06 - Camping in Wales

When I was in SA and heard about 'Bank Holidays' in the UK, I wondered why the banks were so special that they needed holidays. It was only when I got here that I realised they were always on holiday but when the day was a Bank holiday, that meant that WE would have one too. August Bank Holiday loomed, notoriously the last one for 4 months....until Xmas we would be slaves to whomsoever in this economy cracked the whip...and believe you me...there are far more people here with bigger and better whips, so you just knuckle down and work until the "Banks" grant you the day off. Funnily enough in SA we call them 'public' holidays, which means they are off-days for the public, over here you are forced into recognising that money and banks are the boss so they let you have a day off sometimes. We vacated England like everyone else, except we stayed in Britain this time and headed off to the Pemborkeshire Coast to check up on the Welsh and see why they are so perky and cheeky (okay the Millenium Stadium was not hosting anything exciting this weekend!)

Here is Graham, Lord of our little Manor... we went for a walk along the coast and understood why the Welsh sing so beautifully, what magnificent views..

We found a small dot on the map that looked vaguely interesting so we wandered off down this windy road, expecting only a sheep grazing a piece of grass at the end of it , perhaps with a leek sticking out its ear...and what did we find???? A quarry in the middle of nowhere, where people jumped off craggy sides into the blue pond? All quite strange it was.... and it WAS cold, despite being the middle of summer..

In the middle of all of this, we found a lovely lonely beach (pebble city) where we had a picnic lunch and watched the ferries come into the harbour

We meandered down the coast and found the rest of the British crazies...believe me, sometimes when you see them in their natural habitat you understand how they forged an empire. They are fearless but still make a decent cuppa tea afterwards. I wish our photies could do justice to them as they casually flung themselves off these chalky type clifftops.

We saw some pretty heather above a beach and thought 'Wow...photo oppportunity'...gee it might have looked pretty but I itched for about 3 months afterwards....it was like khakibos with a pretty face....

Yes Dad, this one is for you. We went to Tenby a few times. What a beautiful place. Quite stunning but blooming hard to find somewhere to sit down and eat....again the camera does not do the place justice. I kept thinking that we were looking at places you looked at over half a century ago (and where Karin had her bicycle stolen!!!)

And just so you know.. this was our patch of ground for the weekend....what a grass mansion it was!!! But we were happy, we had ourselves, cover from the rain and a good coffee pot, what more could we want?

July 2006 - Mom's Birthday & The Croquet

The Birthday girl..and if it is blurry, don't adjust your set...this camera and I have a rather shaky relationship (ha ha). We made Mom rest in preparation for her international sporting debut the following day.

The day of the Croquet tournament dawned. Luckily the weather was perfect once again.

The Oelofses and Atkinsons between them have hosted a SA vs England croquet tournament for the last few years. The English won the inaugural one and since then the trophy has rested firmly in SA' s hands. We might have been hammered at cricket, rugby and foofie-sliding-on-the-pinkie competitions but boy we are still hot at croquet. I was too scared to tell Mom and Karin that they were a team in case they boycotted coming with us so we said that they had been invited to a barbie... and then gave them the bad news, but they did bloomin well and Mom showed potential to become a bit of a hustler. Maybe part of her secret was that she did exactly what Graham told her to and I was worried we would be suspended for excessive coaching but considering the fact that they had to play last year's semi-finalists in their first game ever ( and I don' t think that either of them had even seen a game on TV before, except perhaps in a Merchant Ivory production..unless one counts Brakkies Breekers moering each other with mallets in Voortrekker Street a croquet game?), they nearly caused the biggest upset of a major international ever (well since Hansie let the Dutch beat us at cricket fresh off the win at Lords)

Our first game was against Jed and Kate. (and yes you may notice that my finger eventually did find that lens.......)

Donna and Rob were persuaded to be honorary South Africans today seeing that the Homecoming Revolution appears to have depleted our numbers a little. Here Graham watched over them to make sure they aren't taking steroids.

Paul contemplates life, the universe and how to swing that mallet thingie without connecting with the opposition's pips. In one of life's weird co-incidences, Paul was at CBC with Ronald!




Cobus and Wendy with the champions, Jo and Ange - an all SA win!






Brian and Edie telling van der merwe jokes! (or maybe they were laughing at the Bok rugby test results to come a few months later..)

Karin and June looking relieved that it is all over.




Edie showing Graham her fan.

Jenny sucking up to the Judge - Ted didn't mind I hope.

July 2006 - June & Jenny (Paris)

I thought it would be a treat for Mom and me to go off to Paris. What I hadn't counted on was the heatwave. The recorded temperature that Wednesday was 40! We sweltered in t hat heat and with both us limping around, we didn't get very far very fast!

The first evening I took a photo of Mom in front of the Arc de Triomphe in the same spot where Graham and I have a photo when it is snowing - funnily enough this is also the starting point for when David, Graham and I made a dash across the road to the Arc. The next time Graham and I were in Paris, we watched some chap do the same thing and he was nabbed by the gendarmes waiting in the middle. Anyway Mom and I decided to use the tunnel beneath the road and even then it took us a while to get across.


As you can see, this is the evening we arrived and when the temperature was still bearable.


After taking some pics at the Arc, we went for a stroll / limp down the Champs Elysees. We stopped for a drink along the way and found it very difficult to drag ourselves away from a seat in the shade.


The next morning I had all these wonderful ideas of hopping on and off one of the open topped buses, but the heat soon put paid to that idea and landed up doing more hopping and collapsing than touristy things. This is Mom on the balcony before we started the Great Trek (more like the Great Vrek!). Look how fresh and cool she looks..



We didn't get very far before I decided to switch to the Metro. Gee you don't realise how many steps there are to navigate until you are not quite able to walk properly. Mom and I were like two old grannies, she hung on to the bannister on one side of the stairs and I hung on to the other side as we slithered and groped our way up and down to the platforms. We emerged near the Tuileries Gardens, you can just see the Eiffel Tower peeking out to the left and the obelisk in Place de la Concorde to the right.


We walked to the Place de la Concorde and although we were standing close to the spot where Madame Guillotine did her work, we only had eyes for the fountain. I was even too tired to try and jump in the water although I could picture the scene.


We wondered if Napoleon's horses were about to melt off the Victory Arch, on our way to the Louvre.


We were going to catch our tour bus from nearby and had to take a photie of the Louvre. Unfortunately no monks and holy grails or Da Vinci ghosts were about.

I think by this stage Mom was beginning to feel like the leprechaun in Amelie, I was placing her in front of all these tourist spots and saying...smile..when I'm sure all she felt like was a barrel of ice cold water.
See, even the sculpture in the Tuileries gardens was feeling the heat!!

We thought of hopping off at Notre Dame and wondering around in the quiet cool interior but when we saw the hordes of people queuing up to get in, we could not even move ourselves to get off the bus.

We gazed at the Eiffel Tower but again, too many people, queues too long and thirst too great!



I got this lovely smile out of Mom when we had made up our minds to go on to the next stop, switch to the Metro and return to the hotel for a swim. Oh what bliss it turned out to be, we wallowed in that water like happy hippos!!

After our swim and an afternoon zizz, we wondered off in search of grub! Of course we had to eat on the pavement. Au revoir Paris!