The Gals from school ...

Don't they just look adorable ... all of them with their completed 8x8 pages ...

Some of them were a little shy so not all of the girls are here ... we have 22 attending the classes at the moment.

This crazy life I lead ...

What a week ... started out with the usual power cut on Monday (as previously mentioned) ... ran around like a chicken without it's head on Tuesday (as usual!!!)

School classes went well ... the girls all finished their 8x8 pages but I forgot the camera so took photos on the cell phone ... now can't find the bl...y disk to put photos on computer ... nothing is ever simple in my life ;-( ... we're going to start a concertina mini book next week ... that should be fun !!!(oh look out for photos on next posting!!! I hope, and now that I've told the gals they'll be on the blog I suppose I have to watch what I say !!!pmsl)

Then Tuesday night dashed off to the 'Christmas House' (this is a family who spend all year making and preparing Christmas Stuffs to sell, then for 1 week of the year they live in the 'tool shed' or somewhere else and they decorate their house with all the handmade stuffs and they sell it to us silly buggers who adore Christmas!) Needless to say I did the usual ... had no control at all over the spending elf within and went a little crazy ... this photo is the back seat of my car with just some of my lurverly purchases ... oh I can't wait for Christmas now so I can decorate the place !!!

Wednesday was spent trying to get washing dry ... dashing between the rain showers. It is so blooming cold here at the moment, and wet too ... it hasn't stopped raining since Saturday afternoon ... and with this house having tiled floors everywhere it's FREEZING !!! Oh I now know FOR SURE that I will be the only house in Waterfall with DOUBLE GLAZING and CENTRAL HEATING ... even if I have to go out to work to pay the flaming electricity bills !!! I HATE BEING COLD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!(Oh shame the landlord just popped round with a fan heater for us cos mum had mentioned to them we were suffering with the cold !!! how sweet is that !) I was chatting to my sister in law about looking into getting a tumble dryer (can you believe it 8 years in the UK and I never needed one and here I am in 'Hot Africa'(NOT) and I'm talking about getting a tumble dryer !!! ;-0) Penny said get one and use it in the dinning room and it'll keep the rest of the house warm too... so that's why you need one !!! PMSL!!!

To add to the dilemma (or consider it another challenge) yesterday mum puts some chops in the oven at 3pm (mmmm lurverly casseroled chops with onion gravy... mash and veges yummy !!! warming food !!!) only to discover at 6pm when she wants to thicken the gravy the damned chops are still raw!!! The blasted oven's not working !!! (do you actually wonder why I think there are forces working against me??? or is all of this normal and I'm not!!!)

Then I get the saddest phone call from June ... seems Daisy Dog is a very sick puppy ... she's not been eating properly since June got her on Friday and she's been throwing up whatever she has been eating ... poor dog has Parvo Enteritis (it's a deadly disease in dogs and puppies are at the highest risk !!!) June is absolutely gutted !!! ;-( Daisy is at the vets at the moment ... they have her on a drip and a course of antibiotics ... if she makes it through the next 48hours there's a possibility she can survive ... and of course both Shadow and Indi have had to be checked out and have booster injections too ... older dogs develop a better immunity to it ... so we're all hoping and praying real hard that Daisy pulls through ... I'll keep you all posted ...

Crafting in Africa, by candlelight ...

Well trying to anyway ... the rainy season is upon us so this means regular electricity shortages as electricity and water just don't mix and Eskom (our 1 and only rip off artists oops! I mean power suppliers just don't seem to know how to get it all 'werking' right eeeeh!!)

I kinda forgot to mention (on purpose in case it didn't work out) that I am teaching Scrapbooking & Papercrafts at the school as 1 of the after school clubs (or did I mention it before ??? sorry the dementia monster is playing up at the moment ... the medication just not working !!! pmsl) Well courtesy of Dyan (Art from the Heart) and a couple of other bloggers we have been playing with newspaper and gesso ... trying to get the kids to start art journals ... I mean after all I don't exactly have a hands on sample to show them cos I keep waffling on about getting one started but as usual and lots of 'procrastination' later and I've still not got started ... but the idea of playing with gloppy paint and colours really appealed to the kids ... so you never know I may just one of these days etc. etc. etc.

So to help us along I thought I'd prep a few pages for the kids ... and bam! the lights went out ... 31/2 hours later I'm still slapping gesso on newspaper but now by candlelight ... hey when it's time to play it's time to play ...

I'll try to remember to take some photos of the kids tomorrow ... oh! I think I forgot to say I have 24 kids taking in the class !!! so maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all (not too shabby for someone who loves kids but couldn't eat a whole one eh?)

This is my sample for their 1st 8x8 page ... the title being of course 'All About me!' They had to complete their page with as minimal embellishments as possible ... and as cheap as possible ... The idea behind this class was to prove to them that they did not need lots of money to do Scrapbooking (unfortunately that seems to be the consensus here so hence the reason so few people take it up as a hobby and so few mums encourage their kids ... hopefully I'll be able to help change that a little)

(I used 1 8x8 sheet cardboard, 1 6x6 piece of scrapbooking paper and pieces of white card to add my journaling ... a decent black pen and I hand wrote and decorated all the tabs)

Now I'd like to introduce you to the latest in June's house ... Daisy Dog ... when June knew we were moving out she did'nt want to leave Shadow all on his own ... he needed a baby sister and as luck would have it June happened to find young Daisy on Friday ... she's 10 weeks old ... a Boerbul x Bullmastiff and she is sooooo cute !!!

I took these 2 photos of her as we were packing the last of our bits and pieces ... she was in awe of all that was going on around her ... Indi just took 1 look at her, sniffed and walked away ... Shadow on the other hand was fascinated by his baby sister and would not leave her alone at all ... but she soon put him in his place by giving hima nasty nip and a growl to say "back off bud" I'm still confused here !!! hen she hid herself under the table out of harms way ... I'm sure there will be plenty more photos in the near future ...

O. M. G.!!!

What have I done now???

Seems I've might have made another mistake!!! I think we've moved onto a retirement village !!! hey I'm not that old ... pmsl!!!

I promised Kelsey that once we were 'sort of' moved in he could have a sleep over, so Friday the boys went to a disco at school and I picked Kelsey and Matthew up and we all spent the 1st night at the new house ... when we drove into the housing estate at 10pm every house was in darkness (and no for a change it had nothing to do with no power!!!) ... I had to tell the boys to be quiet when they got out the car ... OK the fact that there was thick fog about might have made it feel even quieter and a bit more 'eerie'!!! But hell all 80 houses on the estate in bed by 10pm !!!WTF...

My new bed !!! I think I would have been more comfortable sleeping on the stone floor ... (sorry Aunty Irena about complaining about your bed before )... please can I swap??? So what with the silence, the hard bed and the strangeness of the new house ... not much sleep !!! I couldn't even blame the boys they went into Kelsey's bedroom, switched on the TV and I never heard another word from them ... and all that time lost I should have been unpacking boxes or something! (hey maybe I could use the hard bed as my craft table LOL)

The bloody birds !!! did you know those weavers wake up at about 4.30am and the noise they make ... I mean I know they are lovely and I knew there were quite a few birds about on the estate when we moved in but I think everyone of them lives in my bloody garden !!!! AND I even went out and bought a bird feeder - what ever was I thinking !!! But jokes aside it is lovely sitting out on the 'stoep' (patio for some of you) having your breakfast and all the local birds pop in to say hi and ask for a crumb or 2 ... there is a small lake on the estate so we also get some geese and other 'water birds' visiting too... (Nan I'm gonna need your expertise to name the bird visitors we get lol)

Indi is not too happy about the move yet ... she's missing the company of June's dog Shadow, and as the house has tiled floors throughout I think shes struggling a bit with walking about ... we've put blankets around like stepping stones for her to walk on till she gets used to the floor ... mum and I have chatted about buying a BIG rug for the lounge area ... something that mum can end up using in her own place ... so another excuse to shop !!!

I'll have to get the camera out and take some photos of the new place ... and maybe do a bit of bird spotting too... pmsl

A little bit of therapy ...

This one only the girls will understand ... I now know why the Beautician is a.k.a your beauty therapist ... the word therapist should definitely be in CAPITALS ...

I've just got back from my pedicure with Marion and apart from feeling like I'm walking on a million bucks ... I also feel very rejuvinated mentally too (and it cost less than a head shrink, and I bet the results are'nt as quick either)... have you ever noticed that when you're sitting relaxing having someone massaging your feet and legs and having your toe nails painted the most outrageous bright pink, how much better you feel afterwards ... I have told Marion loads of times I think she should charge more (well not me I'll just be her advertising agent) for her 'therapy' sessions, as she listens to you ... advises you ... and generally pays you soooo much attention ... girlfriends (and guys too) if you've not had a good pedi. lately go out and treat yourself ... 'cos you're worth it !!!!'

But now I'm about to ruin it all by 'moving boxes' AGAIN ... yup fraid to say that is the highlight of my week this week ... still moving bloody boxes ... but so far not too many SA challenges!!! Hey we're only at the mid-week section ...

I'm told Paul got back safely ... he's out working his a.. of already ... well so he should if he's to keep me in the life style I'm accustomed too (oooooh ;-) I have already started the Christmas List ... don't want to go upsetting anyone but you do realise it is only : 10 weeks till Christmas (hurray!!!!;-)

Oh Happy Birthday for today to my brothers Terence & Lawrence ... just another day older but you'll never catch up to me (pmsl)

A bit of bad news ... seems the Saturday Craft Club in Bolsover is no more ... seems there just wasn't the support to keep it going, so after a vote, it was decided by the few girls that did attend regularly to call it quits !!! I'm a bit sad about that cos I really hoped more people would attend and try to keep it going ... OOOh well the end of another chapter in my life .... ;-D !!! (as Nan would say : "this too shall pass!!!")

But I'll give someone else a bit of a punt cos a couple of the girls have decided to try Wichcraft at Doncaster ... Paula I'm sure you'll keep them all busy and on their toes ... have fun. (wish I cud join you all)

Not so good a weekend...

Apart from the weather being totally miserable ... that's exactly how Kelsey & I are feeling... Paul leaves again tomorrow and even though it's only for 6 weeks it still sucks!!!

We are almost moved into the new house ... well today Paul and Kelsey are going to set up the TV and PS3 (the most important items for Kelsey to get thru the next 6 weeks!!!) and I'm still looking for the box with the curtains in !!! Luckily it's not too important to have those immediately cos living on a complex and the house is raised up a bit, so not too many folks can see in ... but as the sun (ha! ha! - when it bothers to show itself) happens to shine from 4am I think we might need some sort of window covering !!! Hey we could be the poor neighbours and stick up a sheet (when I find those !!! ;-) I suppose ... Maybe someone will feel sorry for us and donate some curtains ... when we bought the house in Bolsover it came with fitted curtains so I think I'm looking for a box that doesn't exist (the curtain box!!! I mean)

Kelsey wants him and dad to sleep over at the new house tonight ... maybe they can tell me what else is short and needed in the house ... It's not that I don't want to move in there ... but well ... maybe I don't ... gosh I wish I could make up my mind and stick to it !!!! Thursday mum and I spent the day there and the sun was shining and the birds (there are loads of them) were chirping and it was lovely ... As soon as we do get settled in I'll start with the photos etc ...

The boys have moved all the boxes out of the storage unit ... unfortunately a couple of mum's boxes were also infested with creepy crawlies ... we've been washing clothes frantically hoping we've now got rid of them all ... We Doom Fogged the garage at the new place once all our stuff was in there so I just hope and pray there are no other surprises in there ... but like Paul said I must keep checking the boxes ... oh well gives me something else exctiting to do !!!!

Do you detect a hint of depression sinking in ??? I do !!! I think I'm just gonna have to go and drown my sorrows in Kelseys homemade Minty Choc Chip (with extra chips) muffins ... been teaching him how to make someone a good Wife !!!

You just gotta love Africa!!!

Firstly Happy Birthday today to Paul, it's really great that he's here celebrating his birthday with us (but damned expensive I gotta tell you ... pmsl) We started a new tradition when we arrived here at June's house ... we have to wait till we are all together tonight around the dinner table to open pressies and celebrate in true style ... (sorry Paul you gotta wait lol... even Kelsey had to wait at his young age :-)

Now onto this weeks South African challenge ... and boy is this a good one !!!!

You should all know by now that we are moving out of Aunty June's place into our own (rented) property (just have to remind you all that unfortunately our OWN house is still far from completion - any donations greatly appreciated ... lol), well with Paul being here we decided it would be a good idea to use his muscles and to move a lot of our furniture etc. out of storage into the house ... (obviously for us to use) So Monday we start ... now before we left UK I had a bit of a spending spree (what again) at IKEA ... gotta lurve that place for furniture ... well yes seems I'm not the only one that loves that place (and Jane this one will tickle you !!!) so do the BLOODY WHITE TERMITE ANTS here in SA !!! Yup you guessed it - Paul gets to the back of the storage unit where all my NEW bedroom furniture is standing - still in it's original packing directly from IKEA and as he lifts up one of the boxes and it collapses in a pile of 'termite shit!'

ALL of my new cupboards are infested with Termites !!! Eddie the storage man just shrugs his shoulders !!! points out the clause in the contract that says ..."storage is at the owners risk and no claim can be made to Brackenhill Storage for any damages whatsoever" !!!! I am FURIOUS ... according to the 'council/municipality' he should have the land treated for termites every 5 years ... he has the relevant certificates and he reckons "until we know we have a problem we don't get the guys out to spray or put down poison unnecessarily" SO guess what mate - you have a problem and now so do I !!!! Our unit is infested (seems they have a fondness for Swedish wood!!!) and so is the unit next door to ours (who happens to store cardboard in their unit !!!)

YOU JUST GOTTA LOVE AFRICA!!!

Paul & Lawrence (my brother) spent all day yesterday emptying the storage unit ... luckily the house we're moving into has a double garage (but the plan had been to use the garage for the business ... but hey move onto plan J!!! ;-0) Fortunately not much else has been damaged ... well except for some of mum's wedding album, but thankfully they don't like old photos!!! Just the album they are stored in (seems the don't like paper phew! my saving grace - they don't like acid & lignin free products PMSL, so none of them are gonna be scrapbookers lol)

So it's weekend ...

And Sunday already too...

We had a great day yesterday ... as it was Paul's first full weekend here (this time) we decided to have a 'Braai/Party' after all it's his birthday on Wednesday and most people we know are working so we won't see them mid week...

We invited friends and family around and even though when we woke up yesterday morning(at 5am!!!) and it was misty and very wet ... (hey what's a few drops of rain between friends eh??? )there was no stopping the party!!! I was up at 5am to go to Shongweni market again !!! But when Penny & I got there we made a management decision - we're not going to bother getting soaked, our stock ruined and possibly no customers ... I went home and went back to bed (had to snooze sitting up so I didn't mess the hair...lmao) The snooze didn't last long cos the electrician woke us at 7.30am ... they started 'chasing' the walls for the light switches and sockets !!! I am so glad Paul is here for this step cos he's the fussy one when it comes to electrics and where he wants them etc... (mind you I woke him through the night telling him we needed plugs in the bathrooms for the heated towel rails I want!!! w.t.f.)

The weather eased up long enough for us to erect the gazebo ... and we decided to park the cars on the grass and we used the garage for our 'party' see "'n boer maak 'n plan" ... We had a fantastic day - night who would have thought you could have so much fun dancing in the mist O.I.A !!!(forget the gorilla's in the mist pmsl) You should have seen the colour of the kids, after the decided to camouflage themselves for the 'dark hide 'n seek' !!!! Let me tell you more than 1 bath was needed to get rid of all that mud !!! But hey kids + mud = great time !!!

Finally I have had time to open Paul's suitcase ... all these lovely goodies = lots of beads, lovely sweeties (best ever liquorice) and crafty things too ... Never mind the mousse and hairspray!!!If Paul ever got stopped at customs he'd have some serious explaining to do !!!!

This crazy week...

Can you believe it but Paul has been here for a week already ... well let me finish last weeks story cos I still have a lot to tell you for this week too...

So Wednesday night Ben contacted us with a lovely surprise, he said we could go across the road (yes literally) to the next reserve where they breed White Lions ... AND the best part they have just been getting 2 Cheetahs (my absolute favouritest) ... Well just look at these stunning photos ... I managed to take ONLY about 300 of the lions and about another 600 of the Cheetahs !!!! Not too many eh??? I could have just sat all night and watched the Cheetahs ... not that they did much, in fact 1 of them stayed well hidden in the bushes ... But it was great ...

The best ever - just look at this beautiful creature ...

Believe it or not but these lions carry the white gene ...

Look at the colour of this lioness' eyes - they are blue !!!

Here you have the pure white male Lion and Lioness with the other male Lion that also carries the white gene:

If you look very carefully you can just see this young Cheetahs eyes shining in the bush ... in the middle of the picture:

Sadly Thursday we had to say farewell to Ben, Nan, Russell & Nichola, and of course Ouma and Oupi... but we're gonna see them again in December so I can't wait for then ... Kelsey and I drove down to JHB to Kevin & Sandra's ... we picked mum up and went a did a bit of shopping ... Paul arrived early Friday morning so we stayed overnight at my brothers ... now on Thursday after the shopping (of course) the car started 'getting sick'!!! She seemed to have lost her 1st gear completely ... now that is no fun when you drive an automatic!!!

After much panicking and cursing we made it back to Kevin's but I wasn't too sure I was going to make it to the airport on Friday for Paul ... I contacted one of Paul's mates who I made arrangements with for us to take my car to a diesel mac who could look at it ASAP, cos the plan was pick up Paul at 11am then drive 6 hours back to DBN!!! That was the plan ... the diesel mac had NO IDEA what the problem was a thankfully Hyundai Boksburg came to my rescue ... seems my EGR valve is buggered !!! Hey who knows ... they cleaned it out for me, enough to get us home safely BUT said I needed to visit the DBN branch of Hyundai ASAP...

So we left JHB for a 6 hour drive to DBN at 4pm !!! LURVERLY ... By the time we got home (and let me tell you we drove for the last hour or so in thick fog) I was a nervous wreck ... TG June and Irena had saved us some dinner ... we all crashed into bed around 11.30pm ... I woke at about 2am and spent the rest of the night hugging the loo ... (No it was'nt June's cooking) seems there's been a severe 24hour bug going round and 1 of mum's friends had, had it (yes we met up with her for lunch on Thursday) and of course I had to catch it too.... You can imagine how it was for Paul having just arrived here with car trouble and then me as sick as a dog for the first 24hours that he's here too !!!!

AND can you believe it (again) I still have not emptied his case of all my goodies !!!! Just have'nt had the time since he arrived !!!! Paul wants to make sure we are set up and installed in our 'rented' house before he leaves on the 18th !!!! But I think he wants to do it all this first week !!!! Hence the reason I have not had time to blog, time to unpack all my goodies (Sharon I will write and thank you properly when I get a moment, pmsl !!!!) Talking of Sharon - ladies don't forget to enjoy yourselves at the Bolsover Craft Club this Saturday ... I will be thinking about you all when I'm sitting at Shongweni Market !!!

More Photos

Yet more photos from the safari ...

Below: Kudu

Waterbuck (aka Toilet Seat Buck)

Below Fish Eagle

A lonely Giraffe wondering across the plain...

Below: Impala

The main object of the game drive was for us to see the Lions (well actually to hear them was more important as Nan had told us how often they wake her in the mornings !!!)... of course they weren't playing along nicely to start off with ... but Alex heard on the radio that one of the other vehicles that was out, had spotted a couple of them so we headed off to find them ... as we got closer one of the males decided to give us a 'chorus'!!! It is actually called colouring and the sound is quite indescribable ... but leaves goosebumps on the skin ... and tears in the eyes !!! (soft bugger I hear you all say, I now know that Lions are related to cats cos at one point it sounded like the lion was coughing up a fur ball !!!)

We rounded a bush and there he was - just lying out in the open ... not a care in the world. In fact at first I thought ihe was dead cos he did'nt move even when our vehicle approached. But then he lifted his head and proved he was very much alive by 'colouring' again ... apparently it is a way for the lions to tell each other where they are ... there were no females about, but one of them has 2 young cubs and she stays pretty much under cover at the moment and the other females are also kinda protective of her, but we did hear the reply in the distance to prove they were about.

It was fantastic ... after about 100 or so photos we moved off and left Mr L. to just lie around snoozing ... dusk was just around the corner and Ben wanted us to see the Elephants too ... they were around the water hole but as I said before the light was not good so my photos are crap! (I really have to take a course or something on night photography or maybe spend some time playing with my camera) Alex also parked up in the middle of the veld, once it was dark, and switched off the engine ... so we could listen to the night sounds and see just how dark it is in the bush !!! All the kids loved it ... we had to be careful cos there are other predators about too ... like leopard and cheetah, both of which enjoy a good hunt ... but thankfully we had no incidents !!! Of course the boys had to 'mark' their territory in the bush !!! pmsl ... typical man thing.

I have to say the Game Drive was the highlight of our week ... Kelsey had decided he wants to be a Game Ranger now ... in fact he spent the rest of the week READING !!! any and all books he could get his hands on about the wildlife of Africa, he even spent some of his Birthday money on a Wildlife book when we got back to the city !!!

The rest of the week was spent bird watching, mountain climbing (the boys not me) some crafting and lots of talking . We did do some shopping too in the local town (felt a bit like the twilight zone... stepped through a time portal) Nan's mum is also a crafter and she took us to her local bead shops ... you'll be seeing some of the stunning necklaces that Ouma makes later on ... gonna get her working her fingers to the bone ... lmao !!!

More on the end of the week later with even more photos ... ;-)

OOPs sorry ...

Heck... where is the time flying too???

There I am making promises to continue the Safari stories and we are a week behind and you're missing out on all of this weeks stories !!!! gotta get typing faster or telling you more...

OK continuation of Safari - First morning !!! do you know how early the sun comes up try 4am !!! and the barking of the Baboons ... Kelsey slept through all that but we soon caught up other mornings ... Nan, the kids and I spent all day Saturday chatting, drinking (tea and coffee, girls !!!) Nan is also a crafter so we swapped ideas, reminisced about the past , planned for future it was lovely, so peaceful and totally relaxing. Niki decide to give us a fashion show with the gifts we took her ... she is just sooooo adorable ... Kelsey found himself an admirer in her and he ended up playing big brother at dinner time, helping her with her food and chatting to her ... she loved sitting on his knee playing with the cars !!!!

Old Friends: Nanushka and Me

New friends ... Kelsey, Russell and Bambi !!!

"Lolita Chiquita Gonzalez Chihuahua" the name we ended up giving Niki after her modelling stint!!!

Ben, Nan's hubby very kindly 'Braaied' (BBQ and it's a man thing, ugg FIRE) for us all on Saturday night, and we star gazed and listened to the sounds of all the animals ... the true sound of the African sky ... HEAVEN!!!

Sunday saw us all up early (again, not quite 4am, I woke at sunrise but just turned over and snoozed till about 7ish) It was a quick S.S.S and we were off out to Ouma and Oupi's for a Champagne Breakfast (it was Oupi's birthday, not that we needed and excuse of course). We were welcomed or sent off which ever way you want to look at it by a herd of giraffe at the front gate... sorry, no photos I stupidly put the camera in the boot of the car and as there are Wild Lions roaming around it is not a good idea to get out and fetch it !!! There were about 8 of them just meandering along the road, and guess what ... we didn't see any of them for the rest of the week !!!! Bloody typical!!!

We had a gorgeous breakfast ... then we dashed off to go on our Game Drive ... Nan's nephew Alex is completing his training at Entabeni and Nan pulled some strings, and as Alex needed some customers to practise on we were his volunteers .... for him to take us on a Game Drive !!!! I think Kelsey was in awe of this young mans knowledge of the bush veld and its occupants... and of course this helped him to be such a good guide ... he even managed to spot a 'Wolf Spider' at dusk ... and it's the same colour as the sand !!! We got see just about all the animals on the reserve, I didn't get great shots of the elephants as we only spotted them at dusk and they were around the water hole in between the bushes etc ... and I'm crap at night time shots !!!

Here are a few of my photos... I'll keep bombarding you with more later ... Gonna save the best till the very last !!! ;-)

BlouWildebeest - aka the poor mans buffalo !!!

A mummy Jackal trying her hardest to distract us from her cubs ...

We're Back !!!

Yup we're back in the land of technology, back home, back to the challenges of day to day life in darkest Africa ...

Sorry to do this to you but I'm gonna bombard you with loads of photos from our 'Spring Safari' at Entabeni ... Kelsey and I had the most fantastic, brilliant and wonderful time ... I have never known my child to be so quiet, reserved, polite and well behaved (well OK we did have the odd moments but I had to keep having to check if I had the same boy with me !!!) I am now convinced the 'city life' is a mitigating factor for hyper activity !!!! pmsl.

I had the most fantastic time ever with me bestest friend Nan, we chatted lots, caught up, drank lots, crafted lots, cried lots and generally did all the good things that best friends do ... and made loads and loads of plans for the future too.... ;-) oooh even more safaris and trips away yippee!

So this batch of photos were taken on our first day ... and Nan I apologise if I get the names all wrong ... I paid attention at the time but the brain has a few holes in between and so some of the info was lost !!! pmsl

This is a Blue Headed Lizard ... and boy was his head blue - you could spot them from far away:

And I think this is the female version - who of course is not so pretty:

Kelsey became a true ranger and spotted this little creature rolling his prize along the road, a Dung Beetle:

The view from Nan's front door, imagine waking up to this every morning:

As some of you will know I love birds and I really miss the little Robin that lived in my garden in the UK and the Blue Tits that visited. We do get some amazing birds here in SA too and Nan, who is a serious bird fundy and feeds them regularly and can even name the birds just by their call actually puts me to shame ... this little fellow is a Yellowbilled Hornbill and Nan has 3 that are frequent visitors ...

I did start a diary so that I could tell you word for word what we had done ... but that got boring ... so I'll just jump around and tell you bits and pieces of all the things we did and make you all jealous !!! :-)

Our journey up to Johannesburg was uneventful, we dropped mum off at my brother Kevin's place and Kelsey and I stayed there overnight and set off up to POLOKWANE early on Friday morning... it was a bit dull and overcast but that made the driving so much nicer as it was cooler. It's only a 3 hour drive on a good day, and the first animal we spotted on the way there was an Ostrich!!! We were at Lolandi (Nan's mum & dad's place) by 11.30am. Lorraine (aka Ouma to Kelsey) Nan's mum, Russell and Nichola (aka Loli, who by the end of the week became Lolita Chiquita Gonzalez Chihuahua!!! more on that later)were there to greet us.

Nan was working Friday morning so she arrived in time for Lunch as did Andi (aka Oupi Andi), Nan's dad ... we enjoyed a lovely lunch together but by this time it had started raining heavier so in Nan's words "TG I had a 4x4 too" !!! Yup you got it you need a 4x4 in that kind of weather to get out to their house on the reserve ... We set off at normal speed, normal gears, clean car !!! By the time we got to Nan's house we'd driven through all the gears including the high 4 in 4x4 !!! we did mud drifting !!!! that was fun !!! and my car went from black to red mud coloured !!! PMSL...

Kelsey was 'gob smacked' when he saw the size of the White Lions - they are being bred on the reserve across the road from Nan's place and due to the weather they were all together near the main gates so we got to see them ... also looking a bit red due to the colour of the mud!!!!

Now remember I’ve been to Nan’s house before, but the last time I was here it was empty, they hadn’t moved in yet … what a difference it makes when you see the place lived in … It was lovely when I saw it unoccupied but now it feels like LOVE has moved in and it’s absolutely gorgeous!!! The place is soooo big, needless to say we women spent most of our time around the kitchen table … the happiest and best place to be in any house!!! And Nan made us Vetkoek (a traditional South African food that you eat either with savoury mince and cheese or anything else savoury or you can have them sweet with syrup, sugar or any other delightful sweety thing) we stuffed our faces with both and of course Nan and I washed them down with a good glass of wine!!!! Ben (Nan’s hubby) came in from work … boy! He’d had a bad day – a Lion had growled at him, the Elephants had blocked the road home and he had just seen a Cheetah hunt … the stresses of working on a reserve!!!

Boy it gets dark there on a night!!! And we were told you can see all the stars in the world when there are no clouds… but we missed out on that one on the first night … but Nan had ordered sunshine for Saturday.

Next installment tomorrow :-O!!!