Winter seems to have arrived ...

Seems like almost overnight the seasons have changed and Winter has found it's way to the Southern Hemisphere !!!

So now maybe it's time to go into hibernation !!!

But before we do that ... have to say what a weird Easter this has been ... well for me anyway ...

Good Friday was spent just like any other Friday except for the fact that Kelsey was not at school ... I think I mentioned I had found a PS3 game to keep him entertained ... and that's what it did ... well until he popped his 'bushy' head out of the bedroom to say he's finished it !!!
My day was filled with ... a bit of this and a bit of that .. cleaned a shelf in my cupboard ... the whole cupboard is on the TO DO list but as I have sooooo much time on my hands thought I'd stretch that job out a bit ... by doing it 1 shelf at a time LOL ... the day did kinda drag a bit !!!

Saturday thankfully we had a lot more planned ... we've stayed very friendly with Kelsey's previous teacher Jenny Krouwel (was going to use the word old but she might have objected LOL) well ... she celebrated a BIG birthday in March but due to work commitments etc. etc. she decided to have a Belated Birthday Lunch with Family and Friends on Saturday ... and the weather played along very nicely ...(in fact if I look at today and then think about just how HOT it was on Saturday ... no wonder everyone gets sick at this time of the year !!!) It was so nice sitting outside ... sipping elVino and catching up ...

Kelsey & I excused ourselves around 4pm cos we were off to The Wavehouse at The Gateway to see Pitbull in concert ... Kelsey's 1st ever live concert !!! You tend to forget how these LIVE concerts work ... or is it that I'm getting way toooo old for this ??? We were in the standing area ... at the front of the stage ... good place ... except for the 10 000 idiots behind us ...(the group we went with made sure we got there in plenty of time) so we have our little posse ... ready for the nights fun ... and then crowds !!! uuuurrrrgggghhh ... no one respects personal space ... I nearly decked a couple of women as did Juno ... she became a Tigress when 1 particular woman tried to shove Kelsey out of the way LOL !!! We even had the Bouncers "bounce" 2 girls out of our space !!! (don't mess with us seasoned concert go-ers Chicky !!! LOL)

BUT WHEN Pitbull eventually did come on !!! (and that is the point ...WHEN) his performance was BRILLIANT ... however ... the opening act was !?#~! (the only way I can describe her was a female chipmunk on Helium !!! she was TERRIBLE ... some bird called LIYAH ??? OMG) but there was a local dance group before her that Kelsey really enjoyed ... and considering the doors opened at 6.30pm ... and Pitbull only came on at 9.15pm and he was on for a total of 70mins !!!!
By the time we left my ears were ringgggging ... my head was pounding, my legs & back were killing me ... but WE DID ENJOY PITBULL !!! PMSL !!!(definitely way too old for this !!!)

Sunday morning we were up early ... June invited us to an Easter Egg Hunt & Breakfast at her place with their family (and Siana's 1st Easter Egg Hunt) ... and again it was HOT !!! Started out in Jeans,long sleeves & jacket ... ended in shorts & T-shirt !!! and Kelsey, Jonathan & Nadia were swimming (idiots!!! the water was 18') But a good old time was had by all ... breakfast became lunch and we eventually left her place around 5pm !!! Just for a change I did not take all the photos for the day ... Jonathan & Sonja are doing a camera course so I left it to them ... I was grateful for the chance to enjoy the proceedings ... hence no photos folks !!! (mmm must get a copy from them me thinks ?? or not !!!)

Monday ... aaaah a lie in me thought !!! Kelsey was invited to join Heine's family at a braai so we were up relatively early and I dropped him off there ... I then gratefully went home ... fell into bed around 11ish and woke up at 3.30pm !!! Seems I'd missed another beautiful day of sunshine & heat ... I think that was the last 1 for this year ... cos since Tuesday it has gotten colder & colder ....

Needless to say once Kelsey gets to Heine's house ... he forgets to come home ... I went to fetch him Tuesday but was asked to take rugby kit with ... Lynette kindly said NO he can stay Tuesday night as the boys were going to rugby practise on Wednesday ... and eventually I collected my son at 4pm yesterday !!! But whatever you do ... don't ask me what I did all day Tuesday & Wednesday ... cos I can't even say I spent the day reading (that at least would have meant I'd done SOMETHING !!!)Oh ooh wait I did tidy out another shelf in my cupboard... found my I-pod and jewellery box (that in itself is worth a whole day of nothing wouldn't you say ???)

And so here we are to Thursday ... the kids are back at school for 2 days ... and then we have another long weekend !!!

I just don't think I can contain myself with all the excitement !!!

Glitz, Glamour & Mud ...

I'm sorry I know I promised I'd be a better blogger ... and every day I have every intention of being that !!! and then my mind gets side tracked and before I know it another week has gone by ...

I mean seriously the week after Paul left I literally did loads of ... NOTHING ... yet just did not find the time to get on the blog ... however Facebook ... now there's something I'm on every day and several times a day !!! It's quite addictive really !!!

Kelsey is back into the swing of school ... although this April is very stuffed up ... he went back to school 11th ... 1st week back -last week was a normal 5 days of school ... this week only at school 4 days ... cos today is GOOD FRIDAY, then they are off Saturday, Sunday and Easter Monday ... but here in SA we have a public holiday on 27th April (Wednesday- Freedom Day) so the school is also closed Tuesday as a school holiday and then Wednesday for the public holiday !!! the kids are back at school Thursday & Friday ... then we have another long weekend cos 1st May is Workers Day ... and as it falls on a Sunday ... we all get Monday as a public holiday !!! Crazy or what ??? I feel sorry for the parents who work and have to find 'sitters' etc for their kids over all these holidays ... although to be honest I wish I was one of those at the moment...

So Kelsey ... school ... 1st Saturday back they played rugby ... in fact every weekend (except Easter Weekend) until 24th June now he has rugby on a Saturday ... they played against Thomas Moore College and I'm very pleased to say the U14's (Kelsey's team, that he also just happens to be Captain of...) won 31 - 7 ... a huge boost for the boys as they were all very nervous ... as Primary School Teams they always seemed to get beaten by TMC ... so either our High School coaches are doing something right, or TMC coaches are doing something wrong ... Our boys dominated the field from the start and as soon as they scored their first try there was no stopping them ...

Saturday 16th was also hectically busy for me too ... Rugby in the morning (tons of photos to take !!!) followed by a photo shoot with Summer for the HHS Matric Dance ... Summer looked beautiful ... a real Princess with a tiara and all ...

Just had to show off the Tiara ... Paul organised this from the UK for us ... he didn't do such a bad job at all did he ???

I spent the whole afternoon with her ... photographing her from the hairdressers, to the make-up, the dress, the shoes and the accessories ... almost as good (or as bad whichever way you want to put it) as a wedding shoot !!! Including a pre-dance photo shoot with friends ... to the arrival in all the fancy cars ... there is definitely money to be made in all this pomp & ceremony ... the amount of money that parents spend on their kids Matric Dances ... I was shocked !!! Well I have a couple of years to start saving for Kelsey's dance ...

Summer & her date Nigel ...

But I thoroughly enjoyed myself ... the only downer on the day ... the DAMNED WEATHER !!! we have had some really beautiful days ... cooler mornings and evenings, but warm sunshine during the day ... Saturday 16th was overcast in the morning and it started raining by noon and it did not let up 1 little drop until Sunday (and at times it lashed down!!!).... I felt so sorry for all those girls who had spent fortunes on long dresses, open topped vehicles to arrive in and all the drooping curls !!!! There was lots of 'muddy hemlines' that night ... but that didn't stop the kids from having a ball ... and apparently after the main party ... which finishes around 11pm, they all get changed and go out to the After Party !!!! (so it's another outfit ... and more money)... and the after parties are well organised affairs ... seems there's a company that does all this and everyone who's anyone has to be seen at these after parties !!! Summer's mum said she got home at 7am ... (and now this week the poor kid is as sick as a dog ... no wonder ... do you think any of these kids thought about jackets & keeping warm ??? ... oh shut up you old fuddy duddy !!! to be young and silly all over again LOL)

So needless to say this whole week has been taking up with editing photos, cutting CD's etc. etc. I suppose I could call it working LOL !!! and there are still some photos I need to sort out for another young lady who's mum asked me to take a few of her too !!!

Hectic stuff ... I didn't realise just how much work goes into this kinda thing ... no wonder photographers charge so much .. it's not just the time to take the photo's your paying for it's all the editing ... cleaning up, cutting the CD ... the labels, the case covers etc. etc. (and I have actually started using an editing programme now ... wow progress hey !!! still need more practise with it but I think I'm doing OK !!!)

(OH Just have to throw this is here) had some drama with our house here ... last week I got a letter from our Municipality informing us that we have to commence completion of our house by 3rd May otherwise they are going to issue a notification to demolish !!! W.T.F seems it has something to do with some obscure act or other and we have to start work on our house again ... I knew it was all going to good for too long there ... it's all because we did not do any building on the property for over 12 months last year !!!

So there's nothing we can do about it really ... options are 1) start working on the house again or 2) let them demolish the building ... now we would love to go with option 1 however there is just 1 small thing preventing us from going with that and that is the question of MONEY !!! I mean if we had the damned money we would not be sitting in this predicament in the first place ... we would have been continuing with the building ... cos I really don't want to be living here on this complex forever !!!!

And you know what !!! there's nothing I can do about it !!! I've tried growing a money tree ... FAIL, I've tried shitting money ... FAIL ... we've even been to bank for a loan ... FAIL ... so other than robbing the bank, winning the lottery or selling that damned house in the UK we're pretty much up the creek without a paddle scenario ...

Just thought I'd mention that before I finish off this installment!!!

And now to this weekend ... HAPPY EASTER to one and all ... what have we got planned for the next 6 days .... mmm not a helluva lot ... (did have a notion to surprise someone ... but that too was a fail... found out they had plans) so ... Kelsey & I are around the house ... but did manage to get tickets for Pitbull on Saturday night so that should keep his Lordship a little happy for a little while, bribed him with a new PS3 game that I had found hidden in my cupboard (I'd only bought the game last July when we were in the UK , kept it for just such an occasion LOL) so he should be kept entertained for a few hours with that ... and June & Irena have invited us to join them & their family for an Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday ...

Such a busy hectic social life that we lead ... Kelsey is already asking how soon before he can go back to school !!!

Back to the grindstone...

So Paul left on a jet plane yesterday ... he'll be home (UK) sometime today ...

And we're back into the routine ... 5.30am this morning was a hell of a shock to the system ... it was DARK & COLD !!!

Kelsey's into 'winter' uniform so it was blazers for all the kids this morning ... mind you now at 11.35am it's bloody warm !!! poor kids :-)

I decided to start this 'TERM' as I intend to carry on ... busy LOL ... so it was a load of washing in ... upload some photos from last week ... got a few more to add but will do that later .. only took about 3 hours to get this last lot on ...

Started to 'tidy' my room ... just 1 of the things on the TO DO list ... Paul made me a lovely set of shelves to go under my bedroom window ... now I'm having fun filling it ...

Doing one of my 'HATE' jobs ... filing !!! Yup gotta sort out my paperwork ... and gotta find Kelsey's OLD SA passport ...shock !horror... just before Paul left yesterday 'something' told me to check our UK passports .... shit! shit! shit! Kelsey's UK passport has expired !!! Oh well good job I found it before Paul left ... so we had to run around yesterday taking photos of Kelsey and me signing forms etc. so Paul can get Kelsey's UK passport renewed in time for us visiting in JULY !!!

Nothing like leaving everything to the last minute eh??? The joys of being Jet setters LOL

Thought I'd jot down a few lines today in case I get soooooo busy the rest of the week LOL ...

It was soo weird last night trying to get to sleep ... for the past 2 weeks while Paul has been here I've had to fight Kleo & Paul for space on the bed ... last night Kleo gets up onto the bed ... on Paul's side, makes herself a little nest with her blanket and goes straight off to sleep ... me ... I tossed & turned for a while and just as I'm about to drift off Kleo decides she's a bit cold so she comes and 'snuggles' up next to me ... so I still end up fighting for space on the bed LOL

This tells me winter is definitely on it's way ... mmmm wonder if maybe I should buy her a jacket to wear LOL ???

She loves the heat ... she actually lies in the full sun for ages ... unlike Indi who looks for the shade at every opportunity ... dumb dog !!!

Oh well let me get back to 1) my filing & 2) my TO DO list ...

Tuesday 5th April in photos ...

At 6am ... Tuesday 5th April ...on Moyo Pier, Durban... pissing down with rain ... Paul doing his 'Titanic' impression off Moyo Pier, Durban ... 6am !!!

My Birthday Cake ... wet & soggy ... courtesy of Juno... Thank You xxx

Kelsey & the other Birthday Girl ... Tayton on Moyo Pier Daddy's little girl ...Steven & Tayton

Where were you on your Birthday ???

Look at this gorgeous Birthday Girl xxx

Finally the beachfront as the rain subsides and the mist lifts ...

Big Birthday Girl and her favourite boy xxx

Paul enjoying the 'cool' waters of the Indian Ocean ... I was playing with my camera and trying to get one of those 'unusual' shots LOL Footprints in the Sand ... Kelsey 2011... Durban Beach Father & Son racing !!! on the beach ... any guesses as to who won ...??? The Birthday Girl ... rule #1 what you get on your Birthday you wear on your birthday ... inc. silly hat and high viz jacket !!! But the flower brooch and boots were lovely hahaha !!!

My Bad ....

That's me ... soo bad ... Have been sooo busy LOL that had no time to blog ... well actually not really been that busy ... just not had the inclination to waffle on too much ... well hey I've had another adult with me to have 'meaningful' conversations with LOL ... Yes see blame Paul .. he gets blamed for everything else so may as well throw in my lack of blogging too !!!

However ... we have been a little bit busy ... the weekend he arrived we were hectic with the Villagers Family Fun Day ... all the plans and organising but there's not a damn thing you can do if you wake on the morning and it's pissing it down !!! ... the one thing we did not have on our list !!! Crap weather ... oh well having lived long enough in England we knew that we could not let the rain get the better of us ... soooo ... of we set at 6am to greet all the wet and soggy stall holders ... take their abuse for having a Fun Day on a crap and wet day and make the most of it ..

Over all ... taking the weather into account we still had a great FUN FILLED day ... the inflatable rides didn't even bother to turn up ... basterds !!! but the High School Choir arrived... sang beautifully for us, Sharkie arrived to entertain the kids and the mini rugby tournament took place ... so we had customers (OK I didn't even bother putting up my stall ... although I did put up my gazebo ... to protect some of us from the rain!!!) But I was kept busy running from stall holders to MC to prize draws to Miss & Mr HVJR Competition ... my photography skills were called upon ... and not a bad day .... not a bad day at all ...

We were all blerdy knackered on the Monday ... Paul and I got to spend the 1st week of his time here together ... Kelsey was still at school ... he loved having his dad around ... to watch him at rugger practise, meet the boys ... Paul and I got to have early morning breakfasts ... show Paul just how exciting my days can be LOL ... we met up with Bruce the Builder ... maybe have some windows & doors sorted soon ... hey might be nice to do SOMETHING on the house this year !!!

I had a huge long 'maintenance' list for Paul ... gotta keep him out of mischief LOL ... and have to say the weather played nicely too so our 1st week together was great ... Kelsey started his holidays on Friday ... handed over another EXCELLENT report card ... 1st in his class AGAIN ... dad has now set him his next challenge ... to be in the TOP 10 of his GRADE ... this term it was all girls ... and I think there's about 150 kids in his grade ... not exactly sure WHERE in the grade he came but next term he wants to be in TOP 10 !!! Well done Kelsey we all very proud of you xxx

Saturday 2nd April saw us off to The Shark Tank to watch the rugby ... bit of a disappointing game ... we lost badly against The Stormers (the team we beat last year to win The Currie Cup !!!) but we're playing badly cos Lambie ... my Toy Boy is injured and we all missing him LOL

Sunday was a hectically busy... although again very WET day ... we had a 1st Birthday Party to attend (and photograph for Juno) it was Tayton's Party ... and we had lots & lots of fun ... then we were off to June's to spend time with them and our Indian family ... baby Siana is also getting so big now.

Monday 4th saw us spending all Paul's hard earned money ... dad took us to the Pavilion ... shopping yippee !!! had a really great day ... well what else to do on a wet Monday ??? Shop & eat out !!!

We were in bed early Monday Night cos Paul asked me what I wanted for my Birthday on Tuesday ... to take photos of the sun rise over the Indian Ocean !!! That meant we were all up at 4.30am ... and a drive to the beach ... sunrise was due at 6.09am ... OOOps again ... the 1 thing we did not plan ... pissing down with rain ... so NO we did not see sunrise ... we saw night to day ... it just got a little bit lighter ...

The Bellz ... Moyo Pier ... 5th April 2011 ... 6.45am !!! The Botha Gals ...Tayton's 1st Birthday... Moyo Pier ... 5th April 2011... 6.42am !!! Birthday Girl 1 ... Coffee on the pier at 6.10am ... Tuesday 5th April 2011 Durban beachfront at 6am ... Tuesday 5th April 2011...
AND Juno & her family joined us crazies ... well after all it was also Tayton's Birthday .... (yes lucky girl was actually born on my Birthday) ... us Aries chicks are all a little crazy !!! Even Steven joined us ... of course bitched & moaned about the craziness of it all and W.T.F were we doing at the Beach while it was pissing down ??? But give the man credit ... he did actually turn up ... so we gotta love him for that LOL

No really he was just there for the breakfast ... we were standing outside the Wimpy at 7am banging on the door for them to open for us ... Kelsey & Paul has some fun running on the beach ... the rain let up by about 9.30am and then we were home by 11am ... knackered ... the rain had stopped on the beach but it had moved up to the Misty Mountain (Hillcrest !!!) ... and it never let up for the rest of the day ... rain and rain was all we saw after that ...

Lawrence, Penny, June & Irena popped round on Tuesday night for a celebratory cuppa tea & slice of the cake Juno had carried all the way to the beach ... in the pouring rain for ME ... The Princes of Procrastination ... thank you Juno mwah xxx

So The Bellz decided that IF it was raining on Wednesday (6th) we were having a duvet & dvd day ... guess what .... we woke to rain, mist, cold shitty weather ... awesome !!!! We all slouched in trackies, wrapped in duvets, ate junk food all day and watched 6 DVD's in a row !!! Oh and huge pot of HOMEMADE Pea & Ham soup was made to keep out the cold ... I was bloody knackered by the time I went to bed last night LOL

Woke this morning ... with no plans and lookey, lookey ... the sun is shining ... although not too hot but a nice wind blowing so we can get all the washing done ... the boys have stocked up on pellets for the guns, and hey ho ... I'm blogging and downloading a weeks worth of photos !!!

WHAT AN AWESOME HOLIDAY !!!!