The visit to our church

We were surprised this morning to see our church had reserved seating, only to disover that Prince Charles and his mare was joining our service. They are old.

Its the big day

And I got the most stunning stuff from T from Rain...in this very big bag. He knows me so well to make such a big fuss of my B day...

Rugby World Cup 2011

So its that time again where all of the rugby playing countries in the world get together to determine which one is the best at the game. Our South African team has won the title twice now and we are the defending champions. The problem is at the moment we are not the best team in the world. We haven't won a game in such a long time. Now there are some South Africans who keep on harping on the fact that we have to support our national team no matter what. Bullshit! If they are not winning any matches, then there si something wrong, and people are getting upset and saying that it is not always about winning..... REALLY??? In sport, it is ONLY about winning games, tournaments, matches....

As far as I am concerned, the Springboks will not be doing well at the World Cup this year coz we do not have the best team. The reasons for this is of course a whole other post worthy.

A new member at the zoo

On Thursday after the great storm, we found this little guy, tired and hungry on our porth window. I went outside and caught him and brought him into our house. At first we were going to try and find the owner, but that was going to be too much of a mission. So now we got a budgie called R2D2 because he talks along with R2D2 on the TV. The cats are constantly stalking him and every now and then he screams and flutters all around the cage. He is such a drama queen.

The Glee phenomina

We have been watching Glee during the time we had no satelite TV and I have to say I really don't get the whole Glee thing. The characters are so clichèd and one dimensional. I mean a gay boy who loves show tunes, dresses funny, talks like a girl and NEVER has any interaction with another boy. Come on. Then there is the 'hot' jock who has the conflicting live of choosing to be popular or to sing. In real life these people do not exist. In real life the jock will not be in a show choir, and the gay boy will be beaten up. Over and above this, the so called actors can't act, and very few of them can sing. The teacher constantly thinks he is the next Justin Timberlake and the big goofy main male actor can't act, dance, sing and even struggles to walk on camera. The one and only good thing about Glee is that it helps teenage kids deal with issues at school. If only they did not burst into song every 5 minutes, I would have been able to enjoy some more of it.

Painting day

The little guy helped us paint the kitchen.

Rest and relaxation

The youngest dog after a whole day of running around in the forrest for a friends birthday party. Fun was had by all and Butch, the birthday boy, got spoiled again.

The new kitchen

These will be the colours in our new kitchen. The kitchen doors will be the green, and the walls the blue. The yellow was a test but we don't like it. Its not yet in as we are still in the building process.

Father Bruce

Our favourite priest has stepped down and is going to leave the cathedral. Father Bruce Jenneker was one of the first people in the cathedral who spoke to us and got us involved in serving as a couple in the church. He has been the Canon Presentor at church so he was the one who wrote the liturgy for the services. His last wish today as he was saying goodbye was that his writing of liturgy and sings got someone inspired enough to worship the lord. Well it was exactly the way the cathedral worshiped and the songs they sang and the way the service was laid out, that got me interested in joining the cathedral, so I guess his plan worked. We will miss him very dearly.

Traffic

One of the big reasons I will never move back. This is a normal road in the suburbs and there is traffic everywhere even on the bridge.

The pending storm

These black clouds turned out to be spitting rain in the afternoon. Not exactly the perfect storm it looks like. I saw a wonderful quote yesterday... Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, its about learning to dance in the rain...

An Emu

Seen in the urban suburb of Kempton Park. This is like Bellville in Cape Town, The Bluff in Durban or middel America. However you would ot expect an Emu here as it is an urban suburb. The weird things people do


Another dreadful week

I am up in Mpumalanga again this week, seeing my properties and have come all the way to the border, Komatipoort. Once again I have to watch the sun set in the bushveld animal spotting. Oh my life...

Stormy weather

I love being in Joburg in summer. Its hot during the day but not uncomfortable and then every second day or so, it storms in the afternoon to cool everything down. Joburg in summer is alo so green! I wish we had this weather in Cape Town, and of course my family, and my friends. Then it will be perfect.

The threatening cloud

It has been unbelievably windy in the city the past few days and this scarry looking cloud has been hanging around the mountain for a few days. Luckely it went away and the wind died down for the Friday night concert.

Ground control to major Tom

The most amazing light show with flashing, strobing, spot, colour and bright lights.

The concert

How amazing. The screen ar the top of the construction (stage thing) expanded and made this cocoon like thing around them! Fantastic show, great visuals and they can still make music at their age.

Meanwhile

At the U2 concert!

The cone of shame

Our dog has to wear the cone of shame, but not because he was bad, just so he doesn't lick his stitches.

Phase 2

We have started phase 2 of our renovations. The kitchen has been completely stripped and now we are going to build a bedroom there. There has been a slight glitch in our plan. The original tiles we bought for the shower, can not be used in a shower. This we found out onlyafter we put them up. Luckily the tiler messed up so all the tiles has to come off anyway. So we had to change the tiles for our shower and that is causing a delay. Happy times!

While we were at church

We came home to a bloody Lego and scratches on his dad Nero. Clearly Nero had a go at Lego.

Vegas

Our youngests mom and such a stunning dog

Doggy sleepover

We are having a doggy sleepover at our place. Lego's mother, father and brother was spending the night, so now we have 6 dogs and 2 cats in the house. Lucca (my eldest) and Lego's father Nero, grew up together so they are great mates, and of course Lego and his brother Prince are getting on famously. Only my middel boy Leche is not very engaging with them, but then again he is not engaging with ANY other dogs. Vegas (Lego and Prince's mom) is just so sweet and loving, for a whippet, and then there are the cats. They are just loving the new slaves in the house and play hide and seek with them, even if the dogs don't know it. Its been a fun evening and morning, but I think 6 would be a bit much for me to handle full time.

Phase 1

We started the renovations in our house. Phase 1 will be to chop up the bathroom, retile the shower and get a new sink and cabinet. Phase 2 will be to turn our kitchen into a bedroom (removing cabinets, tiles and floor) and building a cupboard. Phase 3 will be to turn the current bedroom and lounge into an open plan lounge with view and kitchen. We are now at the beginning of phase 1. I want to run away!

The Arab World Today

It seems like the world is changing and the axis are shifting. People all over the Arab world are in revolt today. It started in Tunisia, where they decided they have had enough of their corrupt government who is dragging their country further in to poverty. They managed to get the entire government to resign with protests.

Then it moved to Egypt, where it is still going on and a lot more violent than Tunisia. President Hosni Mubarak has promised to step down in September, but the protesters want him to leave right now! There has been very violent clashes between pro and anti Mubarak supporters.

Now the revolution has shifted to Yemen. The people are protesting against the president Ali Abdullah Saleh and want him to resign. he in turn has promised to step down when his term is over in 2013, and to NOT transfer power to his son, as is the custom.

It seems the Arab people are tired of being oppressed and exploited. They want democratic rule and no more despots and no more economic failure.

I wonder who willb e next?

The great gay hope

In the past few months I have become friendly with an older gentleman at gym. (I always make friends with EVERYBODY) We always seem to be in the sauna at around the same time, so we started greeting each other and then of course started chatting. So in the past few weeks I have been telling him about our house we bought and the renovations and stuff. I also made it clear that I have a boyfriend. So this week he suddenly asks me how long we have been together. I proudly say this year we will be together for 3 years. His response is: " ja, this year, I will be with my partner for 45 years...."

He met his partner while he was at Uni and then shortly after that left for a 3 year bursary in Germany. In this three years they wrote to each other all the time and when he came back after 3 years, they got together again. This is such a nice story. I am so happy to see that gay couples are still alive and faithful.

The best part of it all is that he still has all the letters they wrote to each other while he was in Germany.

That is sooooo romantic and nice.

Tron Legacy

We went to see Tron Legacy on Friday (3D). Growing up in the 80's and being a Tron-kid, I was soooo excited to go and watch this, and I was not disappointed. It had some of the original soundtrack which made it feel very 80's but enough new fantastic graphics and stuff to make it more modern. Apart from the fact that I had to explain to everybody who I went with what and who Tron is and what the original was about, it was great.

Now, to all those kill joys out there....
1) The purists: It will never be Tron but it is not trying to be the original. This is a sequel and is set in the present.

2) To the teenybopping techno freaks. OF COURSE the new Tron will have better graphics than the original. That is because technology has improved in the past 20 years. We all expected Tron Legacy to be more and "better". The fact is that the original was ground breaking in its day and was a great escapists movie for us youngsters during that time.

So all in all, I thought Tron Legacy was fantastic. I still want to buy and own the original even if I do watch it and think it looks crap.

PS: The movie on Friday made me miss my childhood and my cousin who is living abroad and was even more of a Tron-kid than me.

Some redecorating

We decided to start redecorating. We started with the study. It used to be blue. We painted the walls, got a stunning blind made for us by Tristans mom, putting wallpaper up and I just recovered the stool. I will post pics of the finished product soon.

A little taste of things to come

This was a temperature reading at 07:45 this morning. It has been so hot here in Cape Town with temperatures reaching over 40 degrees. Today is supposed to go to 36. At home we can not live as there is no aircon and the poor animals are dying. Dogs panting and cats spread out in the middle of the floor as if they are dead. Hopefully there will be some relief soon.