Kleure Van Die Klein Karoo

I've restarted my series entitled Kleure Van Die Klein Karoo over on our photoblog; Finnie's In Focus so at 8pm (our time) for the next month a new picture will be posted. If you pop over there now you'll see today's offering which is Pt10 of the series.

Here's a taster of what's coming up over the next few weeks.

Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I did taking them.

Freight

Hooray! The UPS man found me at home today so we finally got the paperwork for our freight, which means we're much clearer about where the freight is right now and when we're likely to receive it.

Presently it's wending its merry way South aboard the MSC Sophie somewhere off the coast of Portugal. Thankfully it is sailing along the West coast of Africa so piracy should not been too much of a concern as long as it doesn't get too close to Benin! The MSC Sophie is due to dock in Cape Town on the 30th of November so hopefully we'll have the consignment by the end of the first week of December or beginning of the second week which will tie in nicely with moving to our new house.

Frustrating Day

The day started so well with taking Michael to the hospital followed by a good trip to Aunty Florrie's in Macassar. She has a lovely house but is desperate for a few simple jobs to be done and as is so often the case she can't afford to pay much and she's very likely to be ripped off by some cowboy. So I came away with a small list of jobs which I'll do for her in the coming days.

Around lunchtime the day took a frustrating turn as I was supposed to meet the seller and get the keys to the house from him. We'd arranged to meet but when I got there he'd already left. Then UPS failed to pitch and cheekily rang to tell me I wasn't at home. Strange thing is, I was in the kitchen when they rang! Later I contacted half a dozen companies for a quote to fit a gate to our new house. Only three bothered to respond. One rang back to say he was too busy, one waffled forever causing me to lose track of what he said and the third promised to ring back at 5pm when he would meet me at the house. Well that didn't happen.

Prayers would be appreciated for tomorrow as we need to go and meet our new neighbours and get their consent to put a garage up on the boundary wall. Should be a simple process but you never know. Hopefully tomorrow will be less frustrating than today.

Documentation

Just had a call from UPS to say the documentation for our freight has arrived so they'll deliver it tomorrow. It should give us a clearer idea of when the consignment should arrive.
Brilliant!

Apology

Sorry seems to be the easiest word these days with politicians declaring themselves 'sorry' for this, that and the other, so why shouldn't I?

A while back I got into Facebook. It took three goes but on the third try I was hooked. Initially I had planned to use FB as a means of directing more friends to this blog and it worked. I quickly realised that a lot of our friends on FB were reluctant to venture much deeper into the web and some actually admitted that they didn't know what blogs were and were a bit intimidated by them. So my plan was to use the RSS feed from the blog to post onto Facebook so that friends there could follow the blog from the comfort of FB.

Sadly, somewhere en route I got horribly distracted by Mob Wars and then Mafia Wars and ended up spending ridiculous amounts of time trying to play fundamentally flawed games on uneven playing fields! All this really achieved was a total distraction from this blog and from some other far more important aspects of life like family.

Well, tonight I have reset the stupid games and blocked them from Facebook. I've deleted all the 'friends' made through the games and have tidied my FB page up so none of that rubbish shows.

So, to our loyal readers, I must apologise profusely for neglecting this blog and you! I promise to get back to blogging properly and wasting far less time on pointless stuff like Facebook.

Pirate Michael

This morning I was up unusually early to pick Michael up before the traffic got too bad and take him to the hospital for his cataract operation. Amazingly he was only in for about an hour when he rang to say he was ready. I've got to take him back tomorrow for something else to do with his eye and apparently the Dr will put a new lens in in about 12 months.

There's much that's wrong with the State healthcare system here but praise God that this op' has finally happened.

Joel thinks Michael looks cool as a pirate!

Dirt Is Good For You

Here's something every parent who uses common sense has known forever, but for some reason it required a team of scientists with funding to make 'official': Children should be allowed to get dirty, as being too clean can impair the skin's ability to heal.

Apparently the study confirms the "hygiene hypothesis" which holds that exposure to germs during early childhood primes the body against allergies. Well hooray for science!

But before you let your little ones run amok in the garden, bear in mind that a spokeswoman for Allergy UK said there was a growing body of evidence that exposure to germs was a good thing. But she said "more research was needed". Obviously any further research would need funding so clearly there's no vested interest there then.

Read the full story on the BBC here: Dirt can be good for children, say scientists

Weekends

Last weekend we went to see our friends Sam & Cindy in Noordhoek just outside Cape Town. They've got a smallholding and are showcasing sustainable farming and living. Check out these two great websites for a better explanation: My Farm Online & Start Living green. It was great to see what they're up to and to get some ideas for our new house when we move next month. I was particularly keen to see the worm farm in action whilst the boys loved the animals and took the seed planting with Sam very seriously. They still check each day to see how the seedlings are doing. Hopefully they'll sprout very soon! We also met our puppy which hopefully will join us in a few weeks time. She's a Ridgeback, Border Collie mix so things could be quite interesting with her. Joel & Eli are very excited about getting a dog and we're having some interesting discussions around naming it.

We love catching up with friends so it was a really special morning. we've known Sam since our time in Zim' and Dean spent some time with both Sam & Cindy a couple of years ago driving up to Lesotho. It's good to see friends at any time but especially when they're doing what they're passionate about and are in the midst of God's will for their lives!

Last week was a bit of an odd week, especially as Dean was unwell for much of it (that probably explains the absence of any posts). However we're all well now and things are picking up again.

On Saturday we had our inevitable trip to the Nature Reserve, we really enjoy that place!

Trapped! Viewing the rabbits

Eli loved trying to feed the bunnies

Joel and a goat. Which is which?

On our favourite 'climbing tree' in the Nature Reserve

Simba is a little bit small for Eli these days


ps. if you fancy a laugh, check this out: Farming in the EU - is this a real letter?!

Prayer Request - Update

Apologies for the delay. We had a useful meeting with the Principal, thankfully we get on quite well with her. She explained how the school is having to get in line with the International Baccalaureate system and as such the school have had to revisit the whole strategy of who goes where in the primary school. The upshot of this is that Joel will be going to P2 next year. This is more akin to Year 2 in the UK as the school needs to fit with a more international standard. This is generally a good thing as at the moment the school system is a bit stuffed by the South African families who expect it to fit with their understanding of the school system. In SA children start a year later than in Blighty consequently Joel has some 8 year olds in his class! Anyway, Joel will be moving up which we're pleased about although the reasons for him moving up aren't necessarily right. Please hold him up in prayer as he does have his struggles with school.

We actually came away from the meeting more concerned about Eli than Joel and we'll have a clearer idea after a parents meeting on Wednesday as to what we will do. In the midst of reshuffling children around, Eli will be moving from pre-Primary straight to Reception next year. We're not overly happy for a number of reasons. Firstly, we love the Nursery teacher and really want him to have a year with her. Secondly, we're very unconvinced by the Reception teacher, Joel didn't have a great year in her class. But probably most important of all is the fact that Eli's year in pre-Primary has not been about preparing him for Reception so it would be quite a big leap for him.

We'll go to the meeting on Wednesday with open minds but would appreciate prayers for wisdom.

Prayer Request

We've got an important meeting with the Principal at Joel's school at 10am to discuss which class he'll be in next year. School are keen to hold him back to repeat Year 1 but having solicited the views of many teacher friends who know Joel well we're keen for him to progress into Year 2.

Please pray that whatever the outcome Joel's needs and interests are put before ours or the schools.