Fatherhood - For Real Men Or Not?

So here we are, the first of three nights without Paula and the house is calm. Eli was in bed at the usual time (6.30pm), fed, watered, bathed and with clean teeth - all 6 of them. Joel was an hour late to bed but that was planned as we had pizza for tea whilst watching Disney's Peter Pan. Joel really enjoyed both and after demolishing his pizza asked for more! He went to bed at 8pm very tired but very happy. I even managed a two hour ride up Sir Lowry's Pass (could that be misconstrued as a 'double entendre'?) this afternoon. I know it's only the first night, but it's great to know that our family routine continues despite any changes.

Paula Heading To Durban

Paula's off to Durban tomorrow for the weekend as she joins the team planting Hope Church. 

The View From Here - Pt 2

In this installment we're taking in some of the views from Chris Nissen and more specifically from Michael's stoep (porch) at the front of his house. The reason I've included this is because we meet there each Thursday morning for our men's bible study.

Free NHS Treatment

There are many drawbacks to leaving the UK to serve in mission overseas but the benefits DEFINITELY outweigh the negatives. However we tend not to focus on those negatives but every once in a while it's worth drawing attention to them. Some of the biggest drawbacks are unsurprisingly financial.

The View From Here - Pt 1

Inspired by a feature in another Blog: Following An Unknown Path listed on Missionary-Blogs.com I've decided to do a short series entitled; 'The View From Here' in which we'll post photos of the various views we enjoy throughout the day in the passage of our lives at work and play.

Does The Pope Drive?

After getting all of Pope Benedict's luggage loaded into the limo, (and he doesn't travel light), the driver notices that the Pope is still standing on the kerb. "Excuse me, Your Holiness," says the driver, "Would you please take your seat so we can leave?"

"Well, to tell you the truth," says the Pope, "they never let me drive at the Vatican, and I'd really like to drive today." "I'm sorry but I cannot let you do that. I'd lose my job! And what if something should happen?" protests the driver, wishing he'd never gone to work that morning.

Church Ansaphone Messages

Sean, one of our elders at church recorded a series of spoof ansaphone messages which I managed to get hold of and convert into a movie file and upload onto YouTube. Such are the joys of the digital age, if you don't want to be found out, hit the delete button. Hope you enjoy the messages..

Excuse the highly dodgy accents!

Jesus's Tomb

one can't help but feel that the silly season is upon us again, or is it a 'slow news day' so the wires have to be filled with something.

The BBC news website is carrying the story: Jesus tomb found, says film-maker. the last part of that headline really does set the context for the rest of the article. Read on through it and you see that the archaeologists do not claim it to be the tomb of Christ rather; [they] said that the burial cave was probably that of a Jewish family with similar names to that of Jesus."

Getting Fit - Mountain Biking

The big news is that I'm now down to 92Kgs, that's a loss of 5Kgs so far. The target remains 85Kgs so we're headed in the right direction.

The regular riding is definitely helping as is the change in diet. amazingly I'm actually enjoying the changes and don't miss snacking on an entire packet of biscuits opting instead for a banana. The riding continues to get easier and consequently more enjoyable. One of my secret joys is the comments from other riders, especially the fit ones. Last week I was riding with a friend and as we were half way up a 20 minute hill I was chatting away (a new development for me, I used to be dying at that point) when I heard my friend puffing & panting. On asking if he was OK? he asked me to slow down so he could keep up. Not words I would ever have expected to hear especially from a guy almost 10 years younger on a fully carbon bike!

Weekend

Saturday didn't start too well as Joel was running from the kitchen to the lounge and slipped on the tiles smacking his mouth against the step - Ouch! There was much blood and screaming so Dean took him to casualty (a private and expensive affair) where he was brilliant for the doctor! It looks like he will lose both front teeth but thankfully all will heal quite quickly and no stitches were needed.

Oscars And Bits

Well no we haven't won an Oscar (although some of Eli's tantrums could well be nominated!), actually our Blog is now listed at Oscar which is a UK based online mission resource, so well worth taking a look at.

Got to rush as I'm off early for a ride before the manic day ahead; leadership training session followed by birthday party and stuff.

Star Of The Week

Joel continually makes us proud, but this week is a bit special as he was awarded the 'star Of The Week' award for the nursery class. What makes this all the more special is that he got it for listening! We had to check that this was right but it is.

Joel got to wear the 'Star of the Week' badge and was given a little certificate too. Needless to say he's very proud of them both.

What a star!

Butterfly World

Paula accompanied Joel and his class on their first school trip today to Butterfly World in Paarl. He had an absolute ball - firstly riding in the car with one of his new friends, Pabatso, who is a Sotho speaker solely and yet manages to get by in an English speaking nursery - aren't kids amazing!! He was then treated to up close and personal experiences (a) with the butterflies themselves in a wonderfully humid and hot enclosed area, and then with a couple of snakes and (thankfully!) some enclosed tarantulas and other such "lovelies".

Valentines Day

Joel's school emailed this photo to us. For Valentines Day the kids were allowed to ditch the uniform and wear red & white (so some went in blue & white!). Joel doesn't look too chuffed by the whole thing. The kids are from both his nursery class and the reception class.

Sadly the reception class teacher wore a Man Ure shirt but luckily she's not in the photo, phew!

Picture Resizer

Here's a really useful utility from Microsoft. In fact, this is so useful that you can almost forgive Microsoft all their previous sins.

If you regularly post photos on a Blog or website this utility is for you!

Getting Fit - Mountain Biking

I've been making a serious effort to shake off a few kilos and get fit in the process, but I also want to have fun whilst doing this. That means the gym is a non starter! So I've been mountain biking on and off for a couple of years now and really enjoyed it, but late last year the group I was riding with let me down. I chased them for a while but had to concede defeat as they were all too busy with their own businesses to commit to regular riding.

Chris Nissen Update

We've not posted on the Blog for a few days as we never seem to find the time or when we do we're just too tired to say anything worth writing.

Family life continues to be great, both boys are blossoming at their respective nurseries. Joel astounds us by the day with what he's learning. He comes out with some real pearls of wisdom and often has us cracked up. Eli loves going to his nursery/crèche run by Leanne, a friend from church. He's supposed to be moving at Easter to the same nursery Joel went to but given how happy he is we're reconsidering the move.

Home Affairs - Residency

We started the process of applying for permanent residence this morning and so embarked upon a long and slow journey with Home affairs which could take up to 3 years to complete! Hopefully things will go a bit quicker than that as we're applying on kinship grounds and as such the paperwork we have to provide is very minimal.

Lazy Weekend

It's the weekend so that must mean it's time for the paddling pool - again! As is very evident, the boys adore the pool and have so much fun in there. Eli soon had enough and decided that he wanted to climb so had a go on the climbing frame. He struggled with the rope side but shinned straight up the ladder side much to our horror! Eli was immensely pleased with himself so there'll be no end of him climbing now.

Three of the best piccys can be seen at Finnie's in Focus

Cape Town Aquarium

After a long but fun week at school Joel asked if we could go to the aquarium on Saturday, so we did. Joel adores the place and Eli is developing a passion for it too which is brilliant. As ever we had a great morning, taking in all the tanks especially the sharks, crabs & lobsters followed by the touch tank and the children's activity centre where they both enjoyed the puppet show and Joel made an octopus! We've been members of the aquarium for almost 3 years and it really is well worth it!

Bible Study

We had an excellent bible study on Thursday. We were looking at Daniel 6 (we're slowly working our way through the whole book) and had an excellent discussion at the end about our faith and whether our neighbours, colleagues etc are aware that we serve the living God 'continually' as Daniel did. Darius recognised Daniel's faith so why shouldn't others recognise our faith? We all felt positively challenged which is great and hopefully we'll see some fruit in our lives as we witness to those around us.

Emyezweni Pre-School

One of the joys of my work is that I get to spend time with a wide variety of people in a wide variety of contexts. One of the best contexts is Emyezweni Pre-School which is run by Debs & Rach as part of HCC's outreach into Lwandle. This morning I took my laptop and projector and played Cars for the kids. Needless to say the film was a huge hit.

The boy in the foreground in the check shirt was riveted

Paddling Pool

We had a fairly lazy weekend and spent quite a bit of time around the paddling pool particularly on Sunday. The weather was great with the temperature in the high 20's rather than low 30's so it was quite comfortable. On Saturday we went to the Nature Reserve (sadly the camera battery died) and had a lovely morning feeding the ducks and trying to coax Spikey the porcupine out of his house, with no success.

Cluster Maps

We've just added the 'Cluster Map' feature lower down on the blog (just above the hit counter) for a bit of fun. We were impressed with the results within the first 24 hours of the map being on the Blog. As you can see from the dots we attracted a fairly broad array of worldwide hits. We figure the dot in Argentina is our dear friends Hazel & Martin but beyond that we can only wonder at the global reach of a simple tool like this Blog.

Hadeda Ibis

The Hadeda Ibis (Bostrychia hagedash) is a regular over our house and can usually be heard long before they're seen as they make a right racket. However, they are spectacular birds and it's a real privilege to have one stop on your house like this.

To see more visit our PhotoBlog

 

Home Based Care

We are constantly amazed by God's goodness and faithfulness regarding Chris Nissen Park. Just when things are getting difficult again in many respects, God sends along a little angel and we can start to dream and plan again for the future! As you know Paula has been dreaming of officially launching a small home based care team this year. Around 20 women from the community have received some training and Paula has done quite a bit of work drawing up requirements, budgets, characteristics of carers etc. However, apart from so far lacking any sort of finance to be able to start the scheme, she also felt quite out of her depth in terms of the more medical side of home based care.

Chris Nissen Update

We're currently melting in the heat, today the temp is supposed to drop to 27°C so that will be a welcome break from the high 30's we've been enjoying. On Wednesday Dean was in Jonkershoek where the temp' was 41° at 9 in the morning! Hopefully this evening it will be a bit cooler as Dean goes mountain biking with a friend. Dean's riding three times a week at present which is great.

Comet McNaught

C/2006 P1 (McNaught) has been hanging around over South Africa for several days and will probably be around for a little while longer. Sadly the weather was cloudy for the best part of the comet's time with us so we've only just been able to see it and get any decent photos, hence the not brilliant photo here! What a pleasure to see something in the cosmos so clearly.

Family Fun

We've had some fun this weekend just chilling with friends and at home. On Sat' we went to some friends around the corner for a lamb 'poitjie' which was delicious. The afternoon was very chilled and the kids played brilliantly. Today we've been hanging out having a braai (bbq) and messing about. The kids have had fun whilst we've melted in the heat, it's well over 30°C today and is supposed to remain hot for the rest of the week. Summer seems to have taken an age to arrive properly but it's arrived with a vengeance.

First Day At School

Our little boy is growing up! This morning he had to put his uniform on for the first time as he got ready to go to the Nursery at the International School. Needless to say we got lumps in our throats as we saw our little boy suddenly looking all grown up. Joel was really excited about going and he was really good when we left him. We can't wait to go and get him at lunchtime!

Family Fun Day

We decided to have a fun family day out on Wednesday before Joel starts nursery on Thursday, so we went to Pringle Bay just around the coast from where we are. The beach is beautiful and deserted and affords great views over the Cape Peninsula and Table Mountain. We had so much fun, Eli loves to eat the sand whilst Joel wants to explore the rock pools. This time he discovered a lobster which was being eaten by the crabs. Joel was delighted to find that the lobster had been decapitated so put it in his net an took it to show Mummy (Eli tried to eat it!).

Last Few Photos From Grandad's Visit

Here's a few last photos of Grandad's visit over Christmas, somehow they were missed in the downloading from the camera to computer.







Daddy & Joel exploring the rock pools

Saddam's Death

I had no intention whatsoever of posting about Saddam's death, mainly because the man really isn't worth commenting on. However, after enduring a week of endless 'sick' pictures of Saddam with the noose around his neck I feel obliged to say something.

Sean Got Married

Sean got married to Susan on Saturday in a really cool ceremony at the Somerset College chapel. The service was really good with many personal touches in it and everybody really enjoyed the occasion. Sean was clearly very nervous beforehand, but soon chilled and took the day in his stride.










Enjoy the photos...

Sean and his best men, Cameron & Jan

Fun With Grandad

Our last few days with Grandad & Lesley were spent chilling out and spending time with the boys, this was especially important for Joel who knows and understands who Grandad is. Joel really loves Grandad and knowing that they might not see each other for another 18 months makes it very important to spend quality time together when opportunity allows.

Tyrone Update

You may remember our previous posts about Tyrone as he waited for his much needed eye operation to correct his wonky eye. Finally at the end of last year he had the operation and he now has two eyes both looking forwards. Tyrone looks so much better for the op' and his family are delighted with the outcome.

As you can see from the photos of before and after, the op' has made a big difference to Tyrone and before you ask, no the surgeon didn't knock his teeth out!

La Petite Ferme

On Tuesday the boys were looked after for the day whilst we went to Franschhoek with Grandad & Lesley. We had a great morning mooching around the shops followed by a superb lunch at La Petite Ferme (one of the top 10 restaurants in South Africa) where the views are as god as the food! The rest of the day was spent taking the scenic route home via Villiersdorp and Grabouw, a fantastic drive through the mountains and lakes.

New Year's Eve

We had a lot of fun on New Year's Eve which was mainly about the kids and having fun with them. We did the same as last year and allowed Joel to stay up a bit later and watch a film with us. This year we watched Hook which had Joel spellbound! He started watching it in his Simba costume but had to change into his Pirate costume quite early on!

Wilderness

We’ve just had three nights in Wilderness on the Garden Route with Grandad & Lesley. Much of the time was spent on the stunning beach although we also made it to the Outeniqua Choo Tjoe museum in George. This is a great day out and Joel really enjoyed it again. Unfortunately the morning was ruined a bit by the steam train letting off his whistle. Joel and Daddy were stood right next to it and weren’t expecting it to be quite so loud! That whistle was VERY loud!!!!!

Boxing Day

Boxing day was a nice lazy day which began with a walk in the Nature Reserve where we fed the ducks and even managed to coax Spikey (the porcupine) out of his 'house' for some bread. After this we went to Paddy & Barbara’s for a lunchtime braai and a swim in their pool. They have become really good friends and their kids, Caleb & Michelle, are really good with Joel & Eli even though they’re quite a bit older. Paddy & Barbara also had some other friends there, Johann & Lara and they were good company too. Once the kids were in the pool the adults all relaxed a bit and enjoyed the sun and friendship.

Christmas Day

We stuck to what has become our family tradition by having the turkey in the evening and once again the weather was glorious so we sat outside, jealous aren’t you! The day was mainly about the boys, sadly our church doesn’t tend to have a meeting on Christmas Day, so Joel & Eli opened their small stockings first and then over the course of the morning and afternoon opened their presents. Once again Joel was keen to play with each new toy before opening the next present, but he did get the hang of it and started to demand another present. Still, he’s nowhere near as materialistic as he would be if he were in the UK and we’re grateful for that!

Sport Quotes 2006

Quotes of the Year (stolen from BBC Sport)

If sport is not your thing, just move along and don't moan!

"She shouldn't be here. I know that sounds sexist but I am sexist. This is not park football, so what are women doing here? If you start bringing in women you have big problems. It is tokenism for the politically correct idiots."
Luton manager Mike Newell blames assistant referee Amy Rayner for the 3-2 defeat by QPR.

Happy Christmas

Emmanuel, God with us!

What better reason could there be to celebrate?

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Lots of love

Dean, Paula, Joel &Eli

XXXX

CNP & Picnic

Having Grandad and Lesley to stay is a lot of fun but especially so for Joel. He seems to be loving every minute spent with Grandad and it's a real pleasure and privilege to watch the relationship blossom!

We've been really busy since they arrived and yesterday afternoon we went into Chris Nissen to meet some of our friends. This is always an emotional time, but yesterday was especially so as Vissy was really poorly, but seeing Eli brightened her up incredibly.

Grandad

Joel has been really excited for a while now as he knew Grandad was coming to see him. Grandad finally arrived on Eli's Birthday, so his first duty was to accompany Birthday Boy with the family for a fish & chip supper at a local chippy. Today was mainly about Joel as we left Eli at home with a friend and went with Grandad and Lesley to Cape Town. We went up Table Mountain then onto Boulders Beach to see the penguins before driving home exhausted and sunburnt. Joel and Grandad had a lot of fun!

Eli's First Birthday

WOW! A whole year went by very quickly, before we knew what had happened Eli turned 1! Eli has hit most of the developmental milestones early, he crawled (of a fashion)at 4½ months, sat up unaided at 5 months, was walking at 11 months and basically never looked back.

He's been and continues to be a very special blessing to us as a family and we thank God for bringing him into our lives. Joel & Eli really do adore each other which is brilliant.

Christmas Hampers

One of the things that we've been really busy with recently was the organisation and distribution of food hampers to our church folk in Chris Nissen. The planning for the hampers was immense as we received physical donations of food and cash donations.

Family Fun

In the midst of a very hectic time we've managed to take a bit of time out just to chill as a family and spend some quality time together. Thankfully, the paddling pool makes a great focal point for fun and being silly together and the boys love being in there - making containment of Eli very easy!

Joel is very very excited as he now only has ONE sleep until Grandad arrives!

Eli & Mummy

Mission Incredible

On Sunday evening we had our invitational service at church entitled 'Mission Incredible'. As explained during the evening, we couldn't call it Mission Impossible because with God, all things are possible! However, the Nativity is incredible and actually deeply shocking (we'll not expound on that right now). The evening was great and as ever at such events we were left marvelling at the sheer array of talent we have in the congregation. Wesley gave a short, simple but punchy gospel presentation so hopefully some of the many visitors will respond to the gospel at some point.

Paddling Pool

With the eventual arrival of Summer (although it's still not very hot yet) we dug out the paddling pool only to discover it was wrecked so Paula got a nice new one for a silly price. Joel remembers well the joys of the paddling pool - pagging pool as he calls it - and once in it is very hard to get him out again! Eli took some convincing that it was a good thing but he warmed up to the idea and by the end seemed to be enjoying himself.

Visit our PhotoBlog to see more

Afternoon's And Coffee Spoons

Or in this case, birthday cake and Christmas trees. Saturday was a busy old day, Paula had a practice session for our evening 'event' at church on Sunday, whilst Dean was running around getting stuff ready for our Mulled Wine evening - a tradition we started at Bible College and have maintained faithfully ever since!

Nobody has ever left disappointed! During the day, Eli had a good go at demolishing a huge slab of his birthday cake and made a wonderful mess in the process. Whilst Joel helped Daddy to decorate the Christmas tree.

Eli's First Birthday Party

With Eli's birthday being so close to Christmas we had to have his party a week early to ensure that some of his friends would be able to come. Eli seemed completely oblivious to the event but was delighted to have unfettered access to a huge bowl of 'Flings' which he and Jared (his main partner in crime) set about demolishing.

Table Mountain

We are privileged to live somewhere as beautiful as we do and regularly thank God for such a blessing! This is the view of Table Mountain seen from a friends home on the Schapenberg in somerset West.

Visit Finnie's In Focus for a high resolution version




We've circled our house in the bottom right.

Nose Picking Shepherd

Joel had a ball at the Twinkle Tots Nativity yesterday. He did himself proud and we were very proud parents! As you'll see from the photos below, Joel was very happy and enjoyed the whole experience, unlike last year when he refused to participate and cried throughout. Nata had obviously given a lot of thought as to who would take which roles and Joel was one of two shepherds. The other shepherd was a smaller boy named Liam and Joel took him under his wing and helped him along.

Joel's Last Day @ Twinkle Tots

Today is Joel's last morning at Twinkle Tots, where did his 2 years there go? He has really enjoyed his time there and we've seen him develop and flourish in so many ways. We'll always be grateful to Nata, Ouma & Yolande for taking such good care of our boy! We're also looking forward to Eli starting there in June next year. Tomorrow Joel will be a shepherd in the Twinkle Tots nativity and then it really is 'farewell' as he starts at the International School in January. Wow, he's getting all grown up!

Funny Old Weekend

Nothing spectacular happened at the weekend, but we did have a few minor but amusing incidents ranging from finding a rat in the toilet bowl (dead thankfully, presumed drowned) to a pigeon flying into a window and leaving an almost perfect imprint of itself. Poor Joel was in trouble at the time and hiding in his bedroom when we heard a loud thud, so Dad went into his bedroom to tell him off. Unfortunately, Joel was reading his biggest book which is the one he usually lobs when angry, so he got a sound telling off. Later in the afternoon we went upstairs and saw the impression of the pigeon in the window, whoops! that would explain the loud thump. Joel then must have wondered what was happening as Dad apologised to him and Mummy gave him some sweets. Great recipe for a confused child.