8th Birthday Party

What a fun afternoon we had celebrating Eli's 8th birthday.

It was all very noisy and very messy. Everything an eighth birthday party should be.

Hopefully all the kids have gone home exhausted because we certainly are!

Eli can't wait to celebrate his actual birthday on the 21st now.

Junior School Concert

This morning we had the pleasure of watching the junior school perform in their Duets Concert.

Joel was the interloper in the concert getting to perform his favourite solo piece; Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.

All the children did very well and we were very proud of Joel.

Music Award

We're so proud of Joel this evening as he was awarded a Certificate Of Achievment Music Award for Junior Guitar. The Principal announced it as being for "Excellence in guitar."

Only three awards were given for music in the junior school this year so Joel is understandably very pleased with himself.

Way to go Sunshine!

Spotted Dikkop

Felt really pleased to spot a pair of Spotted Dikkop on the vacant plot immediately behind our house. It looks like they might be nesting there which is pretty cool.

These are quite common in the South Africa but it's the first time I've seen them so close to home.

I'm guessing a bit of derelict ground like this is perfect for it as it seeks out lizards and other small creatures to eat. Especially as the water table is saturated after the floods, which has driven many small creatures up to the surface.

Floods

The Western Cape was warned on Thursday to batten down the hatches for an approaching storm on Friday which would last through to Sunday morning. On Friday morning the clear blue skies and 25°C temperature made it hard to conceive of the impending carnage. This was rectified within a very brief period as the black clouds appeared and by mid-afternoon one of the wildest thunderstorms was right overhead. Thunder storms are quite unusual in this part of the world, so the first almighty clap was enough to set the alarm bells ringing.

Immigration

Watching the news and reading around the various news websites it's impossible just now to ignore the frenzy around immigration. Being British I naturally lean towards the British news agencies and am generally appalled by the likes of Sky News and the seemingly endless rounds of negative reports on immigrants, be they legal or otherwise.

Blog Action Day

I wasn't going to join in with this but I'm going to have a rant about immigration on Blog Action Day because I'm sick of the ignorance surrounding the issue and sick of the blatantly racist views expressed by many who haven't got a clue what they're talking about.

As a taster, I'll leave you with a question to consider before the day: