Rub A Dub Dub..

..Three men in a tub or at least a hammock.

The weather is really picking up and today it's 29°C and a little overcast so we're having lots of fun in the garden.

Unintended insult of the weekend goes to Liz, our baby-sitter on Friday night. As she was putting on a DVD she noticed the David Gilmour in concert DVD and said "You'd get on well with my Dad." Thanks for that!
Further to Reason's We Love Africa - Pt3 I found this sign just around the corner from where we live.

I wonder what the punishment is if it's not really a "fine"?

For more of this kind of nonsense have a look at: The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks.

GoLD Peer Education

On Friday evening we had the privilege of attending the Ukuthasa Peer education Mentor Gala Evening held at our church premises. Charmaine who heads up the project really pulled all the stops out and put on a fantastic evening for us all!

Home Based Care

Paula joined the home based care team as usual yesterday for a morning of visiting our 10 'patients'. This is always a special time and yet can be full of frustration. One man has recently had a second stroke and has been discharged from hospital after just 5 days. He is now bedridden and incontinent and his sister-in-law has had to give up work (the only family income) to care for him. There will be no visits from a health-care professional - he has simply been left to get on with it. The care team visit him 3 or 4 times a week to ease the burden, but it is clear that this is not enough. This is going to be a typical situation for the team. On the other side, 3 other men we visit are doing very well, taking their medication and getting stronger. We had excellent times of prayer and reading the Bible with them. However, as the men gain strength, they realise how bored they are without work. This is another big social problem we are up against. It is hard to encourage people when their self-esteem is at an all time low. 

Church Leaders

Having been at Helderberg Christian Church for just over three years we felt it was time to introduce our beloved leaders to you, so here they are in all their glory...

left to Right: Paul, Theo, Wesley, Sean, Francois & Charl




Sincere apologies to the Village People!

That's My Boy!

Quite often at the moment I seem to end up taking Eli to his nursery which means we have about 40 minutes together in the house, just the two of us. These times are becoming savoured moments in which we have a lot of fun with no disturbance from Joel or Mummy. This morning I had to leave Eli to eat his breakfast while I grabbed a quick shower and when I came back he'd finished his cereal and was swigging the last of the milk form the bowl. When he put the bowl down his face was splattered with milk and he looked so gorgeous!

My boys make me very proud!!
Below are three local signs that have been amusing me for some time so I thought I would share them with you.



Nothing quite like making tourists feel welcome by allowing them to park conveniently

To all the south African rugby fans out there.. you won! Not only did you win the World Cup but you deserved to win it. You played a great tournament and were generally entertaining to watch.

You won, live with it!

Friends & Weekend

On Thursday we picked Richard, Sal, Josh' & Isaac from the airport for their eagerly anticipated three week holiday here in sunny SA. Their staying in a cottage in Gordon's Bay just a couple of minutes walk from the beach, ice cream parlour and chippy so they're well set for a good time. It's really great to see them again and Joel is especially delighted to see Sal whom he adores!

Some idiot/s started a fire on the Helderberg late in the afternoon and firefighters have been battling all night to put it out. From our house it looks like their just about getting the upperhand, but their not being helped by a very strong Southeast wind. I'm not into corporal punishment, but when these arsonists are caught each resident of Somerset West should be able to beat the c**p out of them for 5 minutes, that would deter them.

It's not often these days that Christian's get good publicity, admittedly we tend to solicit bad press (such as the whole fiasco surrounding the ordination of homosexual clergy) by failing to handle situations well. Anyway this post isn't a rant & rave about that but rather to draw your attention to some very positive press regarding Tearfund and the work they're doing in Zimbabwe.