Weekend

We had a great weekend in Montagu. Dean was riding the big race so we decided to go back to Joel's favourite place 'in the country' - Farmer Koos's farm. We took the boys straight from school on Friday and enjoyed a fantastic lunch on route - just look at that view! It was wonderfully warm and very relaxing. The boys simply loved pottering around the farm and Eli was often gone for up to an hour making himself at home with the animals/machinery.

Not In The Job Description

Once again, yesterday found me doing things I never thought I would have to and that certainly aren't in my 'job description'!! It was the day of the funeral for my friend in CNP (see: Grieving & Rejoicing). I turned up at 8 am knowing that CNP funerals never run to time, only to find that the first part in the house was already underway!! It was a truly fitting and glorious occasion, in the right sense of the words. My friend's life was honoured and all the glory went to God. As usual though, things never go as you might expect. I had greeted all the family members and stood for an hour in the wind and rain outside the house because there were so many people. Just as we were waiting for the coffin to be brought out of the house and taken to the tent in CNP for the next part of the funeral, my friend's oldest daughter came and told me that I was needed. I went in and next thing found that I was carrying the coffin whilst holding on to the 12 year old daughter who is wailing at this point. I find it strange that noone seems to want to comfort a crying child in this situation. I then spent the next 2 hours taking part in the service whilst trying to be of some comfort to the daughter who was really distraught, yet lucid enough to say that she would never see mummy again. How powerless you feel in situations like this! I was honoured to be able to speak about my friend and managed to provoke a few laughs as well as many tears amongst those gathered, so I think it went down well.

Winter Has Arrived!

Winter is well and truly here and the weather is awful. The Northwest wind is pumping heavily and has almost destroyed our TV aerial as well as taking branches off a few trees. The rain also arrived today which gets most locals quite excited but the English in us stops us from finding rain exciting!

Joel & Eli however couldn't wait to put their raincoats and welly boots on and go splashing in the rain. Thankfully they'd had enough after half an hour but Eli did manage to do some jumping on the trampoline in that time.

As you can see in the photo, the weather really isn't too good but it isn't deterring the boys!

Law In South Africa

A friend recently brought this to our attention..

Two recent court cases, have earned the attention of newspaper readers in South Africa

1. One person was fined R1 000 for not having a TV license.
2. Another was released on bail for R500 after being arrested for murder.

The moral of this South African story:

If you do not have a TV license and the inspector comes round, kill him.
You'll save R500.

Bible Study

We had an excellent bible study in Chris Nissen this morning. We were looking at the story of Samson as part of our series on Famous Bible Stories. The aim of the series is to equip the men with a good basic knowledge of where the famous stories are in the bible and what they're about.

Anyway, this morning we were looking at Samson asking the question; was his a wasted life or not? We came to the conclusion that his life was wasted but ultimately God triumphed and something good came out of it. We then sought to apply Samson's story to our own lives, what can we learn and how can we make sure we don't live empty wasted lives? Each of my men agreed that they want to live lives which reflect God's glory so that we can win the community for Christ. I was so proud of them for this!

Grieving And Rejoicing

Today has been a very sad day. We learnt this morning that our friend and patient in CNP who has recently got on to ARV treatment died. She had been very sick in the past week, but we never thought that this was it. Paula took her to the clinic on Tuesday and they immediately admitted her to the hospital where she stayed until her death. Thankfully, Paula, one of our carers and the family were all able to visit her in the final week and spent some quality time talking and praying with her.

Sing Along To Pink Floyd

As I was sat at the computer this evening Paula was feeding the boys and I could hear the David Gilmour CD I made from his recent Remember That Night DVD on the stereo. What really made me smile was the fact that Joel requested the CD, it's currently his favourite (having displaced Roger Waters to #2) and he loves singing along to classic Pink Floyd tracks from the 70's such as Breathe, Wish You Were Here & Comfortably Numb. He's word perfect and sings beautifully. In fact, he knows some of the Floyd stuff so well that he has his own names for them, for example Shine On You Crazy Diamond is known as the Aquarium Song. Joel's favourite at the moment is definitely Gilmour's performance of Echoes, he just can't get enough of it!

"Your Cape Town's Very Nice"

Today being the third public holiday in 1 week(!) we decided to go with our friend Jo into Cape Town, with a difference. This time we wanted to go to the Planetarium, which we knew would be a real treat for Joel. What a day we had! It turns out that the Planetarium is attached to the South African Museum a local version of the Natural History Museum, so we all had a ball gazing at dinosaur skeletons; stuffed animals of all shapes and sizes and getting truly knowledgeable about the great white sharks that we live alongside here in False Bay! Following a very memorable trip to the cafe where Jo had a 'small snack', and we all gazed on in admiration - we had an excellent presentation of stars, planets etc. etc. in the planetarium. Both boys were open-mouthed and loved the chairs that tip right back so that you can gaze at the presentation on the ceiling.

Bike Race Video

Here's a short video of the boys having a bike race. Joel is on Eli's bike and Eli very determinedly rides Joel's, watch his technique.

Breakfast

This was one breakfast that was thoroughly enjoyed, but probably for the wrong reasons.

This week is a bit of an odd week as Monday was a public holiday followed by Tuesday & Wednesday back at work with today and tomorrow also being public holidays. Great for family time but bad news for work and also quite disorienting as it's too easy to forget which day is which as it feels like the weekend all the time.

Guess we shouldn't grumble.

Pirates & Captains

We are learning that you really must never underestimate the power of a 5 year old to 'act out' what is going on around him! As anyone who knows him will vouch, Joel is absolutely potty about pirates - in fact, we're sure he believes he is one - and he is rarely to be found these days in 'civvies'. He must be dressed as a Captain and mum, dad and Eli are always being grabbed to look for Peter Pan, to fight Captain Hook or to debate with Captain Jack Aubrey (Master and Commander)/aka Captain Jack Strawberry after a little early days slip up by Cap'n Joel!! Today found Joel calling a doctor to his bedside to help him with his arm, which had been sawn off, and a bloody neck - all straight out of the film. When mum asked if he would like a book to read in bed (also straight out of the film - good one mum!), he said that that would be difficult with only one arm - good point!

Petzl Adventure Nights

I had a lot of fun on Saturday night riding in the Petzl Adventure Night bike ride in Jonkershoek. Visit my moutainbike blog Epic Adventures With A Mountain Bike for more..

HIV Training

Please pray for Paula and the HOPE home based care team who are attending a week's training course at Jubilee in Cape Town on HIV/AIDS. This is a great, practical course that will really help them in their day to day work in CNP. It has been sobering so far to learn the up to date stats relating to the pandemic, but so exciting to listen to a church leader preaching on the church's response to HIV/AIDS and to realise that we are at the cutting edge of this and are here to motivate the rest of the church now.

A Different Kind Of Weekend

This weekend was far from a normal weekend (whatever one of those is) with Dean having a meeting after church followed by a big meeting between ourselves, Wesley one of our church elders and a church member from CNP who's not very happy with us at present. This particular meeting was quite tough and long but needs careful follow-up to ensure issues are addressed properly and our work in CNP can continue to grow. Please pray for our church members in CNP, we long to see them living lives which glorify God's name and build His kingdom in the community. A huge THANKYOU goes to Jo for looking after the boys whilst this was all going on. You're a star!

As ever the boys had a lot of fun and the trampoline continues to get a lot of use. Joel is getting very confident on it (as you can see) and Eli is determined not to be left behind.

Weekend

We had another busy but lovely weekend as a family. On Saturday we attended the 1st birthday party and dedication of Jemma Joy, the daughter of some new friends of ours. It was a very special occasion and everyone had lots of fun. While Eli was out and about mingling and generally getting up to as much as he could, Joel really enjoyed playing with the toys in someone else's bedroom and watching the TV with all the other boys!

Oxymoron?

Is this an oxymoron?

So What Is Wrong With Africa (and the BBC)?

On Saturday Mbeki made an idiot of himself (see post below) on his way to the emergency summit in Zambia in which a variety of African leaders convened to discuss the electoral impasse and subsequent crisis in Zimbabwe.

Tragically, the summit came out in favour of the Desperate Despot and virtually dismissed Morgan Tsvangarai and the MDC as a sideshow. Despite their clear victory in the parliamentary poll and seemingly obvious win in the presidential poll. If Desperate despot had won we'd know about it!!!

Quiet Diplopmacy = Sitting On Your Butt Doing Nothing!

THE HANDSHAKE SAYS IT ALL

One should always be a bit wary of being too critical of the president of a country in which one is a guest, but equally, one can only take so much rubbish before one has to speak out.

Another Perspective

Recently we had the pleasure of hosting the Mabbett family from Hertford Baptist Church, one of our supporting churches. It's always a pleasure to see folks from back home and it's always a pleasure to introduce people to Chris Nissen Park and some of our friends in the community.

Recent MTB Race Photos

On Saturday I rode in the Vigne à Vigne and had a great time and finished in a very respectable time. For more info take a look at my Mountain Bike Blog.

Here are two recent photos of me mountain biking. The first is from the Vigne à Vigne and the second is from the Boschendal MTB Challenge which is part of the Cape Argus.

Desperate Despot!

How can anyone call for a recount in an election before the results have been declared?

Well believe it or not that is exactly what Mugabe and his Zanu PF lackies are doing. Quite unbelievable. Next they'll be claiming that the elections weren't free and fair!

So here we are, nine days after the poll and still the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has failed to declare the results of the presidential election.

Hypocrite!

Alex Ferguson has claimed the FA Cup has been devalued by the semi-finals being held at Wembley.

The days of semi-finals being played at neutral venues like Villa Park or Hillsborough appear numbered for the foreseeable future as the Football Association have signed a 30-year staging agreement to host the games at Wembley.

The Waiting Goes On

It looks like the Mugabe circus has picked itself up, dusted itself off and got back to business. The MDC are once again being harassed and intimidated with arrests being threatened and the Meikles Hotel was raided apparently for this very purpose. The MDC have been quoted on the BBC website as saying: "Mugabe had unleashed a war after security agents ransacked its offices in Harare on Thursday." also, at least two foreign journalists have been arrested by Mugabe's circus. The inevitable state crackdown has begun.

Pirates

Joel was given some money for his birthday so yesterday we managed to sneak out to the toyshop without Eli so Joel could choose whatever he wanted (as long as he had enough money).

We don't think Joel could have been more overawed than he was and he certainly spent plenty of time taking everything in. Inevitably the pirate section was given the most thorough scrutiny and eventually Joel chose a Captain Jack Sparrow accessory pack for exactly the amount he had. Paula wasn't too pleased thinking it was overpriced but the sheer enjoyment Joel has had from it is priceless. He even slept with the headdress on last night!

Pirates remain a firm favourite in the Finnie household!

Zanu-PF Lose Majority

Breaking news From the BBC confirms what the Independent Result Centre have known for a while, that Mugabe & Gang have lost their parliamentary majority.

Seats Won:
Zanu-PF - 93 seats
MDC (Tsvangirai) 96
MDC (Mutambara) 9
Independents 1

Results So Far - Pending "Verification"

It would appear that I'm due a large serving of humble pie as the election results from Zim' indicate that Mugabe is losing and has little hope of making up ground on Tsvangarai. However, the results are pending official "verification" so the MDC could well snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with a little help from uncle Bob.

According to the Independent Results Centre the MDC are ahead in the Presidential poll and the Parliamentary poll.

The results so far are:

Cpt. Hook & Smee

Meet our pirates; Capt. Hook & his First Mate Smee.

Joel has been a bit pirate obsessed for quite a while and now Eli seems to be following suit. Joel let him dress in his 'old' pirate costume this afternoon and Eli really enjoyed it.

It's great to watch them grow together. Joel is beginning to realise that Eli's not a baby but rather is good fun, a good play-mate and a great brother. Eli is talking all the time now (his language is very advanced for his age) so they're really enjoying each other's company and getting into mischief together.

They are such a blessing they are to us!

Carry On Camping

We're home and we survived!

Actually we had a lot of fun and are really keen to go again. The boys had a ball and were really tired at the end of each day. Eli loved having Iza around to play with and generally the kids got on great. We had a really good time with Dawid & Petra and feel that at last we're building some good friendships with some church folk (only took 4 years!).

The campsite, Nightsky Caravan Park near Bonnievale was great, being well serviced with good ablutions with hot water and electricity near the tents to plug a fridge into so we had some cold beer. The site was next to a dam and had lovely views of the mountains in the distance.

Are We Mad?

Pray for us!

This afternoon we're going camping for two nights. Quite what possessed us to agree to it we're not sure. We're having visions of the Carry-On film but hopefully things will go a bit better than that. At least the weather will be good and if things go really badly we're only a two hour drive from home.

Breaking News - Mugabe Wins Election

I know that the election isn't until the 29th, but based upon previous knowledge of the Zim' election process and past behaviour by Mugabe and ZANU-PF the election result isn't really up for discussion.

Maybe I'm just overly cynical but I prefer to think of myself as a realist (it's a fine line between the two) and as such I see little reason to get excited about the prospect for change.

Joel The Showman

Joel is surprising and delighting us at the moment with his 'maturity' - dare I put it in inverted commas?!! He certainly reminds us that he is very definitely 5 years old and not a toddler as he was last time we looked! Two class examples from recent days:

(1) Mummy, daddy, that boy's got chicken pox (spoken at 100 decibels whilst walking past a very unfortunate acne'd teenage boy in the Nature Reserve!)

(2) Mummy, daddy (whilst jumping on the trampoline), I've got a good joke. (This should be interesting think m and d whilst preparing to laugh "hilariously"..). What's small, green and sticky? (We don't know Joel.... this could be gruesome!) A frog swimming in jelly! (All delivered with perfect comic timing - we did laugh hilariously this time because it was really funny!!)

This could be why his teacher often says that he has the class in stitches - we have a little showman on our hands. Oh dear!

Easter Weekend

We've had a really good weekend so far, enjoying some great family time and sharing it with friends too. On Friday we went to Betty's Bay to see the penguins but unfortunately the wind was too strong and we had to give up. So we ended up in Pringle Bay where the boys had strawberry milkshakes and tormented the fish (see left) whilst we chilled out and pretended they were someone else's children. We also took the boys to meet Peter & Gloria who run the Wild Olive, a guest house we sneak off to occasionally.

On Saturday we had a braai and a potjie (if you don't know what they are you'll just have to come and experience them) with some good friends joining us for the afternoon and evening. In fact we were all so relaxed that we lost track of time and the kids all went to be very late!

Easter & The Silly Season

Easter is the most important of festivals for Christians and as such we celebrate Easter in a low-key but meaningful way, taking time to remember that by giving up His life, Jesus opened the way for us to have life and a genuine relationship with the Father. For us this is a very important time of year, much more so than Christmas or any other festival.

Moved!

This blog has moved!

Our new address is: www.dpfinnie.com

The move will be complete by Wednesday and Blogger will redirect you to the new address for a while but please update your bookmarks to save a bit of time.

Birthday Boy!

Would you believe that the letter of the week in Joel's class is 'B' so for show & tell today he stood up and announced that he was the 'Birthday Boy' and told the class all about himself and his birthday. What a star!

Joel opened his presents after school (not sure we'll get away with that in years to come) and was thoroughly delighted by them. The four favourites are Victoria from Underground Ernie, Tom & Helicopter from Fireman Sam, a Zorro action figure and a set of Charlie & Lola DVDs.

This evening we went to Primi's for pizza and pasta which is always a huge hit with our boys. Joel invariably chooses Primi's when he can and the food is excellent.

So we've had a really good fun day with lots of laughs and some really great presents for Joel. Thankfully they're both in bed now so we can chill with a film.

5th Birthday Party

After a whole year of waiting (we're not joking!)Joel finally had his Zorro party with 15 of his little friends, mostly from school. He was thrilled to dress up as Zorro and couldn't believe his eyes when he saw his cake!! All in all lots of fun was had by everyone, including Eli, who got away with scavenging from the party food table all afternoon while the bigger children were playing games!!

Mum and dad were pretty pleased when all the kids, siblings and parents finally left though - it's exhausting hosting a kid's birthday party! Now we're looking forward to the big day tomorrow (Wednesday). Joel has been counting the sleeps for the last 3 weeks and is telling everyone that he is having his dinner at Primi Piatti's, his favourite pizza place! We wonder how long before conversation swings to what theme his party will be next year?

Random Post

These photos have been sitting in the 'draft' box of our Blogger account for a while so thought we might as well just post them.

Joel is delighted that Eli can join him on the swing at last

Weekend

We've had a really fun weekend which started with breakfast in the Nature Reserve with some friends from church. We're getting to know Dawid & Petra as their Daughter Iza is the same age as Eli and the both go to the same nursery. They adore each other! It's great to build some new friendships, we've been a bit starved of good friends so hopefully the kids will be a good catalyst. Over breakfast we agreed to go camping next weekend in Wellington, so we had to sort out a tent and borrowing some stuff to make it all a bit more comfortable. Hopefully we'll do a bit better than my good mate Roger (see here).

Most of the rest of the weekend was spent playing in and around the tent in the garden. Joel was really upset that we couldn't sleep in it for the last two nights, but tomorrow we're planning to get the mattresses and sleep out, but we'll see!

Cape Argus

So here are my official stats for the Cape Argus yesterday:

Time: 3:31:02
Ave Speed: 30.99
Overall Position:6925/28669
Group Position: 7/422
Age Position: 1096/3366

Recent News & Events

This weekend and last have been extremely busy but full of fun! Last weekend the boys had a Thomas birthday party on the Saturday morning, complete with little sit-on train for them all! Eli was very scared of the noise and Joel wouldn't go near it - that worked well!!! The party was amazing as the mum had really gone to town with Thomas accessories!! Eli was in 7th heaven - the biggest decision being what shall I eat next?

Cape Argus

I rode the Cape Argus on my road bike this morning and cracked a respectable time of 3:30. In truth I'm a little disappointed as I know I could have gone better but circumstance and my legs conspired against me. At least I know what I need to do next year to crack a sub 3hour.

Unnecessary Quotation Marks

Bethany at The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks has posted one of my pictures: How Personal?

Do pay her a visit and enjoy more silliness of a similar ilk.

Health Care

Paula had a real eye-opener experience of the South African health service last Friday. One of her friends in CNP, who also happens to be a home based care patient, has been really struggling to get information, test results etc. etc. Finally fed up with all the fobbing off that seemed to have been occurring, Paula bundled her friend, 1 of the carers and another friend into the car and drove to the local clinic for some action. After 3 hours (a miracle in itself!), we had finally found the right healthcare professional who could help; established that the patient has got TB; received the first TB counselling session and 2 days's worth of drugs and made an appointment for the AntiRetroViral clinic the following week - it turns out that our friend had been taking vitamin pills thinking that they were ARV's!!

Boschendal - Cape Argus MTB Challenge

On Sunday morning I rode the Boschendal 55k MTB race and finished in 3:18 which wasn't too bad for the first MTB race of the season. The course was very fast and easy with only one hill of note two thirds of the way into it. The course was also very sandy which made for some challenging riding at times. All in all this is the easiest of the MTB classics but a nice prelude the real race season which starts shortly.

Next Sunday morning I'll be riding in the Cape Argus
which is the 109k road race. Last year's post is here.

Absurdity Of Bureaucracy

How crazy is this?...

Tiny Bubbles Créche was set up in CNP about 2 years ago in the containers, so they have electricity but no water or sanitation facilities. The municipality agreed to provide these services for the créche but to date has failed to do so.

So late last week the municipality sent a health inspector to Tiny Bubbles to assess the situation. The conclusion being that the créche may have to close if they don't get water and sanitation sorted out.

Answer To Prayer

For the last three years I've tried many times to help Peter get an ID document but without success. Peter was born many moons ago on a farm back in the days when such births were not registered. For most of his life, Peter's got away without needing an ID, but now that he's sick he needs one to enable him to access the social grant. Peter and I have been to Home Affairs, the police, the magistrates court, the local social services office and a few other places in our attempts to get him an ID. Recently we sent him off to Caledon to stay with family so they could help him, but he returned after two very frustrating weeks with no joy.

Helderberg In Cloud

The weather has dramatically turned here today, having gone from 35°C yesterday to about 28°C raining and thundery today. Needless to say this creates some spectacular views locally.

Look what We Can Buy...

This is bizzare! Paula was in a local shop (bearing in mind we're over 6000miles from Blighty) and came across a variety of tins from Tesco of all places. Just to prove she did buy them here, look closely at the label on the top and you'll see it's priced at R3, which is about 20p in UK money.

Quite why anyone in South Africa would want to import oranges from the UK is a bit lost on me. It's a bit like shipping coals to Newcastle or ice to Iceland!

Just to top it off, the oranges were produced in Swaziland which is a tiny land-locked nation within the borders of South Africa.

The world is truly a strange place.

Weekend

We've had a lot of fun this weekend mostly chillin' out at home. Dean went riding on Saturday morning so Paula took the boys to the gym for an hour and then onto the Nature Reserve so they could watch the emergency helicopter loading up with water before heading onto the fire on the Helderberg again. The helicopter filled up every 7 or 8 minutes so the boys were in paradise watching it coming in so closely. Sadly Dean had the camera with him so no photos of that.

Sign Of The Times

Saw this sign in a shop window in Gordon's Bay and have been left wondering just what 'circumstance' led to the closure of the shop.

We'll leave the spelling mistake for you to spot.

See more of this kind of silliness at Signs Of The Times.

Mountain Biking

It's now just over a year since I made the commitment to ride my mountain bike three times a week regardless of the weather or whether or not I had anyone else to ride with. Early on in my new endeavour I would end up riding quite a bit on my own, but I soon found a good crowd to ride with and ride regularly with Paul (on the left in the photo) who has become a good friend and cycling buddy.

A Typical Week?

This week has been a 'classic Chris Nissen week' for Paula. It started with confirmation of the bad news of drinking starting again amongst our church members - a none too auspicious start! I then had the great privilege of buying monthly food again for the very needy thanks to 2 wonderful gifts we received in the UK for this purpose. Thanks to these, we can continue the feeding programme for another 10 months - praise God! This month it was hard to decide who should receive the food as so many folk are struggling, but we had to make the difficult decisions. It was also a privilege to deliver quite a stack of dry food goods to the CNP créche.

Caracal

Early on Monday morning I was riding with a friend along jeep track on Sir Lowry's Pass when we saw what looked like some kind of strange dog. As we approached slowly the creature stopped and stared at us for a few seconds before sprinting off into the bush. We couldn't believe what we'd just seen, it was a wild Caracal cat with a rabbit in its mouth. He was obviously off for a hearty breakfast.

What an awesome privilege!

Bible Study

This morning we had the first meeting of our revamped Men's Bible Study in Chris Nissen. After the disappointment of the group falling apart last year I was really encouraged in the last couple of weeks by the number of men who said they would be coming to the group. Well today I was even more encouraged as seven men rocked-up and two others wanted to but were unable to (one was at the clinic and the other is in Caledon with family).

Weekend

We've generally been at home and chillin' out this weekend although we did pop to the aquarium for the morning on Saturday when we renewed our membership (this is our fourth year of membership) and had a great time wandering around. Joel was particularly excited as he'd taken his Shark puppet to "help" with the puppet show, which he did by attacking Nemo! Joel was also pleased to note that his shark and octopus puppets are exactly the same as the ones used by the aquarium. They've revamped quite a lot of the aquarium and it's looking very good. They're also changing a few of the exhibits so we look forward to some more changes there.

Simpsonized!

I've been Simpsonized!
















Join the fun at: Simpsonize Me

Gossip & Nonsense

Until recently CNP was exposed to the world, but as the builders get closer and closer to the land immediately surrounding the community so the developers see a need to build a wall around CNP. Initially the wall was just to be at the front but now it has been decided that it will completely enclose the community. The residents of CNP seem happy with this but we're not so sure that they've really given any thought to the long term implications of the wall and the inconvenience of no longer being able to duck out from their own back yards.

"Personal Touch"

I saw this logo for the accountancy firm on my way home a few nights ago and was left wondering just what kind of "touch" one might get from a chartered accountant.

Any suggestions should be submitted via the comments link below ;-)

See more of this kind of nonsense at The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks.