Winter Solstice

June 21 is the shortest day of the year also known as the winter solstice and we're pleased that it has finally arrived as now the days can begin to draw out and we can head back towards summer. Winter here in the Western Cape is quite unpleasant as it is the only part of the African continent where it rains. Everywhere else it rains in summer or seasonally as in they have no real winter. Tanzania was one such place whereas in Zimbabwe the winter was quite cold with temperatures dropping as low as -2°C but with midday highs of 25°C. Here the temperature never gets as low as that but with the rain and the northwester howling the windchill factor comes into play. All this means we're longing for summer!

Project Fix It - Goes Large

Project Fix It was an initiative we ran whilst with HCC in which we sought to bless our brothers & sisters in Chris Nissen Park by fixing their homes up for winter to ensure they all had leak fee roofs, proper windows etc etc.

Now, we're in Macassar and we're aiming to go further and higher by replacing existing dwellings/hokkies with wendy houses and actually building homes where possible.

Father's Day

Joel's school celebrated Father's day this morning by inviting the dads to come and do some silly races followed by bacon & egg rolls.

It was good fun and everyone entered into the spirit of the event and had a good laugh. It was also good to meet some of the other dads, you begin to understand some of the kids a bit better!

Joel participated in a beanbag race but Eli couldn't be persuaded to do anything other than chase around after Daniel his best friend.

Do Not Adjust Your Set..

The last two weeks have been odd and just a bit frustrating as I've not been able to get on and do things I wanted and needed to do. This was compounded by the boys having a five day weekend with Friday, Monday and Tuesday off school. As such I was unable to do any visiting and couldn't get involved in the stuff I normally do. Thankfully Paula is now home and life is back to normal, at least for just over a week until the school holidays. I've felt like I needed to adjust the proverbial TV set but as the continuity announcer always says; "Do not adjust your set, normal service will resume shortly." Thankfully normal service is resumed.

Rape - A Way Of Life?

Here's a shocker from the BBC News website: South African rape survey shock. According to the survey one quarter of South African men have raped a woman or child. That is truly horrific!

The study was done by the South African Medical Research Council so it's not easy to dismiss its findings.

Palace Fixtures 09/10 Season

The new football season begins in August with the full fixture list being published today. As ever no-one is allowed to publish any fixture list because of some outdated and immoral arrangement between the FA, Football League and a data company. Anyway, there are ways around the draconian arrangement such as visiting the BBC who have a license to publish them.

Mummy's Home

Mummy got home yesterday morning. We were all excited to have her home again and the boys were delighted to see her plane land at Cape Town airport. we got to watch the plane taxi all the way to its berth which was quite cool.

Our family felt incomplete without mummy and whilst we were nowhere near a 'Lord of the Flies' scenario, life just wasn't the same without her.

World Blood Donor Day

Today is World Blood Donor Day. I had no idea there was such a day but am pleased to see that there is. If you want to know more visit the World Blood Donor Day website.

I used to give blood in the UK but after having malaria in Tanzania the blood service got all snobby on me and permanently struck me off their lists which is a shame as my blood group is Oneg. Thankfully the South African blood service have no such hang-ups and because their screening is amongst the best in the world (if not the best) they know my blood is safe.

Two More Sleeps

We're on the home straight now as we're only two sleeps away from picking mummy up at the airport. Needless to say Joel is really excited but Eli doesn't seem to get it all as he is a bit young.

Joel has really enjoyed his chats with mummy on the telephone and he seems so grown up as he chats away.

Unfortunately Joel's earache turned out to be an inflamed ear canal which seems to be getting worse. Our Dr was great and saw him just after church so he's now got some drops for his it. This afternoon he's had quite a high temperature so please continue to pray for him. Thankfully he's gone off to bed in fine fettle.

Farting Wellies

Once again the Helderberg Nature Reserve comes up trumps as the place to go locally. The weather was totally foul today but we went anyway. Our good friend Jo (in the blue car) joined us, I think against her better judgment, but we managed to have some fun. Somewhere along the line Joel managed to get a welly full of water (see piccy). He was so chuffed when it made a 'farting noise' when he took it off. We made it all the way to the 'climbing tree' where we stayed for all of five minutes before repairing to the cafe. As ever my boys demonstrated their 'uniqueness' by asking for ice-lollies on a cold and miserable day. They truly are odd.

Sciencentre

The weekend has started early for us as the boys school has decided to throw two teacher training days onto the weekend to make for a very long weekend which includes a public holiday on Tuesday. That means I've really got my work cut out as I can't escape during school hours.

Home Alone

Someone once said that being at home with daddy was tantamount to being left at home alone. Not sure who said that but I'm happy to report that they weren't 100% accurate, at least not here.

Surprise!

On Thursday Paula flew to Blighty for a very well earned and well deserved break on her own. Truth be told it was payback for the Cape Epic (in case you missed what that was all about, click here)

Much subterfuge went into planning it especially as we wanted her trip to coincide with the birthday celebrations for Stephen's 50th and Susannah's 18th, so many thanks to Sal for helping with the scheming!

Aunty M

I took a phone call from one of the home based carers last night asking me to come in to Chris Nissen today because the mother of one of our patients who died last year had just been taken into hospital. I went in to find a very classic situation of hopelessness! It seems that Aunty M has classic first signs of Alzheimer's disease. She is not recognizing family members, getting very confused and upset and is generally causing anxiety to everyone around her. The worrying thing is that she spends every day supposedly caring for her 3 year old great granddaughter.

Family Update

We decided to brave the wet and cold and spend a few hours in the Nature Reserve yesterday with the boys! We were the only people there apart from those actually climbing the mountain, so it was a bit weird - but great for us! The Nature Reserve is really beautiful at this time of year. The proteas are out in all their glory and look beautiful against the dark greens of the surrounding foliage and the dramatic dark skies.

On A Hot Tin Roof

One of the best ways to make inroads into a community is to get stuck in and help with practical needs. So this week I've been trying to get more involved in this way. I spent some time with Aunty Florrie this week and with some help from Michael managed to stop two major leaks on her roof. The rains are due back over the weekend so our handy-work will certainly be tested.

We're also looking at how we can practically assist some of our other members especially one young couple who have three kids and no home of their own. Hopefully we can tell you more soon.

Inter School Sports

Joel & Eli's school (International School of Helderberg) has two 'sister' schools in the Cape so today they held their annual Winter Inter-IES sports event with three main events of Football (or soccer as they insist on calling it here), Hockey and Netball. Eli is too young to compete, but Joel was involved in two football matches against Hout Bay International School and Blouberg International School. They won the first one 3-0 and lost the second 4-2.

Miles 4 Smiles Assembly

This morning I had the privilege of attending the special Miles For Smiles assembly at Joel & Eli's school.

The total raised this year was R40,375 (£3100)which is an amazing amount of money for such a small school. Last year as a school we raised enough to pay for four cleft palate operations so this year we should be able to pay for seven and a bit which is fantastic!

Fresh Herbs

Paula has been wanting to grow her own herbs for a while so having successfully killed off a tree in the pot we decided to give it a try.

We planted Basil, Parsley and Rocket for starters and we plan to move onto Coriander next. Amazingly, despite our best efforts the plants are thriving and we've used a little bit already.

We just need to convince Eli not to play with his diggers in the pot which is no small undertaking!

Bakkie

We're very pleased to present our new bakkie which we were able to purchase with the very generous support of St.Andrew's Oxshott, Queens Road Wimbledon and some friends in Cheadle.

Dirk

This afternoon I had an experience which would probably scare the life out of most South Africans but somehow it seemed quite normal to me.

I was out and about with Michael and whilst he was in someone's house a guy called Dirk waved to me and then came over and got into my bakkie. Thankfully I've known Dirk for a few years and trust him. Anyway, he started to tell me that today was the day that he finally got confirmation that God is alive and well and he wants everybody to know this.