Top Gear Live

What a great evening we've just had with our good friends Jo & Mark at the Top Gear Live show in Cape Town.

Fantastic show with Jezza on top form form rudeness and crass comments. Priceless!

We were some of about 6 English folk but we certainly made our presence felt when England scored during the 'football' part of the show.

All in all a great show and a must see if you get the chance.

Palace R.I.P.

Palace went into administration last night less than 24 hours before their date with the tax man at the High Court to settle a winding up order over a 1.2M unpaid tax bill. We already had a transfer embargo slapped on us over unpaid fees to other clubs. Not that that really had much impact as we couldn't afford to bring any new players in anyway.

If God Shows Me A Miracle I'll Believe!

I guess most Christians have at one time or another heard the line: "If God shows me a miracle I'll believe". It's actually complete tosh but for some reasons many non-believers feel comfortable hiding behind it.

As Christians we know this line to be complete rubbish as we have a wealth of historic examples down the centuries of God pulling some amazing miracles and yet still people fail to believe in him.

ID Doc's

This morning was quite a monumental moment as we were in Paarl to collect our "Green ID books" which are the key to so much of South African life.

It's felt like a long journey getting to the point of having these documents and we're really grateful to have them! At last we can open bank accounts, get local a driving licence etc etc. Amazingly, your first ID book is completely free. Now there's something the so called 'developed world' could learn from!

Someone in the UK asked whether having permanent residency means we're now South African citizens and the answer is no. We could apply for citizenship in a year's time but that's a bridge we'll cross then.

New School Year

Another milestone was reached today as our boys seemed to literally grow up overnight. Joel started in P7 (English Year 2) and Eli graduated to Reception, straight from pre-Nursery last year because of his birthday falling in late December. We can't believe it, but they certainly looked really proud this morning in their uniforms.

Eli has a teacher we knew from Joel's Reception days and Joel as a new one, so it's all very exciting. They both came home full of it and with stories to tell (which is quite something for Joel) so we pray that it will continue in this vein. Joel told us tonight that there is one new rule (he seemed quite proud of this) - only one break time instead of two. We don't think he has put two and two together yet that this may not be such a good thing!

Why Does God Allow Natural Disasters?

Not my choice of a title for a blog post or a headline for a news article, but the Beeb are running the headline: Why does God allow natural disasters? in the magazine part of their news website.

I find the arguments quite interesting and am always keen to know what the world makes of our Lord.

Fish & Chips By The Sea

At the start of the school summer holidays we asked the boys what would their one special wish each be. Joel immediately asked if we could go and play on Gordon's Bay beach at sunset and eat fish and chips! Well, it has taken us almost 7 weeks, but tonight his wish was our command.... and we had a ton of fun. It was a beautiful, warm, not windy late afternoon/evening and, as you can see, the beach was almost deserted - yay!!

Ouch!

We were just off for a walk with Rose when Joel put his arm through the gate moments before it opened. Ouch!

Having managed to get the mangled arm out of the gate Daddy bundled him into the bakkie and shot around to the medi-clinic where we were seen immediately. Thankfully the medi-clinic is a stone throw from our house.

We were whisked off for an Xray (see left) which showed a fracture in his right upper arm. Thankfully the fracture is only on one side of the bone so it should heal well and quite quickly.

Joel was a superstar at the hospital and with his usual charm was much admired by the staff.

Weekend

We had a lot of fun at the Nature Reserve on Saturday. Once again the boys led the charge to the 'climbing tree' and are getting bolder by the week! Joel has discovered that the bit of water he once considered a river is, in fact, a tiny stream and very good for paddling in!!

The exciting news for the weekend for Joel was the loss of both his front teeth! One fell out on Saturday and the other on Sunday, so now he looks very different. He has been waiting for this for so long and the tooth fairy did not disappoint him - although we had to do quite a lot of explaining that that amount would not buy the next Star Wars lego!!!!

We also enjoyed a very nice curry cooked by our good friend Charmaine. It was great to go to her house 'en famille' and to enjoy time with her and our friends Gary and Nicky too. I don't think Joel stopped bending anyone's ear about Star Wars though - sorry guys!

New Favourite Activity

One of the joys of our life is that during the school holidays we have to share the childcare and this morning is one such occasion. Paula is in Chris Nissen Park with the HOPE Home Based Care Team which means I'm stuck with the boys, my equivalent of a 'snowday'. It's a hard life.

So this morning we combined our new favourite activity of dog walking with our old favourite activity of throwing stones into the river at Radloff Park.

Big Freeze? Global Warming RIP?

As we swelter in the summer sun of another glorious African Summer in the southern end of the continent I'm struck by a couple of things.

Firstly, the media world is totally euro or western centric in its outlook as are most people living within the northwest hemisphere.

Secondly, the 'scientists' seem to have gone very quiet.

What am I on about?

Getting Straight(er)

When we went to bible college in '99 followed by Zimbabwe we had to make some pretty hard choices about what books and stuff we'd take with us and what would be packed and put into storage. At the time we had no thought about the length of time our stuff would be in storage or where we would be when we finally unpacked it all. Well here we are 10 years later with most of it unpacked in South Africa. Who would have guessed that the 'where & when' of unpacking it all would be South Africa ten years on? Not us that's for sure!

Palace Decade Review

The Croydon Guardian is running a Decade Review of Palace and their goings on. Some of it is quite amusing some of it quite depressing, but that's part and parcel of life as a Palace fan.

The highs include Shipperley's goal against West Ham in the play-off final securing promotion to the Premiership. Our Five-nil drubbing of Brighton at Selhurst. Being rescued from administration by Simon Jordan (you know when you've been tangoed!) and most definitely signing AJ (Andy Johnson) from Birmingham as part of the deal selling Clinton Morrison to them. They must have regretted every second of selling AJ!

The lows include our immediate relegation from the Premiership the following season, being sent down by a goal from Charlton Pathetic. However the lowest point by far was spending two long and miserable years in administration contemplating life with non-league status. Fraught times indeed!

End Of Year Bits & Bobs

2009 was an interesting year which definitely finished on a high as we were blessed with a home of our own again after 10 years of living in transit. It was also fantastic to be able to unpack our freight, much of which was packed away 10 years ago. We enjoyed reminiscing over our junk and pictures and are delighted to have it all cluttering up our home.

Christmas Day

We both come from very different backgrounds in which Christmas was perceived very differently.
Whilst Paula's family always made it a big occasion and had a sense of the real meaning behind the festival, Dean grew up expecting little of it as he knew it wasn't really worth getting excited about. He certainly had no real understanding of the festival and when it came to presents he never expected much as he knew he wouldn't get much.

This really changed for Dean after becoming a Christian and joining Paula's family. So for the last 20+ years Christmas has been a special and meaningful time in which we like to keep Jesus' birthday central to the whole occasion.

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas one and all!

We hope and pray that you have a really blessed time wherever you are and whoever you're with.

Lots of love

Dean, Paula, Joel & Eli
XXXX

Christmas Eve Picnic

We decided to start our Christmas with what is becoming a bit of a traditional treat - a family picnic in Vergelegen forest under the camphor trees. Once again, we were treated to fantastic food and the boys really enjoyed hunting for their treasure using the maps provided! The weather was glorious - and we felt like we chilled for the first time this holiday.

Had to rush home though to (a) check that Rose hadn't chewed or cried the house down and (b) track Santa on his travels via the official NORAD Santa Tracker!!

Rosie Comes To Stay

Today Rosie joined our family. She's a Rhodesian Ridgeback, Border Collie mix although she's missing the ridge on her back. So far she seems very playful and affectionate.

After much discussion around names the semi-finalists were Mutley and Rosie with Rosie being triumphant. The boys are delighted with Rosie although Eli is far more taken with her than Joel who is quite scared of dogs. This was part of why we wanted a dog so Joel would get over his fear, but we know it will take time.

4 Today! - Pt 2

Eli had a great day celebrating his 4th birthday. He was delighted with his presents (he didn't seem to notice the absentees due to the late post) especially his chainsaw & safety goggles. The goggles were later put to good use as he was tearing around the garden on his bike looking very pleased with himself.

Daddy & Eli had a little chat over lunchtime about where Eli would like to go for his birthday tea, not where Joel had told Eli he would like to go, so Eli chose Col'Cacchio which also pleased Mum & Dad!

4 Today!

Happy 4th Birthday Eli!!!

We were woken at 5.45 to the sound of the boys discussing Eli's potential presents!!  This then deteriorated into an argument and Joel saying he would buy Eli "the boringest present EVER..."a book full of lots and lots of words".

Thankfully, Eli was spared and got what any self-respecting 4 year old boy wanted - a chainsaw!  He was thrilled and spent the next while cutting everything down in the house and garden.  He loved all his presents and cards and did actually love the 3 books that he was given by various folk!  Thank you to everyone for your cards and gifts.  We are now busy building Meccano boats and people - deep joy!

Christmas Tree

One of the problems of moving house so close to Christmas is that the usual preparations get somewhat pushed aside. Actually that could be a blessing! Anyway, after much nagging from two small boys we managed to put the Christmas tree up much to their delight. This year Joel did most of the decorating as Eli lacked the finesse to put the baubles and bits on the tree so threw a strop and wandered off into the garden. Bless him.

Joel loves the tradition of decorating the tree and is beginning to understand the real meaning of Christmas. We had a bit of a chat about Santa and the real St. Nicholas and why he loved & served God.