Thank You Notes

My new year resolution (see previous blog), to celebrate the spirit of Africa at every opportunity, ran out in the Post Office last week. There is now going to be a slight delay to the posting of all thank you notes. This is because the SA Postal Service cannot cope with small envelopes. Apparently you have to post them as medium sized envelopes for a whopping R16 each. However, medium sized envelopes CAN be posted as small envelopes for a far more reasonable fee of R4 each. This only makes sense in Africa.

Is Anya a Beach Babe?

The answer is a resounding NO! We went down to the beach cafe for breakfast this morning. All was well until Anya encountered sand. Now, its obviously not the first time Anya has been to the beach, but it is the first time she has attempted to walk on the beach. And she wasn't having any of it. An hour long hissy fit later, and Anya had spent her entire breakfast standing on one leg to limit contact with the sand!

Springtime

In the UK you can tell its spring when the daffies come out. Over here we can tell its spring because all the baby gheckos have hatched!

A Proliferation of Birthday Parties

It is officially the season of 1st birthday parties - for the next 2 months Anya has a party almost every week. There were 18 women in my ante-natal group, so to try and cut down on the size of everyone's parties we decided to have one joint party in the Botanic Gardens. It was chaos. The weather was too miserable for the gardens so Joe very bravely volunteered her house. There were 12 babies all toddling around and I don't think I actually managed to finish a single coversation. Taking (good) photographs was impossible, so instead I'll post up a photo from Axel's pirate party. Anya went in full fancy dress (the only baby to do so) but all the babies were given a pirate hat on arrival so she didn't feel too left out!

Anya's 1st Birthday Party

Thanks to everyone who gave Anya presents and cards for her 1st birthday. It was a gorgeously sunny day for her party and apart from Diana crashing enroute while telephoning for directions ( she reversed into an unsuspecting motorist) the day was a great success. Gitty made a very cute and tasty bee cake - but unfortunately Anya's legs need to grow a couple more inches before she can sit on her ride-on bee.

Welcome Back

We arrived back in SA last Friday - and in true African style we were victims of crime on our first night back. Some thieving git stole the aloes out of our pots at our front gate. Hermann suspects a muti collector from Cape Town (the aloes were not a KZN variety). Easy come easy goes - as also ably demonstrated by the arrival of our telephone line. Telcom has finally delivered and it only took 11 months!

Anya eats haggis, neeps and tatties

The culinary tastes of this child never fail to amaze me. After refusing most foods except sweet potato, cheese and bananas for the last 7 months, she totally hoovered a revolting plate of pulverised haggis, neeps and tatties. It looked like cat sick - eurgh! She's also started eating celery?!!

Hermann in Mourning

It was a very sad day for Hermann on Saturday as he took his motorbike out for its last run - Kinkell Bridge to the BMW Garage in Bishopbriggs, with an MOT in the middle. While Hermann was trying to wheedle the best price for his bike out of the garage salesmen, Froonchie amused herself by poking her fingers up the exhausts. To add insult to injury, an eager buyer was already trying out the bike for size as we pulled away - the seat wasn't even cold yet.