Strangers...

Finally (and very sadly), our Polish visitors have been able to fly back home to Warsaw. They were with our family for 6 days and we all had such a wonderful time getting to know one another.

While many have commended us on inviting perfect strangers into our home, it was fabulous and we have gained so much by accommodating these "refugees" (as they liked to call themselves) for a few days. It was just so unexpected that in doing a good turn, we received the gift of friendship.

Fortunately, there was a long weekend while they were with us and I'd taken an extra day off work, so Jake & I had plenty of time to get out and share our beautiful country with them. I don't need much prompting for that though, as you know.

As usual, below are the photos of our time together. As the old saying goes, a stranger is a friend you haven't met yet, we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know some strangers.
Our first stop was Spier Wine Estate's Cheetah sanctuary. All the cheetahs are hand-raised and, for a fee, people are allowed into certain camps to have a close up encounter with one of these beautiful cats. The one pictured below with Jake is particularly unusual, having stripes instead of spots... After Spier, we headed through to Paarl to visit the Drakenstein Lion Park, which I last visited when I was about Jake's age (remember holding the cubs, Jo?). The sanctuary is way bigger than I remembered and home to many lions. All the lions have been hand-reared or bread in captivity and cannot be released into the wild. Many have been brutally abused (some have been declawed and one lion so brutally abused that his jaw was broken and never reset - it's heartbreaking) by previous owners (like circuses) and Drakenstein Lion Park provides them with a safe haven where they are loved and cared for (not bred) in large camps. If you are interested in helping out, go check out under "Adopt a Lion" where they give you the full history of their lions. And, if you haven't been down for a visit yet, it's well worth the trip... I must admit that it was a little intimidating as you walk through the park without a guide. The fences, although electrified, are not as high as I would've thought they needed to be. Believe me, them's big kitty cats. It was even more disconcerting knowing that they're only fed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We visited the park on a Thursday... Such beautiful, strong creatures. It was incredible to be so close... One of the park's young white lionesses. They have white cubs too, but they were hiding, so we didn't see them... This young girl was still pooped from her feast the day before... Three in a row. The guy in the middle couldn't take his eyes off Jake, which made me a little unsettled. He was clearly ready to make a meal out of my child... The next afternoon after work, we headed off to De Grendel wine farm. It's literally just up the road from home. Seriously, it's about 5km away from home and this was the first time I'd been to visit. Besides Christmas Carols. The tasting room is modern and the views from the balcony... breathtaking. We were offered all 7 of their wines, including their bubbly (oh, how I love bubbles!) and spent the rest of our afternoon lazing in the sun, admiring the view. The kids played on the grass and checked out the vineyards. Again, if you haven't been yet - go. Tasting is free of charge. Oh and if you're looking for company, you know where to find me... The next day we went through to Rhodes Memorial for tea. If you're looking for tea right now, Rhodes is not the place to go, as the restaurant is under renovation. Still, we arrived to an eyeful of rugby players training on the stairs of the memorial, which was fun until we discovered that they were school boys!!! Oh to be young again... This is Karolina with my parents... And me with Cezary, Karolina and little Weronika. OK, I'm sitting badly, but I had a handbag between my feet that I probably should've moved before the photos were taken... A romantic moment... Jake and my dad discussing something in the distance... My precious boy and I... The full memorial. The rugby players are still running up the stairs. See those tyres and blue thingies? Earlier they were running up the stairs carrying those. Phew... That's Jake up there on the lion's back. My shattered nerves... The view from the top of the stairs... Little Weronika - she's only 2 1/2 and couldn't speak English at all. She did try hard though and we did hear her shouting "Jake, come on man!" once or twice. After getting her all ready to fly home and then not being able to leave, Karolina told her that my parents were her aunt and uncle and so she made herself quite at home. Such a cutie... After Rhodes, we headed over Ou Kaapse Weg en route Chapman's Peak, probably the most scenic drive in Cape Town. When it's not raining rocks, that is, and the road is actually open. Here Jake and Cezary enjoy the view together. Cezary is very into his photography, so it was fun learning a few new tricks... One of the views from along Chappies. This is looking into Hout Bay... A group shot, thanks to a friendly passerby... Another scenic shot... Another viewpoint along the road, Hout Bay in the background... Jake had a bit of a sulk and went and sat as far away from us as he could. He looks a little (OK, maybe a lot) like a little baboon sitting there, don't you think? I'm not a bad parent, I did check and there was a ledge below him. Does look like he's contemplating the jump though... Coming into Hout Bay at the end of Chapman's Peak Drive. Note the leopard on the rocks, who "keeps quiet watch over waves"... Does look like he needs a bit of a polish though. He's made from now tarnished bronze... Jake found a butterfly and had take it home alive... Sunday morning we woke up early to the most perfect of days. I'd organised through my uncle to take our visitors out on a yacht trip. That's Karolina coming down the boardwalk and I'm about to hop on board below. The yacht is called 'Aurora'... We had breakfast at the yacht club with the other passengers before sailing off. Sitting on the quayside, having a bite to eat - reminded me so much of our time in Greece... Sailing through Cape Town Harbour... Weronika came with us and wore her little life jacket without complaint. Jake stayed at home though, basically because I have issues. I don't trust the sea at all, especially here - it's not known as the Cape of Storms for nothing! I'm nervous enough as an adult and I'm not prepared to to put my child's safety at risk for anything or anyone. When he's bigger and able to swim better, then it's a different story, but for now, I'll just keep him safely on dry ground... Early in the trip, Weronika spent a bit of time on the deck with her dad, looking for dolphins... As we came out the harbour, we were met by a whale, probably a Southern Right, since they're fairly common to our waters this time of year. Talk about lucky!! As you can see, the water was calm; there was not a breath of wind... Table Mountain with the exclusive Table Bay Hotel in the foreground... We saw lots of dolphins and even had a couple swim up alongside the boat for a few moments, but I was too busy looking to take photos. Dolphins (and whales for that matter) are really tricky to take photos of, they keep disappearing and popping up elsewhere... We saw quite a few penguins too... We even bumped into some priates aboard the Jolly Roger Pirate boat, which can be hired out for birthday parties and functions... The view of our new stadium, built especially for the up coming world cup (lots to tell you about that too, but another time). It's aptly named "The Cape Town Stadium". Personally, I think it looks like a giant tub, but it's not as much of an eyesore on shoreline as I previously envisioned... Little Weronika didn't last long, the rocking of the water put her almost straight to sleep. Karolina too... When she was up, Weronika was back on dolphin patrol with her dad. Don't you just love the sunnies? She wears them all the time... We were also extremely fortunate (as my uncle kept telling us) to see this beautiful square rigger coming into the bay. We literally waited for it to come into view as we knew it had left Hout Bay at 11:30am; then waited till it was close enough for us to get some decent photos... Reflections... Another whale (or perhaps the same one) turned up and put on a brief dispaly for us right along side the square rigger. Amazing... Coming into port... And from the stern-side... After coming back into the harbour at about 4:30, Cezary and Karolina went back to my parent's house and cooked us the most delicious feast for dinner. Starters included melon wrapped in parma ham, bread with chopped olives and melted cheese, garlic bread, pesto, basil with motzerello & tomato - we were stuffed and still had to face our mains. They served two different pasta dishes, one prepared by each of them, but both equally divine. Karolina's dish was sundried tomato & blue cheese based and Cezary's was creamy with ham and mushrooms and blue cheese. Coming from someone who doesn't usually even eat stinky cheese - the meal was out of this world and we were STUFFED by the end of it. Oh, there was milk tart for dessert too. I totally forgot to take photos of the food, but did catch Weronika imitating Jake playing computer games while her parents were cooking... The last day arrived and we'd booked a picnic lunch at the one and only, Buitenverwachting... Again, the weather was perfect and we had a lovely time. The kids seem to really enjoy it there and love running on the lawns. The picnic itself was stunning and it's a trip well worth making if you've never been before. I'd love go get a group together to go through one summer afternoon next year, when the picnics re-open, so keep it in mind. Adrienne, who runs the picnics, also does a soup evening on the first Friday of each month in Winter. Also lovely if anyone's keen. Anyway, we had a proper wine tasting in the tasting room before our picnic lunch and later got one of the winemakers to take Cezary into the cellar to taste a few of their newest wines, which was quite a treat for him... And then there was time for a few last snaps... Oh, this is Bruno. He's Amber's grandson and it was his brother, Brutus, who starred in Blood Diamond, alongside Leonardo Di Caprio (lucky dog!)... And then it was time to part ways...
And so, Jake and I took our Polish refugees to the airport for our tearful goodbyes there. Who knew that we could make such good friends with such perfect strangers in such a short amount of time? It was just so unexpected and so lovely. And now the saving begins for a trip to Poland!! We can't wait to visit the country we've heard so much about and we can't wait to re-connect with our friends there...

Sue X

The Weary Travellers...

We had dinner at my folks last night with Rose and Gareth. Meatloaf with potato wedges and veggies. It was delicious and it was good to spend some time together over a good meal and glass of wine (standard). Whilst chatting over our meal, the subject of the volcanic ash (check out these amazing photos) forcing European Airports to close came up. While many airlines are forking the bill for their passengers to be further accommodated in hotels, Air France has apparently stopped aiding their passengers, leaving many quite literally stranded at the airports.

As a single mom, Jake and I often travel together, quite often to places far away from home. In reality, while I don't like to come home bankrupt (but let's face facts), by the end of a trip, there usually isn't too much money left over. We'd more than likely be the sorry souls sleeping on the metal chairs at the airport. Which is a cold place, by the way. Needless to say, Mom, Rose and I piled into the car and headed off to Cape Town International to see if there was anyone we could help out.

On our arrival, the airport seemed pretty quiet. There were not bunches of people huddled together sleeping in corners as we'd imagined. The staff told us that there were a few people milling about, so we set off in search of them. Believe it or not, we actually bumped into another couple also looking to assist stranded passengers. Fortunately, we found a lovely family who'd settled down for the night on the cold metal benches upstairs. They're from Warsaw, Poland. She's Carolina and he's Caesar, like Julius, he tells us (I did warn him not to say that too loudly in South Africa, we wouldn't want him to be confused with Julius Malema - it's a whole other post entirely, but I'm not sure that I'd waste my time with it. You can also check out his personal blog here). They have a beautiful little girl of 2 1/2, called Veronique, or Veronica - how freaky is that??

They are a really lovely family. She's involved with banking and modelling and he's in sales and loves photography. They've already invited Jake & I to visit them in Poland, saying that they'd really love to return the favour sometime. I'd never thought of Poland as a holiday destination, but now that the seed's been planted, it might just be on the itinerary for the not-too-distant future.

So, last night our weary travellers had a warm bath and a snugly bed to sleep in - had to be better than waking up in an airport. Besides them getting a safe haven, we've made new friends and it was good crawling into my own bed last night knowing that we'd made a few strangers very happy.

Sue X

So...

It's been a while, hey? I've missed having this space to come to with my mindless thoughts and I hope that somewhere out there, some one's missed hearing from me for a little while. Come hell or high water, today I'm going to finish a post...

So, in actual fact, while life's been busy and work's been nuts, I actually don't have too much news. Looking back to when I last posted for Connor's birthday at the end of March, I'll start from then.

Connor had a lovely birthday and we all enjoyed sharing it with him. My mom and Jake baked him a little cake for his birthday, which Jake iced & decorated, and we had a little tea party and sang for him when I got in from work...

Connor loved being able to pick the cherries of the top and helped himself to a slice my mom had cut for my dad. He made a quick getaway and thoroughly enjoyed crumbing the cake throughout the house...

Our two boys...

That evening, we went to Paul & Jo for pizzas and more cake. Connor only lasted long enough for us to sing to him again, before heading off to bed...

Jo and Paul had a little party for Connor at their house too, over the Easter weekend. It was lovely and the kids all had a ball. Jo did really well and I've got my fingers crossed she's going to help me plan Jake's party, which is just around the corner...

They ordered a ball pit, which the older kids enjoyed more than the little ones (excuse Jake's eye - I'll explain later)...

Connor LOVED the balls...

Mommy and her boy...

I love it!! How naughty does this face look...

With a little bit of bribery, I managed to get a snap of Jake with Connor (Jake avoids the camera like the plague at the moment)...

A Barney cake, with singing candle - Connor just wanted to get his hands dirty...

Just before the Easter weekend, on the Wednesday, Jake was stung by a bee. He's been stung plenty of times before this (a whopping 6 times to date!), so when I heard him scream, I knew exactly what had happened and managed to scrape the sting out with a knife quite quickly. From past experiences, I know that bee stings ache and that the area around the sting swells. I didn't expect Jake's hand to swell to the proportions that it did though. Unfortunately, I didn't have any anti-histamines in the house, so we rubbed cream for bites & stings on the wound. By bed time his hand was still swelling up. By the next morning, his hand was so swollen, it was hard. My sister took him in to the pharmacy and they gave him another type of cream and an anti-histamine. By the time I got home from work, he had red lines running up his arm into his armpit from all directions. Rushed him to the doctor and turns out that because of the bee sting, he'd gotten a lymph infection. Strictly not because he's allergic to bees (that reaction causes breathing problems), merely because of an infection on his skin that was pushed into his lymph gland in his hand when the bee stung him. Unlucky. He had to keep his hand elevated (imagine trying to get a kid to keep their arm up all the time?) until the swelling came down. He went straight onto antibiotics and more anti-histamines and it was only later the following day that the swelling started to come down slightly. The doctor made it very clear that the lymph infection and severe swelling were very serious, which didn't do much to calm my nerves. Jake's fingers looked like little pork sausages.

These pictures were taken after we'd been to the doctor. Note the red from the infection. I was a little worried...

After visiting the doctor on Thursday afternoon, we headed off to Pringle Bay to spend the night there with our friends, Wesley & Lizelle. Our friends from Augrabies were down in the Cape for Easter, so we met up with them at their family holiday home in Pringle Bay. Despite there being a power failure the entire time we were there, the weather was perfect and it's such a gorgeous corner of the world. Jake packed his fishing rod and Wesley's dad, Fred, who will be Jake's principal at big school next year, took him down for a bit of fishing off the rocks on Friday morning. Look how big my boy looks! I can't believe he's nearly 6...

Wes and the kids watching the fishing from a safe distance...

Jake managed to catch 6 of these "beauties". That's about 6 more than his Uncle Gareth's caught. Ever. They're just little klipvissies (rock fish), about 10 - 15cm long, but Jake was pretty disappointed at having to throw them back to sea rather than braai (BBQ) them...

This is the view from the beach. The house we stayed in was directly across the road, so the views are spectacular and, besides the troops of baboons regular visits, it's one of the most relaxing places I've been to in a while...

This is Lara-Lyn. She's just about to turn 4...

And Wes with his boy, Robert, who's just turned 2...

There's a little lagoon on the beach where the river meets the sea at high tide. The water's warm and shallow, so it's the perfect place for the kids to swim. Jake was told by a little girl at school about 2 years ago, that his feet stink, so now he's got issues about taking his shoes off. I try my best to ignore it, but it's annoying and he's missing out on the fun because of it. He's not tactile intolerant, just doesn't like having stinky feet...

He ended up getting his shoes soaked anyway (I have never met a kid who goes through shoes as quickly as this one does), so he was forced to take them off when he got in the car to head off home again. We only spent one night in Pringle and it's only an hour's drive away, so not too far. Oh, added to the hand issues, his eye started to flare up on Thursday night. By Friday morning it looked as if he'd been in a fight and by Friday night I felt compelled to call our doctor at 9:30pm. Saturday morning, we were back in the doctor's room and turns out that, also due to the infection Jake had, he's got an infected cyst in his eye. It was sooooo sore, poor guy. Also, Connor's party happened after all this...

Next up was Easter. As always, I tend to forget to take photos - I get more excited than the kids...

Jake was totally spoilt and I think he'll be eating Easter eggs until Christmas. He had a hunt at home, a hunt at Rosanne & Gareth's house and one at my mom's. BRAT. Connor and his family joined us at my mom & dad's for lunch. Here's Jake helping Connor look for eggs...

Our delicious Easter lunch. For those non-vegetarian readers, it's fillet steak, butterflied, then butterflied again (so it opens up into a big sheet), filled with feta, fresh figs and ginger preserve. it was delicious!!!

Lunch was served at my parent's new dining room suite. They've bought a 10-seater with the hope that I'll find someone to warm the 10th chair soon. I'm hoping that either Jo has another baby soon, or that Rose and Gareth decide to start a family...

The "chinks" on the table - I love them and they last forever...

Other than that, the school holidays have come and gone and life's back up to full steam. We've got a holiday coming up next Tuesday and I've taken Monday off (the schools are closed on Monday), giving me a nice long weekend to look forward to. Things have been so busy and I've done my best to keep the coming weekend totally free. I want to take Jake trout fishing in Worcester and I want to go to Buitenverwachting for a picnic next Monday, but the rest of the time will be spent at home. I need to start sorting out photos to hang on my walls, I'm getting bored of all the blank spaces. And I need some lamps. And some plants.

Jake went for an occupational assessment about 2 weeks ago. His teacher is a little worried about his fine motor co-ordination. She said he's just slightly delayed with his drawing and writing. I guess it's partly my fault though, life's so busy we very rarely get time to sit and draw or colour in. On the flip side, I do believe that schools play a huge part - the kids are allowed to play outside when they're done with their tasks and, those of you who know Jake even a little, will know that sitting inside drawing while his friends are climbing the jungle gym, just isn't going to get his attention. So, he rushes. I don't blame him, I'd be exactly the same. Still, I hate to think of him falling behind in any way and I'd hate for him to start off in Grade 1 playing catch up and getting into trouble because he's not up to scratch. So, OT, we'll do. He's hopefully going to start this week, providing that the therapist calls me back. She's hoping to have things on track within 3 - 6 months and considering that he's only going to be seeing her for 30 minutes, once a week, I'm guessing that it's what we put in at home that'll determine how quickly we get done. I've bought him a whole bunch of things to do at home too, which he's loving (paint by number, origami and cut & paste exercises). I'm trying to be home more, so that we have unrushed time to play.

There's not a lot else happening at the moment. Jake & I were planning a trip to Belgium with the outlaws for later in the year, but we've postponed that until June/July next year. I asked Jake if he'd like to go on holiday with me this year too, mentioning a few local places I'm keen to visit, but he just wants to go back to Kruger. Our only opportunity this year for a holiday would be during the September school holidays, which are just 10 days long and the campsites within Kruger are already fully booked. People have to pay in full by a month before they plan on staying in the park, so I'm leaving things until then and hopefully we'll still be able to get a night or two anyway. Otherwise we'll do a road trip somewhere, let the wind carry us...

Anyway, nearly home time for me. I hope I've salvaged myself a little with this post. Sorry I've been so shocking about keeping my blog updated. I've hauled my laptop out of the cupboard at home too, so I'll try at least doing the typing at home to upload at work until I manage to sort out internet access at home.

Time to love and leave you with one last question: why is it that we always want what we cannot have??

Love Sue XXX

So much for that...

OK, so I lied. I think. I try not to, but in this case it was unintentional. I promised to update my blog and with just 1 hour 22 mins left to my day, it seems like I'm not actually going to get there. I am still trying to find time to edit one or two snaps before I go home, but just in case I don't get there - sorry! I really need internet at home. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Sue XXX

I'm still here...

I haven't forgotten you all. I know my blog needs updating. I know I don't deserve to have a blog and call it my own. I promise I am here. I am trying to keep up to date on all your news, even if I haven't been commenting as much. I promise to update my blog properly this week. Work is INSANE! Hope everyone's doing OK... Sue XXX