Ceres Part 1...

(Rose, Sam & I)

On the 26th of June, Jake & I headed out to Ceres for the night. There were 6 of us that went - Sam and her son Mikey (who's 8) and my sister Rosanne & her fiance Gareth and we stayed in self-catering chalets in the Pine Forest Resort (and for those who used to stay there years and years ago as kids, it hasn't changed one bit!!). We left after work and were there early enough to stop at the shops (for sherry) and to get settled in before dark. Rose and Gareth came through a little later. Ceres is about 1 hour 30 mins from Cape Town and we were hoping to find snow. It had been really cold in Cape Town and on our drive through we managed to see quite a bit on the mountains around Ceres, so we were all very excited. Once Gareth arrived, he got the boys to start collecting fire wood. Besides it being freezing cold, it had also been raining a lot and the ground was really damp, but with the pine needles they'd collected (in the dark) and the roll of toilet paper they used as a firelight, they actually managed to get the fire going pretty well. While the boys played with the fire, the girls stayed indoors with the very inefficient heater and got supper ready (it took us about 3 hours on an equally inefficient stove that worked at about 2km/hour) and prepared the gluhwein. We got pretty sozzled, but had a ball and were warm as toast by the time we climbed into bed...

The champion wet wood fire...

Jake and Mikey worked really hard to keep the flames going...

Our gluhwein in tea cups. They only supplied us with 6 glasses and after the kids had used 2 and we'd had sherry in the others, there was nothing else for us to use. Besides, who'd want to do dishes??Sam. She's going through a very tough time at the moment. She grew up living across the road from us and is only 4 days younger then Joanne. She's grown up like another sister to us... This is about when the Sherry and Gluhwein started to kick in. I don't think Jake knew what to make of his mother dancing on the table in a Pine Forest. He was game to get up with me, but then wasn't quite sure what to do and made a quick exit to go tend to his fire...Another one of the girls...Jake & I checking out our loft room. The writings on the walls up there were pretty darned scary and, since Mikey can read, Jake came home with a few new lessons in what not to say - including one that asks 'is my penis big enough'. Se-ri-ous!! Who are these people? Much, much later after our marathon cook-a-thon, the kids enjoyed toasted marshmallows and don't fret, besides a bit of singed hair, Jake came away without burning himself of any of his clothes. Although he didn't smell very nice...Cheeky... Making sure the gluhwien's finished...