How are you?

(I’m writing this post, just putting it out there into cyberspace, knowing that most of the people who will be at the wedding tomorrow, probably won’t be checking in past my blog before then. Definitely nobody from my house will be reading this, because our internet’s down.)

So, how am I? Well, as you all know, tomorrow is my baby sister’s wedding and I have such mixed feelings about the day. Firstly because she is my baby sister. I was 8 when she was born and feel (in some ways) more like a mother then her sister. I can remember everything about her from the day she was born and I have always adored her. I am totally excited for her and Gareth, I think they’re going to have an amazing day and it’s a brilliant send-off into their future as husband and wife. They are so perfectly suited to one another, so in synch, I just know tomorrow is going to be the happiest of happy days for them. What a way to start such a special journey!!

The flip side (the selfish one) of this is the simple fact that I don’t like weddings. I have always found them extremely emotional, even when I had Jacques around to hold my hand. Once you’ve been married, you can’t possibly sit through a ceremony, or speeches, or first dance, or cutting cakes, etc, without remembering your own wedding day. Plus, it feels totally wrong to have to go back up there to try catch the bouquet (in my mind; what a awful tradition!). So, as I watch Rosie getting ready tomorrow, I will be re-living every moment of the happy day that I married Jacques, remembering the excitement and nervousness that carried me through the day, which makes me really sad that he won’t be with me tomorrow. It’s just all so very wrong.

On the up side though, Jake is going to be the ring bearer and has the cutest suit in the world to wear (I mustn’t forget to pick it up later). He’s going to look so darned gorgeous in his jacket and tie and I can’t wait to walk down the aisle holding his hand. I can already feel my heart swelling with pride at just the thought. He’s a strong boy, he doesn’t even realize that he’ll actually be carrying me all the way. All day…

Love (and lots of prayers/karmic thoughts)

Sue x

Here comes the bride...

Shame, she's the last child, the youngest of 3 girls and since this is the last family wedding, we went large. It was Rosanne's pantry party/kitchen tea/hen party on Saturday afternoon. There was a great group of girls and Rosanne was such a good sport. We had snacks and drinks at home and then her young friends took her to Gareth's & her favourite pub up the road (de Kelder). I tagged along as the sober driver, but it was good fun taking photos of them as they got drunker and drunker. The pictures kinda speak for themselves. Enjoy.

Getting some champagne & strawberries into her system...

The gift opening begins...Spelling out Gareth's name with her bum...Sharing her penalty drink with her friends...This cute little guy was there...He's trying so hard to crawl...

The girls ready to head out...Rosanne's friends added some decorations to her outfit for the outing. Roses to sell to, pretty earrings and a bride to be top...Arriving at de Kelder...Her 'nose' was too big for her glass...Selling flowers. Believe it or not, it was the men who were most interested in her nose... This guy was full of money. He gave Rose R100.00 and a few words of marital wisdom. At least he was nice. Many guys had comparisons to share about Rosanne's nose and were too stingy to pay R10.00 for a flower. This was a nice guy. Check Rosanne's face at the sight of all his cash...The car guard was fascinated with Rosanne's exposed chest...

It ended up getting a little out of hand so I'll end off with this last one...

The guys had the bachelor's party on Saturday night too. The dyed Gareth purple...And lastly, to share with you how spoilt Rosanne was...Thanks everyone for making this such a special day for Rosanne. I promise she'll look much prettier at her wedding this Saturday. Can you believe it's happening this weekend? I'll post pictures on Monday, I promise!!

Sue XXX

He's home...

And I don't think I've ever seen him happier! Besides the day that Connor was born. And the day he married Jo. Still, happier then a pig in you-know-what. Both of them actually, just look at the sheer joy in their faces... It's good to have Paul home again, especially since I did get chocolates for all my hard work. Bugger the bridesmaid's dress!!Sue xxx

Kruger Days 7 & 8

I thought I'd end off our holiday photos in one big bang shoot. I'm sure, by now, that you guys are totally sick of seeing photos of animals on my blog! I promise that we won't be going on holiday again for a while and next time I'll do my best to update as I go.

Our last day in the park was a fairly quiet day. We'd gotten up early again to make the most of our day, but spent a lot of time driving around and not seeing all that much. On our early morning drive, we did spot these elephants having a bit of a tiff...

And this gorgeous Martial Eagle. Jake just loves birds of prey at the moment... He didn't hang around for long though... I love these guys. I don't know why, they're so darned ugly, but they're so funny. When they run away, they put their tails straight up in the air like an antenna. And what's up with those funny horns on the sides of their heads?? A Vervet monkey... Complete and utter laziness. In my next life I think I'm going to come back as a hippo... Yaaaawwn... In each of the camp sites, they have a board up for guests to mark off what they've seen and where. This photo was taken at Lower Sabie, which is one of the campsites Rose and Gareth will be staying at on their honeymoon in a few weeks time. The area is well known for lion sightings (red dots). The black dots are leopards, white dots cheetah, blue elephants, green buffalo, orange rhino and yellow wild dogs. It gives you a fair idea of where to start searching if there's something specific you want to see in the area, but animals tend to move around quite a bit... We headed down from Lower Sabie, in search of the cheetahs at Duke's dam (in the picture above, the dam is where there are two orange dots above two white dots). We were not disappointed and found 5 beautiful cheetah resting at the water hole just before sunset. We spent more then an hour watching them, it was fabulous! And remember, there are only 200 odd cheetah in the Kruger, so we were very lucky to have seen 9 during our trip...

This is a yellow billed horn bill. He was sitting near to our car while we were watching the cheetah and seemed to be having a bit of a problem with a grasshopper he was trying to swallow...

Eventually, as the day wore on, the cheetah began to get restless. The two on the right are youngsters...

They went for a drink, which is typical before they head off for a hunt...The head of the pack headed off to go look for some food, while the others hung around for a bit... They watched her through the trees until we couldn't see her any more and then headed off to go join in on the fun...The sun had already set by the time we began our rush back to camp, the fine for being late is substantial and we didn't want to test the system. I couldn't help snapping up a couple of last photos though...The time to leave arrived and we had a last breakfast, packed the cars and began the long journey to Johannesburg International (OR Thambo). This photo was taken at the boundary fence outside our bungalow. At night, a hungry hyena prowled the fence looking for scraps, this morning we had to settle for a warthog... Jake getting cuddles...Some shots of Jake & I on the park behind our bungalow. We had intended to have a picnic under the trees here, but realised that there were too many Vervet monkeys in the trees and didn't want to tempt them with our delicious snacks, so we ate at our hut instead...

So, that's it. The holiday photos are done and I'm taking them off to be printed today. I can't wait to hold them in my hands and page through them over and over and over again. Jake is dying to take them to school too. After 8 days in the park, we were so sad to leave. I had thought 8 days would be far too long a time for all of us, but it wasn't and I think we could have stayed for at least 3 weeks. I've asked Jake where he'd like to go on our next trip (I actually gave him a world map and asked him to pick a spot) and he only wants to go back to Kruger, so, till next time...

Sue xxx