My China...

To day is finally here.  Today, Danie gets home from his loooooong trip and we can finally be together again!  Jake is beside himself with excitement and it's a wonder that either of us got any sleep last night.

Although he was gone for just 10 days, it feels like ages and ages since we last saw Danie.  His trip included two precious weekends, which was pretty tough for us.  We did manage to get a lot done while he wasn't here though and I always enjoy my time with Jake.  Our week was extremely busy and we normally have so little time together during the week anyway, that we didn't feel his absence so much during the week.  It's the weekends that were tough and long.

I have spoken to Danie almost every day since he left and he has been able to share photos of his travels with us as well.  In amongst a few work days, they were able to go to the Grand Prix in Shanghai last weekend, a definite highlight for Danie and they did a bit of sightseeing in Beijing this weekend too.  In between though he has been sick and didn't sleep well for most of the trip.  I can't imagine anything worse than being sick in a country like China.  He also said he really battled with the food, he is a fairly picky eater and their food culture can definitely put the strongest stomaches to the test.  Towards the end he just wanted to get home.  And today's that day!  Finally :o)

My only hope is that this doesn't count as his annual leave and that he actually manages to get some proper time off one of these days.  We haven't had a proper holiday since we met and because their factory runs 24/7, he's always on call and the poor man is absolutely drained.  Even before this trip.  I had really hoped to go with him to China, but it didn't work out for us, so we need to plan something special for the 3 of us sometime in the not-too-distant-future.

So, poor old Danie left Beijing at 2am their time, after having been on the go all day yesterday.  By the time he lands in Cape Town at 19:10 tonight, he will have travelled half way across the world on 3 flights, spanning around 23 hours and his body will be telling him that it's really 1am.  Put simply, he will be EXHAUSTED.  I don't know how he's going to make it out of bed in time for work tomorrow morning, but I'm sure he'll be expected in.  Hopefully they'll have to deal with his exhaustion and by the time our long weekend arrives, he'll be back to his old self and over his jetlag, so that we can enjoy some down time together. 

But for today, I don't care about much else, my China's headed home to me...
From happy little me,
Sue X

Back in the game...

 So, rugby started again on Monday afternoon.  Unfortunately, I misread the bulletin and thought it started at 2:30, instead of 1:30.  Jake had been told at school to be there at 1:30, but neglected to tell me that.  I realised my mistake at 2:00 and we quickly rushed down for the last 5 minutes of practise and to make our excuses.  So, officially, yesterday was Jake's first day back on the field.  He has been so excited about playing rugby again and couldn't wait to get there.  Most mom's cringe at the thought of their boys getting involved in rugby, but the other option was hockey and I can't see how it's any safer for boys this age to be running around hitting a hard ball with a stick that's almost as long as they are.  Rugby, at this level, is really tons of fun.  They do lots of fitness training and great warming up (that's Jake's hairy legs second from the left) and I love Jake's little 6-pack that he has by the end of the season.  They learn the valuable lesson of being part of a team.  They play bare foot and there's no scrumming.  They are taught the precious lessons of how to play safe rugby from word go.  No stiff arms, no shoulder shoving and NO high tackles.  I like it...

Here they are learning how to tackle properly... Grab low and pull down.  If you go down, holding onto their ankles, they go down...  

 After warming up, the boys are split into two groups for a little fun match between themselves.  It's the best way to learn.  This was a very proud moment for me yesterday - Jake running for the try line...

 Run Jake, run!  I was jumping up and down (quietly so as not to embarrass him), so my photo is blurred, sorry...

 And this is the closest I came to actually getting a picture of the try.  I was watching the game over my camera.  Regardless of it's very imperfect composition, I love this photo.  Jake just looks so pleased with himself, sorta like "yes, take that!" as he goes to dot the ball down...

 I also love it when they line up in the middle of the field to start the game up again after a try.  So serious...

 Jake hand his hurt when he scored his try.  It's really sore, but I'm pretty sure it's not broken.  He went to school today with a bandage on his hand.  Quite cute how some of the boys are already wearing gum guards (Jake has one that Danie bought him, I must scratch it out again) and caps and shoulder pads.  They take this so seriously... 

 There aren't many boys in Jake's age group playing rugby, which is a bit sad.  It makes scraping a team together for matches a bit tough on the coaches...

 I love being a fly on the wall and seeing how Jake does by comparison to his peers.  "Pass the ball, I'm over here"...

 But did you know I have a war wound??

 Only when I'm not playing rugby though...

 Go Jake, go! 

 Noooooo....

 Gritting his teeth, taking the fall and checking out his options... 

 A quick pass, unfortunately collected by the opposing team...

 Realising that I'm taking photos on the side, means a quick smile and a rub of his hand to show me that it's hurting... 

 Jake, the game, the game!  Keep your eye on the ball, not your mother... Oh well, give him time, at least he's tacking and getting to touch the ball from time to time...

I LOVE rugby.  I love Jake's rugby.  I love watching him playing, it gets my blood pumping with the hope that he's going to do something he can walk off the field proud of.  It's SO much more exciting than watching rugby on TV.  I love seeing the team grow and learn, it's just wonderful to be experiencing life through the eyes of a little boy.

Love Sue X

Egg-citing...

 I've been meaning to put this into a blog post for ages now and just never seem to get there.  This morning, I remembered to pack my camera as we left the house though, so today's the day.

Every week day morning, not just some, but every single one, Jake wakes up and asks if we can go for fried eggs at Nini & Pa's house (my parents).  It's become a daily ritual, if you like.  Mostly, like me, Jake's not big on breakfast.  I know it's the most important meal of the day, but I am only really hungry around 9:30, 10:00, so that's when I usually eat.  The thought of an early breakfast usually turns my stomach.  Jake's the same, but since break time's only at 10:30, I can't send him to school on an empty stomach.  At home, he won't touch anything.  And believe me, I've tried it all, waffles, french toast, cereals, fruit salad, yogurt - drives me mad, but he just doesn't feel like it at 7am.  So, when he tells me he wants a fried egg on toast for breakfast at Nini & Pa's house, you can be sure I get in my car and take him there.

An obvious attraction is that his little cousin's, Connor and Bianca are there.  And it's become a race to see who can finish their fried egg first.  At the moment, Bianca's in firm first place.  That little thing LOVES her food, it's too cute for words.  And she's walking all over the show, especially today.  She seems to prefer it to crawling already.  Finally!  She'll be able to wear pretty dresses...

 Connor thought that having the camera out at breakfast time was hysterical, especially when he learnt that he could actually see the pictures of himself straight away.  Funny little boy...

 A proper smile for the camera...

 So there it is. 1 egg cooked with lots of butter, served sunny side up with runny yolk.  It has to be runny, or they're very upset with their eggs...

 They all like them prepared in different ways.  Bianca's at the back, is mashed up; Corky has his with Worcestershire sauce and Jake with Chutney...

 I think the novelty for Jake is that, like Connor, he gets his food up for him when we're there.  What you do for one, you do for the other.  We usually end up feeding him too.  Sometimes it's just fun to still pretend to be little...

 Licking her lips at the thought of the yummy eggy on it's way...

 Waiting for Jake to join the table...

 Connor doesn't like big pieces of toast with his egg.  He gets very upset when they're not cut through properly.  On the other hand, Jake likes to shove a quarter of his breakfast into his mouth in one go...

 Oh there's my big boy.  A little blurry, but there he is.  He's wearing his hair longer these days and loving being able to push it up into a Mohawk.  I love his bedhead that he goes to school with these days.  He's not allowed to wear gel though and I always forget to wet it for him.  Bad mommy...

 Bianca is our little piggie when it comes to food.  It's so beautiful to watch her enjoying her food so much.  She generally screams when bowl's empty and given half a chance, she'd finish the boys breakfast for them too... 

 Jake's a little uncooperative with photos at the moment, so it's not very easy to get a good one of him.  Perhaps it's Danie pulling silly faces for the camera that has done that to him.  Note the bedhead.  And look how smart he looks in his winter uniform...

 Corky showing me how big his mouth is...

 And Bi, quietly shovelling away...

 I love you, Jake, you're so special.  You can have fried eggs every day of your life if you look at me like that forever...

 When it's time for us to go to school, Connor runs after Jake for his hug and kiss goodbye.  But Jake's too big for kissing boys these days, so it's always a bit of a battle on Connor's part to get his way.  Jake will only kiss Connor on the forehead, so poor Connor runs after him, stretching up for a hug, then drops his head, so Jake can kiss him goodbye.  It's precious and if Jake doesn't give him a kiss goodbye, Connor is devastated.  In which case, Jake is instructed to go back inside the house and kiss his cousin goodbye... 

 Other than that, I caught another precious moment on camera on Monday afternoon, when Jake decided he wanted to try his hand at feeding Bianca.  I know most of you won't want to see all of these pictures, but my sister will, so you just have to deal with it...

 Open...

 and close...

  And open again, come on Bi...

 aaaaahhh...

 And close.  Jake learnt after spilling yogurt down Bianca's top, that it's not all that easy getting food into a baby's mouth.  Check him feeding her over the tub.  Clever kids these are...

 I love this picture, looks like she's begging me to help her get the food in her mouth properly...

Other than that, Jake started remedial classes at school yesterday and will be going twice a week.  His next lesson is tomorrow.  I chatted to his teacher briefly yesterday and she said that she can already see a marked improvement in his work, which is brilliant news.  We will just keep up the hard work!  I also missed Jake's first rugby practise on Monday after misreading the timetable.  We arrived for the last 5 minutes, so today will be Jake's first official practise and he can't wait.

Hugs and kisses,
Sue X

A long weekend...

I am such a girl, I am missing Danie more than I ever believed possible.  Don't get me wrong, Jake and I had a lovely weekend.  Friday night was an awesome Thai dinner with my amazing girlfriends.  I ate and drank too much, but I haven't done that in a while and it was good.  Besides, I had a driver, so it had to be taken advantage of.  It just feels a little flat not seeing him...

Our weekend was pretty full, Jake slept over with my mom on Friday night, which meant that I could lie in on Saturday morning - what a treat!  Needless to say, I couldn't wait to get my grubby paws on Jake and was ready to fetch him at 9.  We met up with friends at our local mall and took the kids bowling - they each won a game, so it was perfect.  We had lunch and Jake's friend came over to play for a bit.  We had pizzas for dinner and I worked until about 10pm.  I can't wait to get this other "little" job out of the way now and I am taking full advantage of Danie not being here.  I will be finished by next Monday!!

On Sunday morning we went to watch the Chinese Grand Prix with Danie's mom.  Danie was watching in Shanghai, so it was nice to be where he was for a few moments.  It looked very warm, but smoggy on TV.  Danie said they had good seats and it sounds like they really enjoyed the day.  What an experience, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous.

We had lunch with my folks and then headed home to clean and slob about, before turning in for an early night.  Sundays are my very special evenings with Jake.  We get organised early.  By 6:45, we've both showered, washed hair and cut nails.  Clothes, lunches and bags are packed and ready to go.  Before 7pm, we're both in bed with yogurts, chocolates (last night was Easter eggs) and a good book or two.  We've just finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and are busy with Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (both by Roald Dahl) - both brilliant.  7:30 is Jake's bedtime, I tickle his back for a bit and then he has to go to sleep, while I read a bit more.  I love it as much as he does.

Other than that, not much news to report.  Jake starts rugby again this afternoon.  He has a new coach, who seems a lot stricter than last year's coach.  Life is hectic and we just seem to have so much on the go all the time.  Needless to say, Jake is super excited that rugby's back on again.

I've chatted to Danie a few times and lots by sms.  He's been so busy and done so much, plus he's exhausted after 24 hours travelling.  He's also picked up a bug and doesn't sound like a happy camper at the moment.  Despite being exhausted, he had a really bad night last night with a fever and got very little sleep.  Wishing more than ever that I could be there to take care of him.  Today he's also at the factory to learn about the new machine they've bought.  It's the main reason he's over there, so he just has to suck it up and get on with it.  I just hope he feels better and that he's well enough to get on the plane to fly back to me on Monday.  I can't wait to have him back where he belongs.  Fortunately, it's Monday and there's just a week to go.

Lots of love,
Sue XXX

There he goes...

Ahead of his trip to China, Danie was let off work a little early yesterday.  He works hard and has very little time off to relax and enjoy life.  His phone rings 24/7, which is exhausting.  So, yesterday was a much welcomed early day for him.  Jake and I met him at his house and we decided to go through to Kalk Bay to do some fishing off the harbour wall.  The weather was perfect.  It's often very windy on Kalk Bay's side, but it was calm and warm.  The sea was gentle and it was just such a relaxing afternoon together.

Jake's tackle box is a bit of a mess, he's good at lots of things, but house work isn't one of them.  He had some fresh bait in a bag too...

 There they are, my two pork sausages, sticking out their tongues as usual.  Laila came with for the outing... 

 Jake's fresh bait...

 Since he's the fisherman, he has to cut his own bait.  Judging by this photo, he doesn't really enjoy this part of fishing...

The fish was still frozen, so he had to work hard to get it cut through.  And yes, he was warned about 17 times not to cut his fingers...

Once the bait was on the hooks, they casted and then began the waiting game...

 And wait we did...

 It's a very tiring thing, waiting for a fish to get hooked on your line.  The waiting is painstaking, actually...

  But there are lots of pretty things to look at, like these cormorants searching for their dinner.  I hope they had better luck than we did... 

 Jake gave up fishing over the harbour wall and tried inside the harbour instead...

 Me, I just take photos and enjoy the company of my guys...

 All excited because someone else had managed to catch a fish of edible size... 

 So back to his rod he went.  Jake's pretty good at casting, I think.  For a little guy, he's not bad.  Every now and then he makes a mistake and ends up with knots in his line, or bird's nests in his reel, but it's all part of the learning...

 Once our fishing was done, much to Jake's disappointment, we headed home to drop Laila off, before going through to the Cattle Baron for a quick steak supper.  YUM!  The sun was low and the air warm and Danie pulled over so I could take some more photos.  That's Muizenberg beach below.  Danie's suburb is just slightly to the left, for those who don't know Cape Town.  Nice and close to the beach...  

Anyway, while I'm feeling a bit down about saying goodbye to Danie this morning and 10 days feels like a very long time today, I know he's going to have an amazing experience and the time is going to fly by.  Literally.  He's travelling with his colleague, Leroy, so has company too, which is always nice, especially in a country like China.  So, they land in Shanghai tomorrow and have tickets to go to the F1 in Shanghai on Sunday (very jealous).  On Monday and Tuesday, they'll be in training for a new machine that their company has bought; Wednesday and Thursday they're is going to explore the world's biggest plastics expo (sounds thrilling) and then they're off to Beijing for 2 days to go and see the Great Wall of China and have some down time before braving the long trip home again.  They fly out of Shanghai on Sunday and land back in Cape Town on Monday evening.  I had initially wanted to go with Danie, and make a bit of a holiday out of the trip, but unfortunately it wasn't possible.  It probably worked out best that I'm here with Jake back at school and so many extras on the go at the moment.  Still, can't help being a little jealous that Danie's away and I'm stuck here.  Although, from the pictures above, is there anywhere else in the world I'd rather be?

A little personal note to Danie:  I miss you like crazy already.  Enjoy every moment of your trip, learn lots and take plenty of iPhone photos for us of everything you see and do.  It's going to be so good for you to have a break and a change of routine.  Don't miss us too much and come home safely!!  We can't wait to have you back.  I love you!

Sue XXX

PS:  Dinner with the girls tonight, I can't wait!