I heart you...

Yes, yes, I know that this is late. I know I should've done it on Friday, but... OK, no excuses, I'm sorry!!

So Valentine's day has come and gone.  Some of you might remember a post I wrote last year.  It was titled, What I want in a Partner...  I can't believe how much my life has changed since I wrote that post and it gives me goosebumps to re-read it.  I actually can't believe how close I've managed to get to the man I described in the post.  In my post, I wished for many things.  Here are a few:

1.  Money.  Fickle as it is (and I really do know that this isn't life-or-death important), it's nice to be spoiled sometimes and not to have to worry about every penny.  I think that I am quite able to look after myself in this department, but I have never wanted to be the "bread-winner".  Marius is self-sufficient, so no worries there.

2.  Sociability.  I wanted someone who loves being with people, who likes my family and friends.  It's so great to have a boyfriend, who can hold a conversation on his own, who won't be fussy about the food being served and who has fun no matter what the situation.  I think Marius would see the bright side of a funeral.  He likes to go with me to functions and likes it when I go with him too, which I'm really not used to.  His family is wonderfully down-to-earth and we all get on really well.  Lol, they even like each other.

3. Adoring.  Yay, he really likes me!  A lot. He likes holding my hand and going out on dates with me.  We go out fairly often, without kids, and we spend our entire evening laughing at each other.  It's so relaxed and happy and uncomplicated.  He loves food and wine too (another one of my requirements), so we're very well suited in that department. 

4.  Self-caring.  Marius is a runner, so he is in great shape.  He works hard at it, but he loves going for his run every day and I love that he cares for himself.  And, you must see his legs ;o)  I wanted someone completely irresistible and he really is.  He's a complete gentleman too!

5.  Work.  I wanted someone who isn't afraid to take time off.  Marius has his own successful business and works very hard, but when he goes home, he manages to switch work off and leave it at the office.  He even leaves early sometimes to fetch his kids from school!  And we're going to New Zealand on holiday (and a little work) for 2 weeks in May without the kids! Whoo-hoo!

6.  Kids.  I wanted someone who loves animals and children, possibly with kids of his own.  Well, that's pretty much spot on.  Jake adores Marius' kids as much as I do.  Sure they fight and they spend too much time playing TV games, but they enjoy their time together and Jake is miserable on the weekends when the boys aren't with Marius.

Ha!  It seems, that putting my thoughts down on paper made some (OK, most) of my dreams become a reality...

Marius checks every single one of my little blocks.  I'm sure we'll irritate each other at some stage, maybe, but I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoy our time together.  I love how we laugh together.  I enjoy every second that we're together and I always feel sad when our weekends come to an end.  He spoiled me so much for Valentine's Day, it was the best Valentine's Day I've ever had.  He makes me feel so special.  Marius - I love you from the tips of my toes to the top of my head!

Hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine's Day too!

Love,
Sue XXX

This Boy...

 As much as he moans about having his picture taken and whines over my "stand there", "look here" instructions, when he's in the mood, Jake's a great little model.  Take, for example, the picture above.   He's giving you a little pout, while he shows off both the aubergine that he grew in the garden, and the sore on his shoulder.

He jumped to picture perfect smile in 0.3 seconds...

 And then to silly in another 0.5.  Check out those muscles...

 Since successfully growing his own Aubergines in the garden, Jake's decided that they're his new favourite veggie.  He loves them as fritters, served with tzatziki, and he absolutely LOVED them in moussaka...

  We've really enjoyed them and we've waited patiently for them to ripen, so we can pick them and scoff them straight away, trying new recipes with each...

 Another gardening success for Jake this year has been his delicious tomatoes...

 And cherry tomatoes that have sprung up from nowhere...

 And his pumpkin that grew and grew, until he went to pick it and discovered the underside has been eaten by the worms.  He was not impressed...

 He's had his first spanspek (sweet, or musk melon) this year too.  We've only picked it 2 days ago and it's in the fridge, chilling.  We'll definitely be having this baby with ice-cream soon...

And he has another 4 little ones on the way too...

 Our broccoli has not grown all that well.  It was first attacked by worms - the same ones that attack it every year - and then by aphids and finally by the sun.  We've tried to look after it, but I think the broccoli might just be a flop this year...

 We didn't plant rocket this year, but it's come up from last year and we've enjoyed that plenty too...

 Getting ready to do some picking before school - ever the gardener, he has learnt so much about bugs and sand and plants from this.  He's got a project to do at school where he must grow a bean or lentil - he's chosen lentils, because he's never grown one before.  Not like me, I'd have gone for what I know I can do...

 Whoo-hoo - another egg plant for our dinner...

 Our garden is looking tired now and it's almost time to clear it out again, but we'll hang on to it for as long as possible.  Tearing out the garden, means summer really is coming to an end...

 Hope you have a great weekend!

Love,

Sue XXX

A little trip...

 As cub of the year for 2013, Jake won an awesome prize - an hour's flight over the Cape Peninsula!  What a treat, especially since he is an air cub!  The chairman of the cubs committee has his own plane and has been flying for about 15 years, so Jake jumped at the chance to see our city from the sky.  I was invited to join them too, although I was far more nervous about it than Jake seemed to be.  He's was super excited when Sean called to confirm that we were going!  Our flight was scheduled for departure early last last Saturday morning from the Morningstar airfield, not too far from Marius' house.  Jake was fine about the flight, until we got there and he saw that the plane is actually smaller than my car!  I can't imagine how you could possibly fit two adults into the backseat, which Jake had all to himself for the flight.  Weight-wise, it was apparently better for me to be up front with our pilot.

After we'd taken to the skies, Jake's nerves seemed to settle a bit, but he was still pretty nervous and didn't say too much throughout the trip...

 We travelled at height of 200 - 2000 foot, at around 140km per hour - so we were low enough to recognise places, yet high enough to see it all and really enjoy it...

 For those of you who know Cape Town well, Morningstar is along the N7, very near to the ostrich farm.  After taking off, we headed over the Durbanville farmlands, towards Stellenbosch...

 Despite being the height of summer for us, there's plenty of green vines growing.  Wine is on the way...

More of Stellenbosch...

 As we neared Cape Town International Airport, we had to drop our height quite a bit...

 And we eventually reached False Bay, with its long, white, sandy beaches...

 We went out a little and then flew parallel to the coast all the way up to Muizenberg...

 There's a red tide...

I did try spot sharks, but we didn't see anything besides a few seals.  Can you see our tiny shadow?

 We were very lucky to have such a calm, clear day.  The wind did blow a little, but the flight wasn't nearly as bumpy as expected...

 Looking back over Cape Town.  The pointy mountain below is Devil's Peak...

 An aerial shot of Jo and Paul's house - it's in the middle, second from the top...

 The Constantia Winelands...

 I know it's blurred, I had to zoom right out, but there's Buitenverwachting!  The four pointy roofs belong to the cellar, the next one's their exquisite restaurant, behind is the offices and the field beyond is their picnic site..

 Over Constantia Nek, there's Hout Bay...

 Looking back (into the sun) towards Table Mountain as we head on over the Twelve Apostles towards Camps Bay...

 As we went over the Twelve Apostles, the wind catches you and I'm not sure whether we dipped or rose, but I stopped taking photos for a moment...

 Table Mountain looking out over the city...

 Lion's Head, with Signal Hill further on.  We did a little turn around the top of Lion's Head - one of my scariest parts of our trip.  Lion's Head is a very popular hike...

 Sea Point - this is where my dad grew up...

 The Cape Town Stadium...

 The Waterfront and harbour...

 This is the "MSC Sinfonia", the boat my parents will be boarding to travel to Italy next month...

 Our gorgeous city bowl. I just love this mountain and this city so much, I can't imagine living anywhere else...

 Heading up the West Coast.  I have to drive past that vlei in the back ground when I travel to Marius' house, so you know where we're heading...

 This is Blaauwberg, where we spend so much time...

 And there's Marius' house... the one on the back of the block.  It's two tone at the moment, he's busy changing it from mud colour to white.  You can see the awning on the stoep, where I lie in my hammock.  And the patio where we like to braai at the back...

 Looking back over Blaauwberg, that's the little Island we like to explore as often as possible when the tide's low.  Jake loves it on the island and there are some cool pools that Marius' boys love jumping in...

 Many of my photos landed up looking like this...  There just wasn't space for me to turn around properly in my seat, so it meant balancing my camera on one hand and using the other to make exposure adjustments - it was hard, but I think I managed to get some decent snaps of our adventure...

 There, that's better...

 Very scary moments for me, were take off, but I always hate those, as well as our little loop around the top of Lion's Head.  Also, Sean showed us the difference between positive (up) gravity and negative (down) gravity - I don't like either and I screamed like a total girl.  Going in to land was pretty scary too, we came down in circles for part of the trip - I was brave enough after the pos/neg experience to take a photo for you...

This is Jake with our Pilot, Sean, and his plane...

 With our feet firmly back on the ground, I can now say that this was one of the most amazing experiences of my life!!  To see our city in such detail from above was simply amazing and it has made me realise over and over again, just how lucky we are to live in the most beautiful city on earth!

Love,

Sue xxx

Summer evenings...

Every other weekend, we spend the weekend without Marius' boys.  It sucks for all of us, especially Marius.  And Jake just cannot accept that the boys have two homes with two parents who are both equally entitled to time with their kids.  Jake takes it very personally when they're not at Marius' house and so he is REALLY looking forward to seeing them this evening.  No doubt it'll be chaos all over, but that's the way we love it

Last weekend was quiet and Jake ended up spending far too much time playing TV games and watching movies.  I guess it's good sometimes, as long as it doesn't become a habit.  We braai'ed on Saturday night and he always enjoys that, so we managed to get him outside for the sunset, which is always magnificent from Marius' deck.  As is usual for this time of the year, the South Easter was blowing and the kite boarders were out surfing until after dark.

Jake discovered the challenges of trying to make fire with sticks, which kept him busy for a long, long time...

It was frustrating, hard work and he eventually put his sticks in the braai...

We also spent time working on cubs badges - Jake handed in 8 badges on Wednesday...

On Sunday morning, before we headed on down to the beach, Jake and I inspected the sunflowers growing in the garden...

The bees were very busy and I managed to catch this one mid-flight.  After all his help with my course, Jake's comment was "you froze motion" when he saw this picture...

Being a bee is hard work...

And there were plenty of bees, collecting lots of pollen...

The tide was very low and Jake had fun exploring rock pools.  He had hoped to go body boarding, but the water was colder than he expected.  With the wind blowing, we headed back up to the hammock...

So, more of the same next week, just with more happy faces.  Jake and I have quite an exciting weekend ahead - he won a flight over the peninsula through cubs last year and we're doing the trip tomorrow.  Fingers crossed that the wind doesn't blow too much!  Despite that I love to travel, I'm really not the bravest air passenger.  Jake is very excited about it though and I'm sure the photo opportunity will be fabulous.  

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Love,

Sue XXX