What a Weekend !!

Last weekend was a great one !! it started for deon on friday night when he had his work xmas function - he was home late and had a great time !
Saturday morning i made him fight thru the babbalas and join The Noodle and I at the Onerahi (suburb we live in) Xmas market and parade - much fun was had by all - David got to sit in a fire engine and Dad got to buy water pistols and homemade pickles.



During the parade, Father Christmas arrived on the same said fire engine much to David's delight and was followed by some fancy cars, some fancy motorbikes and a couple of floats featuring the local Young Mariners, kids soccer team and local circus - well I think it was a circus..... you can watch a 2.5 mins of the parade of you like : or not, i don't really mind




Saturday night we went to the Marnitz's for a regte Suid Afrikaanse Braai - wiff lots off ovver Souf Efrikens dere - what a jol ! lots of laughter, eating and drinking !!


the party vibe.... Me with Lisa (Durban) & Karyn (Kokstad) and The SA Kids

Sunday I had to fight my babblas - and we decided to go the annual Summer Show - which is billed as "Where the Country Meets the Town" - it was an agricultural fair + Playland + flea market + Rand Easter Show (mini version) - it was really great fun - David go to see cows and sheep and goats and chickens and alpacas and tractors and stunt guys on motorbikes and dodgem cars and ferris wheels and and and


the picture below is the barrier that stopped people from just walking into the showgrounds without paying - look, see you CAN just walk thru it but NOBODY did - they just don't do things like that here !!

Diary of Happy People

so everybody keeps asking me "WHAT DO YOU DO ALL DAY" so here is what i did last week:

monday - went to fetch renette (Ex Neigbour) and ryan from their new house in kensington - did a few chores including me joining the library and then went we shopping, back to renette for coffee. david had lunch there. got home at 1pm - david went to sleep - i cleaned house and washed morning's dishes. david woke up at 2.30 - it was raining & pouring so went to get thomas the tank engine dvd (his new favourite). deon came home and then it was time to start cooking supper. had supper at 6pm, bathed david and then time for bed. deon attempted to stay awake to watch another installment of our james bond project, octorpussy.... he failed miserably so i had a chance to finish watching my chick flick, atonement - very good - was in bed at 11pm
tuesday - renette and ryan came to our house and then we went to Karyn Marnitz for coffee - a few other woman and children were there - had a lovely morning, chatting, eating cake and drinking good coffee, home at 12.00 - Noodle lunch and looong sleep - whilst i prepared supper and caught up on emails. when he woke at 3pm it was a lovely afternoon so we took a blanket, some books and toys out on to the front lawn and read and played with Xavier (little girl from next door) deon was home by 4.30 and they played in the garden, fixed the car and hung out together till supper time. bath and bed for noodle a bit late tonite so i only got to wash dishes and make deon's "school" lunch after 10pm so was a late one for me :)
wednesday is playcentre day - decided to walk there today - good 20 minute walk up 2 BIG hills - really enjoyed the exercise - playcentre till 11h45 and then walk (ran down hills) back home - lunch and sleep for the noodle - swept and cleaned again - ja, i know :) - then we went to town to do some shopping and then went for a visit to Renette - home just after 5pm - Deon was home from work so we all sat/played in the garden as it had been a scorching hot day and enjoyed the evening together catching up on our days'. supper, wash dishes, sandwiches made and david asleep all before 8.30 as my Wednesday nite TV programs start then - season 3 of Heroes and Prison Break
thursday morning and with nothing definate planned i really had to think out the box - remembered that the library did kids' mornings on a Thursday so we rushed there but david decided he did not like it - i think too many strangers in too small a space singing Rudolf The Red Nosed Rhindeer was just not his thing... so we decided to go the park instead at which we stayed till 12h00 - swinging, sliding and climbing - that is definately his thing... back home for lunch and sleep after hearing brilliant news from the doctor that all was well with my bloodtests so my Work Permit application can go in now - Yippee !!
after sleep we read some books and then had to go back to doctor's rooms for him to sign off paperwork and then home and deon called to say he needed to be fetched from work so back in the car...
deon and david played in the garden for a couple hours in the evening, supper, bath and a nice skype chat to sue and grampa moi and it was bed time. Deon actually washed the dishes tonight while i made his steak sandwiches for work and then we settled down to watch a DVD - another late night :)
Friday is Playcentre day - TG - David wanted to walk again, but alas it was raining so an indoor day at Playcentre - home for lunch and sleep and then to Renette to do 2 loads of washing. Then home to Deon who was getting ready to go out to his work Xmas Party, back in the car to drive him to town. On the way home David I decided we deserved some fish & chips for supper which we then eat sitting on the deck - it was a lovely evening. Deon had a great time and was home laaaate via a lift from a designated driver - NOBODY even thinks about driving drunk here !
Ok, that was a our week - we had a fantastic weekend which will be next week's blog
hoping with all hope that our container arrives this week !!

Home Movies

our washing is still being done at my neighbour's house, even tho' she moved last weekend, hence the suitcase in which it is carted across town, anyway - so after hanging it up david decided to get inside and i could not resist, so we made some movies for your viewing pleasure - enjoy

Summer Lovin

so it seems like summer has come to Northland - we have had some beautiful days this week but in saying that i just remembered the rain we also had this week, but anyway the last couple days have been sunny and warm and we took full advantage this weekend.

today we went out to a beach about 25 mins drive out of town and had a wonderful day. david loved swimming with mom and fishing with dad.

pictures speak for themselves - enjoy
!!

kiwi life

we found our lovely lil' house after looking at a not-so-good few others - in our search we encountered curtains that had been made out of the ugliest pieces of material ever designed that had been matched with even more hedious carpets, houses that where so small that our camping stuff would not have even fitted in, some with no garden, some with gardens at 90 degrees and then when saw 5 Kokich Crescent - it was perfect, a lovely flat garden at the back with a a great deck and braai - essential - and 3 good sized bedrooms, with neutral carpets and ok-ish curtains, shiny wooden floors and a HUGE kitchen with LOADS of cupboard space and 3 bedrooms so a guest room ready and waiting for the first visitor - this was it !! we loved it ! we have no furniture of course, but have managed due to the kindness of friends and strangers.




it is in a great neighbourhood with lots of kids - they adore david and include him in most their games. They just wonder into the house (no locked/closed doors here) , eat our fruit, ride david's bike and then take him next door to play on the "jumpoline" - that's Noodlelese for trampoline - as is airplanecopter (helicopter) and the Noisy (vacuum cleaner).
i have also befriended my neighbour - a young mum with a 9 month old & a 6 year old - who is from Pietermaritzburg - yup we come half way round the world and my NBF is from SA !!


The Car - the car is a Ford Explorer XLT - 4litre V6 - Executive which just means if there is something to do you do it with an electronic button !! It's a cool car, we can't drive it faster than 50kms / hour for most part but it's a beauty, oh, its automatic too !! I do like the car but i think deon loves it more :)

the shops are all good - the quality is superb and the choice amazing - it's exciting and interesting trying new products and being able to buy fresh live mussels in the supermarket for $2.50 for about a dozen is mind blowing !




david and i go to a playcentre a couple days a week, he really loves it - it's like a nursery school but the mums or dads stay with the kids, drink coffee and chat.
otherwise, life is good - we are waiting with anticipation for the arrival of the container, it arrived in auckland at the beginning of the week and are hoping it clears customs with as little hassle as possible and gets delivered to us soonest - gosh i miss my couch and our bed and all my kitchen stuff and my big fluffy towels and my dishwasher and my washing machine and my warm winter boots and my - oh ok, i will stop whining now and end with a couple of some lovely pics for your enjoyment !

places we have been and things we have seen

new zealand really is a beautiful country and whangarei has it's highlights, we have been to and seen a few of them so far.


first we visited Ocean Beach - which is about a 20mins drive from whangarei thru beautiful farm land and rolling green hills - it is a large stretch of beach with beautiful white sand and warmish water, ok, so the weather was not the best but there was NOBODY else on the beach ! David loved splashing in the water and playing in the sand !



then we went to a fair that was held at one of the local schools on a saturday. there always seems to be something on, from farmer's markets to craft markets. it was really nice, with families milling around, kids playing mini golf, tombola, coconut throw, helicopter & quad bike rides, jumping castle (guess who spent a good couple $'s on that ?), and stalls selling everything from boerewors (there are LOTS of SouthAfricans here) to indian curry. we got to white elephant (?) sale early and managed to get 3 bowls and 3 tupperwares all for $5 - what a baaargan, mate !


this last weekend we went to the famous whangarei falls - they are just in one of the suburbs, about 10 minute drive from our house, and just beautiful. we did a walk down to the base and david climbed down & up every step from top to bottom and back up again ! he and deon found some ducks and he was mesmerised by them and watched them for about half an hour and then when we had to go all he could say was "more duck - more duck" !




we also took a drive up to a lookout called Parihaka which has a view over the whole city.
in my attempt at a panaramic view, you can see the lagoon really well and get an idea of the size of the city from up here.

did i mention that it is november and it is NOT WARM ! i am not complaining but come on, it's NOVEMBER and it's COLD !


Apparently i offended some readers with comments in my previous post, my apologies, hel ;)

next post will be about practical things: car, house, neighbours, shops etc

have a good week all
love

the flights

ok, so you all want detail, so you gonna get it
when david and i left South Africa 2 weeks ago tantrums, traumas and tears where all had at the airport in joberg with granny-mum and rusty and then after an hour wait on the runway due to somebody changing their mind and not boarding after checking in and some other issue of inefficiency that really irritated the Aussie Pilot on our Qantus flight we eventually took off for Sydney after 7pm on Friday night. David was juuust getting a little niggly by the time we took off and we where all pleased to see dinner being served soon after the 30 mins of turbulence was over ..... note to parents of toddlers : order a kiddies meal when booking tickets, it comes before the main meal is served so you can feed little one before you eat and the noodle loved the smiley face hash brown ! i only tell you this as i did not order the kiddies meal as i did not even know about it but the extremely friendy and efficient Qantus flight crew thoughfully gave me a spare one and told me i should have ordered one ......

david watched a couple minutes of bob the builder and then had a spoonful of stopayne to wash his supper down and by 8pm he was stretched out over 2 seats (very nice man moved) and thus he stayed until breakfast time. Me, on the other hand did not sleep, the large Maori guy in front pushed his seat all the way back and diabetic Pomie lady behind kept on getting up to go to the loo, therefore pushing my seat and this was not condusive to much sleep so i watched a bad romcom and then tossed and turned and moaned and groaned for a most the night.
landing in sydney was very exciting and just being in Oz made things seem a little more real and chatting to nat & deon on real time was great ! thankfully the wait in sydney was not too long as we had arrived late due to the late departure out of ORT so before we knew it, it was time to board the new plane to NZ. The Noodle was really so well behaved and a little star, he befriended a little Indian girl and was telling her "babba-babba airplane in fly in sky" even tho she was probably 10 years old ! the flight to auckland was quite empty and a bit weird.... we took off at about 5pm Aussie time and then we where served supper, flew from bright sunshine into night darkness and landed in Auckland after 10pm. The Kiwi Qantus staff where actually much more helpful and friendlier than their Aussie counterparts so can you imagine how nice they where :))
so we landed in auckland, it was raining and cold but SO ABSOLUTELY AMAZING to be in the same country again as Deon - sms'ing madly to him - we got thru passport control with no problem - not a question asked and she did not even want to see my return ticket ...... and so we go thru to collect our luggage...... and then after waiting for a looong time only my suitcase and the car seat had come thru - david's suitcase and his pram not anywhere to be seen ... david's pram was suppossed to be given back to me in sydney but it never materialised and i was told it had gone straight to auckland so a red flag was raised in my cynical little brain already. I told the very helpful people at baggage services my problem and they very cleverly could see on the computer that the pram was indeed still in sydney but could not trace the noodle's suitcase. it was nearly midnight - i just wanted to get out and see deon so i gave them deon's cell phone number and told them to call me when they found it.
and then we walked into the arrivals hall and there was deon .....
ok, i am tired, you are bored and if you really read all the way thru all this crap you really should get a life
more to follow soon - promise
love and miss you all
R, D & dj