The "Biddy" Filly

Dereck and some of his friends have been talking about buying a race horse and naming it "Biddy" in memory of a great friend who was murdered in May 2008. A good friend, Paul Lafferty is a race horse trainer and he got hold of Dereck recently to let him know that he had this filly currently named Empress Eugenie who was available for sale. Dereck got hold of friends that knew Biddy (Ian Boucher) and there are now 6 of them who are going to be part owners of this horse whose name will be changed to Biddy. She will be 2 years old on 7 November 2009 and will hopefully be ready for racing some time in November. Dereck and I went to the Summerveld stables on Sunday morning to see her and take some photos. I must say she is really a lovely looking horse and I hope she trains well and can win a few races for us. I am certainly looking forward to watching her first race!!

After leaving the stables, we went to Dieter's nursery for a quite bite to eat, then home to make a noodle salad and then off to Ian's place for a braai and then watch the grand prix - my man Lewis Hamilton won - which was great and then we watched the finish of the Tour de France. Awesome racing and I was really pleased that Lance Armstrong made such a come back and finished third - just shows that if your mind can conceive it, the body can achieve it!!

A bit horsey signing off ....

A Wild Week-end!!

On Thursday evening I woke up quite a few times with terrible stomach cramps, diarhea (sp??) and vomitting. I have not had anything like this in absolute years and have no idea what caused it. Nedless to say when my alarm went of at 6am, there was just no ways I could get up for work. I sms'ed my boss and asked if I could come in at 10 and replied that I should come in after lunch. I went back to sleep and woke up at 12 to shower and go to work. I felt horrific. I stayed at work for an hour and a half and then came home again and went straight back to bed and woke up when Dereck came to say goodbye to me when he went to rugby. I drank lucozade and took a health probiotic, had a roll and went back to sleep. After sweating profusely I awoke on Saturday morning like a new person!

I went with Dereck to Umkomaas Golf Club and walked round the golf course with him – about 8km. He and his partner won the competition that they had played in and it was a most enjoyable walk.

Meanwhile Grant and Lauren had gone to Shongweni Farmers Market to sell charcoal and on their way home they collected Lauren’s step-sister Michaela and her brother Jett to spend the week-end with us!! They took them down to the Umgeni Bird Park for the afternoon and we met up with them once they got home. They are such lovely children and Jett is such a cute 3 year old!!

On Sunday morning we decided to go to the Lion Park near Pietermaritzburg. I remeber going there as a child and then when Dereck and I first met, so it was going to be a treat for us as well. We didn't tell Michaela where we were taking them, so they were rather excited once we got there. The first animal besides some cows was a rhine which one of the rangers brought up close to the car for us. Her name was Sally and she just about stuck her head in the window. Jett got a bit of a fright, but calmed down once he saw that she had moved away.

Next up were some elephants. Again the rangers were with them and said we could get out and stand with them. Grant, Lauren and Michaela did just that while I took the photos and Dereck held onto Jett, who was rather concerned that the elephant was going to come and bite him! After we left the elephants he wanted to touch them!!
Then we hit the Lion's Den!! There were a couple of them lying around eating a stick, a few licking each other and some just watching.
This is what my car looked like (notice the rim around the light missing)........

after this lion who had been lying next to the road, decided to get up, walk towards the car and just quietly pull the cover off, then walk round the car, sit down and promptly start chewing it. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and Dereck didn't even try and move the car away!!!! I could not stop laughing as all we could do was sit and watch while she chewed my car part and Jett found this rather funny too that the "Lion had eaten my car!!"

We then headed off the the Zoological Gardens which was just round the corner from the Lion Park. They had quite a number of animals and below are a selection of some of the birds ...
An orangotang whose eyes just said "please cuddle me" and a chimp ....
a few more animals ....
and some more ...
By this time it was about 12pm and we decided that it was time for home to have some lunch rather than stopping somewhere to buy it. We did stop to buy some mince and rolls and once we got home I made some burgers while Dereck and Grant cooked them and Lauren prepared the condiments. Better than Steers and a whole lot cheaper.

Watched the tour de France while others snoozed or watched dvd's.

Wild thing signing off ....

Blogging Updates

Ok, yes I know that it has been rather a while since I updated my blog – so sorry to those regular readers. So, now that I am going to update, I suggest you grab something to drink and maybe even somthing to eat, sit back and catch up on what I have been doing.

To start off, Helen and Libby have challenged me to share 10 honest facts about myself, so here they are:

1. I have just celebrated 25 years of marriage to my wonderful husband, Dereck

2. I love listening to lively music

3. I am really comfortable with who I am

4. I have great relationships with Leanne and Grant

5. I made soup for the first time ever last week and it was delicious (made another pot today)

6. I love reading and am currently reading Spud – learning to fly

7. I am collecting the Tintin hardcover books – only 2 more to get

8. I am a genuine friend to people

9. I have fun making/creating things

10. I love life

I am not going to tag people as most of the ones I would have tagged have been tagged. If you need inspiration for a blog post, then consider yourself tagged and list 10 things about yourself.

The rest of the posts are listed below – happy reading and thank you for looking.

Updated blogger signing off ….

More Mosaicing with friends

On 27 June Kathy, Rayna, Shelley and I went for another mosaicing class. I did a gheko, Shelley painted a cutlery holder, Rayna painted a wooden cutlery holder and Kathy mosaiced a number for her house. All came out really nicely, but unfortunately I forgot to take my camera, so don’t have pictures of everyone’s creations. Here is a picture of my gheko, which I just need to grout and then paint. I plan on doing anther bigger one and they will go on the wall outside near our swimming pool. I must say, I have really enjoyed this mosaicing and have a few projects I would like to do for Christmas presents for people.
I still need to finish off with the grouting and painting.

After the lesson we came back to my house where we had lovely home made soup (made by Rayna), and brandy pudding with custard (made by Woolies).

The South African rugby team were playing the British and Irish Lions and Dereck was at Crusaders watching it and I joined him later on - they won, which was great!

Pet friendly signing off ...

Aloe in the garden

Here is a picture of our lovely aloe that has really taken off and is growing beautifully. This particular plant is really special to me as when our dear friend Jennifer (who passed away earlier this year) did our back garden for us, I has said I would like it to be indigenous and wanted an aloe and this particular one came from her garden and is really thriving now in mine.

Aloe fan signing off ....

Tuesday, 16 June 2009 - Our Silver Wedding Anniversary

Only got out of bed at about 8:30. Dereck made us toast and scrambled egg. The family were arriving at 9:00 as Malcolm (my brother) was going to skype us from New Zealand. My mom, dad, Liesel, Warren, Debbie, Luke and Rebekkah were all sitting around in front of the TV while we skyped. A bit like the “Simpsons” all sitting on their couch!!!! It was great to see and chat to them and they took us on a tour of their house. After that, we showed my family some of our USA/UK holiday pictures that they hadn’t seen on the blog. Later in the afternoon, I made a savoury tart for supper and one for work and also made a milk tart for work.

This was my speech from last night ....

Hi everybody

Thanks again for joining us to share our 25^th wedding anniversary. Nowadays you just don’t seem to hear of many people staying married for so long, so this is really special for me and I am sure it is for Dereck too.

This time 25 years ago, I was so excited to be getting married the next day. All the plans and preparations had been made and it was now just a matter of hours before the big day. I feel the same excitement now as I wait for the 25^th anniversary of our big day!

The last 25 years have certainly had their fair share of ups and downs but we have grown and certainly have had a great time together. Now that Leanne and Grant are grown up and doing their own thing, we have more time to spend with each other.

I would like to say to Dereck that I love you lots and thank you for being the wonderful person that you are. For being there for me, for your support – both voluntary and involuntary and for giving me the freedom to be able to do the things that have interested me.

Whilst on our recent trip to Las Vegas I wanted to renew our wedding vows, but somehow everytime we saw a chapel, it wasn’t quite the time to make enquiries. So there was nothing to leave in Vegas, but I have some questions for you ....

Dereck,

Will you continue to cook at least twice a week

And feed the dogs every night before six

Will you continue to play poker so that I can scrap

And will you watch TV so that I can take a nap

Will you love me and laugh with me and plan our holidays

Will you please do this for at least another 25 years?

Dereck said yes to all my questions, so I know that I have him for at least another 25 years - lucky me!!

All in all a great celebratory week-end.

Hey ho silver signing off …

Monday, 15 June 2009 the afternoon and evening ...

Dereck and I then went to the Westville Country Club to check out how everything was going for our party in the evening. Yes, there was a party of note taking place as on 16 June 2009 we would be celebrating our Silver Wedding Anniversary. I can’t believe that we have been married that long and although we have had our ups and downs, the ups far exceeded the downs.

My friend Michele did the flower arrangements for us and they were absolutely stunning.

Shelley made our cake for us and this was also very, very yummy and she iced it in my favourite colour – mauve – thanks so much Shelley – everyone commented to me on the lovely cake.
I had completed two layouts of our wedding, one of which was the layout done by the delegates at the recent Doing Life Scrapaganza and the other one of Doing Life's kits. I borrowed Desire’s frames to put them in and had these set up on the table.

I had also made some pouches (picture) into which I put a chocolate and Lauren and I set these on the table for each guest.

The meal we had was beef curry and rice as well as chicken carbonara with rice and vegetables.For dessert we had malva pudding with ice-cream and custard.

We had a great time and it was good to see everyone to celebrate with us.

We only left there at about 1am and some of the die hards went to some other place to carry on, but I was rather tired and so ended up going home. Also, I wanted to see all our presents we had received. We really got spoilt and got some lovely gifts and quite a bit of money we will enjoy spending. By the time we finished unpacking and opening our presents, we got to bed at 2am!!
Dereck and I had sat together beforehand and compiled a selection of music and everyone complimented us on the selection. Anyone knowing both mine and Dereck's tastes will then realise that this was quite an achievement!!!!

Pooped out signing off ….

Monday, 15 June 2009 - the morning ...

Today is a special day for me as I am one year older and now closer to turning 50!!

I took a day’s leave and after being spoilt breakfast in bed followed by presents for my birthday from Dereck, Lauren and Grant as well as a lovely bunch of flowers, I got ready to take Lauren to Kloof to work and to fetch Desire and take her to the airport. She spoilt me with some nougat and a voucher for a facial and a pedicure.

Birthday girl signing off ....