Happy Valentine's Day

Hope you all had a wonderful day and got nicely spoilt by your loved one.

Happy Valentine signing off ...

An African Day Spa experience

I mentioned in a previous post that Dereck and I had won a full day spa treatment at the Mangwanani Spa at the Sibaya Casino Complex. Well, on Saturday it was our day of pampering, and what a day it was!!

On arrival we were met at the door by a lady from the Spa who took us to where we needed to be. As we entered we were greeted by all the Spa ladies signing in Zulu. We were given a welcome drink and then we were shown to the restaurant area and to our designated table. On the table was a glass made up of museli and yoghurt and we could help ourselves to muffins and scones. The hostess came and explained what we would be doing for the day and at about 09h00 we were taken to our first treatment - a spa treatment. I had a body scrub and a massage - fantastic. Dereck also had a massage, but had some cream rubbed all over which he then had to wash off. Once that was over, we went back to our table to wait to be escourted to the next treatment which was the jaccuzi. This was nice and relaxing, although the day was rather hot and we did get a bit hot in this warm bubbly water. But, it was different and I certainly enjoyed it. We then went back to our table and had something to drink. We were escourted to our next treatment which was the foot massage. We had a scrub using grape seed oil with sugar and was quite an amazing feeling. Then washed off with rose water and some other natural cream was massaged into our legs and feet. We both really felt great after that. We went back to the table and lunch consisting of a roast chicken salad followed by cheesecake and ice-cream went down really well. For anyone who was there due to a special occasion, the staff gathered round their table and in Zulu sang to them. There were quite a few birthdays and anniversaries and it was lovely the way they sang. After lunch we went for our hand and arm massage. This process was the same as the foot one and most enjoyable. The foot and hand massage took place under a "boma" outside, so with the lovely weather, really made me sleepy! After this we waited at our table to be taken to the head and neck department. This was amazing and I dozed off and was woken by the beating of drums signaling the end of the session. Back to our table where we had cheese and biscuits and a fruit cocktail. Our next treatment was a full body destress massage with hot stones. This was so relaxing, that I dozed off again. It was such an amazing feeling, especially when the hot stones were rubbed over you and then stratecigally placed. Back to the table and then taken to our last treatment which was the facial. I just closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment. I am not one for facials, but this was all natural products and my face really felt refreshed afterwards. Woken up to reality by the drums again and went to have a shower and then back to the table where a glass of Amarula cream and a chocolate were waiting. This was an experience of note and I would recommend it to anyone out there who would like to have a day to themselves (or share with someone). We were treated like royalty and everyone went out of their way to make you feel good. The masseurs were excellent and explained exactly what they were going to do each time and with the massages you had a choice of soft, medium or hard massaging.

I don't have any photos as we weren't sure about taking photos with other people as we knew that there were going to be others as well. Also, after the treatments you are quite greasy and they do say leave all your valuables at home. Now that I have been, one could take a camera as the Spa Village is a really quaint set up.

Spa..ed out siginng off.

It's a Dogs Life on the Beach

Last Sunday morning Dereck and I put harnesses on our dogs - Zippa, Jemma and Izzy and met Lesley and Nicholas at their flat while they loaded their dog - Glen into their car. We then drove down to Blue Lagoon and let the dogs run on the beach. Jemma, Izzy and Glen were fine, but the minute Zippa touched the sand, she dug her feet in and would not move. It was so funny seeing this big dog just lying down on the grass facing the other way to the sea. Dereck and Nicholas eventually picked her up and brought her to the grass where we were, but she managed to wriggle out of her harness and went "galloping" towards the car. A man standing there took one look at this and ran for cover and jumped back into his car - this was such a funny sight as Zippa wasn't even going in his pathway!

Eventually Lesley and I walked with the other dogs towards the water, found a spot to put down her bag and took the dogs into the water. Jemma and Izzy were a bit hesitant, but Glen absolutely loved it and was really having a lot of fun.

While Lesley was walking along the beach with Jemma, a wave came up in front of Jemma and she walked through it. I then took Jemma and ran up and down the beach into the waves and she had an absolute ball, even jumping over the really tiny waves.

Izzy was not having any of this getting wet and shyed away from any water. She enjoyed the beach though and had good fun rolling in the sand and while we waited on the grass, rolled around in that too.

Zippa just was not interested in the water! If it looked like it was coming towards her, she turned and moved away. She enjoyed the sand, but definitely not the water!!

We weren't there for too long and by the time we left all three dogs were exhausted. Zippa and Jemma just lay on the back seat while Izzy lay on floor at the front.

When we got home Jemma and Izzy had a bath.

A great fun but relaxing day had by all.

Beach dog owner signing off ...

Scrapday at Makaranga

Well, what can I say... it was fantastic! Starting on Friday, I collected Desire from the airport and went home to load the car with all the goodies for the day. Dereck packed his car as well and we met him there. But, we made a detour at Desire's old work (Alexander Cox) to collect a parcel. Dereck in the meantime had got to Makaranga and couldn't find us, so he just carried on along what he thought was the road only to be chased by a staff member stating that the pathway was for the wheelchairs. He said he had wondered why the road got narrower!!!

While Desire was unpacking her things in her room, she gave me a rather heavy present - to say thank you for all my assistance. On opening this rather heavy present, inside was a beautiful hardcover Sasol book of South African birds as well a soft cover one and a Making Memories holder for stickers, rub ons etc. Talk about being spoilt - Desire, I really appreciate the gift and it is my pleasure to be of assistance.

Anyway once all packed out, we started to set up and at about 3:30 we had a toasted sarmie for lunch. We carried on until about 7:30 and then I went home.

Saturday, I was at Makaranga just before 6:00 (forgetting that there was no traffic and catching Desire not quite dressed!!). We had a cup of complimentary hot chocolate and sat on the verandah of her room taking in the view.

The next lot of delegates arrived - Shelley, at about 6:15 whereafter we went down to our venue.

As people arrived, the made a beeline to the shoppe and this was one of my duties for the day - to man the shoppe. Well, I was certainly kept busy and in no time quite a bit of the stock was booked. During the day the delegates came and added things to their packs and in the afternoon I totalled up for them.

We had a Herma Speed Queen competition, gave out keytags with quotes and a chocolate, set of sticker quotes and a new stencil.

Lunch was a buffet which was most yummy.

At about 5pm the delegates started packing away and then was the job of packing away the shoppe, so that I could keep the left overs for the next Scrapday on 14 June.

While Desire and Shelley discussed some accounting things, I sat watching some Ducks swimming in the swimming pool while sipping on a lovely cool drink.

For more details and pictures of the Scrapday, please visit Desire's blog - desiref@blogspot.com

On Sunday morning Desire invited me for breakfast and we sat on the verandah watching the birds and a few lizzards, and chatted. At about 10:00 I took her to the airport.

It was great to see her again and catch up on all the news about her new house in JHB.

I will edit this and post a few pictures later.

Doing Life assistant signing off ...

Bird of Prey

The other afternoon, the Adedas were really making a noise. It wasn't there usual cry and there were about 8 of them all sticking together. They would sit on the neighbours roof, then all fly around in a formation and then come back. I got out my telephoto lense and check through it and on a lonely tree stump right at the top was this bird. I could see that it was not an Adeda, and when they chased it I managed to get this last shot in the sky. I got Dereck's binoculars and looked at where this bird had been as it also went into another tree and the Adedas got really mad. There I saw a nest with an Adeda sitting in it. This bird of prey was obviously trying to get at the nest and the Adedas were guarding it. It was quite fascinating to watch this.

Watch the birdie signing off ...

Monkey Business

I have a fascination for watching monkeys, chimps etc. and while mooching around on 1 January 2008, these monkeys were getting comfortable in helping themselves to the litchies on the tree. They kept watching me as I stood on the verandah of Dereck's office and took their pictures. It was fun to watch as they found a bunch of litchies, then stood up to pick one off, then sat down to peel it and then eat it!!

Otherwise not too much going on - did my civic duty and donated blood (anyone who knows me knows that I am poop scared of needles, so feel chuffed that I did this). 31 December Lesley, Alex and Nicholas came round and we had a braai. Then we got out the Jenga blocks and had a lot of fun until the new year came in. The person who knocked the blocks over had to have a shot of "Hot Sex" - boy was this tasty!! Saw the new year in and then went to bed after tidying up a bit. New year, I got up early to take the dogs out and then chatted online until the others got up. Had coffee sitting with my feet in the pool. At about 11 we all decided that we needed something to eat, so we brought the gas cooker round to the front and we did bacon, eggs, fried onion and mushrooms and toast. Lounged around in the pool and mid afternoon had christmas cake. At about 5pm we took Lesley, Alex and Nicholas home and then popped in to see my folks in Yellow-wood Park.

Monkey watcher signing off ......

Christmas Day

Dereck, Grant, Lauren and I with our Christmas gifts!

The Ramsay family came round and spent quite a bit of time in the pool. It was Lesley, Alex, Nicholas, Papi (Dereck's mom), Joanne, Brendon, Kerin, Ryan and Mrs Daye. In the pictures above, Kerin and Ryan are holding up the crackers to show Leanne that they were Winnie the Pooh crackers!

Lunch consisted of cold gammon, roast lamb, potatoe bake, noodle salad, green salad and garlic bread, followed by pudding being trifle, ginger pudding with custard, banana fridge tart, mince pies and fruit squares.

Thereafter we did a secret Santa present swap - we had each drawn a name out of a hat and we had to buy a present for that person. I got a lovely fold up beach chair. We all retired to the lounge where we played a few games of "Buzz". This was a lot of fun.

I couldn't resist putting in this picture of Ryan in the goggles. He put these on, then climbed into the pool on the first step and put his head under the water to look what was there - he was so cute!

Christmas'd out singning off ...

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, the whole Engler family gathered at my brother Warren and Debbie's house. These pictures were taken while the cousins and Lauren were playing around on the trampoline, and I told them I wanted pictures for Leanne to see, so they were much more accomodating for me taking their picture!!


Debbie had set up the tablse across her diningroom and had decorated them very nicely. We had a sausage dish with rice, a noodle dish, home made bread and a green salad. Pudding was trifle and ice-cream with mince pie miced into it - all very yummy. It is always fun when my family get together, but this year, we were missing Leanne who was often the centre of jokes and antics!!

Waiting in anticipation signing off ...

New Ultrasonic Lense

I must have been really good this year, as this is one of the things I received for Christmas - a Canon Ultrasonic 75 - 300mm lense. There is a story to this ... My best friend, Gigs who lives in London, was coming out to SA in December, so Dereck got hold of her and made arrangements to purchase this via Amazon and got it delivered to her work and when she came out he then went to visit her and collected it. I had no idea whatsoever. When I opened it, I was hugely surprised and really excited and my comment was that due to this being so heavy, I would need to get myself a monopod. My next present given to me, take a guess - yip, a monopod. I also received a UV filter fo this new lense as well as a lense hood.

I also received two t/shirt tops, a beach chair, some yummy chocolates, some scrapping embelishments and a fun present consisting of 4 packs of clothes pegs!.

Spoilt rotten signing off ...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone. Hope your day is filled with love, lots of presents and great food.

Lots of love

Michelle, Dereck, Grant, Lauren (Grant's girlfriend), Jemma (the brown sausage dog) & Izzy (the black sausage dog) and Leanne (who is in London at present).

Christmas family signing off ....

"Chef Ramsay" at work

This is a recipe I got sent by Sheila Corfe (aka Springbok Mom). You just have to try it - they are yummy! and as Sheila said - "I take no responsibility if you eat them all at once".

Fruit Squares

2 cups self raising flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup oats
1 cup coconut
2 cups mixed fruit (I used 1 box of the Sugarbird mix) (dates, cherries work too)
2 eggs
1 tsp almond essence
250g melted butter

Mix all the ingredients together and press into a greased baking dish (I used my oven pan) and bake at 180C until golden brown (+2 25 - 35 minutes).

Cut while still warm.

When serving, put on a plate and sprinkle some icing sugar over them.

Tooty Fruity signing off ....

Scrapping up a Storm

Here are some layouts that I completed this week-end. The last one (Christmas 1991) was done a while ago, but I thought that seeing as I am taking photos, I would include it.

Scrappy signing off ...

The Tala Experience with work!

On Tuesday, 11 December 2007 my colleagues (Naeem & Msizi - Bronwyn was booked off sick)and I went up to Tala Game Reserve for our office year end function. While eating, the buck (Nyala I think they are called) came walking past the restaurant - amazing! We had a scrumptious lunch starting with chicken liver pate, followed by the best tomato soup I have ever tasted, then a gammon salad, followed by a mixed berry sorbet. The main course was stuffed chicken breasts with couscos, pumpkin cubes in a filo pastry basket and mediterranean vegetables with a tai sauce and perfectly finished off with cheesecake with fresh fruit. Wow, we needed the game drive to get the digestive system working!! At 2pm we met our drive - Jaco - who took us on a game drive. We saw the animals above and a couple of others - hippo, ostrich and some other buck. We were the only group that day that spotted the Rhino and this one in the picture is known as "Big Boy" - aptly named as he is huge. We managed to get pretty close to him. There was also a mother and her baby, but there were a bit far and there was no other road to get closer. At this time of the year it is breeding season, so most of the animals were either pregnant or had babies with them. The cutest for me were the Warthogs. As we were leaving Tala to come home we spotted the mommy with her two babies. They were just like little puppies as they ran around chasing each other and just jumping and darting around. Then they would see me and just stop and stare. They ended up latching onto their mom, and she eventually lay day so that they could feed. Quite an awesome sight! We had a wonderful day with perfect weather (after all the rain we have had we were a bit worried!)

Game watcher signing off ....

Scrapping Creations!

I have been doing quite a bit of scrapping lately, and this is what I completed over the last 2 weeks. These are pages for Grant's album for his 21st in January 2009.

Proud scrapper signing off ....

Red Indian Prizegiving

On the 17 November 2007, Run/Walk for Life, Westville Branch had their annual prizegiving. The theme - Red Indian. Dereck and I hired our outfits from Imaginations (031-2029999 for anyone needing an outfit) and ended up winning the "best dressed couple". Our prize - a full day of spa pampering at the Sibaya health spa for both of us. We are so looking forward to using this. I also managed to win the prize for the "fertility dance" (ha ha), and was awarded the "Athlete of the Year" trophy.

Above are some of the other prize winners of the evening, namely George, Sarah, Sally, Dave, Faith, Googs, Jeanette, Ros, Reg, Jean and Saras. Well done to everyone.

Proud Fertile Indian signing off (ha ha ha) ....