I can’t believe it!
My mother is now retired.
She's worked most of her life and today is the first day of her retirement. I don’t actually feel old enough to have my mum as retired, but there it is. Having spoken to her today, she told me some of the things she's planning to do with her time. I’m so pleased that God has blessed her with all she needs to now start living some of her dreams. Who knows, maybe she will start her own blog? It would be great to read about some of the places she’s visited and so on. There is a lot going on in the lives of my family at the moment. Trev and Clare have just brought their new home. It’s their first so they're both very excited. I’m so pleased for them both. It seems like everyone is moving on in life eh?
Louise and I have been here in South Africa for well over a year now. Its strange because I don’t feel like I’m living in a foreign land anymore, its like I’ve been here for so long that it feels normal. When I first got here it was like being on an extended working holiday but that feeling has really gone.
Two friends of ours are heading to the UK for a two week holiday today. Irene is from Aberdeen and Stuart is from South London (Don’t hold it against him, he's a Crystal Palace fan). It’s Stuart’s first visit to the UK in eleven years; wow how he will notice a change. We met up with them last weekend for a braai (yes Englishmen can braai!) and we talked about going to the UK, I’m going with Louise in December. I have to say that I’m looking forward to our visit for a number of reasons. I can’t wait to see family and friends of cause but I also want to see how I’m going to feel about the country.
Will I get their and then start realising what I miss about the place and question why I ever left or will I feel like South Africa really is the place for me?
I know one thing; South African weather really is for me. Wow it’s another beautiful day in the bay.
Louise and I are going to the UK in December as I said; we'll be leaving what is mid-summer for us to go to what could be a very cold England! I don’t think we'll mind returning to our glorious weather!
Louise and I are hosting our bible study tonight and with a sad-heart we will miss two of our friends who have had to go of to Cape Town. Sadly Jacques mum has died and they're going there to meet up with more of the family. Please pray for Jacques, Lynda, Michael and Monique. This is such a hard thing for them and life hasn’t been easy for them of late. As a family, they have become very special to both Louise and I and we feel so gutted for them. Jacques mum has been suffering for some time now. Thankfully she is no longer in pain but when you loose someone so dear to you that kind of truth is so hard to except. They really will benefit from all of our prayers.
So our small group will be missing two very important members, may they return soon.
This weekend sees Jeffrey’s Bay hosting the world famous ‘shell festival!' (What do you mean; you’ve never heard off it?) Last year I was at the 'South African Baptist Assembly' and missed it. It’s a big festival that the town and the surrounding areas get involved in and promises to be a great time. Their will be stalls selling all kinds of things together with various different activities. The place will be packed as people come from all over to join in the festival.
So the weekend is looking exciting and what’s more, it’s a holiday weekend as well, no work on Monday, three whole days off, YAY.
I think I will close on that high note, I was going to talk about the collapse of England in both the rugby and the twenty 20 cricket, but we won’t talk about that eh?
God bless you all.
