My brother at his licensing

How proud am I of my Brother!

Dreams fulfilled

Towards the end of mum's stay here in SA we took a week to just do things together, hit the beach, visit St Francis that sort of thing. The highlight of the week was a visit to the Elephant Sanctuary at Plettenberg Bay. We set of on a beautiful warm day and enjoyed the ride down. Once at the sanctuary we soon got to see the elephants, wow what amazing animals. We paid our fees and waited for our guide full of excitement. The guide met us and the others who made up our party and did a great job explaining all sorts of things to do with the elephants. Once we were introduced to the three elephants that would make up our experience everything began. We got to walk with them while they, with their trunks held our hands. This was followed with a show of some typical elephant behaviour and a chance to take photos while getting to look closer at these amazing creatures. We fed them some nutritious pellets and some butternut and got to hangout with them.

Then came the finale, mum and I got to ride an elephant each! Man, what an experience, up on the back of such a huge animal. The ride wasn't the most comfortable form of transport I've been on, the spine of an elephant is quite raised and when the elephant trotted a bit it was hang on for dear life! But man, both of us were just blown away by our experience. We disembarked with the biggest grins on our faces ever seen. What a fantastic day?

Thanks mum for making this one of the most amazing days of my life.

Life Begins at 40!

And so the saying goes..."life begins at 40", I would agree!

My birthday celebrations started on the day of my birthday (obviously!), I was inundated with calls, text messages and loads of birthday wishes from friends and family. Evening time was gift time; I was blessed with having many, included within these was a wonderful painting from my uncle Jack and not to forget an AFC Wimbledon DVD from Trev (Cool). The day continued with a great meal out with mum and Louise; we went to a restaurant called "Three Fat Fish" and had the best time.

The birthday celebrations continued at the weekend where I enjoyed a Lunchtime birthday braai with loads of my SA family and friends, a particularly special thing was that my mum was here to enjoy the celebrations. I missed everyone from the UK, but hey guy's, mum flew the flag for you all! While enjoying my party, Louise gave me my birthday gift from her and my family here, wow it's great. Louise, with the help of loads of family and friends put together a "This is Your Life Book". Contained within it are pictures, letters and all sorts of goodies. I have to say, when I got back home where I could enjoy it properly, I was moved to tears; the memories that are within this book remind me of some the greatest parts of my first 40 years, IT IS GREAT. Louise, and all who contributed to my book, THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Lastly, to all who made my birthday so incredible, THANK YOU SO MUCH, I LOVE YOU ALL.

Wilderness

Wow, what a beautiful place Wilderness is? It’s been really cool to explore more of SA. While mum has been here with us, we got together with Louise’s folks for a little holiday in a place called wilderness which is very close to a town called George in the Western Cape. It’s a place where you have the coast on one side and mountains on the other, the views were amazing.


Our accommodation was right on the seafront and gave us frequent opportunities to see whales, dolphins and all kinds of local birds. To wake up and watch whales while eating breakfast is pretty cool eh?


We filled our week with many activities from visiting a safari to meeting ostriches at an ostrich farm (I even got to sit on an ostrich, poor thing!). The safari gave me a chance to see my first ever white lions and white tigers along with many other fantastic animals. The ostrich farm, and the guided tour enabled us to learn all about ostrich farming including how they incubate the eggs (we all got to stand on a bundle of eggs, man those suckers are strong!); we were even shown how they make feather dusters out of the various different ostrich feathers!

Another day on our holiday was spent up in the mountains; we travelled up on the power van (a single carriage diesel rail van) from George; the views from the mountains were just great. We all had an amazing time away but it didn’t end their, on out travels home we stopped of in Plettenberg Bay and a wild cat rescue centre where I got to stroke a cheater (not forgetting licked and nibbled!!), what an experience!

Splash in more ways then one!

So, Billabong has come to Jeffrey's bay. I took mum to super tubes (one of our beaches) to watch the contest. We enjoyed lunch together watching the dudes riding the waves and doing all kinds of tricks.

The highlight of the day though was the moment when mum and I shared a wave with the surfers. Busy photographing the action we were hit by a big wave that came on shore, much to our horror! I managed to lift myself out of the water rather quickly and only suffered a slightly wet side of my shorts, mum however didn't quite respond as quick and ended up taking an early bath. I'm not sure whether she got wetter as the wave came in or as it went out, but anyway she got a rather wet bum!! It's great to be able to laugh such things away and mum was a great sport and did so. I don't actually think she will ever live this one down!!

Check out those shorts!!

All ended well for us both however when we decided to leave the beach and go for ice cream (anyone who knows mum, knows that ice cream for her has magical healing properties!!).

Birthday Girl!

One year older and wiser!!

Yes, this last weekend was Louise's birthday. We actually spent most of the weekend celebrating which was nice. Saturday Louise and I met up with the folks, my mum included, we had a great lunch together at Potters Place here in Jeffrey's; the food was great, the company was great and we all had a blast!

Sunday, the actual birthday, started with Church then a nice walk on the beach in the mid-day sun. Louise and mum were busy doing the usual, collecting shells, saving washed up fish and putting the world to rights!!

'Will their be a shell left on this beach once mum's finished?'

'Mum and Louise sporting the latest "hipsters" while doing beach aerobics!'

Later we again joined the folks, it was then that Louise got to open what was a great number of gifts; wow, my wife did well this year, COOL. We all eat far to much cake (What ya meant to do on birthdays, eh?) and just chilled out enjoying the amazing view from the folks place. The weather has been glorious over the weekend which just added to the enjoyment, not bad for mid-winter.

'Gran, ya gorgeous!'

'Wow, that was a strong puff, even Gran's blown away!!'

'What's in here then?'

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE!

Winter!!

Mum now believes that we do have winter here in SA, it's been cold here for the past few days and today wet.
Sadly mum has been under the weather with a tummy upset, however I'm pleased to say that she seems to be getting a little better.
So, what with the weather and sickness we've not done that much lately. Saturday we did all go out to Humansdorp a town just outside Jeffrey's. We enjoyed some little nik-nak shops and had coffee in a nice little coffee shop. Oh yeah, mum changed the habit of a life time and brought herself a new hand bag!!

News from mum

She's having a great time on her excursion. Having reached the highest point in all Africa via some bumpy four wheel driving, the report is that all is breath taking (in more ways then one!). I'm looking forward to viewing the many photo's that she's taken. What an experience she must be having?

Great times in the bay.

Its been great having mum with us. We've been blessed with the most amazing weather considering its winter! Saturday we started of on the beach.

The water was a bit cold but hey, we had to get our feet wet!

Later, in the afternoon we went for a drive around the surrounding area, just checking out some of the great spots that Louise and I like to visit. While driving in Paradise Beach we were treated to a meal out - we weren't the ones eating, a family of monkeys had that joy!

Sunday, mum came to the beach with us again (its a hard life!), this time she saw a whole load of dolphins.

Today we had a little surprise for mum, I took her to Lombardini Game Farm which is just outside of Jeffrey's. We went on a game drive and saw all kinds of animals. Mum spent the whole trip with a massive smile glued to her face!

I think she's having a good time.

All's well with my world!

After some serious hours of travelling mum arrived safe and sound At Port Elizabeth. Wow, it was great to see her, I still can't believe that she's here. We have all just enjoyed a nice meal together and are going to spend the evening relaxing together. Mum is holding up well considering she has done all that travelling, I would actually be struggling to stay awake by now! So her time here begins, I hope we can fill her up with loads of fond memories.

The Eagle has landed!!

Yes, mum's flight arrived at Jo'burg, she's here. I was sat by the computer trying to see when her flight arrived which wasn't the easiest with the SA flight arrival web sites not being great. I think her flight from the UK was a little delayed, but nothing major. Sadly, she has been told that to get on an earlier flight to Port Elizabeth she will have to pay some R900. which is crazy money! So, as I write this mum is sitting in Jo'burg international and has just sent me an SMS to say that she thinks she will have to just wait for her later flight, which is fine (She'll enjoy the shops I'm sure).
The sun is shining and I'm going to be heading of soon to PE, I need to pick up a few things, mum included!