On Monday we went to Kirstenbosch to meet up with … uhh … let’s just say Mr & Mrs Smith.
It was fun to catch up with Patrick and Dallah and little Samuel.

One of the highlights (of the year, I think) for the Three and me was the rehashing of most of our kitchen in the week preceding Christmas. The most wonderful thing about this kitchen is how well it fits. It fits our character so well it’s almost like an extension of us, it fits the house, it feels good and right and like the centre of the home should. There are things we bought on our honeymoon that were precursors to this feel and so many contributory things that we’ve collected or just admired on the way. It should be obvious that we love the kitchen – and it all came together in a couple of weeks. We found freestanding units at Kims – one of our favourite places – remotely in mid-December and got the appliances we’d had our eye on the next weekend. Against all odds Kim delivered the units two days before Christmas, so we ripped out the old kitchen (and had it taken away by two men with a horse-drawn cart) and put the new one in. After a few protracted kitchen remodellings in previous houses it was refreshing to have one come together in two weeks with a total of about seven hours of work.

We had everyone round for dinner on Christmas Eve in the new kitchen, which was wonderful. The culmination of dinner (which had been spectacular in its own right) was the production of a flaming Christmas pud – the first I’ve made from scratch and delicious btw. Unfortunately I had given no thought to the capacity of the dish I had placed the pudding on before pouring a ladle of burning brandy over all …
Ladle in his left hand, platter in his right he poured. As he did, Grandpa shifted his seat back bumping a plug which tripped the electrics plunging everything into appropriately theatrical darkness as rivulets of flaming brandy began to run off the plate and down me arm. I’m glad I wasn’t wearing my spandex reindeer suit because I would.have.been.toast.

‘Twas a bitter-sweet experience. The pain has outlasted the pudding. The story will outlast the pain.

Now Granny and Grandpa are in Gauteng to celebrate Uncle Ted’s 60th birthday on New Year’s Eve; Ben and Anna returned yesterday from a visit to friends in Mamelodi; Pete and Ros have driven up to East London to visit the house they’ve poured so much heart and soul into and to decide whether to stay for a bit. We’ve enjoyed a weekend on our own recharging and preparing for the year ahead.

Here’s to a wonderful year ahead – may your houses and hearts and lives be full. Happy New Year!

Sophie’s right as rain. They never did find the problem, but she’s completely back to her little old self.

It’s hard to believe we’ve been in our new house for six whole weeks today; time has flown by. We’ve had visitors for four weeks of the six and I’ve been travelling around the country far more than I should like.

It was wonderful to have the Coxes to stay. We had great fun – we did loads of stuff (they did more) and lots of catching up. Highlights were going up Table Mountain on the cablecar on a spectacularly beautiful day and eating at Fairview in 40-something degree heat. I think they had a good break – certainly enough of a break to make Sunday’s hail and sleet on their way home a shock to the system

The roster of visitors is filling up with Hayley around sometime in June/July and the Schonkens planning for late July. I spent a great evening with Tim and Claudia and the boys in Durban on Monday and we’re looking forward to seeing them in Cape Town in June.

Now that we’re home alone the “things to do” list is growing at an alarming rate: a sure indicator that it’s starting to really feel like home. I’ve installed my first Gate Automation System, which was fun. I’ve learned how to look after a swimming pool (sort of). Still to come are gardening, painting, flooring, grey- and rainwater systems and, eventually, some solar heating. Michelle will fill you in on the things that have slipped my mind …

I am looking around for opportunities to employ my modest experience around carbon issues gleaned over the past few years. Focus in South Africa is growing, although it’s got a very long way to go. So far all my knowledge is working on is my conscience as my air-travel averages 13 hours per week year-to-date. On a slightly more positive note I have found that good journalism is alive and well in South Africa despite the impression given by the daily papers that all that’s on offer are learner-writers with a reasonable grasp of sensationalism but very little else. There are one or two cracking weeklies and monthlies full of excellent writing. And more importantly full of hope.

The misty and damp and still weather has begun in Cape Town. My other favourite kind of weather.

We’ve had a busy time. I’ve been off work for a full two months now and it’s not been a holiday … well, not in the lying-on-a-beach-without-a-care-in-the-world sense at any rate. Lots of planning and dreaming and arranging and managing – not to mention eating and sleeping – to be done. We’ve had a lot of fun along the way (and seen some beautiful things and eaten some excellent dinners) but most importantly have sorted out the purchase of a beautiful new house (which we’ll move into in February in good time for the Coxes to visit and test our new guest rooms), a couple of very pleasing motorised vehicular transporters, and what currently looks to be a choice of jobs to start in January.

The last six weeks would have been far more straightforward but for the banks to whom, it would seem, 48 hours is as a week, if not quite a thousand years. Banking is the racket to be in here (well, probably everywhere, but extra-especially more so here). Current accounts on the whole pay no interest at all, but charges are levied for every transaction on the account anyway. I had a great conversation with a banker on one of my very frequent visits during which I tried to explain the concept of a branchless, internet-only bank that levies no direct charges for their services. I was attempting to instill a healthy fear of the future in said banker, but she couldn’t get past the absence of transaction charges:
“But Mr Adlard, tell me, does the bank make money in some other way then?”
Which, had I been listening to her advice, would have been exactly when I stopped.

We would love to post pictures of the new house, but it seems a little presumptuous while the current owners are still living in it. We have great plans for it – some new doors and floors and walls as well as an extension at some stage down the track. We’ve been collecting furniture for it, which some of you will know is not unlike us, but this is good stuff and shouldn’t have to live in the garage. So we’re having fun; never a dull moment after 8.30am is what I say. You should understand that Sophie wakes at about 5.30am every day, leaving me with a 3 hour deficit.

We hope to have house plans and final interviews squared away in time to have a full month’s proper lying-on-a-beach-without-a-care-in-the-world holiday, only with a pair of toddlers – even a pair of seafood-loving toddlers – I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to have a lying-on-a-beach-without-a-care-in-the-world holiday. I think we’ll go for the manically-active-no-time-to-give-a-stuff package with the dog-herding option for Sophie and the sofa-climbing option for Jo.

They were terrific. In a couple of hours the place looked almost tidy. MGW has been saying since we moved in that we need storage boxes so that everything has a place. I think she might have been onto something there … . Anyway. They’d been working as a team for some time and the lead chap had been doing it for 6 or 7 years. He must have started when he was fourteen.

I have a certain respect for people who enjoy doing similar things for long periods of time. I have come across many people ranging from strategists to packers (now) who do that. I can’t. Tomorrow is my last day (despite Ben’s rather enthusiastic exclamation last Thursday) with my current employer. I will have been there 34 months, which is the longest I have worked anywhere, let alone on one programme. I’ve stayed because the people are fantastic and I’ve been allowed to pursue opportunities to develop the business in ways that I find challenging and rewarding. I’m leaving because I began with a set of objectives and a timeframe in mind, both of which have run their course. I’ll remember my time there fondly.

I don’t know why, but whenever I write that I have to wonder who it is I’ll be fondling when I do my remembering. What kind of a word is “fondly”, anyway?

We said farewell to the Coxes this weekend just past. They came to stay with us from Friday evening and we had a great time – although we were somewhat distracted by pressures of moving. Mark and I and the two “big” girls ran loads of stuff to the charity shop. Mark suggested I ring them first:
“Hello. I’ve got a couple of car-loads of stuff to bring around.”
“Is it car boot stuff?”
“Ummmm. Well, what’s car boot stuff and what isn’t?”
“Harrummpf. [long pause]Car boot stuff is stuff you’ve tried to sell at a car boot sale and it didn’t sell and now you want to drop it on me.”
“Oh. Then no, it’s not car boot stuff. We’re moving next week.”
“OH! You’re moving. Bring it over; we’ll take the bad with the good if you’re moving …”

Josie and Elspeth played beautifully together. It was very difficult to say goodbye. I’m sure we’ll make other friends on our travels but I don’t think we’ll make any better ones.

We had a fantastic weekend with the Schonkens and the Midgleys. It’s a pleasure to spend time with people you get on with so well and – as important – whose children get on so well with yours.

BBQs, Pimms, indoor climbing, tennis and lots and lots of talk. Perfect.

It feels strangely lonely coming home to a place where people have only known us for six years. There’s something about school friends that I don’t think I’ve really appreciated before.

Pic above pinched from Phil and Mel’s camera. Pics from Friday and the weekend in the gallery.
Lots more to follow when I have a chance to negotiate copyright with Phil …

I think they had about a thousand people through their house on Saturday and Sunday. You could tell it had been that many by the number of magnolia petals trampled into the new carpets. We met or re-met lots of friends – people we’d been at school, or bits of school, or university with – and at least five families stayed over on Saturday night, giving us ample opportunity to eat and drink and chat.

The party on Sunday was an object lesson in how to entertain more-very-small-kids-than-one-person-can-count-unless-they’re-sleeping. Josie loved it, having got over any shyness on the Saturday, and led the charge in the treasure hunt, helped Anna blow out the candle on her cake, and helped Phil open presents (for which he was, of course, very grateful).

In the afternoon (following our turnaround) we got to spend some time catching up with Phil and Mel and seeing the school – including a very nice climbing wall which could see us visiting far more often … Josie and Ben did some climbing on Sunday. They played beautifully together on Sunday and Monday; both were quite upset when we left the first time on Sunday. It went better today because they’ve made arrangements to visit each other in the holidays.

We’ve had a great weekend. I ate a lot of Saffershire Rusks, which I can’t recommend highly enough.

Pics in the gallery.

We also celebrated with Mark and Sarah (at a distance) the birth of their second daughter in the early hours of Sunday morning. At last, someone who’s birthday we’ll remember!

It snowed heavily on Sunday too. Well, ice-stormed really – the point is Josie and Michelle got to make a snowman on the deck in April. I particularly like the courgette nose.

We had a wonderful evening together braai’ing in the rain while the kids with the requisite motor skills ran themselves ragged. It was good to catch up – I hope the next opportunity is not too long in coming.