Recap of the last week

Race For Life I thought I'd do a recap of the past week for this post, starting with today. This morning Claire, Emily and I took part in Race for Life 2009 at the South of England Showgrounds in Ardingly. It was very warm and we were glad of some cloud cover as the morning progressed. The girls and I had agreed to walk the course - which at some stages felt longer than I'd expected!!!. It wasn't long before Claire was off ahead of Emily and myself and she walked part of the course with Faith (my niece) before finishing on her own in 48 minutes. Emily and I came in in about 56 minutes with Louise and Faith coming in at 53 and 55 minutes (I think). Claire's boyfriend Craig had come with us to offer support and he took a few photos as we got to the finish post.

Claire striding to the finish line Emily and I coming in a bit later (behind the ladies in tutus)

A photo of the five of us (me, Claire, Emily, Louise and Faith) - I don't care what we look like, it felt like an achievement and needed to be recorded.

I would like to thank everyone who sponsored us once again. I think our total was around £305 which was triple what we had expected to raise. Thank you all so much!!

Brunel Awards

Earlier in the week Jon and I had been up at Sackville School for the Brunel Award Ceremony. Emily had been chosed to get one of the awards for Significant Achievement in Maths. We are very proud of her and, although we were sitting quite far back, I did manage to get a couple of photos of her going up on stage. Here she was shaking hands with guest speaker Ian Watts (who had been part of the Brighton University team on Robot Wars on TV.

Waiting to receive her Certificate from Mr Bush.

One of the robots Ian Watts had worked on was this dalek.

Pool League

And finally, as I had mentioned in my last post, last Sunday I went down to the Broadway Pub to take a few photos of the prize giving for Jon's Pool League. Jon with Chris, the winner of this season of the league.

Handing over the prize money The league players. Back L - R: Jerry, Jayson, Chris, Simon

Front L - R: Mike, Juan and Jon

All for now, have a good week

xx

21!!

On Saturday, Hugh turned 21! I can't believe I have a son that age though I am starting to get used to it. He insisted that he wanted a very low key day, he wanted to be able to just relax without any fuss. He started out with presents first thing and then went into town to sort out a few things.

Mum and Dad phoned to see if we would be in in the afternoon and they popped round to have coffee with us and we cut Hugh's cake then as well. Again, no singing or candles, just coffee and a slice of cake ;o)

Sarah came up in the afternoon and we all went out for dinner on Saturday night. Hugh wanted to go somewhere different, so we went to La Farola - a local Spanish restaurant. The food was wonderful and we had a very enjoyable evening.

The photos below were taken just before we went out.

Father's Day yesterday was very quiet, though I did pop down to The Broadway to take a few photos of the prize giving for the end of Jon's Pool League. I'll post a few photos soon. We had a braai late afternoon - a relaxing day.

xx

Friday again - yay!!!

Wow, I can't believe it's 11 days since I last posted anything on here. I had these photos ready to go on last weekend and somehow never got round to doing anything :o( I'll start out with a couple of photos from our garden. Jon has been doing a wonderful job of keeping the garden looking good and has really started enjoying his gardening. Dad and I sometimes tease him about being regimented but, to be honest, I like the neat borders and plants and love the flowers in the pots on the patio. Keep up the good work Jon! I love the roses on this rose bush, very delicate. We bought the plant just after Jon's mum died three years ago along with a little angel statue. Both remind us of her every day.

I bought these lillies with money given to me by Mum and dad for my birthday. They have been beautiful but are now nearly all open and won't be out much longer.

Charlie was having a roll on the patio and then stoped to see what I was doing ;o)

We had Mum and Dad over for a braai (bbq) as we've been having some lovely weather recently.

Emily wanted to show me the woods/fields near where we live. We went for a walk one afternoon and I took my camera with me - anyone surprised??!! Here are a few of the photos I took while we were out.

Another post coming soon

xx

Tyler

Tyler is my great nephew and he turned two in January. He had us all on our toes when he came round for the anniversary afternoon tea on Saturday. From the moment Tyler arrived he chatted away and had most of us wrapped round his little finger. I love this age when you know what they're trying to tell you. Makes life much easier! Tyler loves playing in the garden when he comes round and Saturday was no exception. This time he had something new to keep his attention - spiders! He found a spider and Kyle showed him that, if you touched it gently with a stick, it would move. Great fun!! When the spider disappeared, we were down looking for it. Tyler and Emily looking for the spider in the pebbles He decided digging in the pebbles would be the best way to find spiders - watch out anyone in the vicinity

Kyle showing Tyler inside the compost bin so he could see the insects/flies, etc., - lovely!!

And here Tyler's got Jon and Kyle looking at a spider.

When spiders weren't forthcoming kicking the ball around the garden was the next best thing and Kyle or I seemed to be the chosen playmates ;o)

He has a good eye for kicking the ball

Having a rest while Kyle plays

Hmm ..... what next??

Let's put Kyle in goal

... it's great fun when he falls over!

We love having you come to visit Tyler and look forward to the next time.

xxx

56 years

That’s how long my Mum and Dad have been married today! Congratulations!

Mum and Dad were both born in Scotland, where they met and married. They had five children and when Robin, the youngest, was just 8 months old, they said their goodbyes to their families and moved across the world to live in South Africa. A country they had never been to before and where they knew no one but thought it might provide a better life for their family. What a major undertaking and how many people would have been that brave?

Thank goodness they were! As children we virtually lived outside. I don’t remember playing with lots of toys, we didn’t need them because we could play in the garden and explore. We used to walk down the riverbed at the bottom of the garden; climbed trees; rode our bicycles to friends’ houses or around the neighbourhood and walked down slopes on rolling oil drums (yes we were on top of the oil drums keeping our balance) and the list could go on. I don’t know what our childhood would have been like if we’d stayed in Scotland. We would have had our extended family around us and got to know them better which would have been wonderful .... but I wouldn’t swap what we had instead for anything.

When Jon and I moved to England in 1991 with two small children, I got a taste of what Mum and Dad had gone through all those years ago and they got a taste of what their parents went through when they left Scotland with five of the grandchildren in 1965. It made me appreciate what they had done for us even more.

Mum and Dad came to visit us in the UK a few times before they made the decision to move back a few years later. They live close by, as do my brother and sister and their families, which allows us to get together to celebrate the birthdays, anniversaries and Christmases but we miss our family who are still in South Africa. Thank goodness for the internet (once again) and the ability to keep in touch more easily.

Mum and Dad, I hope you have had a wonderful day, I love you both and thank you for everything you have done for us – only 4 more years to your Diamond anniversary!

xx

First Vote

Today we cast our local election and European election votes and, for the first time, Claire was able to vote too! Our polling station was Chequer Mead, the local arts centre, and we arranged to meet Claire there in her lunch hour so that we could vote together. As I had taken a photo of Hugh when he went to cast his first vote, it was only right that I got a photo of Claire and Jon as she went to cast hers. The ballot paper for the local election had four choices and then the paper for the European elections had about 20 choices! Glad I knew who I wanted to vote for!! After we had voted we went walked over to Caffe Nero for a panini for lunch before Claire had to go back to work. Jon has just left to take a computer down to Michelle and Josh in Eastleigh, Hampshire. He will be staying overnight with them and making his way home tomorrow morning. It'll be good to get Michelle online as it makes it so much easier to keep in touch - hooray for the internet, what would we do without it now! xx

3 Years

Hugh and Sarah have been going out for 3 years and yesterday was their anniversary. I thought it would be a good excuse to take some photos and although Hugh didn't necessarily agree, I'm glad to say that Sarah was on my side. They were going out for dinner and agreed to me taking a few shots before they went out. They are such a lovely couple and both so photogenic.

Congratulations you two.

xx

Dinner out

It was my birthday last week but I didn't want to do much. During the day Emily and I met up with Mum, Dad and Kay for a coffee at Nero's. Coffee turned into 3 hours of sitting and chatting, with Claire and 2 of her friends joining us during her lunch hour. It was just what I wanted for the day. In the evening we went out for dinner at Prezzo with the "children" . Prezzo is one of my favourite restaurants and any excuse to go there is a good one! Needless to say we had to take a few photos while we were there to mark the occassion.

Jon and myself Claire and Craig

Emily and me

Hugh and Sarah

and again

Emily

Another birthday marked and now time to get on with the rest of the year :)

xx

Family visit

Jon's daugher, Michelle and grandson, Josh came to stay with us over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May. We hadn't seen them since January so it was great to have a chance to catch up and just spend some time together. The weather was lovely and we ended up braai-ing (bbq-ing) each evening, much to Josh's delight! There was time for some playing on the DS. There are times where we're all sitting there playing individual games and others when Michelle, Josh, Emily and Claire will link up and play a game together

Josh enjoyed being able to go outside with Jon and they spent a fair bit of time in the garden where Josh helped with watering the plants each evening. It was lovely to see them spending time together

Michelle was telling me that before they come for a visit Josh looks forward to seeing the dogs again. On this occassion I said I would take a photo of him with Wallace if he would let me take a photo of him with his Mum and Grandpa.

Michelle and Jon

Josh still wasn't so sure about posing and ended up being tickled ;o) Finally he agreed to stand behind so we could have a group shot.

Hopefully it won't be as long before we get the chance to spend some time together again.

xx