It was my birthday this past weekend. Normally, this would mean very little to me but this year for some odd reason I felt like doing things a little differently. Nothing fancy, just a couple of mates around to my place; Cape Town style!
Life has been pretty busy and so my wife and I did not get around to inviting anyone until last week. Almost so late that it was probably better to abandon the project. But I had inkling that I would be hungry anyway, so we went ahead!
The evening was magnificent, as only the weather can be on days in February. The swimming pool was crowded with children and men modelling some usually unseen tattoos and hairy legs. The trampoline was pushed to its limits, the half pipe shared many of its splinters, and the soccer table drew great crowds as young and old plotted, dribbled, and scored together.
My custom made steel plate sizzled in anticipation of the wild mixtures of tandori chicken, chopped vegetables, sesame oil, soya and sweet and sour sauces to come. I opened the cooking festivities with an interesting creation for my wife. Her approval meant that I had cracked it on the first go and heaps of chillies would make my next attempt awesome; and hot as it turned out! Interestingly enough, not a soul blamed the chef for a mediocre meal!
There were no tables or chairs and forks were optional, although they stopped fingers from being burnt! Everyone lazed around on the back lawn on blankets and cushions, with my coffee table taking pride of place in the midst of it all.
I was spoilt by everyone simply by them being there, as well as a couple of well thought out presents! It was a wonderful evening and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact I would have to class it as the best birthday celebration that I can remember. There is something very special about being blessed with an amazing circle of friends.
And I realised how important a birthday celebration is; perhaps this is something I will do every year!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
An update of sorts
I keep making excuses and today that just had to stop. I am determined to post a blog. This very blog you happen to be reading is the fruit of weeks of useless procrastination...
I have decided it will be an update blog! The highlights of my life, as exciting as they are...
I was recently invited to guest blog on somebody else’s site. A pretty big honour and so followed through with a couple of words on fatherhood. Check it out here http://gillianhefer.blogspot.com/ (the Monday 15 February post).
My daughter is growing in leaps and bounds and starting to become her own real little person. The other night she woke up just once; it was like six Christmas’s and my birthday all rolled into one. Tell you the truth, I have found it a serious challenge to work my day away and wake up continuously at night, and then repeat the cycle for nights on end. The prospect that it may soon become manageable again, fills me with much latent excitement!
Luke has spent two Saturdays recently at the beach trying to surf his way into the Boland Grommet surfing team as an under 10. That of course means that daddy also has to spend his days on the beach. As an 8 year old, he also gets to have a ‘caddy’ in the water. I thoroughly enjoy being his caddy as it gives us some wonderful bonding time together. Of course it does mean that I get a couple of intense aqua aerobic sessions as I charge from the beach to backline and then back to the beach to collect Luke and repeat as many times as possible in 20 minutes. This past Saturday, he caught some awesome waves and surfed them so well, I could see his manoeuvres from well behind the wave. I was exhilarated! So far he has come second in both trials and made me exceptionally proud.
Matt on the other hand has started to become the most helpful kid on the block. He is into everything from cleaning the dishes to helping with dinner preparations. He has also started to skate on the halfpipe and doing very nicely at that! He is enjoying the social side of school a little too much and causing his fair share of chaos over there!
And then there is my good wife. She is back to gym twice a week and thoroughly enjoying it. The fact that she now fits back into clothes from before Matthews birth has made her smile for weeks Regardless, I think she is beautiful and wonderful, no matter what clothes she fits into
Tweety is doing well. Her electrics are 75% complete. I have also ordered the last remaining parts from the good old US of A. My latest discovery is that unless you are customising your Golf with luminous lights, skeleton shaped gear levers, or nitro conversions, you are not going to find the after-market parts for your car. Hence my need to ask the people over the sea to send some decent stuff over here! There is no way that I could expect Tweety to wear common stuff, only the best will be good enough!! Once they arrive in the next week or so, it should only take a week to finish her off and another week to touch up the paint work. After more than a year of anticipation, I am a little jaded by this project. But just maybe, it will come to be soon!
On the work front, things have gone bananas. I have been giving it horns since the beginning of December and the diary is full till the end of March. As a consultant in my own business, it could not be better! Apart from the fact that I have had to cancel a couple of my Monday morning surf sessions...
And then my ‘Fix a House’ project, where I aim to go and fix roofs and walls of some sick and infirm peoples’ shacks in Sir Lowry’s Village has amassed just more than R42,000. Yeha!!! Now I just need to find some time to spend it and do some good in this poor community.
And that’s just the fun stuff...
I have decided it will be an update blog! The highlights of my life, as exciting as they are...
I was recently invited to guest blog on somebody else’s site. A pretty big honour and so followed through with a couple of words on fatherhood. Check it out here http://gillianhefer.blogspot.com/ (the Monday 15 February post).
My daughter is growing in leaps and bounds and starting to become her own real little person. The other night she woke up just once; it was like six Christmas’s and my birthday all rolled into one. Tell you the truth, I have found it a serious challenge to work my day away and wake up continuously at night, and then repeat the cycle for nights on end. The prospect that it may soon become manageable again, fills me with much latent excitement!
Luke has spent two Saturdays recently at the beach trying to surf his way into the Boland Grommet surfing team as an under 10. That of course means that daddy also has to spend his days on the beach. As an 8 year old, he also gets to have a ‘caddy’ in the water. I thoroughly enjoy being his caddy as it gives us some wonderful bonding time together. Of course it does mean that I get a couple of intense aqua aerobic sessions as I charge from the beach to backline and then back to the beach to collect Luke and repeat as many times as possible in 20 minutes. This past Saturday, he caught some awesome waves and surfed them so well, I could see his manoeuvres from well behind the wave. I was exhilarated! So far he has come second in both trials and made me exceptionally proud.
Matt on the other hand has started to become the most helpful kid on the block. He is into everything from cleaning the dishes to helping with dinner preparations. He has also started to skate on the halfpipe and doing very nicely at that! He is enjoying the social side of school a little too much and causing his fair share of chaos over there!
And then there is my good wife. She is back to gym twice a week and thoroughly enjoying it. The fact that she now fits back into clothes from before Matthews birth has made her smile for weeks Regardless, I think she is beautiful and wonderful, no matter what clothes she fits into
Tweety is doing well. Her electrics are 75% complete. I have also ordered the last remaining parts from the good old US of A. My latest discovery is that unless you are customising your Golf with luminous lights, skeleton shaped gear levers, or nitro conversions, you are not going to find the after-market parts for your car. Hence my need to ask the people over the sea to send some decent stuff over here! There is no way that I could expect Tweety to wear common stuff, only the best will be good enough!! Once they arrive in the next week or so, it should only take a week to finish her off and another week to touch up the paint work. After more than a year of anticipation, I am a little jaded by this project. But just maybe, it will come to be soon!
On the work front, things have gone bananas. I have been giving it horns since the beginning of December and the diary is full till the end of March. As a consultant in my own business, it could not be better! Apart from the fact that I have had to cancel a couple of my Monday morning surf sessions...
And then my ‘Fix a House’ project, where I aim to go and fix roofs and walls of some sick and infirm peoples’ shacks in Sir Lowry’s Village has amassed just more than R42,000. Yeha!!! Now I just need to find some time to spend it and do some good in this poor community.
And that’s just the fun stuff...
Monday, February 8, 2010
Busy, busy, busy
I took last week off. Yes, a whole week of rest and relaxation together with me, myself and I.
Instead I found myself engrossed in all sorts of things, from photographing a wine tasting to detailed financial modelling of my business. There were also plenty of meetings and action items that required attention. None of which brings in an income and hence none of which can be considered work. I have now relabelled my week as admin week as it certainly did not resemble leave! One can do these things when it is your own business!!
Admin week kept me so busy that I did not even get to blog. To remedy this terrible situation, I thought I would take this week off, but unfortunately it has now been filled up with more stuff.
One of the things I will be doing this week is a talk to a number of post school students who are unsure about their futures. For some reason I have been invited to talk on entrepreneurship. I personally am not sure that I resemble an entrepreneur but I do have a heap of ideas and am willing to share. I actually have an incredibly fun session planned as the very topic gives me freedom to go mad. At the very least, a chocolate cake and a DVD of Braveheart will be making an appearance!
Then there a possible two days of work on a short project as a new potential client looks to evaluate my abilities. That should also be fun, as there is nothing quite like pitting one’s mind against a complex problem in order to come up with a solution in a short space of time.
I also have a photo shoot planned with our char and her family. A fun run on the weekend should prove, well fun. Then Luke has more surfing trials for which I need to get involved as his caddy! And then there is a desire to learn some elementary Portuguese in preparation for a trip I have coming up. If I am really good, I will also include a whole lot of surfing, more exciting admin, and perhaps some more work.
This ‘busy’ stuff of mine keeps me busy for all of the right reasons. Yet, very little of it includes time with my family. A lesson I keep having to relearn is that it is more important for me to be a brilliant dad than brilliant in the eyes of everyone else.
I hate letting people down, so if I am to be successful at this dad thing, then I have to do just that or ensure that people’s expectations are well managed. I could of course just say no, but that is not a word I like to use too often...
Instead I found myself engrossed in all sorts of things, from photographing a wine tasting to detailed financial modelling of my business. There were also plenty of meetings and action items that required attention. None of which brings in an income and hence none of which can be considered work. I have now relabelled my week as admin week as it certainly did not resemble leave! One can do these things when it is your own business!!
Admin week kept me so busy that I did not even get to blog. To remedy this terrible situation, I thought I would take this week off, but unfortunately it has now been filled up with more stuff.
One of the things I will be doing this week is a talk to a number of post school students who are unsure about their futures. For some reason I have been invited to talk on entrepreneurship. I personally am not sure that I resemble an entrepreneur but I do have a heap of ideas and am willing to share. I actually have an incredibly fun session planned as the very topic gives me freedom to go mad. At the very least, a chocolate cake and a DVD of Braveheart will be making an appearance!
Then there a possible two days of work on a short project as a new potential client looks to evaluate my abilities. That should also be fun, as there is nothing quite like pitting one’s mind against a complex problem in order to come up with a solution in a short space of time.
I also have a photo shoot planned with our char and her family. A fun run on the weekend should prove, well fun. Then Luke has more surfing trials for which I need to get involved as his caddy! And then there is a desire to learn some elementary Portuguese in preparation for a trip I have coming up. If I am really good, I will also include a whole lot of surfing, more exciting admin, and perhaps some more work.
This ‘busy’ stuff of mine keeps me busy for all of the right reasons. Yet, very little of it includes time with my family. A lesson I keep having to relearn is that it is more important for me to be a brilliant dad than brilliant in the eyes of everyone else.
I hate letting people down, so if I am to be successful at this dad thing, then I have to do just that or ensure that people’s expectations are well managed. I could of course just say no, but that is not a word I like to use too often...
Monday, February 1, 2010
Cruising Cape Town
There can be no doubt that I live in a beautiful part of the world!
Friday night saw my wife and I dump the children at the neighbours and head off to the Cape Town harbour. There we boarded a motor yacht for a sunset cruise in celebration of my cousin’s birthday. This certainly was a birthday celebrated in style!
It was too terrible to behold. Table Mountain, Signal Hill, the new Green Point stadium, and all of Clifton’s beaches spread before us in all their incredible beauty. Sunset came and went and was absolutely delicious!
For Donna and I, it was magical time spent together. Time sans children seems to be so much more relaxed and calm. After dinner at sea and great conversation with family, it was time to head home and relieve our wonderful neighbours of our offspring. Only little Isabella came home with us, as the boys were peacefully sleeping their night out away.
A lovely Friday evening indeed!
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