Micro Flower Arranging

Hovercraft and Nandos

I decided that it was now or never!  We had been wanting to go on the hovercraft for the whole year we have been living here, so finally we just went and did it.  It was great!  I love it when the cushion on the bottom inflates before you leave, and then how fast it is, absolutely amazing!

Cheryn's friend Blanka came with us, she is studying photography at school so she took these pictures of us.  

I am glad we did this.

Holiday to Wales

Greg and Judi are good friends of ours from South Africa.  They also graciously made space for all six of us, and we felt welcome and comfortable.  

Judi took us to the river near their house, there is a bank of pebbles on one side that the locals call the beach.  I want to come here in Summer so that we can kayak down the river and play in the rapids.  The kids rode bikes down, Cheryn walked with us.

 This is the back of Judi's house, I love the white walls and the wooden windows,

 Then they took us to the Big Pit Museum, no photos allowed inside because dry cell batteries can cause explosions inside the mine, no watches, car keys, phones, torches etc... It was great, we spent about an hour underground touring around the old coal mine.  Then you can go above ground and see the shower facilities for the miners (Wow, what a production line, it was massive!) also an automated walking tour of how the mining equipment improved over the years.  And all of this for free!!  Wales has more than 10 free museums.  What a great experience.

 Leaving the museum,

 Halloween pumpkins, Judi wanted to do one with a difference, we loved it!  She also grew this pumpkin in her garden.

 Cheryn, Rachel and I did our make up so that we could look like Twilight vampires, they are very pale and have 'bruise' colours under their eyes, and they sparkle in the sunlight.

 Judi's ward did a trunk or treat at the chapel, this was our trunk, there were some other ones that were great, but without the car park lights on (to add to the scary effect) my camera didn't take great pictures.  We had fun though and the kids got loads of sweets.

 Man, she really looks convincing in this photo, protect your necks everyone!

 We also went up into the hills near their house, this was the same place we went to when we were there last time.  It is beautiful there.

 I loved this.  I came into the lounge and said to Cheryn that she was spending too much time on the laptop, but when I got closer...

 She does love reading!

Thanks Greg and Judi for your hospitality and friendship, it was good being there.  We felt warm and welcome.  Hope it isn't as long next time before we see you again.

Holiday to Leeds

We arrived in Leeds on Thursday afternoon.  Malcolm and Tracy were great!  They made space for all six of us, we felt very welcome and comfortable.

We went to Almscliff Crag on Friday, it is a small outcropping of rock.  The kids had a great time climbing in all of the mini caves, tunnels and crevasses.  It was so super windy, we were thinking that someone was going to blow off!

 Totally leaning into the wind!

Do you know the muffin man?  We didn't see him...

 Playing on the wii, it's not as easy as you might think.  Adrienne is busy on the bow and arrow, she is really good at it.

 Dallin on Facebook, he has lots of friends.

 Chilling in the lounge, their fireplace is great, I spent most of my evenings warming my back up in front of it.  I love fireplaces!

 Many women's favourite,

 This was the whole gang at Brimmin Rocks.  This is a huge park with loads of rock outcroppings, it was amazing!  Loads of climbing, crawling, jumping and heart stopping drops - which thankfully no one fell down.

 Super girl,

 Granny missing sunny hot Durban?

 Pete's new hat, he looks so famerish in it, I love it.

Thanks again to the Bowes-Taylors, you guys were great, we felt so welcome, we slept comfortably and we ate well.  We will definitely come again.

We love you guys.