The rest of our holiday

Well it's been a while since I blogged - I guess I got too busy living in the real world, and I must say that was very nice for a while.

Let's see what's happened since last time... Christmas came and went and was a nice simple and relaxed family day. I did not write a family Christmas letter, or send cards to anyone but our immediate friends and family. What can I say I was just SLACK! So sorry if you were left out, I will try to be more Martha Stewart-esque this year. ;) (Note that it is unlikely so don't get your hopes up too much!), I also didn't do the obligatory retrospective 'The Year that was' blog. Tough!

I took 2 weeks off work. We spent most of the first week after Christmas relaxing at home and enjoying our home and neighbourhood. It is really nice to do that sometimes, as during the year home seems like just a place to sleep and we really don't get to enjoy it. I liked having time to relax and just BE in my own home. We went out and about a bit and visited town, the government gardens, where we caught tadpoles for our pond - but alas they died, so there are no frogs to eat our mozzies and other bugs in our garden. We also explored the Cape Town Castle a bit. The boys hadn't seen it before.

Exercise-wise I was pretty lazy. I went to gym twice and went for run/walks a few times, but nothing strenuous or serious. I just didn't feel like it, and I decided that was fine. My holiday was all about taking a break. I also ate what I wanted when I wanted. At times going a bit overboard though! Of course I now feel a bit unfit and out of shape, but I'm sure in a few weeks it won't have made much difference, so I am not too worried.

On New Years Eve we were very undecided about what to do. I wanted to go to the Vortex/Alien Safari 3 day event (yes the semi trance bunny in me is still alive), The 5 FM Savanna Party or the Tiger Tiger event, but all would have been sans kids, and we never made a firm decision. Then we had half a plan with Richard's sister and family. At the last minute we decided to go through to our good friends in Kommetjie. They were hosting a house party. We ended up having a lovely time there, and seeing many friends we haven't seen for quite some time. A friend from Quinn's school showed up next door and ended up coming over as he was stuck with a group of boring adults, and our group of many kids and adults behaving like children looked MUCH more fun, and it was. (When I took him back at 1am they were sitting silently around a table. Weird.)

We all took drinks and snacks and various food items and ended up having quite a feast. We revelled the night away pausing at 12am to all strip and jump into the swimming pool. Picture around 15 'adults' of all shapes and sizes, tipsy and giggling trying to undress and leap into the pool discreetly as the clock struck mid-night! All the kids were still awake (3-7 year olds) and they just thought that we had all lost our minds. The visiting child was still there and I had visions of his civilised and responsible people coming to collecting him and finding our debaucherous selves sullying the children's minds as to what grown-ups get up to late at night! Still it was fun, if not frikking freezing! It was a very cold night and we didn't stay in very long. Still it got us hyped and vibey and the dancing started after that. The boys finally went to bed in their tent in the garden some time around 1:30am.

I finally threw in the towel (so to speak) at 5:30am and decided some sleep was required. At least 4 people decided to just stay up all night. Loco!

The next morning we mooched around before we mustered up the energy to get into the already packed car and drive the 5-10km to our camp site where we were going to be camping for a few nights. We went to our regular tried and tested local camp site which we love. Richard and I celebrated our 9th (!!!) anniversary, and Quinn turned 7 while we were there. It was relaxing and fun. We lay in the sun, read books, chatted, snacked, played, walked around, braaied and just had a jolly good time. The best parts were the bottle of JC Le Roux La Chanson in the afternoon and the fire roasted marshmallows stuffed with chocolate (my own invention) after dinner. OMG YUM!!!

We also took Quinn to the local mall and let him get a henna tattoo for his birthday. He loves it. He also found a scary biker-type transfer tattoo which he put on his chest and had several other spider transfers from a party, so he looks like a rabble rouser!

We took a walk to the Noordhoek Farm Village on the morning of Quinn's birthday where we had a delicious and decadent breakfast.

Then it was back home and off to Ratanga Junction for the whole of the next day. I went on 3 rides with the boys (Monkey Falls, Bushwacker and Star Gazer) and oh my, although they were fun I was petrified! I would not cope with the major adult rides like the Cobra and Conga Queen or Diamond Devil. I saw my life flashing before me and had visions of the rides malfunctioning on my turn. The boys were terrified too, but did enjoy them. After the Bush Wacker they were saying 'That was frikkin Scary!' and 'That was AWESOME' alternately. They were having so much fun and were so excited about trying rides that for possibly the first time ever I had to drag them off to eat. They were getting tired and ratty but didn't even know they were hungry (these kids normally want to eat first!), it was really funny. We were there all the way from 10am when the gates open, to after 4:30pm. The place closes at5pm, so almost the full day.

On Saturday we met up with Richard's sister and family finally, and had a lovely afternoon with them. The boys ended up going home with them to spend the night, so we went off to see a movie 'The Holiday'. It was ok, but nothing memorable.

On Sunday my plans of getting up early and going for a run were thwarted by me totally oversleeping (no boys to wake me up) and I only woke up at 9:30am and then we stayed in bed er 'drinking coffee' and finally got up at 10:15. We had to be at a Wedding by 11!

There was much scurrying around to get showered and dressed and write out a card, do nails etc etc, oh and find out where the hell the wedding actually was - all the way over in Parow. Yikes!

It was a Moslem colleague's wedding. We finally arrived at the hall at 11:25. Luckily we were not too late as the group from the Mosque were only just arriving as we got there. The wedding was HUGE and elaborate. They had 12+ people in the wedding party all with stunning dresses, including a fully dressed mini bride and groom of about 3 years old. Although I have no idea what the point of that was. The bride looked awesome in a huge full dress. She is tiny so it looked very spectacular with her impossibly minute waist. She looked very formal and demure throughout, but I noticed many of the Moslem women kept straight faces for the photos, so I am assuming that's the way it is done? There were 800 guests!!! I don't even want to know how much that cost, although I guess they save a LOT by not having alcohol.

It was an interesting cultural experience. With the Koran readings and chanting etc. Although for the first part of the chanting it felt exotic and Moroccan, but then he started wailing and all I could think of was Peter Sellers in the beginning of 'The Party'. I had to be careful not to burst out laughing. Only about 12 of the 800 people were non-Moslem! We saw one woman at the table behind us clad in full burkha, with the tiniest slit for her eyes and she was wearing glasses, so she was hardly there at all. I watched her eating and she has to take a small handful of food and then use the other hand to lift a flap of fabric to slip her food hand in so she can eat. It doesn't look very enjoyable to me at all!

After collecting the boys and going home for an evening cuddling on the couch, our holiday was over and I am back at work today. :/

Various pics are on flickr.

Happy 2007 everyone.