Catch-up

Well it's been a while since my last confession, I mean since I last posted, so here's a bit of a catch-up...

I had a bit of a bad week last week, emotion-wise. A lot happened and it culminated in a migraine from hell, warning me that all was not right. Seriously I need to disown/renounce whatever a person in my family (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!). this person brings me no good at all, and has just added a huge amount of grief and issues to my life. I do need it to stop now!!! Right moving on, now that I am able to...

Quinn had his Big Swim at school I was able to sneak some time off work to go watch, and to help officiate. he did well, although he had his snorkelling gear and tired himself out a bit by swimming along the bottom of the pool a lot of the time, instead of staying on the surface and breathing. It was fun to watch though. I missed it last year.
Richard was back from his tri-country trip to Italy-UK-Belguim last week Friday. He got in at 11pm, after being delayed a full day due to some KLM strike etc. He was registered to do the Argus Cycle Tour (along with 35 000 other people including Lindy), but after really not training at all (unless 2-3 20 minute cruises and one long ride 9 months ago qualifies?) and having been travelling with quite a few flights in just 2 weeks I didn't think he'd be up to it. But he was still keen. He went for a ride at 11:30pm on Friday night (just an hour after a major trans-continental flight). He came back in 15mins - flat tyre! LOL.

On Sat he finally went to register at about 12:30pm. After a few hours he came back with a new tube, and settled in to watch rugby, only to find that the tube was wrong. By which time almost all cycle shops were closed.

I asked him what he was going to do, and he said 'I'll get one at the start...' !!! The planner in me was freaking out. I told him he had to go get one right then and there, at 8pm, so I packed him off the City Cycles in Canal Walk. he came back after 9pm and then decided maybe he should actually get ready. So he sewed his number on the front of his shirt. Then read that it needed to be on the back! etc etc. I did manage to get him to eat a small bowl of spaghetti. It felt like a mandatory thing to do...

On Sunday we put him on the train at Rondebosch station 9am. He started somewhere close to 11am. We saw him at 11:20 or so, about 8km into the race going up Edinburgh Drive. Looking fine.
We chased him to Constantia - missed him. Chased to the end of the M3 in Muizenberg missed him again. So we gave up and went on our way.
We heard from friends at about 14:30 that he'd just left them at Imhoff's Gift after getting a beer over the wall from them. He finished close to 17:00, and said he only got off to walk once, up Suikerbossie - the last long and mean hill at almost 100km in.. He did it in 5:58mins officially, but he said he actually finished about 5 mins earlier, but stopped before the timing line, not realising you had to go past that point...

Honestly I can't believe he finished, and is already keen to do it again next year! Damn he is fit, and without even trying! *mutter* *mutter* I am impressed! Well done :)
This last week end went by in a blur of blah-ness. There was one interesting part where I went for a run/walk and wanted to cut through Rondebosch Boys' High to meet Quinn at cubs. I found the school gate closed at the bottom of the fields, and instead of turning back and going around the long way (like a normal person would) I decided to keep trying to get to where I wanted to go. I considered balancing on a pipe over the canal, but it was wrapped in razor wire and that guaranteed that I would fall of and shred myself, so I quickly abandoned that idea. Instead I scaled a fence, to get further along the canal in the hopes that I'd find a non-razor wire garbed pipe or something. After scaling said fence and jumping over a section of razor wire on the other side (wouldn't a normal person realise this meant they DIDN'T want people climbing on and fiddling with it?) I realised I was trapped in an enclosure. Fence with razor wire the direction I had come from, deep canal on one sire and 8 foot steel fencing on the 2 other sides. Er. Oops.

I looked around and found a homeless man sitting on a chair, settling in for the evening. There wasn't much I could do so I walked up to him and said, 'Um, excuse me how do you get out of here?' he was quite astounded at seeing me and just said, 'How did you get IN here??' When I told him, he said I'd have to use his ladder to get out. So I used his ladder to climb up the 8 foot steel fence and jumped down the other side... all in a days work for me. LOL ;)

I got to cubs (still alive YAY) to find that they'd made fires and were cooking 'stok brood' wow that brings back memories! (stok brood = stick bread = bread dough twirled around a stick and cooked over a fire.)

I needed some time out over the week-end (due to said emotional state) and I went to see Marie Antoinette, with Kirsten Dunst. I thought it was well done.

On Saturday afternoon Griffin had his school's Sports Day. It was kind of fun, but I still don;t understand why the school insists on holding all events on their postage stamp sized patch of lawn. it would make so much more sense to use a nearby field... *shrug* Still I did my duty supporting the school and bought and ate too many doughnuts :)

Richard left again on Sunday (before the sparrows started farting) and is now in Abuja, Nigeria. I don;t know why, but it's some work thing involving several African presidents, and presumably with something to do with Education ...

At a more sane hour on Sunday the boys and I got up and went to the Newlands Fire Base, where we joined the Cubs group for a Fire Base talk by the Fire Chief. It was really interesting and we got to see the Fire Fighting Helicopters too.
After that we went for a nice long walk in Newlands Forest.
My Birth Arts doula course book arrived, so I started reading that and doing the required Activities. it looks like it will be fun...