Easter Week-end

My Easter week end has been kind of blah, but there have been some nice bits.

On Friday we went off to stay with a friend of a friend on his farm in Scarborough. We were there for a braai, to camp over night and to ride horses. There were 6 kids, 8 dogs, 7 adults, 4 cats, 5 horses and several million flies there...

The braai-ing attempts were rather hampered by the seriously gale-force winds, and after getting the food cooked we huddled inside to eat it and then all decided to go to bed at 21:30 as the constant and howling and swirling wind was simply exhausting.

We abandoned the idea of sleeping in our tent when after getting the tent pitched it stayed pretty much flattened against the ground in the wind. So we slept on the floor of the house instead. I was battling with hay-fever from well, hay, and the assortment of animals milling around, so I had actually been quite keen to seek refuge in the tent, but it was not to be. I did survive the night albeit sniffling and wheezing and we woke to a much calmer and lovely morning.

We went down to feed the horses and let the kids have a ride. There are 4 horses and one pony. We took Patch the pony and Annie the horse out and all the kids had a turn to ride both. They did so well that even I decided to take a turn. And I am not a horse person AT ALL.

More Pics here.

After that we had a scrumptious farm breakfast of strong coffee, bacon & egg rolls and hot cross buns. Delicious!

We decided to go home instead of staying another night. So we were back in time to see the Bangladesh World Cup Match, which SUCKED!

Yesterday was of course Easter Sunday, and well we are not religious we do believe in chocolate ;) Our Easter bunny is rather tardy/lazy though and never gets to our house very early. This year it strangely waited for me to come back from a quick run before appearing at about 10am. Quinn is well past believing in any of these things any more, but is more than happy to go along with it all. Hell, who wouldn't!? I mean copious amounts of free chocolate, not many people would decline THAT.
More Easter Hunt pics here.

I had been trying in vain to do some volunteer doula-ing since Thursday. I tried the Mowbray Maternity Hospital, Groote Schuur, The Retreat Midwife Obstetrics Unit you name it. all my attempts were thwarted either by bureaucracy (most of the time) or no one in labour at the time (occasionally) or no one without a partner and the policy of only allowing ONE partner. Yesterday I was told by the labour ward nurses at Mowbray Maternity Hospital that yes they were very busy and would LOVE some help, only to be turned away at the labour ward entrance after rushing there to be told I couldn't go in because I didn't have express permission from the chief superintendent. ARRRGH. It's terribly frustrating knowing that there are so many very young, scared, uneducated, uninformed moms being left to birth alone, and who really need help, and just not being able to get to them. It kills me.

So after being so excited I had to come home all despondent 20 minutes later.... :( *sulk* It's like I only have access to mom's that don't REALLY need me. Even though I could help the affluent private sector moms, and they could certainly PAY for me, which would be nice, I am almost more inclined to want to help on a volunteer basis where I can really make a difference. KWIM?
Anyway that SUCKED.

So I came home, gardened for a bit and then took the boys to play cricket. Then we went to fetch Griffin's friend to come sleep over.

Today Richard's sister and family came over for lunch. They spoiled us as usual. Ferrero Roche chockies and Pierre Jordan sparkling wine etc! :) It was great to see them. Unfortunately Richard's dad is not well. He has Alzheimers and just had double bypass surgery, so he is going to need some nursing care etc. We will need to figure out how to sort it all out.

Tomorrow is back to work. Blah!