We are engaged!

For a while I was planning to pop the question but was not sure when the occasion would present itself.
Thought of doing it with by birthday party but decided against it since it would be a bit too obvious and we were already celebrating. I new the anniversary of Ursula and my first meeting were coming up and it started to make more and more sense.
These days Ursula is working till 19h00 at night so I prepared dinner to be ready when she gets home. After work a quick trip to the supermarket was all that needed to be done to get all the supplies. I prepared chicken and potatoes in the oven and steamed some veggies.
Ursula arrived and I sent her to enjoy the bath with bubble bath I ran for her.

As we sat down for dinner I took the sparking wine from the fridge and reminded her that it is the anniversary of the day three years ago when we first met. It was good to remains about Taiwan and the good times we had since.
Ursula felt bad that se did not remember the date, but I told her that it is easy to remember since it is also the shortest day, and the longest night for us here in the southern hemisphere.
At the opportune moment I took her hand and told her that I have another way to remember the day, and asked her I she would like to get married…..

Ursula was caught off guard and between the laughter and the tears I was able to make out a YES.

We don’t have a ring yet and we will try and resolve a wedding date also in the near future, don’t want to drag these things out, looking forward to a good party.

We struggled to keep our mouths shut until we got permission from our parents.

The weekend I asked my dad, and before I asked he already told me he knew what I’m going to ask.
Ursula’s mom also was very happy for us and immediately gave her blessing, so it’s official now,

We are engaged!

Father's Day

The preparation for father’s day is always a day earlier. Helgard decided that he wanted to give his father a photo frame with special pictures of the family. I’m going to use the same photos to draw a family tree.

Jerry Ross with Ina-Marie

Helgard with Ursula & Leonard with Munda

Father’s day is a family day, so we spent the day with the Ross family. Munda cooked a real Sunday lunch and we were responsible for dessert.

Helgards’ dad like strawberries so strawberry cheesecake was made Saturday evening. Helgard did the shopping so I had to mix the ingredients. I always thought that cheesecake is difficult to make but “Top 500 Winning recipes” made the mixing easy. Sunday morning Helgard had to help with the gelatin and strawberries that had to be put on the cake. The cake was a little sour but looked nice, whish we took a picture.

Vasity Bakery Fish and Chips

I’m like a real fish shop owner, writing on the brown fish wrapping paper. Monday 11th July was the opening day of Varsity Bakery Fish and Chips. The shop is situated on Lynnwood road close to a well-known bakery –Varsity Bakery. Allan the shop owner of Varsity Bakery and myself are running the business together.

Business on the first day was slow but the opening party with champagne that Helgard organized after closing time made my day.

Tuesday the sales target was reached. I thought it is going to be easy to run the shop. Wednesday the third day I realized that one have to work to get sales. The what, when, how questions to get the sales up are not answered yet, but I will get there...I hope soon.

Please don’t hesitate to phone to place and order – ha-ha-ha

More photos here

Helgard turns 39

This year I decided to have a proper birthday party, since it is the last year I can say I'm in my thirties. Well you need an excuse for a party, even if it is a lame one. Ursula's mother (Ann) volunteered her house so everything was very convenient for us. Adriaan also had an excellent idea to buy outdoor speakers and we hooked it to his amplifier. We used a iTunes play list on my laptop to play music through the evening.

Wilhelm gave me advice on where to buy the sheep and how to organize the braai, he also volenteered to be the chief braaier.

The plan was to put a sheep on a braai and stand around with a beer in the hand and wait until it is done.

I realized that I'm getting old, when the younger party goers did not appreciate my music selection and started playing there own CD's,... fortunately I still like their music.

Midway through the afternoon Ursula served home baked bread, which went down very fast. By 18:30 the sheep was done and the feast started. My father asked blessing for the food but mixed it a bit up with his speech, which was quite funny in a weard way.

It was really good to see my friends together having a good time, some enjoyed it it a bit too much and paid dearly for it on Sunday. Eddy was nursing blisters on his fingers for playing with the fire. Wilhelm had a chest full of palm tree needles that was a bit uncomfortable. Ine-Marie and Munda had burnt boots. Francois had to go back home to get his cool bag....nothing funny there, but he does not drink! Why does he need a cool bag? Heidi only moved 2 meter the whole afternoon and evening. Rudolph was the self appointed shooters-mixer-chief, with tequila and wit-blits as his weapons. Kath was his victim. Mel spent Sunday in bed apparently with 24hour virus. Charmaine also had a virus on Sunday but this was a real one. Adriaan built fires that burnt till Wednesday. Gert was the photographer but I believe he is not sharing all the photos with us. Andorette joined in the spirit very enthusiastically. Eddie dropped the shooter just in time. Rudi found that it took only one and a half hours to get home with the Porsche, his pickup normally does it in two and a bit.

Compliments must go to Ursula for running around and seeing to it that the food was perfect throughout the evening. Ed saw that we were going to run out of wood and volenteered his stash, thanks Ed. Wilhelm was a star braaier, thanks for Adriaan and Ann that cleaned up when we left.

Dont know what Im going to do next year to top it, any suggestions?

More photos here

Ezemvelo Nature Reserve

In the July issue of Weg / Go! magazine the Ezemvelo Nature Reserve was discuss as the Nature Reserve of the month. The reserve is 20km gravel road outside Bronkhorstespruit. So Ezemvelo was an ideal Sunday day trip for Helgard, myself en Gert.

According to the brochure that one receives when entering the 10-000ha reserve, the reserve is naturally divided into grasslands and wetlands. We were visiting the reserve in June so the wetlands was dry, but Helgard and Gert did some birdwatching instead.

The grasslands made it easy to see Kudu’s, Waterbucks, Blesbucks, Zebra’s, Warthog, Black Wildebeest and Blue Wildebeest. We were able to take pictures of black and Blue Wildebeest to highlight the differences between the two species.

Look at the tail and main, the Black Wildebeest has a tail and main like a horse. This is something we did not know, thanks for the Weg/Go! magazine that gave us the clue.




There are varies activities to do, but we spent the day laughing and eating boerewors rolls under trees near the river.



Helgard and Gert could take some nice pictures as we were driving out and the sun was setting.



If you stay close to Pretoria visit the website www.ezemvelo.co.za and do this for a day trip.

More photos here

Tuesday Evenings

Kath contributed to this post.

Every Tuesday evening, Rudy, Gert and I head over to Helgard and Ursula'€™s for a home cooked meal and a couple of laughs. It'€™s always good company with either Ursula blushing or Rudy being so shocked that for once in his life he'€™s silent. Ursula'€™s cooking is always superb and we come away feeling sated and filled with good food, wine and friendship.

Cycling on Saturday morning

Kath's contribution:

Ursula, Helgard and I braved the early winter morning to get our allocated exercise for the day. We joined a local cycling club and went "off-roading€" for about two or three hours. Ursula got a little fed-up because everyone was cycling slowly, which suited Helgard and I down to the ground. (Not all of us get up at the crack of mosies to push our bodies in a run ! ) But it was relaxing, "off-roading€" next to the tar road and sweating on the uphills on the return home.

More photos here

Rugby! Super14 final

We am from a Afrikaans area and rugby is part of the Afrikaans tradition, although it is a English game, very confusing. We support the Blue Bulls, and have to apologize for being rude and not writing in English.

“Die Blou-Bul eet nie van die vloer af nie, die Blou Bul ken nie van verloor af nie, nou vrae ek jou vir wie jy skree...”

Ons het die game in die Barnyard in Menlyn saam met vriende gaan kyk, ek kan onthou hoe ek vir Helgard gesê het dat hierdie game “memories” van eksamen se “nervousheid” terug bring.

Ons het al die eet en drinkgoed reggehad en ons was gereed vir 'n goeie game. Die wedsyryd was taai en baie gelykop. Die snaakste was toe Adriaan vir die Sharks begin skree het heel aan die einde omdat hy nie gedink het die Bulls kan meer wen nie.

Skielik is almal op hul voete en die geraas in die Barnyard was oorverdowend. Habana jou doring!

Lees meer oor wat regtig gebeur het op Supersport website.
Hier, hier en hier.

Kevin Leo

On the 15th of April our Sunday afternoon was spend listening to Kevin Leo in the garden of Gert and Ina van der Berg. They have a huge stand in Fairlands in Randburg with a beautiful garden and even a stream in the lower part of the garden.

They decided to share the beauty of their garden and the music of Kevin Leo with friends, family and members of their church. We packed a picnic basket with food and wine and shared it with my dad an Ine-Marie. Midway through the performance it started to drip and we had to hide under our blanket, but Kevin wasn't perturbed.



Kevin'€™s music really impressed Ursula, so she Googled him and found the following:

He was born in Rustenburg, he got a lot of awards for singing during his school days. Nine years ago he decided to make singing his career, today he is known as South Africa'€™s Botcelli. He enjoys having his family with him when he performs.

We recommend his shows.

More photos here