PS2 & GT4

It is all Manie's fault, he started it! The idea was to have a 9 hour endurance race on the Playstation. A couple of guys would come together and we will drive in teams against each other. Well we needed another Playstation, steering wheel and a racing seat. I reckoned that since we will use the PS2 there must be a lot of them available secondhand since the PS3 is out
Started to scan the JunkMail and found a racing seat, PS2 slimline with LAN connection and steering wheel for a very attractive price. The racing seat was uncomfortable and flimsy, so Manie helped and we cut it up with an angle grinder and modified and welded everything together, so that it would be a real slick seat.

The steering wheel turned out to be useless, so it was back to the Junk Mail and I found one the same week. Now we have everything we need, except skill. I practiced a couple of hours on the circuit we would use, but I'm not as good as I would like to be. The practice times are also a bit limited because Ursula cant understand why I would want to spend my time in front of the TV.

Initially we thought the two teams would be able to ride on the same track, against each other with the PS2's connected via a LAN cable. Unfortunately it is not possible in GT4, looks like a 50 lap race is the longest that is possible. So we decided that we will start together and the team with the most laps after 9 hours would of cause win.

We started at 8:00 and changed drivers each time we went into the pits. We kept track of lap times on the laptop and things got quite serious. Ursula and Machtild hand snacks to keep the drivers doing.

The race was pretty even but our team (Me, Marius and Felix) just wasn't fast enough to beat Manie's team. (Manie, Dawie, Tjaart,Frik)

The race had to be abandoned after 8 hours due to rugby on TV, but it was great fun and we would definitely do it again.

More photos here

Lerinda Foneintjies Concert

For the past few months every time that we saw the Ross family or Larinda she had to sing "Tell me what you want, want you really-really want……" from The Spice Girls. Every time that Lerinda sang the song I was amassed by the fact that a young girl/lady of 6 could keep up with this really fast rhyme of the song. I could see that she really-really enjoyed the song.

Lerinda invited Helgard and myself to her kindergarten concert and graduation. Munda (Larinda's mum) organized seats for the family in the second row from the hall, we had a good view and Helgard could take a lot of pictures.

Lerinda looked so cute with the curly hair and costume jewelry. While on stage, Mariska try to show Larinda that her earring is going to fall of her ear. Lerinda could understand something about the ear ring but the left and right confused hear. She gave the audience a good laugh when she answered that she wants to be a jet-setter when she is she is a grown up.

The kindergarten concert was a TV show and the school principle was the presenter.
The were a few funny characters

At a kiddies show so many things are happening at the same time, and when one laughs, you forget everything. I can't remember a lot because I was laughing too much.
I can remember the little boy (about 3years old) that was singing louder than the CD that was playing.

Then there was the song "Getoor". The little boy with his spiky gelled hair moved his head while the 3 witches were busy dancing with their brooms.

At last Lerinda was dressed in silver with a lot of glitter for her Spice Girls.

More photos here

Clay Target Shooting

Circumstances has forced my brother to consider emigrating to New Zeeland. He is on is way to hack out a new life for him and his family. It is a real sad time for me and my Dad since New Zeeland is 11 hours out of phase with South Africa, which puts it on the other side of the globe. Well at least it is also in the Southern hemisphere so the seasons are the same.

The fact of the matter is that we are not going to see my brother and his family so often any more.

I wanted to do something memorable that the three of us can remember for a while. Quite by chance I bumped into a friend that suggested clay target shooting as something to do together. I organized it and the club was able to accommodate me on quite short notice, highly appreciated.

Clay target shooting is not as easy as it looks. We grew up with shotguns, .22 and air rifles as children but this is a bit different to shoot a moving target. I don't know what happened but Leonard was about 50% better than me or my dad. I think he had some aggression he had to get rid of, the little orange targets were definitely on the receiving end.

It was great fun and is highly recommended. Don't know when the three of us will be able to try it again though.

The rest of the photos here

Ariette Birthday

Helgard's aunt Ariette recently moved to Pretoria. Her daughter Cheryl decided to surprise her with a party on her 50th birthday. Since we just moved in and had lots of space available we offered our place as a venue for the party. The party was small with mostly family members in attendance.

The Saturday afternoon Cheryl and Michelle started decorating our garage. The garage doesn't have any ceilings, so the draping that Michelle and Cheryl put up made a difference. Munda with her "know-how-hands" used flowers and candles to make a venue like the garage look stunning.

Rudi and Ariette arrived a little early, but after some tears from Ariette everybody got something to drink.

Rudi was responsible for the food; the tasteful food on the menu was a sign of good planning.
The following was on the menu:
Starter - Pate and bread nicely decorated with "groen goed"
Main course - Greek salad, braaivleis, spinach and potato
Dessert - Birthday cake

Munda made a special birthday cake, she baked ouma Louise's carrot cake and decorated the cake with family photo. Ariette didn't want to cut the cake, because it was too beautiful. All the guests pressured her to cut bigger pieces, but she wanted to save the photos on the cake.

When Ariette got the opportunity to speech, she used it by making a toast on our new house, she also made a toast and wishing Leonard the best with his immigration to New Zealand.
We also had a toasted to Ariette and wishing her the best for the next 50 years.

All in all a lovely night with the family. More photos here.

Our New House

Helgard and I moved into our new house in Constantia Park on the 1st of October 2008. Hopefully we will never forget the feeling of happiness when we moved in.

In September Helgard seriously started “shopping” for a house. As we all know with the high interest rates it is a buyers market. Everyone says in a buyers market one can choose, but our specifications were very clear. We wanted something that is not a fix-upper in an older neighborhood. The unwritten rule when buying a house is that one has to look at least at 20 houses, before one can make a decision. The third house that we saw was the house that talked to Helgard and me immediately. I can still remember as we got into the car Helgard said to me, “where can I sign”. A week and a half later an offer was made and the Pilchards family accepted it. Everything happened were fast, the offer was made and accepted the beginning of September and the 1st of October we moved in.

Moving, is only six letters, but this six-letter word includes a lot of work and arguments between Helgard and myself (my point of view, moving is the real test for marriage)

Helgard and I aren’t really “movers”, I think this was the first time that I moved. The weekend before moving friends and family asked if we have finished packing my answer was “we are living organized lives, most of our good are already in boxes, because that is how we keep our place tidy.

Between making curtains, moving plants and packing I didn’t know what hit me. People say mark your boxes when moving, I thought to myself, how difficult is it to remember your boxes, after the 5th box I started marking my boxes. Because we are not educated movers everything in the kitchen that includes cleaning stuff, food, cutlery, pots vases were mark kitchen. When the movers carried the boxes into the house, the kitchen was so full, I couldn’t move.

The moving company was also early on the 31st of September; they rang the bell before 12 instead of after 2 o’clock. They were only 2hours early - that meant that the garage, fridge and my bedroom weren’t packed. I still don’t know how we could pack the garage, fridge and…… in 2 hours, just nice to blame other people for my unorganized moving skills. Helgard really worked hard when we moved, because I was still busy with clients VAT payments.

At the new house it was a mess. I can still remember that I was very tired but so excited. When the moving company left and Helgard and I had a beer at the swimming pool, at that stage I could close my eyes and fall sleep.

Marquete the estate agent brought us sandwiches and a bottle of wine, a lovely gesture. Our friends Therese and Jacques brought dinner; was the best lasagna and salad that I ever had. Therese’s mum even bake us a cake, thanks again! Gert and Deléne also shared our happiness by visiting and eating with us.

I’m still making curtains and the 2 new bedrooms still don’t have any furniture. The washing machine broke during the move but I’m happy and all smiling because I’m privileged to live in a lovely house.

I told Helgard that he can pack his Freelander if he wants to move, but I’m staying.

No photos of the house you have to come visit and see for yourselves.