Santa's been ...

Wow what a lovely Christmas we all had.  It was great to have the X-Box on and kuier with everyone at Andrew and Leigh's house. Lovely to see little Daniel for such a long time and chat to everyone in-between making our din-dins and getting ready for the arrival of the man in the red suit.  It was touch and go whether Faye actually spotted him, as she woke up basically a second after he had dropped off the presents at our house.

Earlier in the day, we took Ewan to the Santa down the road at Cherry Lane Garden Centre, he was quite a nice play-play Santa. He asked Ewan what he wanted and when he said 'Star War's toys', the Santa told us how, when he was in his late twenties, he worked on the props on the first Star Wars movie that was shot in the UK - his shares went up considerably when he told Ewan that he knew Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.    We also had to take Ewan to the doctors later on, as he has a slight ear infection, wonders will never cease the doctor gave him antibiotics!    He seems a lot brighter today.
So we had a lovely Christmas dinner and the kids opened one present before they went to bed - from Auntie Toni and Uncle Tim - Faye got a lovely Princess Mirabella and the Flying Horse book and a Zoople, Ewan got the Ironman arc reactor button for his Ironman costume and a book that he can read now because it's at his school reading level. So really nice presents and thank you Tim and Toni!   We can't wait to dress him up in his entire IronMan costume with all his gadgets. 

We managed to get Faye to go back to sleep even though she'd discovered her huge sock long before we were all asleep!  This morning was the usual riot, Kevin has taken a video, I sent loads of whatsapp's to the family of little videos and I took hundreds of photos.  I'm uploading most of them to MEGA, as it just chows up such a lot of bandwidth for you guys back in SA to check out all the photos from the blog.  I will post the link to the photos once they have all uploaded. I'm just putting a couple of photies up here for now.

This is the MEGA link - if you have problems viewing the folder to download the photos, please let me know.
https://mega.co.nz/#F!QYVWnRAC!HR3qMlfEKkZPR-WBc10tgg
 

Hayzel got a Lenovo tablet from Kevin and she bought him a Kindle e-reader.  We were all spoilt with other gifts from each other and the kiddies ...  Hayzel and I thought that we had bought each other the same present but turns out we didn't  - we are both quite keen on the comedy of Miranda Hart, so I got the Maracattack video and I got Hayzel a boxed set of all three series of 'Miranda' - so we're going to be overloading on Miranda Hart very soon.  I also got the cool new Force Majoure video from Eddie Izzard, my favourite male comedian of all time.  We got lots of smelly bath thingies and I also got a nice bath/spa set from Ally - thank you! The kiddies got me a I-tablet of eye makeup, soaps and jewellery.   But today really was all about the little ones and they were well spoiled by Santa and everyone else in the family.

Santa brought:
Faye - Amelia dolls house - busy being assembled as I type this by our trusty handyman (although he's doing a lot of groaning).  It is huge - stands over a metre high, I think and takes up a fair bit of space in the conservatory. 
'Frozen' doll,
an electronic keyboard (so I'm busy trying to teach her how to play piano!)
Lots of lovely goodies in her Santa sock, including a light sabre.

Ewan - Darth Vader costume and mask,
lots of Star Wars characters,
a guitar.
Plus lots of cool things and a Light Sabre in his sock too.

From the family they got:
Faye
  from Uncle Andrew, Auntie Leigh, Grandad and Daniel -  Princess and Prince carriage and pony set.
  from Uncle David and Auntie Mags - Winx doll ( Bloom)
  from Auntie Ally - Sparkle Fairy Wings book with light up wings on the front and a poster of puppies for her room.
  from Auntie Sharon and Uncle David - a Magic Set and a Rainbow Magic Annual
  from Granny and Grandpa - Who's Who game and a special jewellery box with hair ties and loads of interesting things inside.
  from Oma - Pretty Pink handbag  book - filled with books and over a thousand stickers
  from Nana - two antique*  porcelain dolls, Rosetta fairy (from the Tinkerbell movie), Electronic password protected journal, a colouring card and an Oxford Children's dictionary.

*not really, I rescued them from the Charity Shop in Harleston and added them to her present -  couldn't bear the idea of them being all alone at Christmas, so they have been 're-homed'.

Ewan
  from Uncle Andrew, Auntie Leigh, Grandad and Daniel - Imaginet Dragon with rider.
  from Uncle David and Auntie Mags - Rescue helicopter with winch
  from Auntie Ally - Aesop's Fables book (illustrated) and a poster of all the Avengers - i.e. Ironman etc. for his room.
 from Auntie Sharon and Uncle David - a Castle with knights and catapult etc.
 from Granny and Grandpa - Hungry Dog game and a pirate chest with pirate hat, sword, eye patch etc.
 from Oma - Dinosaur book bag with books and over a thousand stickers
 from Nana - Fireman Sam giant hoses and ladders game, Tree-Fu Tom figure on a skateboard, Star Wars Annual, Wolverine and friend figurines.

 After dinner Faye and Ewan did a spot of waltzing about ... after all she was dressed for the ball and he decided to be the prince ...

And so it starts ... Socks open, now let's get downstairs to see what Santa brought us!

 A couple of presents - and there's still a whole ton under the tree (out of picture to the left of the tree!)

Faye was whirling about like a dervish when she came down stairs, I thought she was going to have a seizure when she saw the large box behind her! Here she's checking that Santa ate the mince pie ...

 Garth Vader

Stephanie and Wendy - their new names

Not excited much ...

Post-script - just had to put up some photos of the Amelia dolls house and a certain handsome pirate!

Isn't it awesome!

Kiddie Carols

Here some kiddies carols to warm your cockles.

He's a brave young hero...

Happy Birthday Tim!

Happy Birthday Tim, hope you had a good one.

More weeeeners

Hayzel took a raffle ticket last Saturday at Ewan's school Christmas Fayre for 1 pound and lo and behold, we won the Christmas Hamper!

I had to carry this huge, heavy box of goodies to my car in the rain! But not to worry, it got home safe and sound.  It is filled with shortbread biscuits, fancy biscuits for cheese, christmas pud, mince pies, chocolates, fudge, apple juice (we can't have alcohol being dished out at a nursery school!), more chocolates, christmas cake and other goodies ... yum.  Of course, Hayzel won't be able to eat half of it ... ha!   more for me.

Thank you Barbara and Les, I received the gorgeous South Wales calendar this morning, could you also tell Jean that I received her card as well.  

Thank you very much! 

I am doubtful that the South Africans will get their cards before Christmas but I'm always hopeful.  Please let me know when they arrive, guys.  I am sure everyone in the UK and Hungary have received your cards by now (probably got them the next day, thanks to the efficiency of Royal Mail).  I received your card, Sharon and Steve, we got it on Friday. Hope you guys are keeping warm and looking forward to your first Hungarian Christmas. According to Google translator, Merry Christmas in Hungarian is:  "Boldog Karácsonyt"

'er ... is this thing on? Are you receiving me? Is there anybody out there?

Kevin and I are getting a bit fed up - we may even consider going on a go slow, or even strike!  The toyi-toying is about to start, we have our sticks and our protest songs. 

Amandla! 


Seriously for a minute, we both feel as though we are posting to the ether at the moment because we very rarely get any comments on our posts.   To all those of you who are posting comments, keep it up, the more the merrier and thank you very much.  It's important for us to get feedback and we appreciate any comments that you guys give us  - at least then we know that the things we are talking about are getting read.

I started this blog primarily with the sole intention of keeping all you folks in South Africa updated as often as possible on what we are doing here.  It is also important for you to see what the kiddies are doing, because they change so quickly. Both Faye and Ewan have grown up this past couple of months, not just in height but in attitude.

Yes, for a lot of us we are using Whatsapp just about all day from the minute we wake up to send little videos, voice messages, pictures and text messages in a running commentary.   This blog is an extension of that and in a lot of cases more detailed.  Plus, generally, the photos and videos are better quality!

We appreciate that it's not often possible for everyone to visit the blog every day, or even once a week but when you do get a chance, please comment on the posts.  Even if it's to say '!#$@% off' ... it just gives us a bit of a kick and encourages us to continue with the updates.   It takes a lot of time to do the videos and Kevin devotes a great deal of his time to this in the evenings ... when he's not playing X-box :)  I don't want him to stop doing this work, as I think it's really important. 


If you have any suggestions on how we could improve the Blog and make it easier for you guys to put your pounds worth on here, please let me know.  I can also attach a 'CHAT' application to this blog, which means that when people are on it at the same time, they can have a quick internet talk.  Let me know if you would like that, or anything else we can do to make it more fun.

Please guys, whenever you visit the blog, make a comment - we are not asking you to do this for Google rankings, as this blog is private.  

SA Champs

Congratulations Dave and the team!  Well done ... knew you would do it :)

Exciting news

Well what a weekend!  Andrew skyped on Sunday to let us know that he has been given the opportunity to open a specialist IT department in Durban for his company.  This was a long time coming and not unexpected.  The surprise is that he is going to be heading down there on the 2nd January!  Andrew will be staying in a hotel, whilst the move takes place. His company are footing the bill for the relocation, so that's very nice.

So for the next few weeks, it's going to be hectic over there at 19 Scott Avenue North! 

Skype images

Daniel smiling at his Nana

This is a great achievement, Andrew and I am very proud of you!   I think you will all enjoy living in KZN, it's definitely a great place to bring up a little boy. 

Of course, the only downer is that Hayzel, Kevin, the kids and I will have to drive to Durban to see you all in February.  I'm sure that will be do-able, we're bringing our blow up mattresses and sleeping bags with us on the plane!    So make sure you get a house that has a spare bedroom (at least), otherwise we're going to be sleeping in the passage (like the patients do at Baragwanath Hospital).


And in other news
Despite the fact that David has split all the webbing in his hand, catching a man out in one of his last games, he has made it to the finals of the Last Man Stands cricket competition.  He plays the game today round about 1pm.   If they win this game, then they automatically qualify to play in Australia for the World Cup.    I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines Dave.

And yet more news
We managed to get Faye a nice Angel costume and I'm going to try my best to take a bit of video today for her school Christmas play.  The schools are full of sh@t here when it comes to filming kiddies doing things at school. I might get frog-marched out of there.  Anyway, I'll give it a bash, again with Kevin's larney camera.  I'll try to keep it straight and not zoom in or do super-fast panning shots. 

Kuk Sool Won Grading

Ewan got his first yellow stripe at his KSW grading.

Well done my boy, looking at you board breaking skills, you should be able to take on a herd of fluffy bunnies. Ninjas - not yet...

Harleston at night.

We went for a drive out at 4.30pm (er, yes it was already dark!) up the road to the little town of Harleston, it's about 10 miles from Long Stratton and they have a lot of Christmas lights up, so we thought it would be nice for the kiddies.

 Ewan getting ready - note all the cards strung across the mantelpiece - they are all from Ewan's class mates!  Besides him, there are another 26 kiddies in his class and he's received cards from nearly all of them.

I tinted Hayzel's hair today deep red, it looks pretty - she looks a bit frozen in this picture. It did start to get a bit nippy by the time we went home!  There's a strong Norfolk wind blowing at the moment and it's somewhat icey.

Laila has her new doggy jacket on.

I tried hundreds of times to get a photo of this bloody door in focus, the lights are all moving on the top. I just thought it was so pretty anyway, none of the shots are actually in focus at all!

This is how it looked in the natural light - but still out of focus!  Aargh

Earlier in the day, we went into Harleston to get Faye an Angel costume for her Christmas play, which we think is on Monday.

There are some nutters around here that have done up their houses like Blackpool illuminations. I can't drive past and stop to take photos because the traffic is a bit heavy, so I'm going to try and brave the elements and walk around one of these nights and take a bunch of photos of the more fantastic ones.  Believe me, some of these people here go completely bonkers with their Christmas lights!

L'il Dragons

Ewan did a small 'test' today facing the mommies, daddies, siblings and grandparents - along with the rest of the kiddies in his Kuk Sool Won Martial Arts class. He  had to do his first 'move' and achieved that without much prompting, so earning his first 'stripe' - yellow.    I had to sew it at the bottom of the left hand sleeve.  He has to get a total of three on each arm, I think the next one is blue and then after he's got all six stripes, he goes for his first belt.

I took a very wonky film with Kevin's fancy video camera, so he has the unenviable task of stitching it together and making it into a watchable movie.   Don't know how long that will take, I probably stuffed up and deleted it, whilst I was filming! 

Mary's Knitting

Here is Ewan's Christmas school play.

Remember to go to youtube and choose best settings to watch in HD.

Bonny Boy

Horsing around

We went through to Hapton - which is about 5 miles from our house - to visit Redwings Horse Sanctuary today, as I've been threatening to do this since we arrived in Long Stratton.   Redwings is only open to the public on a few rare occasions in the year when entry is free.  The Hapton branch is Redwings' headquarters with a horse hospital on site and many other facilities, it spans acres and acres of land - paddocks all over the place.   It is a horse sanctuary for over 1,200 horses, ponies, donkeys and mules and all funded by donations.   Redwings take in abandoned, abused, maltreated horses, ponies etc. even tiny baby foals and after a period of adjustment, hospitalisation and full-time care (in most cases), many of the animals are re-homed.  

Here's some of the photos and a little video of the Redwings girls showing re-habilitated horses, which I have to upload through YouTube as it's not loading through Blogger. 

Walking through from the car park

Stables are to the left, as well as the horse hospital, operating room and recuperation room.  More stables on the right and further in.

 A couple of little Shetland ponies in the rehabilitation area. Some of these animals had been picked up wandering in the road, malnourished and close to death.  One pony, Matty, was quite a celebrity - he was only 49kg's when they picked him up but is now looking very good.  I didn't take a photo of him though as he had his back to all the people.

Each Horse has a nameplate and description of his circumstances, his age etc. on the individual stalls.

This is Prince, he is a Cross-Shire - what a beauty! 

Look at the size of those feet!

Prince in the sunlight - image taken from another source on the Interweb

 And the following pics are of the enormous pedigreed Shire Horse 'Fusilier' - standing just over 18 hands ... what a magnificent animal and so gentle.   His hooves were covered in special bandages, as he has a problem with the dampness in the fields and needs moisturiser on his hooves, to stop them getting swollen and damaged.   He is a wonderful horse and it was worth going to the sanctuary just to see him up close. 

He liked my camera, inspected it a couple of times and at one point, I thought he might take a munch.

Fusilier and companions - this is another Internet sourced image - to show his size.

 Missy all ready to do some grooming.  

We watched this horse being braided and dressed up in his Red Nose and Antlers for the display.

Ewan is still quite sick but he braved the cold and seemed to enjoy himself, despite us having to blow his nose every five minutes.

A lovely young girl who was so kind and helped Faye with the grooming earlier - she featured in the video with this horse, who is still being rehabilitated.

I'll put the video up here as soon as I've got it processed through YouTube.