First a bit of gardening ...

Last week Kevin and Hayzel organised some gardening equipment and so this morning, we all got involved with a spot of gardening.   Kevin first had to assemble the lawnmower, which he did yesterday evening.    Then he got stuck into the grass, with a little bit of help (?) from the kiddies.   The videos are quite long, so I've only uploaded the one with Ewan:

Kevin's getting really good at assembling stuff that we buy online.   He also had to put together another chest of drawers for Faye's room yesterday, as well as another bookcase for the office.   We are slowly starting to get enough storage space together.   It took Hayzel most of Saturday to tidy up Faye's room, after she moved it all around.

I'm very pleased with our garden, it looks lovely in the sunlight.  Each day when you go outside, something else has started to flower, the owners of Spider's Web did a really good job planting all the bulbs and seeds before we arrived in December.   Here are a few photos of the garden, taken during our lovely sunny Sunday morning.

Aish not an Af in sight
Hayzel and I took a car full of cardboard boxes to the recycling plant about a mile or so down the road from Long Stratton this morning.   It was so weird pulling up to the 'dump' and not having a million zots run out to the car shouting 'meddem! meddem!' ,  trying to take the stuff out of your car before you'd parked it.    Instead it is so sophisticated and organised (and clean).

The place is neatly kitted out with super-large bins or containers/skips that take everything from laptops to cellphones.   Each thing you want to recycle has it's own designated dump station - there are separate bins for cellphones; computer monitors; foil; garden rubble; industrial rubble; nuts & bolts; car batteries, cell phone batteries, washing machines; vacuum cleaners; plastic; paper; cardboard, glass (and different bins for different coloured glass); old cooking oil, old engine oil ... etc. etc.   So bloody civilised.

Does anyone know what this flowering shrub is that's growing near our pond?

And then ...    Lost in the Woods - a trip to:
 

THETFORD FOREST PARK

After a quick lunch, we herded the kids and puppy into the car and drove the three-quarters of an hour or so to Thetford Forest, which is the largest lowland pine forest in Britain.   It's apparently just under 29 Hectares in size and was created after the First World War.    We went to the High Lodge entry point and did the very easy Nature Trail, which is about a mile long, although we fiddled about quite a bit and went off course more than once.   Our little puppy seemed to really enjoy it!

Next time we go, we'll try and stay for a longer visit and do a more adventurous trail, maybe have a barbeque.    It's a great place to go with kids, spotlessly clean, safe and relaxing.   There are places to picnic and barbeque (NOTE, we didn't see any refuse bins  - presumably because British people take their rubbish home with them). 

 There are loads of cycling trails, and about four walking trails from the High Lodge entry point. 

 I was impressed when we went into the loos before we started our walking to see a poster for an Elvis Costello gig on the back of my loo door.  Bloody hell, Elvis Costello.  Paul Weller (him of The Jam/Style Council fame) is also doing a concert at Thetford Forest and there is a billboard promoting the event as you enter the park.  I would have killed to see Paul Weller back in 1998!

Thetford Forest has seen many people perform here over the years - from Blondie to Van Morrison and Madness.

 There's a high-wire adventure course [Go Ape] that spans some of the trees behind the High Lodge itself.  We couldn't go on it today because the kids have to be over 10.  Like I would go on a high-wire adventure course ... ja, right.

A girl and her dog.

'Spoiler Alert' ... more videos to follow ... sorry to the peeps in SA if your bandwidth gets chewed up.

Eeek look what crept up on us when we were in the 'hide'

Bambi was here ...
Bok drols

Lions, Tigers and Bears ... oh my!

A Smurf! 

In other news, I got myself a Tablet at last.  It's an ASUS Memo Pad Smart 10.1" ... I'm loving it so far. SKYPE works well on it and I can watch my por ... er YouTube TV series (Like QI XL) in bed at night, without disturbing anyone.  My own little Telly!

Cheers for now - hope you all have a lovely week - lots of birthdays coming up soon! :)  

Kevin's Update - HAL the computer and videos to follow

Our stuff arrived a few weeks back, all my toys are here now (not only kids have toys, remember - "He who dies with the most toys wins"!).

HAL the computer survived his sea cruise and is up and running trying to rule the world via his 13KB/s internet link. Now I can start capturing, editing videos and uploading them for family to watch.

For those with real internet lines the videos will be available @ 1080p hi-definition lovelieness so make sure you change the video setting to 720p or better 1080p and watch full screen.

Here is HAL...

First video up is a movie made by Faye of when Winnie the Pooh came to visit for the weekend.

At Fayes school they pass Winnie around from kid to kid in her class and the kids have to write what Winnie did with them for the 3 days he comes to stay. So Faye decided to make a movie. At school on Friday the whole class watched it an loved it. It is funny watching Faye watch this movie on the TV as she has a big grin on her face and really loves the way Winnie sounds (voice of Winnie done by Faye and enhanced by HAL).

More videos to follow as I finish editing them.

Biltong Jag - Hunting trip - July

Its so cool i have been invited to go for a hunting trip in July 26th to 28th :).

I am going to hunt a Impala for my first try R1800 for the animal and they make the Biltong and cut the meat for me  :), it is going to be great fun can't wait for it.

Jaco from the cricket has invited me to go with him on a hunt.

So i will post pics when the day comes round.

Ya'right?

Hi everyone.
First of all, I want to say that I am pleased Allyson has started turning her life around and I am very happy that she is finding her new job such a pleasure.  I'm also happy that she is taking things slow with Ronnie and that she is happy with the way things are at the moment.   You have my support, sweetie, stay strong and I love you very much.

Faye starts tennis tomorrow after school (for about three quarters of an hour), so that should be fun for her.   We don't have to provide any equipment at all, just her PT clothes ... how awesome is that!

Just in case you were wondering, my office space looks like this at the moment:

We have to get a lawn mower soon, the grass is starting to look at bit wild and woolly.   There are flowers all over the place in our garden - the owners thought very far forward and planted bulbs everywhere. We have hyacinths, daffodils, primulas and quite a few other plants that I don't know the names of but that look really pretty.  

I found out today that Thetford Forest is the largest lowland pine forest in Great Britain and it's just down the road from us - so I hope that we have good weather this weekend, so we can go there ... I think it would be really nice to see such a special place and I'm sure the kids would have a lot of fun.  So please Norfolk, put the wind in the cupboard and give us a nice sunny weekend!

See ya lay ta. 

Updates

I have a bit of time on my hands today and decided to spend some of it catching up on the blog.   I've just got back from walking Ewan to Nursery School ... it's a very blustery overcast day today.  One of the things that we all seem least pleased with in Norwich area is the wind!   God, it blows ... and I'm sure worse than those blighters in Cape Town!   It fair knocks a person about as you are walking about.  If you're not careful, you'll end up down the road with your legs in the air.  

We have begun to get into some kind of routine, as it were, now that the kids are back at school.  My day pretty much starts at 6am when I wake up.   However I don't have to take Faye to school till about 0830 - any earlier and we just end up sitting in the car waiting for the school gates to open.   Usually I sepdn the time checking IIA emails first thing in the morning, as does Hayzel, so we know if there are any major panic situations that we have to sort out during the day.  IIA still takes preference.  Kevin leaves first, then Hayzel goes at about quarter past 8.      We take the puppy in the car (on Faye's lap going and transferred to Ewan's lap on the way home) and then I drive home with puppy and Ewan to start the day. 

Ewan is an easy child to look after with me (no, seriously he is!).  I don't have any problems with him at all, to speak with.   He tries to look after the puppy but gets a bit excited every now and then, so I have to step in to avoid injuries. Lai-la now knows how to get up the stairs, which is a blessing and curse at the same time.  She is still a bit too little to negotiate the coming down part on her own, so that can be a worry if she suddenly decides to try and go down by herself and nobody is watching her.

My 'office' is in my bedroom and I generally settle down to do transcript typing when I get back from taking Ewan to school.  I'm not going to do any today, because I was working on major heavy deadlines for transcripts yesterday and into 1am this morning, plus I've already done four this morning before I took Ewan to school.  So I'm having a break (hence typing up the blog).   It's a bit too cold to paint, although I have all the painting equipment downstairs now in the 'studio' (garage).   Most of our boxes have been unpacked.

We bought an assortment of assemble yourself furniture last weekend - including desks for Kevin and me, office swivel chairs, book cases, side boards ... so Kevin was uber busy all weekend assembling the stuff and he does a really good job!      I've got my music set up in my room, so that's a big plus for me - although I'm probably going to end up moving it into the studio.

We've now got a few ornaments (mostly my mother's stuff actually - we sold all of OURS!) and books on display, picture frames with photos in all over the place and generally the house is starting to look like home.  Even Ewan said that it looks the same-same as our 'old' house before we came to Inga-land.

Depending on the weather, I either walk to collect Ewan and Faye, or else I will take the car and park in the parking area alloted for the park/play ground, which is next to Manorfield Nursery school.   There isn't much parking on the road going to the schools and by 3pm it's all taken up.    I actually prefer to walk.    So I walk to Ewan's school (about 3 minutes), collect him, walk a little bit down the road and meet Faye coming up the hill.  She walks from her school basically one and a half blocks before she meets me.  Then we all walk back to the house together.

You are not allowed to take dogs onto the school grounds, although they've told me it's not a problem bringing Lai-la, so long as I hold her.   That's okay but I'm sure one of these days, she's going to do a poop right in front of a parent, who is then going to complain.   I've already had a few skew looks from one or two parents at the school.  So from today, I'm going to leave her in the house when I take and fetch the kids.   She is perfectly safe in the dining room/kitchen area and at least the floor is a washable hi-glazed stone tile.  Plus she's gotten used to using the puppy poop sheets that we've bought for her, so that helps a lot.   Of course, the only thing is, she cries a bit when there is nobody here.  Oh well, she'll just have to get a bit tougher I suppose.  

When we get home, I usually check more work emails (IIA and my transcription typing employer), sort out the kids homework, do a bit of washing, get dinner prepared.  Try to stay sane.

Kevin usually arrives home at abou 5.30 and Hayzel round about 6.15.      So far they are both doing fine in their jobs.  Hayzel has discovered that she's got leave due to her for this year.  I don't know about Kevin, we are hoping to find that out before the end of this week.

After supper, I have been doing transcripts until about 12pm but I want to stop that now and try and get into the habit of only doing them during the daylight hours, otherwise I will burn myself out. 

We are all (Kevin, Hayzel, kiddies and me) going to go to Wales on June 15th to celebrate my Auntie Jean's 80th birthday - and driving back the next day.   It should be a cool weekend, albeit a bit of a drive.  I think it's just over 4 hours each way.   I am going to hire a car for that weekend, as I don't trust our 2nd handers to do the trip without hassles and don't want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere.   Car hire here is cheap as chips compared to South Africa.     I am busy sorting out our accommodation now and also book Lai-La into a kennels for the weekend, as we don't want to take her all that way in the car with us - we'll never get there. 

All for now
Love to everyone ...

Field trip

Well we've sorted out the issue of where to go to exercise Lai-La as well as the kiddies and Nana  (big bonus that!).    Just down the road, basically five minutes from our front door is a lovely walk alongside the fields, next to bramble bushes and thickets.   There are water courses running alongside the fields as well, I can imagine in summer that these will be small streams.   All over the place are daffodils and wild primulas, very pretty.    Lots of midges!    Faye wasn't impressed with them but I'd trade midges for mosquitos and Afs anyday of the week.  Har har.

We walked for about twenty minutes to half an hour (without Ewan it probably would have taken about 15 minutes) and then met up with the sign for a public path and followed it off to the right.  However it went towards a farm and we didn't fancy having to circumnavigate that, so turned back and went the other direction.  We didn't come across any forests or stuff on this walk but it is a nice stroll for the kids and the puppy loved it to bits.

We met three people walking dogs in this area while we were out, it's very popular.     I want to try and find a walk on the other side of Long Stratton now, behind the church because I think that walk goes into a small woodland.

Scuse the wheezing in the video below ... but to be fair, we were on our way back! 

Of course Faye is completely deaf, no matter how many times I asked her to say Hello it didn't register. 

In more exciting news, our cartage arrives tomorrow at 11am or thereabouts ... more on that tomorrow.

What's this? Another sunny day!

We got ready and went out to the park this morning, carrying Lai-La, accompanied by Batman ... only to find when we got there that no dogs are allowed - only Guide Dogs.  So that was a bit of a bummer because we'd packed poop scoop, litter bags, tissues and toys, not to mention Batman's jacket. There is a field round the corner from our house, so I'll have a look if it's possible to take puppy and kids there to run off steam.

Took some photos in the garden earlier on:

 We bought a little dvd from the Pet Store about training your dog, so Faye has treats with her most of the time ... seems to be working, she's getting Lai-La to sit and do other things (even come to her) with the aid of treats.  Faye is really trying hard to be a responsible puppy mum!   I'm quite proud of her.

 When we were at the park, we bumped into one of the children from our close (Liam) with his mum and baby sister. Turns out the baby sister's name is Lyla ... so I think that's where Faye got the name from for our puppy (not any mystical Buddhist connection) - although Faye said to me this morning when we were walking home that she didn't know her friend had a baby sister - even though she's been to his house a few times.

And a video ... check out Faye's reaction when Lai-La doesn't come to her at the beginning of this little film, priceless. 

Lai-La

Well Faye got her wish on Saturday when we went to Tracy's farm near Gt Yarmouth to get the little Lhasa Apso puppy.   She has already taken over the house and everyone's heart and seems to be a lovely little pup with a calm temperment and gentle nature.  Faye is doing her very best to be a responsible 'mum' .   Puppy sleeps with Faye every night and so far we haven't heard a peep from either of them.
   
We were battling to find a name for her and Faye was getting quite stressed  about that on Sunday.   After we'd spent some time all writing down our suggestions for names, we still didn't seem to be any closer to finding anything suitable.  Then I told Faye to just concentrate on the dog and think what suited her personality the most ... all of a sudden she just blurted out 'Lyla' (which is how I saw the spelling in my head when she said the name).  We thought this was a cute name and much better than Kevin's suggestion which was Ugg-Li ... :)

I was laying in bed last night and suddenly realised that the name Faye has chosen for our puppy was taken from the Dalai Lama's name ... I said right from the outset, when we were looking at getting a Lhasa that we must choose a Tibetan name for the puppy, in honour of its heritage.   So I think the name that Faye chose herself is the best and most appropriate and it's quite extraordinary!  Faye does not know who His Holiness is and didn't know his name, so maybe LaiLa is a reincarnation of the next Dalai Lama hey?    It's all Zen to me. 

Lhasa's were bred to warn nobility and Buddhist monks in the Tibetan monasteries whenever there were intruders.  The Mastiffs used to stand outside and the little Lhasa's were indoors.  They have a distinct bark.

Lhasa means from the city of Lhasa, Tibet
 and Apso simply means Dog, some people say it can mean Lion Dog

So her breed name literally means lion dog from Lhasa

 They are quite intelligent little dogs and have a regal disposition (we've already seen this quite often in the way that our puppy stands, she holds her head quite high).  She has wise little eyes and concentrates on new things. She's not a whirlwind of stupidity, like most puppies are - quite the opposite in fact and the right energy level for us!

  These dogs are fearless when they get older and are protective of their families and wary of strangers - so we have to make sure that she is well socialised as a puppy.  Faye has already started training her, we got a DVD from the Pet Shop on basic training techniques and she's already got LaiLa to sit. 

When you decide to show a Lhasa you grow the top fur out (they have a double coat) and it goes very long, so you can dress it up with bows and what not - perfect pet for a girl!
 

Most owners, however, keep their Lhasa's groomed in a 'puppy' cut or 'teddy' cut (which is how LaiLa looks now).

DNA Analysis has identified the Lhasa Apso as one of the 14 most ancient dog breeds - verifying that lap dogs and companion dogs were among the first dogs bred by humans,   They are also one of the breeds most closest to the wolf - don't know how they get that but I'm not arguing with Wikipedia. 

  



If we ever showed LaiLa, then she would have to look something like this:

    No problem.

We take her on Saturday for her first innoculation, microchipping etc.