Travelog for: Hector

It's Christmas Eve!

There is a great air of expectancy around the house, everyone is excited! Well... the children and TVs are excited...

To keep us occupied Fi gave us and the children a job (as usual) but this one was fun! We got to decorate the gingerbread house. Fi had assembled the house the day before, with much wailing and gnashing of teeth - the icing would not set - most likely due to the fact that it was 36°C (96.8°F) and the air was humid, thanks to a brewing storm. It set very nicely once Fi re-arranged the entire fridge to remove one shelf so the house could fit in!



Burp! Pardon me! I may just have eaten more sweets than I put on the house....

Once we were done with that, Fi banished the children upstairs to watch a movie and threatended them that Christmas would be CANCELLED if they so much as peeked down the stairs!

Hmmm...smells like more work for us....

Oh boy, here we go again...



None of us could figure it out....a sort of nappy? Who knows...all we did know is that the fabric is a local one called shwe-shwe. It is a stiff cotton that becomes softer with washing. Traditionally it was made in blue or brown but now comes in a slightly wider range of colours like red and yellow. It has pretty patterns on it, usually small repeats. On the back there is always an animal stamp to denote the manufacturer. We have a leopard and an elephant here. Maybe these are elephant pants...um no...too small...

Now that it is turned the right way round it looks like a doll with a flat head!



AH! The penny drops....

It is a pouch for Natalie to carry her doll in!



This pram had belonged to Fi's sister in law 25 years ago. The plastic had all deteriorated and the children improvised with a blanket!



Fi got rid of the blanket....



Then the natives started getting restless and demanded to be released from captivity! So Fi released them and wrapped the gifts in her room safe from prying eyes.

And then a million people descended on the house for supper... well ten adults and three children and four TVs... but it felt like a million and her husband certainly catered for a million- we ate left overs for the next three days (interspersed with Christmas lunch)!

Merry Christmas!

At last!



Why am I hanging in the tree? Um...I am not quite sure...but it's Christmas at last! And how do I know this? I have been counting down everyday since the first of December with the aid of an advent calendar and there are NO MORE CHOCOLATES!



Our Christmas stockings were filled with candy canes and chocolates and SOMEONE seems to have forgotten to take the photo....

Never mind. Put on a silly paper hat and pull a cracker with me!



BANG! Oh that was scary and fun! Squirt read the silly jokes and we all fell about laughing...


Someone else have a turn....



BANG! Ha ha ha....look what we all won!
Shaggy Bear Hmmm....those will come in useful late at night when everyone else is sleeping....



Oooh! Ladybug crayons....



Pinky Bear A yo-yo! Can you do any tricks with it?



Squirt A pipe? How odd... oh, you blow out of it and try balance the ball. Squirt is very good at that because he can take such deep breaths and let them out slowly...



Right, is everybody ready for turkey? Time to leave and visit Fi's sister for Christmas lunch... I can't believe SOMEONE left the camera at home.....

There was a power failure so the potatoes and veges were roasted in the Weber (BBQ). Luckily the turkey was smoked and the ham had been cooked on the gas braai (BBQ) the day before (during the previous power outage). It was so good, but there was a lot of turkey left over - I can already tell we'll get sick of it soon!

It has been raining....again... look at that miserable sky...

If you go down to the woods today,
You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go down to the woods today,
You'd better go in disguise.
For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

Picnic time for teddy bears;
The little teddy bears are having a lovely time today.
Watch us catch them unawares,
And see them picnic on their holiday.
See them gaily gad about.
They love to play and shout,
They never have any cares.
At six o'clock their mummies and daddies
Will take them home to bed
Because they're tired little teddy bears.

SURPRISE! Happy Birthday Pinky Bear!



We have been slaving away in the kitchen - well we had nothing better to do in all the rain.

We made bear biscuits and a chocolate cake with bear sprinkles so we could have a surprise picnic party for Pinky's third birthday.

Fi lit the candles for us (we are not allowed, it is against THE RULES.)



Blow out those candles and make a wish!



Hmmmmm....honey tea and cake!



Once we were all rolling around from eating and drinking so much, we surprised Pinky with a birthday present!



I sure hope she plans on sharing! That is the biggest bottle of honey I have ever seen....

And suddenly...to make up for all the horrid rain... Mother Nature gave us this sky....BEAUTIFUL!

Tonight is New Year's Eve!

We ended up at Fi's sister again, this time we had to make supper ourselves...

Roll out the dough...




...smear it with a tomato sauce and pile it with ham and cheeses and whatever else you feel like!





Then pop it in the table top pizza oven.






And wait and wait and wait and wait....guess it wasn't hot enough yet or it needed more coals. By the time it was ready we were too hungry to take a photo of it! It tasted really good and the next ones didn't take as long to bake, but by then we wondered off to play a game called 'Cranium'. We were on Fi's team so we won of course. It wasn't long before someone asked what the time was....





HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Luckily there were no fire works to terrify the dogs because it was bucketing down with rain!

Today we went to a cute restaurant to help celebrate a friend’s birthday. In the middle of the hustle and bustle of the suburbs, is a walled off property. It is like a tropical jungle inside, with a quaint little tea room, a few craft shops, as well as an antique/ junk shop and a book store. The whole place is decorated with old farm equipment (possibly because the property WAS once a farm - the tea room certainly looked like an old farm house.




Chickens run around underfoot and you feel like you are miles away from the city.



...and look at the cakes!




Hmmm…blueberry pancakes!




They grow their own flowers to decorate the dishes with....



I can't believe it is not raining today!

We were all starting to get cabin fever from all the sitting at home during the never ending rain

Fi had to take a 'little' drive out to the Cradle of Humankind, so she stopped here at Maropeng  so we could have a look. We didn't go into the centre as there wasn't time. But we learned a few cool facts.

This area is where the oldest evidence of mankind is found. AND, some of the earliest forms of dinosaur were found here too (200 million years old! Wow!) The first stone tools were used in Africa (2.6 million years ago).



This is a 'dig' site where fossils are excavated from. You can clearly see the layer of fossils in this bit (about half way down).



I also learned that former South African president, Thabo Mbeki , has tiny feet!



...and Kofi Annan has big feet!



Then just for the heck of it, we drove down to the actual Sterkfontein Caves where the important fossils like 'Mrs Ples' and 'Little Foot' were actually found.





Isn't it a beautiful view? This is where our ancestors once roamed....okay, I'm a stuffed toy... YOUR ancestors.

OH. MY. WORD.

You know the insistent rain I keep mentioning? Today I had the most terrifying experience of my short little life.

Fi was driving to school to fetch the children and the rain was absolutely pouring down. The area she was driving through was in FLOOD! The road she drove on had become a raging river... and to make matters worse, paving bricks were tumbling down through the water too... the windscreen wipers could hardly keep up with the downpour.

At one stage she felt a rather large void under her tyre and knew the road was being washed away underneath her...

Indeed...this is what the patch of road looked like once the water drained away....



Some roads completely washed away and several cars did the same....


ENOUGH RAIN ALREADY!

After all of that I needed to take a deep, deep, deep sniff of honeysuckle!



Once I calmed down, I said my goodbyes and climbed into my travelling box. I'm headed for FRANCE! So long South Africa! So long Rain!