Christmas in London

Ho Ho Ho - Merry Christmas!

We headed across to London on the 21st to catch up with the fam over there - Martin, my older boet by about 6 years, his wife Inge and their two kids - Kiara (3) and Jake (1).

Loaded up with Christmas prezzies, we went across for a few days and had a ball, although I got my usual winter cold the day before we left and spent the days blowing my nose.

It was way colder in London than in Cork - which they say is how it usually is due to Cork having so much rain which helps keep the temperature up. We went out for a walk with the fam more than once and were lucky to get back with our fingers and ears still intact.

HAD seen each oWe also caught up with Kerri and Russell while in London as Kerri was keen to catch up with us. It seemed like ages since we had last seen her and when we tried to figure out when we lastther, Kerri realised it was at our engagement party in late 2004 / early 2005!

Just goes to show how time can fly. Anyhoo, we went out to GBK in Wimbledon (or little Cape Town as I call it), the area of every South African in London it would seem, and we each had an AMAZING BURGER. Then we did a bit of shopping and wandering about.

Of course, while we like Mart and nge, the main reason we went across was to see the kids... Kiara and Jake are so cute - they follow each other around, always curious as to what the other is up to. Jake emptied all the pots and pans from one of the kitchen cupboards and then tried to climb in ...



... which saw Kiara then try and follow suit.

Fortunately, Kiara already knows that her place is behind the vacuum cleaner and so she climbed out and headed for the cleaning aparatus. Inge's obviously taught her well. No Jake - that's Kiara's place!

Martin had bought himself a Nintendo Wii game - a type of computer game (without wires) where the character on the TV react to your arm/hand movements in real life.
It was great fun - we played boxing, ten pin bowling, golf, tennis and ... I can't remember what else. I was pretty good at golf but sucked at tennis. Cath kicked my ass at the bowling - even though she basically through the ball through the air onto the pins instead of rolling the ball.
Sigh, there's no justice!

The only negative was when Cath swatted my shoulder when going for a MASSIVE forehand in a game of tennis. I'm not SO SURE it was accidental....

Every now and again though the games would be interupted as the traffic came through the lounge... Check how curious he is. It was like this with him all the time - from TV remote to TV screen, from pot plants, to anything that makes a noise... He's so cute - but a real terror!

We also went out for some cool meals and Jake would often chose these moments to perform his scream ordeal. We the went for some walks to walk off the 5kgs we had just put on. I chose one of these moments to climb a tree. If not, why not...

On Christmas we went to the local church and Mass was different from what we've grown used to back home. Whereas in Plumstead we were slightly spoilt by the fantastic youth folk group. In London, however, we were tortured by a man and a lady who decided they were good enough to sing 'Oh holy night'. They weren't.

Why do non professional singers try and sing that song? It's like thinking 'I have a driver's licence, I'm sure I can reverse that 18-wheeler lorry' or 'I was in one or two fist-fights in my day, I bet I could fight Mike Tyson'. Anyway, the highlight of the song was when Kiara sat up and asked Inge "Mommy, why is the lady screaming?" Shame, I wanted to know the same thing.

But at least when it came to opening the prezzies, Santa came through.

Not only did I get some Hugo Boss make me smell EVEN BETTER stuff, I also got Jake White's biography, the new Lara Croft tomb raider game for PS2 and a few other bits and bobs.

Cath was also well-spoilt although for the life of me, I can't remember what I gave her - no wait, now I do - she got a collection of National Geographic DVDs.

She also got Brother Bear 2 on DVD from Santa. Do you know no-one we've met in Ireland has heard of Brother Bear - c'mon!?

Inge then cooked us lamb for lunch - mmm - my favourite. Hint, hint to anyone out there thinking of inviting us round! It was delish! Luckily Jake's still on soft foods or I may have had to wrestle him for his lamb. I would have done it - it would have been as easy as taking lamb from a baby.

Cath was enjoying herself...

It was a bummer when we eventually had to leave. But Emma was coming so we had something to look forward to.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAMES...

Well, they do, but everyone doesn't give direction by street names,

they're given by pub names.

With the Christmas street lights having been put up in about October, I also wanted to go and get some photies of them and went out one night when Cath was at a work function (she eventually staggered in at about 3am and slept with a bucket next to the bed.

Even City Hall seemed to look nicer than usual and the cranes behind it even had Christmas lights up on the extending part of them.

Walking around the streets at midnight carrying a tripod, I attracted attention that (for once) I did not want.


Every Tom, Dick and Lisa wanted to know what I was doing and then wanted their photo taken. One girl was like: "So you work for a newspaper if you're taking photos, take our photo." So I said: "No I don't work for a paper - well, I do, but... (I gave up and took her photo)".

And then on the walk home, down one of the side roads, I came across these two fellas taking a slash against the shop windows. They weren't even trying to hide, this was about two metres from the corner of the main road! What's with that! Forgive the blur, I didn't REALLY want to set up the tripod for this one, I just wanted a 'Welcome to Ireland' photo.

But seriously - this isn'ta once-off type thing - even in Dublin, the amount of times we had people stopping for a pee in the lane outside our old place - well, I lost count. We used to dread Friday and Saturday nights cos so many people chose our lane to wee or puke - and we were in a nice block!

On Saturday and Sunday mornings (and into the evenings if no-one has come round to clear up) you have to play 'dodge the puke' on your walk anywhere. It just seems to be the norm, which is pretty sad. Indicative of a country with a drinking problem methinks. Such a pity. Maybe that's just me always living in the city centres - but I haven't seen it anywhere else around the world.

Anyhoo... can't end on that note... hands up if you think Alan's the greatest thing
since cheese on toast.

2007: The year in review

2007 - the year that was!

Well, on a personal level, 2007 was a good year in that I did a couple of things on the 'to-do' list and managed to pay off all our outstanding debts, namely our student loans. Anything we have to our names now is all profit and can go towards putting something large down towards a house. Cath's dad told us, at the time of me proposing to his daughter, that my savings could buy a very nice bicycle, but now, we could buy... a very nice motorbike.

So we won't get carried away with where we are, but it's good to have that weight off the shoulders - especially when you consider the credit problems in Ireland and the UK. The ststs come out every now n again saying how many billions the country's credit card debt is - and it is frightening. Cath says most of her friends are regularly maxing out their credit cards and only managing to pay off the minimum monthly payment, which means that they're just wasting money basically.

We hardly ever use our credit cards... and when I do, for something on the net, Cath will normally give me a bollocking for it!

I also just achieved my aim of reading 24 books in a year, sending Cath and Emma off to do some shopping so I could read number 24 in peace and I have set myself the same goal for next year. I told someone this and they were like, 'No way... 52! That's crazy!' I heard Cath's mom is reading 52 a year - now THAT'S crazy!

2007 was tough in that Cath and I lived apart for a lot of it, but it wasn't really that bad. I travelled up on the train or bus each weekend and often got Sunday as my day off for the week so I'd head up on Saturday morn to get there with her still in bed and wave her off for work on Monday morning before heading back to Cork for work later that night. It was kinda cool.

Now that Cath's in Cork with me, we hardly ever see our relatives or Dublin friends anymore which is sad, cos we had made some really good ones - especially a few with an 'international flavour'.

Hopefully a few will come down and stay with us in 2008 and or, invite us to stay with them (hint, hint). Next year will see us be Godparents to Gabs and Stewart's child - Tomas (Gabs n Stew are our SA / Swazi buddies who live in Dublin) - and will see us attend the wedding of my buddy Dave (who I worked with at EI) and Sinead. So already there are a few trips planned.

Apart from heading up to Dublin, we'll also be heading around Europe a few times hopefully, with trips to, I don't know, maybe Norway, Portugal, Croatia, etc - basically places that aren't too crazy with the tourist sheep. We also have to go across and see Emma in the UK and I have a bunch of sports events I want to go to.

Last year we went to three continents - Europe, Africa and Asia and the plan is still to have visited them all by the time we head back to SA. But we're taking a break from long trips in 08 to save a bit more and see a bit of Europe. We're lucky to live in Ireland cos there really is a lot to see here.

We've already seen:

The Ring of Kerry (Kerry)

The Cliffs of Moher (Clare)

The Burren (Clare)

Glendalough (Wicklow)

Connemara (Galway?)

and visited a bunch of other counties, including Waterford this past year.

This coming year we'd really like to go to 'the North' - Northern Ireland and see the Giants causeway and Antrim, etc.

I also landed a pretty good job this past year, and have notched up a year's experience in it, which won't hurt my job prospects when I head back to SA. It's a pretty cool job really, despite people moaning about pay, etc. In truth, I'm bloody happy in it, it would be almost perfect if the hours were a tad different.

AIMS / RESOLUTIONS FOR 2008:

(I'll put them up here so you can give me a hard time if I break them)

- read 24 books this year
- give up beer
- continue to drink less coke but now also all fizzy drinks
- drink only 3 cups of tea a day
- write more for the paper- buy less books
- learn to dance without sticking out bum
- lose Brad the boep (we named him when he got so big he got his own postal code)
- visit 3 new countries (at least)
- go to Northern Ireland- take Cath to Wimbledon (tennis)
- attend a Grand Prix - Spa in Belguim?
- go to Roland Garos (French Open tennis)
- watch SA beat England at cricket (in England)
- watch SA beat someone at rugby (anywhere)
-add to this list as I remember things
It's pretty tough to come up suggestions when you're already so damn brilliant though.
- be more modest

I hope you have a great 2008 yourself and hope any New Year's resoltions you may have made are completed with ease.

God bless

-a-

Irish Examiner carol singing

SINGING FOR (SOMEONE'S) SUPPER

One of the guys decided that it would be a good idea to go singing carols in Cork City centre to try and raise a bit of cash for the homeless, what with it being Christmas and all.

So we had a few practices after work and then hit the town, hoping to make one or two hundred euro, that we could then donate to the poor buggers so they have something nice to snack on while we eat our Christmas pud.

We sang for about two hours and ended up making over 2,300 euro. It takes me a month to make that much cash, we did it in two hours - and we weren't even that good! Actually, a few of the songs we really butchered and one person who walked past one of our collectors stopped and said 'Ay, they aren't bad. There are a few crows in there though...'

This was true.


It was pretty cool actually. Naturally, we went to the pub to celebrate afterwards and downed a few jugs, despite the fact that a few of us still needed to work later that night.

Here's a piccie of us outside the GPO (general post office). The guy in the Santa outfit disguised himself as he was a bit afraid one of his friends would stumble upon us.

One of the ladies, Pet (on the left) brought her little child along. She was a goldmine. This was probably expoitative but then again, the beggars on the streets and outside the churches all have their kids begging with them so hey, if they can, we can too.

Everyone wanted to put money in HER bucket. In the pic on the right below (a newspaper page I created as a bit of fun), you can see why she's so cute.

Another good reason for Cath and I to have kids. The sooner we can put our child outside the house with a bucket, collecting cash, the sooner we can build extensions to the house.

By the way, not that this phases me TOOOOOOOOOOOO much, but for those of you interested - we actually did get into the paper for our singing... If you look at the photo below, you can just make out my right foot in the photo. F£$%^"ing bastards decided not to include me in the pic.
In fairness to them, the photo they went with was the best of those on offer, but still...

Mutter, mutter, mutter ... last time I go carol singing!

SA trip November 2007

CAPE TOWN BABY!.....

So we headed back to sunny ol SA, only it wasn't so sunny - stoopid global warming giving Ireland its dryest November in yonks and Cape Town a wet one.

But we still got warmer weather than where we were coming from so we can't really complain... we headed to the beach at least three or four times and even though we were wind-blasted a few of them, I managed to brown my well-built physique to a degree.

We arrived at about midnight on Friday the 16th and had a wedding (of our dear friend Hester who Cath stayed with when in digs at Stellenbosch) out in Franschoek the next day.

Damn! My wife and her friends are good looking!

Well I wasn't really drinking at the reception,
so don't ask me what my hand was doing here.
I can only say that maybe I thought rubbing
the bride's belly would give me good luck.

This photie was taken at Constantia Nek, which is about a kilometre from Cath's house. The view was good so we thought, hey, why not...

No trip back to Cape Town would be complete without the trip down to Llandudno. The water here is colder than in Ireland (well certainly the east coast anyway - we haven't swum in the west yet). But Cath and I had a dip after taking 20 minutes to get our feet to stop stinging and screaming at us.

And then the gang arrived and it was time to pop open the bottle of win, beers, chips, etc - and to whip out the rugby ball, which us WORLD CHAMPIONS generally don't go anywhere without!

This last photie I took of some random geezer as the sun was setting. I'm so talented.

Without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to my wonderdog, Jonty. She's a bit older and chubbier now - like so many of us - but we still thought the angel costume would suit her. Actually, people that do this to their pets should be shot, but seeing as Jonty was too fat to properly fit into the costume (I had to cut the entire front open with a pair of scissors) ... we theoretically didn't actually put her into it.

And while we're on introductions... This is little Louis... my sister's 8 month old child. We bought him a Santa suit which 'suited' him perfectly. Janet and Louis Snr supplied the hat. This photie should be in their Christmas cards...

But all that suit wearing was obviously hard work for the little tyke, so he relaxed as all hard-working men do... by taking a drink... We thought the facial expression indicated that he'd already had a few of these, but this was his first. Obviosly a poor alcohol tollerance. Loser.

Apart from the wedding, the other main reason we chose to head to SA in November and not for Christmas was the fact that Cath's sister Emma, was turning 18. Emma's coming over to Ireland for 10 days soon and because she recently got her driver's licence - Irish and English people - beware!!!

Anyhoo, here's proof that Cath and Emma can have their cake and eat it too. Well, one of them can anyway.

And this is her diamond geezer, Delano, at one of our many, many trips to the Spur.

Speaking of Spur, we went again not long after with our 'church buddies':

And then again a few days later (although at least this time, we went to a different Spur):

Now Cath will no-doubt beat the living poo out of me for including this photo, but I nearly wet myself when I saw her like this...

We both went to the dentist while we were home as it is way too expensive to get work done on your teeth in Ireland. Cath needed a filling or three so she got a couple of injections, which deadened half her face. When I arrived later to pay, she smiled sweetly at me and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry... instead I took a photo. Here she is... in stereo.

We also wanted to catch up with our Stellies friends and so we headed out to JC le Roux wine estate for a brunch. It was pretty cool catching up with the old faces and checking out the stunning scenery...

From there, we dashed straight back to Cape Town where the church was having Mass in the forest, followed by a braai and a big get-together. Mom, ever the proud granny, had as usual, kidnapped little Louis and wasn't letting any of us near him.

I can't remember exactly when it was, but Cath also headed to Marianne's hen-party. Now hen-parties aren't the big expence they are in Ireland and often involve relatively little alcohol. But some things are the same.... namely the dress-me-up part. Mari was kitted out, taken out onto a nearby road and told she couldn't return until she got five 'hoots' from passing cars. She got them pretty quickly I hear.

Cath's parents' garden is looking better than ever, what with her dad spending so much time there lopping down trees and digging things up that we thought we'd better take some photies out there before the place changes even more radically. So these are of Cath in her garden:

And Cath's fam have got a new(ish) puppy - Roxy - who enjoys sharpening her teeth on unsuspecting suspects just as a cute photo is about to be taken...

And lastly, before you can all get back to work, we headed to the beach and Kalk Bay harbour where I took these little gems. Damn it we live in a bloody beautiful city / country! The first was, once again, of some random oke - but I thought it made for a good photie.

So long Cape Town... see you in 2009.

A PC Christmas

Putting the Christ back in Christmas is something I used to right on Christmas cards, until I decided it felt too preachy and stopped. But these days more than ever, I think, someone has to stand up and say 'Hey this isn't just about presents, trees and bigger desserts than usual'.

I heard that some shops are considering not playing Christmas carols in their shops as they are showing favouritism to one religios belief or some other crappy excuse.

But Christmas is a christian celebration - we shouldn't have to reign in our celebrating because others may not subscribe to our beliefs no more than we should feel guilty that we have eyes when we walk past a blind person.

I got this email a while back and thought it was apt...

WISHING YOU A PC CHRISTMAS...

Holiday Greetings,

I wanted to send some sort of holiday greetings to you, but it is so difficult in today's world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I met with my attorney yesterday, and on his advice I wish to say the following:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the summer solstice holiday, practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that South Africa is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal.

It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting.

It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her / himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.

This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Disclaimer: No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.


HOHOHO.
Here's wishing everyone - Christian or not - a merry Christmas.