Red wine and good friends

 I love a glass of red wine and have for years now been an only-red girl. I don’t like the taste of white wine, even though in our youth Richard and I only drank white wine. Kupferberger was one I remember and that weirdly rounded shaped bottle of Grunberger that everyone used as a candle holder after they had finished drinking the wine.  Pic below from Google.

During covid in South Africa, buying alcohol was banned and many of the wine companies lost millions of rands. I managed to secure a case (6 bottles) of the most beautiful red from Saronsberg called Full Circle. I had been to the estate and enjoyed a lunch and wine tasting there. I opened drank bottle on my birthday and another for New Year.

This year, one of my favourite friends Peter came to visit and I opened a bottle to celebrate. We shared a bottle of the wine and Kiara ordered sushi that was delivered to us, my mom joined in on the evening. We sat outside on my patio and had my new festive lights on. 

It was a lovely, special evening shared with a wonderful friend. 

I saw a bottle for sale at Checkers today and took a photo of it so I could remember the price. I can’t remember how much I paid for it originally, but it’s worth every cent. I promised that I would share one of the bottles with an old work colleague of mine Brian,  we are just waiting for us both to be available for the event.

The Nutcrackers

 I have always loved these, but they have not been easy to come by in South Africa until recently. I got mine in Australia, I think it was at a boxing day sale and I just fell in love with it.

I brought it home and on my next trip I found smaller ones that were also on sale. I managed to get 3 smaller ones, and they were just perfect to complete my family. 

We have Tarryn, the Baker and Kiara the glittery musician and Devin the Peter Pan looking one.

Love these so much.

Dawsonbunch timeline

 I started this on an excel spreadsheet a number of years ago so that I could keep track of things that happened in our lives. I have kept up the practice and its really cool to look through years and see what happened. I shared it with the kids so that they would have it too.

I find it very helpful when I am trying to remember when some event happened. I separated the months so it’s easier to view and highlighted when I went overseas and when my grandchildren are born 😀. I like that it’s so easy to update.

Here is an example from 2022

Jan	Natasha still in Australia	Nerine dies
Feb	Nanna Natasha Pine Lake and Marloth Park
Mar	Natasha weekend with Karen and the lions	Dev Namibia c license
Apr	Luke Tarryn and Cali here	Tarryn & Luke Easter pregnancy announcement
May	Luke Tarryn and Cali here	Natasha to Chakas rock	Cali's 2nd birthday here
Jun	Got a generator	Dan
Jul	parkruns, Linda	Clearing out, making pasta	Sandhurst massage day
Aug	Natasha Oudshoorn	parkruns, Gerrie, caves, Peter
Sep	Scott plays for RSA hockey	My Cyprus band from Costa breaks	started Walk 4 Life	Tyler visits
Oct	Palace and Sun City	Swaziland	made tshirts for Cali and Kora	Kora born
Nov	Australia met Kora	visited Jacs
Dec	Mike & Rene wedding	end Dan	got shingles

 

Bear

 He is the latest addition to the Dawsonbunch, and he arrived in September 2024. Kiara bought him from a school friend breeder. Bear is a cross Belgian Malinois and Dutch Shepherd and this cross breed know as a Mali-Dutchi. The breed is very intelligent and is a working dog, so Kiara has her hands full with keeping him exercised and interested. 

So far Bear has been through teething and he chews everything including shoes, socks and inflatables meant for the pool. He loves sneaking inside my house and heads straight for my study, where he steals a teddy bear and runs outside with it. Luckily Kiara has been good at teaching him the command ‘drop it’,

From the start she taught him to sit, give paw and lie down. I hope he loves official training when he starts and that they both get much joy from the relationship.

 

My parkrun journey

I registered for parkrun one night when I was working at Bank City and my friend Almanda was also working. I didn’t really know her well and she came to sit in our area and started talking. I registered and printed copies of my barcode and was ready. I decided to do the Ebotse parkrun on my own the following Saturday morning. It was the 22 April 2017.

I wasn’t sure what to expect or whether I could walk 5kms and wasn’t really sure that walking was acceptable at an event called parkrun. I arrived and listened to the first timers briefing and then joined the crowd and did my very first parkrun. My time was just over an hour, I was proud that I completed it and have been hooked ever since. I got several PB’s (personal best’s) in a row after that and got my time down to 46m53 by December of that year.

Since then, I have gone on to do 124 different parkruns in 10 different countries.

The countries are 

South Africa

Swaziland

Namibia

Italy

France

Australia

Scotland

Netherlands

Denmark

Russia

I’ve met lovely people along the way and things have changed a lot since I started including Covid, where we couldn’t have parkrun at all, Russia being kicked out of the parkrun community, France not starting up again because they need medical certificates for people to run, new countries added, a wonderful new app called 5k that keeps all your starts and your barcode. In the early days, if you didn’t have your printed barcode you could not be credited for a run at all and people would have copes of their friends’ barcodes just in case.

Tomato soup

 I know this seems to be an odd thing to blog about but when I think of a favourite childhood meal, it’s always this one that comes to mind first.

I’m about 5 or 6 years old and go to Kensington Ridge primary school in my checked pink and white uniform dress that has a matching belt fitted through the loops in the waist. Black buckled school shoes and short white socks complete the outfit.

After school I go to my grans house next door to our house and go up her stairs into the entrance hall and down the red Persian looking carpeted passage into the kitchen. A big wooden table is on the one side of the room and square checkered tiles of red and turquoise glitter on the floor. In the white cabinets I recall a tin of Pawmag? I think it was blue and white and helped with acid, I’ll google it. Strange thing to remember, I don’t ever recall ever having any.

Found this on google!

On the table would be a large cream coloured soup bowl with high rims and the outer rim had little pink flowers with greenery. Inside the bowl would be my beloved tomato soup, rich and glistening and a swirl of cream in the center of the bowl. On a side plate, white sliced bread or toast cut up into soldiers to eat with the soup. I can go right back to that time in an instant when I eat tomato soup. 

These days, the easiest version comes in a plastic container from Woolworths, but the feeling it evokes is just the same.

I have lots of photos of tomato soup on my phone because a friend of mine Peter, also loves the tomato soup served with a grilled cheese that you get at our Mugg and Bean restaurants in South Africa and whenever either of us order this, we send each other a photo. It’s a nice tradition that reminds me of favourite childhood moments and how they are woven into modern memories and friendships.

What I learned during my Australian quarantine

    - I can be alone

- I can keep calm when fire breaks out on our floor

- Balcony visits are a life-saver

- Human contact is essential

- I love not wearing shoes and 2 weeks of this was wonderful

- Fairy lights delight me

- Kind people do exist and I’m lucky I related to so many of them

- I love watching planes

- Gratitude always helps

- I can exercise anywhere

- Protein bars microwaved inside apples makes a delightful desert

- I’m resilient and creative

- I can live in an apartment

- Having something to look forward to is essential 

- I don’t talk out loud to myself

- I love learning new things and there is so much to learn

- I can sweet talk people into delivering ice cream to my friends and I everyday

- I can stand up for myself and fight against injustice

- I don’t need a lot to be happy

- I can find the good in every situation