January 2009

I am still the luckiest person I know. I really do lead a charmed life and have been so fortunate. I have the most amazing people in my life and every day I am reminded of how blessed I am. I am a spoilt brat and I just love this life!

Don’t know how to top this introduction, it still all applies!

Tarryn
She is having a tough time at the moment as she is still very confused and undecided about what to do with her life. At this stage she feels that she does not want to be stuck in a 9-5 office job, she does not want to study at university and does not want to sit at home doing nothing. So, she faces quite a challenge. She is helping Costa with his water business and some bookkeeping to keep busy.

The kids all went to Cape Town in December to visit their cousins and had a wonderful time. They had a nasty episode on the way to the Cape Town airport to catch their flight home, a smash and attempted grab incident. The guy broke the passenger window where Tarryn was sitting and tried to grab her bag, between her and Marina they fought back and she ended up with a deep gash in her hand. She was taken from the airport to a nearby clinic. Devin got to ride in the ambulance with her and thought that was too cool. She had stitches and they missed their flight. The members of staff at the local “One Time” airlines were superb and made arrangements for all of them to catch a later flight at no extra charge! We do deliver service in South Africa.

She completed her scuba open water qualification and breezed through the course and loved it.

Kiara
She is growing up so quickly, clothes crazy, new haircut and can’t leave the house without doing her face. She doesn’t take after me in that regard, must be from her Nanna. She passed well and is now in her second year of high school, just back from a 3 day camp with her school friends, where judging by the anecdotes and photos, they had a great time. She is crazy about the Stephanie Meyer Twilight books and is on the last one at the moment. She also goes through books in a day or two, takes after me there at least!

Devin
Is quickly entering the teenage phase and his goal for this year is to kiss a girl. He is now in the second last year of primary school. BMX is still his main sport although skateboarding comes a close second. He is such a happy-go-lucky easy child.

Mom
She is doing ok at the moment. She bravely passed the 1 year anniversary of Colin’s death and then got the summer flu. She is still our chef during the week and plays the mom’s taxi role too.

Patsy and Roger (other mom and dad)
It was great to see the folks for their 50th wedding anniversary in November last year. All the kids and grandkids were there and we celebrated with a grand meal at our favourite restaurant in Ballito, Mariner’s, I had prawns and red wine (bliss). It was lovely family time and nice to have everyone together, having fun.

The Boyfriends
Yes, this category still exists for both Tarryn and I. Trevor is now in his second year at design school where he is completing a graphic design course. Costa and I are doing well. We flew down to Geraldine’s wedding in Durban and joined the rest of the supperclub bunch at an amazing B&B and had a lovely time at her perfect wedding. We also went to visit my in-laws in Ballito and I really enjoyed that evening too.

Work
The team went to the Barnyard theatre to see the Circus of Rock show and it was a great afternoon. We were fed and entertained amazingly well and I loved the time spent there with the hooligans.
We have a new manager now Hilton and he will start getting involved in the next 2 months, so we will see how that goes. Our quality team is working on a new project that is very exciting but as always everything seems to take so long to happen. I can’t wait to get stuck in and start.
I was lucky enough to be able to attend a voice coaching course and learnt so many new things.

Diving
I did not do too well in the pool sessions when we were doing our diving training so I decided not to continue, but I did agree to go to Mocambique with Tarryn when she did her qualifying dives. We had a long great weekend there and I went out on the dive boats to see exactly what they do. I was the nominated sucker that had to drink sambucca out of a skull cup for my non-participation.

I have agreed to have a second go at diving and am waiting for the new dates in the coming months.

Scrapping
I have moved my scrapping room to the outside room. I had it repainted and carpeted and it has become my hidey hole where I can escape form the world. I LOVE spending time there and have my iPod playing, my digital photo frame displaying my latest photo choices and coffee and chocolate close at hand. Please don’t confuse this new room with any actual scrapbooking, I haven’t managed to get around to that yet. Still only organize, arrange and collect supplies 

Gym
I am back at gym and have managed to get up to a 1km swim per session at the outdoor pool there. Crazy about my gym, it is open 24/7/365. How amazing is that?
They even have outdoor treadmills! I also train at the work gym on the treadmill with my friend Juanette, although I have been quite slack in the past 2 weeks.

and …
We got away to Durban and Sun City so far this month, my ticket to London is pending dates… Still spending time on Facebook, scrabble, reading and my new project is to get all our videotapes onto DVD. That seemed like a simple but time consuming task until the 1st video where I saw Richard, I couldn’t watch without dissolving into tears, funny how sometimes I can watch with fondness and other times not. This year on the 4th March will be 10 years since he was killed. Hard to believe that so much time has passed.

Richard’s aunty Ellen and uncle Brian from Canada came to visit and we all loved seeing them and listening to the stories they had to tell.


We had a new addition to the clan this year, my nephew and his wife in America had a baby boy. Congrats again Dene & Holly!

Still meet my supper club friends once a month, book club too. A few of us now have started going to the monthly “chick flick” at the movies and I manage to combine that with a quick sushi dinner.

I am missing the sunshine, we have had so much rain lately.
Keep well and keep in touch.
Regards
Natasha