A very busy couple of weeks!

In January, we went down to Ballito to visit my mom-in-law and she was not doing well, spent some real quality time with her and said our goodbyes. She was still making wisecracks and entertaining us at that stage but said she had had enough. Sadly 3 weeks later she passed away at home in her own bed, the way she wanted. My father in law did an absolute sterling job of making her as comfortable as possible and seeing to it that she had, and did, everything she wanted to. I am really glad we had the time with her and memories of her bring a smile to my face.

We had a memorial service down at the Ballito beach in February. It was a lovely way to say goodbye and it was wonderful to see cousins and friends. We really had a great weekend.

Got back into swimming and now do a kilometer every time I get to gym. Try to go 4 times a week and this is my preparation for the Midmar Mile. I have until Feb 2011.

Tarryn and Trevor are teaching on a Saturday morning at on outreach programme. He does the high school computers and she does the primary English, math etc. She had a photo shoot done by a work friend of mine and I loved the results.



Devin has given up BMX for the year and although it gives me a lot of extra time, I miss being part of the whole thing. He has crazy about soccer and that is all he cares about at the moment.

Kiara is also working on a Sunday now. She is waitressing at a nursery and is enjoying it so far. She is also teaching kiddies for a couple of hours each week at the local ice-rink.

Bookclub was at my house this month, followed 2 days later by Tarryn’s 21st. We had a tea party for the oldies and had loads of food drink and speeches. We took photos and videos to record the occasion. It is such a nice feeling to have family and friends over to help celebrate an occasion like this. Grandad made the effort to be there for her day too! For her “real” party, she is taking 6 friends away to Sun City for the weekend.

Work wise, the trainee tester graduate program is underway for the next yesr, they have completed their classroom training and are now doing “on-the-job” training until they write their final exam on the 30th April. It is such a good feeling to interview these people, see them being trained in a brand new (to them) discipline and watch how they handle the challenges. Their first presentation of their case study was as stressful for me as it was for them. They have all done really well.

I was fortunate enough to be part of the team that was chosen to share
R1 000 000 as prize money for being part of the innovation campaign that we have at work. Our internal training academy for Hogan Cobol, operators and test analysts that we set up was a winning team. It was a big team that shared the prize, but really cool nonetheless :)

I went on a week’s training and then wrote an exam that had to get couriered to London for marking. It was quite stressful, waiting for the results, as a third of the paper was from a module that I wrote over 3 years ago and threw the notes away! I passed :)

My mom is much chirpier, she has joined a “friends” group at the church and now has something to look forward to on a Thursday afternoon.

Other than that, life is good.
Still working on achieving my goals and having fun, the tickets for the Uriah Heep, Deep Purple and Wishbone Ash are booked, so are the World Cup football games.
Thanks for keeping in touch, I love hearing from you all.
Tasha

Christmas has come and gone in a flash, not a very festive time for me. I’m glad it is over. Perhaps this year will be better. I certainly hope so.

My goals are progressing nicely, I have finished a few more and need to just get my head down and accomplish some more. I just feel like I am not anchored at the moment and have yet to establish quite what the thing/s are that are causing this in my life. I have been so disorganized and not at all motivated to change at the moment, I have not even planned and booked our holidays and weekends away. I usually do this in October the year before!

One of the causes of my lack of time at the moment is my addiction to the Facebook application called Farmville. I do not usually play or enjoy any type of computer game but this one has me hooked. I stopped for a week and felt such relief, but unfortunately I was lured into the game again. One of my friends was banned from playing by her husband and I saw other people commenting on her Facebook page saying things like “How did he get that right, wish I could get my husband to stop”, and “My girlfriend has no time for me anymore, wish she would quit”.

Tarryn is having a wonderful time. She had her boob op and is very pleased with the results. I am very proud of her for having the courage to make a decision, save for it, plan and select the doctor and then follow through on the whole thing. It has given her a lot more confidence too. She is loving the job she has and the people she works with are fantastic.

Kiara is in the final phase of high school. He boyfriend’s name is Devin, causing much confusion in our home with the names. She did very well at the end of last year with minimal effort again. Her dream is to go to Paris with her friend Meagan for her 16th birthday this year. I am not sure how feasible that will be at the moment but we will have to see.

Devin goes to his final year of primary school and I have no idea what high school we are going to. I guess I better get my act together soon and sort something out.

Update soon
Tasha