This blog is NOT a "look at my baby" blog, but....

Against all our intentions to not make this a totally child-centric blog, I couldn't help but show off this oh-so-grownup shot of our freshly-turned-3 year old on her birthday a couple weeks ago. 

It was certainly a nice day. And our first experience ever with someone wishing for something specific: when asked what she would like for her birthday, the answer was:  "Cake? And juice." Let's just hope we can keep up that non-materialistic sentiment that we've been trying to hardwire her with.

February pictures

A couple of pictures that sum up the month of February, which involved a knee operation:

There was also a nice meeting with our adoption support group in Pretoria, conviniently while J2 was still recovering down south

And JJ had a chance to play with all her new friends there.

One other big event during February: we moved house. This kept us busy for some time obviously, the whole packing and unpacking is always a nightmare. I just realize I have no pictures at all of the move, but will post some pictures of the new house soon.

J1

some random January pictures

Here are some randim pictures from my phone, all taken during January this year:



This is a sight you would not see in many places, but is a daily occurance in Gaborone: a baboon visiting the one of the most prestigious office parks.

We started taking long walks a few times a week, to get those little toddler legs used to some miles. One of her favourite stops was the guiney fowls.



We bought a new tent for the office for fieldwork, and before taking it out I put it up on our lawn quickly, to make sure it was all complete. Someone did not want me to take it back down.

J1

Another Blogging Hiatus - with good reason

Yes, it's been another one of those long breaks, but not without purpose. There were things like knee surgeries (mine) which included long weeks of immobility and crutches, house moves (into The Big City!), a 10 year wedding anniversary & birthday (also mine!) to celebrate, and an extended temporary haul of someone (me) to Lesotho for one of our many existing jobs in far-flung locations. Some photos of the events that have transpired are included below, in that order.

The first one - knee surgery (x2) in Johannesburg. Luckily our friend Alan lives there and I holed up at his place while bed-ridden. J1 & J3 came down to visit for the 2nd half of my "lodging experience" there. The hospital in Jozi was great, although very lonely :(  I had a 4-person room all to myself and no visitors. Drag. Luckily a very sweet husband brought me a banjo to occupy my time with, once he made his way down to help me recoup.

The anniversary/birthday week included a child-free weekend in Madikwe game reserve where we saw lots of animals and refused the 6am morning game drives so that we could sleep in. Very lucky to have friends the Foxes to look after the youngling while we enjoyed some time OFF of parental duties.

Lesotho is a beautiful mountain kingdom with diamonds. We're working on the environmental studies for one of the big mines. The fieldwork was actually semi-pleasant for a change, being in such stunning scenery and having a "special guest star" consultant join me for the aquatic biology component of the assessment. Hint: we used to share a last name, and have literally known each other since Day 1...

Franschhoek

The last holiday post for the Christmas break, and there are two parts to this post. We went to the Franschhoek wine area for 2 beautiful nights, and visited the Franschoek motor museum, which was amazing to me (but kind of boring to the other J's....). They have over 600 cars, with a changing display of about 80 of their collection. It included this old motorbike below, but there was not sign with this one, does anyone know what this is?

They had a really nice display of old Mercedes cars, something I have always been interested in

An then.....10 Ferarri's in one hall, quite a sight.

Ok, that is all for the cars, now more about the wine and the food. The area is known for many great chefs, and of course we sampled some of the places.

A view of the mountains, with the vineyards right in front of them, we really love this place!

The Vrede en Lust winery included a cheese tasting opportunity to go along with the wines, as well as babysitting for JJ.

A picture of the cheese display below.

Another picture of the beautiful scenery below.

There was also a local coffee roasting company, who even made a 'babychino' for JJ!

After this, with a stop on the way in Kimberly, we made it back home. And we managed to bring quite a selection of great wines home, in addition to a supply of limes (not available here)

Cape Town

Next stop on the trip, the "mothercity", always a treat. Of course the V&A waterfront is always nice, but this time we also went to a few less touristy places. The below picture is at a really nice Greek restaurant in the waterfront.

 Christmas tree at the waterfront, and some other decorations.....

 The Banana Jam Cafe, a really nice Jamaican restaurant and micro brewery, a really nice place, with a lollypop for Julia...

and beers for us.... 

 next day we went for a nice drive down to Kalkbay and walked around in the harbour, watching the seals

 From there we drove back through the famous Chapmans peak drive, with a beautiful view of the city.

 This last picture is taken from Bokaap, where we later enjoyed a great cape-malay meal

Cape town is always great, maybe we get to stay there some day in the future......

Next and last holiday post is about the Cape winelands, which will finish all the holoday stuff

Plet

Ok, let me do another holiday post straight away, this as Christmas at Plettenbrug Bay, enjoying the beach.

 and the ocean....

and a really nice seafood Chrismas dinner with our friends

Not a bad way to celebrate Christmas!

Hogsback

Sorry, there has been a little delay in me finishing the holiday story, due to various distractions such as knee operations etc, but the pictures of our holiday are quite nice, so I will quickly finish the holiday story, so we can post some recent stuff.

After Durban we went to Hogsback, a very nice small place on top of a mountain, in the days before Christmas it was foggy and only 12 degrees C. The place is very laid back and alternative, much more on the Hogsback website.



 We bought this beautiful smoked trout from someone smoking them in their backyard / garage.

 Some really nice small pubs, restaurants and cafes to enjoy a meal and a glass of wine.

And because it was so chilly, there was a roaring fire in every place, very cozy for the Christmas period.

The place we stayed was also great, with a nice fire again....

J1

Durban

Next stop on our route, Durban! We got to catch up and stay with our friends (house with ocean view), and meet their two kids. First day we went to the uShaka Marine world aquarium. JJ really enjoyed watching all the fish...and so did we. Here are some pictures:

After the marineworld we went to the Durban beach for some nice cocktails, which was very nice to see.

Staying with friends (with same age kids) meant that JJ got to play with some exciting new toys, we went around the block together on this bicycle.

There was also a nice day at the mall, some last minute Christmas shopping, and a fun ride with the new friend in the arcade.

The two little girls together, they were best friends most of the time, some times there was a bit of competition...

More to come.....