Winter

 Although Christchurch is still not anything like even partially rebuilt after the massive earthquake of 22nd February, the city has taken a large dumping of snow this past week.

Folks who live there and who have been battling liquefaction and gaping holes in their streets and backyards report that this white blanket has covered up all the ugliness and has shown them that with a pristine white cover, their surroundings could be beautiful again!

These photographs have featured in the news and were published under the title of:

"The icing on the quake"

 Queenstown in the South Island - playground of the affluent (well maybe not so much, but certainly 'affluenter than we') has a cableway which takes folks to the spectacular views enjoyed from the mountain top. This picture was taken just a week before Queenstown was all over the six o'clock news with chainless cars having slid off the beaten track - in the middle of town no less - and unceremoniously and precariously perched amidst snow drifts alongside the roads!

We had heard that there had been a bit of snow around our nearest ski resort and having begun to suffer mild cabin fever, took a drive up there to see it first hand.

 As you can see, there was a point at which we had to turn around, being sans chains for our wheels and sans four wheel drive capability.

 When cabin fever hits on a winters day in the school holidays, sometimes it's fun to 'adopt' some granddaughters (belonging to nannas who reside really far away!) and show them the basics of needlecrafts like knitting and crochet.
 Jackie and Helena are focussed on their knitting while Julia has just started a crochet journey - at the time of this writing, Julia's crochet blanket is starting to really take shape and it looks as though she will be creating some real art in the future!
Crafts that involve combinations of art and music are hugely entertaining and if all else fails, nothing beats a good jigsaw puzzle!

Dis al!

Pizzas, Production babies, photography and a smile.

It seems that in New Zealand, you can advertise your product while putting the competition down - in the sense that you can use actual names of pizza places and plonk their pizza boxes down on the 'production table' and 'compare' who does what, when and how. We were really surprised to see that they have charts and things which show the levels of fat and salt and other such nasty ingredients and then go on to tell you that the market research has shown (market research consisting of a trio of dubious and grubby looking male students) that the 'healthiest' one is also the cheapest and the one the 'tasters' liked the best. I don't know why I thought you couldn't 'name names' - unless of course, they all belong to the same pizza magnate!
On the same note, the advertising on washing powders is also 'put down all the others' - mmm... interesting!

Faithful blog followers will have seen pictures of our first grandchild - Matilda, who lives in Vancouver, Canada. We are entirely enamoured with the fact that technology allows us to 'connect' with our special folks however far away they might be and bless the inventors of such miracles as Skype and Facebook and the like on a fairly regular basis. Here is Matilda, pictured with her Daddy and modelling for her first International Debut with the Smurfs. The movie, which was released this past week, has one Andrew van der Spuy listed in the credits as an animator and lo and behold, also listed in the credits is Matilda - as production baby! How proud her grandparents are!!

 One of the really great things about Skype is that one can 'snap' a picture in the course of your conversation and have it to keep and put up on the blog and flash about on Facebook and so on! Here is Matilda giving her best smile for her grandmother in New Zealand.
Gone are the days of a little pocket  Brag-book of photographs, each one in its plastic cover and a flippable reminder of how the grandchildren looked when the photo was taken and how they probably don't look anymore! By the time you had had the photographs developed and collected them from the chemist or the stationers, (along with the flops which were either of your foot, a photograph of total blackness, or possibly a headless family member) and had paid an exorbitant amount of money for the aforementioned flops as well, that child had had another birthday and the clothes he was wearing on that day now belonged to his younger sibling or worse, had been through the sibling and were now in the heap on the trestle table at the church to be given away to the poor.
We can now enjoy our grandchildren on-line pretty well any time and update with the click of a mouse. Amazingly brilliant!


A man was strolling along a deserted beach one afternoon and came across a rusty old lamp lying half buried in the sand. Picking it up to admire it, he spat on his shirt corner and polished a spot on the lamp, only to have a vapourous genie appear in a blaze of colour and magic! "Thank you kind sir, for releasing me from the lamp in which I have been held captive for a hundred years - I can grant you one wish, for I am eternally grateful to you - what does your heart desire?" said the genie
The man thought for a moment and then scratching his head and glancing out over the ocean, he said." I have an inordinate fear of flying - my closest family has moved ten thousand miles away and since I also get terribly seasick, I would love you to organise a bridge from this here beach in South Africa to my family in New Zealand so that I can drive over there for a visit"
The genie thought for a couple of moments and then said," you know, thinking about it, it is an awfully long way - I mean, a BRIDGE that is thousands of miles long? Surely you realise that your request is nigh on impossible to grant? I don't want to appear ungrateful - after all I am ecstatic to be out of that lamp - but um.... is there not perhaps something else I can do for you instead? It really is an engineering impossibility...... a bridge THAT long? I don't think I can manage that."
The man thought for a little while and then he said," OK -I guess there is one other thing if you REALLY can't get me that bridge - I would like to be able to understand my wife - all women actually, but specifically my wife - I have no idea how her mind works, if she even has any logic and why she makes my life so impossible sometimes. That would be a good wish for you to grant Genie"
The genie looked around and then said "How many lanes did you think you would like on that bridge?"

Dis al!

Cave men, country blooms, cherubs, circles and conferences

I was browsing through our 'downloaded pics' file just recently and came across this cartoon - I know I didn't save this one, but in spite of being of the feminine persuasion, I have to admit, it's quite funny!
(especially since I seldom open my mouth and when it comes to 'pecking orders' I certainly know my place!!!)

 On the 15th of June each year, we celebrate International Pancake Day in honour and recognition of Alan's life.
For those of you who didn't know Alan, he was an unbelievably special guy, a husband, a dad, a cop, a brother, a son and made his way through life with the kind of humour that most of us wish we could find! Unique in our world, he was often unable to speak for laughing, baked pancakes at two in the morning on returning from a late shift and loved the swirling passion of the bagpipes.
The 15th of June was Alan's birthday and we, as a family, have pancakes on that day - if we are up to it, we settle down and watch Peter Sellers in 'The Party' - since that was Alan's favourite and best film of all time and which had him helpless with laughter even after the two hundreth time he watched it!!
So Al - here's to you little boet - we had an International Pancake Day here in New Zealand in your honour this year!!

We needed to go to Palmerston North a little while ago and on passing the entrance to Duddings Lake, (not very far from Wanganui off the State Highway) were struck by the red hot pokers lining the country road for as far as the eye could see.

Just had to stop and take a picture for you. I also learned that these blooms are known as Vuurpyle in Afrikaans - being 'flaming arrows' which is almost as descriptive as the English name.

 

 Faithful blog followers will remember the family's tragic loss of Estan van den Berg (17) - beloved son, nephew and cousin. Here is the newest addition to the Botha Clan - young Johann Estan Botha, beautiful baby son born to Melinda and Johann in Senekal, Freestate, South Africa.
Grandads Johann Botha and Johann Botha are thrilled to have another namesake - however, he will be called Estan - a very good idea if you ask me!

 
 Wanganui City Council has recently finished this 'entrance to the city' circle.
I'm not too sure what the symbolism is here - that is, if there is any symbolism - maybe they wanted a sort of 'golf bat' look.

Some folks have all the luck - when the author attends a symposium or conference, it's usually held in a musty, dusty church hall somewhere with mega-uncomfortable wooden fold up chairs that feed on pinched fingers as you sit down if you're not careful. Boring speakers, (often not even that clued up on the subject at hand) and cold tea and slightly soft Marie biscuits the only fare on offer.
Other folks, (given that life is incredibly not fair and we do accept this fact) go to places like this beautiful one in New Zealand - Queenstown - playground of the wealthy and provider of winter sports, haute coutier and award winning cuisine. We won't even mention the musicians and artists languishing there - plying their wares at startling prices. All the same, although the author does enjoy a bit of 'alone time' it is a bit irritating knowing that others are 'suffering through a symposium in Queenstown'!! Expected home later today, here's hoping there will at least be a couple of spectacular photographs to consider for acrylic 'masterpieces'!
Dis al!