Awards, Valentine's baby and a Woody Wagon

For those of you who didn't know, my sister Janet and her partner Dennis, are the owner/operators of the raptor rehabilitation centre 'Radical Raptors' in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. How exciting it was to see this double page spread  published in the prestigious South African Airways in-flight magazine and in which the centre and the fantastic work that they do is highlighted for tourists and locals to see and hopefully, make plans to call in and visit.

We were so thrilled for you and hope that the article brings loads of visitors and new friends (adoptive and financially supportive ones especially!) to visit and spread the word about the incredible work that you guys are doing!

If you should happen to find yourself in the vicinity, do yourself a big favour and go and see them at 'The Heath' - situated beside the N2 highway, 7km from Plettenberg Bay (travelling in the direction of Knysna) You will have such an experience watching Dennis fly the birds and will learn an immense amount about these magnificent but sadly threatened creatures.

And then it was Valentine's Day - hugely financially positive for the florists who were charging so much for red roses - single, long stemmed in a pretty paper cone with a ribbon and a couple of heart stickers - average price $50.00 and a dozen costing anywhere up to $200.00! (Dis R1,000.00 mense!)

 Luckily for us, we don't care much for cut red roses - this picture of our grandson Estan made our Valentine's day very special!

Last night, the very spectacular and prestigious 'New Zealander of the Year' awards were held at a glittering ceremony in Auckland. Here is the 'Young NZ of the Year' - Sam Johnson who was the driving force and 'CEO' of the student volunteer army which rallied to shovel and sweep and load and clear streets and gardens and driveways for the folks of Christchurch after the disaster of the earthquake hit and the city was smothered in liquefaction. He was regularly featured on the news, standing atop an old ute (bakkie) with his gumboots on and loadhailer in hand, dishing out instructions to sometimes thousands of students who had arrived to pitch in. Eventually, these students were issued with brooms, spades, buckets, wheelbarrows - everything needed to make the job a little easier on the volunteers.

In his acceptance speech, Sam said he felt that young people could do repairs with a piece of wire just as well as their more senior citizens, they just used computers to set up the plan and facebook to 'gather the troops'

Well done Sam! Fantastic to have proven to the average New Zealander that not all young folk are lazy and self serving and there are thousands who are willing to roll up their sleeves and make a real difference. Good on ya mate!

How tragic the loss of such a magnificent voice.And how sad the circumstances of her death - in some ways her life seems to have been terribly sad too.

At this point it's still a 'nobody really knows' from the coroner so perhaps we will never know, but one has to wonder how different things could have been had there never been the scourge of drugs, abuse and alcohol in her life. Some of the published pictures of her most recently have been horribly unflattering - here is how I choose to remember her - forever young!

When timber for large projects is somewhat expensive and you really still enjoy pottering about creatively in the garage with wood, you send off to the USA for a pattern and gather up scraps of wood that you have and make something for someone!

Here is an approximately 80% completed 'Woody Wagon' which has kept Jo busy in the garage for a good few hours - once it is completed, we will post pictures for you to see.

 We are contemplating a pink construction truck as the next project to tackle.

Dis al!