Classic

The 'weekly humour" link on the left is pure gold. I will be updating this link once or twice a week with a little humour, from songs to old classic commercials. So keep an eye out. Take a look at this weeks for a sampler. There is plentymore where that came from.

This week I have included 2 bits of humour, you really should look at the "Classic Cat Videos" link on the left it is a hoot.

Appreciating Beer

Can anyone come up with a better way to start a long weekend than this "'Quickly approaching is the Coopers Beer Appreciation night" Yes a beer appreciation night, I thought every night was a beer appreciation night but now they have been made official. I will obviously be heading off there ASAP after work, it is exactly what I need after an absolutely killer week of 11 hour days minimum so tonight we kick back with a few icy colds and slide into the weekend, literally after appreciating all the beer.

There are still no pics of the twins as yet though they are both out of high care now and should be heading home today sometime, which I am sure Mark and Robyn are stoked about. It must be quite strange heading home after having twins-but without the twins!!!! Anyway teachers enjoy your first night of 3 hour feeds etc. Mark, can you tell them apart yet? I hope it all goes well as they settle into their new home and you 3 into your new family.

I have posted some pics in the photo section from Val DÍsere where Sarah and I went Skiing with my folks last year so take a look. I will be adding some more from the States and Whistler this weekend.

Enjoy your labour day everyone, I know Robyn did!!!

Wedding Bells

One day to go until Liam and Megan tie the knot in Johannesburg on Thursday. Just want to wish the two of you all the best for the future and I hope that Thursday is everything the two of you want it to be.

All the best and sorry we couldn’t be there with the two of you to celebrate.

New Toys

As you can see we have added a little to the site so have a look around. You can find the Gold Coast weather pixie or vote on the on-line poll. We will be uploading more pics over the next few days so keep an eye out. The site will be changing as I find new gadgets so keep your eye on it.

Macca

Welcome Kelly and Kirsten Vorster

I am sure you have all been through the situation of receiving text messages at all hours of the evening. Well it got to the stage where I started leaving my phone no where near my bedroom to try and get that little extra but oh so valuable 10 minutes of sleep.

However twice in the last 2 weeks I have had to bring my phone into the room to act as an alarm. Can you believe that the only 3 texts I have received over the last 3 weeks have come through at 3am and 5am respectively and on the only 2 nights that my phone has been in the room-Murphy’s law I guess.

This morning I was not to unhappy as when the phone beeped at 4.50am it was bringing the fabulous news that my sister had lost 4kgs in a little over 2 hours. Yes the twins were born at 18:20 at Parklands hospital weighing in at 1.8 and 2.2kg respectively. Mother and daughters are all well which is great news. I am sure you all along with Sarah and I congratulate Robyn and Mark on a job well done and welcome Kelly and Kirsten Vorster to the world. Robyn I am sure is pleased to have her body back to herself and I have it on good authority (mine) that Mark will be doing all the baby sitting as Robyn goes to a five star resort Spa for the next week to recuperate. He was never that into sleeping anyway.

Well done guys, we are glad it all went well and look forward to seeing the photos of the girls soon. Until such a time as we have seen photos the one I have posted at the top of this page will have to do.

The just of it is that when the news is as good as above it is a pleasure to hear that phone beeping, even at 4.50am on a Saturday.

Five time uncle
Mac

Online Photo's

Well I reckon I have started figuring how to get photo’s linked to the blog page. I have started moving some across though all will take a little longer as believe it or not I do work for a living!! The best way to view them is to click the link, go into the album and view as a slide show. As I have said I will be posting more photo’s over the weekend.

Not much is planned for the next few days, it is fantastic knowing that there are another 2 four day weeks coming up, in Oz anyway with Anzac Day on Tuesday followed by labour day. It is almost like SA in that most of April seems to be short weeks. Great if you are collecting a wage.

Have a great weekend

Happy Easter and a Wedding Date

Well after a few crazy weeks work wise I have finally found the time between work, golf, day trips and Super 14 rugby to pen this little update for all of you.

Work has really been flying in the last few weeks with the resignation of a colleague of mine in Brisbane who has decided to head out to greener pastures. This has proven to be a positive event with regards to my personal progress within Fyreguard as I assumed all of his responsibilities regarding the Certification of the fire collars as well as carrying on with the firestopping side of the business. This basically opened the door for me in that I now have a touch on every aspect of the business and opening the gap for some real growth. It is not all roses though as obviously my work load has more than doubled and my regular blog updates may suffer due to this.

I hope you have all had a festive Easter with many golden liquid chocolates for all of you. Our’s has been pretty good. The Reds beating the Bulls being a nice little highlight (reasons being it opens up the Sharks chance of a semi berth, I haven’t turned Australian yet) though I was backing the Bulls silently in the cauldron of the Benowa Tavern surrounded by a mob of 3 Queensland Reds supporters. We started off the weekend with a few icy colds around the BBQ - as you do!!! Friday was a fantastic sleep in with Sarah and I taking on the Gold Coast Country Clubs front 9 in the afternoon. Sarah has really come on in leaps and bounds on the course and I am pretty confident she could rival any of the old Cottenham Drive four ball in driving distance. Not a tough task admittedly but still a feat not to be sniffed at after only her 5th game. She is really starting to get to grips with the game, so much so that she has even begun to come to terms with the lingo and was heard to mutter on the 8th “stupid bloody ball” showing that she has really come a long way!!!

Saturday Sar’s reckoned we take a trip to O’Reilly’s, Happy Days, what better way to spend a Saturday than in an Irish pub with the footy on telly sinking a few of those lovely black guys (Guinness). Much to my dismay then when O’Reilly’s turned out to be a rain forest about 2 hours away in the bush and set out for the walkers of the world. We all know the only walking I do involves 14 clubs and 18 holes!!!
No really it was a great day. O’Reilly’s in the mountains just back from the coast and is a lovely day in the “bush”. On arrival you are greeted by wild parrot’s in the trees and supposedly Wallabies on the ground though these were no where to be seen (must have heard the Springboks were in town and decided to hide) we did however see one on the golf course so weren’t too perturbed. We partook in the Tree Top walk which was really good and consisted of a series of suspension bridges set out in the tops of the trees near the canopy of the rain forest. It gives you a completely different perspective from up there.

Sunday we were back on the golf course with Sarah refining her vocabulary and smashing it further than Happy Gilmore off his 2 step. The evening with decided to do the cultural thing and headed off to the Casino to watch the Waratahs take on the Brumbies while Sarah dabbled on the Pokies. This was like a slice of heaven for about an hour when I walked into the pub and found both the rugby on the big screen and right next to it the cricket, also on a big screen. I did the right thing, ordered 2 beers, one for each code and figured this is what my lounge should look like.

Sunday we took the next real step in planning and went to test a venue for our wedding. We have decided on the 21 April 07 is the day and seem to have found a lovely place in Burleigh Heads. It sits right on the Ocean (2 meters from the water) and looks out across the beach and ocean where you can see Surfers Paradise in the distance. It is a really stunning venue and at this time of year in the morning is just glorious. The rest of the day was spent just relaxing and listening to the top 1000 songs of all time countdown on radio, yes 1000. Can you believe it though I got distracted by my fantasy rugby league update and missed the last 20 songs. Bummed.

I hope you al have had a cracking week and I will be posting again next week, so leave a comment on any current issues you have and I will try and respond accordingly.

Yours in blog
Mac the knife

Sun, Surf, Boerewors and Beer

The weekend has left us as we count down the next 5 days to the weekend. It is not often you look back and think to yourself “that was a cracking weekend” well in this instance that is exactly what it was. I would not change a minute of it except perhaps for the thumping I was handed on the Boules pitch by Sar’s and her Dad. Yes I was hammered by a girl and a pensioner, in normal circumstances this would have been a tragedy but I managed to redeem myself on Sunday when we added Sarah’s aunt from NZ to the game and called it the Boules Tri-Nations. Just the mention of “Tri-Nations” will bring out any proud South Africans “A” game and I duly responded for the team. More of that later.

Saturday morning Sarah made our way to Burleigh Heads (10kmsouth of Surfers Paradise) with the plan being to get me a fishing rod, seeing all the water around these parts and hearing the fishing report got me quite excited so we headed out with gusto. On arrival in Burleigh, it was the most stunning day so we headed for a coffee. We found the most amazing spot for Breakfasts and coffee. It sat right on the point; our table was 1m from the rocks and 5 from the waters edge. 50m north there were guys surfing and people on the beach relaxing. You have to see this place and the prize for anyone visiting us in Aus will be Brekky at Mermaids in Burleigh. After our coffees we ventured forth in search of a fishing stick for myself-nothing suited what I wanted so we head back for surfers and in conversation decide we would both like to go for surf. Needless to say all fishing thoughts went straight out of my head as now we are on the hunt for surfboards (bodyboards), strike while the iron is hot and before Sar’s changes her mind are my thoughts at this point. Into to Amart sports (sportsman’s warehouse) and we pick up 2 boards, fins, leashes and many looks at us saying “bloody tourists”. Sarah’s folks gave us the same look when we arrived home and say something on the line of “Mac you won’t even get in the pool because it is to cold and now you are going to swim in the ocean, like hell”. Anyway I wax the boards and we are planning a dawn patrol for Sunday morning. More important things we are having a BBQ/Braai this evening as Sarah’s aunt is over from NZ. We have stacked the fridge got the baarbie out, bought some boerewors (yes it is available here) and some steak. We crack into a fantastic evening outdoors with beer and meat. I am sure it is scripted somewhere that this is how Saturday evening should be spent. At some stage during the evening I tell Sarah’s dad to wake us at 5.30am as we have waves to tame.

True as Bobs your uncle there is a bloody bang on the door at 5.30. Misty eyed and head we head for main beach, new boards fins in their bags. We get there and the surf is pumping, 5 foot glassy hollow beach break and no one out, really reading 2 foot slight chop but looks like some fun considering Sarah has never done this. We spend over an hour and believe it or not it starts to get crowded (5 people out) so we pack it in having had an absolute ball, Sarah has been heard wailing in delight on her 1st wave (which boards well for future sessions). We both head up feeling invigorated at getting some real exercise and find a spot on the beach for brekky. As the rest of the Gold Coast is waking up we are already well into the day (I have to restore some Boules pride later). On arrival home it is coffee and croissants in the garden, then the family heads out for some retail therapy. All except me that is, I have spotted the TV guide and have a choice of the Australian GP, Aussie Rules Football, and The Bronco’s in Rugby League, Golf and football on telly. There was no chance I was going shopping. Having trouble making a decision I do the obvious thing and channel surf between the sports. Not very active I know but let’s not forget that I need my rest for the Tri-Nations Boules later in the day (have I mentioned that already).

The dream weekend ends with us sitting down the most fantastic dinner cooked by Sar’s mom of fillet steak with various veg and a bottle of wine, I am looking for angels as this is heaven I reckon. Then it is off to bed, trophy on the pillow but still no fishing rod!!!!

Happy Days