Mega Computer

Well I am back on-line, Sarah and I went on Saturday evening and purchased a super computer for the house with a screen bigger than my tv!!!! It is fantastic. All the all the weekend was a good one after the irritation of Friday when my laptop was stolen had worn we really settled in for a good one on the golf course on Saturday.

Sarah and I have joined a surf club which works out really well as it encourages us to actually get out of bed fairly early on a Sunday (7am) and get to the beach. We ahve been down there the past 2 weekends for a long early morning walk, it isn't quite warm enough to surf yet, followed by breakfast on the balcony. It is really a great way to start the day.

We have been spending lots of time in the garden and house-the work never seems to be complete. I am 90% of the way through planting my lawn and it is starting to take shape now-I had to mow it on Saturday heaven forbid (1st time in 30 years)!!!!! The weather forecast had been for some rain this week (we are in level 3 water restrictions at the moment-no hose pipes) so on hearing that I promptly sowed another section of lawn seeds into the garden. I would love to show you some before and after pics of the house but my laptop was stolen when our office was burgled on Thursday so we have lost alot of our pictures from when we moved in and our last weeks in London which is really dissapointing.

It is really good being in your own place- you actually don't mind working on it. We have really good nieghbours across the road and next to us, we have had dinner with them and went across for beers yesterday. The area seems to be quite young (our age) and mostly first time buyers. Everyone is really cool and there is a real neighbourhood (not neighbours) feel about the place. We seem to be out in the street or over at someones house every weekend-nothing like the UK where I don,t think in 4 years I ever knew my Neighbours.

Sarah and I are off to Sydney on Wednesday, we figured it had been 6 months since we got away and both of us have been flat out at work so it was time for a long weekend. We are going to stay with Sar's cousin Gen who has kindly offered us accomodation for 3 nights while we do the tourist thing and just kick back for a couple of days-should be fun. I am trying to convince Sarah to do the bridge climb though we will have to see. Watch this space for pics next week.

SA or Australia

Well, this is just a quick note to say that it may be a while until the next blog due to the theft of my laptop, taken out of the office sometime between 6pm and 6am this morning. There is a lot of catching up to do including the house updates, joining of surf clubs, purchase of camping tents, my now being top of the fantasy rugby leagues (eat your heart out Toby) and our upcoming trip to Sydney next week.

So until I am back online

Adios

Good old Saffer/Aus/Japanese/UK bbq/braai

Long time I know, though between fighting off the flu and munching on Boerie Rolls with some old friends and expat saffers there hasn't been much time.

We were lucky enough last week to have our first of many social gatherings at our new house, effectively breaking in the place, before the event there was a fair bit of rush purchasing as we have the sum total of zero garden furniture so a few quick purchases were necessary!!!!

It was really good to have the ex JHB now Brisbane based Eldridges over for some boerie rolls delivered to them by the SA shop. As we looked back the last time we were all in the same place together was a little over 10 years ago when I was in Oz. Back in SA (the Eldridges immigrated 20 years ago) growing up the families would go caravaning once a month over a period that must have been 5 years. Needless to say it was now an extended Eldridge clan with Kim and her Fiancé Kame out from Japan and Kevins girlfriend Rachel from London also having to put up with campfire story's along with my Sarah.

It soon became a typical BBQ as once the designated driving positions were assigned the beers and wine really flowed, at one stage Kevin and Leanne playing backyard cricks with a spade and baseball!!!!!! It was a really good day with loads banter and bulls... about the place. It really was a fantastic day and we look forward to the next one!

This weekend there is a small celebration taking place as it is Sarah's folks 50th wedding anniversary-yes 50 years!!!!! We are all heading out for dinner on Sat night presuming I win the fight against the flu. Obviously a small congratulations is in order and I am still trying to convince Sarah's dad to write a book.

Suicide Bomber

Are you getting a bad rap?

I can think of a few people to put onto this site, dontdatehimgirl.com . A website devoted to guys you girls should stay away from. Wow, truly amazing! You know I will be checking the names of a select few that I know just to see if they made the cut!!!

I reckon it is time the blokes came up with something similar.

The Ant and the Grasshopper

I am sure this can be tweaked to suit South Africa to!!!


THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
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THE MODERN AUSTRALIAN VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate like him are cold and starving.
The ABC and Channel 9 show up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper, with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a table filled with food.
Australians are stunned that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty.
The Democrats, the Greens and the Coalition Against Poverty demonstrate in front of the ant's house.
The ABC, interrupting an Aboriginal cultural festival special from North Queensland with breaking news, broadcasts them singing "We Shall Overcome."
Bob Brown rants in an interview with Ray Martin that the ant has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share."
In response to polls, the Liberal Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act, retrospective to the beginning of the summer.
It is quickly passed through the Senate.
The ant's taxes are reassessed and he is also fined for failing to hire grass hoppers as helpers.
Without enough money to pay both the fine and his newly imposed retrospective taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
The ant moves to Asia, and starts a successful agribiz company.
The TV stations later show the now fat grasshopper finishing up the last of the ant's food though Spring is still months away, while the government owned house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house crumbles around him because he hadn't maintained it.
Inadequate government funding is blamed, Kim Beasley now is appointed to head commission of inquiry that will cost $10,000,000.

The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose; the Sydney Morning Herald blames it on obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity.
The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders, praised by the government for enriching Australia's multicultural diversity, who promptly terrorize the community.

Long time

Yes yes it has been a while since we last posted on the site, I would love to say the lack of posting has been due to our extremely busy social lives and not having enough hours in the day but this is not so. We have been extremely busy though doing more of the usual you have been hearing of the past few weeks gone by. We have just been flat out working on the house, well not really the house but the garden and surrounds. It is starting to pay dividends to as you can really start to see that our labour is begining to bear fruit!! The grass is growing nicely where we once had stones and gravel (around 70% of the house) we have partially leveled the back garden-stage 2 is next week. The new post box is built and painted and the gardens have been cleared and plants have been planted-all of which have been carefully chosen to attract as much bird life as possible. The garden bed out the back is in construction and will also start to look good in the next few weeks once all the herbs are planted. Once that is completed we can start on the front of the house which will require as much work as the back. No doubt the house will look sensational once it is all complete (in 10 years). Once we have more progress on the house we will post some before and after pics on the site.

In between all of that work has been as crazy as usual, still working like a bugger though with winter on the wane it won't be long before we can start spending evenings in the garden with a beer and a baarbie-speaking of which we bought one last week. A super 4 burner BBQ which now owns the back yard, no house is complete without one and I am disgusted with myself that it took me a month to get it. We used it on Friday night though it was still a little cold (14 degrees) it was worth it. There is still no better way to see in a weekend than by tanning a few chops.

We are off to the neighbor's tonight for the rugby, hopefully this doesn't turn out to be another public humiliation for the boks as I don't think I can handle another debacle like 3 weeks ago. If it happened again I may need to skip the next 2 weeks of work until we redeem ourselves at home.

Other than the above I have managed to squeeze in a game of golf and book a holiday to Sydney for Sarah and I. We are going to spend 3 days down there over the Gold Coast Showday holiday doing the tourist and catching up with Sarah's cousin.