Artist'sDate.

As a special treat for Father's Day Sarah had booked tickets for us to attend the John Cleese show at the Monte Casino in North Johannesburg. What a treat. We have been watching Fawlty Towers for years and years. Warren never fails to laugh and laugh!

We arrived early and enjoyed wandering around the shops and Casino. The disturbing thing is seeing so many older women playing the machines! Clearly these women don't have much and are probably addicted! I am sure they are hooked and loose more than they win! I don't wish to be judgmental but it is worrying!

 

Show time. The Teatra holds up to 1870 people and it felt and looked pretty full for the Sunday midday show! John Cleese is in South Africa for the movie Spud Two and is doing these monologue shows around the country. He calls it his "Alimony" show as he is still paying off his third wife and recently John Cleese(71) married again, to Jennifer Wade who is forty years his junior.

 

John Cleese took us through the journey of his career. He blames his Mother for his Black humour because she had a phobia about everything. At this point he pulled out a long list of his Mother's fears and as he read them the audience laughed and laughed and at the very end the last fear on the list was his Mother's fear of Princess Margaret!!

 

In between his chats he showed a few excerpts from his various shows. His favorite moments were ours too! What a privilege it was to see and hear John Cleese in person and to have a glimpse into this brilliant and talented man's life!!

Thank you Sarah and Adrien.

Oscar's birthday!

What fun it is to turn four and once again we are reminded that time flies! It is a whole four years since we were catching public buses to get to the hospital in Liege with Sarah to check up on her pregnancy! Catching buses was not a pleasant experience for a nine month pregnant, first time mother. Eventually Sarah was booked in to the hospiital as baby was well overdue and she needed to be monitored closely. This took place on a Tuesday and by Saturday morning she and the doctors gave up on wanting a natural birth and Oscar was produced by C section in the early hours of Saturday morning, the 21st June, 2009. Four years later here we are celebrating his fourth birthday!! Oscar loves parties and was very excited about his own.

 

On his actual birthday we all went to the school to enjoy the traditional lighting of his candles and singing songs with his classmates. His Dad had made a cake which was a practice round and it was too cute.(and a little scary).

The following day was his classmate Gia's birthday which I had the privilege of accompanying him to. It was fun to see all the children and meeting the yummy mummies.This Mummy hired a face painter and Oscar chose to be Spiderman

 

At last! Saturday dawned, the day of the party. It is mid winter and we were so relieved to see the sun shining and no wind. Perfect. The birthday boy and I stayed home while everyone went off to prepare the venue. The theme chosen for this year's party is Peter Pan!! Our outfit was all ready and waiting and off we set! got ready and off we set.

 

Sarah had hired Trefoil Park which is situated in Delta Park just down the road from their new home. It was PERFECT for the children with lots of space, trees and adventure trails. A huge jumping castle was the perfect place for children to have fun. Peter Pan had to have a Treasure Hunt with exciting prizes and of course Pass the Parcel!

 

Captain Hook made the most amazing Crocodile cake! He and Mrs Darling loved lighting the candles.

Everyone had lots of fun! Poppie played barmen and the big pirates and fairies also had lots of fun!

Everyone was so generous and it took Peter Pan several days to open all his gifts!! What a lucky little boy!

I wonder what is in store for next years party! Adrien says dinner at the Spur!

Mid year.

It is almost mid year and one wonders where time disappears to! I have loved being home and having time to do all sorts of fun things. 

 

 

I have completed my double bed quilt top and back using my beautiful Malaysian fabrics. I pieced the back as I was determined to use what fabrics I have in the cupboard and not buy anything. The back took longer to make than the front.

 

 

I absolutely love the colours of the top. Now to quilt it! It is not easy cutting into one's precious collection and I found this rather apt quotation on Pinterest.

 

 

 

It is so true and I know the bug has bitten Sarah who has just returned from Swaziland with a pile of fabrics and Diana loves fabrics too. Moira has a stash which I drool over when we visit her, so I keep good company. My sons like to accuse me of influencing the girls but I would never do a thing like that!

 

It was also time to attack some UFO's and I am so pleased to have got to the binding stage of this stunning appliquéd quilt. This quilt was started at least thirteen years ago in Swaziland. I was part of a group of quilters, Big Bend Quilters, who met regularly every month. A couple of us formed a sub group and each month a quilter would get a chance to choose their pattern and fabrics and the rest of us would make the blocks. I confess that I chose a very challenging pattern which I then had to assemble and hand quilt. I was supposed to do appliquéd borders but gave that up as after thirteen years I was no where near completion. I have put all the blocks together and machine quilted the in between bits and now all that's left is the binding. My husband, who never says much about my work just oohed and aahed over this one. My thanks to all the contributors. (Zelda, Joy, Elsa, Celma, Patience, Bizzy,....who else?)

 

 

 

My dear friend Bridget turned forty this week. I wanted to make something special for her and decided to finish my "Sri Lankan" block. It turned out really cute and I hope she feels happy every time she sees it. We met twice this week at the Book Boutique. Once for Bridget's birthday and once to see Erica Carle. A bit of a Masterpiecers reunion. It was great a seeing all the ladies and the Book Boutique is a great venue. I guess time flies when one is busy and happy.

 

 

Our ray of sunshine.

It was time for the much awaited visit from Oscar, our nearly four year old Grandson from Johannesburg. Sarah and Adrien and a bunch of friends were off to "Bushfire" a festival of music held annually in Swaziland. We fetched him from Durban airport and as usual the handover went smoothly. The fact his Mom and Dad prepare him for a week before talking about all the fun things he is going to do plus it is his third time to visit us on his own, he handles it all with such ease.  

The drive from Toti to the airport is long but quite lovely and once there one is filled with pride that we have such super airports. We were met with live music which gave the whole place a rather festive air.

Oscar settled in quickly and enjoyed exploring all the nooks and crannies in the flat and pulling out my dolls and teddies. I always have a stock of toys, paints, puzzles etc. available and somehow it is much more fun to play and use these things in Granny's home.

 

As Oscar is turning four in June and is having a "Peter Pan" party I had bought some green fabric and was planning on making him an outfit. My sister popped in for a visit, took one look at the fabric and was totally inspired. Within fours of taking it home she had a delightful outfit made for Oscar. Can you imagine the excitement and delight? He couldn't wait to see what Granny Robyn had made for him!

 

Note the delight on Oscar's face. He was over the moon! Robyn even made a sheath for his little sword.

Note the delight on the Grannie's faces. That is me on the right and my clever sister on the left!

Our own Peter Pan ready to fly off!

 

Poppie Warren (grandpa) and Oscar spent a few hours most mornings on the beach. Despite it being Winter it was warm enough to swim and enjoy the waves.

 

The week went by very quickly and not much else was achieved besides watching the Robin Hood movie five times, reading loads of stories, (the favorite being Roald Dahl 's Magic Finger), playing with Oscar and doing a bit of visiting of friends.

I miss his cuddles in the morning and look forward to our visit for his birthday party later this month.