Blog (Page 9)

Back On The Court BABY! - 30th April - 2nd May 2010

After a good run of weekends away, it was sadly time to spend one at home, and it started with a relaxed Friday night watching TV series. This was mostly due to my new toy...the Mede8er...it is a 2TB media player which connects to both your PC and TV. It plays everything from movies, to music, and photos. So all my media is now on 1 box - pick up the remote...choose what you want to watch...and off you go...No more burning DVDs and changing disks. Everything is just there!

Saturday was a rather exciting day for me as I stepped onto a squash court for the first time in over 6 months. I was a little worried about my Achilles even though I'd experienced no pain over the past few months. Thankfully I quickly forgot about it (well mostly) as I played Sharon for half an hour. There was no pain, and the only indication I had of the operation, was what felt like a little stiffness. I got braver as the game went on and was moving relatively well by the end.

After Sharon I played 3 games against Colin which were somewhat more intense. I have the distinct feeling that he'd decided my Achilles leveled the playing fields (since he is almost 50 years older than me) and, as a result, he certainly didn't go easy on me. We had great fun and I managed to sneak out with a 2-1 win. I didn't feel like I'd lost too much speed, and hopefully most of it will come back over time.

From squash we headed over to Briggsy's place for a braai, a couple beers, and the Sharks game. Now I mention the Sharks game last since we sadly lost to the Bulls, and as a result are now officially out of the Super 14 *sigh*. On a positive note we had a great evening filled with many beers and darts, and finally headed home at around midnight.

Sunday was another sporty day as we took on the driving range. My ass was sore from squash, but I didn't let this hamper me. We started off by chipping for about an hour before we hit off our buckets on the range. This was followed by a game of mashie which Sharon dominated! She had an absolute blinder consisting of 4 pars and a birdie, and beat me by 2 strokes. Clearly I shouldn't let her practice first.

In my defense I was leading with 2 holes to go, when my one golf shoe decided it was more useful in two pieces than one. As a result I limped around the course, with one leg proudly longer than the other.

All in all a good weekend, and I'm certainly looking forward to next week’s squash...

Monls Cowl - 23rd - 26th April 2010

After much deliberation (due to a lack of leave) I decided at the last minute to take off Monday and have a long weekend. This seemed like a great idea until we started trying to book accommodation and found out everything was full. WTF?! I though kids were back at school? Anyway, Sharon eventually managed to book us into Monks Cowl, which meant no fishing, but did have other benefits like good walks and a few nice activities nearby.

We drove up early on Saturday morning, stopping at Thokozisa for breakfast. After a great meal we drove the remaining 20kms to Monks Cowl where we arrived in the rain. After sticking up the tent in record time we made the fantastic discovery that our extension cord was too short. Since it was raining we hoped back into the car and drove to Winterton, where I quickly grabbed a 10 meter cord off the shelf. FAIL! When they rung it up it cost R250. WTF?! Anyway, we didn't really have an option, so took it anyway.

The good news is that while picking up the extension cord we discovered that the Waffle Hut had a new 9 hole putt-putt course. What made it so awesome was that it was more like exaggerated greens rather than a traditional putt-putt course. We of course had to stop off and play a quick 18 holes. Brilliant!

When we got back to camp the rain had finally stopped, so we finished setting up camp, and then spent the rest of the day relaxing, playing Scrabble, drinking red wine, and braaiing.

Thankfully the weather on Saturday was fantastic so we headed out on an easy 10km hike. We started with a walk down to Sterkspruit falls, and then continued upstream, stopping at the various pools along the way to take some photos and eat a picnic breakfast. From there we headed into the Gorge which we continued up until we hit Nandi falls. Sadly we had to share this spot with several other groups, so we didn't spend long there before heading home via the contour paths.

Once back at camp we realised we were far too lazy to cook, especially since we had the temptation of a coffee shop just 50 meters from our tent. We headed over and shared a toasted sandwich and snack basket, while enjoying the abundance of Cape Robins prancing between the tables.

From there it was off to shower, mostly due to bad camp design (go KZN Wildlife). Although there were in excess of 40 million people camping, the ladies only offered 1 shower, while the gents offered 2. This meant that the queues were ridiculous in the mornings and evenings, and thus we opted for midday showers.

The rest of the day was once again spent relaxing with a good bottle of wine, a book, and a Scrabble board.

Monday treated us with more good weather, so we opted to head out to some of the local attractions for the morning. Our first stop was Falcon Ridge which got off to a bad start. Just after entering there are a handful of cages with an assortment of birds of prey. We stopped at the first cage and were casually admiring the birds when one of them flew squawking at Sharon, smacked into the netting, and returned to its perch. Hmmm? Is it true? Can animals sense evil? Kidding...

Anyway, after looking through the cages the falconry show started, and we had the honour of watching them fly a Lanner Falcon, Black Eagle, Spotted Eagle Owl, Gymnogene, and more. We were fed a vast amount of interesting information on all the birds, ranging from their size and speed, to the fact that the Gymnogene is able to dislocate its elbows to dig in holes. WOW!

The Falconry also gave me a chance to fiddle with my new Canon 7D. I'm very impressed with the camera, and even managed a few good shots, but I'll give a full review of it sometime soon. Watch this space...

From Falcon Ridge we headed over to the Drakensberg Sun Hotel, where we had a game of mashie golf. We confused the guy running the course when we explained we were day visitors, and he ended up allowing us to play for free. Result! The greens were terrible, but the course certainly was a challenge in an exquisite location. Sharon managed to make it even more challenging by hitting her only 2 balls into a deep, water filled, overgrown, furrow. This of course saw me "abseiling" in to retrieve them and left me both itchy and covered in more blackjacks than I knew existed - but boy was it fun pretending to be Rambo.

The golf was followed by a trip to the Waffle Hut where I got brave and ventured from my usual plain waffle. Instead I opted for the Chocoholic...FAIL! Although the description was, "a chocolate chip waffle", what they failed to mention was that it came with chocolate ice-cream and chocolate sauce. This combined with the fact that I had ordered a double thick chocolate milkshake left me both shaking and feeling rather ill.

We headed back to camp, put on the hiking boots, and started the process of making me human again. It was already 3pm and we couldn't go far, so we opted for the hike up to the Sphinx. It was a 5km round trip, with the initial 2 and a half being straight up. It passed under Chrystal Falls and ended up on top of a rock which boasted spectacular views, and believe it or not, looked just like the Sphinx.

The only thing ruining this great walk was passing a soccer team who were on their way down, and proceeded to whip out a permanent marker and write their names on all the rocks they passed. Good one guys! You're so tough!

When we woke up on Monday it was drizzling, which left us with the tough option of either packing up in the rain (and having to dry everything at home), or to wait the rain out, hoping it would dry out the tent. Things weren't looking too good so we opted for the former, packed up camp, and headed home. In retrospect this was the right decision as the rain seemed to get harder and harder as we packed, and drove off.

We arrived home just before lunch, having given the Waffle Hut a wide birth, and got to unpacking. Luckily this took us less than half an hour (excluding drying the tent), and we were relaxing with a bowl of popcorn, watching Scrubs, before we knew it. Ahhhhh...

Team Building - 21st April 2010

Amidst all the short weeks it was decided that the Casino team needed to do some bonding. This saw us skipping work on Wednesday and heading to Tala Private Game Reserve for a day of team building.

I arrived at the park at 9:30, half an hour before I needed to. As a result I had a little free time and took the opportunity to drive around on my own. At 10am I pulled into the picnic spot where the activities had been set up - These included a giant, human foosball table, a gladiator like fighting game, 2 inflatable obstacle courses and a giant water slide. Yeehah!

Slowly people started arriving and we stood around chatting over muffins and coffee. At around 10:30 they explained that half the people would go on a game drive, while the other half did team building, and then we'd swap. We were then divided into teams of 10 and given buffs in our team colours. Luck just happened to be with me, and I got the fantastic colour of beige. WOOHOO! Stuff red, green, blue and ninja black...I was beige...

My group headed out on the game drive and, although it was only an hour, I learnt a hell of a lot from the female ranger who took us. She was kind enough to skip the boring facts everyone knows, and instead filled our heads with interesting trivia. We were however severely mocked by the other Land Rovers, as every time they passed us we were either eating aloes, or sniffing grass (and no, not the good kind).

After the drive it was our turn to take on the team building. We had a dodgy start as one of the girls in the awesome beige team broke her ankle on the first obstacle course. I was hoping that our encouragement and dedication would see us gain some bonus points - however I was clearly wrong as my fantastic beige team managed to sneak in at the spectacular position of tie last.

The obstacle course points worked on a system known as "the F#$% Warren up system". Basically everyone needed to go through the course once, and bonus points were then awarded for each additional person to complete the course. So after everyone had made it through once, they all decided that once was enough and took a breather. This left me repeatedly going through the course to try and build up bonus points. Thanks team!

The two death courses were followed by human foosball; Basically you were jammed into a field and then tied to ropes running across the width. You could move left and right, but not backwards or forwards. The first half was great with me playing in a defensive position. This obviously seemed too easy and in the second half they switched back to the "F@#$ Warren up system". I was stuck in as goalie, and my team decided that football was best played with the hands. This saw the opponents firing penalty after penalty at me, in what was a very small field. YAY!

Our last team building activity was the gladiator challenge. Basically you got onto a revolving platform, and were given a useless weapon with which to try and knock the opponent off his platform. Turns out the bat was completely useless and wasn't capable of knocking anyone off. The best strategy seemed to be, maintain balance while you opponent swung wildly, put himself off balance, and fell.

At this point the team building was done, and we all cracked open a beer and sat down to a fantastic lunch consisting of everything from feta and olive salads to chicken breasts and giant kebabs (all braaied of course). This was follow by individual melba puddings with a toffee sauce...mmmm. Oh, and there was a musician jamming away on a guitar in the background - brilliant.

People then started to slowly dissipate as a few of us stuck on our costumes and headed for the giant water slide. I wonder if there's a link here...me putting on my costume...people leaving...hmmm. Anyway, I jolled on the slide for a while, had a few more beers, and then it was time to go. Since it was only 3pm-ish I took another short drive around the park before heading home.

Wet n Wild - 16th - 18th April 2010

The weekend started off with dinner and a movie. Sharon and I met Wayne and Robyn at the Pav, and we enjoyed the usual Mimos. Their pizza really does rock! Anyway, this was followed by "Date Night", which I must say is one of the best comedies I've seen in years. Now I know that’s not saying much considering the crap that comes out...but it really was good.

After that we said our goodbyes and Sharon and I headed to Stoker's where we met up with a mate for a couple of Captains. Ah, there really is nothing better than a good Captain and catching up with an old mate.

Saturday was spent behaving like a child...Sharon's sister and family headed down from Richardsbay for a day at uShaka. I eagerly agreed to join them since I knew I could dominate the Wet 'n' Wild. Sadly, its turns out I was being conned, and the reason they were coming was due to the presence of a certain purple dinosaur...Grrrr! In my defense, I never went and watched the show.

Anyway, after a slow walk through the aquarium which included watching the rays being fed, the kids headed off to Barney, while Sharon and I hit the seal and dolphin show. The seal show is a bit corny and aimed more at kids, while the dolphin show is far more exciting for adults. We did however have a few fails, as we queued for food for 30 minutes prior to the dolphin show, and ended up having to drop out of the queue, or miss the show. After the show we headed for wet and wild, and got stuck in another queue as all the turnstiles failed at once. When we finally made it inside we ended up in another queue for food, which took roughly 45 minutes. Turns out the printer in the kitchen had broken, and nobody had noticed, so they just weren't making food.

How is it that a place with so many awesome attractions isn't able to control the people passing through it? It’s like the Wild West in there. Anyway, once we'd done all our queuing and starting using the rides, all was forgotten and we had a great time with the kids (yes that includes Sharon).

At around 4pm Sharon's family headed back to Richardsbay. Sharon and I did a few more rides, and then headed for the squash club to watch the Sharks game. It was touch and go at stages, but the Sharks managed to pull off another win to move just slightly higher on the log. We also managed the now necessary bonus point. My fingers are crossed...

Sunday was somewhat more relaxed. We hit the driving range and played some mashie. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it all fell apart on the second hole. Between Sharon and I we managed to lose around balls. Seeing as we don't normally lose any, this was a turn for the worse. But I suppose that’s how golf goes...you win some, you lose some...

Debauchery baby! - 9th - 11th April 2010

It was a weekend of much debauchery, starting off with a night out with quasi-family who visiting from PE. Yes, shame - that's what I said too - but we can't all live in Durban.

Annelise and Hugh (my aunt's sister and her husband) were in town for Hugh's school reunion. He had grown up in the area and attended Kloof High. Yes, shame - that's what I said too.

Anyway, we met up with them at the Keg and Trout for dinner and a few drinks. Things started slowly by torturing the waitress - I'm not 100% sure how it happened, and it certainly wasn't intentional, but we had her on the run by ordering our drinks one at the time; so just as she returned with person A's drink, person B would order. You'd really think we'd be able to coincide them, but this did prove to be impossible.

From there we headed over to Franki's where I'm starting to stand out as part of the older crowd. So after a quick flaming Sambucca to show the youngsters how it’s done, we headed over to On Cue to shoot a few games of pool. Hugh was on top form, even though he claimed to have not played for many years...whatever.

At around 12pm Hugh and Annelies made a duck, claiming they needed to be on top form for the reunion. Sharon and I headed back to the Keg for a few more beers and a bit of dancing; all in all a good night.

Saturday started off slowly with Sharon looking a bit hung. Eventually we headed down to Springfield where we bought some new camping chairs, and an outdoor table. Somehow this managed to take most of the morning which still confuses me. On the way home we stopped off at the Pavilion, mainly to look at camera bags, but did the shopping for the evening's braai at the same time.

We got home at around 3pm and Sharon got down to making all sorts of good things, like salads, potatoe bakes, and brownies. Mmmmm...

Nick and Tarryn pulled in at around 4pm and we chilled and had a few beers while Sharon finished up. Then Nick whipped out his Wii remotes and we had the All African Wii Tennis Challenge (or AAWTC for short). I'm afraid to say that Nick and Tazz kicked our asses in big ways. In fact, Tazz went to the bathroom at one stage, and Nick, brandishing both remotes, still kicked our ass. Dammit Nick...next time we get onto a real court where you have to run. Bahahaaa!

Werner and Lourraine arrived at around 7pm, since Werner had been sorting out the off-road biking in Eston. We got straight down to braaiing, drinking Captain, and being merry. We even popped over to the pub in Plantations for a game of pool, but there was a rather large queue.

The night rolled on, and before we knew it, it was 12p, and we were being given a warning about noise by security. RESPECT! We know how to party!

Sunday was a quiet day after a couple of heavy nights. We took in a movie and generally did the normal Sunday stuff, with just a little extra relaxing.

After that weekend I truly feel like a Bar-One man...we lived 25 hour days and didn't even cry. Not like those naffs in the SABC Bar-One Man show...crying because they had to jump out of a plane. WTF?! For those of you making notes, since watching that show I no longer eat Bar-Ones.

Silverhill Easter Weekend - 1st - 5th April 2010

After a very relaxing 2 week cruise my old man was kind enough to stop off in Durban and spend the Easter weekend with us.

Thursday night was very relaxed. My dad had arrived in the morning, and spent the day at my house washing his 2 shirts which he had worn for the last 14 days. I got home from work at around 6pm and we had a quick braai. This was followed by a few beers and bottles of wine, and then an Eddie Izzard DVD. That guy rocks!

The real fun started on Friday morning when we all headed up to the berg. On route we stopped at Piggly Wiggly for breakfast. On a whole the food was good, but I was somehow disappointed with my meal. I ordered an open faced, chicken mayonnaise and bacon sandwich. The chicken mayonnaise was great, but for some reason they gave me a pile of bacon which had been dished up with a shovel. I supposed it’s not really a reason to complain, in fact some people would love it, but I really didn't need a huge pile of fatty bacon bits on my sandwich. Two strips would've been enough. This isn't America. If they're serving up bacon at that rate, pretty soon it’s just going to be called Wiggly, since there'll be no more Pigglys left.

As we were leaving Sharon spotted kiddies pig radios at the till, and her face lit up. In fact, it’s probably the most excited I've ever seen her, which really isn't saying much for my company. None the less, she is now the proud owner of a blue piggy radio.

We arrived at Silverhill just before lunch and we lucky enough to be allowed straight into our rooms. The rooms consisted of a small bathroom with bath, shower and toilet, and then a main room with a double bed, couches, TV (satellite and all) and a kettle (most important). There was also a loft above main room with 3 single beds. The rooms were all connected, each with its own balcony, overlooking the mountains and main dam. All in all it was fantastic.

Silverhills is located in the Kamberg region opposite Glengarry. It offers a wide range of activities including hikes, fly fishing in 5 small dams, mountain biking, volleyball, boule, croquet, a driving range, swimming pool and of course, table tennis, pool and darts. And yes, they do have a bar.

Anyway, not being one to waste time, we unpacked the car, and went about finding the table tennis table. It turns out they have huge plans for an entertainment area complete with gym and indoor pool, but in the meantime, the pool and table tennis tables were cunningly located in their barn. This of course meant that the ball would forever roll under tractors and huge rolls of wire, behind which broken sheets of glass had been "hidden". Luckily for us our epic skills got us through these hard times.

The afternoon was spent re-learning how to play this game on what seemed to be a very small table (or maybe I just have very big muscles). We then settled down on the balcony and enjoyed a few beers before heading to dinner.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCMENT! The Bulls finally lost. Maybe now their supporters will shut the hell up *evil laugh*

Moving on...Due to our accommodation being thatched, I didn't sleep particularly well that night. In fact, I think I lost in the region of 2kgs that night - purely through my nose.

The next morning we all had a fantastic breakfast, and then while Kerry, Sharon, my dad and Cassia headed out for a walk, I headed down to the dams to fish. Although the dam I fished was small, I took the opportunity to make use of my float tube for the second time. I landed a nice 20 inch Rainbow after about 15 minutes, which gave me high hopes, but it turned out this was to be the only fish of the morning for me. And after about 2 hours I made my way back to my chalet for a quick shower.

Then it was time for the all Africa croquet challenge; we set up a course on the lawn in front of our rooms, and the girls proceeded to kick ass. Sharon won the first game, and Sharon took the second one with ease. Laziness then kicked in, and my old man, Cassia and Kerry headed for an afternoon nap.

Much to Sharon's dismay I was having none of this and dragged her back to the shed for some table tennis and pool. This was followed by a swim in the beautiful, but rather chilly pool.

I was hoping to fish one of the other dams that evening, but eventually had to get my priorities straight and opted to head for the bar to watch the Sharks game instead. After a few side bets were placed at the bar, I'm glad to say that the Sharks pulled off their third successive win. And even better, my dad's guess was closest to the final score, so we walked away with a nice kitty of drinking money.

Sunday was my dad's, sister's, and Cassia's last day. After breakfast we all jumped into the trusty Paj and made our way up the 4x4 trail to the top dam. Once we were up there my dad and I had a quick fish while the girls went for a walk. Sadly there were no signs of fish about, and we both blanked. In our defense we did only fish for half an hour or so, so we didn't give ourselves a huge chance.

Kerry and I then drove back down, while the rest opted to walk. Lazy bastards...catching a lift up and then casually walking down like heroes.

We then had the all Africa double championships which was great fun. There's nothing quite like the chaos of trying to alternate shots in that tiny space. Another couple joined us, and proceeded to kick all our asses, so I guess all the practice really hadn't helped us that much. Either way, it was great fun.

Dad, Cassia and Kerry then headed home, leaving Sharon and I alone for one night *evil laugh*. We headed down to the driving range and hit off a few balls, which was great fun. This was followed by a game of boule. And then the rain started to come down. We had a few games of pool and table tennis, and then headed back to our chalet for a few drinks and dinner.

It was still raining when we woke up on Monday morning, so we had to forgo the round of golf we were hoping to play at Glengarry. After a final stint in the games "room" we packed the car and headed home. Thankfully unpacking was quick, and we were done before lunch. This gave us time to grab the golf clubs and head out for some mashie. Not quite a full golf course, but at least its improving my chipping.

All in all a great weekend, and sadly the last of the long weekends. Sigh!

Briggsy's Birth Weekend - 26th - 28th March 2010

It was a Crazy weekend after Crazy 80s...and it all started with Briggsy's 28th birthday. I rushed home after work and Sharon and I quickly put together his gift (have I mentioned it was awesome?!). Sharon had done some epic shopping and gathered all the makings of a beer gift pack, consisting of:

• A six pack
• A t-shirt with a funny beer logo
• A large beer glass stating how drunk you were by how much you had managed to consume
• A hard hat which strapped on 2 beers with straws to the mouth

In the meantime I browsed through the hundreds of photos of Graham drunk, picked out a favourite, and made him a "Happy BEERday" card. I also took the opportunity to make him a yellow Superbru winner’s cap, since we're not likely to ever actually win one.

The party started off mildly with a braai and a few beers, however Briggsy was having none of this, and soon we were in the middle of an epic beer pong championships. For those of you who don't know what beer pong is, here’s how it works:

BEER PONG

Beer pong is a drinking game consisting of 2 teams of 2 players. Each team stands at opposite ends of a long table, and sets up 10 beer glasses into the shape of a triangle. The beer glasses are then partially filled with beer. Each player in team 1 is then given a ping pong ball, which they try to throw into one of the opponent’s beer glasses. If they get the ball into the opponent’s glass, the opponents drink the beer in that glass, and remove it from their triangle. During a throw, the opposing team is not allowed to touch the ball until it has bounced. Thereafter, they can swat it away at will, thereby stopping it falling into a glass off a rebound. If a throw bounces on the table first, and then goes into a glass, the defending team has to drink double. During play each team is allowed 2 restacks - This means that as glasses are removed, and gaps form in the triangle, you get to push the glasses back together, hopefully making it easier. If both players get their balls into a glass, the balls are returned to them and they get to throw again. If not, it is the end of their turn, and their opponents now get a chance to throw at their glasses. Once one team has managed to throw balls into all 10 glasses, their opponents then have to drink whatever remains on the table.

Anyway, after a few games of beer pong the party was really happening. In fact, we even ended up playing a 1am game of cricket with all 10 fielders on the off-side (due to lighting restrictions).

Saturday was somewhat less productive due to the previous big night and only 4 hours of sleep (damn you Sharks for playing at 8am). On the up side, the Sharks managed to pull off their second win of the season, largely thanks to Ruaan Pienaar kicking over a 50m penalty as the last play of the game. After that we pretty much relaxed at home, and watched a few movies.

Sunday, thankfully, was the complete opposite of Saturday. It started off with a round of mashie. Sharon didn't have her best game off the tee, but was chipping fantastically. I played one of my better games, hitting 8 of the 9 greens, with 2 birdies, and ending up just one over par.

After that bit of fun, the admin started. Sharon and I spent six hours completely stripping the spare room. We scrubbed the walls, washed the curtains, and re-organised all the furniture. We bought more stacking boxes, and somehow managed to fill them. And finally we dropped off a few of the things we didn't need at my mom's place. This however wasn't as easy as it should've been, as I ended up having to hoist it, and then tie it, to the roof of her garage. But by the time all was done, the room was looking fantastic! Woohoo! Finally I have a liveable spare room.

And then it was off to bed, ready for the epic Easter weekend coming up...