Even though today’s weather was sunny, it wasn’t warm enough for the beach so we took the kids to Crocodile Creek, which is about 12km from Ballito (and we were thankful that this time we drove a 4×2 and not a normal car)

We’ve been there before, but the kids don’t remember… in fact Bradley was tiny when we went the last time.  It was awesome going with the kids this time because they’re the right age for this type of outing.  We got there half way through the one tour so caught up with that group to walk around the place, and then joined the next tour group (which was a group of 60 kids on a school tour from Johannesburg) to hear about the anatomy of the crocs… and to hold the crocs.

The handler took out a 4 year old Nile crocodile for everyone to touch… much to the delight of Connor because the croc was the same age as him.

And now the kids are very excited to have photos of themselves holding the crocs to show their teachers and friends at school

The kids had to get to school early today so they could sing Happy Birthday to Mandela in the school hall. It was something done by all schools in South Africa at 8am this morning. The kids told me that they even threw streamers after the singing.
So when I got to my parent’s house, they decided to sing it for me… and yes… any quiet controlled time with them normally ends in this chaos…

They sang Happy birthday a few times today, because it was my dad’s birthday as well, and I’m hoping my mom will post the video of them singing to him… it was much less chaotic

This is brilliant!! I found this on Melissa Attree’s blog, and the singing is phenomenal.  Love the crowds at the end…

I’ve been mulling over this topic for a while, but haven’t managed to get around to blogging about it.

When you get a form that asks how many dependants you have, you’re generally expected to fill in the number of children you have… not right?

Well, I don’t think that’s entirely accurate.

Just think about it, it’s not just your kids that are reliant on your income for survival, is it? Well, it’s definitely not in our case.

To start, our income has to pay for our living expenses including housing and food for ourselves and our children.  So that’s 4 people.  And that’s all we normally think about when we calculate things.  But there’s a load missing from this equation.

We have a full-time domestic working in our house, and she’s the breadwinner in her family (well apart from her one son that now shares the rent with her) and she has 5 dependants… one useless husband who hasn’t worked in 7 years, 2 sons (one of which is now working and the other one is still at school) and one grandson.  In addition, I know that some months she sometimes has to give money to her grandson’s mother who often ends up in shelters because of her circumstances.  So that’s another 6 that we provide for.

Then there’s our gardener who only works for us on Saturdays, so the money we pay him isn’t his sole income, and I know he lives on his own, yet I also know that he sends money home to support family there.

Then there’s Lance’s mom who we also support.

So, our household income actually has to provide for 12 people on a good month.

That’s a lot! But I also know that that’s not unusual, and it’s also not something that we normally think about.

Have you ever worked it out for your household?  How many people do you support directly without monthly donations etc?  I’m assuming that this is a South African phenomenon, primarily because the average home in the ‘burbs has some kind of full-time or part-time home helper or domestic worker or gardeners in our employ.  But it would be interesting to hear from non-Saffers in the comments

I need to slow down and smell the roses.

I know, that statement is becoming a bit of a chant on this blog, but yesterday was case in point.

I drove to Soweto for a newborn shoot, and the dear old GPS (a TomTom that I’m reviewing for GirlGuides, which until then had performed outstandingly) sent me on a long long round about trip to get there.  Now I’ve been to Dobsonville before, so I should probably have followed my nose in the general direction, and then used the GPS when I got into that area… but no… I decided in my wisdom to trust the GPS.

Anyhoo, instead of zooting me through Roodepoort, the damn machine took me via the N12, then R558, right around the outskirts of Soweto.  What it did do however, was show me a part of Soweto that I probably would never have seen otherwise.

If I was a little early, I would have undoubtably have stopped, and if the shoot hadn’t have taken so long, I would have stopped on the way home (but the shoot ended up finishing just before sunset).

The drive in, reminded me why I need another photo excursion into Soweto.  The light is just too amazing.  The vibe is just like nothing else in Johannesburg.  The people are too beautiful, and it’s just SO full of life!!

On the roads close to Protea Glen there were sheep, cattle and goats being sold in pens next to the road… gives a new meaning to street hawkers! And then on the next block, small cages with live chickens. On a few corners, there were magnificent informal veggie markets.

On the streets surrounding the house, kids filled the streets when we left… playing ball in the golden light… dancing at a house party set up in a driveway.

Aaawww man, even writing about it makes me yearn to get back there even for an hour… just to capture what I saw happening around me.

What a lost opportunity!

A rhino at the Krugersdorp Park was killed by poachers during the night.

Lance and I were discussing it this evening, when Bradley asked about what we were talking about.

So I told him.  He asked how they killed the rhino.  I said that they used poison.  He asked why, did they want her skin?  I said, no, her horns.  They cut her horns off once she was dead.

He says “Oh ja, for the chinese people because they think it’s makes them clever”

Then there was silence.

And he said “That makes me sad.  Where am I going to see rhinos now?”

Ja thanks a LOT Mr Poacher… you selfish git!!

It’s not just future generations that you’re depriving of beautiful animals… it’s my kids!!!

And I’m so not happy about this!  It doesn’t only make me sad.  It makes me very very angry.

Some people still have the flags on their cars, but what are you doing with all the flags you bought for WC2010?

I know of some people who bought flags from every single country that participated.

Well, don’t throw them away quite yet.  Firstly, there’s a Keep Flying campaign going on trying to encourage people to carry on flying them for the next month.  And in fact, there’s an entire Keep the Flag Flying website that’s been set up too!

If you do insist on not using them though, here’s an even more brilliant idea! Donate it!

That’s right it’s not that ludicrous… there’s an organisation in East London called Recycled Inc that’s wanting to use the old flags to make bags and shirts etc to sell to support vegetable gardens in their  local schools.  I like that idea!!

And they have a blog too… check it out, and send them your flags

Seriously, some days like today, I really really despair over the lack of good retail websites in this country.  I’m not talking all of them, but seriously, the really big brick and mortar shops should have a better presence online by now.

I suppose it’s a chicken and egg situation, where they’re not getting enough traffic and clients from their websites so they’re not prepared to jack them up… but I swear if they were better… they would get more online orders… especially if they were clever about the costs of delivery.  The old excuse about the size of the web audience in this country doesn’t make sense anymore, based on the recent stats I’ve seen… retailers should do their homework again.

Take this evening for example, I’ve been trying in vain to update my “stuff” page (my page with stuff that I want in the hopes that Lance will get me a surprise for my birthday).  I’ve been trying to get a link to a site for a steel colander.  Now that’s quite a basic thing to have in a kitchen (even though I don’t have one, and Pierre melted my Tupperware one when he steamed the rice in it one night), so it shouldn’t be difficult to find. Well, now… Woolies have them in the shop, I saw them today, yet their online store doesn’t list them.  Home Etc and Boardman’s websites are truly pathetic… what’s the freaking use of a brochure ware site for a retailer?! And that actually goes for most of the brick and mortar shops locally.

I ended up having to link to Amazon… it’s just really useless.  I would love to shop more online, but the retailers here are just so freaking backwards.   I’m not surprised more and more people are shopping overseas and importing stuff.  I, for one, don’t have the time to wander around shops anymore, I’d much rather buy online.

It’s time the local retailers caught a wakeup, seriously!

It’s the morning of the World Cup, and last night I watched the opening concert broadcast from Orlando Stadium at home in front of the fire with Lance. The boys stayed up to watch a bit of it, but it’s a massive pity they didn’t get to see the big songs like the flag song… I was actually crying at many parts of the concert…

I can’t remember when last I’ve felt so proud to be a South African. It was awesome sitting there watching the tweets about #wc2010 and chatting on FB and Twitter with friends at the concert and in their living rooms around the world all experiencing the same thing as us.

Oh and that speech by the Arch was phenomenal! Mike Stopforth described him so perfectly on Twitter “Archbishop Tutu is a precious little black Yoda”

This morning Connor even got into the spirit. As he woke up the first thing he said was “It’s the World Cup!”.

I feel it… it is HERE!!

The place is really buzzing now about the FIFA World Cup 2010.

The DJ’s on 5FM are talking about it all day. Twitter is abuzz with tweets with #WC2010 attached, especially when teams or players are spotted or like today, where some daft cameraman was seen in Sandton City wearing a bullet proof vest.  Almost every second car on the street has got flags on their side mirrors and flags sticking out of windows.  There are so many people wearing soccer shirts or just shirts with South African flags on them.

The office is talking about who’s taking leave on Friday to watch the game, and what time we can leave the office; while some people in other offices are scheming how they’re going to be able to watch at the office (our company has everything well organised for everyone to be able to watch).

Everyone is talking about it.

A friend of mine in the US spoke about it on FB just now, and said I need to take photos of it to capture the excitement; and I realised that I should.  And I need to blog about it more.  It’s something I’d like to remember, and would be nice for the kids to read one day.  So, I think my focus for the next few weeks should be soccer related on my #365.

First thing happening is the street procession on Wednesday that I’m there for.  Not sure what I’m going to do on Friday.  We have a half day, and I’m going to have to let Beauty go home early too.  The roads are going to be bedlam.

Lance is watching at work… he started a new job this week and he has to be there.  Maybe I should watch the opening ceremony and the match with my mom at their house with the kids…  hmmm… think that’ll be my plan for the day.

What are you doing?  Where are you watching the game?