Family times at Christmas

This was sunrise on Christmas Day in Walsall...

...and this was sunset, eight hours later:

 

The weather has been so mild, compared with Christmas 2010, making it easy to get around for all the family gatherings.

The extended James family met together on Boxing Day...

 and many of the Rhodes extended family met the following day on my sister, Sandra's birthday:
 

Happy times!

Andy's Birthday and shortest/longest day

December 20th is Andy's birthday. We had quite a lot of shopping to do, including visiting IKEA, so his birthday lunch was swedish meatballs and chips in their cafe!

However, later in the day his mum and I sang 'Happy Birthday':

In the evening I went out for a Christmas meal with some ex-colleagues, whom I hadn't seen since 2004.  It was lovely to catch up and see how well everyone is looking:

Despite the falling snow we experienced on our journey from Heathrow airport last Friday, the weather has now become very mild.

Yesterday, the shortest day in northern hemisphere, was unusually sunny and warm. I walked to my mum's house, about 20 mins, wearing a light jacket and felt rather hot when I arrived.  Later, I read via Facebook, that Cape Town is unusually cold - what strange weather we are all having!

Nevertheless, I am missing the long daytimes.  I've been up for 2 hours with no sign of a sunrise yet, and in the afternoon, we are drawing the curtains by 3pm.

The weather forcast for Christmas Day is also warm and sunny - so no 'white Christmas' for us this year!

Catch up!

I can't believe it's been two months since I last posted in this blog!  Where has the time disappeared to?

Well much has happened and I'll try to fill in with a few relevant photos...

South Africa's census took place during October and friends of ours were area coordinators.  Their garage became Ground Zero for meetings and amassing dozens of boxes containing thousands of completed and part-completed census forms.  It was a busy time.  Here is one of the lighter momtents:

All throughout October we waited expectantly for the 'knock on the door', but it never came.  Later we discovered many other flat complexes were not counted either.

During October we also noticed a strange phenomenon happening to many trees in Cape Town:

Tree-dressing seems to be the latest craze for getting attention.  This one was outside a small art gallery near to our flat.  I think it must have been a last-ditch attempt to entice the public into the gallery, as only a few weeks later, it has now closed down and turned into a playcentre for children.

Another strange object seen on the high street in October was this enormous shopping trolley parked outside a church building:
:

It turned out to be part of a Christmas project for collecting food items for poorer communities.  I don't think people were expected to actually put items in the trolley as I'm sure they would have either perished or disappeared, but it was quite an eye-catching idea.

Also during October I learnt how to make vetkoek (fat cake), a very common South African dish, particularly amongst the poorer communities.

Take bread dough and cut into portion-sized pieces:

Heat up oil in pan, and cook pieces separately. They should puff up within a few seconds. Turn over to complete the cooking.

 Remove from pan, drain and place on serving plate:

Slice open and fill with filling of choice.  I preferred a sweet filling, as the texture is rather like a crispy doughnut. 

 However, savoury mince is also popular.  This particular vetkoek was bought at the Wild Oats Farmer's Market, Sedgefield, along the Garden Route. Although tasty it was not as light and crispy as the ones I made!



 In the first weekend of November, Durbanville Josh Gen Church went away for a church weekend to Boulders, where the African Penguins used to have free roam:

On Saturday afternoon there was a treasure hunt organised.  This was one task where groups has to build a sandcastle with a plastic spoon:

 We also climbed up the mountain behind the Youth Centre for a fabulous view:

We also had a baptism in the large swimming pool:



                                         

This was sunrise one morning:

The weekend away was a welcome break in a very busy schedule.

Paris Holiday

During most of September we were in England, visiting family, but we also took a few days for ourselves travelling to Paris on the Eurostar direct rail link.

The River Seine runs through the centre of Paris and is criss-crossed by numerous bridges.

We stayed in a small hotel about 20 minutes walk south of the Eiffel Tower, near to the river, so it was a very pleasant walk along the riverbank to Paris's number one attraction.

At intervals along the riverbank there are larger than life iron sculptures:

 We particularly liked these...

We even saw a boat with our name on the back!

September 14th was our 37th Wedding Anniversary, so we decided to go up the Eiffel Tower.

The views across Paris from the top are spectacular and make you realise what an enormous city it is:

From the top looking straight down one of the corner legs, people are indistinguishable and vehicles are like ants...

...and from the first stage, through the centre, the shadow of one of the legs dominates:

 On the first stage is a restaurant, where we had lunch:

 It would have been even better had we been able to have a window view, but nevertheless it felt very special to be celebrating our anniversary in the Eiffel Tower.

 Also from the first stage the view out to the north is defined by the hill where Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart) church is situated.

This is the only photo we have of both of us, taken by an australian couple we got chatting too:

 In the evening we walked along the west bank of the river as the sun was setting, illuminating the tower blocks.

                                           
 Set in the centre of the river near one of the bridges is a smaller version of the Statue of Liberty, which France gave as a gift to New York City:

 By the time we reached the Eiffel Tower, it too was all lit up albeit artificially...

...and this is the long range view as we crossed back over one of the bridges when it was dark:

 Of course, Paris is far more than just the Eiffel Tower, and we bought a 2-day ticket on the open-topped bus, which allows you to get on and off at all the main sites, as many times as you like. 

This is by far the best way to see a city like Paris, plus you listen to an excellent commentary about the history and features of places along the route.

Here are just a few of them...

 Arc de Triumph

 Notre Dame

 Paris Opera House

 The Louve.

There is so much to see and do in Paris we barely scratched the surface!

Supporting township projects in Cape Town

For our recent Cape Town visitors, the trip was far more than just a sightseeing trip.  They did quite a lot of volunteer work in local townships:

They participated in an extreme makeover at a children's home.
 
                                                   

This teamwork was just one of many painting tasks...

A few days were spent at a school which supports the children of very poor farmworkers, many of whom have alcohol problems. They helped to serve food, and taught a group how to make playdough and rice krispie cakes for the whole school...

 One of their main tasks was cataloging the school's library books on a database. Many of the books were in English, but some were in Afrikaans, which they don't know, so it wasn't all straight forward!

Then another few days were spent at a children's home in another township:

 They accompanied children to the local playpark...

 ... cut lawns and painted a fence pannel with their own creation...

 ...and played with babies and toddlers in the sunshine.

The home doesn't receive many male volunteers, so it was especially good for the many young boys to have a male role model.

They also spent some time at CVC Media, where Andy works.

 Ben works in production of content for 1Africa, so Craig and Lewis critiqued several programmes and learnt some editting skills.

 I think they enjoyed their volunteering activities as much as the sightseeing.