Celebrations continued....

Yesterday, which is known in UK as Easter Monday, our family got together to continue celebrating my mum's 85th birthday.

 It was a little tricky lighting the candle, but the cake was delicious. We've eaten so much cake since coming to UK - Mum even turned up to her own party loaded with Easter cakes for us all!

The weather was warm and sunny so we sat outside in my sister's garden, and Mum had a few surprise visitors to make the day special.

Birthday Celebrations!

We are in the UK and this week both our mums have been celebrating BIG birthdays.

On Sunday my mum, Barbara, was 85 years young:

 My sister, Sandra and husband, Graham & Andy & I took her for a meal at a local restaurant. My younger sister, Wendy was on holiday, so we are meeting again with more family and friends on Easter Monday.

Then on Wednesday, Andy's mom, Jose was 80 years young:

 This magnificent cake was made by a friend a Joanne, Andy's sister. All the small details are important items in her life...

During the day, lots of friends and family popped in to see her, with wonderful gifts. The in the evening the immediate family enjoyed a lovely meal at a local hotel.

 At the end of the meal we sang 'Happy Birthday' for the upteenth time, while this interesting flower/candle arrangement opened up - not bad for a find at the pound shop!

So Jose had a fabulous birthday:

Views from the air

Looking through the photos from our recent trip to Zambia, I saw some interesting shots, which you may also enjoy...

Our flight out of Cape Town left before sunrise, so we were well on the way when the sun rose over the horizon.  I was thrilled to have a window seat with a great view of breaking daylight. A black, starlit sky gradually lightened, then an orange glow spread out and finally the sun dramatically broke the line and burst onto the scene.

The pilot announced that there was a large storm cloud building on our right side. We were well away from danger, but it was quite spectacular.

From Johannesburg the flight to Zambia flies across Zimbabwe airspace, crossing into Zambia over Lake Kariba. 

As we expected, Zambia is green and lush at this time of year, after the heavy rains. A good maize harvest is forecast.

On the return journey, approaching Cape Town, we flew close to Tygerberg, our local highspot, which meant that we were flying virtually over our flat, a fact I already knew, as approaching aircraft are a regular sight and sound to us.

Seasons' Change

Just reading a friend's blog entry about the onset of spring (in the northern hemisphere) promted me to write an equivalent post about a sudden change in the weather in Cape Town.

After months of hot sunshine, blue skies and hardly a cloud to be seen, with the resultant absence of rain,  Sunday 20th March, which was the Equinox, or the day, which occurs twice a year when the whole Earth has 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness, and when the sun highest over the Equator, seems to have acted like a switch pushing this part of the world into a new season.

On Monday, which was a public holiday in South Africa (Human Rights' Day), I went out for my usual jog around 7am, it was cloudy and I felt a few spots of rain. It was still hot and humid throughout the day and the low cumulus cloud from earlier had transformed into beautiful high cirrus whisps later in the day.

Then around 4.30am on Tuesday our bedroom was lit up by a flash of lightning, followed about 10 seconds later by a peel of thunder.  This was repeated over and over during the next hour and when we got up, the ground was damp from rain.  The sky was overcast all day, prompting me to not to but my washing outside, when I went out and I was so glad I had heeded the warning, because around 4.30pm we had another sudden downpour.  Then the skies cleared again, but the temperature has dramatically fallen.

Last night we didn't put the fan on, for the first time in months and I needed a blanket on top of our sheet, half way through the night. Today, Wednesday, the sky is again overcast and it is definitely cool and very windy.

Looks like summer is over!

Alex Day - follow up

We just received an email from Joanne & David, retelling the events from Saturday.

Here is a selection and some photos:

"Yesterday, a day we had been dreading turned out to be a special day of reflection, remembering and thankfulness for Alex.

 

We started by planting some bulbs around his tree with 10 of our closest friends and then we all talked about Alex.  There were tears but there was also laughter.

 

                                   

 

Not long after, his friends, who had organised a balloon release started to arrive.  So many hugs and talk of other fund raising events they are doing, thoughtful gifts we were given followed by more tears and laughter.  The kindness and friendship his friends have shown in memory of Alex means such a lot to us. 

 

                                       

 

It was the most beautiful day, the best we had had in a long time.  Alex was a ray of sunshine and he certainly bought the sunshine.  We released over 100 balloons into the beautiful blue sky, the sun almost making the balloons twinkle, it was magical.

 

Afterwards the same 10 friends came back to our house and we watched DVDs of Alex, looked at photos, read some of the cards and letters we had received and then we had a meal of Alex's favourite food."

 

I think this was a really creative way to celebrate Alex's life, and so lovely for us to be able to share in it despite the distant.

Alex Day

Today, 19th March 2011, it is one year since our dear nephew, Alex James Pearson, died.  Alex was almost 12 years old and he had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Despite his restricted physical abilities, Alex enjoyed an amazing quality of life, right to the end.  He was a vibrant character: always quick witted, full of fun and smiles, and regarded his 'specialness' as a gift, rather than a trial.

Alex brought sunshine into the lives of everyone he met - he was a true inspiration. His funeral was attended by over 400 adults and children, whose lives were touched for the better by knowing Alex.  Further, there were countless hits on the special facebook tribute pages started by his schoolmates.

His parents, Joanne and David decided to call today, 'Alex Day', when family and friends can once again celebrate his life, which 'burns brightly in our hearts'. Local friends will gather at their home to watch videos and talk about his life and then gather on Gold Hill Common for a balloon release, near to his tree - a now, 13 year-old silver birch, which will continue to live on in his memory.

At the end of last year, when we selected photographs for our family calendar, we chose this one of Alex for March 2011, as our way of remembering him thoughout March:

It is my favourite photo of Alex, taken when he met Jeremy Clarkson, from Top Gear. The bright yellow Hummer T-shirt is typical of Alex, reflecting his bright personality.

Skiing 2011

Our skiing holiday is almost over.  We had blue skies and sunshine for the first two days, followed by cloudy and windy conditions for another two days, when the sky was heavy with snow, but we didn't get any fresh snow. Now late in the season, the slopes are not crowded, but there are many places of little or no snow cover, and the piste management is working very hard each night to make sure the most popular slopes are well groomed.

Here are a few photos to give you a flavour of our short trip:

  Aerial view of the French Alps from the plane.

Empty slopes and little snow on the mountains.



Ski lifts closed due to high winds.

Button lifts always open...

...but can be a little tricky to get off! (Here Andy should have come over the brow of the mound before releasing the 'button', which is on an elasticated strap. The poor skier following behind [in yellow] couldn't even make it onto the mound as Andy was still in the way.)

There are three types of lifts, 'buttons', chairs and gondolas, which a friend of ours refers to as buttons, benches and bubbles. 

 t

Inside the 'bubble'.

  Chocolate break in the warm sunshine.

'Apres ski' in the jacuzzi........"ahhhhhhhhhhhh".