Tag: 2011

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2011 – Where the hell did it go?

This has fast become my year end meme 🙂 Thank you Wenchy for starting me off on it.

You can take a look at 2009 and 2010 if you like.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?

I donated my hair to CANSA

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Im not entirely sure I actually made any resolutions last year…

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

My friend Sam gave birth to her 2nd little boy as well as a bunch of Twitter moms that I was pregnant with (and who all went to full term ;))

4. Did anyone close to you die?

My brother.

5. What countries did you visit?

Again, I didnt leave sunny South Africa.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

More date nights, more movie nights!

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory?

24 Jan, the day I lost my brother.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I dont think I did anything so spectacular that it can be deemed an achievement.  I suppose I can say I survived each day and Im grateful for that.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Losing my temper, I really dont like losing my temper and I wish I had better control over it.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I slipped on the bathroom floor and partially dislocated my knee cap.  Took ages to come right.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Paul’s birthday present, a new camera.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

Again, Aaron has been a champ this year, despite having to learn to share his mommy, daddy, nanny, grandparents, toys, dogs, house and everything else with his baby sister, he has been a star!

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

A family member.  Instead of drawing together she has pushed us away and made us ashamed to share blood with her.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Food, nappies, food, bum cream, food. (P.s. this has not changed since last year, oh except I can add petrol to the list!)

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

My brother in law and his girlfriend getting engaged!

16. What song/album will always remind you of 2011?

Anything Lady Gaga.  Im not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing o_O

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

  • Happier or sadder? Happier
  • Thinner or fatter? Thinner
  • Richer or poorer? About the same.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Slept. Spent more time with friends.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Worried about what other people would think.

20. How will you be spending Christmas

Not sure.  We are spending Christmas day with family 🙂

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?

Paul and my mom.

22. Did you fall in love in 2011?

No.  Im still in love with my husband and my children though.

23. How many one night stands in this last year?

None.

24. What was your favourite TV program?

Grimm, Supernatural, Hawaii Five-0, HIMYM

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

No.

26. What was the best book(s) you read?

I didnt really read that much this year.  I am reading A Game of Thrones though and am loving it 🙂

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Nothing really new.

28. What did you want and get?

A new computer.

29. What did you want and not get?

Nothing springs to mind.

30. What were your favourite films of this year?

I loved Green Lantern and we just saw Real Steel which was great.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 32 and we went to play B.I.N.G.O. Was great fun and all for a good cause!

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Having my brother Matt here for something happy not sad.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?

Casual.

34. What kept you sane?

Cipralex! And my amazing husband.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

None… boring 🙁

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

None, I am so not into politics.

37. Who did you miss?

Those that have passed, my brother Cliff and my dad in particular.

38. Who was the best new person you met?

Gosh, so many wonderful people have come into my life.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.

Take each day as it comes.  This is from last year and it definitely still applies.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year?

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it’s breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you’ll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You’ll see the sun come shining through for you

– Words by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons and music by Charlie Chaplin, sung by Nat King Cole

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Cape Town 2011

We were very lucky to be invited to stay with my brother in law and his girlfriend in Cape Town over Pesach/Easter, so we packed our things (I seriously over packed mine and the kids things, could have cut all of it by half!) and off we went.

View from the house we stayed in.

We flew Kulula and they were running about an hour late so we arrived in CT just after 1pm.

Cold front rolling in

Paul spent a few days working and meeting some of his CT contacts while I chilled at the house with the kids.

Cold front hits

On Friday morning we met up with Tertia, Heather, Sally, Tanya, Candice, Amanda, Tania (did I leave anyone out??) and a few non tweeps and most of the spouses and kids at Nitida Wine Estate.  I of course brought my camera and then totally forgot to take any pictures!  It was so awesome meeting all these people in real life.

Nitida

We then went through to Cavendish and met up with Max, Sue, Brendon, Scott and Karen.

Franschhoek

Next time we will definitely spend more time with all you crazy and fabulous CT tweeps!

Franschhoek again

Saturday was spent in Franschhoek and Boschendal, just the four of us and ended up on Camps Bay beach with my mom, my uncle and his two kids, my moms boyfriend, his daughter and son in law and their three kids.

Boschendal

Aaron wasnt too sure about the beach or the sea but before we knew it he was nekkid, building sand castles, jumping in the ‘pool’ they had built and having a grand time.

Everything goes in her mouth!
My boys

So grand in fact that he did not want to leave, nor did he want to get under the shower to wash off all the sand.  Needless to say an #AaronTantrum ensued and if you were in Camps Bay on Saturday afternoon and witnessed a small nekkid boy scream his little lungs out for his mommy and daddy to ‘Just leave me alonnnnnnnnnne!!!!’ I apologise, truly, I do, no one should have to witness an #AaronTantrum, ever!

Sunday was spent at the Two Oceans Aquarium with Ash and Meg then on to lunch and then to the airport.

Kulula was actually on time and we got home just after 7pm.

Lions head

Both kids were amazing on the flights, sleeping for most of the way and generally behaving themselves and charming the air stewards.  Aaron even got to see inside the cockpit as we were disembarking at OR Thambo.

Possibly the only decent picture I took at the aquarium
Tired penguin

Other notable occurrences would be the two falls I managed to take.

On Thursday I managed to slip on the last of three steps, I was carrying two cups of coffee, the step was dry, I was bare foot, I landed on my arse and spilt most of the coffee on the floor, none on me and I didnt break the coffee cups!

On Saturday I slipped off a teeny tiny ledge outside the Boschendal gift shop, landing on my left butt cheek and my right knee (have no idea how) and I seem to have pulled a hamstring.  I also managed not to break my BB which landed face down on the ground, yay me!

Brevity Street is literally one house long!

All in all a good trip, wish it could have been longer though, but Im happy to be home.

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11 things I want to do in 2011

I found this on IntermittentBlogger and thought I would steal it 😉

1. Get fit – I am by no means overweight but my hips, butt and thighs need some desperate work!

2. Fix up the house – I dont mean the big things like fix leaks and stuff, I mean, buying more picture frames, putting artwork up, getting pretty linens for the bedroom, that kind of thing.

3. Go back to my mosaic-ing, I have unfinished pieces and so much more that I want to do.

4. Spend more time with Aaron doing stuff he loves.

5. Take Aaron to music lessons, he LOVES music and I think he will definitely play an instrument (NOT the drums, PLEASE!)

6. Do another family shoot with Jenty at the end of the year, actually I would like to do one every year or maybe every 2nd year.

7. Cook more interesting things for my family – we really dont branch out enough in home cooking.

8.  Blog more.

9. Have more date nights with Hubband.

10. Swim – we do not use our pool nearly enough, and swimming is exercise, see point 1!

11. Procrastinate less!!!!

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2010 – a recap

I am stealing this from the ever fabulous Wenchy 🙂  In fact I stole it last year too 😉

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?

Nothing really stands out.  I guess I had a pretty standard year…

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I kind of did… you can read about it here.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

A whole lot of Twitter babies were born this year.  I may not know their mommies IRL but I feel like we are all so close even if it is just in the computer 🙂

4. Did anyone close to you die?

My granny.

5. What countries did you visit?

I didn’t venture out of South Africa.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?

A real holiday.  At the coast or the Drakensberg.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory?

12 Dec 2010, the day Faith was born.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Completing our family with the birth of our daughter.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Not being a good enough friend.  Letting friendships drift.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I have never before been so sick with colds and flu as I was this year.  It was horrible.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

The first outfit I bought for Faith.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

Aaron.  His #aarontantrums have all but disappeared.  He is really growing up.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

Some of my family has made me want to move to a remote location where I dont have to deal with any of them ever.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Food, nappies, food, bum cream, food.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Falling pregnant.

16. What song/album will always remind you of 2011?

Greenday’s 21 Guns

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

  • Happier or sadder? Happier
  • Thinner or fatter? Fatter, but it took me 9 months to put it on, pretty sure it wont take so long to lose 🙂
  • Richer or poorer? About the same.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

I wish Paul and I had spent more alone time together.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Procrastinating.

20. How will you be spending Christmas

We spent it at home, we did spend the Monday after Boxing day with my mom.

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?

If by phone you mean BBM, then definitely Wendi and Roro 🙂

22. Did you fall in love in 2011?

Yes, with my beautiful baby girl.

23. How many one night stands in this last year?

None.

24. What was your favourite TV program?

So so so many, CSI NY, Haven, Lie to Me.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

No.

26. What was the best book(s) you read?

Again, so many books, I loved them all.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Nothing really new.

28. What did you want and get?

A baby 😉

29. What did you want and not get?

A holiday.

30. What were your favourite films of this year?

Nothing really jumps out.  Inception was pretty good though.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 31! We had a picnic, it was great fun 🙂

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

I cant think of anything.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?

Whale like??? No seriously, I wore what fit regardless of if it looked fashionable.

34. What kept you sane?

Cipralex!

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

This guy…. Om nom nom nom 😉

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

None, I am so not into politics.

37. Who did you miss?

My brother Matthew, my brother-in-law Asher and his girlfriend Megan.

38. Who was the best new person you met?

So many people, mostly from Twitter.

 

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.

Take each day as it comes.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year?

“Here comes the sun…” – George Harrison, from The Beatles’ album, Abbey Road, 1969