Today the husband has gone back to work after a short holiday break. Flipper is back at school on the 13th, and Skippy on the 19th. Which means 1 week with two kids (and trying to work) and then 1 week with 1 kid, who got a new bike for Christmas and thinks that being indoors is for the criminally insane.

He can’t be outdoors practicing on his bicycle without me, so, well I’m sure you’re feeling me rejoice for the two weeks ahead of me.  (sheesh Kristi, I was just going through my feed reader and saw your post – the opening theme is the same – I swear I wasn’t copying you!)

He’s taken to the bicycle really well, getting him to understand pedaling took some huge encouragement and a truckload of patience, but once he figured out to keep his feet drawing circles (instead of going up and down – because he has ‘back-pedal’ breaks) he’s now a pro at it.

Any excuse to ride his bike (in the house!) from his bedroom to the lounge, and no matter how many times we threaten that Santa will see him doing it and take the bike away

Since I’m a stickler for fairness with my boys, here is an equally cute one of Flipper, and yes, I *love* him in that shirt.

It’s the one we bought for Skippy in Australia when we were there in 2007, and it fits Flip perfectly now. Plus it keeps my manifestations at a high level. Yes we still want to go there, things are in the pipeline, more on this later.

Incidentally Flip also got a bike of sorts for Christmas, more like a tricycle, with a handle at the back for whichever poor sucker has to push him in the direction his cute little index points, and of whom he demands, “THERE!” ever 10 seconds.

We didn’t go ‘away’ as such over the holiday period. We just stayed at home and did a few good day trips here and there.

Would you believe that I forgot my camera, like every single time? Shocking. I know.

So I had to rely on my cellphone for pictures.

We visited a wine farm that we’d not been to before, after finding a rather incredible map, on the local municipality website, which showed all the wine farms and other attractions that are family friendly.

A visit to the croc farm, butterfly sanctuary and giraffe house are on the cards for a few weekend drives while the weather is still good.

Speaking of which, the weather has been really odd. I can count on one hand the number of days we’ve had, which were ‘sweltering’. Normally we melt for at least a week on the trot. I  am a huge fan of the swimming pool, but have only been in it once.

Planet? Are you listening? Please don’t kill us all with climate change just yet ? Kai thanx bai.

I think Skippy is blowing a kiss at his girlfriend or something!

Delvera Wine Estate, and in fact yesterday, we met up with an old friend (from Australia) at Eaglevlei, which was even nicer than Delvera (in terms of child friendliness), where I neglected to take any photos at all!

So for the time being, we’re all ‘wine-farmed-out’.  I mean really, how many times in one week can you sit and have a nice meal, watch your kids play, and throw back some crisp Chenin blanc? Really such a hardship.

The photo of me with the kids was taken at Delvera, along with this one of the play area peeking out amongst all the big ferns and trees.

On New Years Eve (during the day) we drove up the west coast for a change of scenery.

It’s sparse, and flat out there with lots of bush scrub and cobras (great!) but we were headed for one little turquoise jewel out there, and stopped off at Langebaan Lagoon.

Now the beachfront and lagoon area are very nice.

There are two restaurants where you sit on a terrace, just metres from the sandy beach. Being New Years Eve, of course, they were absolutely packed, and we had no intention of going there.

We rather just wanted to spend some time on the beach.

There are some quite swish housing estates that have sprung up, a golf estate near the exit from the highway, and another estate nearer the large shopping mall.

But the rest of the town, I’m afraid to say, well frankly, it’s a dump.

But the beach made up for the rest of the town, and we had a great time letting the kids splash around for awhile in the waves. If we go back again, we’ll probably stay overnight at Club Mykonos, so that the kids can spend a few hours there and have some fun with their buckets and spades etc.

I’m quite impressed with my blackberry actually, it only has a little 2mp camera, but it’s handy enough to take pics, and then shove back in my pocket. I would have been a little more precious with my DSLR on the beach, and worry about the sand and water getting in.

We decided to take a route home, which turned out to be a bit of an adventure. At one stage, we were in what can only be described accurately as MOFO GANSTALAND.

I think I held my breath the entire time, and had to resist to hide my kids under the seats lest they get caught by a stray bullet or something. We were getting some very strange looks from some of the people on the sidewalk, as if they couldn’t believe these dumb folks were taking a drive through their hood. Frightening.

Anyway, we made it through, and then the road became absolutely beautiful. Aside from the pockmarked tar, which had last been resurfaced circa 1982, this is what it looked like.

Yes, a road, overhung with my beloved gum trees that I can never seem to get enough of. Mere midgets in comparison to the ones we saw in the Dandenongs (which burned down on Black Saturday) but still gum trees, and still beautiful.

Hello, my idea of heaven.

Farm land, gum trees. (faints). If not for the whole gangstanland thing going on less than 3km away from here, then it could have been a nice place to stop. Perhaps it used to be, a long time ago.

We went and saw Avatar on the 2nd of Jan. If you follow that link, it will take you to the review of the movie that I did on NessWorld. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you are missing out.

For now it’s back to the mundane everyday, new year, new budgets, new monthly auto insurance quotes to keep our costs low, I swear they know my voice by now!

Time to feed the kiddos and get them involved in some kind of meaningful activity for the next few hours so that I can get some work done.

Hi Ho Silver.

Oh and did I mention that the husband sadistically turned off our satellite TV connection again (now that he’s back at work), now I rarely watch *any* TV anymore, but on the 18th of January Greys Anatomy Season VI is starting AND I have these two weeks to get through juggling kids…time to rely on the ‘educational dvd’s I suppose if I want to get anything productive done.

Strength and Honour.

Strength and Honour.

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