White Easter

G and I have been home alone this Easter weekend while Al and Chants headed for Ireland to see friends. We had originally planned to go to Germany for 10 days but due to visa issues, the Germany trip fell through. Then we had considered doing a Whales road trip, but aborted that idea mid last week as the weather report looked gloomy. So we resigned ourselves to staying at home and with no major travel plans in hand we started the long weekend.

Friday night was a brilliant supper at the Fuzzeys, after which they introduced us to the card game "spoons".

Every man for himself.

The victor grins as he get lambasted with playing cards.

Saturday morning we woke to find light snow falling outside, causing much excitement for both of us. It didn't last long and wasn't enough to cover the ground but nonetheless was G's first experience of falling snow, so there was much excitement. The weatherman predicted "heavy snow" for Sunday morning. Having witnessed it, our faith in the weatherman was growing.

Saturday arvy we hit a couple of rounds of tenpin with the Fuzzeys.

Den demonstrates the "bowlers wave"....

and the ladies get down (literally for some) to some serious bowling.

Its all in the hands!

And the weatherman was right... we woke up this morning to falling snow and a white village.

We dressed in a flash, and before you could say 'frostbite' were outside playing.

We were like little kids, in fact, we were outside before any of the kids, and so had the privilege of making the first footprints, the first snowman and having the first snow fight.

Our first snowman.

Possibly even more impressive was that we were able to do all of the above and still get to church on time. Yup, no more 'African time'.

Billies

Having conquered boerewors, we recently decided it was time for another challenge. So after consulting quite widely we tackled the biltong frontier.

A nice piece of topside did the trick. For the majority of the meat we went traditional...... salt, pepper and a dash of coriander. We tried adding vinegar on a few small test samples as well.

A piece of string strung between the boiler and a stepladder made the perfect drying place in our somewhat cluttered garage. With the average temperature being below 10 degrees, there was little chance of the meat going off.

The South African version of watching paint dry!!

After a few days in the garage, the biltong was moved to the boiler room for the final drying phase. The verdict... well it could have done with a little more salt and coriander but on the whole, a good first batch. There will be more... many more. Our English friends remain unconvinced by biltong. "Are those rats hanging in your garage" was possibly the best chirp.

The Lord has been faithful in his provision. Gaylene has found work at a dental practice in Cambridge. Her immediate boss is a friend in the church, and the atmosphere at work is apparently infinitely better than her previous post. I've handed in notice at my company in London and will take up a position at a consultancy in Peterborough at the beginning of May. The main reason for the move is to cut down on the commuting time. My daily commute will drop from 3:10hours to 1:00 hour. Bring it on! So to celebrate these changes, last Saturday the four of us headed to Bangkok City, a Thai Restaurant in Cambridge. We got ourselves thoroughly lost but it was worth it. Happy times.

Weekend in London

I was on leave for 3 days two weeks ago and so G and I decided to spent two nights in London. Pete Beaumont graciously allowed us to crash at his spot in New Malden, a suburb of London. We trained in on Thursday and started our sight seeing at the Tower of London.

The Yeoman Warders (Beefeaters) impressed us with their knowledge of the history of the fortress, and recalled stories of Henry VIII, his many wives and the unfortunate souls who were imprisoned in the tower only to eventually loose their heads via block and axe on Tower Hill. Two of Henry's wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard apparently were executed here.

We checked out the Crown Jewels. These are very impressive and warranted security guards armed with something a little more serious than stories and legends. The Scepter with the Cross holds the Cullinan I diamond, or the Great Star of Africa, which weighs in at ~106 g and is the 2nd biggest diamond in the world. One has to stand on a conveyor belt which whisks you past the jewels, so you don't really get a chance to stand a stare, but fortunately the guards don't mind you going around the escalator 10 times.

A toilet in the White Tower. It leads straight out to the exterior walls of the building... a little drafty!

After walking, walking and more walking, we walked to China Town for supper. Its was great.. really festive and buzzing.

Crispy duck must be very popular as almost every restaurant had a couple of them hanging around. Some also had whole fried/baked squid in the windows (the yellow thing).

Then we took a walk along the southbank of the Thames. Beautiful.

Gaylene lovingly sacrificed day 2, and allowed me to indulge in the Natural History and the Science museums. One day though is just not nearly enough time (could spend two days in each one) but it was excellent.

Main hall of the Natural History Museum

The entrance to the "Through the centre of the earth" display takes you.... through the centre of the earth.

The "Rocket", the famous steam locomotive, in the Science Musuem.

Once we were all 'museumed-out', we continued with the sight-seeing via the Royal Albert Hall, and...

Kensington Palace. That night we met up with Mark and Mary-Ann.

and the Day 3 was spent in London with them seeing more sights. Here the ladies take a short break from their nattering to pose for a pick.

We started off with a walk around Borough Market. I love this place... such a buzz, and incredible array of foods.

Brownie tower anyone!

Fresh rabbits and hog hanging on the right.

The Tate Modern Art Gallery has this display on a the moment called 'Shibboleth'. Its a 100m+ long crack built into the main gallery floor. Through this piece the artist is apparently "addressing a long legacy of racism and colonialism that underlies the modern world. A 'shibboleth' is a custom, phrase or use of language that acts as a test of belonging to a particular social group or class. By definition, it is used to exclude those deemed unsuitable to join the group." So the crack is apparently a metaphor for a wide range of social issues far too complicated for me to appreciate. What I could appreciate though was my wife's comment... "this cracks me up".

Dinner parties galore

As ever, we've been busy but its only when I look at our photo diary that I realise just how busy. Here are a few scattered highlights of the last 2 months.

Al and Chants continue to keep us well stocked with wors, this time using some of the spices Al brought back with him from RSA. All in all he brought back enough spice mix to make 90+ kg of wors. Should keep us going for the next month or two :-)

We're really loving Cell life and are really getting to know these guys (errr.. mostly girls) well. Never needing an excuse to dine RSA style, here we dished up bototie for them. And what would it be without Mrs Ball blatjang!

Roz and Ether outdid themselves with a Murder Mystery dinner party. It was our first exposure to one of these... great fun. With the theme being "Murder on the Dance Floor" we all received our character profiles a few weeks before, giving us plenty of time to get into character and costume for the evening. Gaylene was the Chilean dace champion ....

while I had the privilege of being a cross-dressing theatre personality. I discovered what bronzer is (men, ask your wives).

"Hmmm... who could the murderer be? Must be that dodgy guy in the pink" The culprit turned out to be Esther's character. What a surprise!

Work it girl.

I've just realised that the last two months have been full of dinner parties and continuing in that vein Richard and Beckie Johnson invited us to Beckie's birthday party. Mexican! Wow.... a spread like that I have never seen before.

Ok children, who needs to visit the little girls room?

...

Esther took G and I to do a little exploring one Sunday afternoon. Wimpole Hall is a stunning old manor house managed by the national Trust and isn't far from us. The grounds are brilliant.

The photo above is the evening view from Blackfriers Bridge in London from where I catch the bus on my commute home.

I found out early last month that I had 14 days leave to take before the end of March so have been having a number of long weekends lately which has been great. During one of those G and I did a self guided historical tour through St Ives. Beaut little village:

That little square structure in the middle of the bridge is one of three surviving bridge-chapels in the UK. Yup, a church built in the middle of a bridge. Its tiny! It makes sense...baptism is always just one step away. Bob Sorge's book "Following the River" comes to mind.

Statue's and tributes to Oliver Cromwell are all over this county.

It's late winter at the moment and only direct sunlight seems to thaw the frost on some mornings. This is our back yard by the way... huge by most UK standards. Oak tree and all.

The Open Door church put on a quiz night recently. It was brilliant, and there must have been well over 120 people. The quiz culture is a big thing here (UK) but as novices, G and I were pretty useless. Thank goodness for Jules in our team.. a one man team all on his own. We tied for 4th place out of more than 20 teams. Yeehaaa!!

Drinks at the local Pub after the quiz. I discovered only recently that "Pub" is short for "Public House". Who would have thought!

And finally, how can anyone not be inspired to dabble in portrait photography when your subject looks like this!!!