Month: July 2006

There are a few people I know who keep websites that I check from time to time.

Chris Hockaday is an old friend from University days, although I knew of him in school. Recently married as well. This is his blog address, Hokemon is his site’s address.

Michelle is my sister-in-law and keeps a site about her and my brother’s baby Sage.

Simon Michel was one of the biker mice at school and we rode often until I left for Taiwan all those years ago.

Bronwyn Beckett I know from church.

If you want a blog/website like Simon and Michelle’s you can sign up at my blogging site.

That’s the short list, if you have a blog or website or something of that nature comment or send me an email and I’ll add you to my friends list.

According to Clint Garside, the Westville Boys’ High School (my high school) 10 year reunion is coming up on the 4th of August.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen many of the people from school. It would be nice to catch up and see some of them, but that won’t be possible with the plans to go to James and Michelle’s wedding at the end of March next year. I guess I’ll have to wait for the 25 year reunion.

I’m not sure how many of my friends will make it back as many are not in South Africa at the moment. Anyways, life goes on…

Finally after a very long wait my two lovely ladies are back in Taipei.

We drove back from Tainan on Monday and settled back into things. Well, not quite settled, Ava was not in the least impressed with the tiny amount of housework I had done and we spent some time putting things in their place.

The cot, new cupboard, little baby rocking chair and baby toys all arrived on Tuesday and much of the day was spent putting the shelves up and cleaning up the house some more and making place for all the baby stuff which has come back to Taipei with them.

I am still on holiday this week except for the extra classes that I do on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

Christina is settling in fine and I’m glad that we picked this week for her to come back rather than a normal work week, otherwise things could be very tiring.

Again, I’ll get some pictures of Christina and her various little playthings on as soon as possible, which is really not that soon I guess.

Time flies, like it always does. This site, which was really a gift to Ava, but probably more fun for me has now been up for two years. Although I don’t update it too often it is my official place on the internet.

Remember you can subscribe to the email newsletter by using the subscribe box on the main page. You can also get it via RSS if you know what that is, and if you do, you will know what to look for.

Via my mom I found out that James and Michelle have planned to get married in South Africa next year. The date my mom mentioned was the 24th March.

I’m not really surprised that I heard this wonderful news from my mother first. Mother’s are just like that I guess.

With a little luck Ava, Christina and I will be able to make it for the occassion. It will have been three years since the last time I went back to South Africa so it will really be like going back to a strange place, perhaps even a little scary.

I suspect we will not be taking too many other trips back too soon after that unless something terrible or wonderful happens. I really hope that this time I can be a little more productive with the time there and get to do a few things. Primarily I think that besides sharing my brother’s wedding the family need to see Christina. It’s a little unfair that the family here in Taiwan gets to see her all the time, whereas my parents just missed seeing her when they came here in February.

So thats that for now.

Oh, I have a holiday next week. Ava has not come back from Tainan, but we will all come back together next Monday. Then we need to get the house sorted out. Cleaning and arranging new shelving and that kind of thing.

Bryan proposed to Katherine on a trip to Mozambique.

Another one bites the dust so they say. Happy times for the both of you, its great to see you making this commitment after such a long time.

The email from Bryan was a little cryptic and didn’t mention too many specific details but congratulations to them anyway on making this great leap.

Well, Ava and Christina have been in Tainan for six weeks now. Time really does fly, and if I think back on what I have done in the time they have been away, it is about nothing.

The weekend drag back to Ava’s hometown is fairly tough, about 5 hours door-to-door. However it is actually quite easy and this weekend was even easier than before. We made an agreement that I would only start my caring duties after I had a full nights sleep on Friday night and into Saturday lunchtime.

After all that sleep I was able to let Ava have a full nights rest on Saturday night and morning. It has been a lot of strain, although she seems to be alright. It’s almost like a form of torture, never quite getting enough sleep, but just enough to get by.

Next weekend will be her sister’s (no 2 – Anne) wedding. Should be full of the traditional Taiwan flair and I will put pictures on here sooner rather than later.

That’s it for me, thanks for those who continue to email or post comments once in a while. Bye for now.

Ava has also taken the small leap into another year of her life. For a change I remembered to do something sweet and managed to send a card to her in Tainan, which go there on her birthday, but when her mom saw all that English she had no idea what to do and only gave the card to Ava later.

Happy Birthday honey.