Anyone for a swim??!!!

"Come on in the water's lovely!"

Hmmmm, well, after three and a half days of filling we're there......................only problem, we appear to have accidentally filled our pool with dark green sludge with a delicate hint of brown.....................lovely!!!!! But hey! It was still lovely to get in the pool again, refreshing, invigorating, we had a great swim! Come and join us! Ok, we're kidding.......the shock packs are in and we wait for clarity.....................watch this space!

The Last Day

Well, here it is! Wednesday 23rd August! The plastering was finished by about 2pm! We started filling straightaway! (It's Thursday 10.30am at this moment and the water's only just lapping against the shallow end wall!) We hope the pool will be filled by tomorrow night although the water will be quite dirty and we'll then have to treat it. The colour should actually be fine as it's already slightly darker when it's wet and has a nice look to it! Can't wait for a swim!!!!! We're now busy filling in around the remaining areas, above the piping, with red laterite, black soil and finally grass. So the next photo I post on here should show a sparkling clear pool with everything looking much tidier all around it!

Welcome back Gordon!

Before work began on the pool we traced our original 'Gordon the gecko' on massive, sellotaped together, pieces of paper! Thus, when the time came, the 'paper Gordon' was positioned in the new pool and a team of us traced his shape with chalk! Omari and his guys then sprang into action on day 17 of the job (which was actually Tuesday 22nd Aaugust!), mixed plaster, tinted it and produced a perfect Gordon for us!


The next day, Wednesday 23rd August, was D-Day! They guys started at 7am, mixing the plaster in the deep end of the pool and tinting it. We used pva paint for the tint, mixed with white cement and marble dust. We had a little difficulty selecting the colour as we actually didn't know we were going to need pva paint for tinting until the night before we did Gordon! So we had a last minute panic rush job, frantically trying to decide on the colours which would give an end result of "light grey rock colour....................with Gordon slightly darker............." Hmmm....tricky! Honestly? We probably didn't get it quite right because Gordon's definitely 'feeling a bit blue' and, as you'll see in the next posting, the rest of the pool is quite light, although definitely grey.

Happy Birthday Gaz!

It's my brother Gary's birthday today, 42!
Last night he & Kathryn (his fiancee) went out to dinner with Mum & Dad in Ma & Pa's new silver Toyota Rav4! Oooooeeee! Mum & dad are getting rather cool in their old age!!
Hope they had a nice time anyway!
Gary & Kathryn are actually getting married next year, 2007, on July 28th at Eilean Donan Castle on the beautiful Isle of Skye!
So, here's my little experiment..............sharp-eyed readers of my blog may have noticed the adverts at the top of the page..............they tend to be travel ads for Zambia due to my constant ramblings about our trips in Africa.
Suddenly they became a veritable feast of swimming pool construction ads - wonder why?!
So now, in one posting, I've mentioned: birthdays, the Toyota Rav 4, weddings and Eilean Donan Castle - wonder what turn the ads will take.....? It will be interesting to see.........................
Maybe I should just start blogging about the most odd things I can think about (shouldn't be hard I know!) just for the fun of seeing which ads come up!
Well at least if I start ranting about odd stuff at some point you'll know why!

Patience is a virtue................

Yeah well, we're not that virtuous and we started to get impatient after about a week!

So anyway, we decided to try and get some grass laid. The bottom photo shows Fred putting black soil down and the top photo shows Patrick (left) and Fred finishing one whole section of grass! (nicked from the front verge - we'll worry about what to do with the verge later!)

They did this from Wednesday 16th to Friday 18th August.

Hard to believe there were pool steps and the old pool right where they're standing only two and a half weeks ago!

So now we await the final stage..............................................!

Day 14....then.....nothing............!!!

At this point we've got the old pool walls bashed away at the top and red laterite filled in between the old pool walls and the new pool walls. The pool guys then pretty much did a 'disappearing act' as they're waiting for 'the boss' to come from lusaka with the white cement for the finishing. This was Tuesday 8th August.

Fast forward to day 12, Sat. 5th Aug.

Day 12

Day 13 (Mon. 7th Aug.)

Pool fever! The latest!

Day 9

(view from deep end, new steps will be where wheelbarrow is)

Day 9

Satchel inspects the day's progress from the shallow end!

Day 8

Base slab laid

Latest pool progress Day 8 - 1st August!

Day 8 early morning

(preparing the mix for laying slab in the bottom of the pool)


Day 7

Our new swimming pool!

Day 5

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1 (above)
We finally went ahead and started work on our new pool this week!
Our original pool was a 1950s monster and we really wanted something smaller, of a more natural shape and warmer!
So, for all of you out there who have a major interest in the building of swimming pools.......(which might not be many of you!).....I've decided to post photos of the progress!
Well I think it's interesting anyway!

Wild dog spotted!

A wild dog was recently spotted in the undergrowth in a Chingola garden. She was behaving in a very fierce and frightening manner. This is the first recorded 'Wild Dog' sighting for years and could be very exciting for future wild animal viewing trips to the Copperbelt!

***stop press***

Hopes of millions of wild dog fans were dashed just before this went to press when local woman, Linzi Carlisle, came forward and informed us that the 'wild dog' in question was, in fact, "My cute, sweet, little pet dog Talitha!" she went on to say "She wouldn't hurt a fly! She just gets a teensy bit agitated when anyone goes near where she's hidden one of her bones!"

Photos of Rex's 70th

Rex is pleased with his surprise!

Say "cheese"!

The magnificent man in his flying machine!

Lunch at the Westcliff!

Justin's Dad's 70th!

'Tis the time for turning 70 it appears..................Justin's Dad, Rex, also turned 70 on April 24th but we couldn't actually get down to South Africa right then.
We flew down on Sunday 7th May and stayed at The Melrose Arch Hotel (www.africanpridehotels.com/melrosearch) where we stayed on Justin's 40th. We decided to treat ourselves to three nights there as it's so cool! (plus I got a great rate through my prokard -
www.prokard.co.za - worth getting and paying R300 for if you want even one night there plus you get discounts at loads of protea hotels and with Budget car rental!
So, on the Monday we picked up Rex & Prue and took Rex on a little magical mystery tour!
All he knew was that we were going to Rand Airport so he was pretty nonplussed!
Justin had arranged for Rex to be taken up in an old Boeing Stearman Biplane and he was absolutely thrilled when we told him! (Prue was actually a bit fed-up that she wasn't going too!)
He had a de-briefing, was kitted out in flight overalls, biggles helmet, the whole toot and up he went!!!
He had a great time, flew the plane himself a bit and experienced some 'mid-air acrobatics', all of which he thoroughly enjoyed!
After all the excitement we moved on to the Westcliff Hotel for a 'posh lunch'! www.westcliff.co.za
They have fantastic views from La Belle Terrasse!
So, it was a great success and we met up again the next day for lunch at Hyde Park before Justin & I headed off to The Drakensberg Mountains and Rex & Prue headed off to Plettenburg Bay!
We stayed in Gallery Suite at Acorn Cottages in the central 'berg area www.acornsinchampagne.co.za for just four nights and we had an excellent little holiday!
The view from our verandah was amazing, the weather was beautiful during the day and we went on two really long hikes. It got freezing as soon as the sun went down so we had to have strict planning in place: Get back from hike, light braai, shower, put on all warm clothes including thermals, light fire inside, eat on verandah, go inside as sun drops, close doors and sit as close to fire as possible! It was lovely and cosy and we just really enjoyed ourselves.
In addition we visited Baz, Justin's great friend who owns Thokozisa and went round for dinner to his & Tracy's house where we had a great evening!
We felt as if we'd been away a lot longer than we actually were - that's the amazing power of the 'berg - or any mountain I suppose.
We ended up at The Indaba Hotel for our last night in Jo'burg itself - near Fourways Mall - for last minute shopping - www.indabahotel.co.za - we find it a very handy hotel for the Fourways area and although it's large and geared for conferences it's very efficient on the whole, food's good, rooms are pretty nice - we had a room with a verandah by the dam and the grounds are large so you can really have a wander around.
We spent our last night at the airport at Southern Sun Garden Court (the old Holiday Inn Garden Court) and flew back home on Tuesday 16th May to our babies!

Rick

Ha! Did I get you worried there Rick?!!!! You're thinking, "whaaaat? An article about me? Oh no!"
Do not be afraid! There is nothing to fear! Trust me.....................................
So, what about Rick then? Oh yeah, I was just going to say that Rick was over in Zambia with Mel over Easter for about a week (they also indulged at Siankaba!) and we ended up round at Mel's for dinner, with Michelle too (Donald was fishing I think?), a couple of nights before he went back to the States.
We had a lovely meal prepared by Mel & Rick and downed plenty of vino (of course!) and had a great evening with good company!
Rick, thanks for the absolutely lovely photo book you gave us on America, it's really lovely and only serves to whet our appetite all the more for a future trip!
And while we're on the subject of Rick, we hope Mel arrives safely in the States (any minute now presumably?) and that you guys have a brilliant time together! We'll be thinking of you!
And don't worry Mel, if anything shocking happens in Eastenders I'll blog it for you!
There, I told you there was nothing to worry about Rick!

Some photos of Dad's 70th

The start of the adventure - on the boat crossing to Siankaba!

Justin & Linzi having sundowners during mokoro trip!

Mum & Dad on sundowner cruise!

Enjoying!

Dad's 70th - 30th March 2006

Well, my dear Dad turned 70 on 3oth March this year so Mum & Dad came out to us for a nice long visit.

Mum & I came up with a nice trip as a surpise for Dad: A two day drive, with an overnight at the Chisamba Safari Lodge, to Livingstone. Two nights at the Islands of Siankaba http://siankaba.net/ followed by a night at the Royal Livingstone Hotel then two days drive back, overnighting at the same lodge again.

We had a wonderful time, the best of all being Siankaba - we would recommend it to anyone as the place to go for absolute relaxation. The setting is superb, amazing views, delicious food, excellent staff, extremely tasteful decor in the tented chalets and the view from your bed in the morning is one that you will not easily forget.................the river flowing past your verandah.......sights and sounds of Africa right under your nose - nothing better!

We truly felt that we'd been on a much longer break, that's how brilliant it was!

In addition to the trip we also hooked up with the indomitable twosome "Pat & Amy" who were staying with Mel! We saw them round at Donald & Michelle's where Michelle aka 'superwoman' dished up enormous platters of finger snacks and the like for a great crowd of us! Also again when superwoman dished up a three courser for us all so we were spoiled well and truly!

Other than that we all just lazed around an awful lot, went out for plenty of meals - always nice - and did lots of planning for Mum & Dad's new apartment that they should be moving into soon!

All in all a very relaxing time and very enjoyable.

We also did research into caravan parks for Mum & Dad as they also planned to buy a caravan so that they can spend some time there when the weather's nice.

we settled on www.dogandduck.co.uk it's lovely apparently - as I type they are living there in their new caravan until their apartment's finished!!! They moved in last Friday.

Well, I'm struggling to type anything that makes any sense as there's this woman in England called Julie Haywood who won't stop messaging me!!!!!!! I obviously have to reply each time so my blog is suffering..........

Oh yeah!

Oh, Mel & Michelle came round the other night.Did I mention it?...............

No? Oh, ok, well, nothing to report anyway, just thought I'd mention, it you know?.........

Blogger's Guilt

Oh dear....................I appear to have joined the ranks of the anxious, guilt-ridden, conscience-swamped, shame-filled bloggers who have failed to keep their blogs up to date and are now suffering from feelings of total inadequacy! (brought on in no small measure by people - who shall remain nameless - YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! - who make comments that make them feel that they have FAILED..............)
Can I go on? Will I muster up the willpower to continue blogging? Do I have anything worth saying? (now there's a question!)
Well, check back some time soon and hopefully I won't disappoint!
Bye for now!

"Mystery couple cut the cake!"

Local paparazzi snapped this photo of a ‘mystery woman’ and ‘mystery man’ posing for the camera as they ‘cut the cake’……..
In true journalistic style the reporter wondered if this could be ‘the big break’…”Are they famous?” “Is he an American oil tycoon?” “Is she a Zambian actress?” “Just what exactly have they been getting up to….?”
Fellow diners who were interviewed at the scene had this to say:
“No comment”, said Mrs Carlisle, “People have a right to privacy, next thing you know this’ll be plastered all over someone’s blog, it’s just not right.”
“Don’t ask me”, said Mr Carlisle, “I was busy with my chicken madras and garlic naan, and very nice it was too.”
So no-one’s giving anything away…….for now!
But rumour has it that the ‘mystery man’ will be back in town before too long so who knows?
Until then we’ll have to leave it as yet another ‘small town mystery’ (we’ve certainly got plenty of those…..)
p.s. thanks for a great evening guys ,and, Rick, it was great to be able to spend some time with you, we look forward to the next visit! (Oooops! Did I just give the game away there? Not a mystery anymore!)

A 'Good Karma' Gift

Well, just a little story about a poor little old man in town..... Shame, he sells (or tries to sell) wooden carvings that aren't particularly good most of the time but he's always got a smile on his face.
I've bought the odd thing from him over the years.
Anyway, the poor old chap wasn't well and needed some medicine from the chemist which he couldn't afford so I took him into Stubbs chemist and we got him sorted out.
Bless him, as I got into the car to go, he appeared with this wooden duck and gave it to me!
It might seem like a small thing but it's a big thing to me, I mean, he really hasn't got anything and he still gave me something!
So I call it my 'good karma' gift and feel sure it's bringing some extra little piece of goodness into our home..........