Charlie's Bird
living the dream with Charlie and Thandi and chirping all the way back to the nest.Archive for weekend special
And just like that
…another month rolls around. Jingoes! Where is there year flying to?
We had word a few weeks ago that Thandi had been selected for the EC nippers team to take part in the National Interprovincial tournament to be held in GQ this past weekend. It’s a bit of a different competition in that it is an entirely team event with no individual medals awarded. All achievements are ascribed to the team, and the only medals awarded are the golds for the winners of each division.
Thandi got to take part in a number of events in the pool and managed to contribute valuable points to Lifesaving Eastern Cape’s tally. While she didn’t have any events on the beach, she was cheerleader in chief, and a hands on assistant, recovering boards during relays and being part of all the action. It was a long wait for prize giving yesterday, and we we thrilled with the results.
Lifesaving Eastern Cape won the Nipper surf, pool divisions and the overall Nipper IPT, the Junior pool division and overall junior division, the Senior pool division and overall senior division, and we were thrilled when they were announced as overall winners of the IPT!
Such an incredible experience for her and for me as a parent. This competition epitomizes the altruism of lifesaving, where the individual is only important as part of the team. We both got the chance to meet and mingle with the other EC players and parents, and even though it felt a little like I was cheating on my own club, hanging out with our traditional rivals, it has been so good to forge friendships.
Week 8.3
…how is this year already 8 weeks old? Time waits for no man. so, the week round up…
- Work – is ticking along. Nothing exciting to report.
- Home – next round of minor improvements should start shortly. The steel guy has quoted on the staircase construction for Thandi’s new room’s mezzanine floor, and I have paid the deposit. Wall paper has been chosen, flooring up next.
- Thandi – Man, my child is amazing! I sound like a stuck record, she actually needs her own set of bullet points. At school, she is shining and her test marks are very good. She has been voted in as swimming captain, and has swum herself to #1 in her age group in our city. Nippers was this weekend…
- Nippers – Phew! EC Champs were held in an extremely windy Jeffrey’s bay. My word! Anyway, our little team of 17 Nippers were trojans, played out of their socks! My Thandi had a great competition, missed out on a medal she really wanted, earned a whole pile of others, and ended up third overall in her age group. (she missed second by 1 point!) I managed to get out of my moon boo0t this weekend, and into a shoe, on the beach, and I am so glad to see the back of that thing. The foot is tender, but completely manageable.
week 5+3
…phew, a lot happened last week, and we were on the road on Friday morning, therefore, no blog.
- Thandi – had an up and down week. The highs included some great swims at pour provincial top 8 trials, where she swam mostly PB’s and thoroughly whipped her competition. She was so happy with her results. On Thursday morning she was due to leave with her waterpolo team for the Oakhill tournament which takes place in Knysna. It is a fantastic festival which takes place in the lagoon, the construct floating pools in the waterfront area at Knysna. Absolutely incredible experience for the kids. She was exhausted when she went to bed on Wednesday, and when I woke her up on Thursday morning, she was under extra blankets and she was on fire, with a massive fever. So, like any good doctor, I loaded her up with paracetamol, send lots of meds along and sent her on her way. To get a call to tell me she’s throwing up and is looking terrible. Anyway, the teachers managed the situation quite well, they kept her hydrated and managed to get her fever broken. Poor girl, she was finished! She didn’t play on Thursday afternoon, and was good to go on Friday, but the sparkle faded and by the last game of the day, that temp was up again and she was all teary and upset. Anyway, Saturday was better, by the final game of the festival the entire team was tired, but they managed a great result! They finished 3rd on the log, having only lost 1 game (no team was unbeaten by the end of the fest) and Thandi played some great polo, some okay polo, and spent some time on the sidelines.
- Running – this was a tougher week, and I struggled with my energy again. It has been extremely hot and humid, and I have not enjoyed those conditions. On Saturday while in Knysna, I suggested to Charlie that we go for a run, all was going well until I tripped and fell off a pavement, in the process breaking one of the bones in my foot. So, there’s that. Thankfully no surgery required, but, not my best day out.
- Work – steadily ticking over.
Change
…so I spent a lot of the weekend trying to find some extra coins. I tried to get to bed early and have good sleep, I decorated the house with all the Christmas stuff, I went for a run, I made a new recipe for dinner. All good stuff. And yes, I do feel a bit better, but sitting at my desk doesn’t feel good this morning. I’m carrying a massive burden of (financial) responsibility to my staff and the practice in general, and I do feel like I am shouldering it alone. Anyway, you guys don’t need to hear about that, so let’s look at some of the pictures of the Christmas decorations!
(Excuse the trailer and detritus on the porch, we have finally sold my Dad’s beach house, and so had to bring a whole lot of stuff back into town, and have run out of storage space… Busy working on tidying up the garage and packing things away.)
The wooden crate stack is shamelessly stolen from a friend, she did it first, it looked amazing, and I thought a great way to display all my Christmas goodies I have accumulated over the years. It isn’t 100% completed yet, I want to get some more little lights and some more hooks to hang things in some of the boxes, but on the whole I am absolutely thrilled with it! Gosh, Christmas really does make me smile!
Of road trips and tours
…so driving to the neighbouring city of saints, watching the girl play hours of polo, driving her home for her mock ballet exam and back again to continue playing hours of polo was my weekend.
The polo was good. The coaches are trying to get their team established for next year, so Thandi and her friend M who usually play for the /13A’s headed the /13B team of mainly grade 6’s. IT was a great confidence boost for her, and she worked hard, had fun, scored some goals and generally had a great time on tour. They played 8 games, won 5, lost 3, gained tons of experience.
On Saturday afternoon I had to get Thandi back for her mock ballet exam; yes, you read that right mock. But, one does not mess or argue with ballet teachers. And after the instruction of, ‘If your daughter does not do the mock exam, she will not be allowed to do her actual exam’, one tends to comply. Anyway, that went well, apparently. The actual exam is coming up on Saturday. Let’s hope she will have her head in the game and all will go smoothly.
The weeks ahead are starting to get really really busy. My head spins ever so slightly, but I think for now I am keeping my balance. Next commitment – the Grade 7 farewell tea on Saturday. I am just a worker this time, thankfully! But do still have some decor items to sort out. Let’s make it happen!
Not much
…news, not much to say. Actually, probably lots to say, but I’m out of words at the moment. Apologies!
But we are now T-18 days to our departure to Chicago, so planning this trip is in full steam ahead mode.
- flights – International and domestic booked
- accommodation booked
- marathon entry secured
- 5km family fun run (the day before the marathon) booked
- Violent Femmes tickets booked
- I am trawling the web daily, trying to perfect the rest of our itinerary. I think we were really spoilt with what we saw in NYC, but are so keen to explore another big city! So far, we are keen to do some walking tours, a architecture boat cruise up the Chicago river, we’d kayak too, but those operations are now closed for the cold season, the Adler Planetarium, the museum of science, the field museum, there’s an art gallery I’m keen on, maybe navy pier? My daughter just wants to do some shopping for swimming stuff!
Hopefully I’ll get it sorted over the weekend – an on call one, with a long run required… ( I am so tired of training at the moment, please can I just go and run this thing now!)
Weekend Fun
…it was a jam packed weekend, and I have to say I am exhausted! Even though I tried to take it easy.
Friday night Thandi went to a birthday party. For the birthday girl who is super sporty, she was so excited that there was a night race at the local golf club, so she invited her friends, and they tackled 5km and then enjoyed burgers and cake afterwards. We stuck around and had a beer and a burger with the host parents – always a fun couple!
Saturday dawned cool and breezy. I’d had a tough week – I’ll expand on that later, so I wanted to bake – baking always seems to ease my soul, so I made a batch of uber delicious choc chip cookies for the family – best enjoyed warm, straight out of the oven with melt chocolate! Yum. Then I tackled a few chores. That evening we went to a function hosted by the local Rotary Anns – they are producing a recipe book, so wanted some recipes and some cooked dishes for photographs. It was such fun choosing recipes and preparing them. I made a lemony dijon mustard chicken and orzo pasta dish, an apple and avocado salad and a victorian sandwich cake. (fortunately I didn’t have to rename it the Victoria Beckham Sandwich, which would have been very thin!)
Sunday I was up early for my moderately long run – 18km, and then it was down to the beach for the first nippers session of season on the beach! It was really amazing to see so many new kids there. After that it was prize giving at the club – Thandi was a stand out performer – Best /12 female nipper overall, best /12 Stillwater female, best Stillwater female overall. My little champ!
Hints
…of spring are definitely in the air. It is so nice to see the days starting to get lighter earlier and warm up a little. Although, honestly, the wind! It really can move along now. It has been extreme in this neck of the woods, with even a Derby Day in GQ being cancelled this weekend because of the extremes.
On my run yesterday, I really enjoyed seeing things start to blossom and bloom. So beautiful!
Look at that busy bees starting to harvest pollen and nectar for the delicious honey they are producing.
Wild Women on the Run 2023
…wow! What an experience!
Day 1 – 20 July 2023 – Chintsa to Morgan Bay – 32km
…conditions were decidedly gloomy – cold, wind and rain were the order of the day, so it was without too much enthusiasm that we set off. But, despite the weather being dismal, we slapped smiles on our faces and off we headed. At moments, the sun shone, but quickly, as the wind blew, the clouds would move in to dump more wetness on us. My body coped better than I thought it would, and I felt good the whole way through the day. With massive relief, we arrived at Haga Haga (so nice you say it twice), when the rain was really coming down, and we were able to stop at the hotel and have a coffee or a sherry, out of the rain. Things settled down, and we headed off again, now clambering over many rocks, and up and down cliffs to Morgan Bay, our destination for the first night.
Day 2 – 21/07/2023 – Morgan Bay to Seagulls (via the gates) – 25km
…another cold start to the day – it certainly took my engine a while to get going and get running comfortably on day 2. The rain, at least, had cleared up and while the wind was freezing, the weak sun did warm us up occasionally. Crossing the Kei River on the pont is always a fun experience, and we all breathed a sigh to rest our feet for the 2 minutes that that took, before we were back on our way, heading up towards the gates. The gates are a rocky outcrop, where over millions of years, a river has carved a narrow path through the rocks, and the water is deep and cold. It is also the pool where legend has it Nongqawuse had her vision in 1856, when the ancestors told her that the cattle must be led into the seas and slaughtered, and which led to the great famine in 1856/7. Usually we all take a dip and swim through the gates, and then proceed to do some cliff jumping from the high cliffs into the deep cold water, but it was really too cold, for even the bravest of us to attempt it this year. After munching some lunch surveying the view, we then headed across the grasslands, back down to the beaches and onto our resort for the night.
Day 3 – 22 July 2023 – Seagulls to Mazeppa Bay – 35km
This was the day I was nervous about. By now, I had a few blisters – running in the rain had really upset my feet, and my joints were tired. My pack was heavy – I carry the medical kit and hiking poles in case they are required, so my body was taking a bit of strain, and we had our biggest day to come. With relief, we saw that the sun had come up and although it was windy, it was clear!
The first 5kms clipped along easily, and then we all started working harder as we hit some cliff paths with some very soft sand on them, slowly we made our way to our first river crossing of the day. The water was freezing! So cold, in fact, that I didn’t realise that I had cut my foot on some rocks. Anyway, a bit of TLC and I was back on the path. We headed up the coast towards Wavecrest with the promise of a cold coke at their bar – what a godsend that was! Refreshed, we got ferried across the river at the hotel by the local ferrymen and then proceeded up along the beach. We knew we had another 20km to our destination, and the day was long and blustery. But, with good friends, the road is never too long, and we found the end of our journey nearing. I can say, that for the first time, I didn’t feel ready for it to end… Maybe because I am 95% sure it will be my last adventure with the WWOTR.
I made some new friends, solidified some old friendships and really embraced the experience. It was magnificent!
Of friendships and swimming
…it was a good weekend, and an incredible time to watch my child interact with some of her friends. I think I’ve mentioned here that she is quite a loner, and doesn’t really gel much with the rest of her grade – simply because she is more mature than the average 11-12 year old. And, her good friends who are a little older than her have now hit those teenage years, and she is not quite up to talking about boys and kissing yet; so she has been having a tough time of late.
During the gala and swim camp she went to earlier in the school holidays, she roomed with some girls a little older – 14-15 years, and they were determined to look after her nicely for me, adopting her as their ‘little sister’. She thrived on the relationship and the friendships that have developed are really beautiful. this weekend there was another gala, this one at home, and it was wonderful to see her interacting with the other children, and how they valued her asa team member. She was so happy! And that always makes a mom’s heart happy!
Even better was how well she swam! PB’s abounded, medals for days! Proud mom!
Charlie's Bird 