...Anyway - have to mention here that at least this time our blow up mattrasses didn't have us lying on the stony ground in the middle of an ice-cold night like our last Drakensberg camp escapade - the one where Bruce (Geoff's one brother) took us on a 'quick walk' that lasted about 4 hours up and down 2 mountains!!! (Had to get this in here for some of the Nelson family - lest we forget what he did to us haha.)
But back to the present - we camped in what is known by our church friends as "Calway Corner", which is an area pre-booked for all the people from Drouin Baps (short for Baptist Church), where the Calways camp in the corner, and everyone else next to and in front of them. We arrived on Thursday evening, set up tent, and then had loads of fun socialising with our new friends for the rest of the weekend. But all good things do come to an end, and after a few preaching sessions and quite a few cuppas with our friends inbetween and afterwards until late at night, we packed up again on Monday afternoon, to leave after the afternoon session as Geoff had to leave for Mt Gambier again on the Tuesday morning.
Mieke took some pics, but I need to get them off her phone first, so I will publish this post without the pics - will add them at a later stage.
SAD NEWS
Some very very sad news was that Nonhlanhla, our domestic worker from Durban and friend, passed away during the week after Easter. She had kidney failure (been diabetic most of her adult life), and unfortunately the public health system in SA failed her miserably. Need I say more? :-(
GIAN's FIRST BIRTHDAY IN AUS!!!
And he turned 9 on the 10th of April. He got quite a few calls from SA (thanks to everyone for making his day special by phoning, sending emails and FB messages). He felt very spoilt, and told me with a huge smile that he is the one that has had the most phone calls in one day since we got here. Which is true :-). We got him a ripstik for his birthday (also known as a surfskate), and he has once again proven that he is a very fast learner. He now starts at the top of our street (on the sidewalk of course), and 'skates' his way down to the other end past our house at quite a speed. He is growing up so fast!
Anyway, friends from church (and their 2 boys round Gian's age) came over for afternoon tea and cake to help us celebrate his birthday. And this is where the cake thing started!!!
MIEKE's FIRST FEISH
The next day Mieke danced in her first Feish (pronounced fesh). Took quite a bit of organising, as Geoff and I played in the worship team on Sunday (they were short of musicians, so it was only us, the drummer and the leader with his guitar - so I couldn't give it a miss!), and Mieke had to be at the venue at 12.15. Being over and hour's drive away, and church usually finishing at 11.45, I was definitely not going to make it. So my dearest husband (he is just the best) got up at the crack of dawn to pass Mieke on to her dance instructor (who lives ever further away than we do) close to one of the offramps on to the freeway at 7am! I left straight after church and got to the venue at about 1pm, just to find that they were running later than planned, and we would have been there in time for Mieke to dance! Not great for Mieke, as she sat there the whole morning, and we could only leave after the results were announced, getting us home at 8.30pm only! Was a very long day for her. But she was very happy, she came 3rd and 4th in 2 of her 3 dances!
MY FIRST BIRTHDAY IN AUS
mmmm, getting bored with all our 'firsts' yet? :-) Better get used to it, coz there are still many more where these come from haha.
So I turned a whole 44 on the 15th. And the cake thing continued. With epidemic proportions! :-). Started on the 14th already though, when Merron baked a cake for all the April birthday babies in our homegroup. 4 of us, incl Gian! Then on Thursday Ann (our fireworks friends) spoilt me rotten by inviting me for a scrumpteous lunch and some more - you guessed it - cake! A lemon cake, fresh out of the oven, talk about yum! Friday evening the Youngs and their 2 boys were back again, and you will never guess what Janette brought with. :-). Yup - a cake. A HUGE one, that is. Date and apple cake, called a Lumberjack cake. I wonder why.......????!! We fed them potjie (just about our only Aussie friends that had not yet been fed Geoff's potjie), and we generally ate way too much. (So what's new!)
On Saturday we made an offer on some LAND - yup, 678sqm of Aussie dirt, called a block here, by the way. With a fantastic view. In the background (sorry, the day was very hazy, so you can hardly see them on the first photo of our view) are the Baw Baw Mountains! In winter we will see the snow on the mountains! Cool hey? (Excuse the pun haha)
After making the offer (and taking a drive to our 'new block' to make sure we were sure about this), we popped in at Mike and Tania (our SA friends in Drouin - by the way, forgot to mention that the block we bought is also in Drouin!), just to find more..... yup - cake. Tania's mom (who lives with them) baked the most yummy carrot cake, and again we ate. Cake.
I know I am still under my birthday heading, because it all only ended on Saturday night when Rob and Michaela came over for a barbie (= barbeque = braai), bringing all the food and the most yummie salads. And bless their souls - no more cake! By now I did not want to see cake, let alone eat cake or even think about cake....
But I had a wonderful birthday - it lasted for 4 days! :-) Now that is what I call a bargain and a half. :-)
D-DAY
Friday 23 April we signed the contracts for our piece of Aussie dirt, and paid our $500 holding deposit. Officially the advert for this address now says "Under Contract" on realestate.com.au. Yeah!!!
BALLARAT!! Another FIRST! (Don't tell me you didn't see that coming!)
Sunday after church we hit the road to Ballarat, about 2 hours and 20 mins from home, on the other side of Melbourne. Remember Geoff's Aussie friend from the Church Bass Mailing list (they visited us in January somewhere, think I posted something about the visit here somewhere)? They invited us to come stay, so we stayed with them on Sunday night. We had a great evening, and eventually got to bed 1am on Monday morning! And then at 11.00 we dragged ourselves off to Sovereign Hill, a 'historic' mining town replica, with a little 'river' where you can pan your own gold, the works! Geoff was quickly hit with 'gold fever' :-), and him and the kids spent quite some time panning for gold. (Yup, real gold!). Our loot is now in 2 small bottles, to be added to when we go again. I was too cold to be messing around in water with a pan (it was about 14 deg), so I decided I would find my gold in the little shop that sold all sorts of things - got myself a light blue scarf, just in time for the descent of Winter on our little town of Warragul.
And yes, Winter seems to have arrived in all its glory. Overcast, rainy weather, but that is why we have central gas heating! Sure it was invented just for me! :-)
And now we are off to band practice. And I caught up. Eventually :-).
Next time.... who knows, coz it must still happen!!!! :-)
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