A Sad Day

Well, Hi there! Here I am again! I stopped blogging because I was very busy/ lazy /pre-occupied etc. etc. My pre-occupation was with trying to make a book of my blog with Blubber.com. I struggled a bit with this as I chose the wrong format for my book, but anyway I was well underway with books about the grandchildren when they were babies and toddlers. I started to make photo books for the little ones with photos of Mamma, Pappa, Ouma, Oupa, Oom Hendrik, baba, Franco, Zaran (the dog), perd (horse) etc. etc. I also wanted to put the videoclips together to make a special video for them..... all these good intentions that came to an abrubt ending yesterday because:

They stole my laptop!

My books, financial statements, work etc. etc. are gone and so are my PHOTOS AND VIDEOS!!

Moral of the story is: keep photos in cyberspace - I had the cutest Christmas photos of Martelize and Franco: she had on a pretty pink satin dress with lots of sequins and all Christmas Eve she danced about like a princess. Franco was so taken with his new lawnmower that he was all smiles when I took photos of him mowing the lawn. And now all those photos are gone! So sad!

Anyway: here is my New Year Resolution: to blog regularly and to immediately put the pics in a blubber book as well and to make weekly backups of this too, so that for next Christmas I will have a photo book for each child.

I just might blog again before New Year, but probably won't: the thieves left our house in a terrible mess and now I have to tidy up before I can clean up and I feel sort of "Where do I begin?" (With some more coffee and beskuit?) Anyway, if I don't blog again before New Year:

HAVE A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR!

MAY 2010 BE REALLY BLESSED AND MAY NO THIEVES BREAK IN AND STEAL OR DO WORSE!!

Martin and Stella's wedding

In January I blogged about Hendrik and Sharon's exceptional Kwasizabantu wedding. (Cousin Hendrik - not our Hendrik). In August his twin brother, Martin got married in the same way. Same way, meaning marrying purely, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, without ever having had a relationship of any sort with the fiance.

The big difference between Hendrik's and Martin's weddings was that when Martin got married, the burnt down auditorium had been rebuilt and they did not have to get married in the Aquelle factory shed, like Hendrik and Sharon did. Here pretty Stella makes her entrance down the aisle.

While Martin stood waiting... with Hendrik at his side.

The choir sang beautifully in this massive auditorium that seats thousands every Sunday. This wedding was on a Saturday afternoon and not part of the Sunday service like the others, so the church was not packed to capacity, but there were still many guests. You can read more about their wedding here.

After the service, photos were taken in this beautiful garden. Here is our Hendrik with my sister Elsabe, the mother of the groom.

Father of the groom, Koos, with Anne and Netta in the background.

Wally's wife, Jessica.

Jan and Elsabe Pienaar, Netta and Kobus' children.

Ethelwyn and her children Evan and Almarie.

Tiemie, Lalie and Tannie Babs. Tannie Babs is the only one left of my father's generation. She is 86 and still very sprightly.

Almarie Hanekom.

The beaming couple.

I copied this picture from the Kwasizabantu website.

The whole De Vos side of the family. Tannie Babs, next to Ria, is not much taller than her brother Arno (7). Apparently she wears boys clothes age 11.

Ria, only daughter of Dirk and Ruth.

One of the dainty bridesmaids in her light green frock.

The bridal table.

Hendrik and Martin are keen hunters and hunt especially wild boars - in fact Stella is the daughter of the man on whose farm they often hunted.
Sabe's daughters wrote a poem about hunting and all her grandchildren (except the two babies and Almarie), enthusiastically recited this long poem to the guests at the reception. Jan, in the camo suit in front, was to shoot at one point and he missed his cue, and said, "Ek het nie geskiet nie" to the great amusement of everyone. (See video) But he was not put off and here he aims and shoots.
On the pic is Josh, Ria, Arno (behind Elsabe), Elsabe, Evan, Jan and Hananiel.

Congratulations Martin and Stella! We had a great time at your wedding!

Our Russian Evening

No photos this week - I was just too busy. Last night we had lots of wonderful friends and family over for our "Russian Evening". Generally it went very well, but I have to confess something that let me hang my head in shame...! But let me start at the beginning!

I had planned to welcome everyone with bread and salt as we had been welcomed on board our ship. Unfortunately my fridge was very full, so the (bought) bread dough was left outside and by the time I wanted to bake it, it had fallen flat! So no Russian bread welcome! (I baked the bread dough this morning and actually it was fine! Too bad I hadn't done it yesterday! I could have treated my guests to wonderful warm bread and let them experience "Russian" hospitality!)

I never got round to making the herring and salmon snacks I had envisioned, so the guests had to make their own snacks while I was still running around. I hope everyone got something. I'm not the best hostess - if you don't help yourself, you'll go without something to drink.We are fortunate to have two houses on the farm: my mother's house and our house. We arranged the furniture in the top house in rows for the slide show. Thelwyn had organised a computer projector for us - thank you Thelwyn! It was fun to relive our Russian tour and to see our new friends Gert and Maria again. Thanks for the video and the DVD and the picture and...and!

After the show, we had Russian food, or at least my version of it. I had made

• Chicken - my own recipe. I think it was something like what we got served on the ship.
• Vareniki (filled dumplings) I probably will never make it again. Not bad, but too much work and I do not think really worth the effort. But more than half of the dish got eaten up, so either our guests were just polite, or they actually liked it. (When I had made a trial batch, Hendrik did not think I should include it in the menu, but since it forms a part of Russian New Year celebrations, I included it anyway!)
• Bitochki: meatballs with mushroom and sourcream sauce. I seldom use sour cream - too expensive and too many calories - so the sauce was too thick and I had to thin it down with plain yoghurt. I'm not wild about meatballs, but these were quite good. I'll just make the sauce with plain yoghurt next time.
  
• Kidney bean salad with rye bread, grated apple, olives, cheese and mayonnaise. This is one of my favourite Russian recipes, but there was a lot left over. On the other hand, I did not really see any left on the plates... but on the other I did not scrape the plates either, so I do not really know whether the guests liked it, but this is a recipe I'll make again - if only for myself!
  
• Carrot salad. I did not make it with sour cream as my Russian recipe suggested, but I did put in the chopped dried apricots and it was popular.
• Beetroot: I cheated and used box beetroot, but I drained the beats and added walnuts, raisins and mayonnaise- as the recipe stated. This dish was very popular and I definitely will make it again.
  
• Cucumber salad with hardboiled egg and sour cream dip. This salad was far more popular than Thelwyn (she made it for me) had thought it would be and we should have made more.
• Russian picnic potatoes: a stirfried mixture of parboiled potato strips (chips) and mushroom and onion. Since our Russian tour I have made it a few times and will continue to make it. If you come to visit, you are likely to get it! I can recommend it.
• Poppyseed rolls, strawberries and icecream for dessert. This is another "recipe" I can really recommend. We had something like this on the ship and this is my version: you unroll a room temperature roll of flaky pastry. (NB. it takes a long time to defrost, so take it out of the freezer, the day before.) Spread it with a good quality chocolate spread. (The cheapest variety turned out to be like chocolate sauce and did not work too well when I had tried it before.) Sprinkle poppy seeds on top of the chocolate and roll up the pastry again. Pinch the edge to make sure it doesn't unroll while baking. Cut in slices and bake for about 20 minutes - but watch it. I made this for earlier this week when my sister Anne 'crashed' with us for the night and it burned!! What a pity. Anne thought it might have been the oven pan, so for the party I made sure I used a ceramic dish.
  

Of course we had to end the meal with КОФЕ and ЧАЙ. We had an urn, mugs, various coffees, tea, sugar and milk set out and invited everyone to help themselves... I was busy chatting, and covering left overs - I couldn't let do over zealous guests do that on their own - so I never made myself coffee. Anyway I only drink hot water, so I doubt that I would have noticed that something was amiss. When guests started to say good-bye, I said, "But you haven't had coffee yet." And they all assured me that they had already had coffee thank you....! No one told us that actually the coffee was undrinkable! It was only after everyone had left, that we realised that the milk was sour... not just sour, nearly thick! (Whoever put that bottle in the fridge?) Jan had put the fresh milk in the fridge in the other house, because ours was too full....

So to anyone reading this: thank you for coming. It was a memorable way for us to end our tour of all tours. But next time, please tell me if something is amiss! (Sour milk is not likely to happen again: I'll make sure I'll taste it from now on!!)

Без перевода. (Goodbye)

Before and After, or Why I must have a pony!

Hello Oupa en Ouma! Ek's wakker en ek het die koord ontdek....!
We looked after Martelize this weekend, while Frans, Thelwyn and Hendrik went off to an endurance ride. (Hendrik was the only one who rode this time. He rode Pula and both horse and rider did very well!)

Kyk hoe mooi kan ek by die trappies afklim.

Ouma se kas is 'n lekker speelplek.... ek kan al die groot laaie oopmaak, maar dis 'n goeie ding ek kan nog nie soos Franco skroefdeksels afdraai nie, anders was Ouma in die moeilikheid. Haar kalsiumpille is 'n lekker ratel vir nou.

Kyk hoe mooi lyk ek nadat Ouma my aangetrek en my hare gekam het.

Ek kan die proppie op my "No more tangles" bottel pas. Ek's mal oor bakkies en potte met deksels.

As jy mooi kyk sal jy my nuwe tande sien. Ek is 14 maande oud en het nou twee tandjies... en 'n paar ander wat pla! Ek hou daarvan om aan 'n appel te "kou" - kan nog nie stukkies afhap nie!
Like mother like daughter... Thelwyn was nearly 15 months before she cut her first tooth!

Ouma het na badtyd my hare drooggeblaas en 'n ander haarstyl probeer. Sy speel so lekker met my hare.
A hairclip also does the trick. Martelize never tries to take these hair things out of her hair, but apparently the other babies at her creche do! Guess who threw tupperware on the floor and who loves playing with the vacuum cleaner!

Slaaptyd!

This weekend was really busy. On Friday we had supper at Dorette's with two of Jan's sisters. Franco and Martelize were so cute, but I was so busy that there wasn't time for photos. I hope to get a new one of the two together soon, but with both of them running around, it is not so easy!

Urielle's first birthday

It was niece Urielle's first birthday the other day- and great fun to see the three "cousins" together again. They had great time - and so had we.

Ouma Lalie made sure there were enough push toys for everyone. Franco particularly liked this pram.

Urielle wasn't quite walking yet, but she easily pushed around this wagon.

Urielle enjoying her cow birthday cake.

Our two one year old guests watching the candle blowing intently.

Martelize couldn't wait to also tuck into the birthday cake.

Franco wasn't so much interested in the cake, but the BALLOON! He quickly ripped off the balloon from his chair and was far more interested in the balloon than the yummy goodies on the table.

Urielle opening her presents. Her baby sister is due in a month's time.

At first Martelize wanted to help to open the presents, but then she decided climbing into this crate of toys was more interesting.

Franco's only interest in the toy opening was when his uncle put in the screws of a new toy for Urielle. Screwdrivers are very interesting! However, he soon went off exploring the big garden and climbed on everything in sight.

Thelwyn had to go to another function and left Martelize in Dorette's and my care. Martelize, uncharacteristically took a fancy in a teenage guest and wanted to be on her lap for ... well for a long time. However, when I later walked past them, she held out her arms for her Ouma. (Sy het ons darem nog nie afgeskryf nie!)

Gelukkige verjaarsdag Urielle! Mag God jou seen!

On our way to Moscow: A few perceptions about life in Russia

My perceptions are based on what I heard and saw in Russia... of course we only saw a little bit of Russia and was there a very short time and spoke to only a few Russians, so maybe they are warped, but here are some of my impressions:

Russians are not big on maintenance: many of the boathouses we saw along the river were pretty dilapidated and the same can be said for many buildings in St Petersburg.
However, everywhere we went everything was CLEAN - no littering and the rivers, lakes and canals that we traversed seemed chrystal clear.

Many dwellings along the river were uninhabited (no lights at night)... apparently their owners have already left these "summer houses".... So some people do have summer vacation houses.

Many Russians are poor. We heard the average income is R5000 per month. 28% live under the breadline , but this is a big improvement since Gorbachev's time when it was 58%! Apparently some people can never leave their dwellings in winter, simply because they do not have enough warm clothing. However, we saw very little indication of this massive poverty. We saw three toothless women with scarves selling small bunches of flowers and a woman singing for passing tourists, but only one begging outright... few considering the poverty level. (In S.A. there are beggars/ windowscreen washers /dancers on nearly every main city intersection.)

This looked like a good idea to us: a chain to the ground instead of a gutter.

Some people are apparently very rich: near Moscow we saw impressive houses and fun parks.



The Russian diet is very healthy: lots of vegetables, berries and fish. There was even cucumber in the breakfast buffet. All the soups we had were very tasty but clear with chopped up vegetables. Many recipes, from bread to salad, feature apples. Hard boiled egg is another favourite.

Our pretty waitress who donned traditional clothes when traditional food was served. (We all wanted to bring her back home - for our unmarried sons.)

Our tour leader, Olga, bringing a cake to one of our tour members for her birthday. In the background are younger staff members: they were all very well groomed and very slim. According to Olga, looks are very important for young girls and often bely the fact that they have very little money and may not have had anything to eat.
We saw many fashionable, slim girls strutting down the streets on very high heels.... and sadly often smoking a cigarette. I can't recall having seen an obese person. We heard that alcoholism and drugs are big problems in Russia, but never witnessed anything - did not see any "bums".

Our trim little guide in Uglich, taking us through the monastery. These young guides all seemed very proud of their country, but they often made jokes about life in Russia - and especially about politicians like Breshnev and his sickly successors.

Two very old wooden churches. Why two next to each other? The bigger (cooler) church is (was) for summer, and the smaller one for winter, because it is easier to heat the smaller church.

The inside of the smaller church, decorated with typical Russian icons. The churches are still (again) used, but it is difficult to say how many true believers there are. I got the impression that church is important for festivities like Easter and Christmas, but that people did not really go to church otherwise.

Traditional embroidery: the pictures have meanings and testimony of many superstitions.
I was amazed at how many superstitions are upheld e.g. in traditional cooking: On 7 January they celebrate New Year ( pretty much the same way we celebrate Christmas) with a Grandfather Prost in a blue coat and granddaughter Snow Maiden , handing out gifts to children. They make dumplings and put spices or objects inside e.g. if you get a dumping with a sunflower seed inside, it means you are going to have a baby! A ring means you will get married, pepper indicates crying, salt indicates effort - you will have to work hard etc.

Our energetic guide explaining the importance of the stove in traditional farm houses: of course it was used for cooking, but it had a niche underneath for the chickens to stay warm, a shelve where you could leave milk to curdle or dough to rise and old people and small children could sleep on top of the oven!

Jan outside a Vodka museum at Mandrogi. Alcoholism is on the rise and killing Russian men - one of the reasons why there are far more Russian women than men. Gorbachev tried to prevent it, by prohibiting the sale of alcohol in his time, but it only led to the making of "moonshine." After the fall of the Soviet Government alcoholism has spiralled out of control and people drink anything with alcohol including cologne and anti-freeze! Vodka is no longer so cheap. (Jan and I did not buy any - we don't drink any alcohol besides an occasional beer or wine - so I don't know the price!)