Easter Weekend

At the time of writing this, I have to apologise to numerous people - specifically T, and Rose, but also to so many of you other lovely people like Kat, Maggie etc etc to whom I owe decent emails. I will get there - please do not despair.

Updates on life here. Well, the Easter weekend was FANTASTIC! We had a brilliant time and I realized definitely why we came back. It was our anniversary on Easter Friday, so my parents spoilt us with a wonderful English breakfast and presented us with a panini maker for the occasion. Then hubby and I went out for dinner to a larney romantic restaurant (ie dress-up and make-up required) while Master James was looked after by his Grandparents. Absolute bliss! Funny thing is we ended up at Exclusive Books looking for books for JAMES on our romantic night out!

On Saturday we went with my parents to Broadacres, which is a garden centre and eclectic mixture of stores in Fourways (little way out of Joburg). It is such an idyllic setting, roses for Africa in every shade imaginable, ponds, beautiful English rambling gardens and several tea gardens and of course, most enticing of all LOADS of stuff for James to do. There is a little farmyard, indoor ball pit for rainy days, slides, sand, jumping castles, feeding the ducks, brightly coloured cartoonish trains which take the kids on a ride around the center. Just super for a morning out.

Sunday was Easter egg hunt. James absolutely loved it. It's amazing to see how he's developed from last year's hunt at Kathy's house to his understanding this year. And just look how his legs have grown too! He kept on saying "Just one more..." and hunting desperately for the next egg. It was quite a joy for the family too, I must say.







We also had our slap-up Easter meal at the Hillmann's house on Sunday eve. They are moving into a rather hoighty-toighty cluster home soon, so we went to have a squizz at the building development and then on to their house for lamb braai (bbq). Delicious! Have I mentioned this
before about the South African migration to cluster-type developments? A quick aside then: I guess because of safety principally but also because of space around the urban areas, South Africans are choosing to live in smaller houses within a secure complex. They don't share any walls and have a small small garden. They also each have their own titles, but you still need to pay a levy every month and are required to maintain the exterior of the house in the common architecture. For many years, Tuscan developments were the most popular, while now there is a move towards Balinese style with those distinctive roofs. They are generally quite exclusive communities (all the best furnishings) and are MUCH pricier than houses despite being a fraction of their square footage. Anyway, Rein's folks are sick of the maintenance of their house and so have decided to invest in a provencal development.

On Monday we wafted and relaxed and I cooked an end-of-Easter-weekend meal and farewell to my parents who are off for a few days on a well-deserved holiday. It was just a spectacular weekend, punctuated with too much chocolate, of course. However, the euphoria was very short-lived.... (to be continued)