Well it's already March and the kids have already passed half-term! Time is flying by too quickly for me! We have had a jam packed year already. We have been up to mates in Nottingham Road, where we had a lovely weekend. Sean enjoyed the country bike rides, whilst I went for a run with Dee.

We have also been down to the beach quite a bit and I must tell you that Lauren is an expert fisher-girl when it comes to catching those little dogfish in the rock pools. She always gets bucket loads of them and always attracts lots of children. We do follow the catch and release programme!! Talking about fish, our fish tank at home hasn't been too much of a success - we've managed to kill off about 12 fish so far, there are 2 hanging in there, but the snails are thriving!!! This is very perplexing for Sean - as he has had fish all his life!! I think it's got something to do with the water.

Sean has just come back from a fishing weekend in Pongola on the Jozini Dam. He caught 6 tiger fish and was the leader with a 2kg tiger after the first day, but Alf managed to pip him on day 2 with a 3kg tiger! It sounds like they had a lot of fun, with a lot of drinking in between!!

We are off to Nottingham Road again this weekend as my great friend, Heather, turns 40 and we're all going away to have a party!!! So really looking forward to that.

Happy New Year!!!

Lauren's 1st fish of the holiday!!

Mtonga

Well hello there! I know that I have been terrible at updating my blog and I apologise, but we have been so busy!!!

The holidays are now over and we're back to the grindstone. A little different for me this year, as I am getting into my morning job and trying to organise my afternoons around my private clients. It's a little difficult to get everything running smoothly yet, as the girls are still on holiday and only go back to school on the 21st of Jan.

Sarah starts Grade R (can you believe my little baby is growing up so quickly!!!) and Lauren goes into Grade 2! Both are really excited and ready for school now.

We have all had an amazing holiday. We had a few days at home and then headed off for a week at Mtonga in the Transkei. Mtonga is a tented camp right on the beach. The camp has 10 tents and can have 20 people there at a time. We went with another 3 families and kids, so our crowd totalled 17. We had excellent weather whilst we were there and spent every day on the beach. We are all very tanned and healthy looking and still feeling pretty relaxed. We fished, boogey-boarded, swam, snorkelled and had sundowners and bon-fires on the beach. We truly had a relaxing holiday as we were also spoilt with maids and gillys (for the fishing). I could do this again!!!

Well can you believe that Christmas is around the corner? This month has been very exciting for the Proctors.


I started my new job on the 1st. I am still feeling my way around, but the guys that I work with are great and the office environment really relaxed. Most of them have gone on leave, so I've been pretty much by myself here, but I have my radio!!! My afternoon business has also picked up! My great friend, Deb in Pmb, has been keeping me very busy sorting out their work as well as my other clients!!! I also have some new possibilities on the horizon - so watch this space!!!



Sean has been incredibly busy this month. He leaves early in the morning and trudges in at about 9pm!! They are delivering so much stock right now, and apparently breaking all expectations and records in their business. So we're hoping that this is an excellent month for Classic Foods and it sets the future tone for their business!!!



The girls have been having a wonderful holiday so far. Granny took them for 3 nights to Pmb and they joined up with Liam - their Botswana cousin and had a ball. They went to movies, animal farms and pantomimes!! We then had Pat, Beth and Liam for the weekend and took the inlanders to the beach - which they thoroughly enjoyed.

After that, they headed off down the coast and Kerry kindly looked after them for 3 days at Kelso. They have a fabulous beach cottage right on the beach. The girls found eels, crabs, fish etc. on the beach each day and have come back tanned and healthy looking. They also spent a day on Kerry's folks sugar cane farm and came home telling me how sweet sugar cane is!!!

They have had friends to play every day, so have been really spoilt. Sarah is very excited about going to "Build-a-Bear" which we have promised them for their Xmas pressie from Uncle and Lesleigh!! She has already chosen the Bunny and can't wait to create it!!! Will post pics next time!!

Other than that - we've been shopping up a storm for Xmas and we are looking forward to having the "gang" arond next week for Fran's "Turdunken"!! This is a turkey, stuffed with a chicken, stuffed with a duck!!! Sounds delicious. Sean is in charge of weber braai-ing it on Christmas Day!! (I hope he's not delivering ice-cream on that day!!)

Well to all of you reading this - Have a fabulous Chrsitmas and New Year and I wish you all of the best for 2009!!

A special mention to my brother and sister-in-law, Chris and Les, we are all missing you very much here in sunny SA and Christmas won't be quite the same without you!! Enjoy your 1st white Christmas, whilst we bake in the sun!!!

Until 2009..............

Sarah turns 5!!

What an exciting week we've had. Sarah turned 5 and she had a lovely party at home. We played lots of "old fashioned" games and the kids had a ball. We were very lucky with the weather which managed to hold out for her party and let the kids swim!!

She was very spoilt and has played with her gifts non-stop!!


The favourite being the microphone. We have mini-divas here now.



I flew up to Jhb last week to hand over some of the my work to the Pretoria guys. whilst I was there I stayed with Rob and Ta and we had a Nintendo Wii challenge. It really was good fun, even though I'm sure the neighbours must've wondered what we were up to!!! The skiing and tennis were my favourite and I discovered that my balance is terrible!!!

This week I was supposed to go to Cape Town to hand over the balance of my work, but my trip was put on hold, as our company is in the process of retrenching!!! I guess I got out of there just in the nick of time.

We decided to cut the girls hair and give them a summer look the other day. They look gorgeous! Whilst they were having their hair cuts, we had a very unusual hail storm which caught our attention. It was all over in the matter of half an hour!!

We have had another busy weekend, with parties, rugby and dinners, so today is relax day!!! Sean has found his couch and I indulged in a little retail theraphy this morning. So many clothes, so little money!!!

Well all - until next week......

Nottingham Road and Changes in the Air

Well hello again. It's been awhile, and lots has been going on!! To start we went up to our good friends, the Butcher's, last weekend in Nottingham Road and had a stunning day on the farm. The kids got covered in good old fashioned mud in the dam - I had to toss their brookies away as they were so brown!!! We saw Paula and Andrew (Balmer) for a quick brunch as they were in the area, and saw Paula's swelling tummy!! They are all well and looking forward to their new bundle of joy - their due date for baby is on Rob's birthday - 19th Jan!!!

I have resigned from my job at i to i, and have been offered a fantastic half day accounting job in Westville. I start on the 1 December, so just in time for summer! I will be doing books in the afternoon from home, so have lots of new things on the cards!!

Sean has been really busy of late, they've picked up a few more principles, and soon I hope to do my grocery shopping at his office. He is now selling salmon, muffins, ostrich, cheese, ice-cream, spices, lamb and caviar!!!!

I have really been enjoying my gym of late, and although the scale is not going down drastically, I have been feeling much healthier and fitter!! Squash leauge is now finished - we had our end of year dinner this week.

We tried out the pool this weekend, and although slightly chilly, the girls are ready for summer! Sarah started swimming lessons this week, and tells me she is a fantastic dolphin. She is also convinced right now, that in the next week or 2, she is going to turn into a "Mer-Fairy". She is rubbing magic potion onto her cheeks, and soon she will grow a mermaid tail and fairy wings, and I must please be prepared and fill up the back of my car with water, so she won't dry out!!! I have also been told to stock up on seaweed, as that is what mer-fairy's apparently eat!!!

Anyway - have a good weekend, and I'll chat to you all soon.

Snow in EG

The Fishing Dam

Sean and I off to the Spring Ball

Sarah's shiner.

Well hello again. I have had a bit of a break from posting news on the blog, and yes Chris, it is looking like wallpaper again!!! I lost my picture button, but thanks to the IT and blog guru Chris, I see that it's back - Tks. So this week you'll get the pics meant for the last blog as well as the new ones.

Just when we thought Spring had Sprung, winter gave us one last show. Last weekend we got 60cm of snow falling in KZN. Hardest hit was the EG region - Kokstad and Swartberg. The snow fell all around Nottingham Road area as well. We were very silly not to rush the girls up and play in the snow, but we were recovering from Fran's 70th party and didn't have the energy!!!

Sean was invited to a fishing weekend in Kokstad, but had declined luckily as the guys were stuck in their cottage with no electricity for the whole weekend. All they had was a fire and alcohol!! Luckily they weren't camping!

As mentioned, we had Fran's 70th party at home. We all put in a lot of effort to make our lounge area look beautiful for Fran. Mom brought up the crystal glasses and silverware, and we decorated everything in Fran's favourite colours - green and pink. The menu had mom's salmon mousse for starters, followed by Sean's lamb shanks and we finished with meringue and malva, coffee and chocs. Everyone had a lovely time and Fran got spoilt with some lovely pressies. Fran has gone off to friends in Cape Town to carry on the party!!!

We had "Heritage Day" yesterday. Sean worked, whilst the girls and I went up to Pmb to visit with mates. It was so nice to have a break in the middle of the week. Also yesterday was Chris and Lesleigh's wedding anniversary - Happy Anniversary you two. 2 years young!!!

Well the girls break up for the school holidays on Friday. They get 1 week of holidays, then it's back for the final term. We're off to Kerry's beach cottage this weekend. Unfortunately the weather is not looking very good, but I'm sure we'll still have a good time.

Cheerio - until next week

Spring has Sprung!!

Can you believe that we are already in September!!! This year is flying by. Well Sean and I started September off with a blast!! We had a Spring Ball last Friday night, we dolled up and danced the night away!!! There was a good crowd and although Saturday was a bit of a write-off, it was definitely worth it!!

Sunday I decided to take Ganga (our little Jack Russell) for her first run in months. She was so excited that she dragged me for the first km, after that I had to drag her for the next 2! We joined the girls and Sean at the local field and had a little hockey game and then the girls practised their riding. Sarah managed to avoid the poles and soccer balls this week!! But she didn't quite get away scott free this weekend. She and Lolly collided on the trampoline and Sarah is now sporting a shiner!!

Sean has had a good week, picking up 2 new principles. One is a new cheese principle and the other makes cold meats. His company looks like they're going to have to look for new premises soon, as they are outgrowing their space now. Let's hope that this makes us rich!!!