Meeting Matthew Mole!

The girls like this South African singer named Matthew Mole, one benefit of not working is I read the daily paper here and I saw that he was performing in Pretoria, very close to our house.  I called to be sure there were tickets and I could bring the girls (it was at a bar/restaurant but they are much more chilled out here about bringing in minors).

In the official video for his most popular song, there is a bathroom scene and the guy is actually going to the bathroom.  Charlie loves that part!

Here is the link if you'd like to see it:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZvHZgii7XI

The girls had to stay up late on a school night, he played at about 9, it was great to see him live! He played a very beautiful song called the Wedding Song and he also played some other ones that he wrote. Afterward he took pictures and signed autographs.  Kelly got a special birthday note for her friend at school that is a fan (who actually showed Kelly one of his videos).

Katie had to tell him about her little brother and how he likes the bathroom scene, he laughed and said that the video producer is the guy going to the bathroom!

Now we want him to come to the girls school for a concert, I know it would be a big hit!

A New School Year, for all three!

My magical bit of time with Charlie has come to an end, but I'm so thankful to have had the last few months to just enjoy him!  Here are all the kids on the first day, Kelly starting 9th, Katie 7th, and Charlie Kindergarten (or Grade 0 as they call it here).

Katie is almost taller... Kelly had better get to work on her jump shot!

Kelly is excited about the brand new building in the senior school, so she doesn't feel like she totally missed out on the new Galvin in Wakefield, Katie is happy to be in 7th grade, as that is the oldest class in the Junior school, so she is a big shot to the little girls.  Charlie's report on the first day was that "School was fun".  He even had a chocolate "chomp" bar stapled to his first day sheet, can't go wrong with that!

Cruising the Vaal River

About an hour south of Johannesburg is the Vaal River, we were lucky enough to sneak away on a final outing before the kids started school.  We rented a houseboat for one night and loved every minute of it!
Here are Greg and Charlie checking out the cabin..

Our weather was perfect, sunny, warm and it was a Monday so the river was pretty quiet, we saw a few water skiers and a few other houseboaters but other than that we had it to ourselves.

Here are the kids on top...

Tubing was everyone's favorite activity, max speed was about 10 knots!

Kelly spent most of the time in the water unless Dad was teaching them how to do man overboard drills, everyone liked driving the boat.

We pulled in at a few places along the river, our dinner spot let us sit outside and watch a beautiful sunset.

Here's our boat moored up while we ate dinner.

Kelly took this amazing sunset picture, I can't claim the credit!

We got underway just after sunset and headed to our anchorage spot, right near Eagles Inlet, we had scoped it out earlier and thought it looked pretty easy to get in after dark.  Our CG training was handy, our anchor held on the first try, we then got to spend an amazing night on the boat.  The stars were incredible and there was even a far away lightning storm to light up the sky.  The night sounds were amazing, birds and other animals, we heard there were jackals, but we can't confirm if some of the sounds we heard were theirs!

Morning was beautiful, the kids fished a bit and we saw a bunch of Fish Eagles getting ready for breakfast.

There were incredible houses all along the river, my favorite was called the "Glass House", 3 stories high, right on the water.  I think it belongs on one of those "Justification for Higher Education" posters.

To the left it also had an amazing infinity swimming pool and a bridge to the house!

Lots of property for sale...9.5 million rand would be a little less than 1 Million US$, especially with the strong US dollar right now.  This one had a huge lawn, and a beautiful "lapa" down by the shore, that is what South Africans call a picnic pavillion.

Sadly we headed back and turned in our boat, we can't wait for a return trip, especially with friends, we can already envision a Hughes vs. Bodenhoffer (our camping buddies) houseboat race up the river!

Sanctuary visits... for Monkeys & Herbalists

We had the good fortune of a visitor from Massachusetts, our friends from Wakefield have a goddaughter who attends University of Delaware and she is on a school trip to South Africa.  Bethany was staying at a hotel very close to us and she had a free day today, so we picked her up and after a quick tour of our house we headed to the Bush Baby Monkey Sanctuary.

We were instructed that many of the monkeys were former street monkeys who were trained as pickpockets and as we went in we saw a monkey chewing on a pair of glasses...we locked everything up but Katie kept on her real glasses as she needs them to see the monkeys!

We saw an amazing Ring Tailed Lemur family all hanging out together in a tree...the little one on the bottom shared Greg's talent of sleeping anywhere, he fell asleep even with the big one sitting on him! Greg was jealous of the lemur's nap as he stayed up late cheering on the Patriots here 

(Game started after 11 pm South Africa time!)

We crossed a cool swinging bridge with water & monkeys running below, one monkey hitched a ride on a guy as we got towards the end of the bridge.  Bethany with the Hughes gang...

Charlie really wanted the monkey to meet his blue monkey, the monkey was wondering what was up with the blue guy?

This monkey REALLY wanted Katie's glasses...luckily another guy grabbed the monkey before he was able to grab her glasses & scamper away!

Before we left a monkey jumped on Kelly, I'll try to post the video, its taking its time loading now!

We did a quick stop at this African market that has lots of interesting things, the kids had been before and couldn't wait to go back!

We also crossed over the bridge & went through the tunnel at the Hartbeesport Dam, here is Charlie at the overlook, there is a cool waterfall off to the right.

A few days before our monkey visit, we were finally able to visit another sanctuary, this one for gardeners and herbalists.  It is called Margaret Roberts Herbal Center, Katie had gone on a school field trip months ago and raved about it.  We had to wait for a Wednesday when everyone was free to go. (its only open to the public on Weds).  We loved seeing all the amazing things that were growing there and Katie and Kelly had us buy some cool plants to take home, Stevia, Aloe, Lemon Verbena & some Rubarb (to make Dad a treat)  We brought our friend, Miss Jenny, who has a beautiful garden at her house.

They had a pretty little chapel on the grounds, I liked the prayer, Kelly and Katie said they say something like it at school.

Here is Kelly by the amazing lunch salad, filled with edible flowers.

Here is Katie looking quite at home, sitting in the royal chair outside the Fairy Garden.

We wish we could bring all gardeners here as it really was an amazing place!

Tomorrow we leave for a very exciting adventure...we are heading to the Vaal River on a houseboat for one night.  Greg was studying up on his Rules of the Road so he can be our Captain for the trip.  Everyone very excited here, stay tuned!

Moose Mountain Wanna Be & The Top of Africa

Happy New Year!  We hope all of you had a great night, we had a very mellow night busting out our pasta maker and having dinner with our sponsor family from here.  We watched a few movies but it was strange to not be flipping over to see what was going on in Times Square. Lots of fireworks were all around us, we had to go up on Kelly's balcony on the second floor so we could see over the walls to see them all.  Mother nature was in competition with the amateurs, there was cool lightning and thunder in the distance making it tough to know if the sounds were fireworks or thunder!

As the kids are on vacation we have had some good adventures, although its tricky because this country shuts down over the holidays, we tried to go to one mining place and when we got there, the sign on the gate said they were closed until Jan 6!  They even stop publishing the major newspapers!  (if you want to get Greg riled up ask him about "the shutdown")

We found a fake mountain (at a mall) where kids can ski & snow tube on bristles (like those on a really hard scrub brush that you have in your cleaning cupboard).  The kids loved it as it reminded them of home.

 Can't beat shorts, better than hats & mittens!

It did have a rope tow, that was tough to hang on to, so they walked up & got some good exercise.

In typical South African fashion the parents were thought of as well, here is a photo of the fully stocked bar complete with TV showing the ski run, so you can have your favorite drink and watch your kid come down the run.  We thought Greg & Jim Parece would have enjoyed that feature at Moose Mountain in NH! 

We also took the big red bus around Johannesburg one day.  We learned that Johannesburg is really not that pretty of a city (unlike Cape Town).  It's really rather dirty and run down, all the money & fancy businesses moved to Sandton, which is about 15 minutes south.  Jo-Burg only exists because of the gold rush from long ago, so its located in a crazy place, high altitude, no major port or waterway, no good drinking water supply either.  

We went to the Carlton Hotel which boasts it is the "Top of Africa", as you take the elevator to the 50th floor and can see 360 degrees.  Here are Kelly & Katie doing Ferris Bueller...

There is an amusement park/casino along the route, called "Gold Reef City" we stopped there for lunch and the kids can't wait to go back and do the amusement park.

Here is our crew in front of the fountain at the casino.  As we walked around the perimeter inside the casino, Kelly said, "I can't believe that's all a casino is, it looks so cool in movies like Ocean's 11".  I agree, casinos hold no magic for me...but its a different story for her father!  (he was working that day so he wasn't tempted)

Here is the bus we were waiting for to pick us up after lunch...its broken down by the side of the road...so we spent a long time waiting for the next bus & keeping all the boys entertained and not in the fountain! I was glad to NOT be on the broken down one, it felt like it was 1000 degrees in the afternoon sun!

Had to share one more fashion debacle, this kid (who was on our bus) was wearing basically a black trash bag shirt (if you look closely you can see the shine), I really would have melted if I were wearing his sweet outfit!

Here is a little political propaganda, the ANC is the African National Congress and they are the ruling party in SA and they have been since its been democratic.  They actually lost a few provinces in the most recent election, as people are growing disenchanted with their ability to deliver water, electricity and other basic services.  There also have been lots of corruption charges against many of their leaders, including President Jacob Zuma who is in the midst of a scandal for doing all sorts of work to his family housing compound on the taxpayers dime.  In yesterdays Pretoria News, the editor's New Years wish was for the citizens of SA to work as one to create the society they want and deserve where crime and corruption are eliminated and government and state owned enterprises are held accountable for doing what they are supposed to.  I could not agree with his wish more!