Birthday weekend

Last weekend was Luca's 3rd birthday... something that he has been looking forward to for a long time. For the past month or so he was busy inviting (and univiting) people to his birthday depending on whether or not they were in his good books or not at the moment. It seemed like the checkout ladies at Woolworths were a particular favorite of his since everytime we'd be grocery shopping he would invite the woman behind the till. When they would ask what he wanted for his birthday, he respond "Balloons, candles, cake, meat and cheese." All the best things in life.

On the morning of his birthday when I greeted him with a "Happy birthday!", he looked at me quizzically, glanced around and said, "Where? Where's my birthday?" Try explaining the concept that a birthday is about more than just cake, candles and presents to a three year old at 6am.


Luckily Anree had arranged a mini-birthday cake and we gave him presents from the family the morning of his actual birthday, even though his party was only the following day. Would have been a terrible let down for him otherwise.

Ouma Ilse had flown in from Port Elizabeth for the occasion and so he got a big hug from her. Nikolai was right in there too, making sure that he didn't miss anything.


Luca was suitably chuffed with his presents. Just the process of tearing off the wrapping paper seemed to get him going.



Nikolai managed to get in on the action when the little bouncy rubber balls came out. He was totally up for this birthday thing.



The highlight of the morning was when Luca unwrapped his blue bike and red helmet. He was very particular about the colour that each must be and luckily Anree got it right. Had the potential for disaster if she didn't.

There was time for a trial run on the smooth and safe surface of the deck before we headed off for a small family birthday lunch.


All Luca wanted to hear about at the restaurant was his ice-cream-on-a-stick.


Nikolai was more than a bit concerned when he didn't get one and tried valiantly to separate Luca from his... no luck though.

Saturday morning was time for the real deal with all the friends, cake, candles and sugary foods designed to rev up the kids.

If you've ever tried getting a bunch of kids to look up at the camera for a picture when they have a plate full of sweeties and crisps on a plate in front of them on the table, you'll understand that a diligent photographer will try anything to get his subjects' attention. Luca eventually got sick of all the snapping of fingers and started snapping back at me in earnest.

Next it was time for dad to call everyone over for some birthday cake.

Anree and Ilse were up the night before building one of their cake creations. This year it was an airplane.

Anree & Ilse join the birthday boy and Talia to pose for a photo with their masterpiece.


Tatum and Floyd were still busy tucking into the chips and cookies.


Luca managed to stay focussed on the business at hand, even in the face of the distraction posed by the Matthews girls.


Mia went off for a swing to get a little peace and quiet. Mia and Luca are best buddies at the little Montessori school they've been going to since January.




Anree had stocked the kids' party packs with little tops and planes and things that were a hit.

Luca and Talia hung out and devoured a party-pack or two...


... then Luca showed off his tree climbing prowess to Mila.


Eventually, when everyone had gone home, it was time to take the new bike out and ride it down the hill beside the house. A future mountain biker in the works.

Cape Infanta Weekend

Last weekend was a 4-day long weekend in South Africa. Thursday May 1st was always going to be a public holiday (Workers' Day), but then the unions complained that they were being crooked out of a public holiday when Good Friday fell on March 21st which was Human Rights Day. As a result the government declared May 2nd as a "make-up" public holiday and we took advantage of this to join Tony & Kirsten Elvin-Jensen for a long weekend at their house in Cape Infanta.

Infanta is a stunning little seaside village situated at the mouth of the Breede River where it empties into San Sebastian Bay. It is a 300km drive from Noordhoek, the last 80 of which is on a gravel road filled with sharp rocks that can shred a tire if you venture too close to the shoulder and catch a piece of shale the wrong way.
You know you are in a pretty peaceful part of the world when all the locals show up to watch you change a spare tire.

Thursday morning I joined Tony and Brendan for some Grunter fishing down at the river. Fishing for Grunter starts out with pumping prawns out of the mud to use for bait. This exercise turned out to be a bit of a challenge for a rank novice and after 30 minutes or so I had only a couple of wriggly little prawns and a face full of mud to show for my efforts. Thankfully Tony shared some of his prawns with me and we commenced the hunt.

With a little beginners luck and a lot of expert coaching on my side, I managed to catch a legal sized Grunter with my first cast. He put up a good fight considering that he only weighed a kilo or so. I must say that I was pretty proud of myself after landing him, even though we decided to release him and go for bigger ones for dinner. Tony ended up catching a couple of big ones and I caught and released a couple more little ones. However the real highlight of the morning was when we met up with the wives and kids and Tony hooked a little Steenbras and let Luca reel him in. It was the first fish that Luca has ever caught and the look on his face was priceless.

That night when we cooked up the Grunters everyone was in for a treat as it has to be one of the tastiest fish around.

On Friday Anree, Kirsten and I took Luca and Carl down to the river to swim and play on the beach, while Tony, Jean and Jacques paddled up the river.














After we'd had our fill of the beach, we met up with Kim, Monique and their kids and drove about 25km up the river to meet up with Tony, Jean and Jacques at the Bush Pub. The Bush Pub is literally a pub in the bush on the side of the river. You need a 4x4 to get into the place, but once you are there it is amazing.

At the bottom of a steep narrow path leading down to the river are a number of tables and benches, each set under its own little shade cloth, surrounded by fynbos bushes so as to be pretty much secluded from the other tables and with a stunning view of the river. We chose one next to a sort of playground they had set up to give the kids something to do while the girls drank Pimms and I had a couple of Windhoek lagers. By the time the boys paddled up to the dock, we were feeling chilled out.

















Over the course of the weekend Luca developed a crush on Keah, a little blonde 4 year old who seemed to have a similar effect on most of the little boys. In addition to landing his first fish, he had his first crush in Infanta.



Saturday Tony, Jean, Anree and I went for a walk down to the point and left the kids with Jacques, Kim, Monique and Kirsten.




After the walk, we all settled in for our mandatory afternoon nap and then set out for a 4x4 adventure to take the kids down to the point where we had walked earlier that day. On the way we stopped off at the local Infanta shop, which is essentially just a big steel shed on a local farm that is kitted out with all the essentials one might need - from plumbing fittings to fishing gear to groceries ... you name it. The highlight of the 4x4 trip for Luca and Carl was definitely the bag of cheesies that we picked up there.


Once we got back, it was time to get the kids into the bath and in bed so we could savour our last night of sitting around the fire and braaing choppies.


The next morning we packed up the kids and the car, said our good-byes and headed back to Noordhoek.