21 December 2008

Family and festive season

The Christmas holiday season was quite busy for us in Grahamstown. We had three lots of visitors. First Christopher and Shoana came for a few days, and while they were still here Rosie arrived.
I drove with Mila to Port Elizabeth to pick Rosie up. On the way back we stopped at the famous Nanaga Farm Stall. It was fun and we bought a few things.

Rosie stayed in Zoe's bedroom, while Zoe shared Mila's room during the duration of Rosie's stay.
Christopher and Shoana took over the flatlet.


The next day we had our first ever dinner in the dining room of our new house. We actually got Thai food take-aways and ate by candlelight. There was a great family feel to the dinner.

I believe we all enjoyed it thoroughly.
Continuing in tourist mode, we had a lovely visit to Bathurst where we had to pop in to see the great pineapple. It is very impressive and we had loads of fun.

After the pineapple we had dinner at the recently re-opened Pig and Whistle pub. The food was OK but what was realy interesting was the furniture shop incorporated into the pub.
There was an absolutely beautiful desk that came from Zimbabwe - that we couldn't afford.
Ilza was very interested in a second hand lounge suite. It looked good and the price was not too bad but it would have been quite a problem arranging transport.

9 December 2008

Traditional African Music

From End of school year 2008

Left to right - Laina Gumboreshumba and Andrew Tracey on mbiras, Hilton Borerwe on the drum with his brother Malvin on the shakers.

The four musicians, using traditional African musical instruments, gave a special performance at the launch cocktail of the Digital Heritage Repatriation Workshop at the International Library for African Music (ILAM) of Rhodes University. The aim of the workshop is to share experiences with other African organisations on how ILAM is digitising its entire music collection.
There is concern that a large proportion of music archived in various repositories across Africa is in danger of being lost because of less than ideal storage facilities. This week's workshop at ILAM aims to discuss ways of digitising valuable archives and methods of returning traditional African to the people who have lost their musical heritage.

8 December 2008

Mila and Zoe at Rhodes pool

03:21 PM 08 December 2008 Fun at Rhodes swimming pool Mila and Zoe at Rhodes swimming pool. It was very hot today so the swim was very welcome.

Zoe enjoying a Kola tonic

01:11 PM 08 December 2008 081220081025 It was very hot, but we enjoyed the summer's day

Mila at Dulce's having a juice

01:11 PM 08 December 2008 081220081026 It was the first day of my leave, so I took Mila, Zoe and Ilza to ahve some lunch at Dulce.

4 December 2008

Mila is top of her grade

From End of school year 2008

For the fourth consecutive year, Mila has come top of her grade. For the first three years of her schooling at Blairgowrie, she was in first place not only of her class but the whole grade.
Changing schools did not appear to deter her at all - now she has come top of her grade again - this time at Victoria Primary.
Congratulations Mila - we are all so proud of you!
Lots of Love and Hugs and Kisses from Mommy and Daddy