Looking back, this month contained many events that I treasure in my heart and that many never happen again, but wait, maybe that is what life is about. During this time, I always had the feeling that the one who would have loved every minute of having her family around her wasn't there and yet she was why we were all together.
My greatest moments were when all eight of our immediate family were in Manitoba. The first occurrence was our birthday celebration at Brahmas just outside Neepawa. Grant, Sheryl and Neil had just arrived from Winnipeg airport. Grant flying in from Ottawa and Sheryl and Neil from Pretoria, SA. There was a great deal of construction and their drive, which should have taken 2 hours, took nearly 3. Claire, Noah and Brienne and George and I had moved from Elkhorn at Clear Lake to our favourite Bed and Breakfast in Neepawa. And at last here we all were, having a mediocre meal, laughing and talking and my heart was full of joy. Being at Clear Lake for the most important day of the year--Canada Day and bonus-- the entertainer was Al Simmons--Claire and Brienne had a photo with him--Violet enjoyed his antics, too. Schulzi and her Mom joined us for Canada day and were staying at the same hotel as we were. Brienne had a nap in Lili's arms. George and I had moved to a hotel in Neepawa which was only just acceptable. We gathered there in the breakfast room to laugh and chat after the day at Clear Lake. Joining the "children" at the end of their breakfast at the B&B was so delightful. Our friends, George and Susan, at the B&B where we had stayed many times during the past three years of Gladie's journey were so accommodating and kind to let us share our time in their wonderful home. They orchestrated our family photo in their back yard.
Other highlights: Guys shopping and returning with the giant-est marshmallows in the world. Noah buying a t-shirt that read " I love Neepawa". George bringing a stone from Clear Lake to place at Gladie's niche. We all have warm fuzzies for all the times we spent there. Arleigh picking stones for the same purpose but at the farm. Grant picking up a stone at Elks Manor, Gladie's home after Bob died. Placing stones or flowers at the cemetery are a way of saying "I was here and that I will always hold the memory of Gladie in my heart". Eating Gladie's favourite chocolate Wonderbar after the interment and having Happy Face balloons in the church waving around marked the joy of Gladie's life. Having ice cream (for me three times on Canada Day) because ice cream at Clear Lake is a ritual in fact, a family tradition. I bet everyone knows what flavour Bob would order every time we arrived at McTasvish's or the Boardwalk. And oh, the sunsets--how many times in our years in Manitoba have we enjoyed the sun setting over Clear Lake. And we have the photos to prove it.
My time at the farm was bitter/sweet--I missed times gone by and also relived lots of wonderful memories of times spent there. Bonfires. Hotdogs and s’mores. Sheryl cooking wieners. Those large marshmallows! Dancing in the barn yard to the music of The Irish Rovers on Bob's new truck radio. Many hours enjoying the bounty of the garden. Trips to the gravel pit. The golfing on the driving range. I remember how much Bob used to enjoy hitting them. Many family celebrations over the years including dimes in the cake. Grant and Neil and Violet playing soccer and Frisbee. Looking at the stars. Rob and Violet playing t-ball. And so many more...... just being there!
We all came to Manitoba to honour the life of Gladys McLaughlin but we also honoured our memories of growing up there. Everyone had a part in making the service very special. Joanne’s remarks. All the readings and remembrances, David lighting the candle, bringing in balloons, Violet placing one by the alter. Claire and Sheryl’s joint remembrances were great. Krista’s poem. George and Arleigh's remarks. Grant’s moving reading. The dancing happy face balloons were a special joy to me and to others who mentioned them at the lunch. Noah’s excellent care of Brienne during the service. The music especially “Lord of the Dance”. I think I could imagine Gladie dancing around the place in time to the music. All the cousins and special friends who came to the service. Sometimes it seems that lunch part moved too fast. Would have been great to have more time to chat.
Our Friday night/Saturday morning at the Grand Hotel in Winnipeg. Claire, Noah and Brienne were leaving in the morning. Our breakfast was in our room as it was easier than going out and also fun to eat and visit. This was the first of our goodbyes. Later in the day Grant would leave for Ottawa. Happily, we still had Sheryl and Neil for a couple of days. They went back to Elkhorn and prepared dinner while we spent some time just with Grant. Elkhorn was our family vacation spot since Sheryl was 2 years old and I think we all felt a tad sad at the end of our time there.
We enjoyed the rest of the week at Elkhorn, had a lovely dinner with Arleigh and Dave and Krista and Violet and friends, Tom and Betty, to celebrate our anniversary. Also Krista and Violet had a sleepover with us at Elkhorn. One last lunch at the Brahmas and then we went to Libau to spend the week with Schulzi. Lots of painting and visiting and yummy food and a bonus trip to the Museum for Human Rights and to see Les Mis at Rainbow Stage. Friday, July 18, we flew from Winnipeg to Iceland to start our next adventure.
Sunday, 18 October 2015
Friday, 2 October 2015
Pretoria May 4 to April 18, 2015
I didn't start to blog until after this trip but I wanted a record of the things we did, so here goes:
We arrived on schedule and Sheryl and Neil were at the airport to get us. We have managed to not be very affected by jetlag. We had a relaxing day--had coffee and got settled in. I had a ten minute nap and will be off to bed soon.
We arrived on schedule and Sheryl and Neil were at the airport to get us. We have managed to not be very affected by jetlag. We had a relaxing day--had coffee and got settled in. I had a ten minute nap and will be off to bed soon.
My seat mate between Amsterdam and Jo’burg was from Denmark. She and her husband were coming to SA to hunt Impala. She said they could each kill one. Then it would take a year for the mounted head to be sent to them. How would you like a dead Impala’s head on your wall!! I was quite shocked. Our safari experience indicates that one doesn't have to hunt very much to get an impala.
Our jet lag did raise its ugly head--on Thursday, we couldn’t fall asleep and then we slept until noon. So… Saturday we had the most excellent day. We went to a game farm that has mostly lions, and we went for a walk in the company of four lions. There was a guide and four attendants carrying big sticks. Mmmmm. One fed the lions some chicken parts and we watched as the lions went up on their back legs to capture and eat the morsels. We felt very comfortable but the idea of walking with lions is rather bizarre. We were encouraged to play with lion and tiger cubs which was a bit scary for me but a baby tiger sat in George's lap and two were crawling on Neil. One startled Sheryl by climbing on her back . Luckily, Neil was on hand to save her. There were like big kittens--quite ready to play. This place is about one hour from Pretoria
In the afternoon we attended Family Day at the high commission. It was great to meet some of Sheryl’s colleagues. The High Commissioner met us and complemented Sheryl on what a great employee she is and what a wonderful job she is doing. We were delighted with his remarks. There was quite a crowd there. Imagine my surprise when I discovered someone who was part of my TESEL class at Algonquin. Her husband is the DND attache and they have been posted to SA and have lived there for 2 years.
Sunday was Mother's Day. We had a lovely day at the Winter Sculpture Fair--lots of interesting food and sculptures to admire. A lady in line wanted a hotdog for her son but that was the name of the wine. Kids were tobogganing down the grassy slopes on cardboard.
On the next Friday, we, four, flew to Cape Town. George and I would spend the week and Neil and Sheryl would go back to Pretoria on Monday. (This was the May long weekend holiday.) Cape Town is amazing. We stayed at a timeshare, Bantry Bay, and had dinner at the CodFather, a fish restaurant where you could check out the cooler and choose what fish you wanted to eat. Yum.
We drove to Franschhock for a literary festival--very interesting. A bonus, was being acquainted with a mystery writer, Dean Meyer, whose books are set in Cape Town. Also, visited a winery and a couple of markets. Next day, we had a great walking tour of the downtown Cape Town--saw a couple of benches-one was for white people and the other for black people (they were a reminder from the past), coffee at the Truth Cafe which resembles a large warehouse, then, Neil and Sheryl dropped us at our place and headed for the airport. Good fortune for us: Sheryl must return to attend some meetings on Thursday so they will both be back on Wednesday evening. Currently there is load shedding which means there are times when there is no electricity. Our place was equipped with a battery operated lamp thing which we didn't find right away. There were also many candles. We played Quiddler during these hours.
We drove to Franschhock for a literary festival--very interesting. A bonus, was being acquainted with a mystery writer, Dean Meyer, whose books are set in Cape Town. Also, visited a winery and a couple of markets. Next day, we had a great walking tour of the downtown Cape Town--saw a couple of benches-one was for white people and the other for black people (they were a reminder from the past), coffee at the Truth Cafe which resembles a large warehouse, then, Neil and Sheryl dropped us at our place and headed for the airport. Good fortune for us: Sheryl must return to attend some meetings on Thursday so they will both be back on Wednesday evening. Currently there is load shedding which means there are times when there is no electricity. Our place was equipped with a battery operated lamp thing which we didn't find right away. There were also many candles. We played Quiddler during these hours.
On our own, we strolled to Sea Point for coffee and wave watching. We live in an interesting neighborhood. The next day, we took the shuttle to the harbour front, a great place to visit--great view of Table Mountain and this day there wasn't a table cloth. We had coffee and George bought some new runners and we just wandered. Sheryl and Neil returned around 22:30. We had a face time session with Claire and Brienne who has learned to roll over.
Next morning Sheryl and Neil headed out early to attend to their duties. It was laundry time-for us -we found a place nearby that would wash, dry, fold and have it ready by the end of the day. Gotta love that!!! George and I wondered along the sea wall, had a lovely lunch, watched some para-gliders and visited a sculpture park. Happily, Neil picked us up so we didn't have to walk all the way back to Bantry Bay. This was a fine place to stay but the hide-away bed was impossible!
Next morning, we spent a few hours at Kirstenbosch Gardens and then took the scenic route to Hermanus which allowed us to stop at Betty's Bay to watch the penguins. We arrived at the Auberge Provance at 15:30 and had coffee and rusks and chatted with our hostess. (Don't eat rusks! Yuk!) Our rooms were lovely--high ceilings and old fashioned tubs. After breakfast the next morning, we went for a walk along the sea wall. We were looking out over the ocean for whales and I stumbled on the walk and scratched my knee and tore my pants. What a drag! Had to trash my pants so a shopping trip will be necessary.
We stopped at Swellendam for lunch at the Old Goal. We had milktart for dessert which is something the poor people used to make--it is like custard pie with cinnamon on top. There is a running commentary about milktarts with Sheryl and Neil's friends on facebook. They rate them as they eat them. This one was pretty low on the scale. We left Neil and Sheryl at the airport in a town called "George" which doesn't seem very South African.
George and I went on to the Berluda Farmhouse and Cottages near Oudtshoorn. This farm had ostriches and we were in our very own little cottage. We were offered Ostrich scrambled eggs for breakfast the next morning. These eggs are about the size of a large grapefruit, sell for 60 Rand and are equal to about 24 hen eggs. Of course, he only had a small portion. I stuck with hen eggs. (maybe) We had a grand tour with a guide called Roeland who drove us through the Swartberg Mountains--a spectacular view. Roeland was very knowledgeable and had very strong views about Afrikaners. We also had a tour of the Cango Caves which reminded us of Gibraltar--large caverns--one used to be used for concerts.
Next stop "Wilderness" at the Dune Guest Lodge with a stunning setting on a cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean. We had a grand walk on the beach and enjoyed the sunset. (In Ottawa, Grant is having oral surgery--wisdom teeth!) Eating lovely food and walking on the beach and reading is how we spent the next few days. The ocean is warm, although the undertow is strong! We returned to George airport to pick up S & N. They were impressed with the loveliness of the Dune Guest Lodge and area. We went to a couple of markets--I love markets--had some more lovely food and enjoyed strolling about. We returned our car and headed back to Pretoria. What a superb holiday. South Africa the beautiful!!!
We spent the next week in Pretoria, much of it in the back yard at Neil and Sheryl's enjoying the lovely weather. I painted on the patio using a youtube watercolour artist as an instructor. He is long winded but a good teacher. We visited the Pretoria Art Gallery which is quite small. The highlight was an exhibit that appeared to be many rods poking up but when you looked at just the right angle, you could see Mandala's face. We had seen a larger sample of this in a park in Cape Town but when you looked from the right angle, you could see a rhinoceros shape.
We also did a gallery crawl at Jo'burg after work and had dinner in a hole-in-the-wall cafe. The galleries were quite modernistic but interesting. More to Grant's liking than mine.
The following weekend, we were off on Safari. Yay. We stopped at Sun City which is like Las Vegas but on a smaller scale. We had tea at the Palace Hotel--talk about opulence. There were chairs that were made out of zebra skins--the mane was down the back and they had a rough, hairy feel. We stayed at the Kader Country Lodge which was like a Boer War museum, rather intense. Our little cottages were very comfortable. Next morning after a delicious breakfast, we had a tour of Paul Kruger's house and on the walk back we had a close encounter with seven giraffes who live there. Sort of walking close to cattle on the farm. In the afternoon, we had a self-guided safari of Planesberg National Park--Sheryl was the driver and Neil was the spotter. Amazing to see the animals and we saw so many.
Next morning, we got a bagged breakfast and headed back to the Park at 6:00 am. We scouted for animals and saw hundreds. The best was at the watering hole. There is a kind of hut like a blind for hunters only larger, just above the water so we could sit and watch the animals. It was magical--first a giraffe came for a drink, then kudos, then zebras and on and on. We saw rhinoceros, impala, elephants, and just about everything but lions. Safaris are the best, especially with Sheryl and Neil.
Back to Pretoria and a relaxing time painting and sorting photos and just being. Neil gave us some IT support. He is great! There was load shedding that evening, so we relaxed by their cozy fire place with our technologies. When the lights came on we watched "Bones" which is a new series for us.
The weekend was here. The US Embassy hosted a community fair which involved lots of crafts and local food on the grounds of the rec centre on Friday evening. It is winter here so it was chilly and there were some heaters to warm us. The food was great. Afterward some friends come over for chili and conversation. Saturday was lovely and warm and we went to a beer fest at the Voertrekker Monument. Neil stayed and we three went to Jo'burg to see Spartacus of Africa. It was a ballet about a slave rebellion based on a similar event in ancient Rome -totally amazing. Then back to check out the beer fest again. Of course, there was more food and lots of different beers.
We celebrated Father's Day early. First with coffee with Neil and Sheryl, who was somewhat distracted as she was doing a report for work. We shopped a bit and then had an amazing steak dinner and then to Jo'burg. Trevor Noah who will take over on the Daily Show in the Fall, was performing in Jo’burg and we had tickets. What a funny guy. Some of his comedy is related to South African politics and we mostly (but not always) got the jokes. I may start watching that program when we are in Ottawa again. (We watched the premiere in Oak Island.)
We started our last week here, time has flown. Sheryl has a cold and cough so she stayed home one day and Neil made chicken soup to help her get better. We had soup on the patio in the backyard.
We shopped and made granola for them and packed our stuff. Sheryl and Neil drove us to the airport and we are off. What a wonderful holiday! Yay. We will see them in Manitoba in June/July.
We stopped at Swellendam for lunch at the Old Goal. We had milktart for dessert which is something the poor people used to make--it is like custard pie with cinnamon on top. There is a running commentary about milktarts with Sheryl and Neil's friends on facebook. They rate them as they eat them. This one was pretty low on the scale. We left Neil and Sheryl at the airport in a town called "George" which doesn't seem very South African.
George and I went on to the Berluda Farmhouse and Cottages near Oudtshoorn. This farm had ostriches and we were in our very own little cottage. We were offered Ostrich scrambled eggs for breakfast the next morning. These eggs are about the size of a large grapefruit, sell for 60 Rand and are equal to about 24 hen eggs. Of course, he only had a small portion. I stuck with hen eggs. (maybe) We had a grand tour with a guide called Roeland who drove us through the Swartberg Mountains--a spectacular view. Roeland was very knowledgeable and had very strong views about Afrikaners. We also had a tour of the Cango Caves which reminded us of Gibraltar--large caverns--one used to be used for concerts.
Next stop "Wilderness" at the Dune Guest Lodge with a stunning setting on a cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean. We had a grand walk on the beach and enjoyed the sunset. (In Ottawa, Grant is having oral surgery--wisdom teeth!) Eating lovely food and walking on the beach and reading is how we spent the next few days. The ocean is warm, although the undertow is strong! We returned to George airport to pick up S & N. They were impressed with the loveliness of the Dune Guest Lodge and area. We went to a couple of markets--I love markets--had some more lovely food and enjoyed strolling about. We returned our car and headed back to Pretoria. What a superb holiday. South Africa the beautiful!!!
We spent the next week in Pretoria, much of it in the back yard at Neil and Sheryl's enjoying the lovely weather. I painted on the patio using a youtube watercolour artist as an instructor. He is long winded but a good teacher. We visited the Pretoria Art Gallery which is quite small. The highlight was an exhibit that appeared to be many rods poking up but when you looked at just the right angle, you could see Mandala's face. We had seen a larger sample of this in a park in Cape Town but when you looked from the right angle, you could see a rhinoceros shape.
We also did a gallery crawl at Jo'burg after work and had dinner in a hole-in-the-wall cafe. The galleries were quite modernistic but interesting. More to Grant's liking than mine.
The following weekend, we were off on Safari. Yay. We stopped at Sun City which is like Las Vegas but on a smaller scale. We had tea at the Palace Hotel--talk about opulence. There were chairs that were made out of zebra skins--the mane was down the back and they had a rough, hairy feel. We stayed at the Kader Country Lodge which was like a Boer War museum, rather intense. Our little cottages were very comfortable. Next morning after a delicious breakfast, we had a tour of Paul Kruger's house and on the walk back we had a close encounter with seven giraffes who live there. Sort of walking close to cattle on the farm. In the afternoon, we had a self-guided safari of Planesberg National Park--Sheryl was the driver and Neil was the spotter. Amazing to see the animals and we saw so many.
Next morning, we got a bagged breakfast and headed back to the Park at 6:00 am. We scouted for animals and saw hundreds. The best was at the watering hole. There is a kind of hut like a blind for hunters only larger, just above the water so we could sit and watch the animals. It was magical--first a giraffe came for a drink, then kudos, then zebras and on and on. We saw rhinoceros, impala, elephants, and just about everything but lions. Safaris are the best, especially with Sheryl and Neil.
Back to Pretoria and a relaxing time painting and sorting photos and just being. Neil gave us some IT support. He is great! There was load shedding that evening, so we relaxed by their cozy fire place with our technologies. When the lights came on we watched "Bones" which is a new series for us.
The weekend was here. The US Embassy hosted a community fair which involved lots of crafts and local food on the grounds of the rec centre on Friday evening. It is winter here so it was chilly and there were some heaters to warm us. The food was great. Afterward some friends come over for chili and conversation. Saturday was lovely and warm and we went to a beer fest at the Voertrekker Monument. Neil stayed and we three went to Jo'burg to see Spartacus of Africa. It was a ballet about a slave rebellion based on a similar event in ancient Rome -totally amazing. Then back to check out the beer fest again. Of course, there was more food and lots of different beers.
We celebrated Father's Day early. First with coffee with Neil and Sheryl, who was somewhat distracted as she was doing a report for work. We shopped a bit and then had an amazing steak dinner and then to Jo'burg. Trevor Noah who will take over on the Daily Show in the Fall, was performing in Jo’burg and we had tickets. What a funny guy. Some of his comedy is related to South African politics and we mostly (but not always) got the jokes. I may start watching that program when we are in Ottawa again. (We watched the premiere in Oak Island.)
We started our last week here, time has flown. Sheryl has a cold and cough so she stayed home one day and Neil made chicken soup to help her get better. We had soup on the patio in the backyard.
We shopped and made granola for them and packed our stuff. Sheryl and Neil drove us to the airport and we are off. What a wonderful holiday! Yay. We will see them in Manitoba in June/July.
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