Bramley Famli » Fun

The HOOHAH! Challenge

Barrie — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:25:38 +0000

Last Saturday night I took Jordi, Carli and a friend (Em) of theirs, to Steers in Illovo for our own HOOHAH! Challenge.

The Challenge was straight-forward. Order 4 of the biggest HOOHAH! Burgers we could, and see who could finish them? None of us had lunch in the lead up to our big competition.

So we had one 41 year old, two 11 year olds, and an 8 year old. The results…. only one winner. Jordi was the only one to finish. Our excuse for losing was that we had chips and Jordi didn’t. Of course she wasn’t accepting that. Them burgers were BIG!

You can see other pics here

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4 Beautiful Girls

Barrie — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 07:24:00 +0000

A month or so ago we were in Durban for a week. We spent a fair amount of time at Jude’s house. Jude’s house also consists of Layla, Gav and Glad. Layla is Jude and Gav’s beautiful little girl. She also secretly and unofficially my God-Daughter, but I have to wait till she’s 21 to choose a God-Father for herself : )

On this particular day one of Jude’s friends was over. Her name is Curli. Curli’s little girl Anna was there as well, and picture taking time happened…….

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Hello – I couldn’t resist

Barrie — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:47:48 +0000

It’s not my normal sort of post, but I couldn’t resist………

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The Girl’s Gymnastics Display [video]

Barrie — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 06:35:46 +0000

This past Friday and Saturday was Jordi and Carli’s Gymnastics Display. The culmination of all their work over the past year. It was a stunning performance from both of them.

Two shows on Friday and two on Saturday. An exhausting two days.

To top it off they both received their Central Gauteng Gymnastics Half-Colours.

Below are two short video clips of some of what they did. One for each of them. Carli’s first, and then Jordi’s.

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I’d pick more daisies, be thrown out of more places, have different friends

Barrie — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 06:40:52 +0000

Nadine Stair. From Louisville, Kentucky, USA. That’s about all I could find out on Google. I stopped at 5 pages of search. Even tried Wikipedia. Nothing that I could see. But she’s responsible for a poem that’s lived with me for a long time now. A poem I find very difficult to live with. ‘I’d pick more daisies’.

It’s a beautiful piece of wisdom. Someone nearing the end of this journey called life, looks back and leaves some wisdom for people like me.

I say it’s difficult to live with, because I’d have to change some of who I am. Not all, just some. And if I did, what might happen? The poem calls for a little more of a care-free existence. A little looser around the edges. A little more irreverence. If I’m honest all of that gets my engines revving, and I know some people who’d suggest I live like that already. But what if I released the mechanisms that I have in place to make me more socially, business, family and friend acceptable?

And Nadine Stair has explored this question better than I. She knows the answer. And she has some pointers to get there:

If I had my life to live over,
I’d try to make more mistakes next time.
I would relax. I would limber up.
I would be sillier than I have on this trip.
I would be crazier. I would be less hygienic.
I would take more chances, I would take more trips.
I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets.
I would burn more gasoline. I would eat more ice cream and less beans.
I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones.
You see, I am one of those people who lives prophylactically and sensibly and sanely, hour after hour, day after day.

Oh, I have had my moments
And if I had it to do over again, I’d have more of them.
In fact, I’d try to have nothing else.
Just moments,one after another.
Instead of living so many years ahead each day.
I have been one of those people who never go anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a gargle, a raincoat, and a parachute.

If I had to do it over again, I would go places and do things.
I’d travel lighter than I have.
If I had my life to live over, I would start barefooted earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall.
I would play hooky more. I wouldn’t make such good grades except by accident.
I would ride on merry-go-rounds.

I’d pick more daisies!

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Idols Finals

Barrie — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 07:24:25 +0000

Last Friday night the girls and I went to watch Lloyd and Elvis Blue do their final 3 songs, before the vote that saw Elvis win Idols 2010, this past Tuesday.

We had a spare ticket and the girls voted to take Carli’s friend, Ollie. It was Ollie’s first trip to a live Idols show, so she was completely taken by the event. This became obvious when she joined the throngs of girls in their high pitched screams, right next to me. How do people hit those notes : )

I’m sure I’ve said it somewhere before, but for R40, Idols puts on one fantastic show. For R100 they put on an amazing show. If you’ve got kids, it doesn’t really matter how you feel, Idols is a great outing.

For a couple of extra pics, click here.

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Cheeki joins the family

Barrie — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 04:56:24 +0000

Yesterday the girls and I went to Peter Bee Pets (if you haven’t been, you gotta go) to fetch the newest member of our family. His name is Cheeki, and he’s a Cockatiel. Wikipedia has this to say about him and his kind:

The Cockatiel (Nymphicus hollandicus), also known as the Quarrion and the Weiro, is the smallest cockatoo endemic to Australia. They are prized as a household pet and companion parrot throughout the world and are relatively easy to breed. As a caged bird, cockatiels are second only in popularity to the Budgerigar.

Carli made a short video of Cheeki this morning. We posted it to YouTube, and it’s available with a click on the video below : )

If you’d like to see some pics of the girls with Cheeki, go here.

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Sticky Notes of Love

Barrie — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 07:29:31 +0000

There’s nothing in the world that beats your children telling you they love you! And when it’s unexpected, surprising, creative with signs of having taken some effort, you heart swells up in places you weren’t aware you had spaces.

A couple of months ago I came home and found sticky notes all over my pillow. Little notes of love from Carli. Each one with a special message, written in a different way. Anyone of them would have had me feeling all mushy, collectively….. was wonderful.

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A morning of art

Barrie — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 20:25:49 +0000

I’ve taken up art. I say that reservedly. I’m no artist. I was reminded recently that there is a difference between ‘artistic’ and ‘creative’. I fancy myself creative. But artistic I am not.

Still it’s in that category of cooking and gardening for many of us. Something we wish we could do, and take it up more for therapy and hobby than anything else. Thankfully we usually go on to both enjoy it and pick up some skill that has us feeling somewhat competent.

Right now it’s more therapy than anything else. A new outlet to express, discover and explore. I’m trusting in the skill component down the road. For now that’s not important.

So I headed into Rosebank, to the Mall, and found me the Mr Magorium equivalent of art shops. I can see how people get so hooked into art? Like computers, it’s a black-hole for money if you let yourself go. I picked up the beginner set, which included real canvases. I felt arty walking out, even though I wasn’t sure what I was letting myself into? I got enough for Jordi and Carli as well.

This morning we settled down and did some painting. My learnings from the morning were simple and profound. You know how they talk about all children being creative, and we knock the creativity out of them? I think it was Picaso? Well it’s true. Jordi and Carli tore into their projects with little to no thought and did things with a paintbrush that left me in awe. I received several lessons with regard to colour, technique and style as we went. There’s no doubt in my mind that whatever I once had by way of being able to paint, that I’ve lost much of it.

Click here if you’d like to see bigger images of the girl’s paintings.

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Our exciting Gautrain adventure

Barrie — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:39:56 +0000

We woke up at various points between 03h30 and 04h00 this morning. We were on our way to catch the first public Gautrain, running from Sandton to OR Tambo. The plan was to have breakfast at Wimpy, and then catch a train back in time for school.

There were a couple of hiccups and I offloaded (puked) them here, for those that are interested, but outside of that, it was one awesome experience.

The Gautrain is fantastic. It leaves Sandton underground and stays there until it ‘surfaces’ at Marlboro. It then stays above ground until the airport. The entire trip takes around 12 min which includes 2 stops. Pretty impressive. The technology is kewl, and you pay R10 for a smart card that you keep and re-charge as and when needed. This pays for the train, the bus and for parking.

Jordi’s friend Daisy stayed the night and joined us for our adventure. And the girls loved it. It was very kewl to see how easily they slotted into the vibe. As if they’d been traveling on high speed trains their entire life : )

It’s definitely something you should do with your kids. It was awesome for Leish and I, and several times more for the girls.

We got to school 15 minutes late this morning. Not because it wasn’t possible. Let’s just put it down to first day teething issues : )

If you’d like to see some pics click here.

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