Bramley Famli

About the time I got to school
Blueberries were red
Caterpillars turned into cats
Dinosaurs were still alive
Elephants were smaller than mice
Frogs lived like a person does
Garden spiders only lived in my garden
Hippos didn’t live in water
Ice-cream never melted
Jelly didn’t wobble
Kicking balls was against the law
Licking lollypops was bad
Monsters existed
Nobody could talk
Octopus only had 4 tentacles
Puppy’s were the biggest things on earth
Queens had to work
Red was blue
Snakes had legs
Teeth were green
Umbrellas didn’t keep you dry from the rain
Violet was not like purple it was like black
Water was still
Xylophone started with a Z
Yo-yo’s didn’t go up or down
Zebra’s had pink and purple stripes

SO THAT WAS A WIERD YEAR BUT AN AWESOME ONE

by Jordan Bramley

I had a little bit of time this afternoon to sit and ‘catch up’. I’m pretty far behind, so any catch up I end up doing doesn’t have a very satisfied feeling attached to it. Mostly more frustration gets added as I realise how far I really am behind. When I don’t focus on it, I think I convince myself I’m more up to date than I probably am.

One of the things I did this afternoon was to get some photos re-organised and tagged. I started with the most recent, taken at Umngazi River Bungalows earlier this month. As I scrolled through tagging furiously, I paused a long while at a few I had taken of Leish on one of the days.

My gosh she’s beautiful. I stared for a long while remembering. Nothing in particular, just allowed some warm mushy feelings into my space as I remembered bits and pieces about her. Moments we’ve shared together. Laughs we’ve had. Miracles we’ve been a part of. I then picked up the phone and phoned her. Wanted to tell her how beautiful she is.

And she is!

This morning I woke up in the berg to a beautiful PeaCock sitting outside on the little veranda attached to my chalet. I immediately thought of Carli and took this pic to send to her. She’s definitely the animal lover of our family. Not that any of the others of us don’t, just that she makes up for where we lack.

Arrived at Alpine Heath last night, for a Builders Trade Depot conference, to an icy-cold wind. The icy-cold you expect in the berg this time of year, but the wind is just plain ugly and unwelcome. Reminded me of an exert from Ice Age 3, that Jordi was repeating earlier this week,

Listen to the wind!
What’s it saying?
I don’t know, I don’t speak wind.

I haven’t seen the movie, so I can’t give you any more information that that : )

This morning was beautiful. All the crap had been blown out of this atmosphere, and the sun was shining in the most wonderful way. The mountains surrounding us were spectacular, and I wished the rest of my family was here to share what I could see.

Tomorrow I head back to Durban to fetch them for our next stop of the ‘no-school tour’. We’re going to Little Switzerland for another conference with AMASA. I speak for an hour on Saturday morning. The rest of the time, is family time.

Yeah!

One of my happy memories that I’ve shared with Leish in our marriage has been taking a road trip together. In our early years of dating and while we were married, before kids, road trips took on a very different shape to those that had Jordi and Carli in the car. I guess those of you with kids know what I’m taking about…

The romantic chatter, the exploration of a young couple setting off on an adventure, no crying and questions like ‘are we there yet?’ from the back of the car. The stopping in unfamiliar spots with a glass of wine, a cup of coffee or a quick bite to eat. Discovering each other while confined to a very small space with no other agenda than simply passing time on the way to somewhere.

Children do change all of that. I’m not suggesting it gets worse. It just gets different. New agendas are added to the mix. New reasons arrive not to stop, but to rather ‘get there’. Romantic chatter is replaced by the need to occupy the very short attention span of 2 beautiful girls hating the concept of being confined to a very small space : )

In the last 12 months we’ve had a few opportunities to re-visit those trips. Last year we went to London for a weekend. We’ve been to Fancourt for a night. We’ve spent a night in the Magaliesberg, and today we returned from an overnighter to East London.

It’s all been intentional, but made possible by our two beautiful children who are becoming less phased being apart from us, and if we’re honest, we from them.

I must admit that it’s taking me some time to un-learn and re-learn the art of these trips. Suddenly having this time in a confined space with my beautiful soul mate, often has me rushing to aparently important conversations that are a little too heavy for what road trips are all about. I don’t stop enough, still driven by the need to arrive and ‘get there’ instead of savouring the journey.

I’d like to think I’m getting there though. Each time we take a trip I remember more of what we used to do and forget more of what we have recently been doing. I feel a little more romantic and find more and more pleasure in the journey and less and less in the destination.

Leish and I are in Gonubie, East London this morning. We came down for Leish’s 20 year high school reunion. Because Leish lived in East London for a while, we picked a B&B in Gonubie to stay at.

We chose the Red Pepper. And we chose well. Picking a place off of the net can be risky. It can be exciting. But it is always fun. In the words of Forest Gump, slightly altered, ‘Picking a B&B off the Internet is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you gonna get?’

Colleen runs the place, and from our first encounter via email she was superb. Helpful, professional and welcoming. And she’s all that and more in real life.

Red Pepper is on the Main road through Gonubie. They boast views of the Gonubie river. To be honest we thought it was a bit of ‘poetic Internet licence’ to make such a claim. With Leish having lived in Gonubie, we just couldn’t picture how there’d be a good view of the river? But what a view we got. The sea to the right and this big, wide and gentle river off to the left. Sitting high up on a hill, second floor of the B&B, on our balcony sipping sundowners last night and coffee this morning. About as romantic as you could hope for, spoiled completely by Leish’s harsh cough and flu ridden body : (

If ever you find yourself in the greater East London area, and Gonubie seems like an option, find your way to the Red Pepper. I’d book in advance. It’s a 5 star venue, who’ve had some pretty impressive people stay at it, judging by the visitors book. Of course they’ve now also had us to add to their list of distinguished guests : )

Online you can find them at SA Venues and make a booking from there.

I’m getting old. Apparently it happens to all of us : ) My eyes are feeling the effects of living in a sunny country and not taking the necesary precautions while growing up. Should have worn sunglasses more than I did, they tell me.

Having ‘misplaced’ mine a month or so ago, I felt the bright sun very phisically driving down on holiday this week.

So when Leish and I arrived in East London yesterday for her school reunion we did a little shopping in the eye department. For both of us.

Don’t know if it was just in my head, but I did feel relief when I put my new shades on.

We’ve been driving since 4am. Going on holiday. Down to Howick and then a hard right for another 250km.

At 4:30 we stopped at the Total in Heidelberg. For coffee and hot chocolate. From The Brazzillian. A coffee specialist. Aparently. You’d imagine that a specialist coffee spot would be highly competent at coffee making, even at 4:30? Aparently not. Staff that seemed a little irritated that we’d woken them up, and then working at a pace that looked like they were still asleep. I was 2nd in line, got irritated and then left. It’s not the first time either.

Coffee came from Wimpy at Engen at the Vaal river. Better prepared for us than Total (they looked more awake) but far from the sort of service you’d like on a 10 hour day of driving.

Leish drove us into Engen Harrismith. I’m not sure there’s a set up like it in the country? It’s like a mini-city and at 7:00 in the morning it was cooking. In both ways if you know what I mean? Happy, friendly, fast. Somehow these people understand the plight of a traveller.

Total in Heidelberg, Engen at the Vaal, and their partners could learn much by spending some time in Harrismith.

For the girl’s mid-terms break we headed off to Sun City for the week. Wasn’t much of a week of holiday for me, as I had to go backwards and forwards to Jozi to put in some work.

Wasn’t the best holiday we’ve had. Was cold. Carli got sick. Sun City isn’t fun when it’s cold. So much to do outside, and not able to play because the temp made is mostly uncomfortable.

For Carli the crocodile farm was a hit. She ended up ensuring she went twice. We also took the trailor and filled it with toys. Sadly many of the toys never saw the light of day : (

For some pics, go here.

This past long weekend, we headed down to Kasouga for Jude and Gav’s wedding. Carli and I went ahead, as Jordi and Leish has a Gauteng Gymnastics tournament to attend (more of that in the next post). They joined us on Sunday morning.

Kasouga is in the Eastern Cape, somewhere between Port Alfred and Kenton. It’s beautiful. If you’ve not been, you need to rent yourself a house and get there. It was awesome and amazing and every great adjective under the sun.

For Carli it was fantastic. Kasouga is one of those rare spots in South Africa where you feel like it’s a safe spot in which kids are free to roam and explore with little adult intervention and control. It didn’t feel easy ‘letting go’ but it was wonderful watching Carli find her own confidence to do things on her own that aren’t easily encouraged in the bussling city of Jozi that is our home.

She hooked onto one of Jude’s mates named Curly. Her hair is a dead give-away. And she spent the weekend trailing Curly around. She danced with Curly, went to the beach with Curly, watched Curly from a distance, and from time to time checked in with her dad. Normally around feeding and sleeping time : )

The beach was stunning, and we sand-boarded as often as we could. It was a real Xtreme thrill for all of us.

The wedding was beautiful. Carli found her way, as usual, to the main table and inserted herself firmly in with the ‘main dudes and dudettes’.

As I said Jordi and Leish joined us on Sunday and I headed into East London (3 hours driving) to pick them up. We had a wonderful family time and adventure together.

Thanks Jude and Gav for a wonderful weekend, and for making our children feel so welcome and involved.

Go here for pics

During our Cape Town holiday we took the tour of Robben Island. A first time for all of us. It was an eye opener. You’ve heard the stories and read the books, but being there and seeing just a small bit of what it’s all about adds a richness and depth to your understanding that takes you completely off gaurd.

It was emotional, educational, humbling and embarrassing. To be honest I haven’t had enough time to process the trip to even begin to find words to capture the breadth of the experience.

Certainly it was a privilege to take the girls and let them see, in their limited understanding and comprehension, some of our very sad and painful history. Of course the boat ride, bus ride, animals, birds and beauty of the trip was an added layer to take your mind off of the story, and the girls probably enjoyed those elements.

Click here for some pics of us on the tour.