Bramley Famli » Photos

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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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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June – what a month – woop woop : )

Barrie — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:03:33 +0000

June’s almost over. And what a month it’s been for us : )

School holidays in South Africa to accommodate the World Cup. Little to almost no business for me because of support of the World Cup : )

And so I accepted the no-work reality and worked from home, and played with our family. And play we did. I won’t go into detail on each event, simply point you to albums of pics that we took to record the events.

First Gautrain ride – we attempted to go on the first public Gautrain ride. We didn’t get onto the first one, but darn close

Bafana parade through Sandton – what a day. School closed a day early and we went to join the masses to celebrate and support our National Team

World Cup prep – Jordi and I went shopping for decorations. For our bodies, our cars and our home. We all supported Bafana, and then each picked a 2nd option. Carli took England. Jordi took Brazil. Leish and I took Spain.

World Cup game in Durban – I managed to secure tickets on the Friday morning, and we hit the road (by car) to catch the Japan v Netherlands Game the next afternoon. Home on Sunday

We still have two weeks of holiday to go – woop woop : )

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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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The Bramley girls shine at their Gymnastics Club Comp

Barrie — Wed, 05 May 2010 09:20:09 +0000

On Saturday Carli and Jordi competed in the Bryanston Gymnastics Club annual competition. It’s goal is really, I think, to prepare the gymnasts for the regional competition that’s held a few weeks later. So they compete using the same routine as the regional comp, and a selection of gymnasts get selected to go to the regional comp. I posted something about last years regional comp last year.

This year was Carli’s first competition. She’s not competed before. She’s on level 1 and is in the under 6 age group. She was nervous, we (Leish and I) were nervous, and Jordi was amazing. On the way from picking up Wimpy Coffee and toasted sandwiches, Jordi told me she hoped that there wasn’t any thunder while Carli was on the beam. She’d hate Carli to fall. And she’d be prepared to fall 5 times if it meant that Carli didn’t have to fall once. What a beautiful and caring wish for her sister. I just wanted to give her a great big hug. I couldn’t. I was driving : )

Carli was a star. She ended up 2nd overall, and won her floor and bar routines. She placed in the top 3 for beam and vault. She ended up with 5 medals, and while they were presenting to other age groups and levels, Leish and I watched her count those medals 6 or 7 times. Not sure if she was checking just how many, or if they were all still there? But she certainly seemed very proud. Rightly so.

Jordi’s level and age group was hotly contested. There was no clear ‘super-star’ amongst them. Many of the girls got medals for the different disciplines. Jordi ended up 5th overall and came home with 3 medals. She was disappointed as she loves gymnastics, works really hard, and was hoping to have finished higher up in the rankings. A hard lesson about competition, not getting what you hoped for, and not finishing as high up as she did least year, to watch her learn. She wasn’t interested in us trying to console her. It was a tough afternoon of emotion here at home.

All in all, it was a great day for the two of them. This morning everyone was back to counting medals, talking of the regional competition, and practicing their various routines on the furniture around the house. They do spend more time on their hands than on their feet : )

I’ve posted some pics of the competition here.

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Carli turns 7

Barrie — Sun, 02 May 2010 08:54:28 +0000

Carli turned 7 in April. A big day for her. In many ways. She got older. Both physically, and I think in her self as well. It was a different birthday for her. It felt like the first time she’d ‘owned’ the day. Until this one, she’s always seemed fairly neither-here-nor-there about the day and everything that went into it. But this year she planned, plotted, dreamed, asked for, expected from, etc, etc. We worked hard to make it the celebration she wanted. And reflecting back on it, I think she might say it met her image of what her birthday needed to be.

For those with children that cliche about children growing up so quickly was brought home once again for Leish and I. No more 6 year olds in the house. While Jordi pushes the boundaries on the older end, Carli represents the end of each era for us as a family. So there’s always a hint of sadness as she moves into her next world, but it doesn’t take away from the exciting adventures that she allows us to share with her.

She is an amazing human being in our family. She brings so much that we don’t have, and teaches us things we’d not learn easily if she wasn’t here. Her confidence, imagination, sense of humour, adventure, laugh, need for her own space, her skill with any sport of activity that involves a round objective (ball), her gentle spirit and her loving cuddles. The list is long…

I’ve posted some pics of a little piece of her day. Her ‘big’ present was a drum kit for Guitar Hero (Nintendo Wii) and you’ll see us all playing in the pics.

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Another visit to Peter Bee Pets

Barrie — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 07:09:30 +0000

2 Saturday mornings ago I took Carli, Jordi, Brad and Jason (friends) to Peter Bee Pets. I’ve posted about a visit to Pete before. It’s always fun, simply because Pete has some of the kewlest animals in his shop.

If you’ve not been there, and you don’t mind a trek out to Krugersdorp, then load up your kids and take a visit.

The kids got to touch, play with, feel, watch and experience all sorts of things. From Bearded Dragons, to Water Lizards being fed, to Ball Pythons, to a stunning Cockateel, and of course the 3 alligators in their enclosure.

I’ve posted some pics on my Picasa site. Click here if you’d like a look.

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Here’s to a long ride with the Toyota/MTN Bike Park

Barrie — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 07:55:21 +0000

It’s no secret in our home at the moment, that Carli’s gymnastics future is hanging in the balance. She’s bored, or not into it, or over it, or something? But she’s certainly thinking about whether she wants to continue to do it or not. Leish got her to commit to the end of the term, and the end of the term, she is here.

If I’m honest I’m hoping this opens a little opportunity for Carli and I to ride bikes together. She certainly enjoys it more than Jordi, and I’m standing in the wings plotting and planning, that should she throw in her gymnastics towel, that I can offer her 2 attractive slots each week to go down to the MTN/Toyota Cycle Park in Bryanston to ride together. Of course it works for me because of my own BMX history, and the thought of having 2 or 3 hours each week focused on riding with one of our daughters, and maybe both from time to time, gets all the right bells and whistles sounding off in me : )

Of course I’ve got to tread carefully here. Nothing worse than living out your parent’s dreams and fantasies when actually you’d rather be doing something else. So I’m trying not to be too enthusiastic, doing less selling of the idea, and jumping at each opportunity Carli gives when she says anything close to, ‘Hey dad, can we go to the bike park?’. Rain, hail, snow or shine, I’m there : )

Last Monday we went together. Carli on her bike, and me on a rented BMX from the park. Wish I could take a camera with us, but I’m still not sure I’m not going to destroy myself in some over-zealous manoeuvre. So the pic included is in the parking lot before we headed out.

Click here for 2 larger pics.

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