Last week he flew away. His wings had grown a little too long and before we could clip them, he took flight from the 4th floor balcony. He’d done it before, and we’d simply retrieved him from the trees below. But this time he flew out while we were away for the day. We arrived home to no Cheeki. And later were told a pack of Indian Miners had attacked him.

The video clip below is of his 1st birthday party we threw for him.

It’s a quieter sadder home we have at the moment : (

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I was standing at the back of the hall with some of the teachers and one or two parents.

Award Assembly is an exciting time for this particular dad. Huge doses of pride flow through my veins and want to explode into my immediate environment. Carli and Jordi have tempered this by threatening me with my life if I show too much outward enthusiasm. Jord especially, is arriving at that age where parents can be embarrassing for simply showing up : ) I’m allowed get as excited as I want, as long as it’s quiet and there is little to no physical outworking of it. I’m fairly well trained in this regard, most of the time.

Carli got her medals first. I wanted to shout her name out, and clap and whistle. But I sucked it in, thinking about how she’s finding my public enthusiasm for her achievements less and less cute. Jordi was up next. With Jordi things are very clear. Whatever I want to put out there, no matter how appropriate, if it’s going to draw attention to her, DON’T!!

I don’t know what it was? Maybe the build up from Carli. Maybe because I thought I’d blend in with the rest of the noise coming from proud parents like me? Maybe it was because I got a quick attack of stupid? But whatever it was, I clapped. Not wild applause. Just 4 or 5 sharp claps. Not very expressive as expressive goes. Certainly not a fair representation of what I was really feeling at the time. But 4 or 5 sharp claps in a hall full of people who, at that moment aren’t making any noise, I discovered, is very very loud.

There was a collective intake of breath, as heads spun around to see who had clapped?

I immediately found Jordi’s eyes and surprisingly she didn’t look too fussed. Miracle. Perhaps she didn’t know it was me?

I found her after assembly to check in with her, and make sure I hadn’t done any permanent damage? Her response was short and to the point, “Oh dad, I knew it was you, but it’s cool, my friends are used to you now.” A quick hug, a “see you later”, and she was off.

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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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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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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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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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And then there’s Carli. She’s no fun in trying to coax out of school. She’s exactly the opposite. Carli needs to be coaxed into going to school. She’d miss school for a trip to a sewerage farm.

This morning Carli ‘injured’ her 14th body part of the week. She woke up with ankle problems, wrist aches and pains, and then just before we left for school, her knee ‘clicked’. Tears all over the place. I don’t know if I’m a great dad or not (where do you go to measure that?), but my prognosis was that she was tired on a rainy day, and perhaps a duvet-day was the medicine she needed?

Let me also admit that my own discomfort with the bureaucracy and rule-orientatedness of most schools, hooks my own dysfunctional school experience, and now having a little more influence and say, am quite happy to assist my children when they feel like bucking the system just a little. So it’s always a tug-of-war between ‘my stuff’ and what’s good for them?

On the way to school I offered Carli a Duvet-Day. We got to school and she made the call. “Dad, I want to go home.” We found her teacher and let her know that Carli was sore and tired and had decided not to come to school today. I am aware that some teachers are completely cool with this type of thinking. I’m sure there are others who aren’t. Knowing which are which is tricky : )

What I took away from this morning was seeing Carli have an opportunity to make a call for herself, about herself. We didn’t lie to her teacher. We didn’t avoid her teacher. I think it’s a good learning for Carli, that she’ll hopefully take with her into the business world one day… that duvet-days are necessary every now and then. And when you need one, you don’t have to tell an untruth to have one. You can simply announce to those that matter that today is a duvet-day, and hopefully they too come from a world where they celebrate her decision instead of vilify it!

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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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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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