THANKSGIVING ETC

Hi blogger friends
This week we have had a baby party for Jenelle and Andre. Not the usual hen get together to drink, share baby stories and drink some more while unpacking gifts but with men present as well to do the same things. Sue and Shelley two of A and J friends gave the party for many of the workmates of the soon to be parents and a really good job was done by them. We had lots of fun, plenty of laughter and they got a wonderful array of gifts of Baby "A". Now preparations are underway for Thanksgiving. We have just seen Pres. Bush give a presidential pardon to two turkeys names Pumpkin and Pecan and they will therefore not end up as someones dinner. We will be going to Shelley and Vaughans home to celebrate the occasion and Jenelle has been in overdrive buying bits and pieces and cooking pumpkin cheesecake which is great and pumpkin pie. She is also going to cook the turkey so we are all looking forward to a great dinner. I have been asked to make mashed potato and I will do it the oldfashioned way and not "just add water" as is the norm here. So dear friends in the way of tomorrow I give thanks for all of you who take the trouble to read my blog and who accept me for who I am. God bless you all.l

Back again

Hi bloggers near and far
Haven't been here for a while because of various reasons. Still loving being here with Andre and Jenelle and have settled in just like Americans. I'm getting used to this convenient way of living "just add water" as Jenelle says but strange to say I miss the good old SA way of cooking. Not that it is my favourite pastime but somehow you can do that with love. Opening packets, tins, etc just doesn't have the same satisfaction as peeling the vegs and humming a favourite tune. Yes I still do that and so far no-one has been irritated. We are enjoyed the "winter" weather and I might even come home with a tan. That must tell you just how great the weather has been. Of course, in USA, where so many LARGE people stay I have been wearing, in public, sleeveless tops and letting everything just hang out, well not literally but for me it feels like it. Anyway. went on an airboat ride down in the Everglades and thoroughly enjoyed it. Saw enourmous alligators, in pens thank goodness and ate an Indian dog. No no no just a fat frankfurther in a bread blanket. On Friday last week, I think it was Friday, we sat on the beach at Delray with many other folk and watched the latest shuttle Endeav our take off. What a sight it was amazing could see the rockets fall off and the shuttle get smaller and smaller as it started it journey to the space station. Brave people those astornauts. On Sunday we went to Kennedy Space Centre and went on a tour of the place. It is gigantic and we travelled by bus from one section to the next. It is only when you have the components in sight and hear the amount of trouble it takes to make each launch safe that you realise the USA takes great care of every little item. Jenelle is great and keeps up with us although she is so close to launch time herself. We have a lovely time with Shelley and Emma as Shell is giving us a lot of time driving us to the malls. She is also grateful for the company as Vaughan works every day and she misses Margie who will be in San Diego until 15 Dec when we will all be here in Florida. Looking forward to that. Until next time God bless love you allo

I have a problem

I hate using the blog site because I always lose my way. I can't find caroline's blogspot and I really want to hear how things are going with her her pregnancy. It's quite strange that none of my links come up as they did at home. How I wish Caroline or Craig were closer so that I could pick their computer brains. Susan please let me have your email address as I write more on that than on blog. My address is eleanor.lagrange@gmail.com I hope you get this message. The time difference now is we in USA are 7 hours behind you. Crazxy but true. Tell your mom I have not washed my hair for 14 days now and it still, to me, looks quite good. Often think of you all in Cape Town but am having wonderful time. Going to a braai with friends of Andres tonight he is a chef at Boca and a Bergvliet chap. Love to all

Hi it's me again

Things still great here in Delray Beach. Have been around quite a lot over the weekend. On Satruday we went with Jenelle, Shelley, Emma, Maureen and me to a great big mall called Sawgrass about 45 minutes away from home. What a place. It was so big that we didn't have time to see it all. The baby goods are amazing and of course I have to hold myself back. We get real value for a $ as long as you don't convert all the time, and then I would't buy anything. Tonight I made tomato bredie and everyone seems to have enjoyed it sitting out on the balcony on a lovely balmy evening. Gerrit went with a friend of Andre's from South Africa, Clint and his Thai wife, we call her sushi. He was away the whole day and will talk for a month when he comes home about the boats he has seen. Last night we went to the Waterfront at Boynton Beach at ate terrific seafood at a place called The 2 Georges (both deceased) What a wonderful evening, once again with friends of Andre and Jenelle. They really have a lovely circle of friends. Tomorrow we are going to have a braai with another friend and his wife. He is a chef at Boca. We are all well and really enjoying every minute of being with our children. Lots of love to you all.

America the Great

Hi SA bloggers
Hope you are all well. We are settling in now at Delray Beach after a very hectic 10 days since leaving home. Meeting Andre, Shelley Vaughan and little Emma at Fort Lauderdale was a real highlight for us all. Poor Margie was quite overcome and cried like a baby while hugging Shells and Emma shouting Nana. Great stuff. The flight was not at all bad in fact I was quite relaxed by the time we landed. Delta was great, lovely attendants. Well, I'm sure you can get a lot of news from our family but to cut a very long story short..... as if I can. The first night at the apartment we met the crowd from the Boca - great every single one - all very excited to at last meet us and Margie and family we had a braai and a lot to drink. I fell into bed quite exhausted I mean I had been active one way or another for 28 hours!!!!! The area where our family stays is lovely - a gated complex with plenty of greenery and walkways. Everyone takes their dogs out on leads for walks and there a poop stops with special poop packets and a bin. Very good idea. In fact Maureen is going to take the idea back to Oasis to see if they can use it. Then on Thursday we travelled up to Savannah to Jenelles parents. Andre, Jenelle, Gerrit and Mo travelled in one car and I went with Jenelles youngest brother Jamie. What a nice young chap very informative and knowledgeable about the areas we travelled through. Jenni, Jenelles mom, is a very lively person who loves to have everyone and everything organised. She is apparently very well known in the USA for her knowledge of midwifery and runs the womens section of a large hospital in Savannah. Then on to the rehearsal day, a torrential downpour which lasted all and therefor washed out the organised dinner which was going to be held in the lovely back garden of the Lash home well that was just one thing that she could not guarantee. So..... off we went dressed in our rehearsal finery but with me running bare footed becausde I kept slipping out of my posh gold sandals. Very nice church, complicated rehearsal but the wedding party seemed to remember everything on the day. Back to the house, met a fair amount of relatives from both sides Jennis mom and two sisters, one brother in law nephew and niece (flowergirl) Keiths mom 2 brothers brother in law sister etc etc a very loud and lively lot. We were all issued with safari hats but because of rain we could not do the scavenger hut. Oh by the way Maureen and I were told in the morning that we would be cooking for this lot. PANIC but the Taylor's came into their own, we managed to make bobotie and what should have been yellow rice that turned out like putu pap and everyone thought was great - wanted the recipe. - then we made for the first time, thank goodness I had the recipe with me Desmond Tutu's Tutu chicken. Anoither success. Next day the wedding great was rushed to the beauty salon - enormous place - to have our hair done. Cost $27 - Elspeth, my looked just like it does when you do it. Great cut Pal. Wedding was at 2pm Jenni running around like a flea in a frenzy getting us all up to schedule. My son looked so handsome standing at the altar waiting for Jenelle and I was already crying just looking at Andre. Jenni and I went up during the service to light the two family candles - very emotional stuff. After the ceremony we were taken in trolley buses for a 1 1/2 hour trip around the historical area of Savannah which is truly lovely. Saw the garden from Midnight in the garden of good and evil and also the bench that Forest Gump sat on. The reception was at the de Soto Hilton Hotel on the top floor where we had a great view of the whole of the city. Food was good, bad a bit hectic - but whadahell! I had a great time dancing with all and sundry and into the evening was INVITED to make a speech. Apparently I made a few bloopers but the SA crowd loved it. Next day we chilled the bridegroom came to fetch us about midday to return to Lash house where we all at left overs. THAT'S ALL FOR NOW FOLKS God bless

Here at last

The day arrived at last, all the packing, sorting, unpacking has at last been completed. Just waiting for take off. Heiko has moved in and we know he will look after everthing for us. Poor guy has been left with a lot of instructions on payments, gardenservices and Sheila. Auntie Joan was in hospital for tests when we left so Peter, Sandra, Caroline, Craig and darling Amy did a drop and go for us at the airport. They were very disappointed about not staying butt now looking back it was a good thing as I think we were all feeling a bit down about the long separation. Heiko stayed but we didn't go back to the eating places as we just wanted to book in, and sort ourselves out. Why is that we very ordinary citizens get jittery, we haven't done anything wrong so we should feel very confident - people in uniforms at airports just bring all our nerves into play,. We met up Margie and on the plane she sat behind Gerrit and me with Maureen. Heiko SMS Andre once we were up in the sky to let him know we were on our way. Well here I am 35000ft above ground travelling at over 900km/hr and yet I'm very calm of course as we have only been travelling for about an hour..... just 8 more hours to Dakar. So far, so good. Gerrit is in newspapar mode so I'll sit and meditate.... no rather pray.
Dinner was good, I had chicken something like Spanish chicken As we are sitting on the wing I suppose you could call it chicken on the wing. You know like they have Beef on the Hoof. At Dakar we sat for nearly two hours while security check was made we must have looked very clean and germfree because no spraying of insecticides took place. Once again the take off.... nerves to the fore!! Now for JFK New York - I slept thanks to a few pills BUT I did walk a really steady flight - no problems - maybe I'll get used to this form of travel after all. At JFK all went smoothly no opening of luggage, nice immigration man and customs guy - are we lucky or what? We were called over the public address system because we had been sent to the wrong gate - not 1 but number 8. Let me tell you JFK is bigger than Cape Town and we had to run from almost one end to the other. Gerrit moaned all the time and I was letting off pops like a jetski. My ankle were like I had elephantitis and wrapped in special white stockings looked like I was the mummy. Oh well as well that ends well. Getting on board to the stares of all the other passengers was quite something and I tried very hard to give them my best SA smile. Another smaller Delta plane and less people but a wonderfully friendly crew. The flight took just about 3 hrs and then we circled over Florida. Wow but it is beautiful .... wonderful housing estates all around waterways green, green grass toooooo beaut. And then Andre, Shelley Vaughan and Emma to meet us - tears flowed mixed with hysterical laughter we could not believe it. At last we are with our kids. Lovely drive home in Sues car because it is bigger than Andres or Jenelles and out onto Route 95. About 30 minutes later we arrived at Boca West and Andre took us on a drive around the resort. I cannot describe to you all just how wonderful it is It is enormous, bigger than Edgemead and Milnerton together - different almost suburbs within a walled area. Five golf courses, tropical trees and flowers. Beautiful houses in different designs and all with water features etc. I will have to try very hard to take a lot of pics so you will at last get some idea of where Andre has spent the last five years. Have I said before how proud we are of him and all he and Jenelle have achieved? We are.... they have a lovely home - sparsely furnished but with enough to be very comfortable. I seem to have gone on quite a bit and hope to continue at a later time to tell you about the braai we had with their friends on Tuesday night. In the meantime love you and many thanks for the good wishes, gifts and prayers that sent us on our way.

Packing, Unpacking

Will we never learn .... Packing is a nightmare and I seem to be in the middle of one. I really thought that after having travelled to the UK a few times I knew exactly what I needed to take to wear. In 1970 I lived for two weeks camping in Scandinavia out a small cabin size suitcase. Never thought that I was taking too little and everyday I seemed to look decent - well we all looked more or less the same so it really didn't matter. But now all this time later I have packed everything I thought I needed for a three months stay in the USA and today I unpacked. Once again I have taken too many clothes. After all they do have washing machines, tumble driers and every other appliance to keep myself looking good. Whatever I take they haven't seen before so why is it so hard to pack down? The humming is getting faster, my nerves are in the tips of my fingers and the wine is definitely going down faster. We have a lot of gifts to take for our baby and also for Andre and Jenelle but I think I will have to leave the Vuvuzela behind unless one of my companions agrees to pack it in. What possessed me to buy one anyway, Andre does not like local soccer or its fans so...... By this time tomorrow I will be throwing out more clothes and in the USA will find I just haven't enough to wear. This is a puzzlement as Pooh would say.