Hiya,

One of my favourite DVDs is by The Wiggles, which was introduced to me by Aunty Shazza and Uncle Marc. Their singing and stories are great, as well as educational for a littley like me, especially where that learning helps me with everyday life. For example, their song Look Both Ways, teaches me to stop at a road, and look both ways before crossing. I have been doing this for quite some time already, when walking in a parking lot or along the street. But I’ve now taken this to a new height, in that when Mom drives up to an intersection and stops, I do the ‘Look Both Ways’ dance! As a result I’ve been dubbed a back seat driver, but at the same time, it elicits a great deal of giggles and smiles from Mom and Dad.

The weather this past week has remained pretty cold, to the point where Dad finally conceded and put all the inners in his biking kit to keep him warm while riding to work. The cold didn’t dampen the soccer spirit that has gripped our country, however, with vuvuzelas being heard everywhere one goes. Some shopping centres have even banned them now, and other places as far afield as Wimbledon have followed suit for the tennis. Dad and I are predicting that much about this world cup will go into the history books, including the introduction of the vuvuzelas. We also predict that vuvuzela will be added to the Oxford English Dictionary at the end of the year – watch this space.

On the topic of history, much has already been made during this World Cup. South Africa’s team Bafana Bafana were the first host nation to be eliminated in the Stage Games, despite winning their final game against France. South Africa is also the first African nation to host the World Cup, and sticking with African history, Ghana this week was the first African nation to make it to the Round of 16 games. Italy made it into the history books as being the first defending nation to be eliminated during the Stage Games, and France, the previous runners up, also being the first runners up to be eliminated in the Group Stages. A Guinness Book of Records best was also achieved this past week when Tulane Ngkobo was handed a certificate by the adjudicating committee confirming that he had been to the most World Cup games ever, at 21. This equated to watching more than 1800 minutes of live football, in stadia across South Africa.

Sticking with sports history, this past week saw the longest Wimbledon game ever played, taking 11 hours and 5 minutes. The epic game between John Isner and Nicholas Mahut, was only over after Isner took the final set at 70-68.

The biggest soccer excitement of the week was waking up on Thursday morning to discover that our team Germany, had made it to the Round of 16. I wasn’t at all surprised, considered the joyful screaming and shouting I heard from Mom and Dad while I ‘slept’ through the game. On Sunday afternoon, amidst much apprehension, Dad and I watched Germany play to a 4-1 win over England and make it through to the quarter finals.

Now to chat about my week . . . .

Monday Granny and Tammy and I played and played, to the point that I hadn’t even slept for the afternoon. I learned to play ball with Buddy the Labrador. He is so cute, but so big in my mind. I also played on Tammy’s old jungle gym. That was fun. All too soon it was time to go home and cook dinner. Opa was coming for dinner as we didn’t get to spend a lot of time on the weekend.

Tuesday was a strange day, Mom and I spent the entire day at home. The Merc had to go for a service as there was a red light on the dashboard complaining about the cold. As the car was already warm by the time Dad brought them the car they couldn’t diagnose what was wrong with the car, so they opted to keep it there overnight and check it when it was cold the next day. It turned out that the car stayed there until Thursday, which wasn’t too much of an issue, as Dad has his bike and Mom used the Volvo. I suspect the Volvo was quite excited to get out a bit, as it doesn’t ever get the chance to go anywhere.

As a result, Mom and I spent the day at home on Tuesday. It was rather nice, to stay in a tracksuit and play with all my new toys.

The school holidays were still underway because of the World Cup so my music was also off on Wednesday. Instead Mom took me to Oki Doki in Linden, to meet my music group. So off we went to play. It was interesting to play in a new place. I even gave some of the new equipment a try. Unfortunately while I was there, Samuel decided to taste my cheek by biting on it really hard, and I still have a bruise to prove it.

Dad took ill on Thursday so he opted to stay home. He’d been spluttering and wheezing all week already, and it had now taken its toll on him. I was sad for him that he was ill, but at the same time I was happy, as I would have more time with him. Mommy needed to go to the dentist during the morning, so Dad took care of me.

Friday morning I went to OT and then to Nina, where I had a wonderful time with Gene. We jumped on the trampoline and ran up and down the stairs.

We headed out to Brightwater Commons on Saturday morning, where we were meeting Michelle and the girls, Amy-Leigh and Chloe. They had heard all about the inflatables that were there and wanted to give them a try for themselves. Unfortunately they weren’t up yet when we arrived, so we picnicked on the lawn and rode on the carousel. The wait was worth the while; even before the jumping castles were fully inflated we were already jumping all over them. A team snooze ensued in the afternoon, and in the evening we went to Michelle and Daneel’s place for ox-tail stew. Nina and Jaco were also invited, so Gene, Emma and I played to our heart’s content. Little Kate snoozed through the evening.

Sunday was voted as a pyjama day, and we didn’t go out, apart from spending time in the garden. Much of the front garden was wet from the neighbour’s irrigation system bursting the night before and flooding our front garden, so we visited in the back garden. Needless to say the afternoon was dedicated to watching the soccer, which was awesome fun.

That’s it for now.

Love

Jay-Bee

Photo 1 Warming up for the weeks’ games

Photo 2 Practicing in all conditions is essential

Photo 3 Jail break

Photo 4 Playing in the mulberry leaves

Photo 5 Uh-oh

Photo 6 Getting a lick from Roxy

Photo 7 Climbing . . . .

Photo 8 Being stalked by Shatzi

Photo 9 Browsing the ‘web for more DVDs

Photo 10 Drawing

Photo 11 The joy of being ambidextrous is that when my right hand gets tired I swop to the left

Photo 12 Giving Roxy some treats

Photo 13 Ready to face a new day

Photo 14 Mom left me to play with a tin of flour

Photo 15 Even the flour trail would give me away

Photo 16 Some more drawing

Photo 17 Playing with baby ‘shaving cream’ in the bath

Photo 18 The bath drums from Aunty Shazza and Uncle Marc also serve as goggles

Photo 19 Having a stretch in the bath

Photo 20 Drumming with Dad

Photo 21 This is what a bad day at Wimbledon would look like

Photo 22 Getting to grips with swing ball

Photo 23 Fun on the carousel

Photo 24 Chloe also loving the carousel

Photo 25 Amy-Leigh on the carousel

Photo 26 Blowing on my vuvuzela after the game!

 

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