-
Jun
19thPhoto Gallery: Rico Suter Country House Weekend Away (2013-06-17)
This long weekend saw Chantelle book us in for a fabulous winter weekend away at the stunning Rico Suter Country House, nestled in at the foot of the Waaihoek Mountains. Weather was fantastic, we took trips out to Kleinplasie in Worcester, Slanghoek, and even crossed the Breede River, and in general just enjoyed our time out in the fertile fields. A proper weekend of rest and relaxation in other words!
-
Jun
15thThis Long Weekend
Thanks to the cold and wet weather last weekend, we didn’t get up to anything really worth reporting back about, and with Chantelle a bit busy on the Saturday, Jessica and I did the best to entertain ourselves by playing some Just Cause 2, stacking countless tuna tins, and sneaking out for rides on the push bike whenever a little break in the clouds would allow for it. Sunday on the other hand was a different story, with pretty much all the cloud cover gone, leaving behind a beautiful winter’s day which we made full use of by first doing a spot of shopping, and then following it up with a Sunday afternoon drive through to Grabouw, where we stopped off for a light lunch at the Red Tractor Cafe (part of the popular Peregrine Farm Stall), followed by a bit of a play session on their fun wooden play park. And as the attached video evidence goes on to show, this seems to really have knackered poor little Jessica, who ended up in bed long before her usual bed time! This long weekend however is going to be a whole lot more awesome. Chantelle has organised a weekend away for the three of us, booking us in at the remote Rico Suter Country House which sits on the Rico Suter wine farm at the foot of the Waaihoek mountain range, somewhere between Worcester and Ceres. We leave today and come back on Monday afternoon and hopefully with our thumbs [...]
-
Jun
14thBaby Lotter #2 Makes His/Her First Appearance!
Chantelle and I just got back home from Doctor Wade’s offices, returning from our very first sonar inspection of Baby Lotter #2, and of course, armed with such good news I couldn’t exactly wait to share it: jellybean-shaped Baby Lotter #2 is sitting quite snuggly, his/her heart happily beating at quite a furious pace! From the measurements Doctor Wades estimates Baby Lotter #2 as being around 7 weeks and 2 days old, which means that the estimated full term birth date would be 27 January 2014. (Funnily enough, Jess’s original full term birth date was also late January as it turns out.) So that’s it then. Baby Lotter #2 is now conclusively a reality and we’re now officially on our pregnancy way!
-
Jun
12thWeigh Less: An Update
A couple of months ago I announced here on the blog that Chantelle and I had joined Weigh-Less, and seeing as we’re now ten weeks into the program, I thought it a good spot to give a quick update on our progress to those interested. (That said, because weight is a deeply personal issue, Chantelle would probably kill me if I said anything regarding her, so I think I’ll give that one a skip then!) As for me though, I’m now standing at a total weight loss of 14.4 kg in the ten weeks, which means that I’m dropping at a nice steady pace, with pretty much no effort on my part at all! Seriously, it’s winter, so there’s no going for walks, no jogging in the morning, no gym, no home exercise – nothing, nada, zip! Basically it all boils down to me pretty much having eliminated my intake of excess sugar, fats and carbohydrates, meaning that my body can happily burn off more kilojoules during the course of the day that what I’m shovelling in. Marvellous. And bare in mind, I’m no stickler for the diet rules in the first place. (I’m not going to elaborate on this point just yet, just in case our wonderful Somerset West Weigh-Less group leader Lana happens upon this post when I’m not looking…) So yeah, pretty chuffed at this whole Weigh-Less thing thus far! :)
-
Jun
10thOops… We did it Again!
So Chantelle and I received pretty awesome news over the weekend… it has been confirmed that Chantelle is around 6 weeks pregnant with our second little one! :) Very unexpected and very unplanned, the news comes as a bit of a surprise to us considering we weren’t actually trying, but all in all I’m pretty pleased that Mother Nature has given us the nudge (or is that a shove), because while I had been ready to start extending the family pretty soon after Jessica was born, Chantelle understandably has been more than a bit hesitant based on what happened last time, and so had been pretty much putting it off indefinitely while no one was looking. This time around though we are much more prepared, and with Chantelle on a better medical aid plan than last time means that we can pick and choose in terms of healthcare providers, making for a very exciting prospect indeed. Now all I have to do is try and get little Jessica’s buy-in for the final piece of the Lotter Clan puzzle that’s going to be falling in place! :) Nine months and counting…
-
Jun
9thPhoto Gallery: Weekend Fun (Including a Trip to Red Tractor) (2013-06-09)
Weather over the weekend wasn’t particularly great, and with Chantelle out and about Jessica and I did our best to keep ourselves busy – you know doing things like stacking tuna tins and sneaking outside for a ride on the push bike when the clouds cleared just a little! Luckily Sunday was a whole different story, with fantastic winter’s weather that allowed for an afternoon trip out to Grabouw, where we enjoyed a light lunch at the Red Tractor Cafe (part of the Peregrine Farm Stall), followed by some play time in their play park afterwards! (And as you can see from the final photo, this must have really knackered young Jess in the process!)
-
Jun
3rdPhoto Gallery: Two Oceans Aquarium Visit (2013-06-01 )
Thanks to the wet and miserable cold front that hit Cape Town on the weekend, the planned hike up Table Mountain in celebration of Karl’s birthday had to be called off. However, this did give us an opportunity to launch into our backup plan, which was to take little Jessica out for the day to the Two Oceans Aquarium in the Waterfront, and so after driving through in the pouring rain, we met up with Michelle, Damen and little Logan for what would turn out to be a thoroughly enjoyable 3 hour long visit with the fishies. Jessica is at the perfect age to marvel at all the sights on display, and the addition of an impromptu penguin walk as well as a fishy puppet show, the two little ones appeared to have an absolute blast!
-
May
29thA Rather Relaxing Weekend
I have to say, I enjoyed a rather relaxing weekend this weekend past. Ignoring the fact that Friday was a little shitty thanks to me having caught Chantelle’s 24 hour stomach bug that she had endured earlier in the week, and factoring in the inordinate amount of time I spent over the entire weekend playing and completing the thoroughly enjoyable Just Cause 2 on the XBOX, there was still more than enough time on Saturday for Jess and I to make the most of the gorgeous morning weather by taking a stroll out on the harbour wall, before spending a good 45 minutes on Bikini Beach playing in the sand, followed by a meet up with Chantelle (who had returned from her Stellenbosch Christmas Market application demo) at the Somerset Mall where we enjoyed a fun lunch at Tamaret, with Jessie taking a rather unhealthy liking to the cheese sauce that accompanied my food! Oh, and of course Saturday was also the day that Jessica received her first ever push bike! With the winter rainy weather that had crept in over the course of Saturday continuing well into Sunday, the last day of the weekend saw us do little more than do a minor Pick ‘n Pay shop, sort out the house, braai, enjoy an afternoon snooze, and venture out for a little evening walk around the complex. Oh, and did I mention all that Just Cause 2 I was playing during all of this? So yup, a seriously relaxing [...]
-
May
24thSignage at Last!
We’ve been working out of the new building in the Westlake Business Park for quite some time now, but yesterday I was in for a nice surprise when I strolled out of the door for one of my “thinking strolls” that I frequently take around the office park, noting that at long last some much needed signage had gone up on the building. And whilst our Touchwork logo might be playing second fiddle to that of the Hypenica logo (also Rudi’s company that happens to operate in the same building), it certainly feels good to now be able to direct people to the Touchwork offices in what is a notoriously badly marked business park! Awesome. UPDATE: And now with a bit better lighting behind me…
-
May
22ndReady, Steady, Bake!
Right. So what was formerly my braai and gaming room already features no television and no couch, three table surfaces and no chairs, two fridges, two chest freezers, wall shelving and a big storage cupboard, meaning that the only thing left on the list in order to transform it proper into a super home baking environment was a big oven. Well not anymore my friend, not anymore. Last week I extended my investment into Chantelle’s booming Cookies & Cakes venture by heading out to Tafelberg Furnishers in Somerset West and purchasing for her a nice and big, Defy 831 Multi-function Thermofan oven (R8,000), a major step up from the little Defy kitchen oven that she currently has to make do with! Having done the measurements and planning up front, basically what this means is that she can immediately jump from baking 24 cupcakes in twenty minutes right up to 72 per twenty minutes by running both ovens simultaneously, with that number potentially increasing by another 24 should we be able to source a third rack for the new oven. So a massive increase in production then which in turn should help her churn out her existing orders in record time, never mind the fact that we now have the extra capacity to go out and pick up some additional supply work as well. Her dad Monty (who has probably worked with electricity for more years than what I’ve been alive) and I installed the oven on Saturday afternoon, setting up [...]
-
May
22nd33 Reached!
I haven’t been a particularly active, hands-on blogger lately, so this post is a little late in coming (sorry), but obviously since the 11th of May, which was a week or two ago now, I’ve been sitting in the upgraded seat of 33, now well and truly in the middle of being a responsible good adult/parent stage of my life. And as I’ve learned over the past 2 or 3 years, with the combined time pressures of a good paying but work intensive job, being married, running a house, and of course trying to be the best possible dad to a little two-and-a-half year old daughter that one can be, you can pretty much forget about setting your sights on any personal achievements for the next 365 day period, unless of course you’re prepared to sacrifice on one of the things I just mentioned above – meaning that just like last year, I’m not going to. Instead, I’m just going to enjoy my comfortable life exactly as it is now. Anyway, while last weekend was a pretty relaxed affair, we shopped, installed the new oven, braaied multiple times, and took Jessica on a walk all the way to Pick ‘n Pay, the weekend before that, i.e. My Birthday Weekend, was pretty damn cool. Friday night was a bit of a bust because I had work to do and as per usual Chantelle was in the kitchen baking, but Saturday was all win, as after a bit of shopping, we headed [...]
-
May
21stA Surprise Moo!
I opted to walk over to Baby Steps (Jessica’s daycare) this evening to pick Jessie up, which is a 20 minute walk for me there, and a 55 minute walk for Jessica and me back – in other words a cunning and clever plan to stretch my little one’s legs and to fit some much needed exercise for me too! Anyway, as I was nearing the creche, I found myself facing a rather peculiar sight: waltzing down the street was a herd of cattle, lead by a bull with a rather impressive set of horns, with nary a herder in sight. I can only assume that the herd somehow escaped their pasture or enclosure and decided to do some sightseeing in Gordon’s Bay suburbia. Of course, I was pretty eager to show off these cows to Jessica, and as luck would have it, on our return to the spot there remained one straggler cow who had obviously been separated from the herd (who were now long gone). Needless to say this was quite the treat for Jess to see a real life Moo in the street! Certainly not something I get to see every day.
- ‹ Older Search Results
-
(Or jump to page of 115)
