Another Single Parent Weekend successfully Navigated

Posted on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 by Craig Lotter

Chantelle was back on duty for this weekend past, and for a change, Jessica and I stayed planted firmly in Gordon’s Bay for the duration of the weekend! Not that we didn’t achieve much mind you… just look at this list! :)

In terms of entertainment the two of us worked our way through the animated Doctor Strange movie, Tekkonkinkreet, the Iron Giant, and the remaining couple episodes of the Marvel Anime: Blade series, as well as all the South Africa versus Sri Lanka one day cricket action.

(We even put in a little bit of Darksiders on the XBOX for good measure on Sunday!)

We went for our second ever swim in the sea on Saturday, we designed, printed, and placed a whole lot of fliers for Chantelle’s Cookies & Cakes venture, we shopped at the mall for a new monitor for Daddy’s office, we read storybooks, and we fed the ducks and geese at the Strand duck pond.

(Mommy got a little scared when the Egyptian Geese got a little too close for comfort. This might have had something to do with the fact that Daddy kept tossing chunks of bread at her feet.)

We did lots and lots of household chores, we baked a chocolate cake for Mommy, we fixed the towel rails in the bathroom, and of course we constantly tidied up after ourselves.

Whew, talk about productive.

Needless to say, both Jessica and I enjoyed the little break from the daily grind! ;)

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Photo Gallery: Jessica eating Letters in the Bath (2012-01-23)

Posted on Monday, January 23, 2012 by Craig Lotter

Jessica absolutely loves her bath time, and it certainly is never a mission to get her to agree to being dunked into the water, though this time around it would seem she took a gastronomic fancy to the sponge letters which litter her bath! :)

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Back to My Karate

Posted on Monday, January 23, 2012 by Craig Lotter

Last Wednesday saw me make my return to Funakoshi karate, for my first training session of 2012, after having enjoyed a nice month and bit holiday break from all the punching, kicking and shifting around. The break had been good, but I could feel it was definitely time to come back and get my knuckles dirty.

I was starting to miss these guys!

Unfortunately for me though, I couldn’t have picked a worse night to start up again.

With the Western Cape trapped in the burning clutches of an extreme heat wave the past week, the little dojo was like a mini furnace, and even the slightest of exertion earned you a soggy, clinging dogi as you battled to keep the sweat out of your eyes and hopefully off of the floor.

It was pretty damaging and exhausting, and it has to be said, the karate on the night wasn’t exactly pretty. Still, at least I went, so that has to count for something! :P

Mind you, it’s not like I went back completely unprepared. As a lead up, I have been doing my early morning jog/walks for the last while, and thanks to my newly discovered SmartTraining pedometer app on my Samsung Galaxy Ace smartphone, these sessions have turned into a daily mission of trying to beat the record of the day before!

An added bonus is the addition of Chantelle and Jessica on some of these morning excursions, with Chantelle finally seeing the light of my madness and venturing out into the early morning sunlight, despite the fact that she’s not exactly the world’s best morning person! (Can you say Grumpysaurus? :P)

Jessica on the other hand sits quite happy and entertained in her pram, legs kicking out with each and every step, so no problem on that front thank goodness!

Then of course there are my renewed lunch time elliptical trainer sessions at the gym on the days that I’m in at the Westlake office, but of course that is now only three times a week, so I’m cheating myself out of two days’ worth of exercise sessions!

And to be honest I need every session I can get if I want to make good on this year’s resolution to try and fight back against my now rather weighty problem…

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Jessica’s First Swim in the Sea

Posted on Monday, January 23, 2012 by Craig Lotter

The great thing of living here in Gordon’s Bay is of course being so close to the sea. Which of course means that it is no real surprise that Jessica finally got to enjoy her first proper swim in the sea at last – even if Mommy was stuck at work and thus wasn’t around to witness it! (Sorry love)

Last Thursday, after another boiling hot day following this unforgiving heatwave Cape Town has been suffering under as of late, I finished up the last of my SVN commits from home for the day, and jumped in the car to go and pick Jessica up from the day care.

Escaping the fight that was breaking out between Baby Steps owner and the neighbour across the road, and always looking to kill some time before the whole evening routine anyway, I decided to take Jessie out to Main Beach for a bit of a stroll along the sand and sea, something she has come to really enjoy the few times I’ve taken her before. Anyway, when we arrived, we arrived to the most gorgeous of scenes, perfect weather, low-tide, not a breath of wind, not too many people to content with, and most important of all, calm, lukewarm water.

Right there and then I made the decision to run back to the car and make a quick return trip to the house for our swimsuits, and ten minutes later, Jessica in her luminous pink swimsuit and me in my swimming trunks, were throwing down our towels and making a beeline straight for the water.

And as I would have expected from my water-loving child who will never say no to a swim in the pool, Jessica absolutely loved every minute of it, clinging to her dad, kicking about, splashing the ripples and even going underwater (with some help from dad of course!).

We spent a good 30 to 40 minutes playing together in the water, and after we were well and truly cooled down, we finally made our exit just as a light wind started to rear its head, heading back home for a quick jump into the shower, followed by supper, milk session, and then of course falling asleep on Daddy’s chest before relocation to the cot time!

Oh, but I did forget to mention that in amongst all of that, the swim had tired young Jess Jess out so much that she fell asleep for a 30 minute nap in her feeding chair – while I was still in the process of feeding her!

Going for a swim in the sea is tiring work I tell you!

Hmm, I’d better remember that one for next time then… :)

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Photo Gallery: Strand Duck Pond Excursion (2012-01-22)

Posted on Sunday, January 22, 2012 by Craig Lotter

During her split on a working Saturday afternoon, Chantelle joined Jessie and me as we headed off for an epic duck and Egyptian geese feeding session over at the Strand duck pond, marking the first ever time that either Chantelle or Jessie had ever been there!

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Cosplay Sundae: Dark Phoenix (X-Men)

Posted on Sunday, January 22, 2012 by Craig Lotter

Heavily tattooed model, artist and cosplayer Kearstin Nicholson puts together today’s great X-Men cosplay, featuring none other than dark harbinger of doom and chaos, Dark Phoenix.

Continue reading →

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Photo Gallery: Jessica Sleeping on the Job (2012-01-21)

Posted on Saturday, January 21, 2012 by Craig Lotter

As a growing baby, Jessica is allowed as many naps as she wants – even if there is a cat underfoot! :)

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Frazer Irving: Judge Death – My Name is Death Cover (2005) (Reprint)

Posted on Saturday, January 21, 2012 by Craig Lotter

British comic book artist Frazer Irving has turned out to be somewhat of a premiere horror artist, churning out some fiendishly good work for 2000 AD in the past, before going on to make some big waves in the American comic book scene.

Apart from his acclaimed black and white art on Necronauts and his more groovy pencils on the psychedelic Storming Heaven, Frazer Irving also provided the haunting visuals for John Wagner’s Judge Death: My Name is Death and Judge Death: The Wilderness Days story lines.

And of course, when the time came around to collect My Name is Death as a trade paperback, what better to wrap it in than this fantastically dark image courtesy of Mr. Irving!

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