Come to think of it, I haven’t really kept everyone here in blog land up to date with my movements over the last couple of weekends, though looking back I’m guessing that no one really missed all that much anyway.
Three weekends ago, the weekend was pretty much a write off as I spent 90% of the entire weekend holed up in my study, furiously banging out PHP code for work (i.e. the infamous Project 161 incentivised project). Other than a delightful Saturday evening of braai and rugby with the Montgomery Clan in Bellville, I was pretty much tied to my house and my keyboard from Friday right through to the wee hours of Monday morning – In fact, I was so busy that I shipped Chantelle and Jessica off to go and sleep over at her folks’ place and spend Sunday with them so that I could be afforded the peace and quiet I needed for my work environment!
(Still, the hard work paid off as it led to a very successful Monday afternoon final demo of a project that I’ve been working on for the last while, which in turn resulted in a decent little bonus that will allow me to purchase some new and much needed kitchen appliances now that Chantelle is going to be doing her Cookies & Cakes venture as a full time business starting December!)
Moving on from that, two weekends ago I opted to lengthen the weekend every so slightly for myself by rewarding myself with a day’s leave put in for the Friday – which I optimally used to muck about the house as well as see an optometrist. The optometrist experience was a pretty rewarding in that a) I’ve found a really nice optometrist I happen to like, b) a practice which is much closer than the one I last used in Kenridge, and c) gave me good news in that she successfully weakened my prescription such that I no longer strain my eyes during long work days behind the PC monitor. Score! :)
Saturday was dominated by another Willowbridge Market that I did with Mom-in-law Cheryl (Chantelle was working the weekend), whilst young Jessica spent the day with Mom and Dad, enjoying an unexpected visit from the Great Grandmothers as well as a visit to the Sonstraal Dams to see all the ducks and geese! Unfortunately the market wasn’t particularly good, but we still did more than enough to cover the table and our expenses, meaning that it wasn’t a complete loss.
Sunday we were gifted with on the other hand a perfect day in terms of the weather, which made for an awesome Michelle Oosthuizen organised “Spring Day” (technically we missed it by a fair bit) picnic experience with the friends out at Klein Joostenberg, the photos from which can be viewed here. Needless to say, much relaxing on the grass and under the sun was to be had by all! :)
Finally, last weekend was yet another long weekend for me, and it started off on a high note, with a joint Touchwork and Hypenica afternoon braai that went down rather well. As for Saturday, with the Chantelle and the rest of the Montgomery clan handling the Willowbridge Market, I was free to go on a bit of a shopping trip with young Jessica, ending up with a couple of new books for my girl to destroy, as well as a new chipped credit card (my first chipped card) which I managed to pick up in the process as well.
From there the two of us headed out to the Strand/Somerset West duck pond, where despite a rather dead duck floating out in front of us, Jessica thoroughly enjoyed sitting on my lap and throwing out pieces of bread for the ducks to chase. She did get a little nervous when the big geese joined in the fray, but outside of that she really seemed to enjoy the outing.
Next on our to-do list was a stop in at the Gordon’s Bay primary school to drop in on the Funakoshi Karate South Africa tournament taking place there, and I must say it was great to show off little Jessica and catch up on all that has been happening over the last year on the karate scene. The visit was thoroughly enjoyable, but I must admit that it was also a little difficult because I’m seriously, seriously missing my karate as well as my training family at the moment!
The rest of the day was pretty much playing around at home, watching loads of Shaun the Sheep, before a final bedtime routine and then a Chantelle returning from Bellville, just in time to launch into making home-made pizzas and watching the enjoyable Iron Man 2 on DVD.
Sunday was all hands on deck as Chantelle and I woke up early and started tidying up, in preparation for the afternoon arrival of both the Montgomery Clan and the Lotter Clan, who descended upon us to partake in our one day too early Braai Day (Heritage Day) braai. Combining awesome food, entertainment from Jessica and good conversation, with a few competitive rounds of 30 Seconds turned out to be a masterpiece, as we blazed through a fantastic fun day of family.
Chantelle opted to post Jessica off with Oupa and Ouma as they left, leaving the two of us plenty of time to snuggle up, watching some movies and then heading straight to bed, for some rather relaxing and rejuvenating uninterrupted sleep sessions! And with public holiday Monday still to come, I can’t say that my last weekend was bad at all! :)