Me and Annelie flew to Pretoria for the weekend. I took off the Monday and because Tuesday was a public holiday, we could spend four days in Blue-Bulls country. We had an opportunity to visit my parents in their retirement village, spend time with my youngest son and also see my brother and his family. On the Sunday, we had lunch at the Voortrekker monument on a hill overlooking Pretoria. It was good to see all the family and to just touch sides.
This evening we enjoyed a special fillet cooked by Adri in his new enclosed "braai-room". In addition to the meat a salad and sweet-potato was served. We started the evening on a 2002 Mischa Shiraz and completed it with a Guardian Peak SMG. We really had a special evening.
The Kurktrekkers (one of the wineclubs that I belong to), had a tasting experience at one of the local wine-farms. The farm is called Mooiplaas and Tielman Roos (owner) presented their wines to us. We started off by driving to the highest point of the farm where we could see the sun set over Table Mountain. Tielman's knowledge of the environment, the birds, the flowers and even insects was amazing. He has been farming here for the past thirty years and one can see this in the intimate knowledge of the terroir. The wines was impressive too, but the 2002 Cabernet was in a class of its own.
This afternoon was just so beautiful with the last sun-rays touching the tops of the hills. The air was crisp and clear after the rain and the clouds brilliantly white. The vineyards started to turn slightly red/orange. It was such a special sight.
My first grandson had his first sleep-over with us last night. It went quite well and when I had to attend to the little man in the morning, I just realised how Arden found a special place in my heart.
Early morning flight to Johannesburg and the first time that I could test out the new Star Alliance lounge in the new terminal. The architecture and lay-out is stunning, but they must still work on the content and service. I will give them the benefit of having just opened. I also saw that the British Airways lounge was also open...
I saw Tony and Lisa sitting in the garden as I left the middle block today - deep in discussion and I just had to blog it. It meant so much for me: to see great people busy developing thoughts on how to make the product and the company better. And then to see the environment that we are priviledged to work in. This is without doubt one of the most exciting companies to work for in one of the most unique settings.
I spent some quality time with my wife at La Pineta tonight to celebrate my 53rd birthday. We decided to try and visit all the restaurants in a fifteen kilometer radius from our home and tonight ended up at La Pineta. We have not been here before, had no recommendation, just made a reservation and arrived. We were pleasantly surprised with the skills in the kitchen. I had the Venison with a glass of Anura Pinotage, while Annelie selected the Kabeljou with a glass of Chardonnay. Excellent, excellent, excellent!
I really enjoy Geocaching. I took out some time with Izak this morning to go and hunt some caches. We found two of the three that we set out to find. This was quite satisfying, but it was the opportunity to spend some time with my son and the beauty of the mountains and the vineyards that was really special.
We slept at the cottage at MeerenBosch for the night. In the morning, one could see seven of the wild horses in the distance grazing close to the water's edge. It is unfortunately very difficult to see the horses on this picture, but if you use some imagination, one can see a few darker blotches in the middle of the picture: that's the horses. Staying at the cottage is a real balm for the soul: hearing the sea in the distance and smelling the Milkwood trees' fruit.
This is my version of a feast: making a fire from wood carefully chopped into the right size inside my home. Then, to "braai" a piece of red meat and some condiments (vegetables and toasted bread in this case). To open a spectacular red wine (today it was a Veenwouden Classic 2002 - aged in my own cellar for five years). And finally to enjoy this with my wife on a perfect day in the Cape. I am truly blessed.
We had an early dinner at Ernst and Catherine tonight and had a chance to see our grandchild for a short while. He is such a wonderful little guy and we love him so much.
I found this envelope in the post today from Google. After careful investigation, I found it contained a piece of paper where a bank nominated by Google promised to pay me an amount for the Advertising on my blogs. After I gave it some thought, I remembered that we used to make use of this instrument (I think it was called a check) to pay other people... but that was very long ago. I wonder if my bank will still accept this ancient way of tender.
The two puppies found a toilet roll this morning and declared it enemy number one. I think they won the contest before anyone could rescue the toilet roll.
I connected from Kathmandu to Dubai at Karachi Airport. I also changed carriers from Pakistan International (PIA) to Emirates. I think it was triggered by the fact that PIA could not deliver my baggage to Emirates as they already loaded it on their flight to Dubai. I struggled for an hour to get a boarding pass, but were happy to board the plane in the end.
I was looking forward to finding a cache in Nepal because I had two travel bugs that I collected from South African caches that I wanted to leave in Nepal. With the help of my friends in Kathmandu, we tracked the cache down and I could drop the TB's and collect a TB to bring back to South Africa. This is such an interesting game.
Dwarika's (Read here) is one of the most interesting hotels in Katmandu. The owner utilised old artifacts found in the city and build a very interesting hotel reflecting the unique architectural and cultural history of Nepal. The use of old furniture, doors, window frames and old statuettes turns the hotel into a magic place. We had dinner in the local restaurant and sampled a six course meal of Nepal foods in a special environment. This was a very special experience.
I had a great dinner with colleagues and local partners at the Bar-B-Q Tonight Restuarant in Karachi. This is a famous local restaurant where food is cooked on open fires and meat is the mantra. The restaurant consists of four floors full of tables. Even though this was a Thursday guests had to wait to be seated. The meal and the company was amazing.
Izak left for Pretoria on a Mango flight today. I am sitting in the business lounge waiting for my flight to Dubai. I watched as he took off in a distance and reflected on how special it is to have my sons with me. I think that it is special because this is r.elatively rare (and will probably get less regular)
