GIDDY FAMILY JANUARY 2007 BIATHLON, EMILY DEDICATION, NIPPERS CARNIVALJANUARY 2007

JANUARY 2007

New Year’s Day, January first 2007. We had had a quiet evening at home with Pat & Gerald and Jacqui, Nicci & Stefan & Mike’s family. This morning I woke up feeling miserable with a cold. Over the next few days this developed into a nasty chest cold, coughing and took the first two days of the week off work to try to recover. Michael went back to Knysna where he was working. Jacqui had her baby, Emily’s Dedication. It was done by Jonathan. His wife was there as well as Jacqui’s friends: Debbie, and another friend, Michelle & Werner, Michael De Koning, Charles & Ingrid, Ron and our family. ON Sunday we visited Charles & Ingrid at their holiday shack in Kabeljous in Jeffries bay. I was still feeling pretty low and the weather was not perfect so we ended up playing Bridge until late in the afternoon. Charles suggested that we come again during the week and we accepted. On Monday after work, Barbara & I drove through to Kabeljous again and we ended up playing bridge until 10.00pm, getting home at 11.00pm. Which is very late for us.

The following Wednesday we drove through to Cape Town. We left at about 03.30am, picked up Jessica in Knysna and took the route through Swellendam, where we stopped for breakfast. It was an interesting little stop on a farmyard with goats, an ostrich, pigs, ducks and some fancy looking bird life. There are also two huge pythons in a glassed off little room. We turned right on the West side of Swellendam to Ashton. The road takes you through a pass where we stopped at Spanspek Plek and bought a few spanspek and a bottle of Lemonade Concentrate. In retrospect we should also have bought some meilies and a few more spanspek. The road turns right again at a T-Junction near to Ashton and then through to Robertson and on to Worster. This is the Robertson Wine Route and time should be taken to visit at least one Wine Farm. We will try to visit Nuy the next time we take this route. Drive all the way through Worster, Turning Right again just as the town ends and then back on to the N1, through the Huguenot Tunnel at Du Toit's Kloof. The Toll is R18.00. The Tunnel is just short of 4kays long and takes three minutes to drive through it. Once through the Tunnel you pass Paarl and are soon at the Exit number 28 where we turn off to Durban road and then up Old Oak Road to Sterrenberg. For us this route is about 20kays shorter and cuts out the stretch between Swellendam and Somerset west which we find quite tiresome.

While we were in CT we really did no activity. I did a great deal of sleeping and was able to recover from the cold that I had picked up at the beginning of the year. We spent time with Nicci and Jacqui. Cathy came to visit; she brought Fudge who was very unhappy in her flat. She also came all the way through the one evening to take Ally and Jessica out to movies. We played bridge two evenings.

On Saturday morning Nicci had Zara’s birthday party. It was two weeks early as she is born on 30th of Jan 2006. She had some of her school friends there: Christina, Lisa Fizmer, Jo-Ann (Josie). Sue Maxton came through. Christina brought a friend, Danielle who she is busy Studying OT with at Stellenbosch University. Other family: Maria & Willie’s two daughters plus children came as well as a friend Michael from London were there. Nicci baked a butterfly cake and had a whole lot of goodies for the children.

After the party we had to say our goodbyes. We would not be seeing Jacqui for some time as she would return to London on Monday. We had grown used to having her and Emily with us and it was a sad parting for us. We took the road through the pass again, Wooster, Robertson, Ashton and Swellendam. We stopped off at Heidelberg for something to eat and drink and then off to Knysna where we dropped Jessica. I had a short nap and was soon ready for the last 250kays of the trip. We got home just after 10.00pm to find that we had a terrible smell in the kitchen. Eventually we found a dead rat under the fridge and had to clean this up. That done we had a good night sleep.

I had battled to get over a cold but was now ready to start training again. I went out on Monday morning and took my backpack that I had bought for the Wild Coast run. It did not work as I could not seem to suck any water out. It was only the following weekend that I discovered that I had the bladder upside down. That afternoon I discovered that the Wild Coast event had been cancelled due to lack of entries. I continued to run the whole week albeit very slowly and taking short cuts.

This week on Thursday we would normally have our Cell Group Meeting. However due to a number of reasons we had decided to Disband the group so we invited Ingrid and Charles over for supper on Friday evening and played a few hands of Bridge. The Brinks will be joining up with Kobus Gerber’s group. Elize will hold off for a while. Charles and ourselves will continue to meet as friends and for prayer. We seem to be meeting in any event for meals and bridge.


Saturday morning I ran the Big Tree. Gerald & I had planned to cut short so we turned at the Thesecombe road. We probably did about 24kays. This being my first week of running this year I had run about 55 to 60kays. On Saturday morning we had a Biathlon. This was the trials for Oudtshoorn in the first week of February. Ally & I made the EP Team. Ally has fierce competition as she has to compete in a higher age group. The age categorisation starts on 1 September and she is born in August. Lara and Meghan were there as well. That afternoon we went to Summerstrand to help set up for the carnival the next morning.

On Sunday morning we were there early to set up the tent and the Arena’s. The wind was blowing a strong Easterly and there were Blue Bottles all over. After attempting to do a Malibu event and a number of Nippers coming out Stung, it was decided to cancel all water events for the day.

The U10’s started off with Sprints. It is a 50 Meter sprint and as the tide was low the sand was fairly firm and the Nippers recorded good times. We then moved over to the Flags events and it became clear that some of the other U10 teams had been practicing this discipline. Sardinia bay, Seagulls and East London all did well.

We then moved over to the Sprint arena again where we held the sprint relays. Summerstrand were able to hold their own but again it was clear that there was strong opposition from our close rivals; Plett, Sardinia Bay, Seagulls and East London. The Bluewater Bay U10 team consisted of one boy.

It was a hot and sticky day. We had been in the wind and sun for a good number of hours without the respite of being able to swim. A number of the nippers did venture into the sea and were stung and needed treatment. The support and encouragement from Parents and friends was good to see.

After the Relays we had a long break before it was the time for U10’s to compete in Semi-Finals and Finals for the Sprints and the Finals of the Relays. Again Summerstrand did well with excellent participation and a great spirit.

The last event was the Long Run. Almost all the U10 Nippers took part despite a lot of Moaning and complaining from some of the reluctant participants. This took us to close to 14.00 and I think that it was with great relief that parents were able to pack up and leave.

It seems that Sardinia Bay had won the overall First Place for the Carnival. However in the U10 section; your team won by 12 points over a strong Sardinia Bay team. While some of you did particularly well I want to commend each one of you for the spirit in which you took part. Nippers is a Team Sport. While individuals win events, it is the participation of a whole team such as yours, that wins the day.

Somehow we will have to generate enough enthusiasm to get parents and Nippers to stay on for a few minutes after the final event has been run. We would like to say a few words of encouragement and provide some indication of results. Perhaps we should have a short break just before the final event. This would allow us to talk about the day and leave just enough time for a team photograph.

GIVE THE BALL TO BRYAN HABANA

Subject: "Give the ball to Bryan"

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