CATHY GIDDY'S WEDDING AT BOSCHENDAL FEBRUARY 2009

CATHY’S WEDDING WEEKEND 8 February 2009.

Cathy and Saul were to be married on Sunday 8 February 2009 at Boschendal wine estate near to Stellenbosch.

Nicci and her family had stayed with us from Mid December 2008 and Jacqui arrived in PE early in January 2009.
Jacqui has two children: Emily who is two and Annabelle who is just 9 months old.

We left PE on Wednesday 4th February 2009. Afternoon. Jacqui had flown to Cape Town and was staying with Nicci. We borrowed Gerald’s trailer and Michael used Barbara’s Opel Corsa Bakkie. We collected Ena in Plett and drove all the way through to CT.
Nicci had arranged for Barbara & I to stay at neighbours. We arrived at Midnight on Wednesday. Ena stayed in the main house.

Thursday 5th: Cathy came over and there seemed a lot to do but I was not really part of the activity and spent most of the week reading and sleeping. The official wedding was conducted at Saul and Cathy’s house with Saul’s brother, girlfriend, aunt, parents and Barbara & I in attendance. And that evening we had a braai at Stefan’s house and around the pool area.

Friday That night we went to Saul’s Batchelor party in a restaurant in town. It was a fun evening with a lot of his friends attending. Saul dressed in a leather outfit and really played the part. His father also enjoyed the evening. Michael, Stefan & I left at about 11 or 12 and the party seemed to be going strong. Barbara and the girls had been at a Girls night out. They were collected in a Limo, driven to a waterfront restaurant and had a wonderful organised evening.

Saturday morning we did a bit of shopping. Jacqui & I collected Michael a the airport. It was quite an interesting wait as Zara and Emily thought that the waiting area was a dance floor and involved Jacqui & I in their Dance activity. Cathy and Barbara slept over at the Cape Grace Hotel. This is a really smart five star hotel and they had a night of luxury.
Sunday: The Wedding day. This morning I took Ally and Jessica to the hotel where they would get dressed and have make-up done by a make up artist. I collected them later and we all drove through to Boschendal. Barbara had gone ahead with Stefan who was doing the photography. We arrived on time and the ceremony took place in a Gazebo with chairs arranged in front.

It was a good ceremony with Saul breaking the glass. The reception was held under the trees. Cathy had a arranged for a guitarist to play background music and the speeches were kept to a minimum. The people who were there seemed to have a great time. Children ran around enjoying themselves. We finally left at about 5pm. Jacqui’s baby Annabelle had been running a bit of a fever and that evening we rented a 24 DVD and when the baby was not improving we took her to the hospital at about midnight.

Monday: We had planned to leave early the next morning with Jacqui and Michael but in the end they had to stay to see the doctor. We went off in convoy with Michael following. But before we reached Swellendam Jacqui had phoned and was in distress so Michael, Barbara and family turned for home.

I carried on and dropped Ena off in Plett. Annabelle was declared improving and that afternoon Michael and Barbara started their return journey. They arrived in PE at about 11.00pm.

This week I was able to spend mostly at home except for one night I had to visit Queenstown and Mthatha to make an appointment of a FS Area Manager. Wednesday was a really busy day for me as I drove to Queenstown to drop Nicky FSAM there and then on to Mthatha via Engobo to interview Julia and Albert then drove back to Queenstown where I was able to do some office work as well. It had been a 13 hour day and I had driven over 800 kays.

Friday evening was a Nippers 100 club evening which seemed to go off well. It was mainly the same people who always attend but we did attract a few new faces as well.

Saturday morning Michael & I joined Adrienne, Gerald, Andrew and Susan for a walk run. I had an upset tummy and was not able to run but we still enjoyed the outing. That afternoon Annabelle was again not well and Michael & Jacqui postponed their return to CT for a day. That night Barbara and Jacqui took Annabelle to St Georges Hospital but did not admit her to sleep over and returned home at about 4am.

Sunday 15th: We had planned to drive through to East London for an inter-provincial Biathle. Jacqui and Michael eventually were given the go ahead to drive through to Wildcliff and we went off to EL. It was good to be just the three of us for a while. Gave Barbara & I a bit of time to chat about what was going on and what we had planned for the next few months.

Ally had said that she was hungry and so when we passed Port Alfred, we came across a new shopping centre and stopped off at the Woolworths there. Ally found a Hamburger that she had warmed up. I was fortunate to see some slacks on a rack. I tried them on and to my great delight they fitted perfectly. So I now had two new pairs of trousers for the Jhb trip the next day.

Todays Biathle would be an interprovincial competition. The activities of the Biathle started at 12.00 at the Joan Harrison Pool. I found a small group of people that we knew from PE there: Steven and Ryan Peter, Lynette the Afrikaans teacher from Grey and some of Ally’s friends. We got together for a bit of a warm up run.

Ally had 18 Girls in the Youth D section and managed a 6th place. She had to work very hard for this place as the competition was strong and the finish was a close affair. There were just three men in my event and I managed a third place. There were also three ladies in our group and I managed to beat one of them. Biathle is a fun event that almost anyone can do and it gives you the opportunity to represent Eastern Province as well as SA if you are good enough. Unfortunately not popular with PE people like it is in East London and Cape Town but we have a fair group of juniors and a smattering of adults who take part.

We left after my event and did not stay for a prize giving. Ally wanted a KFC and then we purchased some of the Milkshakes that the Friesland café is famous for. It rained most of the way home and we had to drive quite cautiously. We had a quick stop at the new Nanaga Store where we bought a coffee. As we approached PE we came across two horrific accidents. Quite sobering!

Michael and Jacqui were taking a slow drive through to Wildcliff and met up with Nicci and Stefan that evening. From their responses on the phone it seems that they were really taken with Wildcliff. I heard later that they also managed a Shark Dive and a trip to Table Mountain. I had to do some preparation for my trip to Johannesburg and packed that night.

Monday morning I met the MPRG for a run and we did the route through town, up Dias road and up Langenhoven to Second avenue and back via Westview drive. I am really enjoying this route recently. Adrienne stayed with me for most of the run. There had been a good sized group but they tend to spread out over the route.

I had to empty my car as it was overdue for a wash and was quite smelly. This week from Monday afternoon to Thursday I was in Johannesburg for meetings.

Saturday 21.2.2009.: I started the weekend with a run from Hobie Beach with Gerald, Adrienne, Susan and Mike Dean. We ran up Walmer Boulevard and into Strandfontein road. We met up with Andre and then carried on along Admiralty and back along the beach front. This had been an excellent run for me. I am feeling strong and enjoyed the morning, the sunrise and the company. After the run we had a refreshing swim around the buoys. I dropped Adrienne off and had a relaxed morning before dropping Ally off at Michaels house.

I had some work to do before the following week. Once I had done my preparation for the Road Shows (introduction of the new Financial Services Operations), I picked Ally up and went home. I had arranged with Donald that he would pick us up and that we would go to Redhouse to register for the swim the following morning. Don has this really nice combi.

After we had done the registration and Don had dropped us off back home, I took a bakkie load of rubbish to the tip. The rubbish accumulates so quickly at the back of the Wendy House and I like to keep clearing it. There is still too much stuff there and I will have to do this again on a more regular basis.

This afternoon I had two things that I wanted to shop for: A safe and a GPS for the car. We visited the Builders Warehouse where they have an array of safes and ended up with a neat little safe @ R599 with an electronic combination lock. This was to store our passports and any other small documents or valuables. Then we visited the outdoor Warehouse but did not see what we wanted. At HiFi Corporation we found a Tomtom GPS at R1989 which seemed ideal for our needs. It has a preloaded mapping system. I tried it out and it seems to work fine. A costly afternoon. That afternoon we watched a bit of rugby and I finished reading a Michael Connoly book.

Sunday 22.02.2009; morning we had a slow start to the day. At church I heard a voice saying: "Do you still run Peter?". I had jsut half greeted a face that looked vaguely familiar but I had no idea who it was. We chatted for a while about running and stuff and all along I was battling to remember the woman's name. She mentioned that her father had died a week ago. We spoke about the Foot Of Africa, Richard van Schalkwyk, and her wine carreer and that she was in PE to promote something at the Boardwalk. She told me that she had recently had a Back Operation and was out of running.

Charles and Ingrid were playing in the front of the church and Charles greeted me but then this person who I now realised stayed in CT greeted him back. It turned out that she was a sister in law of Charles. and I still had no idea what her name was. Finally the service was about to begin and I said: If you are going to run 2 Oceans half then I will contact you. And asked her to write down her phone number. Sneaky? I know; but this was the only was that I could discover that this was in fact Michelle Stewart 082 896 3390, who I think is also a family member of Diana Lamb or of John Harwood. I saw Charles' niece and Michelle's mother after the service.

After church we went down to Nippers. It had been blowing for a few days and the waves were disgustingly big and dumping. There was a small contingent of Nippers and coaches. Lynne and I took about 12 U10’s for a bit of swimming and boarding. We also did a bit of running to keep warm.

After Nippers we drove (with the aid of my new GPS toy) to Redhouse. Ally’s race started at 14.00. Clint and a group of Summies people were there. Clint had been there since 08.30am and had reserved a prime spot. I was glad to see that both Andrew and Bruce had brought their families for the days festivities.

Unfortunately the wind had destroyed the tent and Clint had run out of gas for his pot but he solved this with a bit of help from the Bowls Club people. The pot was put onto a stove and then later onto a fire.

Ally & I had our numbers written on our arms and then we walked to the start of Ally’s race. Ally’s friends; Meghan and ANO joined her for the walk and I left her to carry on. I saw that Jenny Giddy’s friend? and Arlene Wulfson were back again this year. I walked back to the Finish area and waited to see Ally finish.

The Ladies race was exciting with a number of the local youngsters that we know doing well; the two Billson girls Lauren and Carmel, Jessica Liss and Kristie Vaughn all did well. Then came Tara and Ally in a front group. I was surprised and delighted to see Ally doing so well. She finished in about 22 Minutes.

I collected her cap and Goggles for myself. I don’t normally worry with Goggles but with the wind in our faces I decided to rather wear the Goggles for eye protection. It was a hot day and I should have used sunscreen as well. I walked to the start of our race with Sean (Crusaders). Debbie Derry and Jacqui Zeelie had a few encouraging words for me. I must have looked apprehensive.

I passed Robbie Blaire on the pathway. Shane Norris and Peter Merrington were there. I saw David Emslie and Keith Reading (ex Achilleans) at the start. This race was well supported by local people; I saw people with the numbers in the 1000’s and so the race must have had that number of entrants.

The Men’s start went off well. I was surprised to see that after a few minutes after the start there were still some chaps walking down the side of the river. But I determined to try to swim the whole way. Normally what I do is quite a bit of gasping for breath and Breast stroke. Today I managed to swim Crawl the whole way except for a few brief moments when I had to find my way and also when I collided with another swimmer.

The first section of the swim is the toughest. We seem to swim forever before we reach the first house. Then it seems to go a lot quicker as we pass houses and Jetty’s. The Goggles helped immensely as I was able to keep my eyes open and felt a sense of being in control throughout the swim. There was a huge Buoy in the middle of the river and as I swam past this then I knew it was not far to go.

I pressed on as hard as I could and was soon approaching the finish banner. I saw Christian Fraser and the Mc Gillivray’s ahead of me. Luke and Matthew Hepburn had a good swim as well. My time was not that good, but I had a stunning swim with no breaks and felt good afterwards. We were handed a bottle of water at the finish. I gulped half of it down as the water is very salty and I needed the hydration.

People had spoken about the condition of the water. Personally I did not find it dirty. There is a lot of grass and stuff that attaches itself to you as you swim but this did not worry me at all. Back at the Summies area I realised that I had impressed Lukea and Terry with my speedy swim as they commented on my dolphin like style. I think it was probably the spray of white water that I displace as I cut through the water with graceful strokes.

Clint had worked on his Sloppy Joe recipe and I immediately devoured my first one after putting on my t-shirt. As the afternoon progressed it appeared that word of Clint’s Sloppy Joe Rolls had spread like wildfire. There were queues of people from all around the venue lining up for seconds. He should go into business on a day like today. I suggest that you diarise the River Mile for 2010. Even if it is only to sample Clint’s Famous Sloppy Joe recipe! Patrick & Terry had bought a couple of batches of doughnuts. This was enough to fill me to capacity.

Ally went off to buy ice creams and returned with one for me as well declaring that she knew that I would want one. Was I stuffed? Barbara had brought Digby to Redhouse. Digby always seems to attract affection and attention. Marcus & Susanne Burri were there. Marcus is a good swimmer and won his category. His son, MC, did a good time as well with a 20 minute swim.

We all waited for the prize giving which started about an hour late. Unfortunately none of us won a prize nor did we win the Scooter Lucky Draw. Matthew Mc Gillivray had won it last year and we half thought that it might be one of us this year. Once home we showered and were soon ready for bed. Jacqui phoned to say that she was home in London safely. It had been an 18 hour trip for them and they were glad to be home at last.

CATHY GIDDY IN NEW ZEALAND MARCH 2008.

Hello all from New Zealand!! :)

How is the family doing?

We are really starting to relax well into our holiday. Our flight to Hong Kong was long and because it was during the day we didn't get much sleep. We arrived at about 8am in Hong Kong and after customs etc found a bus that would take us into town. Lugging our bags, looking like real tourists with our map opened up and waving around over our heads as we tried to figure out where we were and how to get to our hotel we walked for a bit before we found our hotel. We stayed at the Charterhouse Hotel, a good hotel in Hong Kong standards. They let us check in early which was great! A quick shower and we head off into the streets of Hong Kong, Charterhouse is situated in Wan Chai on the border of Causeway Bay which is where there is quite a bit of activity and markets. We walked the full day around the areas exploring the streets and markets and so on. That evening it began to rain and there began our run back to the hotel. Completely drenched by the time we arrived back at the hotel we decided to get dry, rest for about an hour and then head out for the night. Back at the hotel we heated up our packet meal in our tea cups with the boiled water from the kettle. There wasnt any teaspoons in the room so we used drink stirers to eat with. Was too funny (but we were saving as much money as possible). WELL we put our heads down and we were completely out of it woke up with quite a start and it was dark outside. Lucky it wasn’t actually that late so we had a quick shower again just to wake ourselves up and we headed down to the concierge to book our tour for the next day. After we arranged our activities we went walking again.

Getting side tracked by a Crocs shop where we bought ourselves the most 'comfy' Crocs, or so we thought until we walked back to the hotel to put our stuff down and by the time I got home I had blisters on my feet and Saul was flinging them off with every step. Anyway, we discuss our shoe situation and decided that we can’t do with these shoes, so pulled on our takkies and started running back to the shop. Down the side alleys and across the busy roads we dashed and turned before panting and puffing we arrived back at the Croc shop just before they were closing the doors. Ha! We got new pairs of great fitting Crocs the second time round :)

After quite a long time we found a pub (we were looking to mingle with the locals and drink local beer). So we were ushered into this bar called 'Cars bar' well the name says it all. The building looked clean and quite upmarket from the outside and from the ground floor, up the lift and into this dingy dark little bar we were the only people there. The place STANK of cat pee. It was so bad I had to hold my breath for a while to get used to the smell. Anyway, all part of the experience I suppose. The staff was lovely though and they had this big screen for their Karaoke and had Chinese music playing with the music videos. First they offered for us to sing some songs but after some protest they understood that we weren’t going to be singing anything :) Anyway, we had our local beer during this time the bar filled up a bit so we weren’t the only ones there anymore. Later we left and headed back to the hotel.

The next morning wake up call at 7am. Complete Zombies we showered, packed our bags for check out (had to check out then because our tours would only end late) and rushed downstairs to meet our tour guide. A quite abrasive woman greeted us downstairs and rushed us onto her couch. Along with a single English girl, an Indian family of three us the two of us we headed off onto day tour of Hong Kong. First stop of Man Ho Temple ( I will send photos later), the up the steepest tramway in the world to Victoria Peak and down to a Jewellery factory (NO we DIDN’T buy a ring... for those of you that got any thoughts :)) and then onto a boat ride around the harbour before heading towards Repusle Bay and onto Stanleys Market. Back at the hotel we used their gym to shower and get dressed before lugging our bags down the streets again and off to the airport. Was a great stay, quick but we got to see and do a lot - will tell more in detail later.
Our terminal was 65, it took us 25minutes to get there and that was on the fast walk way belt as well. So on the plane we eyed out an empty four seater which we jumped for the first second we got and stretched out for a hopefully better night sleep.

We arrived in New Zealand at 12:30, again hardly any sleep and now really feeling the effects of sleep deprivation and the time differences. The days were short and the nights even shorter. Saul’s parents greeted us at the airport and we made our way to their house. After some coffee and catching up we showered and ended up going out for a walk on the beach and a cup of coffee near by. It was about 11:30pm when we arrived back home, Saul and I went to bed and slept solid! We only woke up at 2pm the next day!

Ok, well I’m not going to put our New Zealand trip in here yet, I will let you digest all my blurb here now and send you an update with what we did in the past few days probably tomorrow or the next day. We are really having a wonderful time and a great adventure. Tomorrow we head to Rotorua and Toupau (something like that) for the day. We are planning to go away for the night I think on Monday with his folks and then we will do our campervan trip for a bit.

I will keep you updated.

Please send this on to all the people that I have not copied into this email, it’s only because I don’t have their email addresses in my hotmail address book and I really don’t want to go into my work account at all costs to get the addresses.

Love you all!!

Cathy
30.03.2008.