SOCCER CITY & SWELLENDAM

Hey Friends,

Last Wednesday night Pippa took all of us who have not yet seen a soccer match, to Soccer City. There was a match between Ghana and South Africa. It was awesome! But the freezingest night of the year. I didn’t really feel the cold during the match, because it was so exciting. The stadium was packed to the brim. But at half time and after the match I thought my ears were going to fall off! It was really icy cold. Each one of us brought our vuvuzelas and we were blasting them from beginning to end, what a great night!

Wow! It was such an exciting match ... and I am sure you already know SOUTH AFRICA WON!!! 1-0. We were all waiting and waiting ... holding our breath for that first goal. Thank goodness it was from South Africa when it eventually came. Steven Pienaar kicked a great ball to Mphela and he kicked it so well, into the goal. And then we were in the lead for the rest of the way.

We were all very proud of Bafana Bafana. And we were so lucky to see all those players up close. I always thought that they were kind of normalish sizes but actually they are very big. Steven Pienaar is very tall. It was great to see them up close and I wished I was brave enough to go and shake their hands. But I wasn’t. Maybe next time.

The next morning I didn’t feel so good, but I went to school anyway. That was Thursday morning. But when Friday arrived I had a banging headache and a bad cough. For the first time in my life, Pippa said I could stay at home. I also felt quite sad because Kieran is going to Swellendam with Mommy. I have to stay at home. But I know it’s fair because I had lots of chances to go places already, especially with Karate.  So Mom and I worked on my half of Slobber and Kieran will do his in Swellendam.  And we have already worked on our new thing ... Face Focus, when we are going to do one member of the family every week.  This will will be Joanna.  And we already did West.  That we will put in next week.

Hi Friends,

Beautiful Cisca

Last Thursday when Mom was still at Postinia Pippa told me that Mom had a surprise for me. I thought it was a gift card. But I was wrong. So when I went to Postinia I knocked on the door and my Mom opened it and she said that she has a surprise for me and there were some new clothes for me so I asked her what they were for. She said that she was going to Swellendam to visit her brother for a week, and since I wasn’t too well, she was going to take me with. I was so excited.

So on Friday Rhys took us to the airport and we flew to George. George is the name of the town where the airport near to Swellendam is. When we got out of the plane, my uncle Jerry, who my mother calls Jurie, was there with aunty Yvonne to fetch us. So they drove us back to Swellendam. It took about 2 hours to get there and by the time we did it was pitch dark. We had some supper and then we went to bed because we were very tired.

Swellendam is a very old town in the Western Cape. Uncle Jerry says that it is the third oldest town in the Cape.  First there's Cape Town, then Stellenbosch, and then Swellendam.  It's more beautiful than anywhere I have seen in the world (Except for Ramsgate).
This is the church in the middle of town.  It really makes the whole town look lovely and important.  The town is very, very small and the church is the biggest building in the whole town.  I don't think its a Catholic Church.  Mom says its probably an Afrikaans church.

The best thing about my uncle’s farm is his dog, called Cisca. He also has another dog called Snowy. But Snowy is very old and not much fun. But Cisca likes to run and play. She is also a Boerboel like our Slobberdog. But she is younger and much more good looking (sorry Slobberdog!) I spent a lot of time playing with her, and we became like best friends.

I went on a Quadbike with my uncle Jerry. It was awesome. The greatest thing I have ever done. We drove round and round. We went down to the river as well, with the quadbike. It was so cool. They have a big river running right next to my uncle’s house. It’s really awesome. I want to come back someday and have a swim in it ... I think.

Aunty Yvonne

Maybe it’s not as scary as the sea. I will have to try it out first, and then I will be able to let you know for sure. But right now it’s too cold to swim in. It’s just nice to be down there and sit there and to chat quietly. It was very nice just being there with my Mom and my Uncle.  It was like cosy, knowing they are brother and sister for real.  And I belong to them. When I grow up I will buy a farm just like this and I will have a dog called Cisca.

Yesterday we went to a place called the Pumpkin Patch in a place called Barrydale and we had a delicious meal. I had a humungous hamburger. It was so huge I could only take a few bites and eat my chips. Then I had a bit more for supper but still didn’t manage to finish it. Then I had some for breakfast, and there’s still a big piece in the fridge.

Aunt Nel

Mom’s cousin, Aunty Nel, also came with us. She is quite old. But she is very nice. Not too grumpy or stuff like that. We drove up a very high mountain called the Tradouw Pass. And Mom took a picture of me, so you can see how high it was. It was awesome being up there.

Tomorrow Uncle Jerry is going to take Mom and I to Cape Town. That’s going to be awesome. I always wanted to go to Cape Town because Jesse and a lot of my brothers have been to Cape Town already, except for me. So now my dream will come true and I will be able to visit Cape Town. I will have to tell you about that next week.

This part was done last week ....

.... So Kieran and I thought today we would like to tell you some more about our family. Because a lot of people do know us and know what our family looks like. But probably most of you who don’t know us might think that we are just like -- two twin boys with a Mom and a Dad and that’s it. No, no! That’s not it at all. It’s a much bigger story than that. So we are going to give you a bit of an idea. But we don’t want to make it boring ... you know, like -- well this is so-and-so and that is such-n-such. Blah de blah de blah!  Like the speeches at school.  We thought we would put the story together with photo’s of our last holiday, to make it more interesting for you guys.

But when you look at the pictures remember that we last went on holiday like ages and ages ago. I mean I think it was like 5 years ago!  Are you crazy Kieran?   Well, it was a BIT long ago.  It was 2008 ... so that's  only like two years ago Kieran.  We haven't had enough money for a holiday since then. But I think that was the very best holiday anybody could ever have. Our whole family went -all 30 of us- and it was so awesome. EVERYBODY was so happy on that holiday there wasn’t even one single fight the whole two weeks.

Boy oh boy!  I wish I was rich ... so we could go once a year like Mom would like to. And I am sure she wouldn’t end up sick in Postinia if we managed to go on holiday once a year.  That's why guys ... g-r-u-n-t ... I wanna make this blog a success.  So that we can make a bit of money out of it.  You CAN you know!  But we just don't know how.  But if I work hard at my computers at school I will learn lots of stuff and one of these days I will find out how to do it. 

Okay, enough blabbering now.  Let's get down to business.

~~~~~

We have a very, very big family. My mom had 5 kids first of all. These were Joanna, Pippa, Rhys, Zoë and Faith. Those were the ones that grew in her tummy. But they are adults now, and here is a picture of all of them.

Mom on the left, then Faith, Rhys, Joanna, Zoe and Pippa

A lot of people ask us -- So where's your Dad? -- and that's not actually such a stupid question, right?  Because he's not there, is he?  Well, just like a lot other people in the world, our parents are divorced.  Our Dad lives in England now and he has a new family.  Finished and klaar.  That's the whole story.

Yeah!  So these 'photos were all taken at Ramsgate, on the South Coast of Natal, where we love to go on holiday.  It's like a peace of heaven; it really is.

So, Mom will be turning 60 this year.  Wouldn't it be great if we made a lot of money and could give her a great big party.  But her birthday is in October, and there is not enough time to get rich, I don't think.  What a pity.  Anyway ... All these adults in that picture work at TLC doing different jobs.  Well, all except for our sister Faith.  She doesn't do anything at TLC.  She just goes to university and she has a boyfriend.  His name is Lionel.

FAMILY FOCUS

JOANNA

First, there's our eldest sister, Joanna.  She is 38 years old.  And she works very hard at TLC.  She looks after everything to do with our babies and there are about 40 babies in the nursery so you can imagine what a big job that is!  Joanna is a lot of fun.  And watch her!  Her very favourite thing is to SNARK you!  Oh gross man! LOL LOL

A snark is when she puts her mouth over your nose and blows real hard.  Ugh its just plain disgusting!

Joanna is like TLC's doctor.  If Mom thinks we are fooling around and just want to get out of school or something, she always calls Joanna and there she comes with her thermometer and stethescope to see if we are chaffing or not.  We all love Joanna.  She is always kind and makes lots of jokes and tickles us.  It's just the snarking that's too much but otherwise she is the best big sister in the world.  Here she is with Faith.  Mommy's eldest and youngest tummy-daughters together.  I love this picture because they look so nice in those orange T-Shirts.  Mommy also likes this picture a lot.  She says they look so happy! 

When Joanna was exactly our age, she fell off a horse.  She hurt her back but not too badly and they thought that she was fine.  But after a few weeks they found out that she got diabetes and they think it was because she fell off that horse. 

But Mommy says that she is really proud  of Joanna because she has always looked after her sugar levels and she has always been amazingly healthy.  Even more healthy than people who don't have diabetes.  She has also always done very well at school and university, so diabetes is no excuse for being a failure.

Joanna is very brave.  She was also divorced a little while ago but she is very strong and didn't cry and cry like Mommy did.  Or maybe she did, but  did it more quietly like in her own house.  Here at TLC nothing is private, so you can't cry privately.  That's quite hard sometimes actually.

We love to go and visit Joanna's house and are always asking her, -- Please Joanna, please can I come to your house this weekend.  Her house is great.  It's a real fun place to be and it's nice to go there sometimes and get away from TLC.  But she does get a little fed up with us when we ask too often because she also has to get a rest and she has five kids.  Her kids are West, Kay, Shannan, Taylor and Rayne. 

Joanna is always helpful.  Even when she is busy and we ask her for something she never says --- Ugh man - I'm busy now go and bother somebody else --- or stuff like that ... like my other big sisters sometimes do.  I love her so much because she works very hard at TLC to get all our babies ready to be adopted, and she makes sure they always go to the special doctors when they are too sick for her to help them.  I know that when I feel sick I am always happy when I know that Joanna is around in case something happens to me, I know that she will be able to sort me out.  Here she is with Rayne, her youngest heart-son.

So from now on, every week we will put in a FAMILY FOCUS part where you can meet one or two of our family members and get to know them little by little.  Otherwise it is going to be a very big story, and you will get too bored!  We will rather give you a bit of news, and a bit of family.  We hope you like that idea.

Then lastly, we want to say that this past week we had new friends visiting us from Egypt, Spain and Gibralter, so our world is getting a little greener every week.

Goodbye Friends!
Bye Everyone!