Abigail turns 10!

Today Abigail turns 10.

10 Years ago today Abigail Melissa Hutton came into the world at 6:40 a.m. - much to the surprise of her mother who thought she was having a baby in October!!! I spent much of the beginning of my labour in denial because my baby was due in October and we were very much still in September!!! But, in labour I was and after an emergency Cesarean we had our little girl.

10 years seems such a long time ago yet also like just the other day and I recently realised that in another 10 years time she could very well be living in another country!!!

Anyway, I'm not really good with mushy emotional words and I think ABBA says it best in the slide show below (a friend used this song to do a clip about her daughter a while ago and it was so appropriate that I thought I'd use it too - Debby, hope you don't mind:-))

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABIGAIL!!

Paper Moon.

The Greenfield Team have done it again! Produced a brilliant and most enjoyable play.

Last week was a busy one, with much excitement, a batch of late nights and serious quantities of make up and hair gel!!

But it was worth it, the girls had a fantastic time putting on their show which was superb and being a teacher I know how hard it is to get everything together and running like clockwork - and run like clockwork it did!

It was a "Broadway" style production with many different items and different genre's - song, dance, acting, shadow puppets etc. I suppose it would be best described as a Variety Show, there was no storyline as such or theme but it was all brought together brilliantly by the costumes which were outstanding and all in shades of pink, white and black (a teeny bit of red thrown in).

The first 3 nights ran as an ordinary show with the 4th night taking the form of a Dinner Theatre, it was all very well done.

There is a lot of talent at that little school and the great thing about a small school is that every child took part.

Abigail was a doll in her class's act which was entitled "I've got no strings" - about toys coming to life.

An idea of some of the costumes:

A wonderful, wonderful show - well done to everybody involved.

A day in Kalk Bay.

Most mornings Grant cycles down Muizenberg way and comes back over Boyes Drive, a scenic route through Kalk Bay, St. James, Muizenberg and Lakeside. Last week he saw lots of whales in the bay below and showed us some of his pictures (taken with a bad cellphone camera from a very awkward position!) and we were inspired to go and do some whale-watching! Well, I was inspired and took the girls and my mom with me!

We stopped just above Muizenberg with the surfers and kite surfers enjoying the windy conditions far below.


We saw quite a few whales, they weren't as close as they had been a few days before due to the choppiness of the water but we saw some tails, some flippers and some breaches.

My camera doesn't do it justice, this is the splash after the breach!Whale watching is so funny, you stand there for ages and then everyone gasps in awe for a couple of seconds and then again you wait!!


After we'd stood in the wind long enough we drove down to Kalk Bay and went in search of an afternoon tea spot, we found it in The House of Pancakes and Waffles, service wasn't great but the pancakes were yummy.


After stuffing our faces we took a walk over the road to the harbour where we were entertained by the seals and the fishermen and indeed the dead fish on sale at the market there!!

The colourful fishing boats in all shapes and sizes make an interesting backdrop to this truly Capetonian place.


The seals were so sweet and really "performed" for their "audience", the girls were ecstatic when one lay on his back, flippers up and "clapped" for us! Easy to see why they are such an attraction at sea world type venues/aquariums, they seem to be natural actors!


When a fishing boat came in and brought with it a flock of seabirds it was time to go as we were "blessed" with some offerings from above!


Thankfully this time Niave succeeded in not landing in the water, albeit because I was holding onto her for dear life - there would have been no easy way to "fish her out" as there was in the tranquil pond at Greenpoint, and she does like to hang over the side of the harbour wall doesn't she!!!



On our way back to the car we met this fellow who has to be the most unique piece of beadwork that I have ever seen!