Cameron's birthday

On Good Friday, April 22nd we celebrated Cameron's 33rd birthday.

As it was a long weekend we started off by having a few drinks at our friend's Lenny & Premika's place and celebrated his Birthday Eve! One thing Cameron loves is the "Eve" celebration. Funny thing is, it wasn't even planned. Auckland is like a ghost town on a long weekend, and EVERYTHING is closed on a public holiday! So Thursday we left work a little early and went to get all our supplies for the weekend. Thereafter we got home and I started to prep everything, marinated the meat, etc etc! Then Premika calls and invites us over and so we decided to go over. It was a lovely evening, we talked and just hung out all night. At midnight we wished Cameron and left about 5am.
Cameron misses home and his family so much so we had to do something specail for him. We got some of our friends together and decided to have a small BBQ at home. Auckland being auckland, it rained on Good Friday!!! But that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves. Cameron & I love entertaining and it was so nice to have all our friends over to celebrate with him.































Our darling friend Sean did the honours of BBQ master! And did a damn good job!!! Thanks Seanie!!!

Everyone had a great evening and I am so glad that they were here to celebrate with Cameron, he needed to enjoy his day and I can honestly say that he did! What an unforgettable birthday! Thanks for everyone who made it as special as it was for him.

Sadly there was no birthday cake, he seriously stopped me from doing that! Even though I had the cutest birthday decorations and candles!!!

And to everyone near & far who sent their birthday wishes, that meant so much to him and the card is front and centre on the mantle piece!

Happy birthday my love, here's to another great 33 years!!! AND MORE!!!

Happy Anniversary

April 12th 2011 marked our third wedding anniversary.

We have so enjoyed being married and get stunned when we realise how much time has flown. We've been through quite a bit in the past 3 years, including immigration, being away from our families through the hardest times over the past 3 years but we have remained strong, committed and very much in love.

I thank God for the past 3 years and can only be grateful for keeping us and look forward to the lifetime of memories and anniversaries we will share.

To celebrate this year we went to Kermadec's Seafood Restuarant on Auckland's famed Viaduct.

When we sat down to order, Cameron very nonchalantly mentioned to the lovely waitress that it was our third wedding anniversary and just before she served desserts she brought through this cute little plate for us. It was such a lovely thought and well, she did well and deserved a good tip!!!



Here's to an amazing marriage and more fun memories to come!



Cheers!

Lenny's Bday

This Friday night we celebrated our dear friend, Lenny's 33rd birthday. We've known Lenny & Premika for just over a year and have grown really close to them. They've also just had their first baby, she's now almost 5 months, so this year it was easier for us to have a "Quiet" Evening at home with everyone to celebrate.

I didn't have any time to bake at all so we ended up buying the most delicious chocolate cake (It was amazing) and we all just got together at Lenny & Premika's place to hang out.



Our friends Evelyn & Apelamo (aka Api)came over as well with their little girl, Zivah who is also 4 months old. Zivah & Kajal were born a week apart. It's so weird, a year ago we were all just young, married couples, now there's two little girls in the mix!

Here's just a few pics from the evening.









This was near the end of the night and these two were getting a bit carried away.



I don't know if Cameron's getting used to the little one's or if the Johnnie Walker made him a bit "Brave" but he was so enjoying carrying little Kajal around.

Devastation in NZ

This week we were witness (be it only through the media) to the worst natural disaster to hit New Zealand. The second earthquake to hit the city of Christchurch occurred at 12:51pm on Tuesday the 22nd of February. The first one that occurred in September 2010 was a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that was 15m deep, hit at 4am that morning. Buildings were shaken, roads were cracked and big craters formed in the middle of the roads and houses. It took the city 5 months to begin rebuilding and just when they thought they were on their way to making it, this 6.4 (or so) magnitude, 5m deep earthquake shook and crumbled what was left of the city to smitherines. To date more than 100 people have lost their lives, when last I heard it was 103 but that was only the identified bodies, they have more bodies that just have not been unidentified yet so they are not counting them. And there are more than 200 people missing. Iconic buildings like Christchurch cathedral, the Pyne Gould building and the CTV building have been destroyed. The Grand Chancellor Hotel has now been deemed dangerous and will be demolished.







It's been quite hard for me to swallow, as I am not used to such massive natural disasters. I know this isn't the norm for Kiwi's as well, but they're used to expecting these kinds of things. A lady I was on course with (Side note: I was on a 3 day course when this happened) was very nonchalantly explaining the difference between a "Rolling" earthquake & a "Shaking" Earthquake. To which myself and another young South African lady sat with eyes wide open and mouths agape! So this has really peeked my interest and I have been trying to follow every step of what's happening. Cameron has been telling me to stop watching cos I get to wrapped up in it and get really emotional watching the events unfold or reading the updates online or in the paper. The saddest part of all was hearing about the little babies that have been affected, the youngest (so far) victim was a little 5 month old boy who was born 2 weeks after the first earthquake in September and who died as a result of this one. They haven't given details of how he died, thankfully but Friday's paper had him as the cover story. Seeing that little baby, oh my word... it was excruciating. Then I hear there's been a 7 month old who also died, a tv fell on him during the earthquake and his mom couldn't get to him in time. And there's a 2 week old in the hospital with a broken leg. It's a horror story down there.







The whole of New Zealand has arms outstreched and will be digging deep to rebuild Christchurch and the people and families affected. I thank God that we have not been affected, but we know people that have lost friends, have had properties destroyed and businesses lost. My prayers are filled with "Lord bless Christchurch, keep them safe & sane and let your peace rule their hearts. And by Your grace may the people of Christchurch come to know that You are the God who saves, the God who heals, the God who restores and heals." I know that everyone who reads this will pray the same prayer and through all of us praying, I know God's hand is mighty to save.

The Pyne Gould and CTV buildings were the 2 worst hit, as many of the lives lost were in these buildings. Many tourists have also lost their lives as Christchurch cathedral and other tourist sites were affected.

Here are a few pictures (all courtesy of the NZ Herald, online) of what Christchurch used to look like and what it has become.










Lord Bless New Zealand.

"God of Nations at thy feet, in the bonds of love we meet, hear our voices we entreat, God defend our free land. Guard Pacific's triple star, from the shafts of strife & war. Make her praises heard from afar. God Defend New Zealand."

Valentines Day 2011

Another Valentines Day has come and gone, and still it's been so romantic and beautiful.

Because Valentine's Day fell on a Monday and with our hectic schedules we decided we would celebrate on Sunday, 13th. So after church we just hung around at home and then went for dinner at Mikano's restuarant in Mechanics Bay, Auckland. It was a lovely romantic setting, with the Waitemata Harbour in the background. And as it was a beautiful hot, clear day we really enjoyed the scenery.

Won't go into much details but here's a few pics:






Thinking my Valentine's celebrations were over, my darling husband surprised me with the most beautiful flowers delivered to my office. I will add, I was the envy of al the women at work, and I think I was the only one who got flowers on Monday! It was so beautiful, including my favourite flowers, lillies.




Happy Valentines to all the lovers out there...

Final Goodbyes

This has been the hardest goodbye ever for me. When I firt left it was hard, really hard but in my mind I thought, I'll see everyone again, just be strong. This time I couldn't! The last time I left everyone was there to say goodbye to me, and I had no idea that would be the last time I would ever see my brother Kale, ever again. So this time, I didn't want to leave without telling everyone how I felt, without holding onto them and capturing every moment.

We got to Durban International Airport, or rather King Shaka International Airport, now at it's new location. And my 2 little helpers were so cute!




It was so hard saying goodbye, I cried my heart out and just took forever hugging everyone. With Cameron just wanting to get out of there. He is not good with goodbyes so he likes it to be brief, I on the other hand just didn't want to say goodbye! Thankfully we weren't too late, we were the last people to get on the plane but we got on nevertheless. I don't know if it's a sign or anything, but as soon as we got on the plane and started to taxi, it literally started pouring with rain and storming, with lightning & thunder. The sky got black and it just poured down! It was as if what was in our hearts came through on the earth. For a moment I thought our flight would be cancelled, but we waited about 10 minutes then finally took off. It was so hard leaving Durban and the hardest part was that it wasn't actually over. We still had to see Wayne & Tish is Jo'burg which started the flooding of tears all over again. They must have thought I was so rude, but I just had no conversation. I just hung onto Cameron for dear life. I kept thinking f my mu, my brother and my nieces & nephew, of my in-laws and all our friends. And all I wanted to do was cry! But I put on a brave face and we finally went through Immigration and to International departures and found our gate.
Cameron found the Soccer World cup mascot, Zakumi and because we missed the World Cup in South Africa, he had to take a picture!


We flew from Jo'burg to Perth, Australia (6 hour flight) and when we got to Perth we had a few hours to waste. Perth International isn't a very big airport, so we didn't do much "window shopping" so just had some lunch and wasted some time and then got onto another 6 hour flight to Auckland.
We wasted time by logging onto Facebook and doing some blogging.


We eventually we got to Auckland and our friend Lenny & his dad picked us up!

It felt so weird being back. We just couldn't get over the fact that our holiday was over. Anyway, after 4 weeks of holiday it's time to get back to life as we know it!