South Africa wins the rugby world cup 2023

 Elation!  South Africa now holds the record for the most rugby world cup wins. This was their fourth win.

Watching in Sydney

Watching in Cape Town

Pickleball Championship

 I was the official photographer at the local Pickleball Championship.  It's an amazing, fast actioned game and it was wonderful to see Chris in action.

7 a side rugby

Highlights

• My first time in the Cape Town Football World-cup stadium - very impressive!
• My first experience of 7 aside rugby; ultra fast and exciting with extraordinary passes and running.
• South Africa winning all three of its matches. Australia didn't do so well but I wasn't Australian for the day, so it didn't matter.
• Sam and Claire as devil and angel. They looked great!
• Lots of wonderful costumes.
• The wonderful atmosphere in the stadium, helped along by rousing music and kiss and dance cams.

Spending time in Joburg with Chrisèl's family

Highlights:

• Getting to meet Chrisèl's wonderful family and being made to feel so very welcome.
• Getting to meet all the beloved family pets including Rosie, the pug, and the chooks.
• The lovely setting of the house on a huge piece of ground - who knew you could enjoy such space and tranquility in the heart of a huge city?
• A walk in the neighbourhood - and the dogs going absolutely crazy!
• A delicious braai with family friends, including the best potato bake I've ever tasted.  The ribs were also right up there.
• The best veggie pasta I ever tasted. And an awesome smoothie.
• Playing lazer tag (so much fun) and watching The Avengers 2 at the Montecasino.
• Watching Christafa play in a football match and sing a solo in a school musical. Very multi-talented!
• Seketa - a little ray of the purest sunshine.
• A drive through Joburg in the middle of load shedding with none of the traffic lights working. So glad Chrisèl was driving. What a consumate driving professional she is.
• Helping Kevin to build a greenhouse frame for the vegetable garden - a lot of fun.
• Shopping up a storm for our trip to Utopia.

Chrisèl's sister, nephew and niece.

More of the family household. That's Rosie in the bottom right, the most loved dog in all of Joburg !!

The lovely house, set on a huge ground with a river running through the bottom of it.

The frame of the greenhouse we made for the veggie garden.

Watching Christafa play football.

Tennis

Brendan and I played tennis again today.  We're so evenly matched and had a great titanic battle.  So much fun.  And lovely in the sunshine.

Watching Sam play hockey in the rain - what wonderful love and devotion!

Thanks for the photo, mum.

 

Sam playing hockey.

Thanks for the photos, Jo.

Matt playing hockey

It was wonderful to watch Matt play hockey and take some photos. What a champion he is.

Volleyball on Camps Bay beach

Brendan and Eva were in Cape Town at the same time as me, so we organised a big game of volleyball on Camps Bay beach.  All the old volleyball crowd came, and Russell and Heather joined us too.  So much fun!!  I impressed everyone with my power serve, great to find out I haven't lost it even after over 10 years of non use.

Two Ocean's Fun Run

I had every intention of keeping up with my little nephew on this 5 km fun run but after 5 minutes I realised that was going to be impossible!  So I took it easy and enjoyed walking and chatting with Jo, punctuated by some occasional running.  We didn't break any speed records, but thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere.  And we had enough energy to sprint the last 100 metres to the finish in front of all the crowds!!