Last week Tuesday we were at a school event (info sharing session on subject choices, as Jordy has to choose her subjects for next year by 3 September) They had Grade 12 art work displayed and let me tell you, there are some exceptionally talented young people at that school, I wish I had taken more pictures but I got caught up saying hello to people and then the talk started, I did however manage to take pictures of two of them. Can not believe these were done by 17 year olds.
On Wednesday I went on conference, usually I detest being on conference, what with being away from my family and having to listen to endless hours of presentations on the strategy for the upcoming year, new initiatives and all the other goodly buzz words one hears. however this conference was a conference with a difference. Yes we had the obligatory presentations (but even these were kept to a minimum) but we kicked off the entertainment on night one with a cook off, given a potjie pot, some ingredients and a team of HR practitioners to work together to, wait for it, yes, actually make our own dinner. So if we messed up, we were all going hungry. I was more concerned with the hygiene factor of this, so kept instructed the whole team to keep washing their hands at each stage of the cook off, I also decided I was definitely not going to be tasting from the other pots as I didn't know what hygiene methods they had been using. Anyhoo, we ended up winning the cook off, and it was truly a pot of diversity as we had the Scots, English, Afrikaans, Indian & African influence over this pot, so the rainbow nation dinner won out. Onto day two of the conference where we were split into yet another group of teams, given a video camera, a topic, some props and effectively three hours to produce , direct, etc two movies (albeit 3 & 4 minute long movies, move over Steven Spielberg) what fun we had, giggling most of the time, then hurriedly filming the movie at the very last moment. Entertainment for night two was the Annual HR awards that had been set up like the Oscars (black tie, formal dress, that was fun too, getting all dressed up for a change, I wore a dress I had made the weekend before the conference) apart from the well deserved winners of the HR awards receiving their certificates & trophies, they played each teams movies during the event, we killed ourselves laughing (I hear we are getting copies of these movies and I swear it will never see the light of day, acting is definitely not my forte in life, there is a reason I work in HR) our team somehow, however, won the Oscar for best fun movie (who said making an absolute numpty of yourself, doesn't pay off), we received chocolate Oscars and dinner vouchers for two. On day three of the conference we all went off to Bokkie Park (out near Springs, I think) and took 190 underprivileged children there for a party (we all donated the money for the party and the left over money after the party went to the school). To be very honest I was dreading this, I was petrified that we were outnumbered by almost 3 to one and I was very concerned something may happen to these poor tykes. However all my fears were unfounded, these children, who have very little in life, were the cutest, most well behaved children I have ever come across, we cooked, fed them, played with them and had a great time all round. We then sent them home with pressy's (outfits) each, all covered in ice-cream & cake (ourselves included). It was so heartwarming to know we had added some joy to the wee souls, even if it was just for one day. The only downside to all this fun that was had at the conference was, that on Wednesday night, I fell on my nose (yes I know, what a silly thing to do) not quite sure why I didn't let go of my handbag as I was falling and allowed my self to fall flat on my nose, but that is what I did. So all this conference fun was had with a pounding pain in my nose. However on Friday the Doc said that taking an xray would be a waste of time as it was probably broken and there would be nothing they could do about it, so trusting their wisdom, I went home and proceeded to take pain killers. However by Sunday I felt like some vice grip had taken hold of my head and was surely going to squeeze my skull until my brain popped out the top. So back to the Doc I went on Monday, had xrays taken, and what a surprise, I had indeed broken my nose (note the sarcasm) but now I had a whopping sinus infection in all my sinuses to accompany the broken nose. Therefore the last two days have been spent lying in bed picturing the end of the world (ok maybe a little dramatic) but flip feeling like you have two very large metal rods piercing your brain is not the nicest way to spend you days. Glad to report the pain eventually started to subside last night and I am almost back to feeling human again. Must just point out here that through all of this I didn't decide to take up smoking again, so here I am on day 14 of being a non smoker (did anyone ever tell you how smelly smokers smell, can not believe I walked around smelling like that for so long, eeeuuuuuwwww, Note to self "I will not become one of THOSE ex smoker types") and to top the week off, one of my favourite trees in the garden started sprouting beautiful blossoms last week, so spring is definately on it's way. My all time favourite time of the year.
On Wednesday I went on conference, usually I detest being on conference, what with being away from my family and having to listen to endless hours of presentations on the strategy for the upcoming year, new initiatives and all the other goodly buzz words one hears. however this conference was a conference with a difference. Yes we had the obligatory presentations (but even these were kept to a minimum) but we kicked off the entertainment on night one with a cook off, given a potjie pot, some ingredients and a team of HR practitioners to work together to, wait for it, yes, actually make our own dinner. So if we messed up, we were all going hungry. I was more concerned with the hygiene factor of this, so kept instructed the whole team to keep washing their hands at each stage of the cook off, I also decided I was definitely not going to be tasting from the other pots as I didn't know what hygiene methods they had been using. Anyhoo, we ended up winning the cook off, and it was truly a pot of diversity as we had the Scots, English, Afrikaans, Indian & African influence over this pot, so the rainbow nation dinner won out. Onto day two of the conference where we were split into yet another group of teams, given a video camera, a topic, some props and effectively three hours to produce , direct, etc two movies (albeit 3 & 4 minute long movies, move over Steven Spielberg) what fun we had, giggling most of the time, then hurriedly filming the movie at the very last moment. Entertainment for night two was the Annual HR awards that had been set up like the Oscars (black tie, formal dress, that was fun too, getting all dressed up for a change, I wore a dress I had made the weekend before the conference) apart from the well deserved winners of the HR awards receiving their certificates & trophies, they played each teams movies during the event, we killed ourselves laughing (I hear we are getting copies of these movies and I swear it will never see the light of day, acting is definitely not my forte in life, there is a reason I work in HR) our team somehow, however, won the Oscar for best fun movie (who said making an absolute numpty of yourself, doesn't pay off), we received chocolate Oscars and dinner vouchers for two. On day three of the conference we all went off to Bokkie Park (out near Springs, I think) and took 190 underprivileged children there for a party (we all donated the money for the party and the left over money after the party went to the school). To be very honest I was dreading this, I was petrified that we were outnumbered by almost 3 to one and I was very concerned something may happen to these poor tykes. However all my fears were unfounded, these children, who have very little in life, were the cutest, most well behaved children I have ever come across, we cooked, fed them, played with them and had a great time all round. We then sent them home with pressy's (outfits) each, all covered in ice-cream & cake (ourselves included). It was so heartwarming to know we had added some joy to the wee souls, even if it was just for one day. The only downside to all this fun that was had at the conference was, that on Wednesday night, I fell on my nose (yes I know, what a silly thing to do) not quite sure why I didn't let go of my handbag as I was falling and allowed my self to fall flat on my nose, but that is what I did. So all this conference fun was had with a pounding pain in my nose. However on Friday the Doc said that taking an xray would be a waste of time as it was probably broken and there would be nothing they could do about it, so trusting their wisdom, I went home and proceeded to take pain killers. However by Sunday I felt like some vice grip had taken hold of my head and was surely going to squeeze my skull until my brain popped out the top. So back to the Doc I went on Monday, had xrays taken, and what a surprise, I had indeed broken my nose (note the sarcasm) but now I had a whopping sinus infection in all my sinuses to accompany the broken nose. Therefore the last two days have been spent lying in bed picturing the end of the world (ok maybe a little dramatic) but flip feeling like you have two very large metal rods piercing your brain is not the nicest way to spend you days. Glad to report the pain eventually started to subside last night and I am almost back to feeling human again. Must just point out here that through all of this I didn't decide to take up smoking again, so here I am on day 14 of being a non smoker (did anyone ever tell you how smelly smokers smell, can not believe I walked around smelling like that for so long, eeeuuuuuwwww, Note to self "I will not become one of THOSE ex smoker types") and to top the week off, one of my favourite trees in the garden started sprouting beautiful blossoms last week, so spring is definately on it's way. My all time favourite time of the year.
Till next time
xoxo
Crawford art work
Some more Crawford art work
Night at the Oscars
Our amazing team, Fatima, Leigh-Anne, Wisaal, Inez, Zeenat, Stephanie & Nomvula (Thibisile MIA) 
The kids having a blast 
Nomvula, Zeenat, Fatima, Wisaal, Stephanie, Thabisile taking a rest (Inez & Leigh-Anne MIA)
Cutting the cake to send home with the kids
Awie, sat down to rest a bit and the kids piled on top of him to eat ice-creams
These two were so adorable
How to keep many happy, all at the same time
They loved the blow up slide
and the island
waiting for lunch
The start of the spring blossoms 
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