Holidays!!

Wow, its just over 2 weeks and then WE ARE OUTA HERE!! Yup the time is fast approaching and we will all be on the plane headed for England, yea ha!!

Its quite scary to think how relaxed I am about this, as usual have left everything up to Rob to plan and organise, I will just supervise packing and then help spend the money when we get there, what fun.

The blogging bug has not bitten the boys who have started their own blogs

www.cheesballslife.blogspot.com and www.lifeofspeedoboy.blogspot.com

Hope they keep it up . . .

This morning was rugby, as it usually is on a Saturday and Chris's team was absolutely annihilated with a score of 69 - 0 (OUCH).

James played yesterday afternoon and although they lost by a very small margin, they were playing the A-team (he is in the B-team) and the opponents had 13year olds in their team as they don't have enough 12 yr olds to make up a team, so they played really well considering.

Rob and I decided to sponsor the boys rugby teams with waterbottles & carrier, since neither of them had. In my shopping around I managed to find a set and carrier of 10 bottles for R200, but not after being shocked that someone like Sportsmans Warehouse could ask R269 for the carrier alone and then it was branded with their name all over it. UHHHH no, I don't think so, it doesn't work that way that I should have to pay them to advertise their product, they should be giving it to me?????

Anyways, one more rugby match next week, which unfortunately Rob will miss as he will still be in Kenya and 2 more weeks of swimming for me and then holidays - how divine, not getting wet, my hair just might be able to regain some strength and my skin can rehydrate.

Time to start making lists and making sure we have covered everything from what's happening here at home to what me must take with us - pray for me!!

HAVE YOU EVER!!!

This from the website www.news24.co.za about the people that are destroying the toilets they had built for them.

Vandalism reports lies - ANCYL

Cape Town - The ANCYL national office has rejected as "lies" reports that its Dullah Omar branch plans to vandalise the City of Cape Town.

"Do you call yourself a journalist?" ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu asked a Sapa reporter. "How can you tell such lies."

Earlier on Tuesday, the ANCYL's Dullah Omar branch, in the Western Cape, called on the youth to vandalise the City of Cape Town over poor service delivery.

The ANCYL secretary of the Dullah Omar region Loyiso Nkohle said: "We are going to destroy everything and make the city ungovernable.

"We are calling on all youth to do this (vandalise the city), especially those living in informal settlements."

Nkohle's deputy Chumile Sali said the Dullah Omar branch was doing this to expose those parts of the city where the Democratic Alliance had failed to deliver services.

"The people residing in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, are not incapable of closing the N2 Highway and vandalising city council property," he said.

Intervene

On Monday, ANCYL members and community leaders led residents in the destruction of toilet enclosures the city council had erected hours earlier.
They taunted mayor Dan Plato to arrest them.

"The African people's dignity has been undermined by the DA. It is time to take action," said Sali.

While he denied that the ANCYL was promoting violence, the regional treasurer of the Dullah Omar branch, Andile Lili, said the ANCYL did not intend being violent, but was being forced to by the city.

"Anything with the city emblem on it will be destroyed," he said, adding: "The youth league will be vandalising the city."

The ANCYL Dullah Omar branch had written an open letter to Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale" asking him to intervene in the toilet debacle.

"Our complaint is based on the reality that African people residing in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, are forced to shit in full view of the public," it wrote.

"This satanic action by the city council is tantamount to gross human rights violations and undermines the people's right for their dignity to be protected as stipulated in section 10 of the Constitution."

The Dullah Omar branch said it had lodged a complaint against the city with the South African Human Rights Commission in January, but had not yet received a response.

It would not wait for Sexwale's response to proceed with its plan of action.

It was unhappy with the corrugated metal sheets the city had used to build enclosures around the toilets and wanted concrete instead.

New structures

In 2007 the city built a toilet for each household in the Makhaza area which each household agreed to enclose. However, since 2008, about 50 Makhaza families had been relieving themselves in full view of the public.

Plato told the Cape Times on Monday that he had recently met the ANCYL and community leaders and they had agreed to tell residents that open toilets would be enclosed.

He said the corrugated metal sheets used to enclose them were not inferior to the material people had used to build the homes they were living in and that if people wanted to destroy new structures he would "walk away".

On Tuesday, DA leader Helen Zille described the destruction of the toilet enclosures as part of an ANC campaign of violence and intimidation against the opposition in the Western Cape.

She would ask for a meeting with President Jacob Zuma to bring the incidents of intimidation against the DA to his attention, Zille said at a media conference in Cape Town on Tuesday.

"He must speak out against the culture of violence in the ANC, rein in the members of his party and take action against those who try to intimidate other political parties," she said.

SAPA

Catch Up

Shew, with just over 2 weeks to go and we are out of here!! We are off to England for 4 weeks, and its going to be so nice, no cell phones, computers or work. Time for us as a family to regroup.

One of the things we would like to do whilst over there is visit a school that is in the Afritwin system with James school, basically they share ideas with each other and I have approached his school about him going there for a day as an ambassador for his school - could be fun. www.christleton.org.uk.

So much has been happening in our lives and we thought we would be a little calmer now that Waterpolo was over, well were we mistaken. Rugby has taken even more of our time on the weekends.

Chris made the B team, but each Saturday lands up benching for the A team as well, so we get there early in the morning and pretty much hang around the entire day, as he has to stay to watch the 1st team play as well.

James has suddenly developed a huge love of sport and is now doing Hockey, Rugby, Swimming and Club Rugby, so he pretty spends most days at school until about 5 as well.

Makes my life easier for fetching and carrying as I can fetch them both when I am done with swimming.

This weekend Rob and I really need to sit down and finalise plans for when we are away, drawing up lists of how things work, making sure there is enough electricity whilst we are gone etc etc.

I have to say, I can't wait till we leave, just got to shake a few more kilo's between now and then (easier said than done!) and go and buy some basics e.g. eyeliner and mascara, clothes etc etc.