GroblerFamily In The UK

Golfing Continued.......

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:03:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

So tonight I went for my first golfing lesson at the Dowshire Golf Complex here in Crowthorne. What an experience. It was amazing. My pro, Rhys, is brilliant! I actually managed to hit a few balls... he must have seen the absolute surprise on my face when I hit that first one as he just ended up smiling. I he just knew, I was ready to do the dance of joy all over the teaching area !!!

So as well as my first lesson, I now own a pair of golf shoes and and cool glove for my left hand...

It is just so amazing that when you tell people that you are going to try golfing, they all offer to go out with on the course for some practice runs. We will of course take them up on all their offers...

On another note, tonight is the second night of Kayla sleeping away from home. She is on her first residential school trip, and we miss her to bits. I am sure though that she is having an absolutely fabulous time.

That's all for now folks,

Hope you have a great weekend

Golfing ........

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:21:00 +0000

We are now at the end of another week and it has been a pretty busy one. As you may have gathered from Wanda's comments on facebook, she has started taking golfing lessons. In fact she has had 5 lessons and she is enjoying it so much. Every time she comes back from the lessons she is so excited that it has rubbed off onto me. That, and the fact that she has been twisting my arm, just a little, to also give it a try. And today I took the plunge. I made contact with the Pro at the golf complex and my first lesson is next Thursday evening.

Wanda has told me it is frowned upon if you swear and curse on the golf course, so for the time being I will have to do it in Afrikaans and when asked what I am saying, will just tell them I am encouraging the ball. Those of you who understand will know words like bliksem, jou donder and kak ding will be heard echoing over the driving range.....

Jokes aside, I am really looking forward to start (Koos, you will no doubt tell me I should have started 5 years ago when I worked at Wokefield Park, and we had access to the golf course there). Don't worrie though, that book you gave me before I left South Africa will be put to good use now...

I can just imagine what Wanda and I will look like on our retirement.........

I will keep you updated on the progress....

Good night all and I hope you have a great weekend...

Quiet Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:44:00 +0000

Hello all,

We are all enjoying a quiet weekend. I just baked some really nice banana muffins that are so easy to do and the whole house now smells of baked muffins. Waldo has asked my to do some apple crumble for dessert and I will spoil all by making it for Sunday pudding. I have to admit that I am also looking forward to the apple crumble with nice custard.. yummmm.

Wanda and I have also started looking at holiday options if we were to go back to South Africa. We can't decide where we want to go. We do know that we want to go to the bush !!! See some great animals and just enjoy the peace and quiet and SUN of the African Bush.... I will keep you updated on the progress...

That's all from me for now... I hope you all have a great week and God bless.

Young Voices Concert...... 11 January 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 07:45:00 +0000

The first major school highlight for us this year was Kayla's performance at the O2 Arena in London as part of the Young Voices mass choir. Hatch Ride Primary School entered their school choir into the event and I am so happy they did. It was an awesome experience.

I can now boast that my little girl performed at the O2 arena in front of 20000 people....

The children have been practicing since middle of last year and they had so many words that they had to learn. Practicing the songs without the soundtrack first, then with the soundtrack, then with the soundtrack and no song sheets. They worked really hard and it payed off.

Wanda, Waldo and I opted to go the arena on the coach that was arranged by the school, leaving the school almost on time at 4:45pm, making our way into London for a 7pm start. We did make it, only just made. We walked through the doors as they announced that the show was due to start....

What a sight to see between 5000 - 6000 children's choir filling a huge part of the arena, and when they started singing ... WOW I had goose bumps all over.

The show was absolutely great, loads of singing , brilliant dancing and just all round fun.

Now we had to get back home!! Back to the coach, don't pass go , don't collect the money, go straight to the coach after the event... we were told. Just a pity not everyone took it to heart. We had to wait 45 minutes for people , who either got lost or wait for it .... decided to do a bit of shopping while there... never mind the 30 other people sitting on the coach waiting to go home.....

We arrived back at the school around 12:00, went home and the whole family went straight to bed .. absolutely exhausted.

I sincerely hope that the school decides to do this again next year as we will certainly sign up for it again...

For more info if you are interested go and have a look at www.youngvoices.co.uk

It has been ages.....

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:05:00 +0000

Hello all our friends

Well judging by the date on the last post it has been more than 2 years since I did a blog entry... to be fair when our friends, Ed, Mrs Boss, Ntunu and Tola were here over Christmas and New Years, I did try and get to the blog.... but as luck would have it, I couldn't remember the blog name or the log in details.... and I couldn't show Ed how it worked as he is also starting a blog soon.

So the excuses out of the way, here we are, second week of January 2011. The Groblerfamily have been in the UK now for just over 5 years and the big event in 2010 was the receipt of out Indefinate Leave to Remain Status in the UK. This after having to go thorugh the Life in the UK exam and pay a small fortune for our applications. But hey, its done, we have it and we are rolling onto citizenship in October of this year.

There is so much that I want to catch up on but fear that it will have to happen in a few posts rather than one.

This one will then be the Happy New year post, wishing all our friends and family all over the world a very peaceful and prosperous 2011..... I'll leave you with some photos from Christmas Day and New Years morning.
Cheers

People Imagery - Week 4

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:39:00 +0000

Hi Friends,

Well week 4 has come for the people imagery class and I was really lucky to get some great photos of Kayla and her little friend Ntunu over the weekend.

Here then my 3 submissions for the module as well as one that I converted to black and white.

People Imagery - Module 3

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:25:00 +0000

I really enjoyed this module as we had to take photos of strangers without them knowing... I know I know....... I was nervous at first but ended up with some great shots.

We also had to set up an activity with some models and take candid non-posed shots....

People Imagery - Module 2

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:06:00 +0000

Hi guys,

Well the weeks have flown by and although we are already on module 4 of the class I thought it would be nice to upload the the other modules too.

Here is my submission for module 2:

Kayla turns 7

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:54:00 +0000

Our little baby's 7th Birthday was today! Boy she is growing way too fast. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYLA!!

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:21:00 +0000

Hi Friends,

Wow time flies by... the summer holidays are gone and now it is back into the thick of things until Christmas.

All is well at the Grobler's and we are rapidly approaching Kayla's 7th Birthday.. she is growing up way too fast.

I have also enrolled into Cheryl Johnson's new class, People Imagery, and below you will see my efforts for module 1.

World of dreams.... Mercedes Benz World

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:55:00 +0000

Hello friends,

I almost didn't remember the password to get into the blog website. Just goes to show how long it has been since my last post.

Well I'll try and make up for it.... promise.

Today we decided to take the family for a trip out (I think Wanda and the kids were getting a little cabin fever!!)

We ended up ging to Mercedes world, just about 45 minutes away from home, so not too far to travel. Now, if you love Mercedes, you will never want to leave Mercedes World.

They had almost all the current models on display and the best part, you could get into most of them and play with the controls.

They also had on show the first Mercedes !!
The other attraction of course is the F1 racers, wow what a sight!!

It's really great for the kids too. If you are willing to spend £35 your kid of 11 years or older can have the opportunity to drive a real car with a driving instructor of course!!!

Module 10 - Using the Flash

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:49:00 +0000

Hi my good friends,

I can't believe that 10 weeks have flown by and we have reached the end of the Painting with Light photography course... It was loads of fun and I can't wait for CJ's next course.

Well.. here are my efforts for Module 10....

Module 9 - Painting with light

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:27:00 +0000

Hi there,

Well I have to admit that this was a pretty tough module for me... tried a lot of different things and then DW Wanda came up with the great Idea of using bubbles... I think it worked like a charm.

Well here they are, my 3 best images for this module...

Thanks for looking.

Module 8 - Move in Close

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:47:00 +0000

So here are the efforts for Module 8 - Move in Close. I must admit I am really enjoying the Painting with Light Course!!

I ended up crawling in the street, laying down with the flowers and taking pics up close of everything that moves. It was great fun !!

It's a winner!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:41:00 +0000

Hi Everyone,

I am so chuffed, my photo of Wanda was one of the top 10 winners 0n The Painting With Light course for the category "People".

Thanks to my Lovely Wife Wanda, for being the best model ever !!!

Module 7 - Shaping the subject

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Sun, 18 May 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Ok as promised then next module in the Painting with Light course I am currently doing. This module was called Shaping the Subject. It was a lot more challenging than what I thought... but here goes, this is what I came up with.

Let the games begin

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:06:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

So again it has been a while since I did a bit of blogging. I can't believe we are already into week 7 of the Painting with Light photography course... time does fly. I will probably end up putting all the efforts for the 6 weeks into 1 post... just to save some time...

So here goes...

Week 1 - Changing the viewpoint

Week 2 - Using the texture

Week 3 - Framing the shot

Week 4 - Turn and Tilt the Camera

Week 5 - Looking for Light

Week 6 - People

Watch this space for the rest..... promise I will do them a lot quicker!!

Holiday In France

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:02:00 +0000

Wanda and I were having such a laugh, as I am going to take the easy route here....

If you would like to read about our holiday in France and look at some pictures, please follow the link to Wanda's blog.....

www.livelifeandscrap.blogspot.com

New Photography Course

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:56:00 +0000

OK, I know what you are going to say..... It has been ages since I have blogged.... I know I know..

I have just joined a new Photography class called Painting With Light, run by the very talented Cheryl Johnson.

I am really looking forward to trying out all the new modules. All 10 of them. This should make for some interesting photos.

One of the homework assignments was to take a self portrait. After many tries this one made it to the submission.
As we go through the motions I will keep the blog updated with my latest try shots.

TFL

P

Getting the Hang of it....

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 19:07:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

It been a hectic couple of weeks and I just have not had the time to keep everyone up to date. Work has not been that great lately and I must admit I have been taking a bit of strain. I have ended up looking to explore new EXCITING opportunies within Xerox and I will keep you guys posted if anything happens.

I decided today that it was about time that I tried my hand at the camera again and more specifically trying the "black background" technique. I think I am eventually getting the hang of it.

I took one of Wanda's blak jackets and propped it over a Amazon.com box on the diningroom table as the background, and took the flowers I had bought Wanda as the subject.

I am pretty impressed with the results, even if i have to say so myself. Have a look for yourself and let me know what you think.

Cycling trip no 2

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 12:07:00 +0000

Good Morning everyone,

At last I have caught up with the blogging.

We woke up yesterday to find that it was an absolutely stunning day! the sun was shining and the birds were singing! Hehehehe.....

We leaped out of bed and decided that this was the ideal opportunity to go and do some more biking. In no time at all we had everything loaded and we were on our way.

This time around we went to Dinton Pastures, with its massive lakes and loads of biking paths. The one good thing about Dinton Pastures is that there aren't too many steep hills - its pretty flat out there.

The one drawback was that it had rained a lot the past few days and there a few massive puddles that we had to navigate through. One person in our group didn't care much for the puddles.... Waldo of course. He really enjoyed going through them as fast as possible. I guess i don't have to tell you what he looked like at the end of it all.

I ended up stopping every so often to take a photo and on one occasion I stopped, let Kayla off and went to take a photo. When I got back to the bike - Kayla came walking back and not seeing the mud walked straight into a muddy patch, slipped and fell down. Poor muddy child. Unfortunately she was covered in it that we had to go back home. We will continue our ride at Dinton Pastures another day.

Wanda's Birthday - 6th January 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 11:09:00 +0000

It's Sunday morning - My dear wife's birthday, and she has caught up to me now as we are the same age now, well at least for another 10 months at which stage I will be the "older" one in the house.

I looked out the window, and notice that the sun was shining and that looked like it was going to be a lovely day. A perfect day in fact for my lovely wife. Lying in bed we contemplated as to what we would do for her birthday, and we decided that we could not waste a day like this in doors. We decided to go biking, but not around the neighbourhood, but rather at the Look Out which has biking trails. As we have not done this before, we have not invested in a bike carrier yet and we ad to load the bikes - yes all 4 of them into my car. Wanda took Kayla in her car and Waldo joined me in the bike transport.

Arriving at the Look Out it seemed a lot of people had the same idea as us, the place was buzzing. We unloaded the bikes, hitched Kayla's bike to mine (as madam cannot do this on her own yet) and off we went on our first ever bike hike! Boy was it fun - riding through the woods in the fresh air. Waldo especially enjoyed freewheeling down the steep hills. We did about 4 miles and it felt great. I wish I could say the same for our bums!!!

We all agreed that this turned out to be an excellent day which was complimented by a lovely dinner.

I had also bake a cake - and boy was it a cake of note - due to a comedy of errors I ended up baking 2 cakes and putting all the bits together to make one cake. It ended up weighing almost 2KG!! I'll have to work a bit on my baking skills I think.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WANDA !!

2nd January 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:08:00 +0000

Well, I have been really falling behind with the blogging but I will try and catch up.

We had booked tickets to go and visit the Tutankhamen exhibition some time ago and at last the day arrived for the Groblerfamily to ravel into London. As we were only due to enter the exhibit around 2:30 we decided that it would be worth our while to visit another attraction in the morning.

The lucky attraction....... The Tower of London. Fortunately Wanda had told me to book the tickets online, because as we approached the Tower of London we were met by a SEA of people - hundreds of them!!! But with great thanks to my wife we walked over to the Group Bookings window and just like VIP's got our pre-booked tickets.

I had never been to the Tower of London and was really impressed with all the different towers and what it must have been like to be brought into the traitors gate and then tortured in the dungeon.

After finishing the Tower of London we thought it a good idea to get a bite to eat before going to see the great Egyptian god. We entered a fast food establishment that said it had seating for 220 people and we thought, with that amount of potential customers they should be running the kitchen like a well oiled machine. Boy were we wrong, the oil had dried up in his kitchen , they had 2 staff and this included the guy running the cash till. After standing in the queue for ever, we realised we had to get to the tube if we still wanted to make our entry time at the exhibit.

The Tutankhamen exhibit is at the O2, another first for us. What a huge structure. So many shops and restaurants. Of course Waldo noticed that there was a Spur in the O2, and boy was he excited.

The exhibition was really interesting, being able to see a lot of the artifacts that were discovered in the tomb. All the gold and jewels and they artwork on the statues were amazing.

Towards the end of the exhibition all our stomachs started grumbling and we finished off a great day out with a lovely piece of steak at...... wait for it.......... SPUR.

Bath .. .. 28 December 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:37:00 +0000

As we had not done a road trip in a while we decided that we would go to the city of Bath to see what it has to offer. Wanda had visited the Roman Baths before on her visit to the UK a couple of years ago and she said it was definitely one of the well worth seeing places to visit. And boy was she right, the Roman Baths are awesome... Unfortunately the weather didn't play along but we are getting used to that now.

After arriving in Bath our first stop was naturally at the Roman Baths. What a sight, and so rich with history. Wanda and i had been watching the second season of the Series ROME and we could just imagine the Romans walking around these baths. Waldo had an opportunity to try out his new camera too and he took some really nice photos.

When we finished the Baths we went over to the Cathedral, and this was just as spectacular. While we were walking down the centre isle Wanda commented on what it must feel like to be a bride walking down that isle on her wedding day. The stained glass is just breathtaking and I don't think the photos I took does it any justice.

As the weather was really getting bad our last stop was the park down at the river to take a picture of the famous Pulteney Bridge.

A now very wet Grobler family, was just to glad to get back the car and make their way home!

Let's go back a couple of weeks...

noreply@blogger.com (Grobies in the UK) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:06:00 +0000

CHRISTMAS 2007

Another year has rolled by and Christmas arrived in the Grobler home. The kids were up really early and we had to convince them to wait just a little while before storming downstairs to see what Santa had left them. This was mainly to the benefit of Wanda and myself as we had been up late the night before and were pretty exhausted.

Eventually nothing could keep them upstairs and we all stormed downstairs to see what had been "delivered".

Boy, were the kids excited. Waldo had asked for a camera, to join dad in the role of family paparazzi and Kayla wanted a watch and a "lifelike" sleeping pet. These pets look just like real stuffed animals and we decided that we were not going to start making horror movies in our house, as I could just imagine this stuffed creature running around the house at night. We decided to get her a little toy cat that is pretty lifelike. Even for a gadget junkie like myself this cat is too much. It reacts to sound as well as to touch. stroke its chest or its back and it will purr and meow, but pull its tail and you will get a hiss. When left alone it lies down and goes to sleep....

Wanda got some crafting goodies , pajamas, slippers and nice chocolates and dad got a tripod for the new camera, along with a nice scarf and Monopoly, again the Gadget version as there is no paper money but it works with credit cards.

We spent the rest of the day enjoying lunch and just relaxing at home. All in all a very Merry Christmas.