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Thursday, December 18, 2008

Wow has time flown? We are exactly one week away from Christmas! I still haven't got all my shopping done - so tomorrow is D-day!

I've had a busy week. Starting off with a wine-tasting on Monday evening- we decided on Monday as Tuesday was a public holiday here in SA. Our friend of many years, Steve, finally got to do a winetasting fro us in our cellar.
We invited 8 guests (plus my folks and us - made 12) and we were treated to a wine tasting on "affordable South African white wines for Summer". Here's list of the wines we savoured...

  • Pierre Jourdan Cuvée Belle Rosé - a delightful pink bubbly in the méthode cap classique
  • Cape Atlantic Sauvignon Blanc - a gorgeous summer wine - maybe a little to acidic, but with the right food- perfect!
  • Blue Cove Viognier - I loved this one- really different to my usual favourite, Sauvignon Blanc

  • Hartenberg Weisser Riesling - this one I really loved- filled with the aroma of oily paraffin

  • Savannah Chardonnay - not being a fan of wooded Chardonnay, this one was great- unwooded with plenty of fruity flavour

  • De Krans Pink Port - wow, this was delicious! Soft pink port - such a pretty bottle with a taste to match!


Well on Tuesday, we were all recovering from the wine overdose, but there's no rest for the wicked as they say- we had a huge family reunion at my cousin, Jay & his wife, Belinda. The entire Preece family got together for our first reunion.


"Plus que les choses changent
Plusqu'ils ne changent pas"

-The more things change,
the more they stay the same.

In this case, I found that my cousins had not changed all that much, except that they all had children who had grown up really quickly & some of them I had not seen in years- the last time I saw them they were toddlers! Totally unrecognisable, of course.
One thing that was amazing was Reece's resemblance to Raymond, my cousin Wayne's son. My word even their mannerisms are similar! We always thought Reece & Wesley (Jay's eldest son) looked alike, but now there are 3 boys in the family who look alike- must be a Preece thing!
We also were so happy to have Elaine Reed out from Rhode Island in the US. Her father was my dad's cousin. She has just spent about a month in Aus & New Zealand, and stopped over here for 3 days and then flew out this evening for England before returning home for Christmas on Sunday. I think if it hadn't been for Elaine's visit, we would never have got together for the reunion, so thanks to Elaine, we were all able to catch up & thoroughly enjoyed the day together.

I have to get going now as I have to be up early tomorrow to get everything ready for our trip to Madikwe Game reserve on Saturday where we'll be spending to nights.

The deck outside the chalets...I think I'll just spend the time reading and relaxing from the early morning game drive to the evening one! Absolute bliss....


I'll be updating the blog asap with an account of all we get up to at Etali Safari Lodge in Madikwe as well as tons of photos!


















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