Bangkok & Halloween

As many of you may know I headed off to Bangkok for a NVS conference on Sunday night. Well first up aren't they so nice to arrange a conference in such a wonderful spot hehehe. We arrived at about lunchtime (Bangkok time) after a very noisy and uncomfortable flight only to find our rooms were not ready. They offered to give us upgraded rooms - but at our cost :( naturally we declined. We were told we'd have to wait at least 90minutes....mmmm now isn't that convenient, meant we could nip down the street to a fabulous little massage place I frequented the last time I was here. Ahhhh just what the doctor ordered, a 60 minute foot massage - includes about 10minutes of back and shoulder for only 250Baht. Of course we had time for a little shopping before heading back to get settled into our rooms. By this stage we're more than a little peckish (4:30 Bangkok) so we meet at the restaurant for late lunch early dinner and surprise surprise, I have pork chops :) a little more of heaven. Then its perfect timing for us to walk about a bit more shop shop shop, pick up some cokes, beers and snacks from the 7-11 and well on our way back to the hotel, who wouldn't stop for a massage before heading up to bed ?! The next two days spent conferencing, very long but enriching days. Wednesday night, drinks with friends - all the administrators had arrived for their section of the conference and .........another foot massage :) Thursday morning its up early, last breakfast to include pork products for a while, and out shopping. And then its off to the airport and home to family.
mmmmmm I love Bangkok, hopefully the family will join me in April for the Spring conference and we can enjoy some of the sight seeing touristy things together then. And of course I shall introduce them to the magic of massage !

And now today, we have spent preparing for Halloween. The compound was holding the children's party along with trick-or-treating today so we had all the decorating to do. The girls were involved in the design of their pumpkins but mom and dad had the joy of carving and cleaning. As much as I tried to get them to stick their hands in and scoop out the inards.....no way josé hehehe I took the girls to the party while André got sorted at home and while I type this up, he has taken them out in the neighbourhood with the warning that "when the buckets are full, we come home !" hehehe

So we're home with our stash of candy now, sadly not too many visitors to our house. Mom and dad say sadly although its a given Aimee and Lucy our eyeing the cauldron still full of all the goodies to give out to continue topping up their own hehehe.
School is celebrating Halloween on Wednesday so there will surely be more photos then but for now ......Happy Halloween !

2007 Rugby World Champs

15 - 6

Well done, John, Jake and all the boys,
you brought it home for every single one of us !

Thank-you.

Who needs pillows....

Who needs pillows when you have a well padded mommy to lie against hehehe.

The Bokke

As many of you might know, André and I to a lesser degree are involved in a rugby blog called RuggaWorld. These two articles really sent chills up my spine
http://www.ruggaworld.com/2007/10/18/praising-our-great-warriors/
http://www.ruggaworld.com/2007/10/18/live-the-dream/
I credit the authors for their awesome emotive writing.
These both explain all we feel as our boys face the 2007 World Cup final tomorrow night.
Here's to you doing it Bokke, for yourselves, for your country, and for every South African with a dream of greatness !

A Real Bok Supporter ...is this you ??
Thanks for the video Brenda, good laugh !

Bahrain 10"s

André is once again at the Bahrain 10's this weekend. The girls and I joined him there yesterday for a bit of swimming before the tournament kicked off.

But ....after getting home close to midnight last night we decided to send him on his merry way today. He left earlyish and will be back early evening.
We're just relaxing at home, mom trying to catch up with news on the blog and then of course it'll be getting ready for school tomorrow.
And here we have the Khobar Quins, winners of the plate final in The 2007 Bahrain Duty Free 10's Tournament.

Sadly no photos of my darling reffing as well last night was too dark and I wasn't there today, next time.

Eid Mubarak

A nice 9 day holiday to spend time together, Eid Mubarak everyone.
Eid started Thursday 11 October and we spent many a day at the movies (now that we could enjoy popcorn while watching hehehe) so this post will be a bit of a movie review posting.
After each movie we would rate the movie one to five stars and then average the scores out....
Underdog -

Ratatouille -

Nancy Drew -

And then well there were the movies at home (many of which we had seen at the movies previously), some some of the ones watched :
High School Musical 2

Surf's Up -

How to Eat Fried Worms -

Other than the movies, well the adults did have some work to do and whenever possible, the girls enjoyed the trampoline, and then there was always rugby to fall back on heheheh