Sunday, August 16, 2015

Down memory lane with our Kloof High School 1975 Matric 40th Reunion

It was dinner with old classmates and an oppotunity to catch up on a 40-year gap for most as we met up for dinner and our School Matric Reunion last night.

Our classmates are spread across the globe and although we battled to find most, Facebook helped locate some and we managed to enjoy a fantastic evening together as we raked up old memories and chatted about our divergent lives.

da gals in da hood and Pete - Rose, Colleen, Barbara and Linda

Enjoying our catch up in the wine cellar
Gary (right) lives in Stellenbosch, Trevor in Somerset West, myself (Durban) and William joined us from Johannesburg. 

The Reunion Dinner Flyer


Our Matric English Exam paper
One of our absent friends who sent greetings from Atlanta. We recalled at the dinner how Jules was able to draw beautiful pictures of horses in a flash

My husband Llewellyn (left) joined us for the celebration 



The Matric (Form VI A) class of 1975 - I'm looking pretty dorky, 2nd left back row

Colleen (left, middle row) found our Class 2 photo - I'm middle row, 5th from right, and we chatted about our School Play Alibaba and the 40 thieves. Barbara recounted how she poured oil over each of the thieves including me, hiding in the urns

Gary Buhrmann and his wife Jen - they flew in from Stellenbosch to join us at the Reunion Dinner. Gary is the State Vet for the Boland area and deals largely with animal disease control and the exporting of horses, pigs and a variety of animals.
There was a place for absent friends



William, Caryl, Llewellyn, Colleen, Gary and Jen

Friday, August 14, 2015

Kloof High School Matric 40th Reunion


I've been busy organising our Kloof High School Matrics of 1975 reunion dinner. Here's the speech I wrote for mine and it's been fun getting info from my other school mates coming in so we can share the success stories.. ha ha. Classmates have been spread across the globe. For anyone more interested here's the link to our Facebook group.



Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Kate climbs Mount Fuji, Japan

While I was flying to Madagascar in our plane, my daughter Kate-Lynn and bf Chris were on their own adventure climbing Mount Fuji in Japan.

Mount Fuji, located on Honshu Island, is the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776.24 m. An active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08, Mount Fuji lies about 100 kilometres south-west of Tokyo, and can be seen from there on a clear day.


Says Kate: "Reaching the top was not about endurance, stamina or the use of an oxygen can, it was a waiting game. Our tiny team, and other bucket list tickers, were waiting on the sun, praying it was having a lazy start. "

"As I have come to experience in my life, our timing was favored. We saw the sky brighten on our ascent.. but no sun yet.. we clambered around the hoards and we made it.. this was the moment we had prepared for. We were standing at the top of Mount Fuji in Japan and every little experience leading up to this made the next few hours more spectacular than I had expected."


Another awesome achievement Kate-Lynn, well done and to Chris and the rest of the team!! The pics say it all.

Chris and Kate catching the sunrise atop Mount Fuji

The bandanas' inscriptions read  appropriately "Fighting Spirit" for Kate, and "Certain Victory" for Chris

Team Mt Fuji are Jonathan, Chris, Kate and Peter

An exciting and proud moment

Above the clouds and atop Japan's highest mountain - 
may the world always be at your feet Kate

The mountain is a giant volcano and crater

Monday, August 3, 2015

Madagascar Expedition in our plane

For 9 days we flew the ocean and toured Madagascar.. 35 hours of flying including 12 over the sea in our 2-seater single engine Sling Aircraft as part of a tour of 6 planes last week. The Mozambique Channel crossing was 890 kms there and the same back. We did a total of 6 flights over the sea including to the island Ile Sainte Marie and the 220km crossing of the Bay of Maputo each way.

Read the full story and pics on my aviation blog at this link.

The route we followed up Mozambique then crossing the Channel to Madagascar

Lemurs in Madagascar

The island off Madagascar - Ile Sainte Marie

Europa Island in the middle of the Mozambique Channel we flew over

Llew and I kitted out with life jackets and vests, life raft and marine safety equipment in the event of ditching in the sea

Just sea, sky and a haze for the 890 km Mozambique Channel crossing
Selfie with a giant Baobab tree at Morondava, Madagascar

The majestic Baobab trees in the Avenue of Baobabs, Morondava