Sunday rest

This is me, just chilling on a Sunday.. beautiful day in Durban at our home on Durban's Berea.

Turning 52 %&#@

Where do the years fly to? My 52nd birthday already? Took the day off work, had breakfast out with Llewellyn, lunch with my mate Matt Penny, dinner at my mom's house with Llewellyn, Kate-Lynn and Brad and then the next day went to the annual Mercury Wine Week at SunCoast with Llewellyn and Ian. Had a blast and am now in my 53rd year #$@&.

More pics here.

Sardine run in Durban

July/August is sardine time along the east coast and this year a few shoals of the small fish beached in Durban. I didn't get to see them but Kate-Lynn was down there and saw this shark at uShaka Beach (no pun intended). They usually follow the shoals and bathing on the beaches is temporarily closed lest they mistake a bather for the food they are shovelling down over the sardine run.

Cousin climbs Mt Elbrus in Russia

Having just got back from our Baltic cruise, including a night in St Petersburg, Russia, it was interesting to hear my cousin Michelle is presently climbing Mt Elbrus, the highest peak in Russia.

Says their team leader Sean.. " Elbrus is not technical in comparison to any of the other Seven Summits (7 continents he has climbed) but it does require an ability to cope with Russia’s extreme cold, the altitude and the horrific electric storms that are common in this geologically troubled region. The southern Caucasus is highly volcanic and Elbrus itself is a twin peaked volcano’. Elbrus is a dormant but not an extinct volcano.

Go for it Michelle!

Dinner with the family

No particular occassion but always nice to catch up  with the family from time to time.  Here's my aunt Ros and ob with mom's friend Jean. More pics if you click here.

Baltic trip - day 3 Tallinn, Estonia

Our first stop on the Baltic cruise was Estonia, the first state of Russia to achieve independence in 1992. It's capital, Tallinn, is a medieval-type city but which incredibly has the highest ratio of people with an internet connection in the world and is also the city where Skype was founded.

More photos of our day in Tallinn are here.

Baltic trip - day 2 Boarding the Eurodam

Stepping on board the Eurodam in Copenhagen

Two swimming pools, 5 jacuzzis, and about 9 bars

We were ready to board the Eurodam at lunch time and first plan was to enjoy some lunch, explore the ship, decorate our door and enjoy the Sail Away Party as the ship headed for Tallinn, Estonia, our first port of call in the morning.

Making sure everyone knew the South Africans had arrived

more pics here

Baltic Cruise - day 1 Copenhagen

We catch an SAA flight to Frankfurt then Luftansa to Copenhagen

Catching a morning first glimpse of the Danish coastline and the Baltic Sea

Llewellyn in the sunny crowds on the Wednesday we arrived

Tasting morsels in the streets of Copenhagen

Typical harbour boat

This is where the little mermaid is supposed to be but is on loan to the Shanghai Festival and they have left a tv screen with a live feed from Shanghai in its place.

We spent a glorius day in Copenhagen - such handsome people, then stayed for the night, going out for a drink at Jailhouse before boarding the ship the next day.

See more photos of Copenhagen here.

Llewellyn's 40th pre-Birthday Dinner

A family dinner in Johanesburg marked the start of the celebrations for Llewellyn's 40th birthday. We then winged our way to Copenhagen and Russia where we partied in St Petersburg.

In the photos are from top to bottom myself and Llewellyn, Llewellyn with his mom and sister Lisl and his brother Shaun.

There are a few more photos here, including our trip on the newly opened Gautrain. 

Fun at the Guesthouse

Llewellyn and I congratulate Jared (centre top) winner of the KZN finals of the Mr Gay South Africa 2010 held at the Guesthouse last night, and also say goodbye to our friends Nelson (left) and Les (second from left) who leave shortly to live in Singapore.

Brad turns 24

Kate-Lynn organised and we made Sushi for the first time last night for her boyfriend Brad's 24th Birthday. Was pretty good... with a bit more practice we'll be opening a Sushi-bar next!!

Life after 2010

So what happens after 2010?

- the World Cup Football is over in South Africa, but this is just the beginning of a whole new era of international exposure and tourism for our country... everyone had a fantastic time and will be coming back for more.

I started this blog specifically for the World Cup but have collected such a load of awesome photos and memories I am going to turn the blog into a personal log of my life and times in Durban - from 1958 through to my election to the City Council in 1988, my term as Deputy Mayor of Durban 1994/5 and to 2010 and beyond... it will also be a great way to digitally capture some of the older pictures I have of my kids growing up and continue with their education and life in the world out there....so watch this space! This is an exciting new project for me.

It's a Winner - Spain (1) Netherlands (0)

South Africa may have been knocked out in the first round but we were also winners in the World Cup. Congratulations Spain ... our Spanish guest Guido who was with us in Durban for both of the Spain games is so excited... it is so sad to see the end of the festivities, but what a journey. Check out our Spain Durban stories in the run up to the final.

A big thank you to all the fans who stayed with us at the Guesthouse for making the event so exhilarating for us too. Durban will miss the football spirit, but at least we still have our glorious weather... spent the day on the beach today watching the Durban Airshow. Brilliant sunshine and show... please all come back soon.

Road trip to Cape Town after the Germany (0) Spain (1) semi-final

After the semi-final in Durban we jumped in Mark's car to drive it to Cape Town for his time at Varsity in Stellenbosch, stopping in Clarens in the Golden Gate National Park area, and Tsitsikamma forest where we did the Canopy Tour, staying at the nearby Storms River Mouth and Big Tree. See the album of photos on Facebook here.

Also see some more selected photos on this blog here.

Germany vs Spain semi-final in Durban Wed 7 Jul

With a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Paraguay last night, Spain joins Germany who had a exciting 4-0 win over Argentina in the earlier game to produce a Germany vs Spain semi-final for Durban on Wednesday next week.

Both teams and fans were in Durban for the opening games of the World Cup when Germany beat Australia and Spain lost to Switzerland, so the return will be a hard-fought battle.

Podolski scores as Germany beats England in an earlier round

David Villa of Spain scores against Honduras in the run-up to the semi-final

Germany back for semi-final in Durban

Germany's footballer Podolski has everything to be proud of with Germany's (4) win tonight over Argentina (0) in the World Cup quarter-finals in South Africa.

This brings Germany back to Durban, for the semi-final next week. We had a house-load of proud German fans at our Guesthouse here in Durban for the opening game against Australia and they will be back for some more fun in the sun hopeful of making it to the finals.

Ostrich Orange

We're into the quarter finals now and some of the fans are leaving Durban as we have only one game left here.. the semi-final on the 7th July... it is going to be Netherlands and Argentina or Brasil and Spain??? Vote for the winner on the top right of the Blog in my poll.

Here's a South African ostrich with a Netherlands flavour.. pretty cool.. picture by our guest Jenny at the fan park in Durban with an orange leopard-print outfit also in the photo.

Netherlands (2) Slovakia (1)

Guests Georgina and Roee (left, from Melbourne) celebrate with Jenny and Edwin (right, from the Netherlands) and Llewellyn (guesthouse co-owner, 2nd from right) after the teams victory last night against Slovakia. This takes Netherlands through to the quarter-final where they meet Brasil (3) who also notched up a win against Chile (0) in the later game.