Roar till four, Rory

Farewell to Willow Road

Well, we've sold Willow Road, our Cape Town house, and it's kind of like the closing of a chapter in our lives. Home from 1990 to 2000, the place is full of special memories.


Some Highlights

• Braais on the balcony
• The view from the balcony and the views of the mountain
• Living with a range of zany, wonderful housemates like Dain, Andre, Oliver, Ben, Eleda, Peter the plumber, Peter the paramedic, Shirly, Russel, Colleen and Rory
• Romancing Ally (including suprise Chinese dinner in my room)
• Sleeping out on the balcony
• Setting the house up with Ally in 1998 when we got back from overseas
• The walk in the mountain above the house
• Strolls to nearby Kirstenbosch
• Feta, the cat
• Pikiswe, our domestic helper (ah, those were the days!)
• Judge and Niki, Eleda's pugs
• Studying for university exams with Julian
• Summer holidays
• Some great parties including my 21st birthday party
• Some fantastic dinner parties
• A couple of family Xmases
• Watching South Africa win the 1994 world cup in the lounge (ecstacy).
• Watching South Africa losing to the Australians in the world cup cricket (run, Alan, run!)
• Lots and lots of cars outside and the dispair of the poor neighbours
• Gerald and the Edwards
• Silvia, my silver monza
• Waking up to the automatic irrigation system at 6 am in the morning
• The wild garden
• Walks up the hill at night to see the amazing views of the suburbs and check out other houses
• The chocabloc garage
• Furniture olympics

Visit to Cape Town

Ally and I just returned from a wonderful trip to South Africa. It was wonderful to see our family again. I could have gobbled the kids up they were so cute.

Sammy´s first ever photo. Of me, nogal, and a good one. I didn't even crop it.

We took the cable car - to lazy to walk. Actually, more due to lack of time. One week is not enough!!

Apart from our lovely family, this is what I miss most about Cape Town. The beaches are just so beautiful.

Amazing how the Waterfront has grown since we were there last. Incredible to think that a smelly harbour renowned for sleeze has become Cape Town's premier tourist destination and "the place" to have a penthouse.

The highlight of our stay was to have a reunion of our friends at Jo and Ant's lovely house. Volleyball, hot sun, swimming, good food, old friends... Talk about combining the best things in life into one day. A day I will always cherish

A night out in Cape Town. Great to see Adam, Rusty, Jo and Adam again

Some of my happiest childhood memories are from this beach St James. It was wonderful to experience it again with Sammy and Matthew. I'm pretty sure there are almost identical photos of Jo and I as toddlers munching ice cream lollies on St James beach. Ah, the circle of life!

I won't be tempted!

The New York Times has just brought out its definitive list of the 1000 best movies of all time. Makes the IMDB's Top 250 list look like a picnic. But i shall not be tempted to upgrade my life's ambition to see the New York Times list. After all, I need a life... Maybe my good friend Rory has a point when he said in his email yesterday

"I've seen loads of movies recently (including Troy. Butterfly Effect, Harry Potter (not that impressed), Way too sad... But not nearly as sad as you trying to view the top 250 movies of all time..... (need I say any more ...) (Maybe that is the joy of living in a dark, cold miserable country, you get to see loads of movies to compensate!!! (hhahah)

I'll tell you one thing, though, if this damn weather in the UK doesn't improve soon (still raining today!!), I might be tempted to make an attempt for the NYT list after all!

The Otter Trail with Rory

Memories don't come better than this... 

Rory

Special memories

• Amazing hikes (Tsitsikama, Fish River, Otter Trail)
• Maths 102 lessons
• Rory "reaching his peak" on the trail
• The housemate years at Willow Road
• Many heart to hearts about love, the Christian faith and life
• Our presentation about merchandising at UCT when our slides popped out (and Rory not getting phased by it)
• Marketing classes at UCT
• Visits to Pinelands (his folks and sister)
• The Viennese Ball with Sarah
• His victorious SRC campaign
• His great Toastmasters motivational speeches