Best Golf Ever

Willem played the best round of his life at Poppy Ridge today. After almost cancelling the round since suffering from a severe case of the shanks, things could hardly have gone any better. 2 pars and a birdie on the front and 5 pars on the back nine. Driver was humming and the approaches stuck to the green, even the putting was good. Final tally was 90 - a few doubles and a triple slipped in as well. Luck was a major factor though - all the bad luck from rounds gone by was made up for in abundance today. Shot of the day, and probably ever, was a 180 yards up hill (playing around 210) 3 iron to about 10 feet - 1st (our 10th) on Merlot. Even won the SA Open between Gavin, Vani and myself.

Valentines with the Neighbors

Sunday we had the Neighbors over for an early Valentines celebration....just an excuse to pop a good champagne. They brought a starter with Tuna, anjovies and olive spread...it was sublime! Mandy made Lamb chops with bearnais sauce and creamed spinach with boursin cheese accompanied by a slivered fennel, blood orange and cranberry salad. For dessert we had chocolate strawberries, made by the dessert queen, Michelle.

Capitol Club

Amanda was invited to a fancy dinner at the Silicon Valley Capitol Club last Friday. They featured Chappellet wines which she sells. Lots of rich people attended and odds are she sold a lot of wines. Willem and Liam went to James and Michelle for dinner. Michelle pulled out all the stops and did amazing pork chops and even more amazing dessert (Pavlova).

Thai food

Saturday we had Thai with Gavin and Christina at Krungthai. As always we started with the delicious Pho-tak soup - spicy seafood. Willem again braved the "hot" items, and although it burned the hell out of everyone at the table, it was less hot than the previous two times. Gavin called the dish the Angry Duck, after a similar (hot) dish he had in Durban once.

Golf is BAD

Willem lost his golf game somehwere, if anyone spots it please let us know! For some reason breaking 100 is now difficult even on easy courses. Best part is he now has an offical handicap of 19.6, but that will change if things keep going this badly.

The Famous Phone - HTC Wizard

After tracking the release date for months on the web Willem at long last got Amanda her PDA phone through Cingular, the Cingular 8125 (aka HTC Wizard). Willem used the fact that he has a NASA email to get the phone early, since it is not yet released to the general public. What a gadget this is!! Easily the most impressive phone around today. Amanda likes the sliding keyboard and how the view changes from portrait to landscape when you slide it out. We'll see about the first months data bill from surfing the web all day!

More dinners ...

Monday we had the Harvetts, Jacqui, Michelle and Josh over for an Oxtail-banana potjie. Willem made it the Sunday and it was just great. I took the rest to Joe Canistraci, because he's been asking for it for the last 3 years:)

Tuesday we went to celebrate Guillaume's 40th Birtday at Dimitra's. Willem bought wines from WineBid for the event: 1966 Hermitage (his birth year), 1976 Ch Longueville Baron Bordeaux, 1986 Mont Redon and a 1996 Penfold Shiraz. He was again very surprised.

Wednesday, Mike and Jasmine came over for dinner. We had a shepherds pie en some nice wines.

The couch also got sorted out and we should have the one we want in about 3 weeks.

Italian Dinner and Superbowl

We've had a crazy week.
Saturday we had a birthday party for a 2yr old in our community and right after the party we went to an Italian wine dinner at Linda's house. She cooked fabulous food: fennel/blood orange salad, osso bucco and a variety of baked dessert items. We've had some very good Italian wines and the #1 vote for the night was the 1998 Tignanello.

Sunday was Superbowl at Guillaume's and we decided to throw him a surprise birthday party at the same time. He did not expect it. The Seahawks played against the Steelers. The Steelers walked away with the trophy...too bad, most people wanted the Seahawks to win.

Liam Pink Eyes

Yesterday Liam had "Pink Eyes" only in his one eye and wasn't allowed in the daycare (where he got it from), so Mandy stayed home with him all day. He also had his 1 year doctors visit. His doctor was very happy with his physical improvement, especially his weight. He received 3 shots (screamed the roof off). He also got prescriptions for vitamins/fluoride and also more eyedrops for his "Pink Eyes".

The 370 yard Drive

Tuesday Willem went to play The Ranch again - this time with Alan. Scored 97, which was only 13 shots better than last time! However, something happended that will probably not happen again anytime soon: on a 531 yard par 5, the drive ended up 155 yards from the hole. That would make it roughly a 370 yard drive! And we thought only Tiger Woods hit that far! Previous long was in the 320 range, so this was quite a step up. The greens and specifically the flag locations were brutal - if it isn't hard enough to get on the bloody greens, it happended twice that the only put avaliable was to first put off the green again and then get back on!!

Tumers and Guillaume Visit

Last night Kagan, Irem and Guillaume came over for dinner. We made a "potjie" and had some good wines. Liam got a nice Columbia Fleece. He was a bit cranky before they came, but the moment he saw Irem, he was all smiles until late in the evening. He went to bed around 10pm and woke at 7pm this morning....another solid night for us!

30th Opening his presents

Liam's birthday was the 30th on Monday and we opened all his presents that he got the previous day at his party. It was great fun and he was very excited while playing with all the new toys. We packed away the old ones for now.

He got a little car he can sit on while we push him along, needless to say he already had his first little accident and fell off, but it didn't bother him too much. He also got shapes, blocks, 2 pull-along toys, a lion, a play table, traffic light, cars, sippy cups, pop-toy, a monkey, a jacket, ect....