ALOE GLORY - 25 June 2006

Winter time is aloe blooming time. I went trigger happy over the weekend attentive to capture the beautiful orange spectrum of colours featuring in our garden at the moment.

When our garden was initially landscaped, aloes were those uninteresting desert plants that you see next to the freeway whilst on your way to a holiday destination and I could not warm to them. I had a complete change of heart a year after our garden was complete. The different colours and textures of aloe plants gave depth to the garden. And when they flower during winter the garden is transformed with a fusion of orange tints everywhere.

'Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in a tree, the trembling of a leaf.' - Albert Schweitzer

- Aloe infused signing off

25 JUNE '06 WEEKEND SCRAPPING

The oil heater was set to its maximum on this chilly Sunday, while I scrapped away to complete this layout of pictures we took at the surprise birthday party my dear friends had thrown me (see previous blog entry dated 7 May 2006).

Sophia made a lovely birthday card on behalf of everyone which I disassembled (sorry Sophia) and used the colourful fibres and fabric flower which co-ordinated well with my colour choice. It was a fun layout to do using rubber stamp words and bright colours.

Thanks once again to all the Pick-of-the-Crop girls for spoiling me.

Here's another layout, which I started during our Midlands Meander weekend, and finished off this weekend. It was a challenge to get the whole Fourie family (all 18 of them) on one layout and I was proud of rising to the challenge. The versatile Basic Grey Blitzen range of paper made for an easy colour scheme choice. The stamping was done with acrylic stamps.

- Weekend Scrapper signing off

OUR HOUSE IS ON SHOW - Treasured Moments (Issue 6)

This layout which I did of our house, with the aid of a stencil I designed for Ellie Griffiths (Alleycat Scrapbooking) and her husband Philip to manufacture, was published in a South African magazine 'Treasured Moments' under the 'Teachers' section.

This was the write-up that appeared with the layout in the magazine:

TIPS: This layout was done with a stencil/template that I designed for which I got the idea from an advert on the Durban Pavilion Shopping Centre. Looking more closely at the graphic designs used in magazines and adverts could spark inspiration for your future layouts. MOTIVATION:

We often forget to take photos of our homes and as we move on the memories of our past homes fade. Having done this layout I knew that we will always have a visual memory of this house we made our home.

We have an indigenous garden and the white irises were in full bloom one sunny afternoon and I had to take the opportunity of capturing them. The specks of white formed a nice frame around the photos of our home.

My students were quite proud of me and like they say: 'Now we can also say we know a celebrity'.

- Home grown signing off

MIDLANDS MAGIC - 16 to 18 June 2006 What a relaxed, mellow Meandering weekend we had. We booked ourselves in at Thatchings (http://www.thatchings.co.za/main.htm), situated in the heart of the Midlands Meander, for Friday and Saturday night – making full use of the looooong weekend.

We left home base round about 11:00 on Friday after having watched the first ten gold medal finishers of the Comrades Marathon flying through the finish completing the uprun from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. It was quite uplifting to witness 7 of the top 10 finishers being South Africans. We crawled along the N3 towards Pietermaritzburg while dodging various support vehicles parking off along the freeway trying to spot their Comrades runner/plodder making their way along the Comrades route on the Old Main Road between Durban and PMB. The athletes could not have asked for more perfect weather. We reached Thatchings round about lunch time and sat down for a hamburger lunch on the chilly patio overlooking several trout dams. The winter weather up in the Midlands definitely asked for ‘long johns’ which of course was not at hand. The rest of the afternoon was spent scrapbooking (getting a fix) and hubby working/playing on his laptop. All this was going on whilst we had stunning 180 degree views of the trout dams and some wildlife (impala, zebras and wild hares) frequenting the dams and garden. After sunset everyone moved into the lounge area sipping sundowners and curling up in front of a warm and snug log fire, waiting for dinner to be served. Dinner was excellent. Hearty butternut soup, stuffed chicken breasts, lamb chops and various veggies accompanied by a good bottle of wine and rounded off with hot malva poeding and custard. Before dinner we switched on all three heaters in our bedroom, the electric blanket as well as the heater in the bathroom and we still got cold! On Saturday morning, after a pleasant stroll through the surrounding areas of the trout dams and capturing some ‘Winter in the Midlands’ photos we enjoyed breakfast and set off for our first day of serious Meandering. We were quite disappointed with a number of the shops and venues which appeared to be a bit unkept.

At Marakesh and Swissland Cheese we purchased some very tasty hard cheeses and cream cheeses. The cheese pantry at home is now well stocked! Savoury and Sweet Pancakes at Mulberry Hill was a definite lunch time stop after which we meandered back to Thatchings just in time for the rugby match between Scotland and SA – which we won for a change. I did not watch it though. I scrapped away while listening to score updates on the radio. Dinner once again was outstanding! We left Thatchings on Sunday morning (Father’s Day) after breakfast meandering our way back home stopping at numerous leather shops, Ground Cover being one of them where Conroy purchased a pair of ‘SIZE 13’ cow leather shoes. Jim Green/Jeep’s shop was also a worthwhile stop and we ended up purchasing some nice long sleeved Jeep T-shirts with zipper necks for me (got spoilt by hubby once again) and a shirt for Conroy, whilst listening to a tame Falcon bird perching on a tree stump, screeching away! I was just very glad that I did not work in this freezing all stone building whilst listening to a screeching falcon. Must say, this made me very appreciative of my job! All in all it was a weekend during which we could unwind and come back with recharged batteries ready for whatever life throws at us. - Meandering Magic signing off

PICTURESQUE MAKARANGA - Saturday to Sunday, 3/4 June 2006 : Kloof, Durban A truly exciting and hilarious weekend has come and gone. I hosted a photographic workshop for some of my students at Makaranga. This being my first attempt at improving my scrapbooking students’ photographs by teaching them composition skills, initially had me anxious and nervous.

Me and hubby (Conroy) arrived just before 8am (dress for the winter chills) to get me set up in the conference room. We were quite disappointed, that after more than an hour’s fiddling, the slideshow relayed through the venue’s proxima showed the slideshow images at a much lower resolution compared to that on the laptop. We enjoyed a tranquil breakfast before the girls arrived. By the way -Makaranga’s MUFFINS is a MUST! The weekend officially kicked off at 10:00am with a 2-hour theory session (accompanied by a slideshow) in Makaranga’s small and intimate conference room called ‘Imbizo’. On completion of the theory session each delegate received their practical worksheet for the rest of the weekend which had everyone frantically searching for settings like, ‘macro’, ‘sports mode’, ‘scenery mode’, ‘flash functions’ and ‘portrait mode’ on their cameras. Needless to say, the practical worksheet had everyone in a serious FLAT spin!. Everyone checked into their rooms and sat down for ‘LUNCH WITH A VIEW’ onto the breathtaking gardens! The spirits were high and the girls couldn’t wait to start exploring the gardens through their lenses. The MACRO and SPORTS MODE settings were truly discovered during the afternoon’s shooting of flowers and of which there were an abundance of colours, sizes and species. With numerous ponds and streams capturing of reflections was also experimented with as well as shooting the numerous interesting statues and figurines. A wedding was in full swing in the gardens during the Saturday afternoon practical and the guests couldn’t ask for better entertainment with women of ‘various ages’, shapes and sizes lying on their backs, leopard crawling through bushes, staring through their lenses at ‘don’t know what’ and bending over forwards and backwards and huddling together inspecting each others cameras!

Beverley who at one stage said that she thought she was just coming to the weekend for the ride – was taking the lead in not only entertaining the wedding guests but more so the rest of the photography party!! She had us all in stitches with ‘o koek’ and ‘ag shame’, wet bum and all!! At 5:30 everyone hurried back into the conference room anxiously awaiting sight of their newly found composition skills on the big screen. Images were frantically downloaded from cameras and memory sticks onto laptops, flash disks and CD’s with cabling flying everywhere (so much for a cordless era). I was amazed at how fast the girls have learned. There was no need for me to even crit their shots. They ‘sommer’ critted each other’s images and instantly knew what was ‘bad’ composition and what was ‘excellent’ composition. They could not believe that they have taken the photos themselves!! Time flew and at 8pm we placed an order for dinner at the Bangkok Wok in Hillcrest. Mr Delivery alias Conroy delivered our sumptuous morsels at 9:00pm, fishing for a tip. After dinner the ‘hyped up’ but tired girls scrapbooked for an hour and were off to bed at about 11pm agreeing to meet at 7am for a pre-breakfast shooting session in the gardens. Braving a freezing Sunday morning the girls ventured off into the gardens at 7am. They were briefed to concentrate on people, portraits and scenery utilizing the soft and forgiving early morning light. Needless to say the SELF TIMER was Sunday’s discovery! The girls shot off into different directions, some even commissioning themselves for self-portraits! After breakfast the early morning shots were once again downloaded and critted. The girls discovered that they had wrinkles in places where they never even imagined they had. Hair and noses also got critted and facelifts were given serious consideration. The group ventured for the last time into the gardens before lunch with the aim to capture the ‘crazy daisies’ as a group in various locations in the garden. Getting nine women to pose and smile at a self timer was a serious mission – imagine attempting this with nine men? Notice, I am not answering this question. For in case you have wondered what a photographic shooting party do without a model – the group were very fortunate to have Nicole Fisher (professional model), Stella’s daughter amongst our midst for the whole weekend. If you have every wondered what true natural beauty looks like – here it is! Thank you so much Nicole for letting the ladies take advantage of you!

We had a PILGRIM in our midst, Rayna. She and four other friends are walking from the Alps to Rome. Rayna is sure to capture their adventure with stunning photos. Read all about their adventure on http://vfpilgrims.blogspot.com/ . They will be keeping their blog updated along the route via internet cafe's.

Another adventurous soul in our midst was Retha. She and her husband are on their way to conquer Kilimanjaro (a Kili climb) in July. Retha is very concerned about the cold. Don’t stress Retha just concentrate on the composition of great photos and the cold will be forgotten.

http://www.tanzania-web.com/mount_kilimanjaro/mount_kilimanjaro.htm

So girls, when are we having our next photographic weekend away and where? Perhaps the other halves could join us! We also need to catch up on Rayna's and Retha's adventures! - Makaranga Blues Signing off

THE SAMSUDINS DEFEATED BY ALEXANDERCOX - Wednesday, 31 May 2006 The firm ‘AlexanderCox Attorneys’, where have been employed as a legal secretary and bookkeeper since February 2002, struck victory today when after nearly 5 years of vicious legal battles finally sequestrated the Samsudin’s estate. Here is a write-up that appeared in the Legalbrief: “The R60m SA estate of businessman Dato Samsudin Bin Abu Hassan and his socialite wife, Melleney, will be finally sequestrated after the couple failed in their appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal yesterday. The couple have been involved in a protracted legal battle in their bid to prevent the final sequestration of their joint estate, says a report in The Mercury. On January 19 last year Judge Phillip Levinsohn ordered in Pietermaritzburg that the estate be finally sequestrated in a reserved judgment in which he ruled in favour of the liquidator of NRB Holdings, Pierre Berrange. In the 80-page judgment handed down at the time, Levinsohn found that Dato Samsudin – former chairman of the collapsed New Republic Bank – was guilty of misappropriating shares worth more than R40m from NRB Holdings in July 2002, and that he had committed various acts of insolvency.”

The good news was received at 09:30am and whilst a wave of EUPHORIA swept through the offices, AlexanderCox was officially announced closed for the rest of the day and 31 MAY was DECLARED an ALEXANDERCOX PUBLIC HOLIDAY! The legal team and support teams left for Tala Game Reserve where celebrations were in full swing for the remainder of the day. Here’s a photo I took at Tala of the whole Euphoric bunch – needless to say after numerous glasses of alcoholic beverages:

Back row:

Yours truly, Laurence Broster SC (senior counsel), Campbell Alexander (leading attorney, and my boss), Pierre Berrangé (the liquidator), Debbie Cox (Manager LitigAID), Julian Cox (attorney and my second boss), Gavin Morley SC (senior counsel)

Front row:

The Document Management Team (LitigAID) known as THE SISTERS - Jenny Mountain, Gerry Prior, Heather Potts, Glynis Askew, Penny Waymark and Thanusha Padayachee (Julian Cox’s legal secretary)

Absent:

Linda Musgrove and Julie Dawson (LitigAID Sisters)

- On a winning spree – Signing off