The Vogels

2008-03-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

Our babies!

Matt and Becks are getting married!!!!!!!!

2008-03-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

22-03-2008

This is Matt on the morning of his wedding. The boys all went for a dawny and Melony and I sat on the beach and watched the beautiful sunrise.

Yay for Matt and Becks!!!!!

Ah! my gorgeous love!

Hee hee. John caught the garter and his girlfriend Bronwyn caught the bouquet! Sweet!

2008-03-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

Fun times with our Ladysmith friends

River of Life church camp

2008-03-12T11:17:00.000-07:00

Our church went to Greystone for the weekend. We were only able to go on the Saturday afternoon 'cause Ett was supposed to work. On the way we got caught in heavy rain and hail! It was quite fun. There were only a few of us at the camp but it was great to meet people properly and to get to know them. It was also so nice just to get away for a bit.

Ill add more later....

2008-02-26T09:30:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRFDAY TO ME...................

Shame. Ett had to work on his birthday,so that evening we went to "Sonja's Pizza" for dinner. Then on Saturday evening some of our weird but special Ladysmith friends came over for birthday cake(that I unfortunately didnt bake) and coffee.

We had fun.

IT WAS A SPIDERMAN PARTY

2008-02-23T04:33:00.000-08:00

These are some of our friends here in Ladysmith. They're an interesting bunch.

Our latest happenings...

2008-02-23T03:41:00.000-08:00

Ahhhh! I had to add this photo! This is a baby caracal. Isnt she beautiful?!! A friend that I work with had to bring it to school. Some african guy on someones farm caught this caracal. The owner of the farm gave it to my friend in hope to raise it and rehablitate it. Apparently they are almost impossible to tame properly. it's such a feisty little lady. She hissed and growled quite a bit the first few days but she's calming down now. Soo cute!

These are my kiddies from Hamilton. They had a watermelon day where they ate as much watermelon as they could and played in the sprinklers. They had lots of fun.

2008-01-26T08:46:00.000-08:00

So here is our new car, bling bling ek se.... hehe!

It's the new Hyundai Accent, it's a 1.6 GLS, 16valve HS (high spec) with the SR Sports kit.

The interior is very nicely rounded off, loads of compartments and cup holders and the dual tone gives it just that much more of an exclusive look. It's has electric windows & mirrors. Airbags on on both sides, ABS, A/C and MP3/CD radio player.

The engine is a 1.6 litre 16 valve with CVVT (Continuous Variable Valve Timimg) with fuel injection. In other words, sy bliksem!

Overall it is a very comfortable ride and good value for money.

Geez i could go work for hyundai selling cars... or not!

Anyway if you wondering, the color is Gold Beige with Beige interior.

Ciao for now, vroom!

Jeremy's birthday

2008-01-25T23:18:00.000-08:00

This was such a beautiful day. We went up to the midlands for Jeremy's birthday. We wanted to go tubing and ended up at Mother Goose. It was sunny and warm, perfect weather. The river was nice and calm so we just drifted slowly along the river. Eventually we realised we had drited a bit far and decided to walk back. We walke dthrough a farm and apparently if the guy who owns the farms sees you there he shoots at you! We didnt know this. We thought we were still on Mother Goose territory.Luckily we got back safely.

Christmas with the family!

2008-01-25T22:27:00.000-08:00

This was our christmas. It was small and quiet but we had a lovely day.

Presents!!!!! Huh?

Our trip to the burg

2007-12-05T09:39:00.000-08:00

We has quite a nice trip to the burg on tuesday. Ett had 2 days off work, and ladysmith isn't the most exciting place. Luckily the central drakensburg is not even an hours drive from our house. (Well, that's if you take the right road. ) We missed the turn-off and went via Winterton's farm roads. So it took us a little longer. It had been raining so we had fun navigatng these muddy roads. My love enjoyed his rally driving.

This place is called Thokozisa. its a touristy place really, with all the curio shops selling the typical african stuff. Its a beautiful place and we enjoyed just wondering around and seeing what there is to see.

We also went to Dragon Peaks resort, where the Drakensburg Boys choir is. We just had some lunch and walked aound a bit. The guy who owns the place has started a church on the estate. it's an NMCI church. Itcs held in that little hall on the island in the dam.

We had a fun day. We'll do it again sometime.

Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme (my work)

2007-12-02T07:22:00.000-08:00

Well for anyone who doesn't know, im working for a Italian company which is in a joint venture with Eskom to build a power station, at the moment we're busy with the tunneling system which will house the turbines etc.

So without furhter ado, here are some pictures of where i work.This first one is the layout of our entire works area.

MAT

So this is the MAT (Main Access Tunnel).

We're about 20m out of 1500m done. They were busy charging the face of the tunnel here, which means that they had just inserted the dynamite and is now inserting the charges which ignites the dynamite, obviously...

Shotcrete

This process here is called Shotcreting, a high pressure hose applies shotcrete onto a surface that needs reinforcing. Shotcrete is the international primary support for tunneling systems, it's mixed design is quite differerent from concrete and must be quite exact and go through numerous chemical and strength testing before it will be approved for application. Every 3 metres or so we have to submit a core sample to the lab for analysis and testing.

Open Cut

This is the Open Cut, its like the drive way to the MAT, the previous picture was a wall of the Open Cut being shotcreted. This is not a recent picture though, quite a bit has changed sicnce this was taken.

Well that's it for now, next time i'll go through the CAT (Construction Access Tunnel)

Ciao for now.

2007-12-02T06:54:00.000-08:00

This is our house in Ladysmith. It's a house that has been divided into three flats. Its situated in a lovely area and overlooks a game reserve. We have a little two bedroom flat (so you're welcome to come stay). At the moment I am being a real little housewife. Ett works and I stay at home and clean, cook and do washing and laze around. Its been quit nice to have a little holiday, but it gets quite boring. Luckily I'm gonna start working next year. I'll be teaching at a new school called Hamilton. I'll be teaching Grade 2, and I have 16 kids in my class next year. What a blessing!

2007-12-02T06:42:00.000-08:00

These are my children in Swaziland. They are my Grade 2 class. For our outing we went to Maputo, Mocambique. Many of the children had never seen he sea before, (this sea was so calm it was nore like a lagoon) and they had so much fun swimming and collecting shells. Shame, I miss them.....

Our new family

2007-12-02T06:18:00.000-08:00

These are our children, Hadassah and Luther. We smuggled them in from Swaziland. Hadassah is the oldest. I found her on the side of the road, and couldn't resist taking her, I felt sorry for her. She was alone and her mother had probably been killed. The people in Swaziland don't really look after animals well so I decided to take her home. It was a good decision. It gave Ett something to do. She is now a real Daddy's girl. Luther is my baba. I found him in a drain which was flooded the next day. He came to school with me each day and the kids loved him and he enjoyed them.