Walking with friends on the farm - the trees to the right of the photo are the ones at the bottom of our garden I can’t believe that the first month of 2009 is already over ! January was a busy month for us, even though we were hoping for a quieter one after the hectic rush of the Christmas season, holidays, socializing, having my parents here etc.
January saw us hosting a few company lunches and teas out at the farm (prospective clients, current clients and directors from our head office in Holland). This kept me busy, especially a lunch 2 weekends ago for 12 people in total, which I catered for entirely alone – thank goodness for Justin’s help in the kitchen (his sister, Upendo, also came in to work that weekend) with the washing up, clearing and serving. The oven of my gas stove is quite small, it doesn’t have a warming drawer and although I have a microwave oven (which I only ever use for heating food in) this can’t run all the time as for the better part of the day we run the electricity in the house on battery power. Still, everything went well and the lunch (a roast rolled leg of pork with all the trimmings) was enjoyed by everyone.
We’ve also had friends over to the farm (some expat friends dropped in on us unexpectedly a few weekends ago, they are currently living and working in Uganda so had lots of things to tell us about that beautiful East African country – I have never been) and have been getting together with our neighbours for regular Sunday lunches.
My daughter has completed the first half of her new school term, and is already on half term break – yay, that means no 3 hour round trips to school for at least 10 days ! My husband and I share the care of the school gardens with another couple, so we’ve also been at the school doing gardening (or should I say, overseeing one of our farm gardeners - Hemmed - and his lawnmower !) and attended a school parent’s meeting & light lunch at a private Game Lodge last week – the kids were all kept occupied by child minders who took them down to see Zebra, Wildebeest (Enu) and Impala drinking from the lodge water hole & I couldn’t help but think how lucky they all are (without even knowing it !) as most children here grow up around wildlife and for them seeing a Zebra or Lion so close-up is merely part of life and nothing out of the ordinary !
My pregnancy is going well and seems to be going really quickly this time round – I have just over 3 months to go and seeing as I rapidly gained around 25 kg’s (55 lb’s) when pregnant with my daughter and have only gained 3 kg’s (6,6 lb’s) this pregnancy so far, I’m confident that I’m managing it much better this time than I did the last time – I think the second time around you are much wiser as you know that advice like “you should be eating for 2, you know !” and “the pregnancy weight will just fall off you after the baby is born, especially if you breastfeed” is utter nonsense !
So, that’s what I’ve been up to this past month and February looks to be just as busy – just thought that I’d write this post to catch up and let you know what I’ve been getting up to this year so far, and I hope that you’ve all had a great start to 2009 so far, too !
January saw us hosting a few company lunches and teas out at the farm (prospective clients, current clients and directors from our head office in Holland). This kept me busy, especially a lunch 2 weekends ago for 12 people in total, which I catered for entirely alone – thank goodness for Justin’s help in the kitchen (his sister, Upendo, also came in to work that weekend) with the washing up, clearing and serving. The oven of my gas stove is quite small, it doesn’t have a warming drawer and although I have a microwave oven (which I only ever use for heating food in) this can’t run all the time as for the better part of the day we run the electricity in the house on battery power. Still, everything went well and the lunch (a roast rolled leg of pork with all the trimmings) was enjoyed by everyone.
We’ve also had friends over to the farm (some expat friends dropped in on us unexpectedly a few weekends ago, they are currently living and working in Uganda so had lots of things to tell us about that beautiful East African country – I have never been) and have been getting together with our neighbours for regular Sunday lunches.
My daughter has completed the first half of her new school term, and is already on half term break – yay, that means no 3 hour round trips to school for at least 10 days ! My husband and I share the care of the school gardens with another couple, so we’ve also been at the school doing gardening (or should I say, overseeing one of our farm gardeners - Hemmed - and his lawnmower !) and attended a school parent’s meeting & light lunch at a private Game Lodge last week – the kids were all kept occupied by child minders who took them down to see Zebra, Wildebeest (Enu) and Impala drinking from the lodge water hole & I couldn’t help but think how lucky they all are (without even knowing it !) as most children here grow up around wildlife and for them seeing a Zebra or Lion so close-up is merely part of life and nothing out of the ordinary !
My pregnancy is going well and seems to be going really quickly this time round – I have just over 3 months to go and seeing as I rapidly gained around 25 kg’s (55 lb’s) when pregnant with my daughter and have only gained 3 kg’s (6,6 lb’s) this pregnancy so far, I’m confident that I’m managing it much better this time than I did the last time – I think the second time around you are much wiser as you know that advice like “you should be eating for 2, you know !” and “the pregnancy weight will just fall off you after the baby is born, especially if you breastfeed” is utter nonsense !
So, that’s what I’ve been up to this past month and February looks to be just as busy – just thought that I’d write this post to catch up and let you know what I’ve been getting up to this year so far, and I hope that you’ve all had a great start to 2009 so far, too !
