Are we Really Inspirational?

I quite regularly get friends back in blighty or even people who follow my blog saying to me that our story is inspirational but I am genuinely unsure whether that tag really sits well with me if I’m honest. I promise you right now that this blog is not a metaphorical fishing rod looking for …

First Term Report

As we are now embarking on the school holidays here in South Africa I thought that it would be quite pertinent of me to report on our own first term here in the Western Cape just as the children have finished theirs at school. So let’s start right there, with the girls and their school. …

Dear South Africa……….

I have been in South Africa for 12 weeks nearly now and I’ve been trying to think of a way that I can express how my feelings towards this country are as there are so many things to talk about both positively and negatively so I think a good old fashioned letter may well do …

It’s A Family Affair

I was told growing up that many things will test you and your family as you yourself grow older and that because of that life becomes invariably tougher.  ‘Don’t wish your life away’ I was told metronomically by my Mum and Dad as a kid and lo and behold, 35 years on, how I wished …

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

It’s exactly two months to the day that Mikaela and I jumped on that plane from Heathrow with our beautiful girls to Cape Town and what a rollercoaster of a journey it has been so far. We’ve gone from two minute noodles that required a kettle to be cooked to three course meals on our …

Is There a Cure for Homesickness?

  The world of medicine simply baffles me.  You can get a new heart, lungs and kidneys sewn into you and you can even have parts of your body replaced in the space of a few hours yet no one in the world has come up with a tonic for homesickness yet! Travel sickness, motion …

The 21 Year wait to Fulfil a British and Irish Lions Pilgrimage and Make Dad Proud

  Rugby has and always will be king in any household that I live in but growing up my poor mother had to deal with it 24/7. If it wasn’t the Five Nations, it was Rugby Special on a Sunday and if it wasn’t a home mini rugby game it was a three hour round …

Mr. Mary-Anne

There have been three fairly stock questions that I get asked from friends and family on Whatsapp and on the phone since we arrived in South Africa just over 6 weeks ago and they are generally in this precise order: How is Mikaela coping with living in her Mom’s house? How are the kids settling …

Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Container

The magic of Christmas was probably lost on me by the age of 12 or 13 when I came downstairs one night to find Father Christmas munching through our sacred box of Quality Street rather than the stale Mince Pie and Milk we had left for him. I had never forgiven him for that until …

The Resilience of our Cape Crusaders

As it turns out real super heroes don’t wear capes. They wear size 6 pull up nappies and size 7 bright orange sandals.  They are also called Issy and Emilie and they just so happen to be our daughters which is pretty cool! Our friends and family back in the U.K. persistently said to us …