Entering 2013 is a signifant year for our family with the children each entering a new phase of their lives. Christelle turned 21 in 2012 and graduated with a B.Comm (Financial Accounting) after a very difficult year for her when she shattered her leg in January 2012. Stefane finished matric and was offered a full scholarship to study in Youngstown, USA. Her depature in Janauary 2013 was much earlier than anticpated and our summer holiday was mingled with excitem...

16 December: Early Sunday morning and Adriaan and I (and our Jeep) were on the road for a a week of off-roading through the rugged mountains of the Karoo. Once we hit the dirt road on our way to the Witteberg Private Nature Reserve I let Adriaan do the driving. It was his first real experience driving longer distances and he thorougly enjoyed it. Arriving at Witteberg we were besides the owner the only people - somehting I liked but scared Adriaan especially wh...

Today I attended SACS Founders' Day, the oldest school in South Africa, established 1829. It was a moving ceremony recounting the history of SACS and we are priviliged to have such a fine school which our boys can attend. This is the extract which Adriaan delivered during the ceremony: These were all building blocks in the history of our school. However… We must never take what we have for granted. We must remember the generations of students before us who...

Today we are celebrating Christelle's 21 birthday at Dunes Restaurant. We are proud of her and this is my message to her. So now you're Twenty One years old And here's a line to say How many happy joys are wished For you upon this day And just another word or so About the future too May happiness go with you, May all your hopes come true, And in the most delightful ways May life be good to you! And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are her...

On America's Independance Day I decided to write about my love for Jeeps, the American vehicle who has played such a major part in the liberation of Europe during WWII and subsequenlty in many other parts of the world. My love for Jeeps started as a young school boy who always saw the Jeep in war movies. As a teenager we visited family in the Bushveld near Alma and we went into the mountains with a 1960s CJ5. In my high school days I wanted to rebuild an old Wag...