The Mini

The mini is virtually finished, one or two small little things still need to be done. Here it is. I am so proud of Andrew, he panel beated and spray painted the car himself. It was a job and a half, I kid you not. I knew that he could fix the engin and all that, but do the body so nicely? Eishhhh.

The colour is purple, but a really cool purple and it really suits Chantal and the mini.

The interior was done last week, turned from, what I call, Baby doef brown, to black, grey and purple. Looks really cool inside. This was done by professionals, but Andrew did all the panels, recovered the dash, still has one or two little things to finish there. Bottom line is Chantal is chuffed. What a huge improvement. Can't even compare.

The engine, was neat, tidied up, the wiring done properly as well. Nothing has worked as well from when we bought the car. I was always amazed, the lights had to be off to switch the car off. Now it works perfectly, like it should.

It just simply looks so good.

Chantal is so happy with the way the mini turned out, I am just as chuffed, it looks really good. Just to say, this is the first project that I really had minimal input, other than chirping, Andy helped, as did Chantal and even Paul, but really the man that gets all the credit is my very talented husband.

Well done, my Babes!!!!

Happy riding Bugz!!!! Enjoy your little Mini!!!!

Comrades

Sunday the 24th was the 84th Comrades marathon, starting at Pietermaritzburg and finishing in Durban. We were up at 03h45, to get Tracy on time to the starting point. Fortunately we slept at friends in Pietermaritzburg, the none runners only got to bed at after 24h00. Thanks to Mark and Micky for putting us up, and putting up with us, for the night.

Kevin and Andrew holding our very visible flag, we made 3 last year, each team made there own, this was ours. Makes it very easy for Tracy to see where we are amongst the crowds. This was the first stop - Lion Park, about 15 km from the start.

Just a random photo, the runners wear random hats, one was dressed up as a Santa. There is a guy that runs in his suit, complete with tie, only tekkies.

Tracy arriving at the first stop, taking her satchet, see the hat, it matches the sign, all for noticing her with. Here she was looking good, running at her best time so far. Must have been hard for Kevin not to be running as well, but he assured us, he did not miss it.

Just another random photo, when we were leaving to go to our next pit stop. Was very hard, Andy was meant to be at the next stop, which was Camperdown, but he could not get there and neither could we but we stopped then at Cato Ridge to wait and make sure Andy and Kim, just a friend, made it.

This was our final photo, Natasha and Bonita saw Tracy at Drummond, half way mark, but Tracy was in total agony, she had shin splints about two weeks ago and just rested, tried to go on, got strapped, had pain pills, which was a first for her on a run, they did not help. We could not get to our spot but managed to get here at the top of Hillcrest, 54 km's into the race, unfortunately this is the spot! Tracy just could not go any further. She walked from Drummond to here, which is about 15 km, and said that she was not going to cause herself some very serious injury.

Tracy still can't really walk on her right leg, has to go see the doctor tomorrow to see the damage. She went back home today. I am proud of her, as it must have been such a hard decision for her, as she had trained so hard this past year, was planning on running a 8.5 hour race, but has her sights set on a 7.5 hour race next year.

For George, you know what it takes to do this race, I guess this brings back good memories for you and Sharon and the kids.

Just to tell you this, the most disgusting thing of all, the cops made it so difficult for us to get to the usual spots, they were towing vehicles that had parked on the side of the highway to get to the runners that needed their support and whatever else. The cops here in South Africa really sucked yesterday, it was the first time I had actually seen them tow away cars, and GP cars at that. What were those people going to do to get to where ever they needed to be, and what if they had little children. It is one day a year. They close their eyes to the dreadful Taxi drivers because they are petrified of them, but on a day like yesterday, they tow away vehicles. It really sucks!!!!! South African COPS you are disgusting!!!!!!!! Sorry have to get that off my chest.

Comrades News

Don't have any Photo's but just to let you know that COMRADES is on the 24 th May - on my birthday, and we are going to be spending it next to the road, Tracy has worked hard at her training this year, I know she is going to do so well. We will sleep in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday night 23rd, with friends that have beens so kind to put us up, and be up early, to get Tracy on time to the start. We will operate as 3 different teams, Andy and Claire will have to be in one team and Tash and Bonita in the other and Kevin, Andrew and myself as the last team, Chantal has some or other orchestra performance on, so they will not be able to help. But I think with just Tracy running it will be so much easier to manage than when Tracy and Kevin ran. We will only be home later in the afternoon. Kevin turns the big 50 on the 21st of May and they will drive down on the 22nd. So the big count down starts ......... 13 days to comrades!

Wedding Photos

In the Chapel
Grant, Charma and us!

You can see all the Willemse's in this photo, just not all facing the Camera. See if you can find them.

Just us having fun.

Father and Daughter!

The formal family Photo

We all got dressed seriously smartly for Charma and Grants wedding, so we decided to take a picture of us as a family before we left for the wedding. I would have liked something less formal, something outside with some plants and landscape, but the baas van die plaas, set this up and who am I to argue, especially as it is us ladies that normally are running late, so time was of the essence. So guys, here we are at our very bestest.

Friday was a public holiday, so I went shopping for the formal outfit, dragged Andrew with me to help me choose, and this is what we found. Other than my wedding dress I have never worn something really smart like this. The dress really held it all in for me (and I mean the excess flesh). Got back from that shopping spree, then we had to go to the rehearsal dinner, as Chantal was playing the Clavinova (electronic piano) for the wedding and then her keyboard for the Cocktail hours. Her friend Jocelyn and Reinhardt, both from KZN Youth Orchestra, played the violin's with her. We had to take the piano and keyboard and set up early on Friday, so we had a lovely braai at the venue, which is absolutely stunning. We got home pretty late from that because Hillcrest is about 45 min from Toti and we were driving in two cars.

On Saturday Chantal declares that her dress that she has is way to big for her now, so what do we do, we go shopping again. Had to dash, and so that made us a tad bit behind time because we wanted to be there early so that the musicians don't get stressed and mess up. But they did well, really well, it was a first for Chantal, and we were proud of her. The wedding was really stunning, obviously had fun, Andrew and I danced alot with Chantal, Andy graced us with his dancing skills for about two songs, but we had lots of fun. Sat at a table with some lovely people.

This morning was waking up, shopping again - but for food this time, catching up with the washing, cooking Sunday lunch, then Wilma and Charma popped in quickly, Norman, Lyly and Grant had to fly back tonight from Jhb, Wilma and Charma leave on Wednesday.

I feel sorry for Charma and Grant that he has to get back to the USA so quickly, but they will be together again soon. They are going to be living with Norman and Wilma.