Throwback Thursday : 1992 highlights and special memories

My Mum and Dad had moved from Cape Town up to Johannesburg during the latter part of 1991.  Our thinking was that my Dad would be happier being closer to us all.  That didn’t happen.

January :    New Years Day 1992 with Ian, Kathy and children, hubby’s Mum and Dad and my Mum and Dad

…  Girls soaking up the sun!!    Jeanette and Natalie (Gallagher) – varsity buddies

April :  Elaine started ballet at nursery school and loved it !!!

May :   Picnicking at the Vaal River with my Mum and Dad …

It was actually May 1st, my Mums birthday, and Elaine lost her first baby tooth!!  .. Then lost it in the long grass !!!   She was most upset !!  I had to write a letter to the Tooth Fairy that night ..

… French knitting ..

..   Hubby, Elaine and I had a short break at Sondela Nature Reserve in Limpopo situated about 90 minutes from Johannesburg …

It was lovely.  No Big Five (lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino) roaming around so we could walk through the bushveld at our leisure spotting zebra, giraffe, plenty of warthogs, several buck species and an abundance of birdlife

Covered path leading to a hide overlooking a waterhole ..

There was a kiddies farmyard …  her love of horses began

Not far from Sondela is a small town, Bela Bela (used to be called Warmbaths) where there is a Mineral Bath.  It’s part of a huge resort but in those days it wasn’t as large as it is now and because it was midweek, it was empty.  We had the whole pool and mineral bath to ourselves ..

 

Later in May :  My eldest brother Richard came down from Zimbabwe to spend a few days with my Mum and Dad ..

July  :   Ballito .. again !    We rented the same unit in the same block – The Boulders

Carl ditched his fishing rod but was still determined to catch a fish with Elaine’s kiddies fishing net … for Elaine of course 😉  small pic in collage above .. Carl in between the rocks trying to catch that elusive fish!!!
‘Bottoms up’   (Carl on right 🙂 )   … still trying !!!!

Something you no longer see in Ballito .. octopus caught on the rocks.  Last year we had a chat with a local couple who were gathering their quota of mussels and they said the abundance of fish, crayfish and lobster had diminished drastically over the last 20 years (btw this one was put back into the sea once he’d shown the children)

We always spent our afternoons scrambling over the rocks ..

This little guy came to say hello just about every day ..

It must have been a miz day for us to find something to do like 10-pin bowling …

My aunt and uncle, Marjie and John (Marjie being my Dad’s sister) popped in for tea from Hillcrest.  My parents had rented their own apartment

August :   Elaine’s 6th birthday with friends from Wonderland Nursery School (her cake was a hat cake, made by me of course)   (note to Elaine – all their names are at the back of the pic.  Do you spot  Desirée ?:)  Elaine’s friend through primary school

September  :  Kevin’s 3rd birthday …

October  :    Nursery school end of year concert.  Elaine was a bear in her first ballet appearance on stage and a waitress in a segment ‘ Have you seen the Muffin Man’

Our doggies .. Dennis and Scampy ..

December  :  Elaine’s graduation from Wonderland Nursery School with her teacher, Mrs Helen Tracey ..

Christmas Eve :

My Dad had been very ill with pneumonia before Christmas so Richard drove down on Christmas Eve from Zimbabwe to spend Christmas with us, as a surprise for my parents, as well as us as it was a very last minute decision.   He arrived early Christmas morning …

Mum and Dad were very surprised.. my Dad quite stunned !!   Poor Dad had lost tons of weight with the pneumonia and never gained again

Men at work .. carving the meat.  Look at my old kitchen .. rather ugly I would say !!!  Late 70’s style and I only had those two cupboards where hubby was standing and one under the kitchen sink!!    Gosh, I see I didn’t even have drawers!!!!  How on earth I coped, I have no idea!  With a family of five too !!!

This is the last photograph, that I have, taken of Mum and Dad with the three of us … their children.   We were all together for Richard and Pauline’s wedding, but I can’t recall a ‘Keay’  photograph without our spouses …

… and this was the last photo of the three of us together until 2009 !!

17 years later Richard and Pauline came out to Somerset West from England to see my Mum in the old aged home .. an opportunity for a sibling piccie 🙂

…