Skiing with the King (kind of)

Once we were back in Barcelona, we were itching to go skiing again. Sean's friend, Steve, wanted to go up to Baqueira/Beret the last weekend in January, and we definately did not say no to joining him!!! Really beautiful place, I can definately see why the King of Spain goes there to ski! It's a four hour drive, so we went up for the weekend. Worth it! Best skiing I'd had thus far.

The rest of 2011...

The last bit of 2011 was not all that interesting. Except for going to Geneva for Samantha's birthday. Sam picked us up from the airport and we stayed with her, which was lovely. She took us everywhere, in between organising her party! We went to a winter market, had a fondue, drank Gluwhein! Everything you want to do when in Switzerland! We're thining of going back sometime, and fitting in some skiing as well!

Back in Barcelona, as soon as there was snow, we went skiing, just to make sure my leg was good! It went well, and my ski's came off when I fell, which was great news!!!

Then it was Cape Town for the holidays! We really enjoyed that. Sean needed the break. We managed to get a dive in, which is what we really wanted to do! We spent great time with family and friends. Really special spending time with people when you don't see them that often!


It was fantastic spending time in Richard and Bee's new bar - the boys made some pink drinks.

We stayed with George and Corrianne and it was great coming home and then joining them in the bar for a few more drinks!

It really is great to get back to SA every year!

CRAZY EDDIE

Every year there is a conference for the International Federation of Essential oils & Aroma Trades (IFEAT). In 2011, this conference took place in Barcelona. This was a great time for Ed to see a few people and come and stay with us.

He arrived on a Thursday, and he & I took the bikes into Sant Cugat for a look around and a cup of coffee. We came back to cook dinner and get settled, get Ed used to the place, as he was going to be staying for 3 weeks.

Friday morning we went down to get the bikes again, and to our shock and horror, my bike had been stolen. Not to worry, Ed took Sean's bike and went gallivanting around the village all day! He really embraced the Spanish lifestyle of cycling!

If Ed didn't go exploring on the bike, he took the train into Barcelona and explored the city. He even managed to get a surf in!!!

This is a band that he saw and bought a CD from. He seemed to travell around quite a bit, see the city and all of that! It was awesome.

The following Wednesday, Juliette arrived. We picked her up from the airport and brought her home.

I left Thursday morning to go to Madrid to write exams, and only returned the following Thursday. The two of them spent the week attending the conference and keeping Sean company ;)

The last week they were here, the three of us did some exploring of Barcelona together. We went to Montserrat one day, which was beautiful as always! 

On the weekend, we went up the coast to visit family - Enric, Suzy and kids. We drove up and spent the night in Cadaques, then drove to Sant Feliu to have lunch. Sean and I went home and left Ed and Juliette to spend some more time with them. It was a great weekend, Cadaques was beautiful and definately worth seeing.

Their trip came to an end on the Thursday. Amazing time was had and I'm so glad they came to visit and experience where we live!

Party

It was coming up for my 30th, and we were getting visitors! Karin was visiting Roz in the UK, so they both flew to Barcelona for the weekend! It was such fun having them here!

On the Friday night, we had about 12 people in our little flat, and lots of wine was drunk! It was a great night, we should do it again!

On Saturday we went for a walk around Sant Cugat. Then we came home and had a few drinks and some dinner.

Roz left early on Sunday morning, so I took her to the airport while Sean & Karin went to the Irish pub to watch the rugby final. I joined them there afterwards. It was so crowded!

On the way back home, the three of us stopped in Sant Cugat and had a bottle of cava. It was a really lovely day. Karin left on Monday morning, so it was back to the books for me!

Not for long though, as Craig & Carol stayed with us for a couple of nights on their way back to SA. I met them in Barcelona on the Tuesday, and they left on Thursday to go to SA. It was just a quick stopover, but was so awesome to have them here!

Majorca

September was a quiet month for us. Just working for Sean & studying for me. It was nearly the end of the month when we realised that we wanted to visit Craig & Carol while they were in the Med, but had forgotten about that! So plans were made & tickets were booked and we flew to Majorca for the weekend at the beginning of October! What fun! So awesome to spend time relaxing with great people!

Such a beautiful place! It was really a great weekend.

Visitors!

It was about a week after I got back from SA when I went down to the port to pick up Duncan and Sel. They had come to visit and were going to be staying with us for a week! We were very excited!

The week went by far too quickly, but we did a lot in that week! They went in to Barcelona to have a look around on Thursday. Friday morning one of their friends came to stay for the weekend, and we joined Sean for a drink after work! She was really tired, so she had a nap!

Saturday we went to the Sitges, and lay on the beach all day! When we got back to Sant  Cugat, we went for a few drinks at the local! The girls even got up to sing!

 The week went by so fast, and they were gone too soon! But it was so great having them stay, and I look forward to seeing  Duncan in Australia!

Holiday time!

After getting back from London, we had about 3 weeks until we left for South Africa! We flew into Joburg and stayed with Paddy & Jo for the weekend. We spent a lot of time with Matt & Corlia & little baby Max! It was really awesome seeing everyone in Joburg, as there are a lot of people there that we don't see often enough!

We left Joburg, and headed for Cape Town!

First stop (more or less);

We went to SA in July for Corri's birthday! We were also able to fit in Jackie's 30th though, where we drank some wine!

We stayed in Le Franschoek, as we got a great deal, and headed to Zorgvliet for lunch on the Sunday to celebrate with Corri and the family! Was a great day at a beautiful setting, if a little cold!

One day, while Sean had a meeting, I had lunch with the girls!

Of course there was bubbly!!!
One night at Bee's:

We met up with Derek and Brandon at Forries.

Karin and Kevin went to Namibia for a holiday, so we joined them for their first three nights at the Orange River, where we stayed at Frontier, and spent time with Adam and Maudie. It was such fun and relaxing! Just what we needed!

We spent some time catching up with a lot of our friends! A great holiday all round, really.
Sean went back to Spain, but I stayed on to work on the farm while Ben & Ed went to Indonesia for a surf trip. It was an extra five weeks, but a good five weeks.
Before he left, we joined Bee for her birthday dinner at Beluga

I went to Interschools, which I hadn't done since I left school!!!

The Rugby that we saw!

Fun day, fun night! Not surprisingly, I didn't do much the next day!!!

Then there was a lunch at G & C's where there were 5 kids in the bath!!

I had a divine luch at Le Quartier Francais in Franschoek with my school friends

I had lunch with Stefan & Talita

And I spent some time with Ben when he got back from his trip

It was a good trip all round, but I was glad to go back home to Sean!