A Letter from Megs grade 1 Teacher

We have had a few difficult moments since Meg started grade 1 this year. For me, this letter from her teacher was the ultimate!

Meg is at a very wealthy private school and lots of the parents are your typical private school parents. Lots have more money than sense and another big group only have 1 child.

I'm a very intolerant person, I know that. Since I had triplets my tolerance for single parent families has gone down the tube. And this letter says it all!

Dear parents,

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO YOU ALL.

I have had a number of complaints from parents about the girls not eating their lunch. This is just to keep you in the loop and to let you know that I have been trying very hard to ensure that they do eat their lunch -

For instance - they cannot go to the tuck shop until they have eaten their lunch.

The comments I have heard are as follows:

- I don't like anything in my lunch box
- My au pair didn't pack the right lunch
- I don't like ham and cheese together - well take off the ham and you can eat it separately. LATER... I forgot, I don't like cheese, I like ham.
- I don't eat the sandwich my mummy gave me.
- I don't like peanuts. Or fruit or the other stuff.
- Biltong is horrible.

I am not sure what to do about this as it seems many of you are packing lunches your children do not want to eat?????

My response to the teacher... " Don't stress, she won't starve herself "!!!!!!!!!!!!

Road Rage

I've always heard of road rage, but didn't think I'd ever have the "joy" of experiencing it first hand. Well on Monday this week, it was my time!!!



Hannah had physio / PT in Pinelands which is all the way across town - in rush hour traffic. Roland left very early to drop Megan off at school then take Hannah. It worked well because he was on his way to a client in that area anyway. I knew I had to leave by 7:30am at the latest to take the boys to school and get through to Pinelands to fetch Hannah at 8:45. We left home at 7:15am so I stopped nearby to get a take-out coffee.

To get onto the freeway (highway US / motorway UK) I had to turn across the local traffic. I got half way across no problem, then had to wait a bit. Eventually it cleared apart from a car in the further lane, allowing me to turn into the closer one. Luckily as I started to drive, she decided to change lanes without indicating. I saw what she was doing and stopped. She went around and cut infront of me.

As we got into the major intersection ahead, she slammed on brakes. Getting a fright, I did too, so was close behind her. She got out of her car, leaving the driver side door open and walked towards me. Then I noticed a child, roughly 2 years old, STANDING on the FRONT passenger seat. How completely irresponsible!

I opened my window to see what she wanted. Bad move, her language was excrutiating. She screamed and yelled at me, called me every name and four letter word you can think of. I was very calm, said to her that the only problem was that she had changed lanes without indicating.

She lost it completely and started kicking and hitting my car. By this point my 2 little 4 year old boys were distraught. Can you imagine children having to see that?

I am totally, completely gobsmacked!!! I did not realise until that day that there are people in this world that behave like that. I'm just glad she didn't have a hockey stick or baseball bat in her car, then it might've been really nasty!

Carols by Candlelight at Kirstenbosch

We are incredibly lucky to live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. One of the incredible places is the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.

Kirstenbosch is an amazing place for children, for walking and relaxing, just a beautiful place to be. During the summer there are concerts in the outdoor amphitheatre every Sunday, but the highlight every year is Carols by Candlelight, held just before Christmas.

The view down to the stage.

From where we sat, up to the top of the venue.

It is a truly amazing venue, situated on the side of Table Mountain with views of the mountains, landscape and city. We have been to many concerts there, including Sting and Josh Groban. Their music is brilliantly suited to the location.

For the first time this last Christmas we decided to take all four kids with us. We've done it many years before but either on our own or with only Megan. It's a long time for small children to sit, but they were fantastic this year and absolutely loved it.

Everyone is given a carol sheet and candle with a wax paper bag at the entrance. What a fabulous evening it was, I don't think you'll find an atmosphere like that in many other places!

Hannah

Oliver

Cameron and Megan.

With our Candles!