V8 SuperCars!!!

I have never been one to be interested in motor car racing even though, we, as a company, sponsor Andy Booth - who is a 2 time winner of the New Zealand V8 Super Car Championships, and twice a year, we invite customers to experience the thrill of V8 racing doing "hot laps". I had been asked to go before, but each time, I turned it down. Till this time, where Greg (my one boss) told me to stop being a wimp and to join in, as it is a once in a life time experience - how right he was! Reluctantly I agreed, and thought that at least I can say, "Ive been there, done that, got the T-shirt" kind of thing.

I have to say that the day was absolutely amazing! I was very nervous when I suited up, put on my helmet and was strapped, and when I say strapped into the seat, I mean STRAPPED. You DONT move, its like you are glued to it, and I understood why. When Andy took off, the force of the vehicle going at 240- 280kms an hour, boy do you WANT to be strapped in! I must confess, I screamed the whole way round. It was a thrill I will never forget! I didnt feel afraid that Andy would loose control, I had total faith in him, but taking those corners........man you have to experience it to understand it. Then there is a straight part of the track, where he goes lets it go to at least 280kms and at the end of the straight, there is a tight bend, and he breaks VERY hard to take the corner, your whole body gets thrown forward (I was very thankful for the seat belts at this stage), and the force of the turn was amazing. I was very sad that it was only three laps when we returned to the pits!

I never thought I would say this, but I am really looking forward to our next "hot laps" cause I I have been converted to an adrenalin junkie, when it comes to this!!!

It has to be said, have the most utmost respect for these drivers, and I now see them in a whole new light. Tops to you Andy!

Davids First Birthday

Little "pudding", "booba", "tana" turned ONE on 31 July and what a year it has been!!! I just thought that I would share pictures with you for this post, because the pictures say it all......hes so cute, adorable, the best "great" nephew anyone could have. Needless to say he had a ball and so did we!

July Update

Gosh its shocking that I have not updated my blog since April - and how the year has flown by. Lots has happened since April, so this could be a long blog, or I might just split it, we will see how we go. So I will update you with the interesting fun things that have been going on over on this side of the world.

Please check out my photos, http://picasaweb.google.com/debslee.n.z which I have updated too for you.

In July my good friend Annie and I headed off to the beautiful city of Christchurch in the South Island. She was dancing in the National Ballroom Championships there and asked me to accompany her....well I think it was more of a case of me just inviting myself, because if anyone knows me, they know how much I LOVE ballroom and latin (watching that is). We bought really cheap seats and flew down on Friday lunchtime. It was a rush to check in, as I got lost trying to book Humphrey into weekend parking at the airport! The flight was short, only about 1hr 4o mins or so, but flighing into Christchurch we could see the snow on the alps - it was really was stunning. I dont think any pictures can do the place justice. We had a nice place to stay, just a regular motel, and then rented a car to take us to the dance venue every day. Of course, I was glued to my seat the entire weekend, watching all the dancing and just thoroughly enjoying the atmostphere, the costumes, the amazing moves and sequences. Absolutely stunning. Annie was afraid that I would be bored.........not me boy!

On Monday, seeing as our flight was in the afternoon, we took the morning to look around Christchurch. No wonder this place has been famed "The Garden City" because it really is beautiful. Its a quiet town - not like bustling city life in Auckland. You can also see some great pictures if you go to http://www.christchurch.org.nz/ . Unfortunately, we were there in winter, so we missed out on all the beautiful scenery when it comes to the flowers blooming. I think I will have to go there again in the summer or spring, because apparently its breath taking. Annie and I also found ourselves lost manytimes, because I was doing the map reading! But Annie was very gracious I must say! We ate at a lovely quaint cafe in the gounds on the Christchurch University - felt like we were in England - it just had that air about it. We did try and get a "punt" along the Avon River, but sadly the only booking we could get was at 3:00pm when our flight was leaving - we were really disappointed about that. I think we probably could have gotten a punt if I hadnt had gotten us lost so many times! Well now that Ive got a taste of Christchurch I know I will be back!

Bithday News

First of all I want to thank everyone for the birthday messages received this last week. Im sorry that I have not replied to you all individually - although I will endeavour to do that, but forgive me if I dont. There is much news to catch up, so I will fill you in on this blogg. First of all, good news is that my residency came through about 3 weeks ago, which is great because it means that now I dont need to hassle with work permits etc, and enables more options to be open to me now. Hard to also believe that it is my first year anniversary here in New Zealand - goodness time has flown very quickly!

Our birthday was a wonderful day and especially waking up at 6:00 am to open pressies together! It was Naomi's 40th and mine being 21 + GST!!!! :) I got very spoilt, I was given my first diamond ring from Naomi and Vorn, it is stunning! The other wonderful thing was we went to dinner at this amazing restaurant on Friday night, I took my good friend Annie with us, we went to this restaurant called Sails - it is on the water front over looking all the boats in the harbour, and on the left you could see the glimmer of lights of the harbour bridge and on the right the city lights - it was really stunning. The food and the service was outstanding - infact the best I have ever had.

Then Saturday night, Naomi and I were treated to a performance at the civic theatre called "Maui - one man against the gods"- this play is based on Mauri legend, and what a spectacular performance it was. The lighting, the music, the use of effects with cloth and not to mention aerial acrobats flying through the air. The theatre inside was oh so posh!

The auditorium was breathtaking, it was like walking into a palace. The theme of the auditorium was a Persian garden, with huge gold lions at the front of the stage, whose aqua coloured eyes glowed in the dark. All around you were huge walls, exactly like you would imagine the "hanging gardens of Persia" to be like. As the lights dimmed before the production began, the ceiling was transformed into a clear night sky, twinkling stars, the odd shooting star with slow moving clouds - it was unbelievable. Well thats what the theatre is all about isnt it? The land of make believe! We were literally "gob smacked" by the performance and loved every minute of it. A definite must do again!!!


Other news is that I purchased my first car.......! I bought a silver VW Beetle, and have aptly called him Humphrey! (thanks to Naomi for the name). I just love my new car and I am using every opportunity I can get to drive him! On the left is a picture of him.




David continues growing and is so adorable now. He is crawling and has cut four teeth - when I tell you that he is a good boy, I mean it. He is so amazing and a happy little boy - well who wouldn't be from all the love and attention of a family of 5 who dote on him non stop! There is never a shortage of someone to play with, take care of and cuddle. Toni continues to do her studies part time through correspondence and is proving to be a wonderful mom.

Well I hope that you have enjoyed this short update with a few pictures thrown in.

Next time I blogg will be after my week trip to the conference in Mauritius - I am really looking forward to it and know that its the time of the Lord for me to be there. Cant wait to see everyone again and catch up.

So till next time......

Waiwera Thermal Resort

The day after New Years we decided to get out of Auckland and go to Waiwera Thermal resort, which is about an hours drive. So armed with Juice, snacks, towels, sunblock and jandles, we set off at about mid-day. The wonderful thing with it being summer is that the sun is setting around 9pm - so at 5pm in the afternoon its still incredibly hot and sunny. Its great

Just a little bit of history of Waiwera for some general knowledge - Maori would immerse themselves in holes dug along the idyllic beachfront and line them with branches for padding. Caressing mineral water would then gently surround them, magically materialising from the earth below. Translated from Maori, Waiwera means simply ‘hot water’ but it was so revered that many referred to it as ‘te rata’ which translates as ‘the doctor’. The special healing powers of Waiwera water came to be known far and wide. People travelled to the resort by horse or steamer in the early days, disembarking at a man-made jetty.

So now that you have a bit of history behind the place you will know that its very similar to Tschipise in RSA, but I have to admit that Tschipise is far better...........I guess something about being in the bush kind of makes it nicer. Anyway, we arrived and had a glorious time sunning our very fair winter skin (although a couple of hours later, I didnt look any different - I think I put on too much sun block!!) I must comment that David absolutely LOVED it - the first pool we went into was a little too cool for him but then Toni and I went off and found the "movie pool" , where they show a movie on a huge screen. The pool for him was like his bath but only 10 times bigger and with so many children splashing and having a ball - you could tell he was in his element! Such a social baby!

On the way back to Auckland, I decided to try my hand at taking pictures of the city whilst going over the harbour bridge - I must say that I was very proud of myself at how well I did in a moving vehicle!

Below left is some New Zealand country side, the one on the right is going over the harbour bridge and the bottom centre is Auckland - the City of Sails - must admit Im getting good at this photography thing! Till next time....

PS. More pictures from our Waiwera trip can be found on my web album.

41,200 km's later.....

I sat today and worked out the total kilometers I travelled for my trip back to Africa and was amazed that including my return journey, I had travelled over 41,200kms in 14 days!!! Wow, that is quite a fair amount of flying, not to mention a total of over 60 hours travel time..........needless to say that jet lag took its toll. Al Gore said that "Airplane travel is nature's way of making you look like your passport photo!" - I couldnt agree more! But inspite of the long & exhausting travel - it was fantastic!

For those of you who dont know, I was invited to Kenny and Sharnas wedding in Durban, and I decided that I just HAD to go. So with a bit of planning, which started in September, my plans were underway. I had the unexpected joy of having half my trip paid for, I cant mention by whom on my blogg, but that was a HUGE blessing for me. So to cut a LONG story short (cause you dont want to still be reading this blogg update in 2008..............I arrived in Durban and stayed with my very dear friends Stella and Selby and little Jasmine. I had a wonderful time of catching up with everyone - and being at the wedding made it all the more special (if you would like to see more pictures from my trip, please see my online web album - go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/debslee.n.z ).

The amazing thing about my trip was that although I had left South Africa 8 months ago, it really felt like it was just the other day that I had left, and that 8 months had flown by. It was wonderful to also pop into the Homeguide, and see Sylvan and Els and everyone where I used to work. I am sorry though that it was a flying visit and I didnt get to spend more time with everyone, that I think was my only regret.

The wedding was stunning and I must say that this was one of the best weddings I have been to in a long time. What stood out for me, was you could see that the Lord had put this couple together and it was such a confirmation for so many people - I think that Kenny and Sharna found their "soul mate" in each other. I was so blessed to see old friends again from Zimbabwe - Mike and Shez, Glenda and Clive, and also see Trevor and Aloma, Kirk and Elodie and Peter and Jane from England - was so amazing and such a treat too! The hardest part was getting on the plane again and leaving - this is not easy.

However, next on my list was a surprise trip to Zimbabwe, where no one knew I was coming - only two people, Shez and Zodwa (you guys are brilliant at keeping a secret - as they say in Kiwi language "good on ya mate!". So I flew in under everyone's radar, and my first stop was Daily Print to surprise Cheryl. The funny thing was in the car, Zodwa and I were thinking up all these plans of how to surprise Cheryl and what we would do, so we had it all mapped out, and as we pull up outside the offices, I could not contain myself any longer and I dived out the car and said to Zods, "sorry I just want wait any longer" and ran inside, leaving Zods in my trail...........All you could hear from Cheryls office (and Fiona was there too) was screaming and shouts of joy as I popped my head in the door way and said "hello girls" - I am sure you can imagine the response! From then on it was non stop short visits as I had two days to visit all my friends and of course spend some time with my dad and Jenny. It truly was wonderful. (above is John, Tan, Fi and Cheryl).

I will post this blog now, as the next one is all about the return trip, which was a story all in its self!

Downsize Me!

Once again, its been ages since I last blogged - I am sure you understand with our new addion in the house, (of course, I had to post an updated picture of Jonathan) and huge things happening at work, (which I will not discuss on my blogg - as I dont want to breach any confidentiality clauses), life still remains on a roller coaster. However, in saying that there is always the hope that one day we will get off the roller coaster, and find a tamer ride! Will let you all know when that happens!
I am sure that you are a little intrigued by my subject of this post, mainly because weight has always been a major factor in my life. Funny you know, when you look back at past photos over the years, you think (well I do) "my goodness, what was I ever complaining about, I was sooooo thin - in comparison to what I am now" - well thats me. Coming to New Zealand shocked me into some home truths - firstly, on doing a BMI (Body Mass Index) - I was bordering on obese..........well that was a shock to the system, as over the years, I had been maintaining (and in some instances increasing) what I was putting in my mouth, and not doing enough exercise to burn it off. And putting weight on is easier than taking it off (I am sure all the ladies reading this post are shouting a loud "Amen"). Secondly, I realised that I needed to take care of this body the Lord has given me, and also to accept the way that I am, and my genetic make up. I saw the dvd "Supersize me" - if you have not seen this documentary, it is a must - the website is www.supersizeme.com. You will be so shocked at some of the statistics about fast food and the effects on our generation (this documentary was made in 2004, so I stagger to think of the figures now) - like:

* Each day, 1 in 4 Americans visits a fast food restaurant.
* You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fry and Big Mac.
* 60 % of all Americans are either overweight or obese.
* Left unabated, obesity will surpass smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in America.
* Only seven items on McDonald's entire menu contain no sugar.
Just to name a few.

I was amazed at some of these points, however, I am not here to be free advertising for the movie, but one point that came home to me in the movie, and that was, this guy ate MacDonalds for one month - every day, and he gained twenty five pounds (13% of his body mass). It took 14 months to loose the weight he had gained!!!! Why am I going on about this? The reason being is that on coming to New Zealand, I realised how cheap fast food is, its cheaper to buy fast food than regular healthy meals from the supermarket - and I realised how easy it was to fall into the trap of fast food eating.
I am so thankful for a family who does not eat fast food, but loads of fresh fruit and veggies (those who know me, know that this is a real change for me) and a sister who told me that I will (soon) reach my goal size (she has had much faith, and I have been the proverbial "Doubting Thomas") - I am pleased to say that I have dropped two clothes sizes since coming here (total of 10kgs), and am encouraged to keep heading towards my goal, and my secret? Smaller portions, no or very little carbs and exercise, exercise, exercise!
So thats it from me - ova and out!