Gwyns Mini Christmas Cakes

20081215 Gwyns Mini Xmas Cakes

Our Christmas Tree

20081210 Our First real Christmas tree

Unilever Xmas Party

Some photos from my work Christmas party which Keith took http://www.flickr.com/photos/swtrunkguy

Weekend in Cologne

"We are back in warm London after a cool weekend in Cologne (Koln) Germany. We popped over for the weekend to see the famous Christmas markets. It was really really cold, but we were wrapped up like marshmallow men, so I think that we weathered it very well and don't have bronchitis.

We did a lot of walking, and found 4 Christmas markets all in Cologne and quite close together (one was on a huge boat in the Rhine River). We managed to get some lovely tree decorations, all wooden and very traditional. Knowing us, we also found some great things to eat like eisbein / pork knuckle and sour kraut, cheesecake, cabanossi worst, more cheesecake, pastries, xmas cookies, gluwein, more worst... basically a vegetarians nightmare.

So Saturday was very busy trying to see everything, and then yesterday was a bit calmer and we walked up 500 stairs to the top of the Cathedral (Dom - biggest bloody cathedral I have ever seen, wide angle lense was not big enought to fit it into a single picture), which was a magnificent view, but we could not believe we paid to punish ourselves with that walk! All in all, a good trip, just what we needed to put us in the Christmas spirit.

20081213 Cologne Germany

Xmas run in the cold

Pics from this mornings freezing xmas run.

Gwyn is now a British Citizen

Gwyns birthday

We just got back from a weekend away to celebrate my birthday, and it was absolutely brilliant. Well, honestly, the celebrations started last Sunday afternoon, when we went to the Grosvenor Hotel on Park Lane with some friends to have the traditional English High Tea. We were treated like royalty and everyone really enjoyed it. It started with champagne and then a choice of teas (most of which we have never heard of), and an unending supply of finger sandwiches, scones and cakes. We thought that it was just a snack, but there was really so much that no-one needed dinner that day.

 

This weekend was a continuous surprise for me. We (Lawrence and I) started by taking the day off on Friday and went for breakfast at our favourite place in Kew Garden. We then set off for the Peak District (which I thought was on the cards, but I was not 100% sure). We checked into a beautiful B&B on the border of the Chatsworth Estate (think about the movie, The Duchess) which I have wanted to visit for ages. I was then told that we had dinner reservations, so off we went. We stopped in a random town, and there was my mom and sister, Bronwyn, who came down from Manchester to join us. We all went to dinner at a beautiful, Michelin star Country House Hotel/Restaurant called Fischers. Dinner was a 5 hour extravaganza as we went for the taster menu, of 7 courses. The fantastic meal was finished off with the worlds best chocolate birthday cake which my mom brought with her.

 

On the Saturday, we spent the day wondering around Chatsworth House and then went to get a cup of tea…surprise number 2, a pre-booked high tea at the restaurant. It was much appreciated and delicious. We had to walk it off in the garden, which was massive. The autumn colours were really spectacular. Mom and Bronwyn made their way back to Manchester after that, and Lawrence and I spent the rest of the weekend chilling in the peace and quiet of the Peak District. I think that we will be back soon, with out bikes.

 

Thank you so much to everyone for the birthday phone calls, messages, cards, texts and wonderful gifts. You all made my day very special and I really appreciate the kind thoughts and good wishes, I am a really lucky girl. Wish that I could have spent the day with all of you, but you were in my thoughts!

 

Love

 

G

Gwyn's pre 30th Birthday High Tea - Grosvenor Hotel

20081102 Gwyn's Birthday - High Tea Grosvenor Hotel

Pics from our trip to Barbados

20081010 Barbados

Jasper

My parents new dog, what a beauty

London today - FOG

So much for the bright and sunny weekend that we were hoping for!

August and September were busy months....

Hi Guys

It seems like ages ago but actually it was only a week back when my parents came to visit.

Margo and Trevor spent a week in the UK, splitting their time between London, Birmingham and Devon. We went to watch “Gigi” at the open air theatre in Regents Park, which was a real treat, and then at the end of their trip we went to Devon in a small guesthouse on the coast. In true British hospitality, the weather was rubbish, but we managed to enjoy ourselves anyway. Follow the link to see some pics from Margo and Trevor, taken with their brand new Nikon D60 camera (carrying on the family tradition).

http://picasaweb.google.com/the.bowenz/20080820MargoTrevorVisitTheUK#

A day after Mom and Dad left, I flew to Istanbul, Turkey for a conference with work. The trip was a bit last minute, so no time to get excited, but it was really interesting (highlight being the belly dancer). Great hotel and interesting location, have a look:

http://picasaweb.google.com/the.bowenz/20080916IstanbulDirtIsGoodConference#5248422079274620242

This weekend was great weather, so we packed the bikes and went to Bracknell Forest for some cycling. We spent a good 3 hours or so exploring the forest and Gwyn is slowing starting to get the hang of downhill’s and dodging rocks and roots. No accidents this time, progress! We took a couple of nice pics as well.

http://picasaweb.google.com/the.bowenz/20080920BracknellForest#

From 20080920 Bracknell Forest

Some pics from Saturdays trip to Farnborough Air Show, including pics of the big A380 and the Red Arrows

20080719 Farnborough Air Show

Snorkelling in Phuket

Hi Guys

Here are some pics from Phuket where Terence and I went snorkelling off the beach. The fish were rather camera shy but we managed to get good snaps with T's under water camera.

Best
LB

20080608 Phuket Snorkel

Some pics from Trevor and Tessa's birthdays, in Pretoria and London respectively. Both on the 14th of July

20080714 14July BDays

Good night around the world

HOLLAND : Goeden nagt
AUSTRALIA: Night Mate
USA : Goodnite
DUITSLAND: Schlafen sie gut

SOUTH AFRICA :
Are the doors locked, are the windows closed?
Did you pull in the car and activate the alarm?
Are the Rotweilers on their post?
Sleep tight, don't worry, Eskom will switch off the lights!

WIMBLEDON 2008

Hi Guys,

 

I have uploaded some pics of our trip to Wimbledon on the weekend. Brendan, Gwyn and I did the early morning wake up and mission over to the tennis grounds on Sat morning, got to the queue at 5h30 and were number 2140 in the queue. Unfortunately we missed the cut off for show court tickets so had to make do with a grounds tickets that gave us access to the smaller games. The day was a scorcher without a cloud in the sky making the ice cream and Pimm’s very  welcome…. Managed to see the South African duo (Coetzee & Moodie) loose to some Spanish buggers. 

 

Enjoy the pics, (Including the Borat impersonator with the smallest piece of clothing ever) http://picasaweb.google.com/the.bowenz

 

best

LB

FREE-RANGE CHICKENS

“Well, it’s another beautiful day in paradise.”
“How’d we get so lucky?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care.”
“I think I’ll go walk over there for a while. Then I’ll walk back over here.”
“That sounds like a good time. Maybe I’ll do the same.”
“Hey, someone refilled the grain bucket!”
“Is it the same stuff as yesterday?”
“I hope so.”
“Oh, man, it’s the same stuff, all right.”
“It’s so good.”
“I can’t stop eating it.”
“Hey, you know what would go perfectly with this grain? Water.”
“Dude. Look inside the other bucket.”
“This . . . is the greatest day of my life.”
“Drink up, pal.”
“Cheers!”
(Laughs.)
(Laughs.)
“Hey, look, the farmer’s coming.”
“Huh. Guess it’s my turn to go into the thing.”
“Cool. See you later, buddy.”
“See ya.”

In the beginning, there was nine flights, 5 cities, 3 countries and 2 people.

But we conquered it and had a fantastic holiday. We will strive to keep this updates to highlights only but we have 18 days to fit in, so happy reading!

24^th May – we landed in KL where we were met by Terence and Caitlin. We went off to the condo to unload, say hi to Melissa and Hayley and then went off to a Japanese Buffet for dinner. Some food was familiar, but others totally different, like green guavas. Gwyn tried raw fish, which was a milestone!

We spelt in a hit the next day, but still managed to fit in a lot of sightseeing. Terence, Melissa and kids accompanied us to the Petronas Towers (Twin Towers), up the KL tower and to a Chinese Temple. At the KL tower, Lawrence received a strange request from some Indian Tourists who wanted a photograph with him. Not for him to take a photo of him, but rather to be in the photo. Lawrence pretended not to understand and we took our leave rapidly. We were flying out that night, but before we left, we went to a local Chinese restaurant. Melissa ordered in rapid fire and we feasted on sweet and sour chicken, different rice and noodles, fantastic sweet breads and fresh fruit juices. Completely different to Chinese food found in SA or the UK. It is wonderful to go out with locals.

26^th May – we arrived in Sydney at 8am in the morning and managed to take the underground to our hotel without issue. We were too early to check in, so dropped our bags and went exploring instead. We walked through the city to the Rocks and Circular Quay, were we had a fantastic view of Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We then took a public Ferry to Darling Harbour were we had a bite to eat (tea for the first time in 4 days) and then made our way back to the hotel. Once there, jet lag set in, but we managed buy some groceries (the hotel was self catering) and then did some laundry, but managed an early night)

The next day was sightseeing! Botanical gardens, Bondi Beach, Coastal Walk to Bronte Beach and Coogee. Eventually we got back to the Circular Quay were we took a ferry to Manly Beach. A little bit of shopping and cocktails at sunset and then made our way back to Sydney. Half way back, we realised that we left our shopping at the restaurant, but the helpful ferry staff put us right back on the jet cat (free of charge) and we were surprised to find that the restaurant still had our shopping…no theft! What a helpful nation.

The 3^rd day in Sydney was a full day tour into the Blue Mountains. It was a guided tour which took us past the Olympic site, Kings Table, Wentworth Valley, Sublime Point, a small town called Leuna and Scenic world. We saw kangaroos and bird life, including a lyre bird, which is apparently quite rare. The return journey was via a ferry, and we managed to get some night photos of the opera house (in the rain…what a wife)

29^th May- Next city and we were on our way to Brisbane. It started raining as we left, which was great for Australia but rubbish if you are on holiday. We made our way to our hotel and then contacted Charlene, my friend from SA who recently moved to Brisbane. We had a quick cup of coffee and then decided to go with her to pick up her daughter, meet the friends that she is staying with and have some dinner in the suburbs (Albany Falls). Once again, great to see how the “locals” live and wonderful to meet little Chloe for the first time.

Day 2 in Brisbane we did as much sightseeing as we could in the rain, such as the hop on hop off (we did not hop off much as we were enjoying our tour guide who finished every sentence with “its nice to see how it all fits in”) We finished with a ferry ride to the South Bank were we had dinner in a very vibe part of town.

Day 3 in Brisbane, we made our way to a Koala Sanctuary where we finally viewed koalas, dingoes, wombats, kangaroos and wallabee. Gwyn got to cuddle a koala which was very cute. That night, we had pizzas with Charlene and her fiends, a great way to spend our last evening there.

1^st June – off to Melbourne early in the morning, made even longer by having to wait for our hotel transfer for 2 hours, but not too bad I suppose. We were taken straight to our guesthouse in St Kilda, Annies. The guesthouse was lovely, and we were the only guests. We decided to take a tram into Melbourne to book some tours. Melbourne was buzzing on Sunday afternoon, lots of live jazz and drinks. We walked around quite a bit and ran into a market, serving Dutch poffertjes, which we could not resist. Had dinner in St Kilda and back to the guesthouse.

The next day we explored Melbourne via the free tourist bus and then took a tour to Philip Island, were we watched the penguins come ashore. No photos allowed, so none of you can see these unfortunately, but it was a worth while trip. The following day was an early start as we took a full day tour along the Great Ocean Road. This was a fantastic trip and we saw things like Toquay, Apololo Bay, Bells Beach, wild Koalas, wild parrots (no doves, only parrots), kangaroos, rain forest walk and the 12 apostles. We took a helicopter ride over the twelve apostles as well, which was fantastic.

The next day was our last in Melbourne, so we walked around in St Kilda which is renowned for their cake shops (has to squeeze some tea and cake in), then slowly made our way to the airport for our flight to Sydney.

5^th June – back in Sydney and we spent some time exploring the North Shore, seeing where the Unilever office in Sydney was and ended the day by cooking two juicy steaks and a mountain of vegetables.

The next day was our last in Sydney and we went up the Eureka Tower for a last look at Sydney before making our way to the airport. We had an 8 hour day light flight to KL, which was a bit frustrating, but what can you do….

Terence met us at the airport in KL again, we went straight back to the condo for a quick dinner and long chat with Terence and Melissa. The next morning, we were flying to Phuket, so needed to get some rest at least.

7^th June – Phuket today. Melissa took us to the airport (Caitlin and Terence were going with us). We flew from the LCC airport (Low Cost Carrier) which was a very busy airport, but the flight with Air Asia was fine. We arrived in hot, sunny Phuket, but had to wait for our transfer to the airport as there was some confusion about our arrival time. Nevertheless, we got our transfer and drove through Phuket to Kata Beach and our rest, Karon Beach Resort. We were give connecting, sea facing rooms right on the beach front and we wasted no time in getting the cozzies on and going for a swim in the sea. We followed up with drinks and pizza at the pool before going for a walk along the streets and then took a tuk tuk to the neighbouring beach. It was pumping with restaurants and live music, with a huge table of fresh seafood. We picked a restaurant with a live band and treated ourselves to rock lobster thermidor, 2 tails each for under £8.

Day 2 in Phuket and we wanted to go snorkelling. Our hotel told us to go to Nai Harn Beach for some good views, and we negotiated with a tuk tuk to take us. Chicken, the driver, gave us a deal of 900 bhatt for 4 hours, he would wait for us at the beach, which was a good idea. Snorkelling was not great, so we made our way back to our hotel, which ended up having some great sea life for snorkelling. The afternoon as spent on the beach. Gwyn got a Thai massage and the guys boogie boarded, Caitlin played in the sand and surf. Dinner was at a local restaurant, tiger prawns and pineapple juice…mmmm….

We woke up to rain the next morning, but it was just a quick shower, so we were still able to have a last swim in the sea and pool before going to the airport and back to KL. The fun did not stop there, as Terence took us to a night market in KL where we saw all sort of food and fruit in an open air market. Something completely foreign, but so interesting. We then went to collect Melissa and Hayley before going to a local Chinese Restaurant for crab. Something that we have never eaten before, hammers and everything. Woke up earlyish to take Caitlin to school and then breakfast out with Terence. We then collected Melissa and Hayley and went to the Central Market for a spot of souvenir shopping. Lawrence got a bargain for his new tripod and we got the obligatory fridge magnet. In the afternoon, Terence, Gwyn and Lol went to the Batu caves, which is an Indian Template, Very interesting, completely different to what we are used to. L&G cooked risotto for the Le Granges before going to the airport for our 9^th and final flight back to London.

Typically, this is the only flight that went wrong when our takeoff was aborted due to an engine failure. We only left at 3am (3 hours late), so it was an exhausting flight and we spelt most of Wednesday before going back to work on Thursday.

KL Pics - http://picasaweb.google.com/the.bowenz/20080523Malaysia
Aus Pics - http://picasaweb.google.com/the.bowenz/20080523Australia
Phuket Pics - http://picasaweb.google.com/the.bowenz/20080523Phuket

Thanks to everyone that we spent time with, it was an unforgettable holiday.

Love
L&G

Back from the USA

I am now back and mostly recovered from jet lag after my trip to
Washington. Actually, it was a trip to Reston, Virginia, but the border
seems to be a bit blurred with Washington being about the same distance
away as Centurion is from Pretoria. I flew from London last Sunday
morning and landed about lunch time US time, meaning that I met some of
my colleagues for dinner at about midnight, my time. I find it best to
jump straight into local time though and by the time I woke up on
Monday, I was almost in the swing of it.

I spent a productive week giving SAP training to my HR colleagues from
the US, Mexico and Brazil – 7 in total and I learnt an awful lot about
the different cultures. I also managed to squeeze in some successful
shopping (half-price for me, as the exchange rate is 1.9 to the £), and
as always the big meals and bottomless cokes at every restaurant.
Absolutely no sight seeing though, which the case is always when you go
for business. In a bid to be economical, you can see a pic of my
colleagues at a restaurant J

Glad to be back at home with my hubby though…now starting to prepare for
the big trip to Malaysia and Aus at the end of next week…ahh jet
setters!

Gxxx

To help all you non South Africans understand us South Africans

BRAAI
What is a braai? It is the first thing you will be invited to when you visit South Africa. A braai is a backyard barbecue and it will take place whatever the weather. So you will have to go even if it's raining like mad and hang of a cold. At a braai you will be introduced to a substance known as mealiepap.

AG
This one of the most useful South African words. Pronounced like the ach in the German achtung, it can be used to start a reply when you are asked a tricky question, as in: Ag, I don't know." Or a sense of resignation: "Ag, I'll have some more pap then." It can stand alone too as a signal of irritation or of pleasure.

EINA
Widely used by all language groups, this word, derived from the Afrikaans, means "ouch." Pronounced "aynah", you can shout it out in sympathy when someone burns his finger on a hot potato at a braai.

HEY
Often used at the end of a sentence to emphasize the Importance of what has just been said, it can also stand alone as a question. Instead of saying excuse me? Or pardon? When you have not heard something directed at you, you can say: "Hey?"

ISIT
This is a great word in conversations. Derived from the two words is and it, it can be used when you have nothing to contribute if someone tells you at the braai: The Russians will succeed in their bid for capitalism once they adopt a work ethic and respect for private ownership. It is appropriate to respond by saying: "Isit?"

JISLAAIK
Pronounced Yis-like, it is an expression of astonishment. For instance, If someone tells you there are a billion people in China, A suitable comment is: Jislaaik, that's a hang of a lot of people, hey."

DOP
This word has two basic meanings, one good and one bad. The first good dop is a drink, a cocktail, a sundowner. Now the bad: To dop is to fail. If you dopped Standard Two (Grade 4) more than once, you probably won't be reading this.

BAKKIE
This word is pronounced "bucky" and it is a small truck or pick-up. Young men can take their "cherrie" (g/friend) to the drive-in flick in a bakkie but it is not always an appropriate form of transport because the seats usually don't recline and you may be forced to watch the film. This is never the purpose of going to a drive-in flick.

HOWZIT This is a universal South African greeting, and you will hear this word throughout the land. It is often used with the word "No" as in this exchange: "No, howzit?" "No fine."

NOW NOW
In much of the outside world, this is a comforting phrase: "Now now, don't cry-I'll take you to the bioscope tomorrow." But in South Africa, this phrase means a little sooner than soon: "I'll clean my room now now, Ma." It is a little more urgent than "just now" which means an indefinite time in the future.

BOET
This is an Afrikaans word meaning "brother" which is shared by all language groups. Pronounced "boot" as in "foot", it can be applied to a non-brother. For instance a father can call his son "boet" and friends can apply the term to each other too. Sometimes the diminutive "boetie" is used. But don't use either with someone you hardly know - it will be thought patronizing.

ROCK UP
To rock up some place is to just sort of arrive. You don't make an appointment or tell anyone you are coming -you just rock up. Friends can do that but you have to be selective about it.You can't just rock up for a job interview or at a five-star restaurant. You give them a tinkle first then you can rock up.

Cycle to Richmond Park

20080505 Richmond Park

Hello All

I cycled to Richmond park today, a 4 hour epic which has broken me, I am walking around the house like an invalid. Anyhow it was worth the pain as I got there nice and early and managed to take some pics of the dozing animals who were still thinking of getting out of bed.

Richmond Park, at almost 1000 hectares (2500 acres), is the largest Royal Park in London and is home to around 650 free roaming deer. For more info on Richmond park, http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond_park/

Click here if you want to see the pics.

http://picasaweb.google.com/the.bowenz/20080505RichmondPark

Gwyn has landed safe and sound in Washington DC and is having a cool time, she is there for the week training some of her US & Brazilian colleagues in the ways of SAP HR. Her secondary objective is shopping, having taken a monster suitcase which was only 1 quarter full, Horror Horror J

Best

LB

Old Man

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to give you a bit of an update on how things went with my birthday…. I am now officially 30 and feeling quite ok about it all, I don’t feel any older and according to the face book age test I am 23 at heart!

The birthday has been very cool. Firstly on Thursday I had planned on going to drinks with Gwyn after work (she was in the city having spent the day at the South African embassy applying for dual citizenship and a new passport as hers is full), so we get to the bar and I am greeted by a surprise get together with a number of my colleagues and friends. Then over the weekend Gwyn spoilt me to a weekend in Oxford where we stayed in a town called Abingdon in an amazing room overlooking the Thames and countryside. Saturday started with a gift opening session and breakfast in our pyjamas, really relaxing. Then I was treated to the most amazing lunch at Le Manoir a two-Michelin starred modern French restaurant owned by Raymond Blanc – the experience, service and 5 course meal was out of this world (http://www.manoir.com/). I have loaded up some pics if you are interested.

A big thank you to everyone for all your good wishes, gifts, surprises and all the rest, it really made my transition into the 30s a pleasant experience - really appreciate it!

Best

Lawrence

20080424 Lawrence 30th Birthday

Unilever goes Ape

I had an interesting day on Monday when Greenpeace decided to stage a peaceful protest at my office. We had a whole bunch of apes who climb all over our office building claiming our products which contain Palm Oil is causing deforestation... Just a pity they did not have all the facts. I think they were just targeting Unilever as we are a big name in order to get some airtime on the issue.

Unilever chair the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a wide-ranging coalition of organisations including OXFAM, WWF, plantation owners, and manufacturers and retailers. In November the RSPO agreed criteria for sustainable palm oil production. The problem is simply that demand of palm oil has exploded. This is due partly to growing demand from India and China and also due to the use of palm oil as a feedstock for biofuels in the energy sector. Click here for further information on Unilever's sustainable agriculture programmes.

London Marathon

Click image to see some of our London Marathon Pics... some funny ones!!!

Jacky - One of Nic's many dogs

Nic showing off his photography and photoshop skills!

Snow

20080406 Snow in London

In strong contrast to last weekend beautiful sunny weather, and even
yesterdays blue skies... We have just woken up and been greeter with a
white wonderland. So our idea of mountain biking for the day has been
tabled and we will be attempting to build a snow man!

On another note, Nicholas and Michelle have just come back from a diving
trip in Sodwana where they managed to swim with a Whale Shark... Click on the link
to see their pics http://www.2dive4.co.za/gallery24.htm

L&G

Twiggy

Twiggy, the beautiful new addition to the Bowen family.

 

We are very envious!

Last few weeks gone by

Hello All,

Hope you are all doing well, we wanted to share some of our recent picswith you.

We drove up to Manchester over Easter weekend to see Tessa and Brons newbungalow. It was a cold and rainy long weekend, but good to be out ofLondon. We also popped by to say hi to Gran and Grandad, who are doingwell and in good spirits. This weekend Gwyn and I went down to the riverto check out the annual boat race between Oxford and Cambridge, Saturdaywas a miserable day! Today (Sunday) we took a trip up to Clivedon Manor,a beautiful day with glorious sunshine... Enjoy the snaps.

L&G

Take outside our old house in Ealing - 27 Radley Lodge

River Thames on Sat - waiting for the boat race

Clivedon

Clivedon

Clivedon

Clivedon

Mooi

Clivedon

Clivedon

Clivedon

Clivedon

Manshester - Sushi Making

Manshester - Sushi Making

Man Trap - The Mill Manchester

Manshester - Sushi Making

Manshester - Sushi Making

Thomas & Carin have a blog!

"http://korea-a-go-go.blogspot..com/"

Phuket 7-9 June 08

Gwyn and I will be going to Phuket for a couple days on our trip to Malaysia and Australia.

Just to make you jealous this is the hotel:
http://www.katagroup.com/karonbeach/index.htm

Earth Hour - the global movement helping our planet (made me chuckle from a SA view point)

One hour without lights, a small token gift to our planet... (and your power bill!) Join me and the fight against global warming and switch off your lights for an hour at 8pm on 29th March 2008

 

Sign up for Earth Hour with me by visiting http://www.earthhour.org/user/gzQ0

 

Basically it started in Sydney, and this year lots of individuals and cities (well done chch, auckland... come on!) will be turning their lights out for an hour. The impact Sydney made last year: 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour - Earth Hour. This massive collective effort reduced Sydney's energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for a year. 

 

 

 

South Africa is already scoring HUGE earth points, and they did not even know it.... All you South Africans, make sure you remember to switch off your electricity on the 29th :))