Growing Fast!

OK, it’s not a bad local beach :) We went to Noordhoek Beach as a family last Weekend and enjoyed stunning views with Leola in the comfy chair!

We all went for breakfast afterwards at Noordhoek Farm Village which was nice.

In mid Feb, we went on a family getaway to Durban. As you can see, our beautiful daughter was fast asleep after charming the couple behind us for an hour. The trip to Durbs was nice although also a wake up call as far as holidaying without assistance as parents of a baby is concerned :) Leola kept us so busy that we were grateful to get home at the end of the trip, however we did enjoy u-Shaka Marine World and the Gateway Shopping Centre as well as a brief visit to Umhlanga Beach.

In other news, Leola is learning to swim, cycle and watch movies on the iPad :) Gandalf is still her best mate although she does abuse his loyalty by teasing him with sticks of biltong.

Christmas was a whirlwind occasion with lots of family and of course Leola’s baptism in Sedgefield. We were spoilt with 7s rugby in George, Xmas Lunch in Franschoek and walks at Silvermine…

Otherwise – we continue to enjoy busy professional lives with the Cape Leadership Centre thriving and Exceed opportunities building all the time. We are surrounded by lovely friends and family and Cape Town requires no advertising as an awesome place to be. Our website/s tell the professional story so from a personal point of view, the aim of this post is simply to paint a picture of what’s been going on. Ange will have more pics from her camera so she can add to the collection above…

We hope to see many of you this year, whether in UK, Hong Kong, Netherlands or Zambia. Canada is on the cards for 2012!

Lots of Love

The Cape Town Wighams

Family Guy…

Hi all!

It's Sunday afternoon and I've got a precious few moments to myself while Leola is sleeping (she never naps long, so I'm typing fast!). Below is a brief update from Tim on our lives in the last few months, while there's a more extensive story on our UK trip and Leola's life on her blog.

I'm not going to add much from my side other than to tell you that life as a mother is absolutely wonderful. Leola is a super-content baby and changing so rapidly, there's something new every day... When we left for the UK a few weeks ago, she would just lie on her play gym and look around. When we came home, 12 days later, she'd meanwhile learnt how to grab things, kick her feet agains the musical footrest, smile at herself in the mirror and roll from her back to her side. So cute!!

She's also learnt how to grab my hair, and since the grab reflex is learnt long before the "release" reflex, I'm spending a fair amount of time carefully prying my hair out of those little fingers.

We're meanwhile learning that life with a baby means a never-ending list of expenses. Our latest two purchases are a jogger pram and a new camera. The jogger pram is essential, because her other buggy, a Quinny, is very compact and great in shopping centres but useless in the forest. With the jogger, Leola, Gandalf and I can go for daily walks in the forest! The camera was even more essential because, as any parent knows, you just want to capture every little smile and my current camera just wasn't doing a good enough job on the close ups.

Enough from my side. We're all happy and healthy and feeling so blessed! Over to Tim...

Where do I start? The last couple of months have just flown by due to work, travel and a certain little angel who keeps her mother (and to a much lesser degree me) on permanent sentry duty!

I am back on the Eirik Raude offshore Ghana, performance coaching a crew of 140 guys in an environment where things can go horribly wrong if we are not careful, but one which is remarkably comfortable once you get used to it…

This picture was taken last night as we flowed the well with both booms blazing at a rate of 16 000 barrels of oil per day!

One of the off shift activities I facilitated over the last 3 months was a fitness challenge which proved pretty popular and certainly raised the fitness bar for a number of us. There were 11 disciplines including aerobic, cardio vascular, strength and speed challenges across the board with classic Royal Marine type stuff like pull ups and press ups as well as challenges for the big heavies such as squats and bench press. Finally, of course there were the vomit exercises such as rowing 2000m as fast as you can and running 10 minutes on the treadmill at level 20!!!

In this picture I am posing with the top 4 – all from Oceaneering (2 former ‘boot necks’ themselves!!).
In July, Ange and I barely stopped for a breather as we hosted friends in Cape Town before travelling the UK for work, a wedding and to see friends plus their newborn babies. We had a wonderful time despite (all) carrying a bit of a cold for the entire trip.

Ange has covered the journey in Leola’s blog but suffice to say it was so nice to stay with the Mills, see the Wighams, Martins and others at Brigid and Rob’s wedding and then stay with Tony/Alex, Nick/Sam and Craig/Tanya (as well as their respective offspring of course)…

When we got back from the UK, I had a 4 hour turnaround at home before returning to the airport to head up to Joburg, meet Marc Truman and drive up to Falcon for the 20 year Falcon Old Boys reunion. What an absolute blast we had – such humour and brilliant to see guys I literally haven’t seen since 1990 :)

We ate, drank, reminisced, wandered around boasting about how it was much tougher in our day, witnessed the new Quest Africa set up at Quiet Waters (particularly significant to Ange and me given the consulting support we have given that project), played the first gamers at touch rugby and just had a laugh at each other. I spent quality chat time with Marc and Jase and am reminded of how blessed I am to have friends like them. Truly high calibre, high value, noble and inspiring people.
 
Most satisfyingly, we pumped Peterhouse on the Saturday. What more could we have asked for??

Back on the rig, I keep in regular comms with my amazing wife who is doing an exceptional job with our daughter and as if that is not enough of a challenge, has decided to go back to work! Fortunately, it is on a manageable/flexible level at first and again we are blessed that we have that option.

Until next time – hope all is well with all of you :)

We're a family now!!

Sunday night, 8PM ... and I’ve got a free moment!! Those are rare these days, not because I’m so much busier, but because – unlike with work projects – I’m no longer the one in control of the schedule :).

Just to set the scene: I’m sitting on the couch in our living room with Leola finally asleep in her bassinet. We’ve got this amazing bassinet on wheels and since she’s not too keen to sleep in a cold dark bedroom, I usually wheel it into the living room in the evening.

Looking around the living room is a different experience as well these days. Our electrician, aptly named Ian the Electric Man, used to always say that our house looks like a “show home”, as if no one lives in it... Well, no longer! The couch I’m sitting on, is littered with a tiny little pink sweater, a feeding pillow, and a brand new dummy. On the floor is a new “play gym”, on the table more random baby items and the baby monitor, and just behind me the Maxi-Cosi is waiting for our next trip to the shops. Our house is a mess and I love it!

I just re-read our last post, just to remind myself where we’d left off... Wow! It was the 24th of April and I was 37 weeks pregnant then, and now, only 2 months later here we are, our lives having changed for ever. It’s still amazing to think that it’s no longer just Tim and me ... we are a family!

So much has happened and I won’t repeat the whole birth story as most of you will have read it on Leola’s blog (www.leolawigham.blogspot.com), but here’s just a quick review of the time leading up to her birth:

Tim came home on Thursday April 29, just 2 weeks before our due date. We were both very aware that these were our final days as a carefree couple, so we made the most of every day, going to Newlands to watch rugby the following day, and packing a whole bunch of movies and shopping trips into the days that followed. I officially stopped working on April 30th (in reality, I had to finish quite a few CLC projects, but at least the Exceed work officially ended on that date), so that took off some pressure and made those two weeks feel like a real holiday.

With Tim’s date to return to the rig set for 2 ½ weeks after our due date, I really wanted our little girl to arrive on time and had embarked on a whole series of “interventions” such as preggie yoga, Bowen therapy, reflexology, long walks uphill (even a slow jog), spicy meals ... and pretty much every other old wives’ tale that might be remotely helpful!! Despite all this, our due date came and went without anything happening ... we decided she was likely going to be 2 weeks late (like her mum).

So, we set off to Canal Walk for an evening of shopping and a super-hot curry on the following Tuesday (4 days after our due date. Well, the curry did the trick!! That evening (in the shopping centre), my waters broke and the countdown was officially on. As we were driving down the M3, Tim made a remark that really hit home with me: “this little girl will be the first real thing we have to leave behind when we die.” Everything else is just stuff, but this is a little human being, given to us to love and take care of. What an amazing (and scary) thought!

Leola was born the next day, Wed May 19th, just past 12PM. We had planned for a natural birth, but she had different plans and was simply not moving from her comfy place so after a long haul in the labour ward we ended up with an emergency c-section. It wasn’t what I had hoped for but at that point it didn’t matter ... she was out, she was healthy, and she was beautiful!!

Fast-forward to today...

We’ve now been parents for 5 weeks and 4 days, and our little girl is no longer so little (it just goes so fast!!) The first 12 days, while Tim was still home, were just amazing. We both couldn’t – and still can’t – believe we’re parents to such a beautiful, content baby. She made life so easy, fed well, slept 4 – 6 hours at night, and simply didn’t really cry. I was a bit sore from the c-section and a little sleep deprived, but we were so in love with our little girl that it didn’t matter. It was incredibly difficult to say goodbye to Tim at the airport after such a special time at home, and even harder for him to leave not just me, but his little baby behind, knowing she’d be so much bigger in a month’s time. The good news is that it’s now only 3 days until he comes home and I just can’t wait for him to see how our little girl has grown...

Luckily for me, Leola continues to make life very easy. She’s not quite as quiet and “polite” when she cries as she was in those first two weeks, but she still is an amazingly content baby and only fusses in the early evening from about 6 – 8PM when she’s very alert and awake and refuses to go to sleep even though she’s obviously super-tired! The only place she wants to be for those two hours is as close as possible to her mommy ... what an awesome feeling to be needed and wanted by such a little cuddly creature.

The past few weeks have flown by. It’s a whole new life, not necessarily busier than before but very different. I did a quick calculation the other day and realised that between feeding, nappy changing and bath time, that accounts for around 4 – 6 hours daily. Then there’s the hours spent just loving her and staring at her while she’s sleeping and before you know it half your day is gone! And all this is on her terms, not mine ... just when I plan to get some admin done or get stuck into a work project, it’s time to feed, time for a clean nappy, or simply time to be hugged and held.

Needless to say Gandalf is not impressed! He loves this new little addition to the family and tries to sniff her nappy and lick her poor little head at every opportunity, but he’s not too happy about his new status in the family. He used to be the object of my chit chat and affection and he’s highly offended that this is no longer the case and I even neglect to feed him on occasion (because I’m busy feeding Leola.) Poor boy! It’s made him quite insecure and he’s decided that the best solution is to follow me around the house every step of the way, just so I don’t forget he still exists. It’s all a bit tricky but I’m sure over time he’ll get used to our new routine. What is really amazing is that Leola’s arrival has resulted in him being even more protective than before. He seldom barks but his guarding instincts have become stronger and he’s more alert than before to strange sounds ... and more aggressive to strangers at the gate.

A funny story: a few weeks ago, the doorbell rang with someone trying to deliver flowers. I couldn’t answer as I was feeding so our domestic, Cynthia, went to the gate with Gandalf standing next to her barking. The delivery guy was terrified and pretty much dropped the flowers while yelling some nasty words to Cynthia to “f!^#-ing” control her dog. I didn’t appreciate his tone so I opened the gate to have a word with him. I didn’t close the gate properly and Gandalf, still barking, managed to get out ... the guy freaked out completely and pushed aside his flowers to hide behind them in the back of his bakkie. Needless to say I had to carry my own flowers to the house because he wasn’t going anywhere near Gandalf. I was quite upset with the way he spoke to Cynthia, but did have to laugh ... I’ve never seen anyone climb into the back of his own car that quickly!!

Back to the main feature...

Tim left on June 1st, but I wasn’t alone for long. The following Sunday (June 6th) my friend Marjan arrived from Holland to help out for two weeks.

Marjan has two kids herself who she had to leave behind for those two weeks, but her husband Hans had taken time off work to take the kids camping for two weeks (very brave!!) It was awesome having Marjan here. She’d come out with the intention of being there to help out in any way needed, but with Leola being such a little angel, there was lots of time for shopping, chatting, more shopping, walks, and a few touristy outings. And of course, we both got bitten by World Cup fever and watched most of the games, especially Bafana Bafana and Holland. The two weeks just flew by and when I dropped Marjan off this past Monday evening, she left with a suitcase filled with the proof of various successful shopping trips and a whole bunch of good memories. Marjan is also Leola’s godmother and it’s very special to know that our little girl will be a part of our continued friendship.

About the World Cup... like many people, we’d been worried, but hopeful, about South Africa’s ability to pull it off and host a successful event-free World Cup. Well, so far so good!! The atmosphere has been absolutely amazing, the vuvuzelas can be heard day and night in the suburbs (though less now that Bafana is out of the running), and the “gees” around the stadium area is absolutely amazing. This past Thursday was the Holland – Cameroon game. I didn’t have tickets, but it happened to be the same day that I had to go to the Dutch Embassy for a visa for Leola, and I also hoped to meet up with my sister Janet’s brother-in-law who was here from Holland to watch the game (and carrying gifts for Leola). The orange everywhere was just amazing!! The fan park at the Castle of Good Hope was just covered with people dressed in orange and the atmosphere was super-festive. Luckily the boys in orange did well!! Tim and I have tickets for the semi-final in Cape Town and I’m really hoping to watch the Dutch play. How amazing that would be!

I’ve just realised that this is by now becoming a very lengthy post, so I’d better wrap up shortly.

Just a quick note on Leola’s progress to date: we’ve found a great baby clinic where we take her on a weekly basis to follow her progress, ask any questions, and just be reassured that all is well. At the 1-month visit (1.5wks ago), Leola was measured and weighed and it was amazing to see the change in such a short time.

Her stats:

• Weight:
 - 3.85KG at birth
 - 4.68KG at 1 month

• Length:
 - 52cm at birth
 - 54.5cm at 1 month

• Head circumference:
  - 33 cm at birth
  - 37cm at 1 month

She also started smiling a few weeks ago and is more alert every day, able to hold up her head for short periods when on her tummy, and completely fascinated by her pink stuffed elephant that hangs above her change table. On that note, she’s received so many cards, gifts, best wishes, clothes and toys ... she’s a spoiled girl already!! She’ll also soon be a very well-travelled girl with our trip to the UK coming up soon (July 10 – 22). We’ll be travelling via Schiphol where she’ll briefly meet her Dutch cousins over lunch before we go on to Aberdeen for 5 days. From Aberdeen, we’ll be travelling to Cornwall for Brigid & Rob’s wedding and from there to Brighton and London to meet up with various friends and their little ones. Luckily her SA passport arrived in record time, her UK visa followed promptly and her Dutch visa is being processed as I write this (hopefully).

I’ve written a separate blog update on Leola’s blog so if you’d like to read more about her progress, have a look: http://www.leolawigham.blogspot.com/.

Time for bed before our little girl wakes up again.

Lots of love from Cape Town and Ghana.

Home stretch...

Saturday 24 April - I'm sitting on the couch on a sunny autumn day in Cape Town, 37 weeks pregnant and finding it oh so hard to concentrate on work. I should be writing an article for an Angolan Oil & Gas magazine (due today) but all I can think about is only 1 more week till Tim comes home (in fact, less than a week!!!) and two weeks after that our lives will change forever!

As usual it's been super-busy in the past 2+ months. Shortly after our last post, I ran two 2-day workshops for De Beers, with Tim coming home on the morning of my last day of workshops and one day after our 3-yr anniversary.

The next four weeks of Tim being home was a bit of a blur. We had to get a bunch of work/admin days out of the way and officially emptied out my office to become the baby room. We moved my desk into Tim's office and with a bit of shuffling managed to fit both. As a result, the guest room is now full with all sorts of extra tidbits, books and pieces, but we'll soon get some shelving in our shared office to ensure we've got room for all our stuff. Great opportunity to get rid of anything we don't absolutely need!

We also managed to fit in ante-natal classes (fascinating!) and get the baby room painted. Our idea was to have two-tone walls, fuchsia pink at the bottom with a light cream/yellow at the top and a picture rail in the middle to separate both colours. The furniture arrived a week after Tim left and it all looks really cute together...

One of the most fun things we did was an official "bump shoot". We had to go to the photographer's studio in the Northern Suburbs, but it was great fun and we were very happy with the pictures. So for those of you who've been wanting to see bump pictures ... here they are!

I was close to 8 months pregnant when we did the shoot, but my bump was still quite small so the photographer kept telling me to stick out my tummy, which can be hard to do when you're also trying to smile and look relaxed :). The funny thing is that 5 weeks later, at 37 weeks pregnant, my tummy is not that much bigger ... yet at our last scan (2 weeks ago) our little girl already weighed over 3KGs! Looks like she's going to be a chubby little girl!

Tim left to go back to the rig on March 23rd, almost 5 weeks ago, and will be coming home this coming Thursday (April 29th). This was going to be a long hitch (5.5 weeks) just so that we could get our timing as perfect as possible for baby arrival. Now let's hope she's equally nice to us and arrives perfectly on time!

We've both been absolutely hectic since Tim's departure. The rig Tim is working on went from exploration into a completions phase, which meant new territory for Tim and huge pressure on everyone on the rig. So far so good although they did have an unfortunate incident with one of the wells, which ended up being a $50million "error". The amounts of money spent in the process of recovering oil are absolutely mindblowing! The good news for Tim was that the last five weeks have absolutely flown by ... getting 20 minutes to talk on the phone every second day is a luxury!

Luckily I was busy as well. I plan to stop working for two months from May 1 - June 30, so I had to make sure that all unfinished projects are wrapped up before then. Just as I thought things were fairly well under control and on schedule, I received another phone call from De Beers, asking for two more workshops. They were aware of "my siuation" so they were flexible enough to fit the workshops in before the end of April, but it did mean that I had to spend this past week (Mon - Thu) on my feet for 4 days facilitating. This has put a bit more pressure on me for getting the various other projects done, but the workshops were great fun again and it made the last week before Tim comes home fly by.

I also managed to get all the necessary baby shopping done as well as pre-admission at the hospital, so hopefully we are now ready for the day that will change our lives for ever... (is a person ever ready??) I'm sooo looking forward to meeting our little girl, becoming parents, seeing Tim as a dad, and seeing how Gandalf will react to being moved down a notch or two on the family totem pole...

That's pretty much all from our side ... next time we post anything, it will hopefully be with a happy announcement :-).

Love from Cape Town

Busy but bursting with happiness!

A few months have passed since our last update ... and it's amazing how quickly those months have gone! I'll try to give you a quick update on the last few months to bring you back up to speed with our lives on 17 February 2010.

Christmas and New Year's have come and gone. Christmas for me was spent home alone (don't feel sorry - I had a great day) while Tim was on the rig working, but enjoying one amazing meal after another. Apparently, the food on the rig is just too good to be true and for Christmas they had gone all out, offering anything from sushi to the more traditional Christmas fare... I don't usually take the time to cook amazing meals - quick pastas and crackers & cheese are my favourites - so I wouldn't even try to compete with the rig!

Tim arrived home from the rig on December 29th. Just in time to do some last-minute shopping and packing before leaving for Zim on Wed Dec 30th. We had a family reunion of sorts to look forward to with Sue already in Zim, Paul & Bee and the girls on their way, and Tim's cousins Caroline (with Dan and baby Sacha, who's not such a baby anymore!) and Bridget (and her soon-to-be-fiance Rob) flying in from London. Tim's aunt Rona was celebrating a special birthday, which was the extra motivation for all of us to come.

We had a fantastic time ... we caught up with friends and family in Zim, spent a fair amount of time with Paul & Bee and Rob & Kirsty Kuipers (which is where P&B were staying), and got to see Jase and Nats and the kids in their new environment ... although sadly not quite yet in their new home. Other than Rona's birthday party, a real highlight of the trip was that Rob and Bridge got engaged (finally :)). They went to Vic Falls for a few days and came back with Bridget's hand - and eyes - sparkling and the happy news of a wedding for all of us to look forward to. The wedding of year is planned for July in Cornwall (England), so that will be a first overseas trip for our little Wiglet.

Another highlight was my baby shower, which Sue had organised. It was such a nice surprise and made me realise that I really am pregnant ... I've been to many baby showers, but somehow never imagined attending one where my bump would be the centre of attention.

While in Zim we stayed with Jonathan, Tim's Dad, who owns the most amazing place in Christonbank. It's about 25min outside Harare and every time we're there, it strikes me how peaceful and beautiful it is. Thanks to the recent rains, the grass was beautifully green and the views stunning as always. We also met Jonathan's new dog, Rafiki. Such an awesome little dog. Jonathan got him from a rescue society; a skinny, small dog, mostly German Shepherd. Rafiki obviously hadn't been treated too well by his previous owners and was very shy and submissive towards new people; he quickly warmed up to us though and I had great fun brushing him, feeding him all sorts of fattening treats and teaching him how to sit. It was hard to leave him at the end of the week, but great to be going home to Gandalf.

Gandalf, meanwhile, had a bit of a different Christmas ... he was left outside a bit more than usual perhaps, and with us gone, obviously felt a bit out of sorts. His remedy was to take it out on anything chewable, including breaking into the house (through an open window and the burglar bars), chewing through a blind and tearing apart a duvet. A few days later, he discovered that doors that are accidently left unlocked can also be chewed open, which then provides access to even more nice chewable stuff in the form of our plantation shutters. I wasn't happy (OK, that's an understatement) and the repair bill for all of this is pretty hefty, but it also made me realise that the poor boy must have had some unhappy moments (fire crackers on NY eve) and must have been quite desperate. The sad part is that he's now got the taste for chewing and scratching and hasn't really stoppped since (when I leave the home). Not ideal, so we'll have to find a way to get him to unlearn this new habit.

For the rest, we had a great January with Tim at home. It was quite busy work-wise, but we still managed to do some fun things together, watch a number of good movies, and of course enjoy the pregnancy together. Tim was there for the big 5-month scan, which we had at 23 weeks - absolutely amazing!! This is a 4D scan and it was so amazing to see our little baby moving around on the screen. She's got 10 fingers and toes, a perfect little heart, beautifully working kidneys and everything else you could wish for. Listening to the woman who performed the scan, we were once again blown away by the miracle of it all!

Tim left on Tue Jan 26th ... and life has been a bit of a blur ever since. I've been super-busy with both CLC and Exceed work, but particularly CLC seemed to start off with a bit of a bang this year. It's been good, but at times a bit overwhelming, especially when I received a phone call from De Beers 10 days ago (we worked with them through Exceed in 2007/8) and I had to make room for two more 2-day workshops this month. Managed to squeeze it all in, but will be happy when February is over ... a bit too hectic for my liking (all self-inflicted, I know).

Last week, I also had a visit from a colleague in Aberdeen for a full week. I hadn't been to Aberdeen since September, so this was seen as a good opportunity for Pat to come out and join me for a week to jointly work on a LEAN Kaizen training workshop. Pat joined Exceed a year ago and is a specialist in implementing Kaizen in administrative environments. Part of the same family as Six Sigma, LEAN Kaizen is the less statistical cousin and has a heavy focus on staff involvement and empowering staff to implement the right solutions. The approach reminds me of the UK programme "back to the shopfloor"; it recognises that those doing the work often know better what savings can be realised than those in management positions. I've always been intrigued by Kaizen, but just listening to Pat and working with her on the workshop made me realise that's something I'd really enjoy doing as well ... and the opportunities are all around us here in SA! (Now just need to find the time ...)

Other than working, we managed to find time to go for a few nice dinners and scenic drives together as well as walk Gandalf and play a few games of Rummikub... Pat also joined Sue to a story telling evening, which - coincidentally - was all about the bonding journey between a mother and her unborn child so she came back with a poetry book for me. I didn't go as I never say no to an opportunity to be in bed by 9PM these days :).

The good news is that after the initial nausea and a bit of a scare in the first trimester, the pregnancy has been coming along so nicely! I'm still often nauseous, but nothing like it used to be. I'm now 6.5months, less than 3months to go, and as I write this, I keep getting little (and some bigger) kicks just to remind me she's still there! Everything seems to be coming along on schedule, my tummy is expanding and our little baby still has lots of space for summersaults and other movements ... which she seems to be enjoying. Her favourite position is feet kicking down (to ensure I take frequent bathroom breaks) and head pushing nicely into my ribcage.

It's amazing to think that she already has a completely working digestive system, can open and close her eyes, can hear and feel ... and is even starting to develop taste buds! We can't wait to see her in real life ... though we have a feeling that if what they say is true (90% of a baby's character is the result of her parents combined DNA), we're in for a busy 20 years ... or more!

Just a quick update on Tim's life on the rig in Ghana. He is still very much enjoying this new project and the team he's working with, which is great. We chat every two days (or more often) and he surprised me with roses, a teddy and some chocolates for Valentine's Day. Just over a week till he comes home. I can't wait ... we've planned a relatively relaxed month of March with a bit of work but also a weekend at a spa, a 2-day antenatal workshop on hypnobirthing, and of course plans to get the baby room ready by the end of March!

Anyway, this brings you up to date on the last few months and me to a point where I need to get some work done. It's February 17 ... only a week to go to our 3-yr wedding anniversary ... and lots to do before my two big workshops, plus I'm working on a training manual for a local health & beauty chain (Clicks), which was due last month already. They've been flexible on the deadline as much of the delay was on their side, but now it's time to live up to my end of the deal.

Lots of love to you all!

Offshore

I have found a routine which makes life pretty enjoyable out here on the rig. Firstly my system is now back under control after the initial wobble so that is great! Secondly I now go to the gym at 0415 to get a good session in while all is quiet and so that I can then have a sauna and shower before breakfast.

Work is good and I am slowly building key relationships onboard. Last night the welfare team had organised Bingo! I had 5 very average rounds while everyone else was winning and then unbelievably, won the main final round and got a prize containing a golf kit (Tiger Woods pc game, new golf balls, a Galileo scope to judge distance, a golf shirt, cap, a new parker pen to sign autographs [or legal papers in Tiger’s case] etc). Very nice and unpredicted result :)

The offline report writing and presenting work is pretty relaxed and definitely less stressful than on the Explorer.

Here are some of my new friends from Cameroon and Ghana. They work for Geoservices – monitoring the well and catching formation samples when they reach the surface.

Ange has been soldiering on at home as usual – managing many things at once and slowly growing a 18 week bump :) Unfortunately the nausea has not abated as yet but here’s hoping…

Chat soon.

Four exciting months later...

With Tim just having added a post (see below) I can't stay behind... It's been an interesting past 4 months and there's a valid reason why we haven't posted anything on our blog recently: we're expecting a baby!!

Quite a few of you will already have heard the news but for others it'll be the first time, so bear with me... We found out we were pregnant on September 3rd 2009 - a day I'll never forget!! It had taken us a while to get to this point, and we still can't believe that we're here!

Earlier this year we discovered that I have a blood clotting disorder, so for the first three months I had to give myself daily injections in my tummy. The injections resulted in the most amazing bruises, but they also helped ensure that there was good bloodflow through to the uterus and through the tiny little veins of our little baby.

I must admit that the last few months have been both very exciting and very scary.... oh, and the cause of much nausea. We prayed so long for this little miracle and are so aware that it's all so vulnerable. I'm slowly but surely starting to feel more relaxed though. We've passed the 4-month mark, our little girl (yes, it's a girl!!) is growing and is a good week ahead of schedule, and all seems fine. We also have an AngelSounds baby monitor, which allows us to listen to the baby's heartbeat. I find it very re-assuring and it's become a night time ritual for me to just listen to her for a few minutes before I go to sleep. The monitor instructions compare a baby's heart beat to the sound of "horses galloping" ... actually a fairly accurate description ;).

The pregnancy is not the only exciting thing in our lives in the last few months (though definitely the most exciting!!); in September, there was our trip to the UK ... We spent a few days in Aberdeen, just long enough for me to catch up on a few work things. We then flew down to London, spent time with our friends Antony & Alex, Craig & Tanya, and Nick & Sam. This was followed by a week in Portugal, together with Brigid & Rob, Caroline, Dan & Sacha, and Paul & Bee, to attend Bruce & Lucy Fletcher's wedding. What an amazing place to get married ... and what a great idea to make it a week of wedding festivities. Most people arrived only a day or two before the wedding and stayed until a week after (including Bruce & Lucy), so it was just perfect for everyone to catch up with each other ... we basically met at a different beach every day.

I wasn't feeling fantastic in Portugal (ever-present morning sickness), but we still had an absolutely amazing time ... which was sadly followed too quickly by Tim going back to the rig. The Angola project has meanwhile ended and Tim left a week ago for a 5-week hitch in Ghana on a new project (see Tim's post below). Better rig, better conditions, friendly people ... so nice to know he's on to a great project!

I'm meanwhile keeping busy in Cape Town. I have a few local projects on the go, including a small company for whom I'm doing a fair amount of facilitation work and some coaching. When you see a client regularly, you sort of start feeling part of their team, which is nice. Most of my time though is still spent working virtually with Exceed (no more air travel for me). On that note, the team at Exceed keeps trying to persuade us to move to the UK, so we finally decided to put together a little video for them that explains why we like living in Cape Town and prefer our backgarden over a stuffy office ... If you want to see it, we've posted it on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LJW4wSJEAY

Tim will be back in Cape Town on Dec 29, so though we won't be together for Christmas, at least we'll be together for New Year. This year, we'll be in Zim, flying up on Dec 30, to spend a good week with Tim's Dad as well as Paul & Bee and the entire Martin family. Tim's aunt Rona is celebrating a special birthday this year, so we'll all be together on New Year's Eve, which we're immensely looking forward to. We were going to drive and take Gandalf with, but since traveling long-distance isn't really adviseable with the blood clotting, poor Gandalf will have to stay behind and will be with our friend and house-sitter Catherine for New Year's.

I'm very sad Tim & I will be apart for Christmas, but the good news is that this means we'll definitely be together next Christmas when we're a real family :). This year, I'm hoping to help out at our Church with reaching out to the community. It seems like the right thing to do and I'm quite looking forward to it.

Last bit of sad news: our friends Jason & Natalie and their family are moving back to Zim in less than two weeks' time. Though we're excited for them, we're very sad to have to say goodbye. They live "just around the corner" (also in Tokai) and I just hate the thought of no longer being able to quickly pop by.

For the rest, we're fine, healthy, and so much looking forward to the year in which our lives are going to change forever!

Hope this finds you all well ... love from Cape Town!