december fun...

So hard to believe that December is here.  The calendar is starting to fill, things are really busy and I am having to get diary printed out and keep updating it.

Yesterday I had fun pretending I was a stylist and arranging glasses and bottles of bubbles.  I even added bicarbonate of soda to wine to make it look like bubbles.  (I had no visitors so no excuse to open a bottle).

Don't you love my new champagne glasses?  Treated myself to two of them and thought I would buy one everytime I visited Woolworths (alas on my last visit they were all sold out).

December brings family reunions, birthday parties, office parties and best of all overseas visitors.  Cheryl, my fantastically funny and very special friend is coming to Cape Town from New Zealand with her now 21 year old son, Joshua.  Cheryl left SA about 13 or 14 years ago.  She has been back to visit but this is Joshua's first time back to Cape Town.  She has family here, birthday parties to attend and (lucky for me) will be spending some time with us as well.  We will have time to reminisce - she has the most amazing memory and remembers all the crazy things that we did together (that I have chosen to forget).  She has the ability to light up any occasion and I can't wait to see her and get to know Joshua again.  I was very honoured to be his first babysitter all those years ago when she attended a family wedding and he was only a week or two old.  A couple of months later I was again given the honour.  His hair was starting to fall out and as I fed him his bottle I started tugging (very gently) on his hair and collecting it in my saucer.  Cheryl and Ian came home to a totally bald baby, Cheryl just laughed and said the patchy look was bothering her but Ian looked mortified!!

Lovely lady

Daniel and Joshua (as I remember them).  Note Joshua's healthy 

head of hair

Then Hans is also arriving in Cape Town next week but only for a day or two.  We always have so much fun together and I think I will have to take him on a business trip into the winelands.  He has assured me that he is happy to help with wine deliveries.  We became firm friends just over a year ago when he and his wife Siobhan were in Cape Town for the "wedding of the year".  He helped lay tables, hang hearts, decorate the church and in between we managed to strike up a great friendship, which always includes some sightseeing, good food, lots of laughs (and plenty wine).

Hans and his daughter Madeleine

(hopefully it won't be too long before their whole family visit)

My brother-in-law Colin, his wife Jenny and their son's in-laws are also arriving from the USA for Christmas.  They will be spending most of their time in Hermanus but we will join them on their arrival for the usual calamari on the stoep at Chappies (one of the essentials of any of Colin's visits to Cape Town).  

(Thanks to Villa Afrique for picture)

Heidi sent me this picture today to ensure that I recognise her children.  Owen was a toddler the last time they visited.  Colin has been working hard at getting the family together and it promises to be a very festive time.

My niece Allie is arriving from one of those Arabic places, which name escapes me right now, but she has to wear a burka (burqa?).  She has two little girls and I will be meeting the youngest Ava, for the first time.

Allie would definitely not be wearing shoes like that

That's more like it!!

Besides all the holiday excitement the wine business is going well.  I spent Saturday at an Open Day in Constantia.  A hot day, the most stunning home and garden, lovely people, lots of chats, ice cold bubbles.  My first real sales experience and I am always so encouraged by how great people really are.  The Open Day was at Jane's home and Jane and her sister run an online business called Gift Gardens.  Take a look at their site.  She has those Consol solar powered lights which are just awesome for gifts (or for yourself).

Tomorrow I also have my first ever "interview" with an online magazine.  Watch this space.

There is also lots of wine to sell and orders are coming in steadily.   Please email me at winetimesa@gmail.com if you are not on my mailing list and want to see our wines and prices.

i'm still here....

I had this saved many moons ago when I had my old day job and was able to check Facebook and do a bit of pinning on Pinterest during the day.  I found it this morning and had to smile.

How suddenly things can change.  Sorry about the neglect, things have been really busy but I am feeling as though I am getting on top of things.  It is good though, our second email and price list went out yesterday and there has been a great response.  I am meeting great people, using tanks of petrol because I need to make the effort to meet all my new customers and thank them personally for their first orders.

A drive over the mountain to Camps Bay on the most perfect day on Monday was a highlight as were a couple of really nice big wine orders that have just rolled in.  Wines are being delivered every second day and the warehouse is nearly overflowing (lucky there is a little galley kitchen area for me to work from because there is certainly no space for a desk).  Any guilt about not going to gym has disappeared as I now help the drivers to pack and stack hundreds of cases of wine.  Luckily they are going out nearly as fast as they are being packed in

My lounge at home looks like a packaging plant with rafia and different boxes, wine and food products all over the dining room table.  Luckily the weather has been good so we are able to eat outdoors.  Our Christmas hampers are going to be a winner.  There is a premium one and a value hamper and a couple of excellent 2 bottle packs for gifts (just saying).

Look out for me in a month or two after the Christmas rush.  I will be the one sitting on a wine farm tasting perfectly chilled wine for our new wine list,  while making tasting notes on my laptop (and checking pictures on Pinterest in between).  Success indeed.

Time to run... I'll be back

weekend shenanigans

A busy week and an even busier weekend.  Friday night we gathered in Kathy's courtyard for Kris's (her gorgeous, now nearly middle aged son) birthday.  So great to have time to sit and chat for a change.  The weekends have all been so busy lately that friendships have been neglected.

On Saturday we had a family wedding.  Robert Rosslee to Vicky Gwillian at a stunning venue in Melkbosstrand.  A relaxed lunchtime wedding ceremony on the beach - a gazebo and a spit braai lunch on the lawns looking at the sea and an intimate amount of people where you could spend time chatting to most of the people attending.

The Patriach - Bob (Samuel Robert Ogilive Rosslee)
(a legend)
(Picture Sally Bottger)

 The beach setting

Two Skabangers 

 Three Muskateers

 The newlyweds

 Awesome musicians who played background stuff all afternoon

Pretty flowergirls playing on the beach
(Picture Sally Bottger)

A very special day, special for me to spend catch up time with the Rosslee side of the family and have some quality time with my boys.  I was the driver and a little after the lunch I had all three of them checking that I was not drinking anymore wine while they drank cold beers like milkshakes.  We only left the wedding at about 11 and we had a long drive back belting out songs while Matthew was abused from the back because he was the DJ and kept putting the volume down.  They were very impressed with my knowledge of all "their" music on the CD shuttle system in the car.  This should be no surprise because we have had the car for nearly 6 years - Matthew put the 6 CD's in the shuttle the day the car entered the garage and they have not been changed since.  I don't know how to change them.  So I live with and now love Ryan Adams, Ben Harper, Jesse Malin and about another 3 CD's where I have no clue who is singing, but I know the words.

So the weekend is now tucked away in the memory bank.  It is back to work this week to get all my orders in order for delivery on Thursday.  This is such fun!

What a nice surprise I had late on Sunday night.  A mention on Gareth's blog.  It must have been my singing that impressed him!!  

have a glass of wine with this song...

We are Augustines....

Gareth shared a song with me the other day.  I did mention it last week but did not go into much detail.  I am not sure why I have been so teary lately (maybe just overtired) but I have had this song on repeat and it does not fail to get the tears rolling and goose flesh bumping.

Gareth had filled me in on the background of the song - a mother who committed suicide after suffering with mental illness and a brother who hung himself in prison - he was schizophrenic.  I have since become a stalker and found some amazing interviews that they have done.  Such humble, unpretentious musicians. Billy also looks like a cross between Brad Pitt, Gareth Rosslee and Andrew Deacon (which adds to his appeal for me).

Gareth being the media man that he is, shared this story on his blog today.  Imagine if they did come to SA and stayed with him?