Another Reunion

If you have a read of the redrowe blog (find the link on this page on the right) you will see all our news. We will be in South Africa from the 25th of March till the 23rd of April, so if anyone has any ideas on a venue and date for a reunion please email me.

See you all soon!

The "new"town

I was quite "gobsmacked" (for want of finding another word) when I did a search on google only to find that Nr. 37 Quinn street, Newtown is being developed into an apartment block with penthouses, and you get Tax relief for buying in the inner city now.

There is a great web page that gives you all the details you can find it by clicking onto the title of this post or just click here: http://www.thenewtown.co.za/default.asp?p=history - I love the heading "the newtown (an urban lifestyle)".

Here is a bit from the web page: Newtown, Johannesburg’s “cultural Precinct”, is about to get a funky new up-market residential component. The once-glorious “Premier Milling Head Office” is being converted into apartments – to be knows as “the newtown”.

The newtown will consist of 30 chic urban apartments and 7 breath-taking penthouses, with each apartment having sweeping views of Jo’burg’s skyline.

I was trying to find something to put on the blog seeing as I have had no input from anyone, I thought I might find something interesting.

Age and babies are a terrible thing though, I tried to remember the names of all the pubs we used to frequent in the area and my mind is a blank, now I know it is almost 12 years since I last worked in Newtown, but hey I thought my memory was better - but obviously not.

So if someone would email me the names of all the pubs I would be very greatful.

Till Later

Rose

Remember "hot chip rolls" from akalwayas (spelling) and samoosas from the plaza?

Houston, Houston, come in Houston ...

Pete sent me a mail to say he has updated his blog with new pics and information, take a look: http://the-bayous.blogspot.com/ and here's a picture of the beautiful kids too.

Back to School for 2007

Well thousands of South African kids will be returning to school this week after the summer holidays, I found these jokes from Karen and thought they would be quite appropriate for this post.
TEACHER : Maria, go to the map and find North America.

MARIA : Here it is!

TEACHER : Correct. Now class, who discovered America?

CLASS : Maria!
_________________________________________________

TEACHER : Why are you late, Frank?

FRANK : Because of the sign.

TEACHER : What sign?

FRANK : The one that says, "School Ahead, Go slow."
_______________________________________________________


TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?

JOHN : You told me to do it without using tables!_______________________________________________________


TEACHER : Glenn, how do you spell "crocodile?"

GLENN : K-R-O-K-O-D-A-I-L"

TEACHER : No, that's wrong

GLENN : Maybe it s wrong, but you asked me how I spell it!_________________________________________________________


TEACHER : Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?

DONALD : H I J K L M N O!!

TEACHER : What are you talking about?

DONALD : Yesterday you said it's H to O!_________________________________________________________


TEACHER : Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago.

WINNIE : Me!
_________________________________________________________


TEACHER : Goss, why do you ! always get so dirty?

GOSS : Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.
_________________________________________________________


TEACHER : Millie, give me a sentence starting with "I."

MILLIE : I is...

TEACHER : No, Millie..... Always say, "I am."

MILLIE : All right... "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet."
________________________________________________________


TEACHER : Can anybody give an example of COINCIDENCE?

TINO: Sir, my Mother and Father got married on the same day, same time."
_________________________________________________________


TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted doing it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish him?"

LOUIS : Because George still had the ax in his hand.
_________________________________________________________


TEACHER : Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?

SIMON : No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.
_________________________________________________________


TEACHER : Clyde, your composition on "My Dog" is exactly the same as your brother's. Did you copy his?

CLYDE : No, teacher, it's the same dog!;
________________________________________________________


TEACHER : Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?

HAROLD : A teacher.

January Birthdays ...

Happy Birthday Shaheed for January the 13th, (lucky number 13), from everyone!

Dave's Christmas and New Year

So I sent an email to all the ex-prems to find out how their Christmas and New Year was and got "one" reply - (Where's Dave?, Dave's not here ... oh wait, there he is)

So Dave where did you spend Christmas?
Aliso Viejo, California.

With who?
My wife Aimee. It was our first Christmas by ourselves in 6 or 7 years which was different, but nice.

What was your favourite present?
Not sure I can say on a public forum!

What did you do for New Year?
I had a Bollywood New Year. I've started playing cricket with a group of Indian guys (think curry not red) and one of them organised a New Year's party. It was different in that the women were the ones sitting watching the guys do most of the dancing! I joined in for a couple of dances myself once I realised I wasn't going to embarrass myself!
(Dave will have to tune in to Celebrity Big Brother as Shilpa Shetty (Miss Bollywood- shouldn't that be spelt CHetty???) is one of the residents!)

Anything else you want to tell us?
Just like to wish everyone a very happy new year and I hope 2007 will be a great year for you and your families!

Johannesburg ... Feel Kinda home sick now

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year to all of you - Thanks as well to those of you who updated our birthday reminder, must say that June is obviously a very good month!

So hopefully we will be able to fill the blog this year with stories from all of you ... where you are what you have been up to - Paul send us some photographs of your holiday and I will put them up and you too Kenny and anyone else who went away. Even if it was a trip to Durban, I am dying for news from home and I am sure there are loads of people out there as well who are dying to hear about your trip to Bloem.

I often think about the trips I used to make when I worked at Premier, and if it wasn't for Premier I would never have known what Vredendal or Heidelberg in the Cape looked like. I often tell people that they say you should travel your own country before you travel the world and thanks to Premier I think I saw a lot of South Africa and Swaziland ... Thanks Premier for all those free holidays (and you all thought we were working ha! ha! ;-)) It's no wonder that Carol only ever sent me to one Qpac conference!

Anyway guys please send NEWZ for everyone.

Guest Book

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick note to say thank you to all of you for reading the "Blog" and for leaving a message in the Guest Book, Melina, Laurence, Paul, Lynn and everybody it was so nice to read your messages. Hopefully in the new year we can have lots of posts from everyone, so email me at the gmail address and I will create a mailing list to let you all know when I update the blog.

Take Care

Love

RED

Greetings from Karen -15/12/06

Received an email from Karen with all her news, thought I would share it with all of you:

Hi,

We still at the office - hoping to get away next week.

Planning on going up to Quissico, Mozambique (about 500km north of Maputo) Is a piece of ground between the sea and lagoon - we have an old pop up caravan there and tents.

Is really 'primitive' - only a borehole/spring for fresh water - and have now dug a loo (long drop style) and made 'rural showers( reeds as the walls in a snail form (so cant look directly in) and then a bucket for the water!!!!

What is so wonderful is that we are the only ones for about 7km then is next neighbour who has a 4x4 campsite. also the last ones on this track. If walk along the beach is about 1 - 2 km along the coast to them. Is so great as is quiet and no 'modern' things. Can really relax and be disorderly without anyone raising eyebrows!!!

Gert was in Nigeria and Ivory Coast for 2 weeks. Was an exhibition in Abuja(nigeria). Says that this city zillion times better than lagos. He will have a hectic schedule early next year - to pemba), Quelimane, Nampula and Beira and the Maputo to install machines. He will be travelling by car - roads not always so good - so will be a 3 week trip This is Jan

Then in Feb - it is a round trip - Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. Doing a presentation for swedish company. Again will be in car - so lots of kms and plenty border > officials. Cant remember what happening in march.

Kids all well - Both passed - Christoph now going to gr 11 (std 9) Markus going to gr 6(std4) . Markus nearly my height. Christoph is a bit taller than Butch - but don't think he will get much taller.

Can you believe it was a year ago that you were here!!!!! I cant...................... time just seem to go by so quickly....

Wish you a Merry Christmas and may 2007 be a good year!

Cheers

Karen

Merry Christmas

I just realised that all the schools in South Africa will have broken up by now, and most people will be taking or about to take their Annual summer vacation, so I thought I should put up a last post for all of you!

I just wanted to say that it has been great to get in touch of so many of the ex-premier people after all these years, I have spoken to either on email or on the phone Lucia, Charlie, Andre, Dave, Michelle this year after not hearing from them in almost 10 years. Don't be strangers now, I am hoping that a few people will email in some photographs in the new year and we can update the blog.

Kenny took some pictures at the Secret garden so as soon as he sends those over in January I will put them up, Karen sent in some news on ex-prems which I will put up soon as well, and Michelle sent some info.

So until then I'd like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy new year, lets hope that 2007 is a good year and we can create a few more ties. To all our regular ex-prem buddies thanks for all the emails, Pete hope to see you in Houston in July and you too Dave, if not in LA. Pierre looks like Jersey may have to wait another year, and all those in Oz may be another 2 years before we get there if not longer, but we're coming!

Till then, as David Gresham would have said "keep your feet on the ground, and reach for the stars" (no wise cracks from you, please Charlie!)