Frans and Sarah take London: May 2017

It would be remiss not to acknowledge the incredibly long break between blog posts, for which I must apologise. For various reasons, I have not written a post in about 10 months and it was thanks to a few enquiring texts and emails that I am sitting down again to write another snapshot of our lives here in London.

As the summer approaches, and spreads its long evenings and bright sunshine on our days, there is more space for taking time out of the daily grind for some reflection and sharing our lives with friends and family. Although we have survived the winter, looking back retrospectively, it was not without the customary semi-hibernation that many UK residents tend to slip into during those colder and darker months. Aside from a 3 week holiday to South Africa over Christmas and New Year, we let winter slide by and are only now starting to wake up, blinking and stretching.

Chantal and Matt's wedding in South Africa this January was the highlight of our otherwise wintry months. It was the most special day with throngs of the closest and most special people, lashings of rain and moody mist that nobody noticed because they were all having such a good time. And when we got back to icy London, we put our heads down and held out until the next exciting trip, as the British tend to do.

During the spring we took our first trip to Europe and visited Italy. Starting in Rome and ending in Amalfi, we did a fully tourist holiday and loved every minute of it. But details of that holiday will take an entire post to themselves, I'll leave that for another day; I am only just shaking the cobwebs and mothballs out of my neglected blog-writing trousseau and I'm not going to start over-ambitiously!

It was then a nip back to South Africa for Vicky and Dylan's wedding at the end of April. We were so grateful to be able to share this most special day with our Virasamy's. The weather came to the party too and it was a cool sunny day ended off by a major party; I don't think the bride left the dance floor even once. After spending the following two days catching up with family and friends, it was back to London and back to work. And one week later, a Big Bike Ride

A few weeks ago I took part in a long cycle ride in Norfolk and Suffolk, called The Big Bike Ride. I was invited to join the fundraising ride by my friend Elyse and her husband Ed after she noticed that I had ridden to school a few times on the mountain bike lent to me by my Aunty Margaret. Being brand new to cycling, I don't think I quite realised what I was letting myself in for when I agreed to be Elyse's riding buddy over 170 kilometres of cycling in two days. But, as it was to raise money for a good cause (St Elizabeth's hospice) and, since I was planning on getting myself a more suitable bike anyway, I agreed and we started training in earnest. Unfortunately, we only had about 5 weeks to get any training done and I had not yet received my road bicycle so I was training on the tractor bike as it has come to be known. We attended a few spinning classes at the gym and after my road bike arrived, we did a few longer rides. But not enough as we found out the hard way!

Day one we rode for about 120 kilometres and it took us almost the whole day, both of us ended up with painful knees and were walking funny by the end of the day. But it was day two where the 'injuries' really showed up. That's when sitting down on the saddle was a real problem, but standing on the pedals was not an option either, due to the aforementioned knee trouble. The catch 22 was eventually solved once we had warmed up and by a large dose of Ibuprofen - dosed up and ready to take on the Tour de France. After 50 kilometres we finally arrived at the finish line at a local junior school, along with the other 50 or so riders who had also completed the distance. The countryside and company were the real highlights of the weekend. The route took us along the Norfolk coast so there was an ever-changing vista of seaside and farmlands. Luckily we had a personal second, Philippa from Johannesburg, to drive along behind us and provide us with any food, tire pumps and general merriment as we cycled endlessly along.