Hey it's moving day

Hey all, so I have sadly had to move my blog. Blogger.com has served me very well right through our RTW tour and for the last few months back in SA, but I have found another with a few more features and am happy with it for now, but who knows, I may be back!!!

So please update your feed readers or however you read my blog to http://dieterlehmann.wordpress.com .

I am yet to figure our how to send out auto emails when I create a post, so until then, keep checking back - if you're interested that is.

Dieter

Turning the corner

So the big three zero happened over the weekend and the celebration was pretty apt. Had 40 of my closest family and friends round at our house enjoy a glorious and scarce February day in the sun. Thankfully there are another 40 of you over in London or the lamb we had on offer would have scarcely been a appetizer.

Sitting here today, I do feel a little older, if only psychologically, but at the same time ready to impart my wealth of knowledge to anyone that'll listen.

The party went really well apart from a few family related hiccups along the way. Even though the food was such a hit, Celia stole the show with the photo booth that she hired providing endless hours of fun for all and queue longer than the check in at Easyjet. Being the birthday boy, there was no need for any of that waiting and between checking on Patrick and Ricky at the lamb, there were more than enough opportunities for pictures with all my guests.

The day was long and my dad and I prepared the Lamb for the Asado as early as 9:30AM, we had to cut through the ribs in order for it to lay flat on the frame. I then had to practice some carving knife acupuncture and then Pat and I had to Swedish massage kosher coarse salt into the bum, chest and shoulders.


I have to say a special thank you to all that assisted me in making the day work as it was a ton more work than I expected. Celia #1, my parents, dos Santos family (that doesn't count you Sonia), Patrick, Celia #2, Emmanuel, Kiran, Carlos, Ricky, Allister and all of you that did something i never saw, you all deserve a medal, and I could not have done it without you, so thank you!! The rest of you, I could not have a party without people enjoying themselves. Thank you to all that went to the effort to send a video, I had a good laugh and did manage to force out a few tears at the appropriate moments.

I only ended up in the pool once courtesy of a friendly nudge by Peter, we won't mention the thinners he tried to make me drink, but after the numerous Jaegermeisters and Chin-chons, I could no longer blame my red eyes on the smoke from the braai, and soon after that my eyelids ceased to function while I was attempting to engage in conversation on the couch.

Patrick admiring his handiwork

All the chefs quite proud of themselves

Blowing out my birthday candles

A day at the dam

Kiran invited us to celebrate his birthday at the lovely resort of Magaliespark near Hartebeespoort dam. It was a great way to celebrate a Sunday and another year in the life of Pi. Celia and I crazily decided that I should get a round of golf in at the resort before everyone else arrives, and when we woke up at 4:30 in the morning (on a Sunday) , the dogs looked at us like we were a spot crazy.

Regardless, we made our way via a couple unplanned detours and arrived ready for my tee off time only to discover I had brought Annie freaken Liebovitz with me. I could not swing a golf club without her smashing away at that shutter, trying to get that perfect picture of when I connected with the ball. Well I can assure you that after 9 holes, 42 shots and 82 pictures we are still looking for that elusive 'moment of contact' picture. There are still some great pics of my golf swing which look heaps better than the current state it's actually in.

The main thing is that Kiran had a great day and by looking at his face when he got his present from Carlos, he was totally overjoyed. If only all our presents could be this satisfying!

We raced back shortly after lunch in order to get to the first dog training lesson which went great apart from the fact that Turk is the only dog in the class that has absolutely no idea what his name is...

Shrek and Donkey

Back by popular demand



We're taking them for their first training on Sunday which should be very interesting. Just like proud parents we obviously think they are much smarter than all the other dogs and don't actually know what they are going to do with them while they are waiting for the other dogs to learn their stuff.

I know, I know... they grow up so fast...

"Outside of a dog, a book is probably man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." --Groucho Marx

"My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to 99 cents a can. That's almost $7.00 in dog money." -- Joe Weinstein

"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face." --Ben Williams

South African edition

I thought I would start practising for the new role of the gardener in Desperate Housewives 'South African Edition' where i play the love interest of some hot gold digger. I was going to replace 'hot gold digger' with some famous black actress from our shores, and all I could think of was Charlene Surtie Richards from 'Fiela se Kind' fame, but maybe I don't really want to be her gardener / love interest. If any movie / t.v exec. is reading this however, I am available at weekends and evenings after 3pm to cut lawn for four, five or even six digit sums of money.

Talking about movies, I have gotten my paws on heaps of good movies which I just need to find the time to watch including Seven pounds, Slumdog Millionaire & Gran Torino. I hear Seven Pounds requires a box of tissues, but not in the same way as those German movies that show late at night. Really looking forward to that as Will Smith is a great actor, can hardly put a foot wrong. He was canned for 'I am Legend' by some, but you have to realise what a tough movie that was, in the same way Tom Hanks and a volleyball pulled it off, he managed to pull it off with his dog... erm, you know what I mean.

The advantages of boredom

There are a few good songs out right now, one of them being 'Lily Allen - The Fear', and one not being the new U2 single 'Electrical Storm' - but maybe it's a grower... I never liked Lily Allen before, but this song led me to search for others of hers which I have blatantly passed over, and after listening to some covers she has sung, I then got stuck on listening to covers of great songs, sung a little differently. So to get past the lull of decent post Christmas singles, all these great covers have filled my January stocking. I'll list some below that I (and Carin) have really enjoyed and are getting some serious playtime on my generic mp3 player.

In no particular order

• Alicia Keys - How to save a life
• Natasha Bedingfield - The Scientist
• Keane - With or Without You
• Stereophonics - Nothing compares to you
• The Killers - Romeo and Juliet
• Damien Rice - When Doves Cry

There are a ton more, I know, and I have about 30 tracks now, but these seem to come up the most, and I think it's due to the very London-like weather we seem to be having.

So you see what I do with my 'waiting time'.

Alright guv'

So all has been booked and paid for, time to haul out the diaries, wipe off the dust and write down some dates. To most of you this is no surprise, but Celia and I will be in London in the spring. Our SAA flight touches down at Terminal 2 on the 1st May @ 6:25, but sadly we take off again @ 9:45 on route to Düsseldorf to visit my family for a couple days, and then form there a short train trip to the land of the dyke and more spcifically, the home of the 'red light district', and a couple days with our good friend Ruurd.

That should bring us to Wednesday 6th where we will hopefully be boarding an Easyjet flight to Gatwick, I say hopefully as this last portion of the trip has not been finalised.

Now from here we have two weddings to fit in over the remaining weekends, one of them fortunately being in London.

I'm sure you can see how busy we will be, but one of my main objectives while I am there is to see as many of you as possible, as often as possible!! The other objectives with hopefully fall into place between beers.

Really looking forward to this trip and rolling back the years. I'm sure you can see how much I am missing it. I thought we could maybe catch an evening's Karaoke in Covent Garden or SOHO? (is that place still open). Billy is not invited, he makes the rest of us sound like mutts - i'd like to hear Sam's indo karaoke though.

I will surely chat to you before the time, but until then, i only have one word for you... 'HALT'.



p.s we're off again on the 16th, airport leaving party essential.

Last day in Office

I thought it would be apt on Dubya's last day in office that we show you his best bits. I personally didn't mind the guy, but he was a horrible speaker.

10) "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." —LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000 (Listen to audio clip)

9) "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family." —Greater Nashua, N.H., Jan. 27, 2000(Listen to audio clip)

8) "I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft." —second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004 (Listen to audio clip)

7) "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." —Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000 (Listen to audio clip)

6) "You work three jobs? … Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that." —to a divorced mother of three, Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005 (Listen to audio clip)

5) "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." —Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004 (Watch video clip; listen to audio clip)

4) "They misunderestimated me." —Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000

3) "Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" —Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000

2) "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 (Watch video clip; listen to audio clip)

and my all time favourite

1) "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." —Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002 (Watch video clip; listen to audio clip)

Stuff white people like

Heard about this site today on the radio which had me amused. Stuff white people like has a list off all the things we do, but when you stand back and take a look at yourself it is actually quite amusing. Look, I am a big culprit in all of this, but I also have no reason to stop.

One of my favourites in the list is #87 Outdoor performance clothes

"The main reason why white people like these clothes is that it allows them to believe that at any moment they could find themselves with a Thule rack on top of their car headed to a national park. It could be 4:00 p.m. on a Saturday when they might get a call “hey man, you know what we need to do? Kayak then camping, right now. I’m on my way to get you, there is no time to change clothes."

It's so true. Have a look at yourself and drop me a comment about ones that apply to you!!!

Beacon Bay

So our time in East London was pretty spectacular in the way that I came back to JHB superbly relaxed even though I had just driven 11 hours home. We had an absolute culinary extravaganza with meals each day that I could only dream to have on a fancy night out.

Menu

• Day 1: The first night as I have already said was Portuguese style fungi (pronounced foooo nnnn jjjj) with curried chicken. Leopards Leap 2008 Merlot


• Day 2: Lamb (shank) tagine with vegetables and Mange Tout. Vergelegen 2006 Cab Sav


• Day 3: Knysna oysters, crayfish boiled in salt water and 2 Red Roman on the grill spiced predominantly Cajun style. Meerlust 2002 Pinot Noir, Nature in Concert 2003 Pinot Noir


• Day 4: Oxtail potjie (nuff said) Vergelegen Pinot Noir & Boschendal Blanc de Noir


• Day 5: Local Chinese / Japanese / Thai for a good face stuffin: Tsingtao beer

So you see the food and wine were enough to keep our spirits up, even if the weather was proving to be a little unfavorable.

We did take the dogs down to the beach on every occasion the rain was not belting down and tried them out as a formidable swim team pairing. Charlie was not such a fan; in fact not that crazy about the beach in any way were it not for the other dogs running around. Turk however did take a liking to the water and by his third visit he was in love with the water, jumping face first into the Nahoon river behind this Spaniel giving him his first proper taste of salt water.

I managed to get a first class sunburn courtesy of my slack sun cream application. And while I am writing this, a week later, parts of my body are still a bit tender, and others a bit flaky. Wife is not amused…

You'll see in the pictures how well I have taught Turk in less than 3 months. He was such a hit on the beach and is now able to take other dogs on a walk
Celia enjoying our beach shelter from the searing South African sun

I wanna go to the seaside

The new year presented us with a great opportunity to get a few days break on the down in East London. To you foreigners, this is everything 'east' London is not. No Canary Wharf towers, Shoreditch night life or council estates.

There were a few issues with the trip though, in the same vein as trying to get to Stanstead for a 6AM flight. We had a new years party to attend to the night before which started off quite calm and resulted in pictures of me with a black bin bag over my head drinking beer (please see Facebook ^TM). This moment has yet to be explained to me. There were a few suggestions of me putting it on my head which I ridiculously laughed off.

I had to smile when I heard Emmanuel's comment - "Mommy, does Dieter know he can suffocate with that on his head?" ..... Clearly I didn't.

When we eventually made it home at 02:30 AM Celia was all gung ho to leave to East London (now you see the ball ache of a trip we had ahead of us I was talking about), but when she saw her bed, instinct took over and she fell into a deep Portuguese coma eventually surfacing at 6AM.

Now the race was on to ready the dogs, clean the house, pack the bags, and get the tank (Merc) ready. Well we lost that race as we only left the house at 08:30AM and with a hefty trip ten hour ahead with a Boxer and a Bulldog who produce enough gas to power us all the way there, we set off with some trepidation.

The trip was a breeze, well only because we had to keep opening the windows every 10 minutes. You see what i did there.. equating the breeze from opening the windows to how easy the was. Stopped in Bloemfontein - The City of Roses - as it is locally known for a well earned rest for us, and the dogs. Celia tucked into what she says is her last ever Steers burger, oh how things have changed in 7 years while we were gone, and the dogs as ever punished their bowl of food in a time that should ultimately earn them a t-shirt or something of the sort.

When we set off I bought the puppies a big bag of ice which I placed on the back seat and they loved it. It was a great respite from the Free State heat which engulfed the car even though the air-con was blasting. and soon were sleeping on top of the ice to cool down.

The rest of the trip was pretty ordinary, stopping only for wee's and poo's, and while Celia was doing that, I usually took the dogs out too. Woooohhooooowaaahaaaaahaaaa.

Unfortunately we arrived in East London to a wall of fog and the kind of drizzle you would expect in well, 'east' London.

Kiran and Carlos eased the pain of the weather with a well earned beer followed by a great red and a dish of 'fungi' (don't ask).

Chrismukkah

Christmas eve was a blur, the food was phenomenal and the company almost as good as the food. The main thing is that I got pretty decent gifts even though I never had a list. We did have our tenant round who happens to be Jewish to celebrate with us European Chrismas style which she later said was very "festive" (I hope that was a good thing :)) and we never held back. Had the music going on the background with Wham and 'Boney M' giving it their Christmas all, Cam-er-as a flashing and Pedro in a santa suuuiiiit..

Below are samples of fun from our house and Christmas.


Our "lemon Christmas tree" with my presents underneath


The lounge and dining room on a rare quiet day

Edmund Blackadder, Esq.: Shall I begin the Christmas story?
George, the Prince Regent: Absolutely, as long as it's not that terribly depressing one about the chap who gets born on Christmas Day, shoots his mouth off about everything under the sun, and then comes a cropper with a couple of rum coves on top of a hill in Johnny Arab land.
Edmund Blackadder, Esq.: You mean *Jesus,* Sire...?
George, the Prince Regent: Yes, that's the fellow! Keep him out of it. He always spoils the X-mas atmos!


"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. Dr. Seuss"

Silent night...,all is calm...? Not if your in-laws are Portuguese

This will probably be the last message I send before Christmas, so I'll give you a round up of what I have done since the last time I sat down to do this. It's a bit reflective, so excuse if I should sound a bit pretentious.

Last Christmas (no.. stop singing Wham) Celia and I were in Ko Lanta, Thailand with the Dirty Germans and Team Sweden having just completed our advanced diving qualification and busy having the time of our lives. Well we went on from there to visit many more countries, drive thousands of miles through the most spectacular jaw dropping landscape anyone could ever wish to see. We met fascinating people with stories similar, and phenomenally better than ours, gained many new friends and with that, places to stay on future visits. We had a short stay back in London to shake a few familiar hands and raise a glass or two with great friends who we hope to see again.

Once we had planted our feet back in South Africa a lot of adjustments had to be made, and if I'm completely honest, I still really miss my London lifestyle, my flat on the common, my shitty little Astra and clearly my mates there. I suppose it's a grass is always greener mentality. To rid myself of further distractions Celia and I bought an amazing house smack in the middle of Sandringham, just a stones throw from the kosher bakery, kosher butchery and the Pick n Pay with kosher wine. I feel right at home. I even refuse to do any work on a Saturday now as I cannot work on the sabbath.

The next additions were the puppies Charles E. Lehmann (bulldog), and Turk R. Lehmann(boxer) who are now almost 9 weeks old and as cute as ever. Charlie has grown 3 times the size in 3 weeks and is an absolute ball of energy. His absolute favourite is running to Turk at full puppy pace and crashing straight into him in a manner that Schalk Burger would be lauded for.

So you can see we currently have our hands full with the new house, the dogs, and Christmas eve celebrations scheduled to kick off at the (young) Lehmann's house shortly after sunset tonight. On the menu we have a variety of dishes from around the world (Portugal and Germany). The Portuguese dishes being dominated by Cod and the German ones with potatoes and pork - Tell me that's not a stereotype. I have arranged a few special bottles of red to be brought in from Allesverloren (not kosher) which we shall be enjoying with our hearty (many course) meal over the duration of the evening.

The base of our Christmas tree is currently a bit bare, but this is not due to lack of presents, but due to the necessity of keeping them away from our over zealous puppies who find that shiny sparkly paper too hard to resist. I have already been burned with the tinsel on the tree which was within paw / jaw reach. Our tree which proudly stands a full 8ft tall is currently carrying a few lemons - yes we have a lemon tree as a Christmas tree - should come in handy when I'm pouring those festive Mojitos towards the end of the evening.

Sure, it doesn’t exactly smell like pine. But a few ornaments and some LED lights and we got ourselves some holiday spirit.

It was awesome keeping up with all of you this year and equally so if we were lucky enough to see each other, i'm sure next year will be no different, with hopefully more effort on my behalf too. You can still visit my travel blog on www.thelehmanns.org which I am proud to say now ranks number one on google when you search for "The Lehmann's". I had nothing to do with this.

Frohes Fest to you all

I trust Christmas brings to you its traditional mix of good food and violent stomach cramp.

Welcome to the second edition

Hey there, starting off my blog again to keep you updated on my life 'In Lehmann's Terms'. Hope it can bring you as much joy as my travel blog did.