I WON THE LOTTERY........ well almost

Wow did I get a surprise this morning. I played the UK Lottery on Wednesday evening - which was a whopping £2.5 million, and as always thought my money will go towards paying out some lucky winner. When I opened my e-mail this morning I found a message from the UK Lottery site (as I play on-line) that there was some exciting news waiting for me regarding the ticket I bought.

I tried getting into the site from work, but this site is restricted. I called Wanda at home and asked her to log onto the Lottery site to see what was happening. I was getting ready to jump on my desk and scream "I AM A MILLIONAIRE" - but alas I had won an almost unbelievable amount of £10 !

Well.... this was the first time I had won anything with the lottery and trust me I have already gotten a ticket for Saturdays draw as it will be for £4.5 million, and maybe my luck will hold !!!

I will keep you updated ... :-)

Dusting off the Annual Passes....... Legoland

Seeing as it is Bank Holiday weekend we decided to go to Legoland yesterday. We put in the order for the weather and boy did it turn out great. It was probably the only sunny day we have had in weeks. The only drawback was that thousands of other people had the same idea.

When we arrived we decide to go straight for the NEW ride... The Viking River Splash... more like the GET SOAKED Viking River Splash if you ask me. Fortunately the queue wasn't too long when we got there and it only took us 40 minutes (hahahaha) to get to the ride...... Although the ride looked impressive... it wasn't really, the only thing it did do was get us soaked. The photo above shows one of the Lego dragons on the ride as well as part of the "river" that you go on.

We had a very precise plan for the day, go and do all the major rides first and then it time permits to do the rest. Well we did 6 rides in all, and it took us the whole day. At one point they announced that there was a 2 hour wait for the Viking ride, so glad we did it first.

We went on to do another wet ride, crazy I know... but it was so nice and warm that we just had too. This time we did the Pirate Falls... with screams from both Kayla and Waldo, we flew down the falls in our wooden boat, and guess what, we got soaked AGAIN. Wanda was looking after Waldo's cap at this point and we went down so fast that the cap flew off her head and was lost to the river!!!

The last 3 rides where dedicated to the traditional roller coasters, starting with the small Baby Dragon Coaster (pictured left) , moving up a notch to the DRAGON COASTER and finishing it off with the Jungle Coaster. We waited the longest at the Jungle Coaster, a whopping 1,5 hours!! But well worth it.

This was the end of our day, and what a long day it was. We all had nicely tanned faces and wet bums!!

Now, when you visit Legoland Windsor, you cannot go home without stopping at the Cinnabon kiosk! Oh boy are those Cinnabons delicious. For those of you that don't know what a cinnabon is, they take dough covered in sugar and Cinnamon, make a little roll with it and bake it. When it comes out of the oven they cover it with a white chocolate sauce. WOW incredible.

Oh, I almost forgot, they had a competition with the new Mr Bean movie where you had to take the funniest photo with the poster, and here are our entries...

Avon Beach Bums....

A little more than a week ago we decided to take a drive down to Avon Beach near Bournemouth. It was a predicted to be the perfect day, and believe me it was. Blue skies, sun shining and the temperature a whopping 27 degrees.

Our plan was to leave home around 7am to try avoid the crowds, but as we all know this never happens and we left at 7:20am. It still only took us 90 minutes to get there and we were on the beach with our toes in the sand......... ehhh well almost in the sand as there seemed to be a lot of stones too.

I must admit the drive down to Avon Beach was awesome. The highlight must have been the bit we drove through the New Forrest. It takes your breath away to see the unspoilt nature.

On our arrival we were so glad to see that our earlier departure had paid off. Almost no people on the beach and a few cars in the car park. We managed to park in a nice spot that would ensure that the car would be in the shade upon our return.

We grabbed all our kit and set off to find a nice spot on the beach. That being done we pitched out little beach tent, changed into our swimming suites and got ready to enjoy a beautiful day at the seaside.

We had absolutely fabulous views to either side looking down the long beaches and in front of us the ocean and a glorious view of Isle of Wight.

Unfortunately our view of the ocean was soon obstructed by a family that came and dumped all there stuff almost right on our doorstep. The granny of the family it seemed was a very posh lady, all dressed up with a pair of huge sunglasses. To make matters worse she was not looking at the ocean but was focusing all her attention in our direction. Wanda and I commented about this "Tannie" who was looking our direction and how the ocean was the other way !!

After bossing her husband, children and others around they eventually moved further down the beach. But wait this gets better....... later the afternoon they all got up and were getting ready to leave and we noticed that she was walking towards us.... she bent down at our tent and said........ "don't' you think our beaches in South Africa are a lot better...?" As she walked away Wanda and I looked at each other and said... "of sh&t I hope she didn't hear us earlier" and we had a really good laugh.

The rest of the day was spent just being sooo lazy on the beach the kids were running to and from the water , playing in the sand, building castles and just have an awesome time. Just a note about the water..... it was freeezing!!! it felt like someone took the water from the fridge and filled the ocean.

Wanda and I ended up getting a lovely RED suntan and around 4:00pm we tackled the trip back home.

Overall we had a great day, saw stunning scenery, played on the beach, almost swam in the ocean (must admit I got in as far as my middle), had delicious ice cream and just enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Winning is not he main thing..... its the ONLY Thing !!

This is the overall message at the Coachmark Tag Rugby week that Waldo and Kayla attended last week.

A couple of months ago Waldo brought home the advert for the camp and told us he wanted to go and to our surprise Kayla said she wanted to go too. Reluctantly we enrolled her with Waldo, not knowing how she will find playing tag rugby with the boys.

Both of them were extremely excited to go on the camp and and the end of it all we were very pleased that we sent both of them.

During the week we got hear about all the how to pass the ball "hip to hip" and how to dodge a defender with "the 3 point principle" which is space face space. The 2 of them came home every night with dirty knees and clothes, but very satisfied with what they accomplished during the day.

Friday all the parents were invited to the training as this would be their last day and we would get to see them perform all the skills they have learned. This turned out to be a gorgeous day sunny day and the tag-rugby was good too. The kids played in their respective teams, Kayla being a Highlander and Waldo a Brumbee.

Boy was it cute to see the little Highlanders running with the ball and playing bulldog with the coaches.
On Waldo's Brumbee team you could see that these kids had been exposed to a rugby ball and had a little more skill. They could run, pass and score tries.

At the end of the day both of them got certificates for attending the week and I am sure that when the next event comes around both of them will be there ready to learn more about tag-rugby.