I have no past
I have only the present
I am what I am
And today is what it is

This world is an illusion
Of our own creation
I will make mine
Mine

Gaynor Schoeman                 

Mom and I have decided to reshape our bodies by losing 5kgs of excess weight in one month.  
We have chosen the most difficult month of the year. December.
Mom weighs in at 78.7kgs and I at 79.8kgs.
What is at stake?
Return of self confidence and R2 500 in clothes.

Weight Loss Updates are in red throughout this December Blog - but this was the result after a month.

More images of Mom and Daughter shaping up here under Sports Nutrition.  I am thinking of starting a Girl Talk section for subjects girls talk about like weight and .... umm...hmmm, what do girls talk about?  All my friends are MEN!!!

I have been shy of cameras this past year.  With the erosion of my self confidence, I became embarrassed about my body and my face.  My normally well toned body shows neglect and my face, well it was a disaster.  I have an expressive face, my eyes open windows to my Soul. 

Seeing the struggle within, the pain, hurt and disillusionment through the 'mirror' of a photograph was too much and I avoided the camera or deleted the close up images taken of myself.  I even covered my body where normally I would be running around free in the barest excuse for clothing.

Wearing a personality mask in public is something I do well, but the camera, it freezes the moment, peels away that fragile veneer and reveals my identity for that moment, which, in difficult times, no-one wants to see.  People need their illusions and see what they want to see, good or 'bad' according to who they themselves are, their own values and bias. The illusion is theirs. I am not responsible for what people choose to see, but I can shape who I am today according to my Will, for me.  All is an illusion after all.  All is possible.

The sailing images Dirk took of me on the trip from Hout Bay to Cape Town last month are the first images this year that show that change, where the mask is merging with the new 'reality' I have chosen for myself.  Relaxed and in a safe environment with people who would do me no harm, my face tells the story of who I am now.  Every day, the Universe shows me something to let me know that I am on the right path.

Thank you for capturing the moment of change Dirk.

Moms situation is more of a challenge.  Mom is 62 year of age and suffers from a hectic form of rheumatoid arthritis requiring chronic medication.  Mom used to be 'gym bunny' with her own personal trainer and is normally very proud of her physique and takes great care in her maintenance.  Notice the change to pink bikini and application of make up in the photos :-)

These days however, Mom finds it is incredibly hard to exercise for more than half an hour or so and finds it distressing that the disease has changed her life so much.  Don't get me wrong.  Mom loves the fact that she is a Granny and does not mind the passage of time, but to see your body change because of the restrictions illness places on you is crap. Living with rheumatoid arthritis means Mom is well used to dieting and eating special foods and denying others.  This give her the edge in our little Mother / Daughter deal despite everything else :-)

On the 1st of January 2009, both of us will be winners (I love Win Win situations :-.)  We will have both lost 5kgs, feel better about ourselves and be ready for the year ahead....and one of us will have a new wardrobe of summer travel clothes :-)

I find building confidence requires a multiple approach :-   A change in environment if it is having a negative effect on us and a change in how we perceive ourselves; knowing who we are, what we are capable of and doing what it takes to feel good about ourselves.

Here are some images the Harbour Masters office in Kalk Bay sent me.  They are superb.  A while back I had to cancel a shoot in Kalk Bay because of the high seas.  The South African coast is not to be taken lightly.

The Kalk Bay Harbour restaurant replaces its windows regularly

The Crayfish Factory near Kommetjie awash from a spring tide storm

Kalk Bay Harbour break-water doing its job - breaking water

Houses in Bakoven near Camps Bay under wave siege

It is 'D' Day today.  8 Seconds is ready to sail the Wednesday night race at Royal Cape Yacht Club and I have been invited to attend.  The butterflies are fluttering in my stomach.  Always a good sign.  Now to get them to fly in formation.... 
 
Update

Great sail :-)  Forgot how exciting Wednesday night racing is.  30-35 knot South Easter, table cloth set on Table Mountain and about 40 boats jockeying for position.  We went over the start mark in the middle of the fleet, all bunched together, some boats within meters of each other. It was exciting.  We had a 1st reef in and a Nbr1 Genoa up. The trimmers were constantly winding in and easing the sheets, working all the time.  I was up on the foredeck 'jumping' the main sheet to assist the trimmers, dodging flaying Genoa sheets and ducking the boom.

The yacht heeled over hard and we pulled ahead of the fleet.  By the time we made the first mark only the catamaran Oxbow, Thunderchild and Picasso were ahead of us.  Running downwind I was able to snap off a few photos.  Wish I could had taken some at the start but I was there to sail, not joy ride and that was ok too 'cause I was having fun.  The Harken sponsored yacht caught up with us a little, snapping in our wake and the three boats ahead of us increased their lead.  Not our best leg.  Rounding the downwind buoy I had my heavy weather jacket on knowing what was coming.  Sailing across the chop, my Musto jacket saved me from getting entirely soaked.  Suffice to say a girl should not wear white pants if it looks like she is going to get wet!

We did better on this tack and by the time we rounded the third buoy and beat up to the finish line, we almost took Picasso!  The whole sail lasted about an hour an a half.  Heading back for port we dropped the genoa and tried to start the motor in order to make our way up into the headwind and our moorings, only to find we couldn't.  The gears were jammed and the air filter had water flowing out of it???? Never seen anything like it.  Someone radioed for another racing boat to take a line and we were towed onto the emergency mooring at RCYC.  Hope there is nothing seriously wrong with the engine.  That might put a spanner in the works re Bahia...

Wednesday night racing is an activity open to everyone - and it is free:-)   So visiting paraglider pilots and those who would like to go sailing - Check out this link to BumOnBoats  and drop Royal Cape Yacht Club an email or if you are feeling lucky,  just stop by around 4.30pm and let reception know that you would like to go sailing. (Summer Wednesdays only)  They will find a boat for you to join - Free.

(Beers for the skipper are always appreciate :-)

I need to get my 2009 calendar up and running.  Starting to book my competitions and accommodation overseas :-

Here is an image Steve of FlyPiedrahita sent me last month, shot from the Cherry Valley side looking back at the snow capped mountains where our favourite Spanish flying site, Pena Negra is situated and the town of Piedrahita below.

I have booked two weeks accommodation with FLYPIEDRAHITA, before and over the XC Open World Series in Spain.  Did the same earlier this year.  I really enjoyed staying with Steve and Puri.  We got to fly lots and when we were not flying we had bee adventures and touring which was really a bonus to my trip.

Good people, good fun.

Launch site Pampoenfontein.

My Personal Best distance in the Western Cape was today - 102.4kms - on the Swing Astral 5

Ended with a spiral,  Big Ears and full speed bar to get down from 2000m ASL.  A Western Cape record was for the taking (it is somewhere around 150kms), but I argued my limitations and they became mine. Leonardo Tracklog Link

I decided to land.  After 90kms I was getting hoovered higher into a hazy sky and felt the conditions were on the verge of overtaking me.  Next time...  Van Rhyns.  It was in my sights.

Thank you so much to Rich who retrieved me.  A good flight and quick retrieve with two ice cold cokes.  Great way to end the day.

Bruno Muller, my German, Pre-XC Open De Aar retrieve team mate emailed me this evening to say he recognised my glider flying over Dasklip and tried to follow - but I was too fast :-).   No-one has ever said that to me before!
No other paraglider flew distance although I did have two hang glider pilots, Groundpounder and Adam trailing for awhile until I crossed over at Goedemanskraal into the Citrusdal Valley. Flygirl is in the groove! 

Pampoen site record is 116.2kms set be Greg Hamerton also on a Swing Astral 5.

Hammer Review on the Astral 5 

South African Swing Dealer   

Ok, ok!  Considering the buzz of emails I have received about this flight, I am going to have to write a more detailed account and post my tracklog :-)  It is not often that a hang glider pilot tells me he was playing catch up, but I was flying too fast  :-) If only Adam had gotten through Constriction.  Can you imagine what we would have achieved....?

A good long Flygirl story of old coming up - but give me a day or two - lots of film work at present. (Sorry, it took so long to find someone who had the right fitting and was willing to make some time to download my tracklog, that the momentum for writing this story has gone.  Thank you Pete and Dutton who helped me out.)

The conditions bode well for the Pre-Worlds All Africa Closed coming up this month.  Pity I am banned from this CAT 2 Pre-Worlds competition because the organiser would have you believe that Flygirl's admittance of feeling fear at times, makes me unsafe and incapable of flying these mountains ... hee hee ha ha  :-)  Sorry, I could not resist!

My crew position to Bahia aboard 8 Seconds is not looking good.  Apparently the owner is climbing somewhere in the world and not in South Africa to make decisions until his return on the 20th December. The skipper does not have the authority to confirm anything on his own. He has been given no funds for the return airtickets for the crew, no crew list is confirmed and the boat might not even go, everything is so slack.  All these crucial decisions will only be made in the final week - with a couple of days notice.  A really unsatisfactory situation.  I don't know of any other boat that is so undecided about its participation at this late stage.  There are only three weeks to the start.

What to do?

I really want to do this race before going to Australia in February.

Last night was Hans and Frigga's last evening in Cape Town.  We had dinner at the Blowfish Restaurant in Blouberg where I made a phone call to Julie who kindly arranged a window table facing Table Mountain and the sunset for their last evening, even though the tables were fully booked.  Booking ahead is essential at this popular restaurant. We dined on delicious Sushi and Hans enjoyed Dorado fish and two massive tasty prawns.

Lovely evening.  I feel really fortunate to have met such good people and it is thanks to the XC Open World Series.

Everything keeps going right.......

An incredibly stressful day today with film preparations.  Two shoots tomorrow - one in Granger Bay and the other up the west coast in Langebaan - at the same time.  Clients changing boats, screaming south east winds,  a boat that requires a special survey in order for me to use on the sea, clients bringing shoot dates earlier with only hours notice, on and on...

But the most stressful :- First National Bank and Vodacom fraud on my account -  can you believe FNB accepts debit orders placed on their clients accounts (mine) without checking that those people have authorisation and then will not stop them from removing money from my account even with documented evidence proving that no debit order was authorised by myself!  Every month I have to phone FNB to reverse the money debited.  The only recourse is for me to put a stop order on Vodacom which I have to renew every three months or close my bank account which is what I am going to have to do.  And change banks of course.  How freaking insane is that.  Talk about lax security and dangerous, very unsafe business protocols!  FNB security sucks! 

So all you bad guys out there - now you know - you can put debit orders on anyones account held at any First National Bank without the account holders authorisation, you just need the bank account details which you can get off their cheque - and FNB will not stop you from stealing their clients money.  I have the emails and statements from FNB to prove this and I will post them to this website after my shoots this week.

However...my day ended well.  Everything coming together on the film front, despite the fact I have not felt this much business pressure in a very long time. 

But ...THE BEST NEWS!!!!!

The Australian Consulate have granted me a visa for 4 years!!!!  Wow.  I only asked for three months.  How amazingly cool is that!
It is so nice to be wanted.  Now I get to play in the land of the kangaroos, sunshine, warm surf and summer thermals without having to apply each year ... hmmmmm :-)  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Registered for the Killarney Classic  this morning 28 Feb to 07 March 2009.  This compeition runs after the XC Open in Manilla and is on the way to Brisban so perfect situation to see more of the country and fly.... :-)  46 pilots registered as of 12 December 2008.  Hans and Frigga will be there as well.  Yay!

Tough day at the office.  The winds this year are not making life on the sea easy......

My Langebaan shoot - boat could not cross the steep 1.5m choppy in the channel to get across to Kraal Bay where the shoot was to take place.  My guys tried twice, but the waves were coming over the boat, threatening to sink it.  It is a waterski boat after all, not a sea boat.  They had to pull the boat out of the water as the conditions worsened and waves were causing havoc on the exposed Langebaan Yacht Club marina. 

Tough, tough day.  It feels like such a failure when this happens, but my guys made the right decision.  Better to lose R20 000 than have to pay the owner R200 000 if we had sunk it.  Still....tough call for everyone concerned.

My Granger Bay shoot was also almost a cancel.  Expecting the strong winds in False Bay/Kalk Bay and in Cape Town, we relocated to the protected area of Granger Bay and changed the style of boat to a ski boat that could arrive by road and launch right where we wanted to shoot it....only for the boat not to pitch.  Skipper's son apparently went into hospital that night with convulsions and skipper was uncontactable by phone.  Contacting me was the last thing on his mind anyway.  What a scramble.  Fortunately the Universe smiled and I managed to pull in a replacement boat and get it to Set in time for the shoot much to everyone's relief.  The wind shadow provided by Table Mountain held until the last hour at sunset allowing Nokia, Middle East to get its fishermen shots.

Looking forward to my year long travel holiday.....

Trying to buy a Serial / USB  cable adapter that works for my Flytec is like trying to find a needle in a haystack here in SA.  This is why It is taking so long to download my Pampoenfontein 102km tracklog.  Every one I have bought or tried so far has not worked.

Heading up to Koringberg for a flight with Mark Marshall this morning.  Wind SW and W.  Might be a bit on the strong side.  Will see how we go.  Perhaps we will jump Rhenosterhoek this time and keep upwind of the Clanwilliam Valley.  We shall see.  If I meet up with one of the competition pilots I will try download the tracklog. 

UPDATE:

Flying started with an awesome take off thermal but did not develop into the flight we hoped for.  Still, better to have been in the air than not today :-)  Thank you to Suleen for ably driving retrieve for us.

Disappointingly, downloading my 102.4kms tracklog was not a priority for those who were in a position to assist.  Such are the limitations of friendship on a hot day when the bar is calling ... and that bar is at Flyers Lodge.  Mark and I drove to Porterville and waited across the road at Koppie Kofi for almost 3 hours in vain.  I felt bad about keeping Mark waiting so long, but he did so in good humour.  This was my best flight this year and I really wanted to download the tracklog.

Synchronicity.

The upside is that we got to spend time with Thandeka and Cyril which is maybe the real reason our journey took us to Porterville today.  It is not always about our own needs that we walk this Earth... The Universe guides us if we let it.

Synchronicity

When Des and Arnold could not tell us how much longer we would need to wait whilst they continued to down well earned beers at Flyers, Mark and I decided to start our long journey home only to find a pilot walking on the Porterville - Piketberg road in the hot sun.  We could not leave a fellow pilot out there and turned around and gave him a lift back to Porterville.  Turns out the pilot is Stefan of France, the official Paragliding World Cup Observer and when I said I could not drive him onto the Flyers Lodge property, he clicked and mentioned that he was well informed about my banning, introducing himself and his status.  Life is full of amazing ribbons of connection. He confirmed that the banning would not be allowed at a full PWC event, but that a Pre-PWC is not as important. Does not help my situation of course, but after my great flight the other day, I am getting over it :-)

Life goes on and with reporting and flying the 2009 XC Open World Series, for me, a new journey has begun ....

Know that when one door closes, other doors open for you.

Be open.  Be brave. 

The world is an illusion.

Make it the world you want to live in ...

Weight Loss Update.  It is with great glee that I can report to be overtaking my Mummy in the weightloss program :-))))))  I just dropped to the 77.9kg mark.  Cannot remember last when this occurred.  Like a say a lot recently - the Universe takes care of everything - you just have to let it know what it is you are wanting in life :-)  The Universe sent me a really sore throat the past few days.  Have difficulty in swallowing even water.  Makes the thought of eating very unappetising :-) Yeah, cool!!!  Let them kilos fall away !!!! Oh yeah, oh yeah !!!

Mom and Dad are touring Namibia again in my Toyota Fortuna 4x4 - Skeleton Coast and Etosha Pan (I have been left to look after the 20 year old cat!!!!) , so cannot update Mom's weight until the first week of January.  Very sneaky move on her part.

I am steadily losing weight what with still being sick with a sore throat.  Drastic measures were called for, they arrived and they are working.  Down to 77kg, 1kg short of the kickboxing training weight of my mid twenty's.  2.2kgs still to go to that magic weight number 74.8kgs which I am aiming for.  The last time I was 74.8kgs was when I was dehydrating down to 71kgs in order to make the lesser weight range required for me to fight lighter female fighters.  So this is quite a challenge - but an achievable one.

Why am I doing this?  Because I can and because taking control over my aesthetic body, knowing that I can mold it to my Will, gives me confidence to achieve more in other areas of my Life.  This Life I am leading is about exploring what it is to be Human. In 2009, Life's Journey will be taking me to places I can only imagine .... and then some that I have not.  I have a rough outline of what I am going to be doing e.g flying the XC Open World Series and learning to travel write and report on competitions and paragliding events even better than I am doing now , but there are big gaps in between which I am leaving up to the Universe to schedule.  I love traveling like this.  It is so interesting and filled with unorchestrated experiences.

Sorry no real updates the past week.  It is not that nothing has happened but rather that I have gone into survival mode with all that has occured and the Blog suffers updates because of lack of time.  At this time of the season the film industry goes ballistic in trying to get all those last minute shoots in before Christmas.  I only have one more confirmed job on the 27th December so hopefully I will be freed up a bit to take the kids on Flygirl adventures during the holidays.

Weight Loss Update: 

This is girl talk, so guys, just ignore this Blog entry:  Down from 79.8kgs to 76.7kgs.  'Load shedding' steadily.  1.9kgs to go and I will have lost 5kgs.  Being 6ft, a 5kg weight loss is not that noticeable.  I look taller and a bit more streamlined and clothes now like me :-)  and I them!

My position aboard the yacht 8 Seconds is not confirmed.  I am a reserve in case someone should pull out at the last minute. The skipper tells me that the boat is still not confirmed to go as there is much that needs to be done and the owner has not made the funds available to do them..

With film shoots scheduled for January and less than two weeks left,  I need to defer these shoots to another company if I am to make myself available to leave on 03 January. Most film people are now on Christmas holiday leave and I am just plain running out of time for there to still be so much indecision.  I do not wish to leave under a cloud of chaos.

The South Atlantic Race would be something very nice to do, but the XC Open is my main focus and so I have decided to let go of the yacht race and concentrate on Australia.  With six weeks left to that competition I don't  want to leave my flight bookings to Australia any later. Who knows, perhaps I will get some sailing done Down Under.   It would be nice to go sailing again for a month or two.

Ice skating with the kids Sunday at the icerink in the Grand West Casino.  It is amazing how my confidence affects my 'performance'.  I still cannot skate to save my life, but all that I have learned on the previous occassions were not lost and there were none of the previous difficulties - just started from where I left off and progressed with smoother movements across the ice.  Cool.

Outlasted the kids :-).  Kiara finally managed to let go of the side walls and wobble around in the centre of the rink which is great progress.  Tanner took a high speed spill behind me, legs flying through between my legs.  Much out of control fancy footwork and arms flaying on my part to avoid being brought down - much to everyone's amusement :-)  Grace retired early with blisters again :-(

I absolutely detest gambling, but Grand West Casino does offer a lot of kiddies activites which suit us - The Ice Station, Ten Pin Bowling, Go-Karts, Activities Arcade, Movies and Restaurants.

Next the kids want to go Bouldering/Indoor Rock Climbing again.  Yeah!

I have been described as 'simple, but complicated'.

My core Being is very simple.
It is the stuff around the edges that gives the illusion of being complex.

When my folks wanted to give me jewelry for Christmas,

I asked for a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon)

Is that not what every girl wants?

Burki and Renata of www.thermikwolke.de sent me this photo last night.

Flygirl taking photo's on the big task day at the German Open in Spain earlier this year.

It is simple moments like this that I treasure.

 I am so often busy taking photo's with my Leica camera and giving them out to everyone, that I seldom receive any of myself.

So when people take the time to send me a nice photo of Flygirl, it makes me feel good inside.

Thank you for that.

See you both soon in Australia at the XC Open World Series,
the competiton that promotes friendship, long distance flying and maximum airtime.

This is what I choose to experience in 2009!

 Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope you are all where you want to be, and if not, why not?

Christmas Day feasting with my sister Ange and the Kids has done immense damage to my weight reduction project and over the next week serious damage control will have to be done.  I can see myself cheating and dehydrating those last 2kgs away!
It has been a nice experience having a flat tummy again.  I feel younger and sexy and more confident about my body and face which was the whole point of the weight loss project, so I will continue along this new path in 2009.  It is good for me.

Vanity?

No.  I am just enjoying what I have been given and taking better care of my Spirit's housing these days.

My flights to Australia are booked and paid for!
Flygirl is leaving South Africa's shores on the 1st February.

I am commmitted to Australia for at least three months, maybe longer - I have been granted a 4 year visa.
Whilst in Australia, I will be taking part in some of the Ozzie Competitions and visiting many of the flying sites.
I wish to explore certain aspects of my flying and see if I can develop my reporting and adventure travel writing capabilities further.
Budget is tight, but I have faith that this is the right path for me at this time. Everything is flowing in this direction.

I have booked accommodation at Godfrey's ranch for the first few weeks as I will not have my own car. Godfrey offers retrieve, cabins in a rural setting near launch and free wi-fi.  I do hope to move around a bit though, checking out all that Manilla has to offer and loading some of that info, with photo's to FLYGIRL's accommodation pages.

Regretfully I have returned the Swing Astral 5 I borrowed from Pete Wallenda, our local Swing dealer.  I have become rather fond of this wing having flown some scary rough stuff in De Aar and of course, most recently, my very nice Ladies Western Cape Record of 102.4kms from Pampoenfontein towards Van Rhyns Dorp. Can it be that no other woman has flown more than 100kms Open Distance in the Western Cape?  Apparently so.  Leonardo Tracklog link 

I have enjoyed the fact that this glider pulls up so easily and cleanly in light to no wind conditions, that it is fast, but responsive in strong wind and cross wind launches, that the Astral thermals like a demon in those narrow 8ms blasters and does not react aggressively when getting 'klapped'.  I was also very comfortable on speedbar.  The Swing Astral 5 made me feel safe, a requirement from any wing I fly regularly.  I will miss all these attributes.  The wing was starting to feel very much a part of me.

Pete Wallenda needs to sell the wing. He knew I did not have the funds to buy it when he loaned it to me for De Aar and yet he still gave it to me to fly. The white Astral 5 I flew with a tasteful red and black classy stripe is a demo obviously, this means you can buy its crinkly newness for a very good price - R16 000.  Images in the November and December Blogs.

Contact Pete directly - 083 300 1755.

I had the choice of buying an airticket to Australia for R16 797 or purchasing a new wing.  The airticket  to Oz won.  Returning to my old faithful, the Shaolin monk, is not the end of the world.  I still get to fly in good company albeit a little threadbare :-)

Yesterday I was coordinating the boating side of the Ocean Basket restaurants promotion on Clifton and Camps Bay beaches where pirates rowed ashore to collect their fresh, delicious fish from Ocean Basket personnel on the beach. It was fun.

The bonus was that I had front row seats to the flying on Lions Head. From 11am to sunset, the sky was alive with at least 8 tandem pilots, mostly locals. Later when I went up for a flight myself, I met a Lithuanian and also Nikolai from Bulgaria, the Meet Director for that XC Open event, his comment - 'You will not win it!'         'Hummff!' says Flygirl :-)

AUSTRALIA - the movie

Hugh Jackmen bares his very tanned and solidly brawny chest (owooh!)  The price of the movie ticket was worth that view alone :-)

I really enjoyed this movie.  It was shot with detailed attention to the eyes and face which I appreciate.  Each actor really gave their all.

-  the open soulful eyes of the aborignal lead child (what a fresh, charismatic young actor) whose movements were captivating

- the passionate play by Nicole Kidman (she really put her heart into this project and has done amazing credit to her birth courtry)

- the stubborn, powerfully male and yet tender and loyal portrail of the Australian, Drover, by Hugh Jackman

- the wild and convincing 'witchdoctor' grandfather who haunts my waking moments with his song and amazing face and body

- the open desert plains of Darwin that call

- the words and phrases in the story that connect - 'Just because it is, does not mean it should be.'

So few people have the strength of character to stand against the norm even when it may be harmful to another in their sphere for they fear retribution ... or could not be bothered.   But those few special people, they are out there...  I liked the message in this story.  It was encouraging, motivating, dignifying.

Another gem seen as an Australian motto - 'Nothing is to be feared, but fear itself'.  Francis Bacon.

Australia, here I come

Today I signed up for another Australian paragliding competition - The Bright Open in Victoria.  The three Australian competitions are all running within a week of one another so it makes sense to fly them all whilst I am there.  Should be a great adventure getting to each one, hitching and using public transport :-)  I feel like a right vagabond already!

Time to start thinking about what can fit into my Sup Air Altirando harness/backpack set up.  Already a small compact arrangement, I can see I will be traveling with only 2 pairs of shorts, 1 sarong, three T-Shirts, 1 pair of long pants, 1 fleece and a pair of sandles ..... for 3 months.  I had better choose my clothing wisely!

Today I had the kids.  We went climbing at City Rock followed by a seafood lunch at Ocean Basket and movies before gathering together for dinner with my parents.  And so ends 2008.  It has been a tough year, but my playmates,Grace, Kiara and Tanner  made it bareable with their laughter and enthusiasm for Life. I look forward to the next 365 days :-)