Mac Moments

The excitement yesterday was palpable in the household, singing and dancing were rife and the ticking of the clock towards the sixth day of August 2013 was imminent. Waking up at 5:30am we all shuffled into a room with a little girl with shiny bright eyes, waiting in anticipation for her birthday to begin and what a birthday it has been! Our little girl is becoming the most amazing young lady, she opened all the little gifts we had bought her, nothing over the top was on her bed and certainly not something she could "balance" on, which was the clue we had given her about her gift. She was excited about everything that she opened, mostly about her slippers that she received from her Granddad and never mentioned that the "balance" gift was not there. We all trundled downstairs after the gifts had been opened and she stopped halfway down, and there in front of her was the bicycle. Her eyes grew wide, mouth dropped open and with a little squeal and an ...

The first of everything has been tough so far. The first trip home without Mom there. The first goodbye without Mom by Dad's side. The first Grandchild's birthday without Mom phoning. And now Mom's first birthday. You will always be missed, our brave, loving, caring Mom, Grandmother, Sister, Aunt and Friend. We love and miss you forever. Happy Birthday Mom 9 August

In the middle of writing a piece on The Digitization of Heritage and Media in Qatar, I was reminded of a video that I took of Jessica a few weeks ago and have just not had time to share. When we first arrived in Qatar, Sean and Jess could sing Happy Birthday in three languages - English, Afrikaans (Dutch) and Zulu. Our National Anthem has four languages, the ones mentioned already and Xhosa, all very African. Jess can still sing Happy Birthday in three languages, with two slight variations from the original being Arabic and French replacing Afrikaans and Zulu. So here is Jessica's rendition of Happy Birthday for us in her two new languages :) + English!!