Post 19 Build it Journey

Blog Post 19

It’s been a few days since my last Blog post. A lot has happened in the past few days and it’s been wonderful to spend the weekend in the company of family and friends. To give you a glimpse of the past few days here we go 

Thursday saw me getting to our office in Westville early to spend the morning catching up with my amazing business partner Fiona. From there is was a dash to Simbithi Estate where for the third year running I have been privileged and lucky enough t be invited to play in the charity Bloom Golf Day. Bloom is a school for special needs children and what an awesome day it is. With activities on nearly every tea and the best fun four-ball anyone could ever have we had a blast. There was a big dinner with an auction that night and Aaron McIlroy gave us a show, which had us all in stiches. The organizers must have raised at least half a million rand (on the auction alone) and the generosity of the folk that live down that way is simply astonishing. I wish Bloom nothing but the best in their endeavours and I have asked them to send me a paragraph or two and will insert this into the Blog when I get it. One small thing too was that the two main ladies that manage and run the school and do all the fund raising and everything else don’t take home a single cent for their efforts. That is amazingly selfless and a lesson for me about just being a good kind generous person. It was a wonderful afternoon and night. So lucky to be there. Thank you to my generous hosts Dondon Hill and Robbie Blomfield from Kauai for inviting me again J

On Friday it was more emails and catching up with things before taking my Mum off to hospital for her treatment. Then it was back to the North Coast for a friend’s birthday on Friday night again at Simbithi. A little bit too much festivity if I’m honest! Saturday and Sunday I did nearly 6 hours of mountain biking early early and had a braai with friends on both Saturday and Sunday nights (pity about the Springboks – there was some shouting at the TV screen I can tell you ha ha J). Saturday in Balitto and Sunday in Durban North. I also spent a lot of time spent on the beach learning how to fly a kite surfing kite which is a lot harder than what meets the eye. I definitely have more respect for this sport. I could hardly fly the kite and the next step is to ride on a small board and navigate that through the surf whilst using wind power. I don’t believe I will ever get there. Simply not talented enough. Had a wonderful Sunday at Thompson’s bay with friends swimming in a huge shore break and throwing a wonky Frisbee. Great weekend.

Monday morning saw me in the office again, welcoming a new staff member, reading through some reports and meeting again with Fiona. Then it was rolling up 200 posters into bundles of four with elastic bands. (Thanks for the great help Kieron.)  Late morning, I took my Mum to hospital again for her treatment and after dropping her off back at home I was once again off on my Build It travels with my trusty bike (that had caused me some pain over the week end!).

I first arrived in Richmond after a beautiful drive through forested hills and sparkling dams to meet with Yaseen who even though busy spent time with me and we went through his Build It listing. Then it was off to Ixopo where I met with store manager Nicholen. Unfortunately, we had a small glitch with the site but we had a good chat and luckily the same family owns the Ixopo and Donnybrook Build Its. With this knowledge I headed off to Donnybrook where I spent a few hours with the nicest man possible Barry Bowman who is also the owner (with his son Mike) of the two stores. We covered many topics and I am very grateful for the awesome chat. We also covered a lot of ground with work and we will meet again in the morning – starting with a drive around his farm at 06h30 am. The Sani2c mountain bike race goes through the farm and Barry offered to show me some of the trails and scenery from some of the vantage points around the farm. I can’t wait.

So it’s been an unbelievably busy time and I am so grateful to be staying at Barry and Sandy Bowman’s lovely and peaceful B & B Belmont. I watched the most lovely sunset just after arriving at the B & B and am now at 6 30 pm on my bed typing this. Bed won’t be too far off.

As we are in the Ixopo area I will leave you with some quotes from probably the most famous book to come out of this area – Cry the Beloved Country written by the incomparable Alan Paton. I think Mr. Paton is a King and Cry the Beloved Country is one of my all-time favourite books. If you have not read it, you have too!!

“Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that's the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing. Nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him if he gives too much.”

“But there is only one thing that has power completely, and this is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power.”

  All quotes from Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton.