In January Reneé started her new job at  "Alberta Child Welfare Services". In the beginning she wasn't very happy, as they moved her to a new branch within about 2 weeks, just when she was started to get to know everybody.

In February, DJ turned 16 (Photo!). He had a couple of friends over to play pool and listen to "music". A sign of the times was the fact that a few number of the "buddies" who came were of the female gender!

During this time he decide to join a group of teenagers from our church ("Hawkwood Baptist Fellowship") and "Samaritan's Purse" (Franklin Graham is the President) on a mission trip to Thailand. DJ had to collect $1000 and as a group they had to collect $2000 per person for the group together. He's been busy the last six months doing all sorts of odd jobs, so we've really only stayed at home and helped him. Amongst other things, Reneé helped him bake Milktarts which he peddled in the neighbourhood. This went down very well, as we even got notes from the neighbours saying how great they were. DJ also spent lots of time practicing  for a play which their drama group "Dessert Theater" and "Dinner Theater" nights. We also had a garage sale to end all garage sales at the church. Naturally, we haven't got junk which we can give away, yet! DJ also cleaned homes (ours and the Jones's) and did some babysitting.  As a group they made and sold pizza's and "subs", had a car wash day and a meal auction. We will have to entertain some people who bought our South African evening at the auction. Anyway, DJ and the group all made their $1000 and $2000 per person, so they leave for Thailand in early July. We were really proud of DJ, as he collected all his money doing work - a lot of the kids had friends and family who donated most of the money. We were also very suprised to learn that members of the church had donated $600 towards DJ's trip, with the result that he went way over his personal target. The group will be doing work in the orphanage for the first week. Apparently, DJ's group will be building a new water purification miniworks. (Lots of muddy trench digging!). The week after, they will take the staff and orphans to a camp at the seaside - paid for with the money they collected. They will also take a lot of clothes, toys and candies to the kids bought with the extra money they collected. DJ'did some extra odd jobs to make money for a new camera to take along.

In February, Martie, Reneé, Werner and I went to "La Chaumiere" for dinner on Valentine's Day. Martie had a discount voucher for the place after getting 100%  for a Mystery Shopper for the n'th time. I don't know if you are familiar with Mystery Shopper, so I'll explain the concept. The Mystery Shoppers are appointed by the retail chain to go to the different stores, be difficult and see how well they are helped. La Chaumiere" is without doubt the best restaurant that I have ever been to. To give you an idea, it is the type of place Frasier and his brother always go to. It was a really a pretty picture, as it was snowing softly outside. It was proably the first time I have ever been to a restaurant where every course was perfect - even the "Admin" (Salad).

On Brenda's (Sachse) 40th birthday we sent to "Wild Woods", another of Calgary's highly rated restaurants. Reneé and I also found a wonderful Greek restaurant - "Athens by Night". It is the first restaurant we feel we will go again and again. ("La Chaumiere" would also be if we won the "Lotto 649"!) The Pretoria crowd will remember that our favourite was the Greek place on the corner of  du Toit- and Kerk streets, so its a type of home coming..

I had a really rough time in February and March, as my Project Manager was on 2 months holiday. I was the Project Leader and Project Manager at the same time. To add to the fun, I was putting in a beta-system for a new product. We had lots of features ("bugs") and I spent most of my time trying to get things sorted out. At the same time, I was on a leadership course at the U of C (University of Calgary). In March we were at "Athens by Night" for Derek Jones's 40th birthday. (Photo's). One of the other Project Manager's resigned at this time as well, so I also had agroup of people reporting to me as well.

In April I was formally appointed Project Manager and to deal with a number of people leaving. I at least could relax a bit as the other Project Manager returned from leave - it was great to be able to sleep without having the cellphone next to my bed (We were on 24/7 call as a problematic system and a high pressure gas pipe line are not the best of combinations).

I also had a chance to spend a couple of days in the Los Angeles area for work. I must say LA is terribly smoggy - can't see myself living there. When we were about to land I looked out and as far as I could see were blocks of houses, businesses and buildings. A terribly depressing thought. The smog reminded me of the hollows near black townships were the coal smoke collects on winter mornings. It took us about 4 hours from LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) to our hotel. One can't even start to describe the smog - so bad that you can't see the end of the freeway you're driving on - eventually it fades out in the smog - about 300m in front of you. It was most probably not that arm, but for my Canadian collegue and myself it was terribly warm - very muggy as well. I must admit that the flowers etc are really beautiful - reminds one of South Africa - strelitzia's, bougianvillea's, plumbago's etc. The next day we drove out to Victorville on the road to Las Vegas. It much cleaner there -one drives up from La through the  San Bernadino mountains and leave the city smog behind. The landscape reminds one of Windhoek - sand with scattered scrub. I left for Calgary again the next day and it took me another 4 hours to LAX, followed by a flight which was interrupted by a medical emergency - we landed in Reno, Nevada to drop off a sick passenger and spent about two hours on the tarmac there.

In May we had a bunch of South Africans at our house for a "potluck" dinner. We asked everybody to bring South African dishes, so we had "frikkadele", "vetkoek" and mince, koeksusters, milk tart, bobotie etc. It was the Dijkman, van Dijk, Wentzel, Vorster, Jones, Kemp, Bernard families plus Martin Chamberlain, Luvette and Charl Johnson, David and Lisa Mouton and Hannah and her boys. My brother-in-lawNico Sachse and family also came for a while.

It was alsoWPC 2000 in Calgary (World Petroleum Congress). The media predicted a Seattle type riot. Naturally the RCMP ("Mounties") and the Calgary Police were well prepared and  absolutely nothing happened. The only violence was a Calgary street cleaner who kicked a protester in the crotch as he was littering by putting slogan stickers on the street. (Its a Canadian thing!) There weren't many protesters, at most 200. Eventually the police, RCMP etc went home and the Calgary Police went back to normal duties. Apparently the RCMP achieved this by stopping all buses on the USA-Canada border and sending anybody who looked like a protester back to the USA.

Naturally, the spring was fantastic and everything is green adn there are wonderful tulips. Reneé, Lincoln and I spent one Saturday doing a walking trail in the Kananaskis. I also went out to Kananaskis one Saturday with Schalk le Roux to do some fly fishing. Managed to catch a small rainbow, my first of the year.

We're now into the rainy season, every thing is incredibly wet and you can't even cut your grass while it grows and grows.
The days have already started to shorten -  5h30 it starts getting light and the sun sets at 22h30. Calgary is preparing for the Stampede, but luckily we don't have to do it, as we have already. I might do a couple of free breakfasts though!