Loma Linda University Church

We took Sidney to LLU Church this weekend. Here we are in front of "The Good Samaritan" on campus.

Sidney's Visit - Universal Studios

Here is Sidney with that infamous star from the 80's Black comedy - "Beetlejuice"! Clark and Sidney spent the day at Universal Studios - the birthplace of modern day movies and movies from yesteryear...

Here is Sidney with the setup for the movie "The Bourne Supremacy" - posing next to a life-size poster of Matt Damon...

Agter-middag by die Huis

Making music! After an absence of more than 1 year, Clark finally has his own piano again! He feels a bit rusty playing, but all it will take is practice - and he's getting a lot of that at the moment - just hope the neighbours won't start complaining! It's a Vienna German piano - plays like a dream! Sara has just started mastering one octave of C major - with the right hand only - with Clark as her teacher she will be playing Tchaikovsky's Opus 21 in B flat minor by the end of the year!!!
And here catching up with some much needed correspondence with pa en ma after they FINALLY had a look at the Botha Blad!

Salton Sea

Last weekend we spent some time with our SA friends Jacques and Natasa in Palm Springs - and on Sunday we went for a drive to the Salton Sea. Its about 30minutes drive from where they stay and it's quite amazing that there is this massive body of water in the middle of the desert - stretching 43 miles long and 22 miles at its widest point. It's also the lowest body of water in continental North America - about 20 feet below sea level - and so you can imagine as with the Dead Sea that whatever flows into this "sea" doesn't flow out... thus its salt concentration is 45000 parts per million (with the sea it is 36000 parts per million). So its pretty salty!!! Also the stench was unbelievable! Apparently this "sea" formed when the Colorado river (that snakes through the Grand Canyon) overflowed its banks in 1905 and created this artificial sea in this low-lying strip of desert.
Here Clark & Jacques try to get closer to the water - its quite amazing that even on this fairly clear day you can't see the other side of the Salton Sea. Clark (ever the crazy scientist) wanted to test the waters - it was pretty murky, so that stopped him venturing any further than toe-deep! He did stick his hand into the water and after about 1 minute was complaining about how dry his hands were. Dis weens al die sjoute!!!

Universal Studios - Hollywood

Sara!!! WATCH OUT!!! ITS KING KONG!!! We are in downtown Universal Studios - filled with interesting little shops and lovely restaurants. Clark had an off-day on Friday, so we decided to spend the day at Universal Studios...

Here is the infamous entrance to Universal - quite an experience to go there and see how movies are made. It is also a theme park and there are quite a number of rides, and also a few shows worth watching...definitely worth a day trip. Its actually unbelievable to see how your eyes are tricked in movies - something that isn't even computer generated in most movies is nothing more but a much smaller scale model!

Just to prove that Universal Studios is in Hollywood - we have picture evidence...or as Lukas Maree sings that "ons kiekies is bewyse" (our photos are proof). Funny to think that we were at a place where some of the greatest movies have been made - it almost feels surreal.

Here Clark is with that infamous car from the classic 80's movie - "Back to the future" - this is at the entrance to the "Back to the future" ride - pretty nerve-racking and not for anybody with a weak stomach...
Remember Notting Hill with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant??? Well, part of the movie was shot right here on location in Universal...for real man!!!

Sara's B-day present

So here is Sara in her brand new car - the 2006 Toyota RAV4 limited edition. It was all a big surprise and she had no idea that while she was car-shopping with Clark for a nice second hand car, that he was actually secretly planning to buy her a RAV! The car is fully loaded - with dual airbags and side curtain airbags from front to back, and seat warmers - the only thing it doesn't have is a GPS navigation system and an on-board DVD system - but what the hell, there aint no little Botha's yet (so the dvd would not be used), and Clark is like a pigeon with his own built-in nav system in his nose (its not big for nothing!).