Sunday 25 January 2009

8 O'clock news on 25th January 2009

Well, the year got off to a good start, and the Birthday girls are already planning next years parties. February sees some good birthdays as well with Tania being a big one at 30 on the 7thFeb plus all the others but more on this at the end of January.

The new year saw the inauguration of the 44th President of the USA and I am sure you all spent some midnight oil watching the whole thing on the telly. Good luck to Barack - Mr President. TheCowles are among some of your youngest citizens and am sure they will be following you and your achievements closely.

22 years ago, The Bechards left SA and "packed for Perth" and the 26th January brings on Australian day, so another country brings out the champagne with a huge day for their citizens. Tessy- Mitch and family are proud to take part in the festivities, that we can be sure of - HAVE A CRACKER MATE.

Anybody going to China to celebrate new year today?????..............

Then we have amongst us a genius, and we did not even know it - Carol has come up with a further thought on the quest to try and find Kevin, the item of news goes like this..........

I had a brainwave this evening, these kind of waves are very rare! I decided to phone Audrey Downs this evening to see if she could find out Kevin’s ID from St Joesph’s Church records. As you all know little Kevin was buried from there. It just struck me if anyone can find out anything from the Catholic Priest, or the Church secretary, I am sure Audrey can. She said she would find out anything she can on Sunday as it’s no good phoning the church without proper dates etc, so will be much better for her to see whoever in person. Audrey took my telephone number and said she would phone regardless of if she could or could not find out anything. She was also not sure if the church keeps on record the ID numbers of the parents of a child that is buried from there. Isn’t it strange, it’s only when you are looking for something like this that you find out if it’s done or kept, or the procedure. I have a gut feeling that the church will have the information. I will let you all know via the Blog what Audrey does or doesn’t come up with. She mentioned her Mom passed away at the grand age of 94 in May 2 years ago. Still had all her wits about her but had lost her hearing and her sight was gone. She sent her regards to all.

Let’s all pray we find the info we need to carry on the search for Kevin.

Carol


Well done Carol and we look forward to the feed-back soon.


Tania is off to Dubai for 10 days and Debbie is off to the USA so I am sure February will bring us plenty of news and photos on these and other items.


Billy is over his operation and is almost back to his young foolish self. Together with himself and the editor ( himself) he sent out a blog comment questionnaire earlier. We had some very interesting feed-back from speed -videos and photos, so get your comments in before the summary is done and put out for all to read and digest. Funny enough on the BBC news last night there was an item on and about how viewers felt about the music in the back-ground during news items at times being to loud, but hey, the blog got in first with it breaking news a week-ago on this subject - so we are ahead of the BBC - well done.


Tessy has started her own blog and has come up with a very original Idea and it goes like this........

Hi one and all
Visit me at http://www.teresabechards.blogspot.com/ as I am new to this blog thingy give me time to get things in order and up and running. Thanks to Bb who is going to help me along the way.


Talking of Google and search etc I have a friend who we last had contact with in about 1986 and a few months ago she traced me through Facebook and My space and we now communicate via e-mails and now will also chat on skype.
It is truly wonderful to find old and dear friends.
Luv and prayers for you all

TESSY


*********************************************************************************

Thanks to everyone who sent in contributions for the 8 o'Clock news and we look forward to your February contributions, comments, photos and videos. Keep them comming............................


The EDITOR..........................................



Wednesday 21 January 2009

BLOG PAGES - UPDATES

The purpose of this will be to point you to certain old blog postings that have been updated with new information - news or more up-to-date photos, instead of posting a new item that is only an update or revised item. So if you want to go to the item you just click on the link below or scroll down the ARCHIVE list on the right hand side of the blog.

This is a way of seeing something grow, maybe a house, a garden or a tree of even a jigsaw puzzle - who knows what you can think of - the editor is open and ready for any ideas.
Easy as 1-2-3 and click.



Carol & Paul's new house - Balalaika St Nelspruit - updated 21st January 2009





So if you have an old photo or additional news that you want added to an old previous blog posting this is where it will be, that way nobody will loose out on your news or additional items.
send them in via email with the subject line - OLD POSTING and the title of the item where you want it to be added.

Another great feature brought to you on the 8cowles blog - The Editor

HEY there is more to this than you can even dream of - check this out............
If you want to see a whole range of photos all in one place that have been put on the blog since it started - then look no further - just click here and off you go to the Picasa page of all the blog pictures for you to watch at your leisure. and if you want to keep and save the picture on your own PC just right click and "save as" job done.

Saturday 17 January 2009

Kevin Cowle

The search continues, as the last lead in some other BERG ( as the Baarts called it) did not work out. Carol is working on finding his ID and maybe Monica can do something at the Catholic Church in Primrose or Malvern - who knows.

Anyway, if other people can use the blog too find us, then we can use the blog to find Kevin - who knows who reads this and who will Google it next.
Here's to holding thumbs, I am sure something will come up soon.

Here is a couple of Pics with Kevin and Karen with their small kids many years ago
and a video clip or two..
Kevin Joseph Cowle - born 17/11/1966

anybody who knows Kevin's whereabouts or any news of what he is doing or they know of him can email the Blog editor - Billy on
8cowles@gmail.com
or leave a comment on the blog

Maybe this picture that Leon sent to the blog will help aswell



Dave & Dot Taylor on the blog

This is some catch-up pictures of the Taylors. I think some of the pics were taken at their farewell when they left SA to go to Australia and some of thier kids many years ago. Anyway it is just a remonder of how Handsome Dave used to be - now he is bald - but still beautifull - I remember when he arrived from the UK the first time. The fun we had as youngsters, with Frank Hattingh, teaching him to drive the RED CORTINA he bought, wow that takes me back many years Ago.
Then along came Dot - they have made an amazing pair and look forward to some new modern photo's of the taylor family and their news and about the other taylor family in the UK.

Dave and dot are on skype and email if anyone cares to contact them in AUSTRALIA
Skype = dot.dave.taylor email

Thursday 15 January 2009

17th January its 8 o'Clock again - News time

Sit back, relax and enjoy, its 8 o'Clock again on the blog.............

keep clicking and keep posting and watch this channel - 8cowles news @ 8pm right here

"YES WE CAN" 2009GOOD LUCK - BARACK

Your services are formally required

This I had to publish................

Dear sir,

Herewith please find a formal requisition of your services. Said services are to be understood to include, but not be limited to, technical advice, carpentry & metalwork skills, general knowledge, etc.
The requestor of such services has found himself to be in a position whereby he is lacking the necessary and particular skills to perform a specified task. The aforementioned task has recently come to light after the acquisition of specific electronic merchandise, which, for the purposes and intent of this requisition, shall be referred to as Audio Visual Equipment, hereafter AVE. Said AVE is normally, but not in all cases, installed in the three dimensional space below a television
viewing screen, usually and/or often inside a cabinet or furniture unit of some varied pecification. However, in the supplied documentation of said AVE, there are specific warnings about the operating temperature of said device, and upon manual investigation, these recommendations have been confirmed to be accurate. Said AVE generates a lot of exothermic radiation, otherwise or commonly known as 'heat', and the aforementioned unit of furniture intended to house said AVE doesn't seem to display properties of adequate exothermic radiation dispersal.

With this preamble now performed, herewith the request: The requestor solicits your services to manufacture, construct or erect a mechanism that attaches to the current audio visual equipment unit of furniture - for the purpose of the newly acquired AVE to reside upon.

In common parlance this might be referred to as a 'bracket & shelf on the side', if you wish.

The requestor would appreciate a timely response to your availability,
or not as the case may be.

Sincerely,
LW Cowle


All he wants is help with a small bloody shelve on the side of his TV cabinet....................

Sunday 11 January 2009

MASTER COOPERS - beer barrels

Where does our surname come from ? - Cowle - a clay pot on top of a chimney, now what is a Cooper ?- here is a interesting version - We all have this in-born thing about our ancestors and where did we come from and what did our fore-fathers do generations ago. Well one of the family mysteries has been solved. Old man Cooper had a passion for wood-work which he passed onto Allan and the family tradition of wood-work lives on in Allan's daily work. Now we can see also where Shaun gets his love for a beer or two, another family tradition lives on.

This feature I watched on the BBC 1 world news at 10am today was extremely interesting and thought now this is something to share.

MASTER COOPER LOOKING FOR AN APPRENTICE
to carry on the old age tradition

He said: "Coopering is not just a dying trade it's already dead. There are only four breweries left who employ coopers in the country and I'm the only master.

"It's a proper old-fashioned, historic trade and if you don't have a natural ability for woodworking and skill with your hands then you can't learn it.

"I'm going to keep working as a master cooper until I'm dead but I'm very keen to pass on my knowledge to another generation.

"I have loved my career and have no regrets except that no one will carry it on.

Hopefully we will find an apprentice soon so that we are secure for the future.
to read up about the whole article then just click here

Saturday 10 January 2009

THE 8 O'clock news on the blog

Another thing we will be getting upto is a monthly news highlight. This would mean those items that you have but do not have photos. It can be a short story of the news item, be it the little one starts ballet or Nanna baked us a cookie or two, just chatty news to share, all you have to do is type a short email and click on send to 8cowles@gmail.com

Here is what the MONTHLY NEWS BULLETIN would look like, but now and then we will use a better news reader

get typing & click "send"

Leon came across to me today and set up my PC with a virtual drive. more about this later. Now this is something to see, so we will be having a bit of fun with this as well in the coming months, so keep watching.

Birthdays on the blog

Hi, one and all. You will notice the picture "BIRTHDAYS" on the right. This will be updated for every upcoming birthday as soon as the current one occurs on that day, so the next one will be in the next day. I have quite a few pics of you all and some are missing, so if you want a nice current pic of your self, your kids or grand kids then send me an updated picture, or I use what I have.

Have fun and have a happy birthday this year on the blog.

get clicking - that is with your camera then with your mouse and send it via email to 8cowles@gmail.com

  • THE EDITOR

Thursday 8 January 2009

This Family is going to the DOGS

Just to cheer you all up for the new year, here is the latest addition to the family, ........ If the shoe fits - wear it.

a beautiful JACK RUSSELL

This is the new addition to the family. She is called Nicci, I call her our French dog because I spelt her name the Franch way. I got her at 3 weeks old and she had hardly any hair on her. Shew, she is naughty now but adorable at 5 weeks old.

lots of luv - Carol

Monday 5 January 2009

"TheCowles" SEND LOVE & GREETINGS

TheCowles New Year in Reno & Lake Tahoe

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYBODY FROM CALIFORNIA
LAKE TAHOE
the pink marker above

Sunday 4 January 2009

Carol & Paul build a new house

This page has been updated on 21/01/2009 with more photos. Look below the video.


Photographs of our new house, 11 Balalaika street in Nelspruit.
Borders onto Uitsig Landgoed and lots of wild animals.
We hope to move in in early March.
Lots of work still to be done.
I can't wait to get the garden started.
Note the underground water collecting in a hole Paul had dug,
we will water the whole garden from that.
The drain runs under a portion of the house and it's a
natural underground stream that flows all the time.
Carol & Paul

Editors Note : this was done in "High Definition" to give the photos extra clarity



New& more photos plus a slide show on picaso
- just click here

002 Main bedroom -003 Main bedroom View

012 Trees and plants for garden, please note most of the plants are grown from slips by yours truly over a period of 6 months.

014 Corner of Splash Pool we built which is now full since photo was taken

021 Taken from front verandah so you can see 1 kitchen window and 1 dining room window. The pipe sticking out is more or less where the island will end.

022 Dining room from verandah

034 Another in main bedroom’038 view from main bedroom verandah taken in sequence with 038 and 040. You can see Legogot (lions head) other side of White River from the main bedroom on a clear day. Awesome!

042 A friend of Debbie’s donated the cycads to us as they will be moving to NZ end of this year. Her husband is already in NZ. Yvonne knows how much I love gardening and asked Debbie if she thinks we would like them, they all have valid permits. Of course we were thrilled. We made a date for our truck to go and collect them and to take them out the ground. Fortunately one of our workers has worked for a nursery before so knew exactly what to do with hessian etc. It took hours to get them all out. We had obtained a road transport permit from the Parks Board. The woman from Parks board had to be there when we did it, and to inspect we did it properly. A very knowledgeable woman about plants. Particularly plants that are about to be extinct so they are very strict. She followed the truck to see the address they were going to even though it said so on the permit. She also gave us a form to say she will be coming to inspect the cycads in 6 months time and then issue us with new permits that they belong to us. I also moved one cycas from here, a Natalius Cycas, a very much softer looking variety. It was given to me as a present so my name was on the permit so she will inspect that one too. After the 6 month inspection that’s finished. I thought it pretty wonderful that they do actually do this to prevent people from removing and selling them. Yep that goes on all the time and has for the last 30 years. 043 Feature wall in the dining room to hang our big 5 paintings on. They have lovely frames, and in each one is a slight tinge, but lighter colour, than the paprika. They really do look stunning on the Paprika wall, will send a photograph when they are hung up at the end of February.

049 Another photograph of the splash pool. It’s small, that’s all we need, has a martini step seat, and a small step to get to the martini seat. We are fortunate in that we have one of our staff that worked for a pool company and knows his oats. This is the 9th pool we have built. It looks lovely filled and having had the hottest ever summer it’s going to be lovely to get wet after work. Just deep enough and wide enough to take three strokes across J J

I am sorry I didn’t send one of the front door. Paul had our welder make the front door out of steel. I was rather worried about what it was going to look like. He did an incredible job and it has 4 safety glass panels in it. I will take a photo once it’s painted as at the moment the putty looks new and of course it’s that browny colour of putty so not finished yet.

The bathrooms are getting tiled at the moment and the little rooms (PK) – wow have not heard the word in yonks! Hope you enjoy a tour through a part of our house. None of the second level photographs yet as not much changed. When bathrooms etc are done I will take some. Oh, and most important they have started to put the shell of the kitchen cupboards in. So exciting to see it all falling into place. Angela designed the house and one of the things on my ‘wish list’ as she calls it, was a walk in pantry so I got my walk in pantry! Remember the one in Ndola when we lived next door to the Bourke’s, or was it Burks. That house had a massive pantry.

Hope this is enough of my waffling on Billy. Actually I don’t call my waffling on waffling on, I call it background music…….my friends that I e-mail so enjoy my background music, as they say they can imagine whatever I am telling them.

Carol


Saturday 3 January 2009

Quality time

Billy, Tania and Ria toast in the new year at Tania's house, lovely hot soup as it is pretty cold outside

Carol spends some quality baking time with her two Grand grandies,
Chocolate cake in a mug in the microwave!! The proof is in the eating
and they were delicious. Tami, Kay and I had such fun with this recipe this
afternoon...3rd January 2009
Chef's in the making.
Anyone want the recipe? In colour too.
Carol

Photos taken today of my most precious adorable Granddaughter, Jessica, and her great grandparents, Mitch's Mum and Dad. Mitch's dad will be 90 in 2009
Tessy



2009 see's YEARR spelt with 2 R's
never mind I will fix it tomorrow

Friday 2 January 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2009

MAY EACH DAY OF THE YEAR BE A GOOD ONE AND MAY IT BE FILLED WITH LOVE

HAPPY NEW YEAR
- FROM LONDON -
TO EVERYBODY FROM EVERYBODY


video of fireworks - midnight in London at the London Eye on the Thames River - by "BBC-1"