More pics

This looks to me like Dad (Anthony) at the bottom, and Anne bottom right. Any clue on the others?

OLD FAMILY PHOTO'S

Hi Nic,

Unfortunately I have no experience with photo sharing sites. I think it is a marvelous idea. I know Anne also has a few very old photographs of your Gran and Grandad as well as your Great Grandparents. I am sure the family would like to take a look at these as well.

I will chat to her and we can post them on the blog. In fact I am wondering if it might be better to rather email them to you and you can consolidate the posting? Please let me know what you think.

Graham

Old Sykes Pics

My mom had given me an envelope filled with pictures, labelled "Old Sykes Pics", a while ago. Probably years by now. I have been meaning to scan them and post them somewhere, in hopes that between us all we could label them and figure out who they are. I finally went to do the scanning the other day, but it was nigh impossible because the pictures are all kind of rolled up, so getting them to stay flat on the scanner was a real task. Instead, I put them all into encyclopedias (yes, there is a use for all those books!) to flatten them, and will scan them once they've had a chance to straighten. In putting them all in the books I took a good look at most of them, there are some really fantastic pictures of Granny D and Grampa Bill, as well as young pictures of my dad (he was a handsome fellow!), David, Ann and Mandy. I can't wait to share them with you all!

What I'm wondering is if there are any suggestions for how we go about the task of labelling them. I was thinking of posting them to a photo sharing site, does anyone have experience with one that might let us all label? Otherwise I could just give out a username/pword and we could do it that way. I know people use google pics, or flickr, I've also used kodakgallery - any suggestions?

Pics from Kate

Since my sister doesn't seem to be able to manage getting on here to post (ahem, poke poke poke), I thought I would post a couple of pics that she just sent me in an email. First, here is my cutie-pie nephew, we had a ball the other day getting him to smile. He has two cute little dimples just next to his mouth!

And a pic of Ant with about the most Sykes expression one can have - the tongue sticking out while concentrating. I know my Dad did that, and Kate and I do to - anyone else?

David & Elaine's 40th wedding anniversary

My first post! I'm still trying to get the hang of adding photos - have probably added too many, but couldn't resist it. Sunday 30 December was Dave & Elaine's 40th wedding anniversary - Ruby!(hence the red roses) The good weather we've had this Christmas in Cape Town continued to hold, and we had a lovely brunch at the Kirstenbosch Garden's tearoom to celebrate. We managed to convince one of the waiters to take a snap of us all enjoying a champagne toast - so from clockwise: Jules & I are in the foreground are with our backs to the camera, Glenda to the left of Jules, Pam, Lloyd, Chris, Elaine & David. As Pam so seldom posts any pics of herself, I thought I'd post this lovely one of the Sykes-Rubidge family enjoying tea-for-two. That's Sarah on the left, and Jess to the right of Lloyd. Sarah & Jess both had a ball exploring the gardens around the tearoom on their own, and coming back to report what they'd found - fairy paintings in the art gallery, dragonflies in the bushes, and bringing back a few (illegal!) flowers for Granny & Grandpa from their explorations. Stirling was feeling a bit under the weather, so Jules was helping to keep him & Sarah enthralled for a while with the help of Brown Bear, while their moms chatted in the background.

And a happy new year it was.

Ant and I spent the day today with Kate, Sami and Christopher. Ant was just so adorable, I had to share.

First, as soon as we pulled up outside the Kapanakis house, he said, "Seemi... home... happy!" (Seemi is how he now says Sami). Later, they were playing together with this little toy vacuum Sami has. Sami started with it, because she was the one who got it out. I was telling him that he had to wait until she was done, then it would be his turn. So he followed her around like a puppy dog, saying "Antny's turn, antny's turn". It was so damn cute it made me teary! (She was very accomodating and gave him a turn shortly after. I'm very impressed with their sharing - it doesn't always happen, but more often than not it does.)

Happy Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy 2008!

Well, my holiday brain is so mushy by now that it's taken me a full week to download the handful of pictures we actually managed to take at Christmas time! We had Christmas Eve at my mom and dad's house:

From left to right that's Mom (you knew that, right?), Gill, Julian, Dad, Laura (Quentin's girlfriend) and Quentin (Julian's brother), me and Lloyd. The girls at this point (it was late) were parked in front of the television watching Jessica's Christmas present of Charlie and Lola DVDs:


It is a popular present! The girls also got a gorgeous doll's house that Dad made for them, and a couple of sets of wooden furniture -- more very popular presents:


The next morning Jessica appointed herself to hand out the presents Father Christmas had left under the tree:


I like our tree this year. All the decorations are either inherited from the grandparents, bought with a story attached or made by ourselves, and Jess is now old enough to remember them from year to year, so decorating is like meeting old friends again. I'm looking forward to the next couple of years!

We had Christmas lunch at Lloyd's sister Alison's new house -- here she is with the girls and Priscilla:
Sorry, I don't have a picture of the rest of the family -- we forgot the camera!

In proper Southern Hemisphere style we spent much of the day in the pool:


We've spent large chunks of every day since in the pool as well, and we have either eaten out or had people over here every single day -- it has been wonderfully relaxing and if it wasn't for the fact that I had to check dates because we're going away tomorrow, I wouldn't even know what day it was.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as we did -- thanks for all the updates -- and have a wonderful 2008! I'm looking forward to seeing more family pics and news on this blog, it is a great way to keep in touch!