A perfect likeness

This drawing of me was done by a little fella, Peter, during a meal at an all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurant in Watertown, CT. I showed it to family who reckon they captured the essence of the old man remarkably. Me, I can see it is me ... but the essence of me? But a bit of fun, and probably some of Pete's early artwork that I shall keep and treasure.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

The wedding happened

Being part of the wedding party did not make it easy to take pictures, but here is a first pic of Paul and Carol at their wedding yesterday. We have only had a few hours sleep after a wonderfully marvellous time together. I am waiting for the rest to be ready for church ... Rogan is preaching this morning at the local United Methodist Church here in Watertown, CT. I will post some more pictures when we have had time to see who has what on our various cameras. The wedding took place at the pretty Chippanee Golf Club, in Bristol, CT. The venue building can be seen in the link to the club.

Mark & Rose last night

Out and about in Connecticut

Three days of wedding preparations. The inevitable mall crawl for the ladies to look for wedding outfits, which they all pretty much found in the end. We are having wonderful days of family reunion, meeting new family in Carol's parents (delightful people), and enjoying beautiful Connecticut - which I have finally learned how to spell correctly! The days are balmy, humid, and a nice change from the colder and dryer Johannesburg highveld winter we left behind! Three days to the wedding and all systems are go!

More info on where we are.

The eagle has landed

Arrived at JFK around 11.15am local time on Saturday. We had met my mom at the boarding gate at Heathrow, and travelled on the same flight. Interesting to note the quietly efficient way security has been stepped upsince my last (pre 9/11) visit to the USA. There was a cursory passport check as we exited the plane, and then at the Immigration counter, two fingerprints and a photo were taken digitally. The Immigration official was very pleasant and chatty, but managed to competently weave in the 'right' questions to check that our stated purpose of the trip matched my visa data.

Carol met us at the airport, and we had about a two hour drive to Connecticut, and lots of great family reunions. We hadn't seen Paul since dad's funeral 5 years ago. Rogan and Caroline are here from Zimbabwe, and their eldest daughter Amy arrived from LA, where she is at College.