Cook School 2 - Baking Scones

Philippa has decided that today is a SCONE's baking kinda day! this recipe is super easy to follow. Let us know how your turned out!

Set oven on 180 degrees

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups of selfraising flour
• 1/3 cup of oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup of milk

Method:

• Stir all the ingredients together
• Turn out the sticky dough on a surface lightly covered in flour
• Pat gently down with hand
• press scones out with cookie-cutter/or glas
• oil baking tray before you put the scones on it
• bake for 14 minutes

Philippa's Garden Circuit Workout 1

 Another day, another activity filmed in the Theron back garden!!!

Today it is our very well organised and very precise Philippa's turn. She spend ages in making the most beautiful drawings of each activity to be executed at each station.

Let us know how you got on!!!!

Cook School 1 - Making Pancakes

 Nina was craving crepes-like pancakes for a while. She decided to call in the help of her BIG brother. They created the mos delishious treats for the whole family.

If you like to try it, here are the list of ingredients:

• 3 cups of flour (cake or all-purpose)
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups of water
• 1 cup of milk
• 3/4 cup of oil
• 1 teaspoon bi-carbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 breakfast spoon of lemon juice

Method: Mix all the liquids

              Add dry ingredients while stirring the mixture.

              Put two breakfast spoons of oil in bottom of frying pan

              Heat up pan

              Pour one ladle of pancake mixture into frying pan

              Pan'bake' untill topside is not runny anymore

              Flip pancake over and bake for a nother minute or so.

We are a family of 6. Each person had two pancakes with cinnemon sugar for snack. We also had one 2 pancakes with a mushroom and chicken filling for lunch.

This activity was the best fun, and filled hungry tummies!!!

ENJOY!!!!

Craft 1: Hand-shaped drawing workshop

This was great fun to let Nina lead us in this activity. She is a very creative 9 year-old sweetheart. She loves drawing, so when she saw this way of drawing animals, she was hooked. She set the table up for us with:

• a book to lean on
• a few blank printer papers 
• a pencil 
• a rubber
• Sharpie pens (all colours)
• a string (to hang completed artworks on)
• washing pegs (to help with displaying the drawings)

Let us know how you and your crew got on!!!!

HAVE FUN!!!!

WorkRoom Hero 1: Willie Gagiano

We continue with our topic on 'change' .

Riebeek hero of November is Willie Gaggiano, a local busniness man and single parent. I call him Willie Rooibakkie, since his rubbish disposal business is mainly operated by him driving around our village in his red pick-up truck!!

Two years back Willie was diagnosed with cancer. He had surgery done to remove the cells. Unfortunately he could not get the full propper treatment, because the hospital staff could not manipulate him due to his 215kg body weight!! He was also warned, that if he was not going to be proactive about shedding pounds, he might not be around much longer to delight in his daughter..

Big 'why's' for a big man.....

During my short interview with Willie, I ask him about the reasons for his made-up-mind to pursue change, about the difficulty in remaining focussed and about his motivational goals for 2019.

Here is the free transcriped of his aswers to me:

Q: Willie, why did you had to change?
W: I was diagnosed with cancer under my tounge. After the surgery my doctor could not give me radiation, because I was too heavy for the radiation bed. I was promised to receive treatment, if I trimmed down to 150kg. I started walking. I also started with the banting diet. Within 10 months, I reached my target weight. It was hard, but I am still here today!!!

Q: Was there an emotional part to your 'why'?
W: The doctor explained to me that my heart will not be able to sustain the impact of my weight for much longer, and if I'd like to see my daughter growing up, I'll need to make a serious change in lifestyle.

Q: What was your greatest challenge? You set some goals for yourself. Was it easy??
W: No, it was not easy!! But as I started to exersise, I could not believe the rate at which the kilo's were melting away. People told me that once you are hooked, you will enjoy it..and that is exactly what happened to me.

Q: Why are you happy today that you've persevered?
W: I am feeling so much better in my body. I do not have to carry the big load around with me anymore. I also used to take daily medication, high blood pressure and high colesterol. I do not take one single tablet anymore!! The best actually was that I grew closer to God through the whole process. It was not easy to do, but I prayed constantly for God to help me, for perseverance to be able to make this lifestyle change. I am thanking Him every day for this. God has been my biggest anchor. I would not have been able to accomplished loosing all this weight on my own. It has been so hard at times, since I was never a big fan of walking....and now I AM ADDICTED to it!!!

Q: What is your aim. What would you like to achieve?
W: I would like to weigh 100kg...actually if I can weigh less than 100kg, I will be even more chuffed!!!  I've also entered the 1000km challenge. You need to log 1000km, taking part in officialy timed races between the two Comrades Marathons (South African's biggest yearly ultra-race of 96km). The challenge started after the Comrades in June. I have logged so far, 750km in 5 months!! I am so proud of myself!! I am actually going to try to achieve a silver medal. To reach this goal, I'll need to log 1600km between the two Comrades Marathons. So each race that I am doing, even the little 5km park run, counts towards my distance.

Q:The hardest part is the first step out of the door..Isn't it?
W: Yes!! At first I was tired after just 100m. The next night I did 200m..and so I gained confidence and went on from there. Now I can boast with my longest race so far of 30km!! I am stil a bit scared of the 42km races!!

Q: If you can leave one word of encouragement to the viewers, what will it be?
W: Well, to be determind to stay on track. I also have a serious piece of advice for all young school leavers : Avoid drinking and smoking. I can reccommend it. I've been through that all..if I could have done life over again, I would have started walk-running, like I am doing now, many years back. I am feeling so well, healthy and happy. It is just the best feeling ever.

A big shout out to our first local Hero!! I am feeling so honoured to know Willie. To have witnessed his bravery in staying on par with a exceptional goal he has set out to achieve. I will keep you all informed of his progress over the next 6 months in pursuing this dream to  walk-run 1600km in one year.

In our final post of November, I will explore the topic of change a bit further.
 I am looking forward to hear about your observations,insights and personal experiences along the lines of our topic. Drop me a comment or e-mail.

Let's work together in the WorkRoom!!!