A little bit of fun

I have completed a couple of these "blog questionairs" over time and I quite like the information they will leave behind about me for future generations.

Give us a general overview of your daily schedule

Wake up at a reasonable hour (around 7am) to have kids ready for school by 8.30am (so civilised). Either housework away the day (my average Monday) or spend time with other mums of young children generally enjoying the outdoors.....I try to walk about 30kms a week now and I can really feel it when something gets in the way like miz weather or an overly hectic schedule. Collect the big kids at 3pm most days and do the homework routine then dinner and blogging before bed.

Tell us about 3 things you think are advantages to living in the UK, as opposed to Africa, & why

Walking - I think circumstances, distance and social conditioning force us to use our cars far far to much in South Africa and it is only since being here that I have really got into walking. It is an incredible way to exercise and the weight has fallen off me since I have started. It is of course also totally safe to walk day and night on your own (or at least where I live it is, would be more careful in the bigger cities) so it gives you the freedom to use your feet instead of your car far more often.

The Choices - I find there is such a huge variety of everything here and the choices as far as food is concerned is simply AMAZING....I have eaten and experienced things here I didn't know existed and I find the quality is generally far superior to what you find in SA stores - I buy Woolies quality from my local "Pick 'n Pay" type store and it is the norm not the expensive exception. I also LOVE all the choices we have for entertainment, and although it is not all cheap there is just so much to do that you could be busy with a different activity every single day of every single weekend for a year and still have left overs.

The education system......I am sure there are those that disagree, and I do think it has a lot to do with where you live and what catchment you are in, but in my personal experience the system of education in this county is very good and my children are both being challenged to think and be individuals in a way that was never encouraged in South Africa.

Name 3 things you prefer about Africa compared to the UK & justify your answers.

The Weather - probably a totally predictable answer. Although I am coping with the winter, I do long for crisp sun tried sheets as opposed to lanky ones dried over central heating and I miss the sound of a huge thunderstorm which has built up during the day.

The sea - I am a picean and therefore a fish at heart and I really really miss the sea and the sound of the waves CRASHING on the shore, here the swell is like a dam on a windy day and somehow although it can be beautiful in the right light it just isn't the same.

The lack of Health and Safety - I do understand the reason for it, there are 68 000 000 people living on this island which is the space of KZN, but it is totally over the top and sometimes goes from the sublime to the ridiculous.......I mean how dangerous can it be for a child to jump into a swimming pool instead of using the steps, but hey ho got to get used to it I suppose.

Give us 5 tips on improving our basic photography skills

Get a real camera and don't try and take photos with your mobile phone, that is for talking for goodness sake.

If you are buying a camera spend a little extra getting a 10x optical zoom so that you don't have to use the digital zoom on your camera which drastically reduces the quality of your pics - in fact turn the digital zoom off all together and forget it exists. Once you have a camera with a good zoom capacity, get in close....it is quite acceptable today to cut off bits of head etc as long as it is done intentionally and enhances the shot.

Be patient.....the perfect shot will come, but probably not in the first 5 minutes, sometimes you need to take 100's of photos to capture the perfect one and that is the beauty of digital it gives us all that freedom.

Get a good balance between "posed" shots which I do believe are important and those that tell a story.....some of my best photos have come just before or after the pose while everybody is getting themselves ready - I have them all together just where I want them, but it is not necessarily as stiff. If you are "posing" a photo, try and make it interesting and get people at different heights, let children lie on each other or sit back to back to keep things a bit more interesting.

Look behind the person in the photograph and be aware of what is in the background....this is something that you read about all the time, but you can't believe the difference to your photography if you start noticing things like moving cars and drain pipes and dirty shoes etc - if you really can't avoid a busy background try and blow it out with a very shallow depth of field i.e. open up your aperture as much as the camera will allow.

What advice would you give to anyone considering emigrating to the UK? (in a nutshell)

Keep your sense of humour at a maximum and your expectations at a minimum. It is not going to be easy but if you remain positive and remember your "pull" factor you can make it work anywhere.