Larkwood Life: My Hubby....

It sounds so cliché to say that I knew from the moment I set eyes on Johan, that he was the one for me, but that is exactly how it was....from the moment I saw him walking down the passage at work, I fell in love with his swagger...hehe....and all I had to do was get him to fall in love with me!!!!

We met August 1980, became engaged on 25th June 1981 and married officially on 4th January 1982 - although our ceremony was only on 9th January....but that's another story.

Our first home was in Pietermaritzburg city centre, an old house built at the turn of the century,and tucked away in one of the little side streets....the property in it's entirety was small, just 365 square metres with the house taking up much of it....3 bedrooms, lounge, passage, kitchen/dining area, separate walk in pantry, bathroom and separate toilet. Outside was a single garage, a vegetable garden a pocket of lawn and an aviary and bird room. Soon after we moved in Johan started renovating....off came the plaster, up came the floors, in went new ceilings, damp-cause was laid, floors filled in and re-laid...walls dried out and re-plastered, kitchen cupboards made with a whole kitchen re-vamp....Johan literally re-built the house on the inside, mostly on his own but near the end with the help of a very small little boy called Matthew...As you may deduce, all this took many years and lots of patience, but the end result was wonderful. All done in between working a full days job, playing badminton, breeding budgies, studying and being a husband and father.

Talking of badminton, Johan didn't just play socially, but with the very competitive spirit that he has, he played club, Provincial and SA Country Districts badminton, practicing 4 nights a week every week for many years.....it took dedication on his part to achieve the best that he could.

In the aviary he relaxes and many have said they know few who have an eye for a good bird as Johan does. He is amazing in remembering who the parents of a particular budgie may be and can spot his own birds a mile off in someone else's aviary, should he have given or sold them one of his birds. He has been on the PMBBC committee for almost as long as we have been married and over the years has also served on the Budgerigar Society of SA committee. He qualified as a judge many moons ago and has judged at shows of all levels throughout the country.

Working for government at the Department of Transport for just over 20 years, he was during that time the chairman of the social club for quite some time...organizing the first club home - 'Roadies' which became a much loved and well attended meeting point on Friday nights for many of the workers.

Moving from our lovely, re-built home in town to a smallholding in Winterskloof in 1995....we moved into another place 'with potential'...lol. On one acre of land the children had plenty of space to play and were delighted to have the added advantage of owning a swimming pool. It took a year of really hard work by Johan to get the pool sparkly clean as when we arrived it was a massive pool of green water. The sides and bottom of the pool were covered in both green and black algae and the pool pump had to be replaced, but after many many hours it was at last ready to use.

He, together with a neighbour, started up the 'neighbourhood watch' in our area and was the backbone behind keeping our street together to both fight crime and help each other out. The years we lived in Willow Lane were difficult for him as within the first year he lost his mother and youngest son, started working away from home - in Ulundi, northern KZN - but he still managed to find time to build an aviary and an entire flat for a friend and be there for our children, watching Matthew play both rugby and cricket most Saturdays. Willow Lane is still a work in progress, but we will finish it one day....

At the end of February 2005 we made the move to where we are now....the house is tiny as I've said before...hehe...but it doesn't have any major work that needs to be done to it. Johan has over the last almost 9 years worked hard at clearing our plot of invasive plants and built yet another bird room and aviary...... He spends much of his time here working towards building a safer environment and a better community for all. He is chairperson of our area CPF, serves on the committee of the Sector 1 CPF, chairs the greater Hammanskraal CPF, pulls the local police station into line and fights with the cluster CPF who run things according to them and not the law. This, in between holding down a day job, chairing a new budgie club, helping Matthew run NiQi's trust fund and trying to stay sane....it's no wonder there is no more time for badminton....

Over the years he's also found time to teach Sunday School, run 2 separate Bible studies and serve on Church council for a short while amongst other things....don't you think he deserves a break.....

Perfect he is not, in fact he has many a time driven me to distraction, but arguing is one thing we don't get into....life is too short to be wasted on things like that....this is my hubby, a man of whom I am very proud, a man of many talents, who can wire a house and clear out a blocked drain leading to a septic tank, who can re-build a house and a car, who has worked hard and strives for the best in him every day, who is in short a blessing in my life....

THE VARYING FACES OF 'MY HUBBY'.....