Family, friends and birthdays

So it’s been a busy couple of weeks. We’ve had friends from America staying with us, the financial and tax year-end has come and gone not to mention the numerous family birthdays in the past couple of weeks including mine two weeks ago.  I’m not big on celebrating birthdays but it is a great excuse to catch up with friends and family and that’s what we did. Seeing as my uncle was visiting from Durban my mother organised to get together a whole lot of old Zimbabwe friends, including a few surprises, that now live in the Cape area together to celebrate his birthday. We moved all the furniture out of the lounge and set a table for 22.

a bird's-eye view of the dinner table set for 22

As I continue to enjoy photography I find it difficult to take pictures of people because I feel like I’m invading their space. Perhaps it’s because I don’t like having my own photo taken. I’m even more apprehensive in low-light conditions where you need to use a flash which makes taking a photo even more intrusive. So here are some photos from the evening, all of them taken without flash and using a low ISO to keep the noise/grain of the photos down but at the expense of having to use a slow shutter speed and ending up with lots of blur in the majority of the photos but I guess you have to take the good with the bad.

my uncle JG saying a few words

everyone seated and enjoying my mothers famous roast lamb

an animated and clearly very funny story being recounted

the man of the moment

family and friends listening to stories of days gone by

Pete Mercer telling stories from the Hartley days

Clive sharing his hilarious memory of JG

Bruce telling a story about JG and his son Wayne

the evening was filled with laughter

Happy Birthday Uncle JG