Inter-schools Chess Competition

Played for our school in the Interschools Chess Competition. Florian and I were the youngest players. It was tough. I won 3 and lost 3 matches. Usutu came third overall in the competition. I learned some new moves.

My Family Tree

Duathlon - raw power

Last weekend Paige and I took part in a Duathlon. A duathlon is a race where you cycle and run. We were in the 10 and under age group.

We started with a cycle. It was a 5km cycle. I was about 5th out the gate, but I was on the tail of the leaders until the downhill and then I overtook them.

Then Tamtyn Hawley and I pushed neck-a-neck right to the change-over. We opened a big gap and those chasing us were not even in sight.

The run was hard and Tammy's legs were long, but I managed to hang in there and we had a "photo-finish".

Paige did really well too - as she came in third. Paige just chows boys for breakfast.

The event was organised by IBFAN-SINAN - which promotes breast-feeding of babies. I was interviewed by a lady for TV. I told her I was breast-fed for a while, but that according to my dad, I stopped wanting it and the only thing I would drink was Energade. I drank Energade instead of milk until I was 3 years old...but breast is best!

I'm swimming Nationals soon

I am going to the National Swimming Championship in Swaziland next month. This year I have been swimming lots of races. I swam in a gala yesterday in Big Bend. Our school won. I helped by winning all my races, and getting maximum points. My sister Paige also swam and she won all. but one of her races too.

Last weekend I swam the longest distance I have ever swum so far in my life. This was during the Panasonic Biathlon. Paige and I swam 500m, then ran 3km. My dad did it with us. Next year we'll do it on our own, because we know that we can do it now. Paige and I both came 4th in the U14 junior category. Next year we want to do better.

Last month both Paige and I were crowned Junior Victor Ludorum at the school interhouse gala. I shared this with my friend Liam Taman and Paige shared hers with Tatiana Valentim. This is because we won an equal number of points with them.

My dog got kicked

My dog got kicked by the next door neighbour's horse. She had a bleeding eye. We thought her eye was gone. My sister was crying a lot. Three days later the dog started to blink and we saw that her eye was Ok. It wasn't the horses fault, because the dogs were chasing her and she was frightened of the dogs.

Fishing in our river

Dad and I went fishing recently. Check out these pictures. I caught two small fish, although according to my Dad they were foul-hooked or "jigged" rather than been properly caught. We let them go. I like fishing, I would go fishing every day if I could.

Cricket match at school

This week there was a cricket match at school.  I got a letter from my cricket teacher to say I was in the team. I was so excited that I could hardly sleep. On the day of the match I batted, bowled and fielded in every position including being wicket-keeper. We played against Njabulweni School from Manzini. We played 4 matches in total, and we won three of these and lost one. It was fun. This was my first ever real cricket match. I hope we can play more matches this term.

Bush Fire 2009

I went to the Bush Fire music festival this past weekend. My favourite singer was Johnny Clegg. But I was so tired that I fell asleep while he was performing.

Today's soccer

My team Libhubesi played against Ingwe and Ndlovu today at school. We won 6-0 and 8-0 against these teams.

Confederations Cup Final

Can you believe it - I got a chance to go to the Confederations Cup Final in Johannesburg. The match was between Brazil and the USA.

Brazil won. Brazil are one of my favourite teams, just like Bafana Bafana. Kaka is my favourite player. People call me Kei-Kei, which sounds just like "Kaka".

My grand-dad organised the tickets - he is a soccer fanatic. He never misses a game. Matt (my uncle) and one of his friends were also with us. We sat really high up - just five rows from the top. The view was the best from there.

The stadium was full - I have never been in a place with so many people. I hope I can watch a World Cup game too next year. Thanks Grand-Dad for taking me to the game... and to Mom for letting me go so late at night.

KZN - hippo's, sharks & adventure racing

Last month whilst my Dad was at the Indaba Travel Trade Show, Paige (my sister) and me got go along and we had plenty fun.

First we got dropped in St Lucia, which is on the KZN coast. Granny and Grandad where there and we stayed with them. They took us to the crocodile farm and on a boat ride on the estuary. We saw plenty crocs and hippo's.

Then when we got to Durban, we went to the Sharks Board at Umhlanga Rocks. We saw a shark get dissected (cut-up). That was cooooool.

Then on the weekend was the BEST! One of my Dad's friend's George was organising an adventure race for kids. We entered as a family, all four of us and we were the 3rd team and 4th overall home in the green route. First we ran to find the checkpoints... just a few kilometres, maybe 3-4km, then we cycled about 10km to get the rest. There were so many kids there - it was brilliant. I want to do another race like that.

Kei's 1st Blog

Kei Raw is an 8 year-old boy who lives in Swaziland. He is still learning to read and write, so his dad (Darron) is helping out with the typing....just for now. We've been suss'ing out where the name "Kei" comes from. These are some of the results that we got.
One source said:

The meaning of the name Kei is Sandy, White
The origin of the name Kei is African

Another mentioned that Kei hailed from the Middle Ages and appears in the tales of King Arthur.

Arthurian Legend: Arthur's brother

Another spelling is Kai, which is of Germanic orgin and derived from the Kaiser, meaning leader. Kaiser itself is derived from Ceasar, which gave rise to Czar as well. It is a great name.

In Japan, Kei is a fairly common name, according to Wikipedia:

Kei (けい, ケイ) is a Japanese male's personal name; used increasingly as a femaile name as well, as a shortening of Keiko

• Kei, a type of bowl shaped bell that rests upon a cushion with the bell's mouth facing upwards. It is used to summon kami.
• Kei car, a Japanese category of small automobiles
• Kei truck, a tiny but practical 4WD pickup truck in Japan
• -kei, a suffix, such as when referring to Shibuya-kei or Akiba-kei

Kei can be written using different kanji characters and can mean:

• 圭, "square jewel"
• 恵, "blessing"
• 慧, "wise"
• 慶, "jubilation"
• 敬, "respect"
• 佳, "excellent"
• 桂, "Japanese Judas-tree"
• 啓, "disclose"

So the question remains, where did Kei Raw get his name from?

Well according to his parents, Anita (Kei's Mom) saw the name Kai in a list of possible names and Kei's Dad also quite liked it... but preferred the African version thereof, which is spelt K E I and is best known as the name of a major river in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. As Kei's dad is a keen kayaker and has paddled many of the rivers of Southern Africa, having a son named after a river had definite appeal.

So that his how Kei got his name.