Christmas with the Family

You know how it is when you look forward to something for so long? Well that's how I felt about 2/3 of my kids being with us for a long weekend just before Christmas. I kept going to the shops and buying more food (heaven forbid they should starve) and cleaned the house from top down - even painting the upstairs annexe in case they thought it wasn't up to scratch. 1/3 of the kids and wife arrived on Thursday evening and the next 1/3 arrived Friday evening with Best Grandson Ever! From then on all was a chaos of food, washing up and everyone trying to please each other! Jack decorated the tree we had purchased specially with all my matching baubles (bought specially!) and we piled the prezzies under. Grandpa wanted them opened on Sunday morning but was voted down (Gee, I guess HE knows just where he stands now in the Greater Scheme of Things!!!!!) and we ripped and unwrapped contentedly on Saturday evening before stuffing ourselves with prawns done to perfection on the braai by Golden Boy. Oh yes, Golden Boy has been having issues in his head (apparently for the last 30 years) and decided to unburden himself to me on Friday morning. I won't go into it all here as it really is very serious to him but after making me feel like The Worst Mother in the World (I promise he didn't mean to but somewhere in my roots I must have Jewish blood as I immediately imagine ITS ALL MY FAULT!) I was quite glad he got a nasty bit of sunburn on his feet, knees and arms where he sat on the rocks by the river unburdening himself! My poor baby, all I can say is we really do our best as parents but Hell it's not easy, especially when the parents are not in step with one another. It took Daughter No.1 to make me feel better about myself - she, with all her problems in her busy life, picked me up, dusted me off and took all my baggage away!

On Sunday Golden Boy and Golden Wife left and the rest of us relaxed while a storm crashed in the mountains above the house - hardly a drop of rain fell on us but the soak area of the mountain took a pounding. 10 minutes later the river came down in flood with tree trunks and topsoil turning it into a dark brown stew of roiling water. We watched as helicopters circled above the kloof upstream, imaging all sorts of horrors. Heard later that a climber had fallen and got stuck between the rocks, breaking a shoulder blade as he did so. He was finally rescued and taken out at 5am next morning!

On Monday Daughter No1 left for work, leaving us with Beloved Grandson until he too left on Wednesday. Suddenly it's all over and the house is eerily quiet and empty. We are back to our usual slobby selves, eating too much, resting and reading too much (IS there such a crime?) and back to the gym to try to futilely work off some of the wibbly wobbly bits.

Oh Yes - Forgot!!!! Grandpa asked Granny to marry him in May 2011 and she answered YES!!! Must be mad but what the hell, I always was a sucker for lovely man!!!

God Bless All who read my Blog and may 2011 bring all you wish for - within moderation!

Belgium in 6 days

We have been staying with friends in the Flemish part of Belgium for the last 6 days and having an absolute blast! They have made us SO welcome and taken us around all the places of interest - that, coupled with fantastic weather until yesterday, has made us think of a return visit to do all the things we just couldn't manage this time. Between OAP's sore hip and our hostess's sore leg (she fell in Jordan and broke it and has a plate and screws which are paining her muchly) I felt as if I was on a cripples day out every time we ventured out! Eventually the two of them would find a bench to sit on while our host and I would dash off to see the rest of the sights! We did Antwerp, Brugges(Broosch its pronounced!) and Brussels and there is still loads to see. Today we went to the botanical gardens in Antwerp which, though small, are very comprehensive and then we had tea and pancakes in the Toneelhuis (Theatre) which was VERY baroque. In the morning we cruised a huge department store called Carrefour where OAP bought himself TWO PAIRS of lovely suede boots which look remarkably like Caterpillars (the boot not the insect!). But we learnt that in Antwerp there used to be many canals threaded through the city - the ships would come to the mouth of the huge river and then offload into the barges which would then take everything upriver to the city. But when plague broke out the city fathers thought it was due to the stagnant water in the canals (more like to be cholera in those days with all the sewage in the water!) so they drained them and those they didn't fill in they sold to the townsfolk who had to "cap" them. This they did and then built houses on top of the caps but apparently the canals (refilled naturally from the water table) still exist underneath and you can do a tour of underground Antwerp by boat with a torch!!! I HAVE to do that! In Brussels we went up the Atomium which I last saw in 1958 when it was built for the World Trade Fair - what a blast from the past that was. Brugges was quaintly beautiful with all its little canals, ye olde coffee shoppes and ancient buildings and bridges and we did a tour of the town in a motor boat as the handicapped amongst us couldn't walk too much! For once in my life I am as fit as a flea and poor OAP is champing at the bit with his problem. In two weeks time we are back in SA and will have his hip looked at by an expert to see what can be done.

Camping August 2010

Like a swallow we fly from land to land

Seeking the sun to shine on our skin

And when that skin is suitably tanned

We return to SA, my children, our kin.

This year it snowed

It rained and it blowed

We fried and we froze

From our toes to our nose(S).

We shivered at night

And sweated by day

Our backs got all cranky

We drove home - oh yay!

But through all we had a great time

So I tossed of this poem - which doesn't quite rhyme!

I just HAD to post this pic of Sal and R fffffffffreeezing to death in the "lounge" part of our tent during the Swiss midsummer camp at Scuol! All the mountains around were covered in snow and we nearly froze to death! R was the only one who was warm at night because his lilo had a puncture so we put fold up mattresses under him and he wore all his clothes in bed! Sal put her thermo-rest under her mattress and I used the car mats under mine! This tent was bought three years ago because we were under the impression we would be able stand upright in the centre section - but NO! That would be too easy and we have to crouch in there which means that if its raining or cold we all end up with bad backs! I have rebelled (still suffering with the back a week later) and refuse to camp again unless we either get a STAND UP tent or a camper van! For heavens sake we are all geriatrics in our 60s and 70s so we should be able to camp with a modicum of comfort. We will also be buying a couple of blankets. Sal has a special sleeping bag which makes her look like a michelin man but we looked at it when packing the car and said "Nah! It's August so we wont need that" famous last words. She must have lain there at night shivering and thinking about it relegated to the back of the cupboard! At least if I was freezing (which I was people!) I was able to snuggle up to OAP until the next hot flush drove me back to my freezing lilo!

Off Camping!

DON'T EVER LET A MAN PACK THE CAR!!!! This morning sis#2 and I packed the car for our camping trip much against OAP's wishes!! He wanted to do it. You know, I am living with 2 very strong willed people and am pulled this way and that way about everything we do! Anyway we got our way and pulled all our gear out of the box in the garage and drove up the driveway where we laid out a tarpaulin and organised our stuff in full view of the inhabitants of Les Arsets! Sis is a packer of note and has managed to stow it all in our tiny car with room to spare which makes me wonder what we have forgotton!! So tomorrow we leave for 10 days camping and, guess what, we looked at the weather forcast and it shows rain over the next 5 days!! Oh great! Oh well, no changing our minds as we have friends arriving to use our apartment while we are away. In 10 days time I will blog again and let you know how the holiday went. I still can't do pics although sis had a cable I can use to download my pics from the camera. But when I "browse" I can't find "my pics" - any ideas?

OK well this is the first time I have been able to upload an image taken with the camcorder on my Acer! I agree its a lousy pic but it was the best I could do under the circumstances! Its the geraniums and whatever the yellow thing is that we planted on our patio when we arrived here in June and its still flowering beautifully!

How to get rid of bodily hair by fart!

While I was sitting in the full sun in the car waiting for the OAP to come back from the shop I looked in the vanity mirror and saw that I had - horror of all horrors - a mustache! You know I think this is why we get short sighted as we get older - it's so we can't see all these horrible things going wrong with our bodies! So at the next pharmacy I scouted around the shelves to see what they had to remove these nasty little hairs but failed to find with anything. So I skulked off into a corner with my French/English dictionary and looked up "wax" - would you believe it was "fart"!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, there was no way in hell I was going to ask for some fart and the sales assistant was bearing down on me asking if she could help. So I explained (in excrutiating French and with graphic demonstrations) that I needed something to rip out the offending "threadlike pigmented structures that grow from follicles beneath the skin". I performed a mime of someone ripping wax from beneath my nose and she got the picture remarkably quickly. She produced a package of thin little pink wax strips that cost the equivalent of the average man's monthly salary and I scuttled off back to the car with them. On arrival back home I locked myself in the bathroom and pressed one of the strips beneath my nose and ripped it off again before I could chicken out of the operation. The worst one was the second side as I knew what to expect! OAP banged on the door and asked if I was OK and I snapped his head off and said I was fine! Half an hour later - hairless as a Mexican Hairless dog - I sauntered into the lounge and sat down on the settee where OAP was watching telly. After a few minutes I could feel him eyeballing me but ignored him until he cleared his throat and asked (terrified for his life I should imagine) what was wrong with my face. I casually tossed off that I had removed the odd hair or two and he answered "must have been very odd" - by this time my lips felt funny so after a bit I went back to the bathroom and looked at myself to see my whole top lip had swollen to about four times its normal size!!!!!!!!!!! Not doing THAT again - anyone want some VERY EXPENSIVE fart strips?

Never Shop With a Partner!

Don't ever go to the nursery with a partner who has eaten a good lunch and now just wants to go home and put his feet up!! I made that mistake yesterday when OAP and I called in at the local nursery in the valley to buy a replacement shrub for the one that died during winter. While I was all gung ho to buy the place out, OAP clutched his wallet firmly to his chest and dragged around looking at the prices of the plants! You know, if its a piece of clothing I want he is dreadfully generous, encouraging me to buy whatever I want, but when it comes to plants he is not too keen. I suppose this is because most of them die while we are in SA and I have to buy new ones every year. Mostly he is keen for me to wander around with a pair of secateurs and a plastic bag secreted in my pocket and filch cuttings from every plant I like! Nevertheless we did manage to agree on two shrubs and four rockery plants. Can't remember the names except the shrubs were Potentilla something - one bright yellow and the other orange and the rockery plants included Gypsophila repens and lobelia.
Back home, having missed a huge thunderstorm, we happily planted the new members of our Swiss family and hopefully they will do well over the summer. But my absolute best is going with my sister to the nursery - this is when I need a credit card to get through the till point though!!

The alpine storm could be seen from the valley, 1km below. The peaks were enveloped in thick dark grey clouds and thunder rumbled and lightning flashed and it was very majestic and awe inspiring. We had a few drops of rain on the windshield as we drove up the steep winding road home but otherwise all the rain had fallen at about 1300 metres and above!

This place is just so absolutely stunning that I have to keep looking at the view every half hour or so - that's when I am not sitting staring at it for hours on end or admiring it from the car as we drive up and down the mountains! Until yesterday it didn't realise it was actually summer and this is the sort of view we got daily as the moisture from the valley, 1 kilometre below, rose each day until we were enveloped in a thick mist. This pic is a bit of a cheat as it was on the OAP's computer from a previous summer visit. Presumably once the mist is up at our level it is then clear down in the Rhone valley. When it's a white-out like this we just sit indoors and watch Wimbledon and soccer on TV! But its now officially summer and today was roasting hot with all the locals wandering around in sleeveless shirts and shorts with nasty pallid legs and arms showing! Even so, there is still a lot of snow on the peaks just a couple of hundred metres above us , making it necessary to keep a jersey close by for when the wind blows. Normally I live in South Africa in the bush where I have mesh on the windows to keep out the monkeys and baboons, but here I have put fine mosquito netting to keep out the flies and midges! Also at night I like the bedroom window open but it's at ground level and I wonder what is wandering, slithering or creeping through the window! The mossy netting keeps most of that out too!

I got my little Acer loaded with the drivers I needed to make the internet link but on arriving home I couldn't make it work so will now have to spend a further half hour or so on the phone to the Swisscom helpline in order to fix the problem. I wouldn't mind but I am always worried that I will get the same guy each time! They all sound alike, are scrupulously polite and very nice but I am sure they think I am an utter ass!! I even had to ask what a browser was when one of them told me to open mine! Why didn't he just say Internet Explorer? For that matter, why do all experts make technical stuff sound so difficult? Most of it is not hard if you know what the bits and bobs are called.

Wimbledon is great this year. I don't normally bother with the first week as I find them a bit boring but this year Nadal was lucky to hang in to win his first match and then the match that lasted 11 hours and ended in a tie break of something like 70 - 68!! You can't ask for better nail biters than those!

We've been here over a week now and yesterday the sun came out and for the first time we were able to leave the apartment without hats, gloves and scarves!! So where did we go? To the nursery of course! To buy bright red geraniums, white alpine rock jasmine and a shocking purple clematis called "Etoile de Violette" - Purple Star! I can't wait for it to flower and climb up its trellis. Every year we arrive at the end of July and so the intense growing period is essentially over and each year I buy new geraniums and a climber and it always dies in winter. But this year we will get a lot of pleasure from them before we leave at the end of September. It's gut wrenching to leave and know no-one will water or protect the plants, but then I do the same in SA and for the most part they somehow survive. Not sure about our new trees this year as, although I covered 12 of the most tender before we left, we heard that one night it was 8 degrees below freezing and many of the water pipes burst!

The birds here are lovely (not as many and not as lovely as SA) and feeding like mad at the feeders. The Blue Jays and Nutcrackers love the peanuts and sumflower seeds and the smaller birds go for the millet and peanuts. The chocolate brown squirrel with his tufty ears and white bib comes to eat up the left overs the birds drop to the ground as he can't manage to reach the feeders. We laugh when he tries as he looks just like the squirrel from Ice Age trying to reach his acorn which is JUUUUST out of reach! He climbs onto the balcony above and hanging by his toenails just can't get onto the feeds but he can touch them , which only makes them swing wildly. So down he comes and onto the table and from there he reeeeaches up but he's nowhere near. Poor frustrated squirrel!

We've had a couple of walks but the OAP's hip is really giving him problems and he hobbles along - it's really sad to watch him as he used to be such a strong hiker. Today a walk that normally takes an hour at most took us nearly two and last week he sat on a bench half way home from the village below while I puffed my way home and collected the car to fetch him.

We have managed to blow up yet another computer! How many does this make? I really and truly have lost count! Yesterday we bought a new light fitting for the kitchen which has always been like the black hole of Calcutta. The OAP switched off the electricity while he took down the old fitting and put up the new one, when we switched the power back on there was a loud bang from the spare room and on investigation we discovered that something had blown up in the tower of the desktop! This happened to me in Benmore when the tower was full of dust and when I switched on one day it blew up. SO - one step forward and two steps back and off we go to Alex, two villages below and no English whatsoever, to explain the problem and hope he can help without too much expense. I meant to bring our newish Toshiba over and leave it here to act as our resident computer but a friend of ours told us that we will kill the battery if we leave it unused for more than 3 months. Not that it would really matter as it will run off mains here. But as it was we didn't bring it in the end. Typical! BUT my OAP insisted on bringing his ancient Thinkpad - just as well as that's what I am now using as I couldn't connect my Acer as I need the drivers to be loaded and as it doesn't have a built in CD drive I have to get it loaded via a memory stick, which I didn't bother to bring!

Speaking of which - I think I must have left my brain behind with all the chargers and wires for our various electrical goodies! I brought my Omnia i900 to use as a GPS and didn't bring either the house or car charger, or the cable to connect it to the computer so I can download maps from the internet! I brought my Nintendo so I can Train My Brain every day - two days into our trip and it showed a red light meaning recharge. Uh Oh - no charger in baggage! No cable to upload pics from the camera to the computer - therefore no pics on my Blog! Grrrr!

Dieting - again!

Well, I'm about to go onto my 50 millionth diet of my life! As you can see from the above photo I need to whittle myself into shape before flying off to summer in Switzerland. This diet is called the Dukan Diet and it says I should be able to lose 10 kilos by the 27th July! Wow! I will be happy with 5! The only problem is that for the first 3 days I am not allowed anything but protein and that will kill me as I am not a meat eater and it will kill my liver but I will give it a go and maybe I will lose a couple of kilos that I can then put back on in Switzerland! If anyone else wants to try it go to http://www.dukandiet.co.uk/ where you can work out your ideal weight with the help of their website. Now if I can just stay off chocolate and sugared almonds - or do they count as protein?

On the first of July I have to register for a Masters degree and send in a proposal about what I want to do. I have whittled down all my interests into "The role of Women in the Ancient Near East with particular reference to the Book of Judges and Deborah". If any of you are like me and reading the Bible for the first time - try reading Judges. Talk about a nasty bunch of patriarchs, and by the way does anyone know of another name for men who aren't exactly misogynists but treat women like slaves? Patriarch is too pleasant if patronising.

Our building moves on apace and we managed to commandeer one of the security guards to help us move a leadwood tree trunk into place so Elias (builder) could brick it into place where it will serve as a hammock upright. Also it will double as a lantern holder at night and a bird feeder hanger in the day! These stunningly heavy leadwoods were brought down from a farm in Thabazimbi for us a few years ago before we even began to build our extension. Two of them were incorporated into the family room downstairs where they "hold up" the floors of the rooms above. They don't actually as they were only put in a couple of years after the building was finished! Because this last one was needed around the front of the house with a couple of tight right angled corners to go round I decided they had to come through the house. Elias was horrified (HIS wife is obviously a stickler for housework!) as he had just seen me vacuuming! But it was the most direct route and once through the kitchen door I put two upside down mats under the front and the back of the tree trunk and they were able to slide it neatly right through the house and out the other side! SO thats in place and next weekend the boys (OAP 72, Aaron 59 and Elias 49) will concrete the slab into place ready for the stone work. We only have until the 14th June to finish it - then it will be October before we can do any more.

We have had masses of rain lately, no sun for days which plays havoc with the solar power and yet temperatures have dropped suddenly so that nights are bitter. I covered all the tender trees with sacking in the hope that they can withstand the highveld frost we get in June. Last night I saw a scorpion on the lounge floor and asked OAP is he fancied getting it out. He obviously didn't but felt it was his duty as a man so popped a tupperware over it and slid a piece of paper under. On picking the paper and tupperware up he tipped the scorpion out again and as it lay so still he pronounced it dead and scooped it up onto the paper, whereupon it did a resurrection number, whipped along the paper and onto his hand. With a scream he flicked it off - SOMEWHERE onto the floor. For those who don't know how and where we live, at night our house is vaguely lit by gas light and candles and a scorpion is bloody difficult to see! Anyway we did find it again - dragging itself under the piano - scooped it into the Tupperware and bunged it outside back into the bush! OAP (forgetting that he was the one who had screamed like a girl - I was the one who swore like a trooper at him!) said "shame its so cold outside" - Yeah right and your point is?

Life's frustrating ups and downs

My OAP has been going through a really bad time over the last 6 months or so - just at a time when his life should be getting simpler. His ex has decided that she wants a lions share of his possessions just because she accidentally fell pregnant with his kid 38 years ago! He looked after her financially, sent her on training courses in the work she said she wanted to do, paid for her and her son to live in Germany while training, paid for her to live in Cape Town when she wanted more training in something different, paid for her to live in a different part of Johannesburg when that was what she wanted, made room for her in his flat and farm when she said the school felt he should take more of an active role in his son's life. He desperately wanted to take a part but it was too late for them and his son despises him and makes no bones about his feelings. His son and his ex seem to think that it was me who broke up a "perfect" relationship 16 years ago but their idea of perfect is extremely warped when I know they didn't share a room, never mind a bed, and he had other girlfriends before me! Anyway she now has decided that she wants lots and lots of his money and she found a really good law firm who saw her successfully through the quagmire (his lawyer was crap) so he now has 90 days to find her money and the money to pay her and his lawyers!! Otherwise the court will attach his (and I suppose my) possessions! He thought he could sell his flat in Sandton but discovered her lawyers have blocked the sale as she is living there and can do so till she dies (now I understand why some folk turn to murder!), so he is trying to sell his farm but who in their right mind wants to buy a farm in Northwest Province at this turbulent time in SA's history? He has a tenant living on the farm who has reneged on his rent for the last year!!!! This tenant has now given notice that he intends to leave the farm at the end of July - slap bang in the middle of our overseas holiday - leaving the property vacant and vulnerable to squatters etc. So it looks like my days on Utopia may be coming to an end and we will have to move onto the farm when we get back at the end of September. Another chapter in my Book of Life! Maybe it will be fun (hmm I wonder - the ex lives in a cottage on the property at weekends!!) and maybe we will be able to sell it or maybe we can just set light to it and claim the insurance money!! Watch this space.

I have been trying to update my Blog for ages but without much news that anyone else might be interested in and unable to drag and drop pictures it has been futile. Much as I love living in the bush it does have its drawbacks. Solar power at this time of the year is scarce as the rains continue to fall sporadically. When its not raining then cloud cover obscures the sun or thick mist envelops the surrounding hills and we get a strong feeling that we have been transported to the Scottish Highlands! Only the yellowing grasses and indigenous birds remind us that we are definitely in Africa.

A Purple Heron plods hesitantly along the muddy edges of our dam while a pair of Crowned Plovers scream at a troop of mischievous baby Vervet monkeys intent on tweaking a tail feather or two. Much as I dislike the monkeys in the house their antics are a delight to watch, especially when there are so many babies in the troop. A Brown-Hooded Kingfisher sits on the rail around our stoep, watching the bush intently. It swoops on a grasshopper and flies back up to a higher perch where it proceeds to kill its prey before eating it. I am amazed at how large the beak is for so small a bird.

All our Weavers are gone, they were very half-hearted about breeding again since the Boomslang took their last remaining egg. In fact they pulled that nest to pieces before building another and laying again, only to be pipped at the post by a Klaas' Cuckoo, who laid her egg in the nest and ejected theirs.

So here I sit in Mugg & Bean where they have Wi-Fi (and lemon meringue pie) and I can download and upload to my heart's content!

This is just a test run to see if I can post pictures to my blog. I discovered that I can although it took ages and I didn't know what picture it was as they all just had numbers! But this is from my 60th birthday party at Mabula with the grandchildren playing in the shade at the braai area.

Slave Labour

I am sitting here looking out onto the twinkling lights of Cape Town while my body is longing to be lying on the bed! But I daren't go to bed so early or I will be bright eyed and bushy tailed at 3am! My problem is that I have been painting the walls and ceilings of OAP's tiny flat nearby. He is desperate to sell it but it was in such a dreadful state after a fire on the stove, three burglaries and just general neglect by tenants. I proclaimed it needed gutting much to his horror but amended that to needing painting - and guess what? I got the job!!! Nice one - when will I learn to keep my mouth shut!! I had already spent a week with my sis from UK painting out my niece's flat in Wynberg. But that, actually, was FUN! Because it was something we were doing together albeit hard work and also when you tackle such a job with two of you its much easier. OAP said he'd help with the work on his Hole in the Wall as he calls it but he is not much good with a brush and roller so I had to get him busy on other things so I could get on with the main stuff. I must say he really came to the rescue when I just couldn't reach a couple of places and was desperate. He also did a lot of stripping and throwing away of stuff left by the last tenant. At the end of each day we'd grind home (only two blocks), trudge up 4 flights of stairs, shower, eat and fall into bed only to get up again in the morning, barely able to move, and start over! I must be mad to do my own decorating wherever I live - other women call in a painter and then grumble because he dripped on the floor or missed a spot the size of a R5 coin. Why can't I just for once do the same? To make matters worse the first coat of white paint turned grey and I realised that after his tenant had had a fire in the kitchen she had never cleaned up after it and the walls and ceilings were covered in soot. Not badly but enough to make it necessary to paint 3 coats everywhere. And I have to say, here and now, that I absolutely HATE painting ceilings!! I had a stiff neck before coming to CT and now it's permanently in a backward tilted position so I will forever be looking up!!! My hair is full of specks of paint like dandruff and I have WHITE freckles on my face and chest, not to mention my hands and arms, oh yes and my legs and feet! Tomorrow we finish after applying another coat to the lounge and doing the burglar bars. Then I have to clean the bathroom which has a fine coat of mildew although I suppose it might be soot. Beloved sister and I scoured CT for tiles to match the cream ones in the bathroom that were damaged in one of the burglaries but eventually had to settle for the same tiles but in white so the tiler did a very creative job around the windows making it look as if we had meant to have a white panel of tiles in the first place. Then on the first day of painting I looked in the bathroom cupboard and lo and behold there was a box of the original cream tiles! OAP was ever so furious with himself as he hadn't seen them there. I feel quite guilty as I should have looked in the first place as I know he NEVER throws ANYthing away! Oh well - anyone want half a box of cream and half a box of white tiles?

Back to School Blues

As if getting the kids back to school on time on the first day wasn't already fraught with snags like Younger Daughter's not being able to find a single belt belonging to the red and white gingham dress my Princess of a granddaughter wears. She had taken her uniforms (Princesses not YD's!) to be shortened and forgotton to remove the belts. So it was with trepidation that we watched P getting dressed in the morning of BACK TO SCHOOL. As it dawned on her that there was no belt YD tried to reason with her that said belt was missing but we would find a replacement in the Lost and Found at school. After a bit of horror that she was expected to wear someone else's pox-riddled belt and being assured she wouldn't catch anything from it because it would, after all, be worn OVER the dress NOT next to the skin, Princess finally aquiesced and we breathed a sigh of relief. Off we went to the school where my hand was clutched in trepidation and believe me it was not an act - her hand was cold and clammy and trembling - until I was ejected from the classroom because my behind was too large for the miniature chairs!! That made her laugh so I could leave with the knowledge that the situation was not too desperate. Downstairs, two grades lower, I bumped into YD's ex partner in floods of tears rushing from the scene of her twin sons classrooms. Thinking she had a bad case of Partition Blues going I shrieked "Oh come on Bear, it's not THAT bad" only to be informed that she had reversed out of the driveway over the family dog and killed him!!! IN FRONT OF HER SONS who were now in class weeping their little eyes out. What a way to start the year! Younger Daughter when informed of all the snot and trana callously remarked that she should lie the other two ancient maltese poodles in the driveway and reverse over them too and then she wouldn't be looking for place to live that took pets! Apparently she has to move out of her present home at the end of January and as yet has nowhere to go (as her sons happily tell anyone willing to listen!).

Meanwhile I have spent thousands getting my annual mammogram and (first time ever) bone density scan done, complete medical check-up as I needed a new prescription and had my neck twisted by the chiropractor! Actually he was the cheapest of the whole lot and I am totally in love with him since he cured a two month headache in one treatment! He says the stiff neck and tense upper back are probably from getting my last assignment into Unisa (in all honesty it was probably from the hours of Patience I play while listening to podcasts!! but I didn't tell him that). The mammo and bone density (as I knew it would be) were perfect and I don't need to do the bone thing for another 5 years (read 10). These go towards our Medical Aid's Vitality program where we get awarded poiints for all the tests we have done that go towards a healthy body! Hopefully this will push us up from Bronze category to Silver!! It costs a bomb but we love working towards this goal and every time we use the Vitality card at the local supermarket we get a percentage back depending which category we are in.

We are now spending the night at Golden Boy's charming home and as I type this their cat is sitting on the dining room table watching my every move.