All the photos I have never included!

From top to bottom:  Lisa and Schalk at a barndance in October. Little Christmas candle houses given to us by Lisa. A Yellow-Fronted Tinker Barbet who had just knocked himself senseless on our window - he flew off shortly after I took his picture. Carolyn and Ciaran. Carolyn's man Marc. My man Robert. Ciaran's cat enjoys her first Christmas. Carolyn lighting the candles before lunch.  It rained all night so the river was pumping this morning. Our house, mostly obscured by the bush we live in!

Hello? Anyone out there?

What's happened to everyone - why you not blogging? And why, when I have just learnt where your comments are (well done Sal!) can I not upload a picture to my blog? There used to be a logo that I clicked on but the site looks different and that logo has gone with no options.
I've justhad a lovely week with both the grandchildren - 10 is a smashing age: yound enough to still listen to Gran and think the sun shines out of her proverbial but old enough not to be watched and kept entertained constantly! Old enough that I could allow them to go down to the river below the house and keep a promise not to go in till Grandad or I went down. Old enough to go and read for a bit when I got tired and needed a bit of time out. Old enough to play happily together until NOT and then seperate and do something alone until the need to be together overcame the slight that had been thrown! But yound enough to still need Gran to go first upstairs in the dark! Young enough to still need hugs and kisses - oh those soft little arms wound around ones neck make tears come to my eyes! Young enough to enjoy a bedtime story: Around the World in 80 Days. Young enough to cry bitterly when hurt and then for Gran to kiss it and make it better (we had a rock dropped on a toe, a broken elbow - not! when she fell out of a hammock and numerous thorns in feet (I told you to wear your crocs!). Young enough to creep into bed with us during a thunderstorm and then I had to carry her back to bed after it was over - nearly breaking my back! She didn't remember it next morning! He must have been awake but said he wasn't bothered by the lightning and thunder (macho?) but he saw me silhouetted against the window as I sat up in bed playing Nintendo till the storm was over, so he was definitely awake! Young enough to need sunscreen applied - they were fine, I got burned! Young enough to take joy in making dams, finding tadpoles and baby crabs, picking me bunches of wild flowers and grasses and leaping from a rock into the pool below the house. We took them on a 4 hour hike up the mountain in blustery chilly weather - perfect for a walk. We spent a morning in the local shopping mall where we played Deal or No Deal in the video arcade!
And now they are gone and the house feels so empty (I think Grandpa is OK with that!) so I will now give him lots of attention and hope the kids come again soon.

Comments

After completing and posting my blog today I went into my settings to see if there was a reason my sis in UK can't comment. I found a section marked "comments" in which eveyone's comments are there for me to see! Thankyou to all of you esp. Favourite Eldest Daughter, Favourite Niece and Waterbob. I never knew you cared and has anyone any idea as to why these comments don't appear on my web page - Hmmm. Maybe they do and I have just never looked!!!!! Any other ideas as to why Favourite Middle Sis can't comment?

Bah! Humbug!

Jingle b*$#@y Bells! Bah Humbug! I hate Christmas! I used to LOVE it - I used to trawl around Christmas fairs and the toy shops, Woolworths and Edgars and buy my kids the latest clothes and the latest toys. I would fill Christmas stocking with a lot of small things that actually added up to more than the main prezzie! Now even Lego (or should I say - especially Lego) is out of my price bracket and Rustenburg Woolys and Edgars do NOT cater for MY sort of kids! All the clothes are in shades of dirty pink, lime green, dirty orange, bright turquoise - saves on the washing I suppose and if I was dressing Noddy it would be fine but these are my grandkids for goodness sake - I want some class please! As to the toys - my granddaughter hates pink and ALL little girl toys are pink and anyway I hate gender specific toys. So this year it's clothes - after MUCH searching and just a teeny bit into the "dirty" colours. Actually her mom will kill me when she sees the Blinding White capri pants - I guarantee they will stay that way for at least 5 minutes!!!! But I hate giving gift vouchers and money - it's such a cop out and I did that for Golden Boy's birthday anyway. THEN _ having done all my shopping in one fell swoop at our local mall I went to our newish very local (only 17km away and situated in a filling station forecourt - Yes - I live near Rustenburg so whadda ya expect?) boutique come restaurant and discovered millions of goodies I could have bought for everyone! Yes it would have bankrupted me but still - everything was unique and lovely - so I did a little top up for everyone to go with the boring things I bought yesterday and then went and consoled myself over breakfast in the restaurant bit while they washed and vacuumed my car!!! NOW - where else can you have all that done in one place!

Man Flu

As usual I can't remember when last I wrote my Blog. I seem to have forgotton all about blogging lately, but last night in bed, thinking my favourite eldest daughter was ignoring me, I suddenly thought: "I am supposed to read her blog to find out what's going on in her life". I would have risen there and then and booted up the computer except I had just settled down in a comfy position and was damned if I was moving. This morning there was about a months worth of blogs to read from her and also from my favourite niece! It was almost worth not looking for so long - I had a readfest and made a comment or two and then was triggered to write my own one: So - what's been happening in MY life you ask? Hmmmm - well OAP got "man flu" - this a deeply dangerous and harrowing disease (for everyone around him!). He hacked and coughed, snuffled and snorted, refused to use tissues because he blows holes in them - and NO he can't use two at a time or even three as that is a waste of money. Oh - didn't you know that OAP comes from a frugal Scottish background? Well you do now - read on to discover more! I rooted out Disprins, Vicks Vaporub and cough sweeties (all well past their use by dates but OAP doesn't believe in those!) and brought him hot toddies that would have felled a horse and hot soups and little nibbles and snacks (you do know that we live in a house on three floors with many many stairs and wooden floors that can be rapped sharply with a knobkerrie to gain attention?) while OAP lay flat on his back refusing to sit up against his pillows to alleviate his coughing, back of left hand pressed limply against his forehead, eyes closed with a pained expression on his face, telling me that he really wasn't hungry but a little jelly and cream, and another hot toddy like the last one (dear God - I wondered if I should book him into AA) oh - and a little snack of warmed up lasagne and maybe a peach, a banana, an orange, a bowl of cherries, an elephant and an ardvark - just kidding! - would help him to feel better. So I slogged up and downstairs for a week trying to block out the vile noises emanating from the bedroom and trying to smile and not vomit when I heard him sniff or clear his throat! Then, just as he was feeling marginally better - BAM! - I cam down with it! And it's NOT man flu - it's the plague, ebola, typhoid fever, whatever - it's AWFUL and every bit as ghastly he he sounded! I haven't apologised to him of course as he never knew what sort of thoughts were floating around inside my head, but wow this was flu from hell. For a week I have hacked and coughed, snuffled and snorted, sitting side by side with him in the bed - we have taken turns to trot downstairs to get hot toddies that would fell a horse, I will bother about AA next week, bowls of jelly, etc. but I still had to be better enough yesterday to do the washing and ironing. I threw away ALL his snotty hankies and made him buy new ones on a trip to town and actually he got to the stage where even HE thought his hanky deposits were disgusting and took to using 3 tissues at a time - so you see - even Old Dogs can learn New Tricks - given the right MASTER!!!!!

When only one of you is studying

Don't ever marry someone who hasn't a clue what it's like to study! And don't ever try studying in a house with wooden floors! And don't ever have wooden floors in a house where a man is living!! Grrrrh! It takes quite a bit for me to get into the mood to study and all of a sudden I have the bug! But getting my head down is quite daunting as there are always things (other) to be done: watering the new seeds I have sown, dusting when I realise I can write my name on the lid of the piano, making the bed which has happily lain unmade for days, writing my blog when I should be onto JStor looking up papers that I can crib from! Etc. But the minute I do get my head down OAP wants lunch, or tea and a scone, or my help replacing some wiring that our resident (but unseen) mouse has snacked on - plunging our whole house into darkness! This task I willingly participated in otherwise I can't watch Who Wants to be a Millionaire? tonight. But the other jobs I just ignored and every time OAP tried to converse I just muttered "Mmm Hmm" and carried on typing. With the result that he found all sorts of things do do up here in my sanctuary (our bedroom unfortunately!) and every time he walked past my desk the floor went bounce bounce bounce until I felt like pushing him down the stairs! I won't do it now that I have confessed that I was tempted because I know I will get found out! ANyway its now sundowner time and I am going to join him for a Bucks Fizz before making macaroni cheese and a huge salad!

Our last few days of a very short holiday

On Friday we went to our favourite thermal baths and listened to whales under water and Mozart. Every now and then we went outside to the larger pool seen here where we were swirled around in the jet pool and lay on the bubble beds, had our heads and necks pummelled under jets of water and stood in intense bubble pools to aerate our bodies. We both went to the Hammam and steamed ourselves into a coma then back for a last whale and Mozart refrain before hauling ourselves out and home for a late lunch. We are trying to eat all the food that OAP in his squirrel like fashion bought when we first arrived! We worked out that if we cook masses of food and consume it every night we wont have to throw anything away! He bought 46 eggs for God's sake - I never want to see an egg again! We are down to two packs of chicken breasts, a pizza and 500 gms mince - I shall be glad to go back on diet again would you believe - well, OK, I don't believe it either!! But I will try as I really enjoyed my smaller figure and the fact that all my clothes fitted better and nothing pinched. Only trouble was that I had just splashed out on larger clothes but I am sure that one day I will fit back in them (especially if I go on eating like this!).

Yesterday, after a huge eggy breakfast, we took the telecabine up to the top and walked up higher to see the "new lake". What a disappointment! There was no water in it! But apparently it fills during October and November and the water is used for making snow on the slopes. This last winter, we are told, it came in very handy as they had strange weather and very little snow in the middle of the season. They were able to make snow on the slopes every night and none of the visitors realised it wasn't God-given natural snow! Itwould be nice if it was full during the summer months especially as they apparently had one of the wettest June and Julys in years! Perhaps its just as well we couldn't come here earlier. After walking down through the trees to Taveyenne we found our favourite picnic spot and had bread, cheese and water for lunch then slogged back up to the Telecabine and back down to our car.

Today we are in "preparation for close down" mode. OAP is doing the paperwork which he always leaves till the last minute and I am packing clothes and bedding away. We had a 3 month let last winter and are hoping for one again this winter. I don't have to leave bedding out for them so am packing it all neatly into plastic bags and storing it. We have done a lot of ruthless clearing out this visit - OAP actually managed to go through a suitcase filled with his ex's and son's clothing. He, of course in true squirrel fashion, tried to keep the lot but after he left me alone in the garage (where the case was stored) I managed to weed out lots from his "keep" pile, then rushed it all off to the decheterie (the most organised, cleanest, tip you have ever seen! EVERYTHING is carefully sorted and put into special bins. They wouldn't even take the clothing until I had bought bags and seperated it: Mens and ladies, pants, shirts, socks, undies, etc.). We now have a bit more room to store stuff when we leave on Wednesday.

I can't wait to get back to Utopia to see how the garden is doing, I looked on the weather report and it showed rain but that doesn't really mean much as it can be raining cats and dogs in Utopia and not anywhere else and vice versa.

Swiss Autumn

After a weekend living in a cloud and with constant rain, this morning dawned sunny and beautiful and this was the view from our patio! A breathtaking picture postcard and the reason we come back here year after year (oh yes, we also come here because we only need one key whereas at home in SA we have a huge bunch each!)

Utopian Spring Garden

A tiny piece of our utopia garden.  I started out by sprinkling seeds a couple of years ago and was horrified to discover they were not indigenous to South Africa and have spent the last two years weeding them out of the garden and the surrounding bush where they absolutely thrive!!  This year I made certain I only sowed  indigenous seedsand this was one of the results.

Still maintaining weightloss

Amazing - I am writing this from the gym where I have just weighed myself and discovered that the 10 kilos I lost when ill is still not back! Yahoo! I am still about 5 kilos over my supposed preferred weight but I'm not complaining. And the funny thing is: I FEEL so much thinner! That's the best part of it. I have often looked at pics of women who are very obese and then lose about 30 kilos and are thrilled and the picture of them now shows them twice the size I was and yet they are happy! I couldn't understand that, but now I do! I am really happy to be the weight I am and even if I do put more on in the years to come I will still be happy because I am healthy. It's really hard not to gain as I have to really discipline myself not to load my plate up and then not to eat too fast. Also OAP loves his chocolate and eats it in front of me! Wah! Having not eaten any since April I thought I was over that but obviously not! Still, one piece after supper seems to satisfy the craving and he just has to hide his stash away or I will nobble the lot! This is not easy for him as I know EVERY square inch of our house and can happily search it for hours in anticipation of a reward. While Golden Boy was with us we bought a bag of marshmallows for him to toast in the evenings - there was half a bag left which I stuffed down the day after he left! Now I'm trying to stick to wine (whine?) gums but they give me belly ache if I eat too many. See a pattern here? NO self control, better not to buy the things. In 2 weeks time we will be in Switzerland where I will be tempted by brie and camembert cheeses and soft french bread to mention but two of the delights of being on holiday there.

Cousins

Cousins!

A week with Golden Boy

Golden Boy went off to Durban with his mom who took him surfing, skateboarding and to the rugby amongst other exertions. I met them at the airport last Monday when they came home and brought him back to our house in the bush for 5 days. We didn't do much - just chilled together. The most physical was walking the circuit of Utopia, and as walking is not his priority in life we did it in three stages! He rode his surfboard to and from the laundry - uphill holding onto the car (don't tell mom!) and he has SUCH attitude when he is riding that thing! I clocked him doing 25kph downhill - very scary! We took him to lunch at a local cafe called Kumquat that we love (it has free WiFi as well as Lemon Meringue Pie!) and he "drove" the car home once we got onto the dirt road (well he sat on my knee and steered while I worked the pedals and Grandpa made us laugh with his well timed comments. Much of the time he played games on the computer or Nintendo or watched TV. I hate most of the kids programmes he likes and got him hooked on Weakest Link and Who Wants to be a Millionaire! He is SO polite that there was never any moaning about having to switch off TV or bath or go to bed and the only time he complained was when I was watching Britains Most Scary Murderers or something and he came downstairs and asked me to turn the sound down as it was scaring him !!!!!! Bless! I had to hand him over to his dad at the weekend and boy did the house seem empty when he'd gone.

Firstly I have to thank Favourite Daughter for swopping Kindles, fixing mine and then saying I can keep hers with the green (my favourite colour) cover AND a light!! I love it and can read in bed - something that I haven't done at night for years. Living in a house without electricity does rather curtail ones night time habits. I could wear a miner's headlamp like OAP does but I HATE the way moths and mozzies are attracted to the light and flit around ones face. OAP doesn't seem to mind. I also finally got round to taking my Liliputer to Acer where they fixed it in 5 minutes flat by reinstalling the BIOS (whatever they are). Meanwhile I had bought an almost identical Lily from a friend of ours for such a small amount I just couldn't resist! So I am now the proud owner of Lily1 and Lily2. The differences are: Lily1 has WindowsXP and Lily2 has Windows7, Lily2 is a solid state and Lily1 has an internal drive (not really sure what this means except I believe I can shake Lily2 around without damaging it!), Lily1 lasts for about 2 hours on the battery and Lily2 only an hour, but I can take Lily2's battery and interchange it with Lily1's and therefore get 3 hours without recharging!

Golden Boy is on holiday till September and if they come back from Durban alive I am meeting them at the airport and taking him back to the bush with me for as long as he likes! Yay! I'm off to Woolworths just now to buy all the junk he loves to eat: hot dogs, chicken burgers, melktert, etc.

Our overseas trip has been somewhat curtailed as now I have been given the green light to go (my last blood test JUST squeaked under the acceptable rate) the airline has put up its fares and the soonest we can go without paying in a fortune is the 8th September. So thats our definite daye and only gives us 3 weeks in Switzerland which, actually, is all or maybe more than most working slobs get so I will not moan. NEXT year though we will go early June and only come home end September so I can see IOM sister, collect new, enormous tent from her and then we can all go camping and NOT get broken backs!!

Meanwhile she is off to Oz to spoil granddaughter No1 and welcome Grandson No1 to the family.

Hi to everyone - Yes! I am back in the land of the living and thankyou to all those who sent sympathetic emails, etc. I'm writing this from the gym as they have massively fast lines unlike at home where a messenger with a forked stick running through the bush avoiding lions and snakes would be faster than our connection. Still, we chose to to live there and if that is my only moan then lucky me!! Sorry, I am a bit of a Pollyanna since my illness - just SO damn grateful to be back to normal! I've just been looking up, on Google, the problem of Jack's (Lisa's) science experiment with the salt water vs fresh water evaporation. Two schools of thought here: 1. Fresh water SHOULD evaporate faster than fresh due to the salt molecules preventing the water from evaporating as fast. 2. The salt water SEEMED to evaporate quicker as it had salt in it which got left behind in the dish as a layer in the bottom. It got my brain working anyway - I can't resist anything like this! Oh oh got to go - OAP has actually exercised and showered and is ready to leave. I haven't exercised anything but my fingers on this keyboard!

The Most Travelled Food!

We've been away from home for a month. Deciding to switch off the fridge when we left we packed the contents of our fridge and freezer into our travel fridge and set off for Cape Town. This is a pain as, at every overnight stop, we have to find a fridge and freezer to store the stuff overnight as our car fridge only works when the car is going. So it was into the car at Rustenburg, out at Britstown, in as we left Britstown, out and in at Jane and Charles as we spent a night there to say hello. Out into the fridge at the CT flat and - totally untouched - out again a month later and bck into the car. Out and in again at Jane's as spent 3 nights there saying Goodbye, out and in at Trompsberg and yet again in the Drakensberg at Dragons Peak where we are presently staying for 4 nights. I swear, if we haven't eaten it by the time we leave here I shall donate the lot to the maid here! We had a bit of a disaster leaving Jane's on Tuesday as Robert didn't realise that if you plug the plug one way it heats the "fridge" and the other way cools it. Of course he chose the heating side so when we got to Trompsberg the butter was pooled in the bottom with everything standing in it! Yuk. I got rid of a lot but most seemed fine - until today when I made tuna mayo sandwiches with mayo that had been in the fridge (oven!) and we are now waiting to pay the price!! Seem fine so far though but the mayo got chucked out. The well travelled bag of potatoes has grown sprouts, the bread grew green and orange mold and the yoghurt was positively off!! Next time we go walkabout we will empty the fridge into the arms of some of our starving millions before we go (and whadda ya bet OAP insists on all home cooking!).

With the upcoming nuptials a mere 3 months away I decided to "do" something about my frumpy self so that OAP swoons in delight as I meet him at the "altar" (a table with a table cloth and bunch of flowers!). Not sure about losing weight as this seems a futile task so will have to learn to live with it (I learned to live with OAP so surely I can learn to love my rolls and "meaty arms" as Wunderkind grandson calls them!) but I CAN do something about my sparse eyelashes. So off I went and bought TWO sets: One lot are like skinny caterpillars and get glued to the eyelid just above the eyelashes and the other set is three rows of tiny bunches - short, medium and long. The instructions sounded a doddle: just pick up a bunch with a pair of tweezers and dip into the glue, then place carefully onto the lashes, just below the eyelid, where you want them. Short closest to the nose with longest further to the outer eyelid. Squelch went the glue - and shot a blob somewhere across the room. I looked for it to clean it up, but like snot it had gone to an invisible place - until one of us treads on it! So, back to the lashes. Another squelch onto a piece of tinfoil and I chose a short (about half an inch long - Oh dream on!) bunch and dipped them in and ............ Have you ever tried to do anything behind YOUR GLASSES!! I can't see without them and can't glue the new lashes with them on!! Bugger, bugger, bugger. Now what? It was time for Weakest Link (appropriate for the way I felt just then) so off I went to watch, and when I remembered the lashes, hours later, the glue had all dried up and my little chosen bunch was stuck permanently to the tweezers!! Any tips anyone?

Pilates update

After a pilates class from hell yesterday I could hardly get downstairs this morning! My thighs and hips were screaming as each muscle extended on going down the stairs. I hope this is doing me good and isn't doing harm to my ageing body. But actually I can already see a small difference in the cellulite that I have piled onto my upper legs over the last 5 years. If I keep this up I might just look half decent by May! The trouble with Pilates is my core balance - I don't seem to have one!! It's all about breathing and maintaining ones balance whilst sitting on a Bosu? Leaning on a bosu or standing on a bosu! Dear Lord who invented such an instrument of torture? Oh yes, it must be the same person who invented the exercise ball with 4kgs of lead shot inside and then secretes it among the ordinary exercise balls so that suckers like me (who skid into class late) are left with only this ball! While my arms are sagging and sweat pours off my head like a mini waterfall all the others are swinging away fresh as daisies! Bastards! Then there's a blue sausage made of foam on which we are supposed to lie while doing leg raises and situps - I'm sure these exercises are aimed at the young and not at the elderly. I have put in a request for a class for the elderly as I have fond memories of Health and Beauty aerobic classes where we gently swung our arms and legs and looked elegant. Not a drop of sweat fell from a class of 50 ladies of whom Sal and I were possibly the youngest!
The rain has stopped pouring non stop - just a quick cloud burst yesterday afternoon so I was able to get the washing done and dry. The river is flowing strongly and looks so inviting that I will probably go for a swim when I finish this. And to leave the property we have to cross our dam wall and then go through a fjord which is very exciting. No point washing the car though as its mud mud mud all the way to the tar road 5 kms away!

Was I always this stupid?

The bathroom door lock suddenly jammed - in the open position - which made it irritating as the door wouldn't stay closed while I was on the loo. After 3 days I decided OAP wasn't going to do anything about it so I got a screwdriver and unscrewed the handle from the one side and from the base plate on the edge of the door and removed the whole offending assembly. I knew we had a replacement lock assembly somewhere and made the mistake of asking OAP who immediately insisted he could fix it with a little oil. Half an hour later he refitted it into the door and screwed it closed and said "Voila!" I should have known but instead (Ithink my brain has gone a little soft) I WENT INTO THE BATHROOM WITH HIM!!! What WAS I thinking? Snap!! He shut the door and said "see it shuts properly now?" and jokingly I asked if it opened properly too - and it didn't! So there we were "Oh dear WHat can the matter be? Two OAPs locked in the lavatory!!! Lucky for us Elias (our helpful worker) was working for us that day but unlucky for us he was 3 floors UP in the attic! BUT lucky for us he has a cell phone (doesn't everyone?) and OAP had his so he rang him and told him to come and help us. Then followed half an hour of OAP trying to instruct Elias, whose English is not marvellous and his brain was a bit fried from something he smoked at lunch, in which tools to fetch from the store and how to get us out! In the end we had to take the door of its hinges - from OUR side with the pair of us bickering and squabbling as only we can do - and would you believe? OAP still insisted on using the same lock - only he confessed that a "thingy" had fallen out when he fixed it the first time and now he would replace that bit and VOILA it worked properly this time!! Now we have had so much rain - non stop from the 3rd of January - that the door has swollen and wont shut at all!

Torture!

I have just been to my second Pilates class at our "local" gym - about as local as anything is where I live! The first time was last Monday and when I got home I sort of stumbled out of the car, absolutely shattered, ate a sandwich, had a cup of tea and went to bed for the rest of the day!! Made me wondered what the point was? Today was a little better as I managed to keep up with most of the class (I positioned myself to the left with three other fatties which made me feel a bit better!). I also wore more tightly fitting gym togs so that I could see whether it was my shirt or my wobbly bits that were sagging onto the mat! I sweated gallons but felt good after a shower but my problem is, I am now STARVING!! I shall drag myself round the mall and then drive home to eat. This is the start of a regime in which I am determined to lose a few kilos before May - God help us all!

Auschwitz

I'm reading Auschwitz:Tales from a Grotesque Land. It's so absolutely shocking, even though I have read other books on the subject, that my mind constantly wonders at "Man's inhumanity to man". Are we actually SO uncivilized? No better than animals? No - worse than animals as we are supposed to be thinking, caring, HUMAN beings! Although in my studies I have learned that hatred for the Jews has been rife for thousands of years I still don't understand why "Christians" have such intolerance for other groups. Why can't people just get on with their own lives and leave others alone if they don't want to mix. I don't always want to mix with others and yet, when I am forced, am often pleasantly surprised!!!! I wonder if the problem lies with radicalism? If there is such a word! Hassidic Jews are really intolerant of anyone outside their clique which I find most unpleasant and yet I wouldn't do anything about it except leave them to their own devices! If I saw one in trouble I would help but am certain many people wouldn't! We see them all the time in Switzerland, they keep to themselves, dress differently, stay in their own hotels and (especially the men) are VERY unfriendly! The women and children are shy but friendly as long as the men aren't around. This paternal society - including Quakers and Mormons - just asks for outsiders to target them. Personally I couldn't be bothered to target anyone but I suppose the more aggressive humans can't resist.

Another thing about places like Auschwitz, Birkenow, Buchenwald and the rest of the death camps is that they were not exclusively for Jews. Gypsies (sort of understandable) Political prisoners (ditto) academics (why?) etc were all incarcerated. I keep wondering what would have happened if EVERYONE targetted had been killed. Most of the Germans after the war was over were NOT intellectuals. Same with the Russians and all other nationalities. In fact I should think that only about 2% of the worlds population were actually intellectual at that time - a world full of dummies? What was the term someone famous used once "The Lumpiat Masses" or something like that!

My final thought about the death camps is: How did ANYONE actually survive? Just the very thought that my children had been taken from me and killed, or my parents, or husband, would surely be enough to make one succumb to the bitter cold, lack of food and sheer hatred endured by those survivors. Why didn't they fight back? If you look at some of the photographs taken in the camps, the inmates, weak and fearful though they were, vastly outnumbered the guards. Sure many hundreds would be shot, savaged by the dogs or beaten to death but surely thousands could have overcome the guards and taken over the prison camps thereby keeping the Germans OUT? Hmm but then a siege situation would endure and they would all be starved to death. Oh yes - I also don't understand how the rest of the world just stood by while all this was happening and I find it highly possible that it could all happen all over again in one form or another in the future. Maybe not in Europe and maybe not the Jews but somewhere else and with other groups of people whose thinking is not quite the same as "ours".