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!).