My BFF

Mothers, you may want to cover your daughters eyes for this one.
Tomorrow is our 43rd Wedding Anniversary. I was 18 and he was 22 when we were married. Fifteen months later Sion was born and twenty two months after that along came Samantha and Timothy. We've worked together for the past 25 years and he is truly the love of my life - I don't just say that.
Lest you think this is just a fairy tale well, we've had our ups and we've had our downs, we've had our fights and we've had our loving and do you know, I wouldn't change it for the world. When I listen to people spouting on about kids being too young to marry, wasting their youth etc. etc. I can honestly say that there has never been a day when I regret marrying "young".
So to the one I love, through thick and thin, sick and sin - cheers, I hope we have many more xxx

Tuesday Tip

For the carnivores. It seems to me that when buying chicken breasts they are sometimes (as is the case with some of us humans) rather small and flat. I prefer to buy chicken breast on the bone with skin. Once the small bone is removed and the skin easily slipped off you are left with a D cup breast rather than the AA you pay more for, ready boned and skinned.

Glum

When I left for work this morning the day was gloomy and it made me think that there's something sad about an empty house in winter. As I walk through, saying goodbye to Daisy and Amber, turning off lights and the radio I'm followed by that middle ground between dark and light. Suddenly the house feels colder and very lonesome. It's different on a sunny day when happy light pours through the windows, perking up even the dullest corners and leaving a happy feel to the day.
Today I'll hurry home to turn on lights and music, for number three will need cheering up. Perhaps the sight of me doing a weeks ironing will bring a rosy glow to the bricks, it certainly brings one to my cheeks.

Duh

Dr Edward Martin, Edward D May, Ray Edwards, hmm do we sense a theme here? Mr Johnny Brown, Mrs Kate Johnson, Will Wood and my personal favourite - Peter McWealth. Apparently these are just some of the people who think I'm truly gullible but, as Timothy will tell you, they've taken gullible out of the dictionary. (Sorry, old family joke).
These people, along with countless members of Nigerian royalty seem to think that I'm going to part with my money (what money?) at the drop of an email.
I won't even mention the countless strangely named people who believe they can do wonders for my sex life, most of whom assume I'm a man.
What fun the internet can be and how sad if there are really people out there who will fall for the trickery. On the other hand, it could be that my cynicism has allowed me to let tens of millions of rands just slip through my disbelieving fingers, a bit like the boy who cried wolf. Perhaps one day I'll miss out on a genuine legacy from a distant relative I have never met.

Tuesday Tip

Send a slap-o-gram. I'm a pacifist but I do think that sometimes it's good to let off steam mentally. Don't dwell on things that are upsetting, if a customer bugs you on the 'phone, or your Aunty or anyone who should know better than to test your already fragile spirit - send a slap-o-gram or if you're really gentle, a mental pie-in-the-face. Perhaps for me the pie is a better choice although the pastry would have to be soft and flaky, I want to cause mental chagrin not mental bodily harm.

Bee afraid

Yesterday I decided to make some breakfast bars, Bill Granger style, I'd copied down the recipe from TV. Samantha and the kids were around to lunch so it seemed a cosy thing to do. The mixture was put into the small oven, the oven chips were in the big oven and I was about to put the casserole into the micro to reheat when a bee came into the kitchen. Well, the smell of honey from the breakfast bars was so good, why not. Unfortunately he brought his posse along and slowly but surely they slipped into the kitchen. We're not a family who scream and wave their arms when they see a bee, nor do we believe "if it flies it dies", I don't even buy fly spray. But there is something very Stephan King about a slow tide of rather big honey collectors. They sniffed around the oven, the jar of buttermilk rusks and slowly, slowly advance further into the kitchen.
I opened the front window and Samantha bravely went around into the kitchen yard to close the door only to report on more arrivals. You know how it is when you really need to speak to someone? they call it "voice mail". We needed the number of Howard the bee expert but couldn't get anyone with his number. I did get a wrong number in Goodwood who had clearly had too much Port at lunch and just wanted to chat, she didn't sound like a bee keeper.
However, those days in Girl Guides were not wasted and Samantha came up with the idea of lighting candles around the oven to scare the bees outside. By now we had around fifty in the kitchen, I had closed all interleading doors and put a blanket over shape shifters door. Then I realised that if too many bees pitched we'd have to hop over the neighbours wall to escape to freedom.
I was planning to put a shroud over my head so that I could rescue the chips from the oven, I'd given up hope of reaching the microwave so heated up the casserole on the gas stove and I didn't want it to burn.
Good news, whether it was animal communication, candles or sheer boredom we don't know, but the bees were heading on out for greener pastures and we were able to get lunch and hightail it to the patio.
Life is full of little surprises.

The stuff dreams are made of

I was at a craft market one day, buying something for one of my hobbies. The lady next to me remarked that she too enjoyed what I was doing and had I been doing it for long.
"Well", I replied, "I haven't actually done this for quite some time but this will go into my dream room until the time is right"
"Wow" she said "I also have a dream room, our lives are so busy and there are so many things yet to do and I know I'll get to them one day"
A kindred spirit. I know I'll make lots more bears, sew lots more clothes, embroider lots of stuff and make amazing creations. When the time is right.
We all have dreams and I don't see anything wrong with preparing for them. The hiking boots, still in the Cape Union Mart box, the new set of golf clubs, brochures on exotic destinations. The list is only a short as our imaginations make it so dream on.

Tuesday Tip

Buy a paint scraper. One of those things you use to scrape the paint off glass without scratching it. They all seem to be yellow and have a plastic handle with a really sharp blade fitted to the base. Apart from cleaning off paint and varnish this little goodie cleans lots of stuff. Use it to clean the oven window when you get those pesky fat dots, labels off furniture - very carefully otherwise the wood comes off as well and really just about any seemingly un removeable (?) sticker or splash. DO NOT USE IT ON YOUR SELF CLEANING OVEN. But of course you'll use your common sense.

Supapa Troupapa

On saturday five of the grandchildren came to stay until sunday. Number two had a prior engagement. It was fun although there was a moment during dinner when I thought I might be channelling Louise Fletcher and I was actually on the set of One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest. It was four girls and a boy - I think I'll call him the Lone Ranger, number six with five girls. Well, the Lone Ranger was once again on the keyboard playing with the sound effects and the girls were colouring in (not for number six, "it bores me granny"). They all love to sing and it was so sweet when they started singing Mama Mia - all words correct and in tune. I went to find the ABBA CD. One cd cupboard came without a key and someone in their wisdom decided to push the lock down so the cds have been prisoners for a few months. I really missed Pink, I don't exactly play it when the kids are around, "you and your hand" is perhaps for older ears. But back to the tale. As ABBA were imprisoned in the same cupboard, the love of my life found a drill and drilled out the lock. I played the cd and it was great. Today I removed the Music of Cosmos cd I've been enjoying this week and put in ABBA Gold.
So there you are, if you saw a crazy woman singing along in her car, a big smile on her face and Merlin the parakeet on the front seat next to her, that was me.

Tuesday Tip

Me Time
It's so important to make time for yourself. No matter if you go out to work stay at home, run a business, the time comes when you really have to focus on yourself and your well being.
Perhaps you're a care giver and it's all you've ever wanted to be, helping others is so rewarding to you that you don't consider it to be work. You're raising a family and you love them deeply, why should that be considered work? Whatever it may be, you still need time for yourself.
I'm a fine one to talk, some weeks that's all it is, talk. I know that I should maybe go in to the garden after work, we have a life size 5 yearish Tibetan Monk statue, Tao. I should sit next to him for just ten minutes, take some deep breaths and just unwind. Me time.
If you're one of those super efficient people who only work to the clock, ink in an appointment with yourself and stick to it. You wouldn't cancell a meeting over something trivial like a burst water main or a collapsed ceiling so why cancel one with yourself?
I think for some the biggest hurdle is to get rid of that pesky feeling of guilt. "I should be doing this or that". You're not going to cause the earth to stop spinning if you take a break, just do it.

Shape Shifter

I do believe our cat Amber is a shape-shifter. We have a door on the family room which closes off the lounge to naughty cats and dogs, you know, the ones who sleep on the couch and scratch tapestry chairs. This door has a large center pane of glass with four long and four small square panes around it. We don't have the outside panes, not from laziness or lack of cash but because the door serves its purpose and the glassless areas allow the breeze to slide through.
Every morning I shoo Daisy through to the family room and carry Amber through. I close the door. I repeat to myself "the door is closed". I go to work. When I arrive home in the evening, sitting on the back of the couch in the front window is, guess who, Amber the cat that's who. How does she get into the lounge??
So, we have a few possibilities
1. Someone unknown sneeks into the house and for a prank lets the cat through - unlikely
b. This rather fat cat is able to pull in her tummy, shrink her head and slip through the (70cm or so above the ground) empty window frame which is no more than 10 cm wide.
I saw a picture of a cat of the same colour stuck trying to get through an outside window, it apparently can't be done.
So, that leaves shape shifter. I will have to borrow a motion detector camera, place it on the fridge, facing down the hall and see how she does it.