Cryptozoologist

What a fun word although I've always thought there should be 4 letter o's in Zoo ologist.
Courtesy of Arcamax Trivia I was introduced to this magic word, I had no idea such a profession/hobby existed.
A Cryptzoologist searches for Cryptids, legendary, mythical or extinct creatures. Can you imagine the excitement of finally putting the Loch Ness Monster myth to rest or finding a (friendly) Yeti? There's a great site at www.newanimals.org called The Crypto Zoo and if you have more time on your hands than I, you can read up on strange and wonderful things.
In Wikipedia there is an A-Z of legendary creatures. One that caught my eye is a Japanese creature called Uma-no-ashi - Horse's leg which dangles from a tree and kicks passers by. Hmm, do I smell a little Saki there?
But tell me friends, where is the TV series? Tired of the Same-o on TV, what fun to watch a team of intrepid adventurers fighting Gargoyles or falling in love with Mermaids. I feel certain I'd watch ( as long as Horatio isn't the hero) That dishy Steve McQueen lookalike from Life would be good in the lead role.
Whatever. If it makes it to the small screen I do expect a regular royalty cheque but in the meantime I'll be watching out for the missing links, whatever they may be.

Vitriolic - Bitterly scathing

When time allows I read (per the internet) IOL, Perth Today and Sky News. There are some pretty good articles to be found if you do a bit of digging. One thing that strikes me as really sad is that over the three countries, represented by their news, the reader comments are the same.
95% mean and ugly. I read some really nasty ones today about Phil Collins and remembered what my mother used to say
"If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all".
Do these comments appear because
a. the news handlers only want to publish the mean stuff
or
b. there are so many bored, lonely, disillusioned, whatever, people out there?
Today I saw a man with no legs, sitting in his wheelchair, out in the freezing wind. I bet he doesn't give a hoot about Phil Collins' talent or lack thereof.

My wish for you

I had a little cry on the way home from work yesterday, a happy one.
I was driving up a steep road when that most dreaded of things popped out in front of me - a learner driver. She valiantly maintained her speed of 15kph to the top of the road when thankfully she turned left and I turned right. We've all been there. It reminded me of taking Marleze to Plattekloof, when the suburb was still being built, we went down a road into a cul-de-sac. One way out, up the deadly incline. We both giggled nervously, Marleze took up the challenge bravely and we were out onto the flat road.
That in turn reminded me of the trip to the cheese farm. Sion was about 16 or 17, a long while ago. I think we were five in the car, a black and silver Ford Fairlane. When we reached the farm road, in the drizzle, it was hard to tell where the road went so Sion was sent to investigate. Well, he took three or four steps and disappeared, the hill was steep. Down we went, to the cheese farm only to discover two things. A. the cheese was at a farmers market and B. the way into the farm was also the way out.
The road was made of a sort of slippery clay, rutted and bumpy from rain and no doubt countless vehicles trying to escape.
I stopped at the bottom of the hill, engine idling, if it was an animation my dear car would have been pawing the ground like a stallion. I selected first gear, we all laughed in fear and I started the climb. Unfortunately, the man on a bicycle who suddenly appeared was on the same track as us, his eyes were also wide with fright, it was a scary game of chicken, one of us had to stop and folks, it wasn't going to be us, we didn't want to slide downhill and have to start all over again. He must have seen the steely determination in my eyes because he just threw himself and bike into a ditch to allow us to pass. Thankfully he was unhurt.
And so the stories came to mind, lots to remember.
You know how it is when your eyes tear over because the memories are fun and happy and wow, life has been good? That's the stuff to hold on to.
So, my wish for you on this first day of spring/autumn is that you may always remember the good times and let the bad times fade away.

Local is lekker

But from my point of view that rarely applies to movies. I'm no fan of slapstick, and those dreary soapies leave me cold.
Last night we watched what must be the best SA movie ever - White Wedding. What a great film (or filum as they say), it's a while since I've roared with laughter the way I did , if we'd been in the cinema I may well have been thrown out.
Wendy, you'll be homesick all over again so do try to rent it somewhere.
To the locals, enjoy it when next it's on TV.

63 and counting

What a wonderful day I had yesterday. I never get too excited about my birthday, it's just another day, rather like 1 January, life goes on etc. and I have yet to reach an age that scares me. But, yesterday was especially good. Mr S bought me The Why French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook and at a sneak peak I've already seen three dishes I want to try.
In the morning we went to the Grandparents' Concert at Edgemead Primary School. What a blast, I love those shows, all the children participate, even if only to wave their arms. The school choir were excellent, Olivia looked lovely with her long plaits. The Marimba Band (Olivia again) so good and their version of Wakka Wakka (?) was excellent. Jeremy was of course outstanding in his first stage role, sitting cross legged and waving a UV painted fish, but who knows, perhaps that's how Russel Crow got his big break.
Work in the afternoon, punctuated by many 'phone calls wishing me happy happy, a really disjointed conversation with my sister in Oz. Jane pointed out that now they have a 'ranga (redhead) prime minister it means that in Australia redheads are the Alpha females. I knew that all along.
The family came to dinner, a chicken dish with rice and corn cobs, something requiring minimal dishwashing, followed by chocolate cake (made by Rowland's mom) and strawberries. It was nice.
After the crowd had left and the cleaning was finished I sat down to watch my DVD of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. It was very good but I think I expected a little more. To me it was more of a technology showpiece but, perhaps I was just tired after my day. After all, I'm 63 now.
Today is Baz Lurhman's birthday, only 43 I think and one of my favourite movie guys. I shall listen to "Something for Everybody" in the car on my way home, it's a compilation CD which should appeal to everyone.
So there we are, another year under my belt, next week I go for the annual check up, I'm sure I'll pass and then on to the next round of birthdays, Jessica 16 and the love of my life, 67.
Life's good.
P.S. Sunday is International Talk Like a Pirate day and also my brother Martin's birthday. The little whippersnapper will only be 53.

Tuesday Tip

I like gadgets. Take me to a kitchenware store and I'm a happy chappy. One thing I've learned is this - if you can't see the appliance you may not use it.
If you have a fabulous food processor, a juice extractor or perhaps a breadmaker, display them proudly because if you're in the mood, you're in the mood NOW, not in fifteen minutes time once you've scratched through kitchen cupboards to find your labour saving device.

I love this country

On our way to Darling on Sunday we passed a road accident. Flashing lights from a Police van alerted us, as well as the cars parked on the side of the road.
Down in a field was the vehicle, it looked to be a very old Toyota, yellow in colour, which appeared to have left the road and rolled a couple of times. In the course of it's acrobatics the crates of beer which must have been both in the boot and inside the car, had flown out, hence the spectators.
On our return - with no cake or ice cream - much to our surprise, well, no, not really, along came the accident car, traveling in quite a straight line all things considered, just crabbing a bit. The roof of the car appeared to have been beaten back into shape, although somewhat elongated. Perhaps it was like that before the crash in order to hold more beer crates.
As we once again passed the scene there was a small jolly crowd collecting beer bottles and crates.
Only in Africa!

What a weekend!

It was really good. On Friday afternoon I collected Danielle and Kelly from aftercare and delivered them to Sion's house for a two night sleepover, their mum and dad having gone to Bloem for a party and to watch the rugby. It's such fun chatting in the car.
Saturday morning Sion dropped Danielle, Olivia and Kelly at our house as he and Tiana were busy at the ice rink. Grandpa popped into work and then headed off to Killarney for the day to watch motor racing and take lots of photos.
We had a raucous breakfast, grandpa included, and afterwards the girls painted ornaments while I did the boring housework, later we went to Cheshire Homes recycling area to drop off our cardboard and cans before I took them back to Sion and Tiana.
After a fun day at the races young Rowland was rather tired and popped into bed at 9 o'clock. I stayed up to watch "Coraline".
My word, that's rather a scary movie, even if it is just animation - done somewhat in the style of The Triplets of Bellville. Creepy stuff.
Sunday am we took Rowland's mom with us to Philadelphia to have breakfast at Peppertree. Yummy. Then along to Darling all the while hoping to see flowers, and we were in luck. Not quite what we'll be seeing in a couple of weeks time, (I like to think they bloom in all their glory to celebrate my birthday) but pretty none the less.
I popped in to The Marmalade Cat, a very sweet tea-room in Darling, to buy some lemon meringue or apple crumble to eat on the road but, they don't do takeaway, you have to sit in the cafe to eat. So, back to the car and our excellent tour guide Rowland headed for Melkbos, to find some ice cream
Here's a funny thing, if we had wanted to buy a used car, or even a new one, on the way home, we could have bought 100 but do you think we could find an ice cream parlour? not a chance. We drove through parking lots of shopping centres, along the beachfront where there are lots of restaurants but, unless we were wearing blinkers and missed them, no ice cream parlours.
There is a twirly ice cream place but we weren't in the mood for that, we wanted the real thing. Either Marcelle's Frozen Yoghurt or the equivalent of the superb Italian ice cream sold in Stellenbosch.
So, after dropping mom off at home we drove to Canal Walk and as it was rather busy I bought three chocolate flakes and a tub of soft serve ice cream and we ate that out of pointy coffee mugs at home. Next time we'll go to Stellenbosch.
But the day wasn't over yet. The embroidery we had anticipated doing over the weekend had been delayed due to some digitising we needed so, we decided to rearrange the sewing room and set about moving cupboards and counters, really foolish at our age, but we're 60% through with that and when finished it's going to be more user friendly when we both work at our machines.
Finally, after dinner we sat down to watch The Taking of Pelham 123. Loved it, except that our politically correct PVR is set to blank out bad language, apparently there was quite a lot because we had annoying episodes of silence. That aside, how great is John Travolta? He's a really good baddie but also a really good goodie. He can act, he can dance and looks really cool in a pilot's uniform. Denzel Washington wasn't too shabby either. A nice way to end a nice weekend.
To my English teacher who taught us that "nice isn't a nice word" well, I like it and that's that.