The best laid plans

We'd been talking about it for ages, finally taking leave. Thanks to all the public holidays by taking three days off work we could have 11 glorious days to ourselves. Wake up in the morning at around 7.30, stretch and say "Hmm, what shall we do today?"
HAH!
Fate has a wicked sense of humour.
Days one to four, pleasant, 
Danielle and Kelly slept over on Saturday, Easter Tea, family and 90 garments to embroider for a customer. As they say in Oz "No worries Mate".
HAH!
Tuesday, much anticipated, the first official day off work, we planned a trip up the West Coast to Paternoster, lunch somewhere and we wanted to buy some local jams.
01.05, the hot water cylinder burst. It's situated just a couple of metres away from Rowland's Mom's bed, we heard the electricity trip, the burglar alarm went off and she stepped out into a minor bog.
The love of my life is very handy and in no time he had water turned off, mom placated and we were back asleep by 01.30.
Santam insurance were outstanding and by 11.30 two hard working young men had removed the old geyser (not me) and fitted a new one. There was, however, a gaping hole in the ceiling. No prob. number one son brought over a piece of rhino board, he and Rowland hammered it to the ceiling and, voila, almost as good as new. Who am I kidding, just as Mom was falling asleep the board fell down!
Wednesday, public holiday, did some cleaning. Thursday the ceiling guys came in, Friday the carpet people were there. We were feeling so sorry for ourselves by then we went to buy an IPad2, do I really have to tell you they were completely sold out, everywhere. Wha, wha, their loss, we changed our minds and bought a fireplace instead. Who says retail therapy doesn't work?
Saturday morning the love of my life started embroidering some caps, of course the embroidery machine broke. Sob. He's nothing if not versatile and though it took about three hours, he (my Hero) repaired the machine.
Sunday morning, free at last, we went to Green Point and had outstanding coffee and croissant at Giovanni's, we'd been home for around an hour when I felt as if someone had laid into me with a hand made selection of sledge hammers. My thoat was sore, nose bunged up, running a temperature and with aches in every joint. I should point out that I haven't had a cold for some 15 or so years.
I took Daisy to have her nails clipped and popped into the only pharmacy I could find in that rotten part of town, I described my symptoms to the "pharmacist",  sore throat, aching body, headache and shortness of breath and really bunged up nose, thinking that I could have a bit more than Panado and Strepsils. He indicated that I was either (I promise this is true) having a mild .heart attack or an anxiety attack!!
I went home. got into bed and slept for more or less 22 hours. Dear sweet Rowland made toast soldiers with Bovril and looked in on me. Today I feel much better, why wouldn't I? we're back at work tomorrow.

Ooops

Silly me. As my loved one pointed out, Nokia make cellphones and Nikon make cameras. What can I say?

Above average?

I happened upon a list of the top companies in the world, I think it's based on their share value.  I've worked out that it's not just those with money who make a brand, the rest of us contribute to the enormous earnings of the big boys.
Here they are, from number one to number ten.
It seems your average family will drink COCA COLA, they'll have at least one MICROSOFT computer and perhaps something from IBM. Their appliances will be made by GE ( I believe once known as General Electric) and those computers the kids use will light up with the words INTEL inside.
The family camera will be a NOKIA and no doubt mum will drive a TOYOTA. Toys, clothes, funfair visits, movies and books will revolve around DISNEY and after a visit to the theme park they'll fill up on MACDONALDS before getting into dad's MERCEDES.
Happily I've also heard of the next ten and it seems a lot of folk bank with CITI and MARLBOROUGH man will no doubt have a few HEWLETT PACKARD appliances in the office. She'll use her AMERICAN EXPRESS card to shop and might even try to use it to buy a BMW for her dad. Her dad still uses a GILLETTE razor and her mum would love to own just one item from LOUIS VUITTON.
The neighbours are more interested in CISCO computers but of course, they drive a HONDA and have a SAMSUNG big screen TV.
Are we all totally predicatable? I know that in our home (and the driveway) we have ten of those products and we're just poor church mice.
P.S. Yes, one is a Louis Vuitton:)

Spiffy

What makes a spiffy dresser? I suppose it's in the eye of the beholder but to me, men can be spiffy, not women. Ladies are elegant, chic, tarty, whatever, but never spiffy.
Men in Speedos are not spiffy but a gentleman in a tuxedo, well, Sigh.
Today I saw a spiffy man, or perhaps his outfit was just plain Sharp. He was clearly someone with next to no income and yet, he carried off the ankle length (fake) fur coat to perfection, striding through the shopping centre like the emperor in his new clothes.
There's a beautiful young man I see at another centre, he wears skinny jeans, stilettos and usually a slim fitting blouse. His long dark hair in a ponytail he defies anyone to disapprove.
Liberace was not spiffy, nor was Sir Elton.
I do believe it's an inborn trait, you either have it or you don't. I remember years ago a short, fat, plain faced American politician who apparently could charm the pants off any lady he met yet, he looked like the kid the school bully would pick on.
I believe it's inner confidence and perhaps this.
Women rarely judge a man by his looks alone. For some, it's the eyes, the sense of humour, mannerisms, we
all have different tastes so, perhaps deep down, a man knows that he can more than get by even if he looks like the back end of a barn, as long as he's spiffy.

Where is the Love?

In Japan apparently. Timothy pointed out that since the earthquake and tsunami we've heard no reports of looting, rioting, attacks on the innocent. Just stories of people helping one another, accepting that life goes on and getting on with it. Men going in to repair a nuclear reactor, for heavens sake, knowing they may not come out alive. Heroes!!
I listened to a lady in the US lamenting the fact that General Motors spares may start to run out??? BECAUSE A LOT OF THEM ARE MADE IN JAPAN.
 Honda spares, understandable but GM??
Why is it that so many western countries have allowed local industry to fail? Surely there's at least a small sense of achievement to be had in knowing that you've produced an item your country can be proud of. Even, your area. I called to ask about a repair to my (once again) broken dish washer and was patched through to a call center in Johannesburg. It may as well have been Russia for all the knowledge the guy had about my area, only 3 kilometres from the repair shop I might add. Why? Why must a local workforce be sidestepped? Needless to say I found a local man to repair my dishwasher.
Please, wherever you may be, love your local music, local radio station. Support your community, neigbours and local workforce.
Who knows, one day we may be in the same situation as Japan, I'd like to think we can handle it in just such an adult fashion.

Gently does it

When I get home from work there are various tasks to be carried out, most of them guaranteed to make me feel relaxed.
Walking the dog. Daisy and I go once around the block, exactly 500metres, just fine for a couple of old ladies after a busy day. (in her case busy doing nothing). That fills my lungs with fresh air and loosens the muscles that've been squashed up on an office chair all day.
Other boring housework related stuff, cleaning, ironing, laundry, etc. - very BORING.
Watering the garden - so soothing, I may have mentioned before that it's like a gentle meditation, just me and nature. Aah!
Then it's time to cook. I really enjoy that part of the evening.
Last night we were having fish fingers and chips. Nothing pretentious in our house. It turned out I only had baby potatoes and although they do indeed make fine chips I wasn't in the mood to peel those tiny things.
I set the potatoes to cooking and prepared my veg. Carrots cut into chubby matchsticks and green beans, topped and tailed and cut to the same size. Popped four baby onions into the water with the potatoes, just to soften up and when ready, left everything to drain. Into a roasting pan with some olive oil and garlic, I squished the potatoes gently so that they broke open and just for  good measure popped in a couple of knobs of butter.
In to the small oven and later, the fish fingers were added to the same dish to cook. Cooked the carrots and beans on top of the stove and let them steam themselves to keep warm. It was a very simple but delicious meal and I so enjoyed the preparation. That's why I don't buy those packs of ready prepared veg, I would miss out on the relaxation and frozen veg just don't do it for me.
After dinner I watched a Jamie Oliver programme, he was in Italy and at one point made Minestroni Soup. It was outstanding. He strolled through a veg. garden and collected onions, garlic, carrots, peas, kale, lettuce, celery, courgettes and the flowers, just think of it and it was most probably in there. He took the left over end of a piece of pancetta, put that into the pot and threw in some tiny noodles. (Thinks "I'll have to see if I can get the tail end of something at Giovanni's this weekend"). As the soup simmered gently for abour 20 minutes he made a quick basil pesto and dolloped it on top of his bowl of soup. Yummy.
It's really all about chilling at the end of the day. I often wished that I enjoyed red wine so that I could sip it as I cooked and chatted wittily with my partner. Well, perhaps red wine's overrated but my partner isn't.
So, try to find your chill factor, after all, there's more to life than work, work, work.

and you call yourself a reporter!

Qualifications being so important today I'm pretty certain some sort of degree is required if you want to be a journalist. So where did these three study?
"He also assaulted a second officer who arrived on the scene and fled, but was found later in the bushes near his abandoned car."
"If  xyz  is not wrapped over the knuckles now ........."
"A political analyst has cautioned that such wreckless statements may just .........."

And they want to lower standards in the schools.