Happy New Year

Hi folks here is wishing you all a very Happy New Year and praying that 2017 will be an amazing year for each one of you. One of the things that I feel are very significant is that this is a brand new year and it is up to us to write our own 'destiny'. We can decide if it's going to be a good year or not so here is hoping you make it an epic one. Gosh it feels like so much has happened and I keep losing track of which day it is. We had a busy time last week between taking Princess to the beach (mostly Grandpa takes her) to boogie board, we've shared some delicious new meals with each other namely - Big Guy made a Lamb Ragu and Poppet making us a Chicken and Chorizo Jambalaya neither of which I had eaten before. I added a Portuguese Chilli Chicken to the list yesterday so it's definitely been a time of tasting new things - I could get used to this. Apart from being unusually humid we have had ALL kinds of weather from pouring rain which was awesome and so needed, to blazing hot scorching sun that had us scurrying back home rather quickly. We have walked on Silversand Beach which is a very long beach and searched for shells on our Shell Beach which never fails to yield some of its glorious treasures. We also went to Hermanuspietersfontein Night Market which was something very different and a lovely experience. They do a wine tasting for those who want and there are food stalls which serve a variety of cheeses, meats, breads etc although, the words Night Market are somewhat misleading as the sun sets after 8 pm here which means that the market is held while it is still bright but it in no way deters from the atmosphere.

On Saturday I helped while Poppet sewed her first dress and did an amazing job - it looks stunning on her. I'm not sure how you all celebrated the New Year but we tend to keep it low key by staying at home and having a good meal (Jambalaya), then watching some really good TV and went to bed before midnight. Some might say perhaps we are getting old, but we've never made a big fuss of staying up. Yesterday was a total lay about day where we did as little possible apart from cooking and I made a fruit cake seeing as the last one was finished and my precious Hubby kept saying he had not had nearly enough, actually he said he had hardly any which was a little true because he kept forgetting that it was there haha. Let it be made public that there is a fresh fruit cake sitting on the kitchen counter in a cake container there for whomever would like to partake.

What would our lives be without some excitement? This morning just after 1.30 am I was woken by Poppet (very gently) asking me to follow her which I did. Well .......... as a send off somehow my daughter was bitten by a Centipede three times, by the time I had registered what was happening and what it looked like she was slightly panicked as well as being in a considerable amount of pain. Apparently these creatures are venomous but thankfully not badly enough to cause serious damage to an adult. The first thing I did was find a Anihistimine and put ice on the bites - BAD idea. Ice makes the pain worse, so back to google and I read that hot water and soap or shampoo are the required treatment, so at 2 am she found herself standing under a hot shower. Once we were all settled and the nasty little creature (dead) was in a box it took the both of us quite awhile to get back to sleep. Never a dull moment or should I say never a dull week.

Our house is feeling rather empty at the moment as all the tall people have gone home, so we are planning a 'house to beach back to house' kind of week. Folks I am going to end off for now as I should probably think about getting some food onto the stove for dinner. Have a wonderful week, those of you who are traveling please go safely, those who are back a work try not to get too stressed and for those of you who are still on holiday enjoy the last few days. Please stay safe and avoid any Centipedes hehe.