Loving the sound of the rain.

Good afternoon folks, I sit typing this Blog to the sound of rain pouring down on the roof which is just about one of the best sounds in the world, apart from the fact that we are in a severe drought and every drop is precious. It is also the last day of a long weekend which means that there are very heavy traffic flows on all roads, it took Jelly Bean and I one hour twenty minutes to get her into work, a trip which usually takes an hour max, why you may ask ? Because there are protests on the main highway in and out of the Somerset West which means that ALL traffic is being re-routed through the suburbs. Oh for peace in this country.

I am really pleased that we are starting a new week as last week was somewhat challenging for me. Last Monday evening we noticed that there were a couple of puddles of water in the kitchen, not perturbed my precious Hubby took some kitchen towels and put them down to start mop up, I saw him do this and still commented to Jelly Bean that the paper towel became the same colour as the floor when it's wet, then promptly turned around and walked across the room and ....... fell flat on the ground on my hip and hand. Thankfully nothing broken for which I am eternally grateful, just bruises and I must have sprained my wrist. This resulted in me not being very mobile and quite restricted in what I could do one handed. Happily I am now much more functional and healing although adding the Fibro into the mix hasn't been much fun, the joys of growing older. Oh and the cause of the pools of water ? Our dear, sweet, intelligent dogs not asking to go out and thinking they would melt in the rain.

Our little Princess again 'cleaned up' at the last athletic event for the season which was an Inter School involving twenty four schools. She won Gold for High Jump, Sprints, Relay and Hurdles and Silver for Shotput. Well done Angel you are indeed a true star and our pride and joy is without measure. You are going to need a very big rack to hang all these medals on, perhaps we should have a chat with Grandpa and see how we can fix that?

The rest of the family are all well, although I am convinced that I raised a tribe of workaholics, December is coming guys and with it so are the holidays and hopefully lots of rest and relaxing for all. I look around me and see I see just how tough this year has been for so many people, tough in so many ways and it seems like this is the trend just about all over the world. All I can do is to encourage those of you who are stressed, scared, unwell, having troubles at work or within your families, please don't give up. One of the scriptures that has enabled me to keep going through times of extreme stress and problems is JEREMIAH 29 v 11 God's promise to each one of us "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." There were days, weeks, months, years where I had that scripture written out and I would keep quoting it out aloud rather be than meditating on the actual problems which never helped anyway. Does speaking it out aloud make it 'magical' and everything goes away? No, BUT, it does take your concentration off the problem/challenge and helps one to focus on hope and solutions. It doesn't happen overnight no matter how much we want it to, BUT the tough times don't last forever either and if we put our trust in God, and despite everything that I have survived, He never fails or disappoints. In our family especially amongst the girls, we have two sayings - 'Go out there and fluff that tutu girl' and/or 'Put your big girl panties on and face the day.' They may sound silly but they help us to refocus away from the problem as well as make us laugh. Perhaps you are challenge free at the moment, but I can guarantee you know of someone who is going through a hard time, please reach out to those people with love. Whether it's a cup of coffee, a visit or phone call, pick a flower, a small gift or even groceries or fuel for their vehicle, that is what we are here on this planet for, to minister to others and show them love and acceptance.

Folks that is all for this week, please wherever you are stay safe and always be alert to your surroundings, especially avoid the puddles of water haha. If there is something you would like me to pray for please just send me a message or comment (these are not published unless I make them visible) and I will gladly hold you up in prayer.

JER 29 v 11

A tumultuous week for sure

Good afternoon folks I trust today finds you well and ready to tackle the new week. I for one am looking forward to a hopefully calm and peaceful week, after all the chaos and ugliness from last week I am sure every resident is feeling the same way. The protest Action that I mentioned in my last Blog continued in Kleinmond escalating into full blown riots, literally shutting down the little town completely. All businesses, doctors and schools etc were closed, as were the roads leading into and out of town. Residents were asked to stay in their homes in order to maintain some semblance of order where possible. It looked like scenes from a war movie as piles of vehicle tyres and rubbish were set alight and burned all along the streets, at one point a fire was started on the mountain (in a very strong wind), happily it was brought under control fairly quickly. What really saddens me is how situations like this bring out either the best in people or, usually the very worst and I think it would be safe to say that a lot of ugliness reared up which did absolutely nothing to help the situation or ease any of the stress. The roads were closed at Gordons Bay and on the Hermanus intersection which caused no end of problems for residents of the neighboring villages, we decided to take a chance and took Jelly Bean through to work which meant we were stopped at the road block and allowed through, coming home we had to clarify where we live and were cautioned to go slowly. Yaaaay the joys of life.

As you can probably guess there was no exploring or getting out and about, pretty much a home based week for us. Hubby managed to find a gap and deliver the last of the bookshelves to delighted clients, a friend and I braved the weather and the wind on Thursday and took a lovely walk along Silversands Beach which was like a good dose of medicine. On Friday night we had some friends over for an evening of lighthearted fun and a good meal. It was freezing cold which means we needed no excuse to make a roaring fire, I made a big pot of Punjabi Dal Makhani (lentil curry) with Roti's together with a specially paired red wine and we were set. About ten minutes into our meal the power went off and stayed off, oh joy, candles and led torches were found and our dinner went without further incident, after which we hauled out the playing cards and taught our guests how to play Nurch. This card game has the tendency to get quite loud and uncontrollable haha Friday night was no exception, we played until about 12.30 am which is when the torches started fading hahaha. All in all a fantastic evening and definitely one to be repeated. On Sunday morning parts of Bettys Bay were awoken at about 4.30 am to a fire right on their doorstep, at this point there is no news as to what started the fire and again huge kudos go out to the authorities who act so quickly and efficiently in our area, it took a couple of hours but this fire too was extinguished with no damage to homes or residents, it did however leave the entire area without electricity as the power lines were compromised. We had been discussing selling our generator because. the power supply here in the Western Cape is so steady and reliable, I think we will be keeping our generator BUT in future it will be filled and ready to use haha, this weekend it was empty and the petrol station was closed due to the power outage #facepalm. The moral of the story for us is, make sure the candles, torches and generator are all easily available and charged ready to go. It intrigues me how people are so unappreciative of good service delivery and complain loudly and aggressively about everything. We moved here from a different province where if there was a fire it would be at least a half an hour to an hour before the Fire Dept would be on the scene, if there was a power outage it could take a week and more to fix, during protest action refuse removal and services would come to a complete halt etc. Down here in the Western Cape within 10 - 20 minutes the Fire Dept is on the scene, the power outage which was due to a transformer going down took 6 hours, a specialist team were brought into Kleinmond in order to complete refuse and sewage removal. What a pleasure it is to live in a Province which is being correctly governed and communities are still serviced, well done Cape Town.

In amongst the turmoil our Princess had a big athletics meeting on Friday and, after having been at home for most of the week with flu she insisted on taking part. WELL ......... This little star had quite a day. She won gold for Sprint, Hurdles, Shot Put and broke the TUKS record for High Jump in her age group by jumping 1.47m, she also won silver for Relay. CONGRATULATIONS Princess there are no words to describe how proud your Mommy and the rest of us are, you are incredible.

Folks that was what this particular stretch of my winding road travelled through this past week, I thank God that there was no loss of life, peace and calm have been restored and hopefully we can now all move on with our lives here in Paradise. I wish you and yours all a beautiful week and please, wherever you go stay aware and safe.

A Pincushion Protea bush looking exquisite.

Are you making a difference in your world?

Good morning friends amidst all the turmoil and goings on around the world I trust this Blog finds you and your loved ones safe. There seems to be so much turmoil wherever you look and read but the one thing that stays constant in our lives is knowing that God has us under His wings and will perfect that which concerns us. The thing that really blesses me is when I see or read stories of those exceptional human beings who in spite of their pain/discomfort are out there helping others, it's moments like that which show the world what we should all be doing.

Here in the beautiful paradise of Bettys Bay we are stuck between winter and summer, it's too warm for winter and not warm enough for summer. For someone who is super sensitive to the heat (except for my heating pad) this is not necessarily my natural happy season hahaha, I go from long sleeves to sleeveless, to layers and so it goes. My true gauge is my precious Hubbby, when he says it's hot then I know it's not just my thermostat that is broken. There has been "protest action" in our neighboring village for the last ten days or so which apart from the damage to property and stress for all the inhabitants and businesses, causes so much disruption because the road in and out of Kleinmond is closed. If you need to get East through Kleinmond to Hermanus or anywhere in that direction you either have to delay or go all the way into Gordons Bay and then up and over Sir Lowry's Pass bypassing Kleinmond altogether. We had a fairly busy week with Hubby having an order to build four big bookshelves for someone in Hermanus, they look stunning and eventually after days of not being able to get through on Friday we were able to deliver, hmmmmm does anything ever go according to plan? We hired a trailer and were loading the shelves onto it in a very strong wind, we (just him and I) got the first one on and were tying it down when there was an almighty crash behind us............ The one shelf which was directly INSIDE the garage, behind the glass door was blown over by a strong gust and fell forward over the small step ladder which went right through the backboard. AAARRGGHHHHHH seriously!!!! So, we delivered three, repaired the fourth over the weekend with the intention of taking it through today which is now on hold due to the Protest Action and road closures. Yaaaay.

Jelly Bean's shifts have changed so we are getting used to the different times and longer hours. Hubby and I are SO proud of her, for those who know her you will appreciate how huge this is. Last week she helped out a client very quickly and was able to find and organise collection of their order, which is exactly what she was supposed to do. Almost immediately after contacting the client and telling them, her bosses received an email from the client commending her on such good, efficient and friendly service. Way to go girl you are rocking this, look at the successes and appreciative clients not the difficult ones.

Friends if I may, just some encouragement. Tomorrow is not promised for any of us so make sure to tell your family what they mean to you and how much you love them, don't take it for granted that they know. Likewise with thos people you come in contact with on a daily basis a kind, encouraging word can totally change a persons day. For all those who are hurting and/or going through tough times, hang in there it WILL end and you will emerge stronger and wiser, just don't give up or throw in the towel there is always a light at the the end of the tunnel. Until next week folks I wish you all things good and wherever you are please take care and stay safe.

Jasper



One of the set of four bookshelves made to clients specs.

The North wind doth blow

Good afternoon friends, gee this last week has flown past and we currently have a very hot Berg wind blowing which is making life just a tad unpleasant, the only way to exist is to close every window and door and keep the house cool. September has blown in with a vengeance and is trying hard to make winter a distant memory, thankfully the weather department says that tomorrow the mercury will drop and we will have some blessed rain, wooohooo.

This past week was one of recovery for me after all the busyness of August, I am busy getting through a 'delightful' Fibro Flare and therefore have kept as quiet and low key as possible. Having said that we still managed to fit in some fun, thats what retirement is about isn't it? After I dropped Big Guy at the airport last Tuesday I found myself a cosy corner at the Airport as I had to collect friends of ours returning from Europe A couple of hours later, it is awesome to have them back in town and catch up on all the news, always so much to talk about.

Hubby dearest has been very busy in his garage with building the book shelves for his latest order and they are looking stunning, on Friday I took a close look at the dogs who were desperately in need of a clipping and decided to do it myself, poor dogs!!!! First discovery was that our hair clippers do not work on dogs, drat, so that left me with a wriggly dog, a comb and a pair of scissors. Much later Max emerged looking passable and I emerged covered in dog hair, buoyed up by my 'relative success' the day before I got hold of Sasha on Saturday morning and repeated the process. A word to those who've never clipped dogs, Yorkies are much easier than Maltese Poodles. It took twice as long and she emerged also looking fairly decent while I survived with blisters on my fingers from the scissors and looking like a shaggy Yeti doubly covered in white dog fur.

I have to take a moment here to brag a little and also congratulate our gorgeous Grand daughter, Princess on winning three gold medals last week at an inter school meet, she came first in shot out, long jump and high jump for which she broke the hosting school record. Well done Princess we are all so unbelievably proud of you, soon we will have to install a new long rail to hang all your gold medals on.

Yesterday we went visiting some friends and were super blessed to taste Sacher Torte, the genuine cake all the way from the Hotel where it was created in Austria, three words nom, nom, NOM. They also blessed us each with beautiful gifts brought back from Europe making us feel so very spoilt and special, thank you guys, you are such a blessing.

Oh, I nearly forgot, after 13 months of living in our paradise, on Saturday we got to see whales, or parts thereof LOL. Hubby saw a message on our Community group that whales were seen off Main Beach, that was all we needed we were up and out of here so fast and decided to start at the bay in front of our house and then move down if need be. Well all we had to do was just stand and watch, there were three of them playing in the water and we watched for about fifteen minutes before they moved on. What a treat it was, something I've wanted to see since I was a child, now my next goal is to see the 'whole' whale hehe.

Friends, it was a quiet, recuperative week and having caught up a bit today by making some savory crackers for snacks and having dinner almost ready because as soon as I finish here I am on duty to fetch Jelly Bean from work, a drive I always enjoy because of the ever changing beauty and the constant watch for dolphins, sharks and wales, all the while avoiding the number of baboons both babies and adults who sit on the road and very often bring traffic to a complete standstill. I wish you each a wonderful week, we are into the last stretch of the year when things start getting hectically busy, please accept an encouragement to take good care of your health, stay safe and make time to 'smell the roses' or anything that brings you peace and calm.

Max and Sasha looking spiffy and clean enjoying the sun the other day.