#R.I.P. Scarface

Good morning greetings everyone, here we are at the beginning of yet another new week and I hope you are all ready to tackle whatever comes with it. Weather wise we have had a glorious week of mild temperatures and strong winds (they do make getting the washing dry so easy). There is definitely a bit more warmth in the air but thank goodness no major heat 🤞🏻. My week started off with a determination to solve the pyjama 'crisis' and my course of action was that on Tuesday I got into my car and drove through to Somerset West to find the appropriate garments. It was the first time since we moved down, I think, that I went by myself into town to do some shopping for myself and was just what I needed. I did try and get some extra Tyarn but that proved unsuccessful so I then turned my attention to my most hated place, the Mall. Clever me, I phoned ahead to find out who had what and bingo ........ I got exactly what I wanted and needed. The store I had called were keeping two pairs aside which I took to try on and whilst walking throughout the shop I noticed a rail pushed to the side with old stock of winter pyjamas, as I ran my eye across I noticed a shorter sleeve and just managed to conceal my delight on seeing that it was last years stock of summer pj's, one size bigger than I wear and THE only summer pair on the rack. Whooo hooo, into the changing room and they were perfect - roomy enough to deal with dressings and drains and extra bonus, R100 less than this years stock. I was beyond chuffed and now have two new pairs 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻. I consider that a successful trip and even though I paid the price the next day physically it was SO worth it, even stopping at the roadside Coffee trailer on the way home and indulging in a steaming cappuccino. I will be honest the waiting is certainly proving beyond tedious and I'm almost down to counting days, currently two weeks and 3 days. On Friday we received an email from the Surgeon letting us know that our Medical Aid has waived all the co-payments for the hospital, thank you Father God. That has been such a concern, now we are praying and waiting to hear about the co-payments for the Plastic Surgeon. Hubby is still being inundated with clocks and watches which is amazing but, also means the deck is on hold added to which it is well nigh impossible to Install glass with a gale blowing. On Thursday for some reason Jasper was very unwell and had a very unhappy tummy, by that evening when he started vomiting we were really beginning to get worried. I continued giving him tummy meds and just plain boiled chicken and happily he is now completely back to normal. 🙏🏻 On Friday our little Village exploded with the news that the baboon monitors (an extremely contentious issue as they terrorize the baboons with paintball guns, trying to drive them back into the mountains) had been given permission to euthanase the one Alpha male called Scarface. He has been a lone baboon ever since we've been here and is extremely intelligent in that he learnt how to lift sliding doors off their frames. To back up a little as most of you know we live in a what has been identified as a world protected bio-sphere. Most of the residents, like us, made a conscious decision to move here for all that being in a bio-sphere encompasses - dirt roads, free roaming wild life, protected vegetation, no light pollution etc. The baboons come with the package and as such every responsible resident has a baboon safe rubbish cage or bin and devices have been developed to protect sliding doors and windows etc. As the population has grown and with it irresponsibility, the baboons have been introduced to human food and will come down into the Village to look for it. There are quite literally a handful of not even full time residents who have not put in place the necessary protocols and they somehow raised enough noise to cause the Municipality to hire a 'firm', the 'monitors' mentioned above. These people will rampage through anyone's property chasing and shooting the baboons in an endeavor to herd them back into the mountain, I know of one family personally who have moved out of BB due to the gun (paintball) toting idiots, the constant sound of said guns firing and the desperate cries of the baboons being hurt. Back to Friday, once it was discovered what they intended doing a group of residents got together to try and protect the troop and Scarface in particular. He has NEVER hurt or attacked a human or a domestic pet, except in trying to defend himself against unleashed dogs. As you can imagine this has caused a complete uproar and by Saturday morning Beauty Without Cruelty had become involved in absolute desperation. After their talks with the Mayor he was given a stay of execution and the decision to re-locate him was made. Relocation as far as we are concerned was just as unacceptable, but infinitely better than being killed. We have local residents who spend all day every day with the troop watching them, following them and where necessary warning residents if they go in amongst the houses. Everyone did absolutely everything they could and just before lunch on Saturday he was enticed into a cage using potato crisps and then murdered. Their excuse was they had caught him and could not keep him locked up with no relocation papers available despite two locations being made available for him. As you can imagine this has left almost our entire village in a state of mourning for the cold blooded killing of a magnificent animal. As I said on one of the forums "It is just as well that humans down through the ages have not been 'euthanased' for being too clever, because if so we would still be living in the Stone Age. All I can do is pray that somehow, somewhere, some organization which is bigger than these bullies will come in remove them and cancel their contract. They were fired from the City of Cape Town for similar unsuccessful conduct on the Peninsular and are now on our side intent on wiping out a species which is endemic only to this area, the Chacma Baboon. As you can probably gather I feel very strongly about this and if I could I would do whatever it takes. Anyway folks, that is my news and my rant for the week, I wish you all a blessed week as God goes before you to make flat all the hills and surround you with His peace. Ciao Ciao 

#Scarface relaxing on the  grass. 

Photos shared with permission #peteoxford

Enjoying the gardens.