My Life's Winding Roads: No repeat of this week please.

My Life's Winding Roads: No repeat of this week please.: Good morning wonderful people I hope today's Blog finds you all well and ready for the week ahead.  There is much news to share so I am ...

No repeat of this week please.

Good morning wonderful people I hope today's Blog finds you all well and ready for the week ahead.  There is much news to share so I am going to get straight into it.  What a week, awful would be one description that works lol.

It started with me needing to see my GP for ongoing tummy issues and having been quite ill since I had the Calcium Bone Drip.  Well, as per usual it was not a quick in and out but Praise the Lord for a thorough Doctor.  The UTI she treated weeks ago was still lingering and having had the drip had caused a flare of stomach pain etc.  The short story is I have been given medication and she did blood tests. Certain vitamins in my body are almost non existent despite taking tablets every day so for good measure a 'zappy' injection got thrown into the mix.  I am having to make some alterations in my diet and am doing all I know to do as well as standing on God's Word.

On the way home the sun was setting and the sea had taken on that silver mercury look as well as being very flat.  Hubby thought he may have seen something in the water, just past Gordons Bay and when I looked, I saw this large black 'line' which at first had the look of a wave, it was a whale who rolled and then lifted his tail before smacking it back to the surface of the water, with an enormous splash.  Oh my goodness talk about excitement.  Every trip we take my eyes are always scanning for whales and dolphins and I get so frustrated when I see someone on the other side of the bay talking about a sighting.  Well, poor Hubby was trying to look, drive and negotiate corners all at the same time and all in the blink of an eye.    As if that was not excitement enough, by the time we were heading up to Blousteen, near to Rooi Els, the sun had set completely and as we came around a sharp corner, there standing in the middle of our side of the road were two buck, frozen in the headlights.  Well we all gasped at the same time, Hubby did some really snappy braking and swerving only missing the one by a literal hair's breadth.  Mr and Mrs Buck just looked at us and slowly sauntered off to the side of the road, which I may add is steep mountainside.  The adrenaline was pumping after that trip I can assure you, but my word what wonderful encounters and even more so because we didn't harm the buck.

Then the week took a left turn when I was awakened very early by my oldest friend's husband on Tuesday morning to tell me that she has passed away in her sleep.  I am heartbroken as we go back to before Poppet was born and have been each other's confidant and comfort all these years, she was also an honorary Gammy to all of my kids.  She had been experiencing slight dementia but  about 6 weeks ago fell and broke her hip.  From there she just went downhill so very fast.  I had tried to video call her the week before and was shattered when she showed no recognition or emotion whatsoever.  I so wish I had been able to say goodbye while at the same time knowing that she is where she has wanted to be for a very long time. She is home with God and no longer suffering or confused, but whole and happy.  Her Husband and son are understandably broken hearted and battling to come to terms with their loss, 57 years of marriage is a long time and my heart breaks every time I talk to them. R.I.P. Thea my precious friend you always loved and believed in me. We shared so much and you leave a huge void.

To compound all the above Sonshine had to go back to the UK for business and was on his way to Heathrow on Wednesday to return home in time to move house when his taxi was involved in an accident, he hurt his back, missed his flight and the next day x-rays showed that he has a compression fracture near the top of his back and is now on bed rest as the risk of travelling is too high.  This fracture is in  exactly the same place as a previous one, when he last did a sky dive with Princess.  Thank God it wasn't worse and he will be fine, long term.  Naturally this was a huge shock and worry for the girls and with the move looming up was over whelming.  But, my precious girls woke up on Friday morning, decided that this was it and got stuck in,  when the truck arrives this morning only the heavy furniture is left to be loaded.  All boxes as well as the entire kitchen and some pieces of furniture, clothes, linen etc have been moved and unpacked.  Well done you two as always I am so proud of you.  One of Poppets friends was able to help and to have accomplished this much is amazing, princess is still in a leg brace as well.

On Wednesday I was on a phone call when I heard a lot of noise so moved away from the bedroom, on going back in I again heard the noise and looked up.  Lo and behold from the lounge JB had seen exactly what happened.  The fittings on the solar geyser which were plastic had obviously perished from the sun and the heat and pressure of the water caused the pipe fitting to literally blow off, across the roof followed by a spray of boiling water.  Poor old Hubby got up onto the roof and switched off the necessary before going to the local hardware shop and buying new brass fittings, which he fitted.  Then the pressure caused another blow out with the same results. So back up the ladder he went.  As a result of the bright sunshine the water temperature went up to 109 C, and due to the force of the water the solar pump burnt out.  Such fun ... NOT !!  We could only get a new pump the following day in Hermanus so I eventually came up with the idea of covering the solar panels with flattened cardboard boxes to protect them just a little from the sun and drop the temperature.  The next day up he went again and replaced the pump and voila, we are all working again. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️. 

Just to ensure that not one day was drama free, on Friday the Hubster went into Kleinmond for a few things. On his way out he was turning left at a 4-way stop street.  The guy in a bakkie behind him, tried to pass on the right and  ended up bumping our car.  Hubby jumped out to assess the damage and asked the driver to pull over in order to exchange details.  As soon as Hubby was back in the car this guy sped off in the opposite direction.   My dear husband gave chase and managed to get a picture of the vehicle and registration number to be reported to the police.  Some people have absolutely no manners or decency anymore 😡.  Thank the Lord it was just a few slight scratches on the bumper and no structural or other damage.

 I did say it was quite the week. 🙄

Thankfully that is the end of the sad / bad news and time for the good news.  The Bears are currently in Spain on holiday. Up until today they have been with some friends but today they head off on their own for a few days before returning home.  The pictures and videos they have kept us updated with have been, in a word, exquisite.  JB and I have been positively green with envy, although delighted to see them having such an awesome time. They have been in Barcelona and then Ibiza so far. The pictures of Ibiza are what you expect to see in a postcard.  Clear, incredible sea waters with no waves and gorgeous cliffs and beaches, gorgeous alley ways and restaurants.  The architecture is amazing especially some of the churches they toured in Barcelona.  What a privilege and blessing.

Well folks that takes me to my new decision.  Of late I have been feeling that the Blog has lacked worthy news and been pretty boring, so to that end I have decided that I will rather post once a month,  where I have something more substantial and interesting to share. Ideally I would like to get back to sharing recipes, tips, possible scriptures etc.   I will continue to post onto to Facebook as well as publishing on the blog site.  Should anything momentous occur during the month I will naturally share it but in general I am looking to go to one solid, interesting and worthwhile Blog per month.  I truly do appreciate each and every one of you who follows the Blog, for your support and ongoing encouragement over the years.

I wish you all a wonderful week, may it be peaceful, successful and may you walk in good health.  Stay safe. Ciao Ciao.

Ibiza, Spain. 

My Life's Winding Roads: Light and dark

My Life's Winding Roads: Light and dark:   Good morning folks wherever you may be.  My goodness how did we get to August so quickly? I am not even thinking about how close to the en...

Light and dark

 Good morning folks wherever you may be.  My goodness how did we get to August so quickly? I am not even thinking about how close to the end of the year we find ourselves 🤦🏻‍♀️.

There has been a lot going on within the family whilst my week was remarkably quiet.  As this gets published the Bears should be safely in Barcelona, Spain where they have gone for a two week holiday.  This week they will be in Barcelona and move on to Ibiza before going to Valencia next week.  They are with a group of friends this week so it promises to be loads of fun.   

The Bandy Clan are on the move and this has been quick. Their lease expired and the owners intend selling.  Poppet got cracking immediately and within three days had found a gorgeous house which is available immediately. They move in ten days. As a family we never do things in small measures hehehe.  It will be all hands on deck  I am sure and I can guarantee they will be settled in within days.  Happily Princess has now been cleared to walk without her crutches and can sleep without her leg brace.  These are huge milestones for her; she doesn't handle inactivity easily hehe.  

The rest of the family are doing well and as always busy.  We had an extremely quiet, somewhat frustrating week with a planned electricity outage on Tuesday from 8am to about 6.30 pm. It ran longer than planned naturally.  As a result of this and as often happens here after 'maintenance' the power went out at 7 am and only came on 8.02 pm (JB's precise observation 😂).  The technicians struggled to find and fix the fault which was in the mountains and we had a cold front moving through, making their work even more difficult.  Saturday with everyone more than ready for a powered up day we woke to ... no electricity.  A new fault in a different place. Happily we were switched back on just after 4 pm.  Despite having installed an inverter we have discovered the battery is not strong enough to keep the television going for more than 20 minutes. It has declined steadily since installation.  Hubby is now investigating a lithium ion battery as opposed to the gel one we have. 

I had my Calcium Bone Drip on Monday as planned but was totally unprepared for the side effects.  My Dr had told me to clear three or four days off my calendar and I glibly agreed.  It is now a week and I still do not feel well.  I won't go into details but suffice to say having Fibro I live with daily pain. This however was on a different level altogether. On speaking to other ladies who have had this the consensus seems to be that the first drip is worse than a chemo drip.  This happy event is supposed to occur every six months,  right now I am not so sure that is going to happen.

As I may have mentioned we have neighbours building a wooden home next door to us. On Thursday the builders put styrofoam insulation on the roof and on Friday when went outside the force of the wind had blown the frame of the house crooked.  Thankfully the roofing insulation remained in place but they now have some corrective work to do to get it square.  Oh the joys of living here! There is always something interesting going on.  There was a reason Bartholomew Diaz named this part of our world The Cape of Storms 💨💦💨.

That is me for now folks, I pray that you have a wonderful week.  May you accomplish all you need to with time over for yourselves.  Stay safe and healthy.  Ciao Ciao

The crooked house next door. The wind huffed and it puffed.