Good afternoon friends and family, I trust today's post finds everyone well and hopefully enjoying a wonderful Sunday. Wow what a month and where to start - from a super quiet April we crashed into May with a blast. The first week was a normal, steady week. JB and I went through to Somerset West for the habitual shopping trip, as you may remember we tend to stack up shopping needs until we actually go in and then run ourselves ragged, even more so now with the giant leap in petrol prices. I have the "privilege" of being old enough to remember when petrol cost 17 c in 1976 - yep you read that right. Sheesh, what we are paying now per litre would have bought 2 or 3 weeks of groceries back then.
Enough of the petrol price but on the age front, after being a brunette all my life, two years ago I took the huge step and went a few shades lighter (honestly, I got really tired of looking like a badger for 3 out of 5 weeks) . This worked quite well until I got a bee in my bonnet about the colour looking more yellow and making me look beige. So, after MUCH discussion with my hairdresser I booked the appointment and we lightened it some more, I am now a blonde for the first time ever and, believe it or not, am thoroughly enjoying it. At least my hair and my skin are not the same colour now 😂
May started out sedately as a mild, gentle autumn/winter'ish month. OH my word that changed violently and suddenly. We received weather warnings, which is normal, and took the usual precautions. On Sunday the 10th the first cold front hit and initially wasn't too bad. All four Villages lost electricity at about 11.30am ( silly us, we ommitted to charge all devices) Due to no lights, and torches dimming we went to bed early. Hmmppfff we barely slept as the wind blew, and blew and continued to blow. The speeds measured here in Betty's Bay ³ measured towards the early morning hours were 148 kmph with gusts of 177 kmph. We lay there listening to the solar panels vibrating on the roof, the geyser being buffeted, the neighbour's chimney flue twisting around like a dervish. At about 3.30am Charlie jumped up barking, I got up and thought he wanted out, but he stood on the deck barking. I could not see anything with the wind and rain hammering down. At 5.30 am we were awakened from a doze with an almighty snap up on the roof. That had us on edge as you can imagine .... daylight came (sort of), still no electricity, no sun to charge the solar panels to power the inverter, and, totally unable to get out of the house because of the wind speeds and downpour. The first thing we saw was the neighbour's tree, which over the years had grown through and over our fence had been blown over and snapped. This landed on and broke the fence quite dramatically. Other big bushes along the same fence were also uprooted and broken causing yet more damage. I looked out a bit more intensly and saw that the Weber Braai had been blown along and upended against the same poor fence, together with my mop, and a stack of four plastic garden chairs that had been up against our bedroom wall. The chairs hadn't even come apart and were still a stack of four, after being blown down four stairs and along the grass to ... you guessed it - up against the fence. That was all we could confirm as it was impossible to get up on the roof to see what, if any damage had been done. Obviously all this is what caused Charlie to bark during the night, the noise of wind and rain was so loud we never heard it. The first time we ventured out was Wednesday and as I reversed out of the drive I looked at the back door and saw that our PolyCarb awning had been ripped off it's brackets and was somewhere in the Atlantic ocean or lying in someone's yard. We sprung 17 leaks and spent most of our time replacing and emptying bowls of water. Still no electricity - in all four Villages. Kleinmond was restored late Wednesday and on that evening our neighbour called me and offered to link us up to their inverter. They are off the grid and have a generator as well. Oh what joy to have a light and be able to charge phones, LED torches and lamps. Our fridge and freezer were awfully grateful. just the week before JellyBean eventually got her first Diabetic Continuous Glucose Monitor - every time she moved away from her phone, or the phone battery went low the App would beep incessantly, we have even named it haha. Nothing much changed and on Friday, by prior arrangement, she and I "abandoned" hubby and carefully drove off to Hout Bay, the weather was still foul and roads dangerous. What a joy to arrive to a non leaking, fully electrified home which also had HOT water. After 6 days of basin, cold water washes we delighted in a hot shower. We spent the following week with the Bears and having a wonderful time with our little Munchkin. The power at home was eventually restored on day 11, some homes in our 3 villages are still waiting for power. 🤦🏼♀️
No one else in the family suffered any damage, Praise the Lord, Hubby took a look at the roof and has started repairs up there. We are going to get someone in to repaint waterproofing on it. The huge snap we heard was presumably the ripping off of the awning. Many people in BB lost parts of and for some, their entire roofs. There were corrugated roof panels, one entire roof, solar panels, awnings, jojo tanks, a trampoline and many other items found "walking" along the roads or laying on the bushes. Our neighbour had the tree and bushes cut down and plans on repairing the fence and adding some new plants for replaced privacy. Some of the Malls lost parts of their roofs, solar panel installations etc, many, many trees down across the entire city and a lot of damage. Yesterday on our walk JB and I counted another 4 homes who have had their awnings rudely removed 😃
On the family front everyone is well, some recovering well from flu, and all being super busy. In 17 days my precious Princess will be landing in CT for the holidays. she will be doing a 15 day Internship whilst here, but I cannot wait to see her. Little Munchkin started Playschool, for a few days a week, at the beginning of the month. He is slowly settling in, he still finds some morning drop offs difficult but oh my goodness the words are like a waterfall. About two visits ago JB was named NeyNey by him and I eventually got called Am. This last visit he can say her full name but still calls her NeyNey and I have graduated to Gam, I take the wins people, believe me. He is such a blessing and bringer of joy and laughter.
Workwise has been a bit slow but I have some possible good news with Hooked-in-Luv coming up. I am also busy working on a slight transition under that heading and hopefully in next month's Blog will be able to show you the result, so look out for the announcement 😉. Currently 8 am halfway through knitting a jersey for the youngest member of the family. A.k.a. Munchkin. It has been awhile since I have knitted and it makes a nice change for a bit
The mysterious smell - for the last 10 days or so I have smelt a horrible, dusty, musty smell whenever I sit in my chair in the lounge. 🤔 I have half blamed the cat, the dog, one of the leaks in the carpet. I have sniffed everything in the vicinity and could not find the source. With Fibro, I am super sensitive to smells, and it has just about driven me crazy. Just now I stood up and looked at my palm tree, next to my chair. This tree has given me a hard time from the day I got it and it has moved all around the house. I jumped up, sniffed and voila ... THE culprit. It has little, minute gnats/miggie's in it. It is also now out in the deck. It has had less water lately because of the samp weather and I have no earthly clue how or why. For now, on the deck it will stay, while I sit in my smell free zone. Mystery solved, just not sure why.
Well folks after this "longer than usual" Blog, I am parched, off to put the the kettle on and make myself a delicious cup of tea. Have a wonderful month of June and whatever life (and the weather) throws at you, remember you have got this. Stay safe and stay well please. Ciao Ciao.
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