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.

Crazy week, surprises and lots of fun.

Greeting friends from a very warm Western Cape it would appear we have moved directly, and unseasonably, into summer which I am by no means ready to face yet. Wow where to start after a week like this, it has truly been crazy. The week started off quite normally until Thursday and then picked up momentum which hasn't slowed down as yet. Thursday was my birthday and I was thoroughly blessed by my precious family and was told that we were going for dinner in Somerset West after we fetched Jelly Bean from work. The particular mall we were going to is known to have the biggest and best Woolworths food store in the country so prior to dinner we decided to walk through the store and see all it has to offer. Jelly Bean and I were not even down the first aisle and I was stopped by someone giving me a huge bear hug from behind and when I turned around it was Big Guy who had flown down to surprise me for my birthday (he totally succeeded), BigBear and BabyBear were in on the surprise and had fetched him from the airport. What an amazing evening to have 3/5 ths of the family together however briefly. August is a really hectic month for our family with three birthdays within six days. On Saturday we went into Sea Point for a Greek Gods and Goddesses birthday party for BabyBear which was so much fun, I cannot remember when I last went to a fancy dress party hehe. Yesterday was spent slowly and we did not move out of the house, Big Guy made an awesome, huge pot of Breyani which was delicious especially as I didn't have anything to do with cooking it #hugegrin, we watched movies, the F1 Grand Prix and literally chilled out.

Today we awoke to hear that the roads into and out of Kleinmond were closed due to some violent protest action which is so foreign to this part of the world, nevertheless it has caused some concern and obviously great inconvenience to those who live there, business are closed after being vandalised and looted, the area is now cleared and the roads are open to traffic. Big Guy and I took Jelly Bean into work and then stopped in Gordons Bay for coffee which turned into lunch before coming home and meeting Hubby dearest at the big beach where we took a nice long walk. It was just as well we went now as the wind came up and it is now most unpleasant down there. On Wednesday it is BigBear's birthday and then we as a family are clear for a whole month, tomorrow Big Guy flies home and life returns to normal which is usually not particularly quiet. I am am now counting weeks to December and more family time. I know that many of you have family/children who live far away and I am not the only one, but this has been the longest stretch that I have not seen Big Guy, Poppet and Princess in our lives - come on December.

My precious, talented Hubby has his first order for furniture. Last week when we were browsing in Hermanus he was asked if he knew who could make book shelves, when he said that he does the discussion got real and by Friday he was given an order for ten big book shelves for a local book store. Wooohooo so exciting, he has also been asked to quote on a reception counter for a small Beauty Salon, so he is a very busy bee out in the garage at the moment, a friend of ours came through this morning for a visit and assisted with getting the wood cut to size which helped move things along a bit.

Friends, in between all today's goings on I managed to make a big batch of Rusks and now need to go and break them apart, so from me until next week, please have a good week, turn the negatives into positives and as always stay safe.


Panarama shot from Blousteen back towards the mountains along the road we travel every day.




View looking towards Gordons Bay and Strand from the coast road.





Walking the beach with 'my guys'

My adventures and crazy animals

Good afternoon friends from a very confused (weather wise) Bettys Bay. I am convinced that even the weather is confused, we haven't had nearly enough winter or rain and yet Saturday and Sunday were typical Spring/early Summer days. Gorgeous sunshine, quite warm with a berg wind blowing, today started off the same way and is now blustery, overcast, cold and rough seas, we've gone from temperatures of 25c to 12c and rain forecast for the balance of the week.

Last week was somewhat quiet which was just what I needed, although I can't say I am 'firing in all cylinders' yet but will get there eventually. Jasper is now about 9 1/2 months old and is not showing any indication of becoming more sure footed or sedate, this cat has THE furriest paws I have even seen and as a result has lots of fails when jumping on certain surfaces as well as running haha, last night he jumped off the seat and ran after Gemma, but in true style he was going full out and forgot to turn early enough which meant that he 'braked' with his back feet which in turn splayed out wide and just slid into the corner. He often reminds me of the Flinstones cartoons we used to watch when Fred or Barney would 'run off' but the first five or six steps were on the spot until they got some purchase to get them going. Gemma on the other hand, regal old bat that she is, very seldom runs unless being chased by you know who, she sits and walks with her eyes half closed in an effort to appear even more aloof and important and woe betide Jasper if he so much as sneezes, because then we hear the deep rumble, growl of an irritable old lady cat. The other thing I have learnt the hard way with Jasper is do NOT open the fridge and stand looking into it, he takes this as taking FAR too long to whip out Melrose cheese wedges and will jump up my leg to try and hurry the process along, he is completely addicted to butter, cheese (even feta), yoghurt and gem squash and, oh yes, sweet papers. He will carry them around in his mouth and then try and hide them under the mat, into his box of toys or if all else fails while playing with them somehow they magically disappear under the couches along with his favourite drinking straw. I know ...... I have unique pets haha.

On Saturday the three of us decided that we needed a break in routine, and as Jelly Bean had the weekend off we tootled off to Hermanus for a bit of a browse around and the distant hope of seeing some whales. I find Hermanus a complicated place for shopping, because there are all these one way roads and small alleyways where you always seem to be going in the wrong direction to turn into, so what we did more or less was park and walk. Oh what fun, we went down alleys, into corners where there are unique little shops and eventually stopped at a tiny little coffee shop for something to drink. We got waylaid in a Scond Hand Book Shop hitch we found tucked away and after browsing and chatting with the owners my incredibly gifted Hubby has some possible work coming in for them in terms of bookshelves and the like. By the time we'd finished at the coffee shop we were, one and all, exhausted and never got to look for whales as we just came home and collapsed. Imagine my frustration yesterday when I saw an article on FaceBook about a whale that got itself entangled not far from the beach in Kleinmond, thankfully the NSRI had been out doing drills and when called were able to untangle the huge animal and set it free....... And we missed it ?????

Friends the wind speed has picked up somewhat, I have just seen Hubby dearest being blown out of the garage and I am parched for a cup of tea, so on the note I will say Ciao for now and wish you each a wonderful week, please stay safe out there wherever you are in the world.


A photo I took of the Lunar Eclipse about ten days ago.

A uber busy week, memories and now quiet.

It always surprises me how quickly Monday comes around, good morning folks I trust life has been treating you well. Whew what can I say it has been a super busy week since the last Blog. Our little Grandsons had a full and busy week with trips to and long walks on the beach, collecting shells, flying kites, playing TV games, running around, keeping Grandpa busy. We took them to the Harold Porter Botanical Gardens just down the road, but that trip was not quite as long as they would have liked because we had gale force winds blowing and some rain, but they did get to walk through them with their Mom while Grandpa and I 'wimped' out and had hot coffee in the Restaurant.

On Wednesday I got the biggest surprise and Birthday gift from BigBear and BabyBear, it was all very secret as I was told to dress up and not ask questions. Hubby and Jelly Bean were in on the secret and oh my soul, my birthday gift from them was the treat of awesome seats to watch the Lord of the Dance, Dangerous Games live. Certainly a gift to remember and just so amazingly special, I adore Lord of the Dance so can never see enough of them, thank you BigBear and BabyBear for such a precious gift.
On Thursday evening during the height of the wind Miss Muffet, Hubby and I went out to the garage to get some things and I very quietly tripped over the garage ramp and grazed my knee then landed face first giving myself a black eye, my first ever haha, we looked like a 'right' pair dear Hubby and I with his grazed lip and my face, naturally Big Guy very quickly offered to buy us both a zimmer frame for our birthdays ..... HHhmmpphhhh I don't need or want one yet thanks son lol.

On Friday Mr Muffet arrived to join his family and the 'Bear' family joined us for the weekend which was fabulous, I love having the house full of those I love and all the busyness that goes with it. We made a big 'braai' (bar-b-que) with more meat than I thought anyone could eat and yet it all disappeared, after the boys were put to bed we pulled up all the chairs and embarked on some VERY noisy games of Nurch which is a card game that my precious Hubby came up with years ago and which continues to be a family favourite.

Yesterday brought an end to all the festivities as everyone left for home and new adventures within the space of two hours, the house seemed to settle into the silence and lack of action fairly quickly and we spent the rest of the day resting and being lazy. I have dcided that this week will be one of recharging my batteries, resting and just pacing myself so at this point apart from driving I have made absolutely NO plans whatsoever.

As your week unfolds I hope and pray that is a peaceful, productive and blessed time. Whatever challenges arise you can conquer them, your success rate for survival so far is 100%, so don't give up but keep on doing your best. We have had quite a fair amount of rain, with tons of wind, today however has dawned almost wind free with a weak sun and is just one of those perfect days in the Cape. Folks please stay safe wherever you go and be alert to your surroundings.

A Panarama shot of the beach while we were collecting shells.



A waterfall on the mountain behind us after the rain.



A chaotic Nurch card table

Adventures, Grand Children, making memories.

Good morning friends from a very busy household in Bettys Bay. We have our family from the UK visiting and at long last got to meet our two little grandsons, so as you can imagine it's a very busy house at the moment as these two little tykes have taken special shine to Grandpa and barely leave his side for a moment. Currently our weather is all upside down in that we are having more spring like conditions when we really need the cold and the rain for our dams, perfect conditions for holiday makers though.

We have had a fairly 'normal' week (for us) with the usual traveling and household things that seem to constantly need attending to. One of the highlights was our Princess had athletics last week, Inter House, and she apparently said to her Mom that she was going to enter everything she could except for middle distance. Well she certainly made her mark by coming first in the High Jump setting a new school record of 1.42m, first in Long Jump and first in Shot Put and then the next day went on to break another school record in the 100m, it's definitely those long legs. As you can imagine after all the excitement and adrenalin Poppet had a beyond exhausted and strung out daughter by the time Friday night happened. We are SOO proud of your achievements Princess you are a star.

We have had a couple of challenges, what would a week be without one? Yesterday Jelly Bean took an extra shift to help out a colleague and so I said I would take her which meant leaving at 7am when it was still pitch black outside. I woke up to a migraine the likes of which I've never experienced before and then when I got back home it was to find my husband with a graze from under his nose to his mouth, he had been carrying the blow up mattress out to the garage and somehow tripped over something and landed flat on his tummy on the mattress but his face hit the cement ..... OUCH?

This afternoon we took the boys to Monkey Town and I must admit that I was surprised. I expected it to be super smelly and it wasn't, they have so many different breeds and types of monkeys, from Pygmy Marmosets to great big Chimpanzees. There were two small little monkeys that when I went newr the one just tilted its head and came up real close looking at me with such solemn eyes, the other was having a chat with me, every time I spoke to him he chirped a reply - be still my beating heart. Just as we were leaving there was another bigger monkey who just sat with her hand out of the enclosure wanting peanuts, we were not allowed to touch the animals but I held my hand out under hers and all she wanted was to hold hands, hers were so dry and warm, it as an amazing experience. So far Grandpa has been kite flying, walking the dogs, been to the beach, played TV games, card games, pick up stix and a number of other activities with our little Grandsons, still on the to do list is going to the shell beach, going fishing and to the Botanical Gardens, I will keep you updated in the next Blog on further news and adventures.

It took Sasha a day or two to get used to having little people around, although Max in true style was a devoted follower from almost th first hour, the cats however are a different story. Gemma just does her thing irrespective of who is around, Jasper tends to hide most of the day as he has never seen little people before and he is of course a real 'brave heart', not !!! haha.

Friends as I come to the end of this weeks Blog, we have two little, very tired boys who have just gone to bed, and four really tired adults who have collapsed with big mugs of hot tea. I pray you have a fantastic week and have many opportunities to make someone's day special by giving them a smile or a compliment, it costs us nothing to build up others and be the 'Jesus' that they see. Please be safe wherever you are and always be alert to your surroundings.

A very big ocean and two little boys.