Bugger. I just went back to look for a draft post I wrote some time ago, and I've deleted it. How very irritating of me. I let Jon read it, you see, and he said it was defamatory and slanderous, among other things. I thought, well, yes it is, but that's because I really want to defame and slander here, dammit. I didn't post it though; I thought perhaps he was right and I should just revisit it later. Hmmm
Basically the gist of it was that I distrust charisma. I don't like what charismatic people are able to do to a crowd. I mentioned Angus Buchan, and Jacob Zuma. Oh, and Tony Blair, who I wasn't very nice about. Should that be whom??
Still, perhaps it's not a bad thing that the post is lost, because time has moved on. As of this last weekend a new set of lunatics are in charge of the asylum. And JZ, who I was moaning about because of his, well, you know, just about his everything really, appears to be not really in the loop at all. Worryingly, this man who is apparently the saviour of all, was not able to even stare down his supporters in the NEC and have his stated intentions followed (seems he wished to leave the status quo unchanged, with Mbeki in office till the elections). And if he cannot even stamp his authority in this matter, it would suggest to me that, far from being a charismatic leader, he is merely a cypher, a figurehead, a token appointment given the BMW but not allowed to actually make any decisions.
Wonder who is really in charge then? Time will tell... Seems like we are living in that old Chinese curse, Interesting Times.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Fishes and Milkshakes
A happier post, to replace the angsty one previously at the top of my blog.
Today the boys and I joined my folks at UShaka Marine World. We saw beautiful fish, scary snakes, were blown away in the gale blowing straight off the harbour, and had lunch at Jamie's favourite restuarant, the Wimpy. In fact, when I asked him just before bed what wonderful things we saw today, he answered, without hesitation, "Milkshakes!" Perhaps he's a bit young yet for marine life...
Today the boys and I joined my folks at UShaka Marine World. We saw beautiful fish, scary snakes, were blown away in the gale blowing straight off the harbour, and had lunch at Jamie's favourite restuarant, the Wimpy. In fact, when I asked him just before bed what wonderful things we saw today, he answered, without hesitation, "Milkshakes!" Perhaps he's a bit young yet for marine life...
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Thinking Aloud
I'm in a bit of a state. I've just been to Thursday morning Mass at church, and bumped into a friend there - she is a bit older than we are and has three grown up children and one laat lammetijie who is 13. Last month she was attacked in her home by four men, at one o clock in the afternoon, as she was sitting in her living room waiting for her youngest daughter to be dropped home from school by the lift club. She was tied up, and had the ropes tightened three times. She was beaten, and was told that, after they had ransacked the house, they were coming back to rape her. She was petrified that her daughter was going to walk in any minute... In a miracle she got one hand free and was able to hit the panic button, which frightened the intruders away, just before her daughter got home.
She is now "better", she says, although still terrified of being in her house, even of driving into her driveway.
Whats happened to her is a part of my worst nightmare. My children are tiny and are with me almost all the time. How on God's green earth would I protect them in a situation like that? And if I were killed, who would be there to even try to save them? I can't bear it.
I know there is crime everywhere, I'm not stupid. But I have never heard of an experience like this one from the lips of a friend in the UK. I don't know anyone over there whose mother was hijacked at gunpoint, like mine was here.
My husband is a realist and points out that there are four of us and it is his responsiblity to ensure we are kept housed and fed wherever we are. Certainly until Nicky is old enough for me to go back to work. There is a major economic downturn and property is not moving... except that I know someone, a mom from Top Tots heading for Canada, whose house sold in a week... I know we probably couldn't take our animals and would therefore have to put Campbell down because he won't rehome. I feel like I can't bear this either, but perhaps I can. Or perhaps there is a third way, such as taking him to Europe for six months and then getting him a pet passport.
I've been saying for a while that I want to look at the options and see what the move back would entail. I'm actually going to do it this time. And if anyone wants to accuse me of taking the chicken run, or overreacting, or betraying South Africa, well, unless they have two small children and are in their home alone with them during the days, or in and out the car with them, or unless they have seen the look on someone's face as she recounts being threatened with rape and knowing her beautiful teenage daughter is about to walk in, well, then you can just bugger right off.
She is now "better", she says, although still terrified of being in her house, even of driving into her driveway.
Whats happened to her is a part of my worst nightmare. My children are tiny and are with me almost all the time. How on God's green earth would I protect them in a situation like that? And if I were killed, who would be there to even try to save them? I can't bear it.
I know there is crime everywhere, I'm not stupid. But I have never heard of an experience like this one from the lips of a friend in the UK. I don't know anyone over there whose mother was hijacked at gunpoint, like mine was here.
My husband is a realist and points out that there are four of us and it is his responsiblity to ensure we are kept housed and fed wherever we are. Certainly until Nicky is old enough for me to go back to work. There is a major economic downturn and property is not moving... except that I know someone, a mom from Top Tots heading for Canada, whose house sold in a week... I know we probably couldn't take our animals and would therefore have to put Campbell down because he won't rehome. I feel like I can't bear this either, but perhaps I can. Or perhaps there is a third way, such as taking him to Europe for six months and then getting him a pet passport.
I've been saying for a while that I want to look at the options and see what the move back would entail. I'm actually going to do it this time. And if anyone wants to accuse me of taking the chicken run, or overreacting, or betraying South Africa, well, unless they have two small children and are in their home alone with them during the days, or in and out the car with them, or unless they have seen the look on someone's face as she recounts being threatened with rape and knowing her beautiful teenage daughter is about to walk in, well, then you can just bugger right off.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Iconic South African Experiences
What child of 1970's South Africa doesn't remember doing this?
Our pool is non-functioning and the temperature is in the thirties today - it seems that noughties kids can have just as much fun with a simple sprinkler as we did back then!
Our pool is non-functioning and the temperature is in the thirties today - it seems that noughties kids can have just as much fun with a simple sprinkler as we did back then!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Higgledy House
I love my house. When we came over from the UK in 2002, we had just sold Jon's flat in Earlsfield for a silly amount of money. In the UK it would have been swallowed up in a new mortgage, possibly for a place with two bedrooms. Here, it bought us 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3 reception rooms, a dining room, "gym" room (sold to us as the fourth bedroom, but having no windows. Hmm), kitchen, double garage and one bed granny flat plus a pool. With a bit of work - a new ensuite bathroom, a french window and mini-stoep in our bedroom, a new picture window in the sitting room, tiling instead of carpets in the main part of the house - it was pretty much exactly what we wanted. We wandered through the rooms wondering how we would ever furnish them, let alone manage to make use of All This Space.
That was 2003. Fast forward to 2008, and we realise we have virtually no storage space. The sitting room functions as a playroom and a study combined. The kitchen is appallingly cramped when you cram two flustered adults, two small boys and a large dog into it. We still love our house, but it doesn't feel quite so huge anymore. And as we live in it, wear and tear starts to show...
One of the kitchen cupboards came off in my hands yesterday. I don't think it'll be easy to fix either. James -the-Gardener (so-called to distinguish him from James-our-son) hit the soil pipe exiting from our loo with the lawnmower a couple of weeks ago, and cracked a big hole in it. There is a new, luxuriant growth of lush green grass around it now, testimony to a rather nasty form of fertilization and standing out starkly from the drab brown dryness of the rest of the garden. About three months ago the spare loo packed up. We have had three different plumbers to it, had it jetted, rodded and had weird cement like gunk, apparently guaranteed to eat anything in its path, poured down it. Nada. The only thing that seemed to make a blind bit of difference was putting a cup of pool acid down it and leaving it there for 24 hours. It's flushing better, but we're still too scared to put any loo paper down it, so it's not as though we really have use of it, or anything.
That's just the stuff that's broken. There is so much else that needs doing! So here is my list, for posterity, of everything that I would like to do to this house. I retain the right to add to it as and when things occur to me.
Put cupboards into our bedroom. It hasn't had cupboards since we re-did the bathroom in 2003.
Paint the exterior properly, filling in little cracks etc. Have the wooden window frames
Wood Guarded.
Paint the interior all through in something like Wheaten White, with white ceilings, doors etc.
Rip out everything in the kitchen and have a completely new one installed, including a gas hob,
electric cooker and gas salamander for Jonathan.
Failing that (!), rip off the cupboard frontings and have them sanded, painted and
re-attached. Even this option is probably way out of conceivable budget range.
Put up curtains in the sitting room. It hasn't had curtains since 2003.
Install a new, energy efficient, blanketed geyser.
Get the blasted spare bathroom loo PROPERLY FIXED!!!
Get the pool cleaned up and the filter set up with a proper timer so we can run it for two hours
a day and save loads on the electricity. Also so that the frogs which have taken up residence Go
Away.
Steam clean all the carpets. Should the budget ever become available, replace the carpet in the
sitting room. After five years of a Ridgeback and three years of babies, it has a rather
unpleasant life of its own.
Steam clean the sofas. See above
I feel better just for writing it all down. Now I'm off to buy a lottery ticket.
That was 2003. Fast forward to 2008, and we realise we have virtually no storage space. The sitting room functions as a playroom and a study combined. The kitchen is appallingly cramped when you cram two flustered adults, two small boys and a large dog into it. We still love our house, but it doesn't feel quite so huge anymore. And as we live in it, wear and tear starts to show...
One of the kitchen cupboards came off in my hands yesterday. I don't think it'll be easy to fix either. James -the-Gardener (so-called to distinguish him from James-our-son) hit the soil pipe exiting from our loo with the lawnmower a couple of weeks ago, and cracked a big hole in it. There is a new, luxuriant growth of lush green grass around it now, testimony to a rather nasty form of fertilization and standing out starkly from the drab brown dryness of the rest of the garden. About three months ago the spare loo packed up. We have had three different plumbers to it, had it jetted, rodded and had weird cement like gunk, apparently guaranteed to eat anything in its path, poured down it. Nada. The only thing that seemed to make a blind bit of difference was putting a cup of pool acid down it and leaving it there for 24 hours. It's flushing better, but we're still too scared to put any loo paper down it, so it's not as though we really have use of it, or anything.
That's just the stuff that's broken. There is so much else that needs doing! So here is my list, for posterity, of everything that I would like to do to this house. I retain the right to add to it as and when things occur to me.
Put cupboards into our bedroom. It hasn't had cupboards since we re-did the bathroom in 2003.
Paint the exterior properly, filling in little cracks etc. Have the wooden window frames
Wood Guarded.
Paint the interior all through in something like Wheaten White, with white ceilings, doors etc.
Rip out everything in the kitchen and have a completely new one installed, including a gas hob,
electric cooker and gas salamander for Jonathan.
Failing that (!), rip off the cupboard frontings and have them sanded, painted and
re-attached. Even this option is probably way out of conceivable budget range.
Put up curtains in the sitting room. It hasn't had curtains since 2003.
Install a new, energy efficient, blanketed geyser.
Get the blasted spare bathroom loo PROPERLY FIXED!!!
Get the pool cleaned up and the filter set up with a proper timer so we can run it for two hours
a day and save loads on the electricity. Also so that the frogs which have taken up residence Go
Away.
Steam clean all the carpets. Should the budget ever become available, replace the carpet in the
sitting room. After five years of a Ridgeback and three years of babies, it has a rather
unpleasant life of its own.
Steam clean the sofas. See above
I feel better just for writing it all down. Now I'm off to buy a lottery ticket.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Nostalgia
Thanks to a blogpost read days ago, this has been playing in my head... Jon was good enough to sing it through for me and type it out :-)
Oh, will you never let me be?
Oh, will you never set me free?
The ties that bound us are still around us:
There's no escape that I can see;
And still the little things remain
That bring us happiness or pain.
A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces;
An airline ticket to romantic places:
And still my heart has wings -
These foolish things remind me of you.
A tinkling piano in the next apartment;
Those stumbling words that told you what my heart meant;
A fairground's painted swings:
These foolish things remind me of you.
You came, you saw, you conquered me -
When you did that to me,
I knew somehow that this had to be.
The winds of March that make my heart a dancer;
A telephone that rings - but who's to answer?
Oh, how the ghost of you clings -
These foolish things remind me of you.
Gardenia perfume lingering on a pillow;
Wild strawberries, only seven francs a kilo:
And still my heart has wings -
These foolish things remind me of you.
The park at evening when the bell has sounded;
The 'Ile de France' with all the gulls around it;
The beauty that is spring's:
These foolish things remind me of you.
I knew that this was bound to be:
These things have haunted me,
For you've entirely enchanted me.
The sigh of midnight trains in empty stations;
Silk stockings thrown aside; dance invitations;
Oh how the ghost of you clings -
These foolish things remind me of you.
First daffodils and long excited cables,
And candle light on little corner tables;
And still my heart has wings -
These foolish things remind me of you.
The smile of Garbo, and the scent of roses;
The waiters whistling as the last bar closes;
The song that Crosby sings:
These foolish things remind me of you.
How strange, how sweet, to find you still:
These things are dear to me,
That seem to bring you so near to me.
The scent of smouldering leaves; the wail of steamers;
Two lovers on the street who walk like dreamers:
Oh how the ghost of you clings -
These foolish things remind me of you.
Oh, will you never let me be?
Oh, will you never set me free?
The ties that bound us are still around us:
There's no escape that I can see;
And still the little things remain
That bring us happiness or pain.
A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces;
An airline ticket to romantic places:
And still my heart has wings -
These foolish things remind me of you.
A tinkling piano in the next apartment;
Those stumbling words that told you what my heart meant;
A fairground's painted swings:
These foolish things remind me of you.
You came, you saw, you conquered me -
When you did that to me,
I knew somehow that this had to be.
The winds of March that make my heart a dancer;
A telephone that rings - but who's to answer?
Oh, how the ghost of you clings -
These foolish things remind me of you.
Gardenia perfume lingering on a pillow;
Wild strawberries, only seven francs a kilo:
And still my heart has wings -
These foolish things remind me of you.
The park at evening when the bell has sounded;
The 'Ile de France' with all the gulls around it;
The beauty that is spring's:
These foolish things remind me of you.
I knew that this was bound to be:
These things have haunted me,
For you've entirely enchanted me.
The sigh of midnight trains in empty stations;
Silk stockings thrown aside; dance invitations;
Oh how the ghost of you clings -
These foolish things remind me of you.
First daffodils and long excited cables,
And candle light on little corner tables;
And still my heart has wings -
These foolish things remind me of you.
The smile of Garbo, and the scent of roses;
The waiters whistling as the last bar closes;
The song that Crosby sings:
These foolish things remind me of you.
How strange, how sweet, to find you still:
These things are dear to me,
That seem to bring you so near to me.
The scent of smouldering leaves; the wail of steamers;
Two lovers on the street who walk like dreamers:
Oh how the ghost of you clings -
These foolish things remind me of you.
Ramblings
The wind seems to have migrated from the Highveld to here today, and we are being blown away... I really don't like windy days. It gets into my head and makes it ache. In England, where the wind was often icy cold, my ears used to ache so much I had to stuff them with cotton wool on trips. Most attractive!
And I have a gynae appointment today. I like my OBGYN, very much, it's just that I don't like check ups. I'd much rather be seeing him because I'm pregnant again than just going for a check up. And as I don't really think I want any more children, that's an indication of how much I'm not looking forward to today.
It's the only appointment I could get too - I booked it three months ago! Pregnant women get priority, so us "just an annual check-up" types have to take what we can get. It means that Jamie can't go to school today as I wouldn't be able to get back in time to fetch him. It also means that Tuli, who comes once a week to blitz clean my house for me, will be losing a couple of hours of blitzing time as she'll be at Westville Hospital watching my monsters while I'm in with the doc. Thankfully she has agreed to come along; I know people will probably think I'm mad but I really don't want to leave the kids at home with her. I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to them while she was vacuuming or something. It's just not fair to ask her to do TWO jobs (maid and childminder) at once. So the whole circus will be going to town - I hope Dr Payne's office is prepared!
Postscript: I'm back, I survived and it was all much easier than I thought it would be! Nicky slept in the car with Tuli and Jamie was astoundingly good for a 3 year old, staying in the waiting room while I went in, and entertaining the nurses. Thank Goodness!
And I have a gynae appointment today. I like my OBGYN, very much, it's just that I don't like check ups. I'd much rather be seeing him because I'm pregnant again than just going for a check up. And as I don't really think I want any more children, that's an indication of how much I'm not looking forward to today.
It's the only appointment I could get too - I booked it three months ago! Pregnant women get priority, so us "just an annual check-up" types have to take what we can get. It means that Jamie can't go to school today as I wouldn't be able to get back in time to fetch him. It also means that Tuli, who comes once a week to blitz clean my house for me, will be losing a couple of hours of blitzing time as she'll be at Westville Hospital watching my monsters while I'm in with the doc. Thankfully she has agreed to come along; I know people will probably think I'm mad but I really don't want to leave the kids at home with her. I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to them while she was vacuuming or something. It's just not fair to ask her to do TWO jobs (maid and childminder) at once. So the whole circus will be going to town - I hope Dr Payne's office is prepared!
Postscript: I'm back, I survived and it was all much easier than I thought it would be! Nicky slept in the car with Tuli and Jamie was astoundingly good for a 3 year old, staying in the waiting room while I went in, and entertaining the nurses. Thank Goodness!
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