As Long As You Remember Sabrina

It is a sad day as one of our cats, Sabrina, finally crossed the rainbow bridge as Lynda comforted her in her last hours with us.

Sabrina was about 14 years old and by being an all-white cat she had contracted cancer on her ears quite some time ago from lying in the sun too often. But now she can run free, chase the butterflies, and afterwards sleep on an angel’s lap purring.

Every time we lose a pet, they take a piece of our hearts with them, and a big piece of Lynda’s heart is now gone, so Lynda here is a poem by Raffaella D’Ambrosio.

As long as you remember me, my memory will live on.
My spirit will be there with you at every breaking dawn.
I’ll sing to you through birds in spring and whisper through the trees,
I’ll bring you gentle comfort with a warm, caressing breeze.

As long as you remember me, my love will fill your heart
and help to ease the sorry that you feel while we’re apart.
With thoughts of me, perhaps you’ll see the wonder of each day,
the joy of sunlit afternoons, and the nature’s grand display.

As long as you remember me, I always will be near,
to lend you sweet tranquillity as night time stars appear.
The bond that we have shared will be a link from me to you
to give you hope for brighter days and the strength to see you through.

Quack Quack

After a late morning start which was caused by sleeping in because we deserved it and because it was cold last night and who wants to get going if you nice and snug.

By early afternoon we ended up at Brightwater Commons to buy a cell phone cover at the flea market there. This place is sure going downhill even after the change from Randburg Waterfront to the Brightwater Commons has not saved it.

In the middle is the flea market with cheap Chinese goods, on the one side is the anchor shop of a small Pick ‘n Pay supermarket, and the other is the skate board park. On this side most of the shops have been boarded up. Sad but the trend is to still build more malls.

Anyway we had lunch there at one of the restaurants, and between the bees, cigarette smoke, and noisy children running between the tables play catch, not much was going for the ambiance except watching mommy duck trying to keep control of her paddle of ducklings, quack quack.

Friday Evening

Friday is here but being so busy all day you tend to miss the day as it flies by. By evening you know that the weekend is here but so is winter. Being on the cold side made this evening a feet up relaxing in doors time. Homemade burgers for supper and snuggled cosy in front of the television is what the doctor ordered for this chilly night in Johannesburg.

Busted

Yep busted, I caught this lady klipspringer ogling Scarlet my red Vespa GTS300is Super. I mean what is this world coming to? I’m the one that should be ogled at.

Mind you who can resist a red Vespa with a curvaceous figure of Scarlet?

Kick Myself

Yesterday as I arrived home, the landlord phones me to inform that the plumber is going to come round today at 8am to finally fix the water issues at home. Okay this means I needed to stay at home and get to work a bit late but no worries.

8 am past, then so did 9 am, and at 10 I phoned the landlord to let him know that I can’t wait forever and I need to get to work sometime. The landlord phoned the plumber and got back to me that he was on Ceder road heading towards my home. The plumber finally arrived just before half past ten, :-(

Well let’s be positive, the plumber is here now so let gets these issues out of the way. Since he was here last week Friday, we still did not have hot water in kitchen, the wash machine was not getting any water, the broken back door, and the water pressure. Not much but when you can’t clean the kitchen up it does become an issue.

Not long afterwards all the issues where fixed, well so I thought... best to let you read my conversation with Lynda what went down.

Glad to say all is now fixed, not 100% but liveable even after kicking myself.

Masterchef Step Aside

Be prepared to step aside Masterchef, there is a new contender in town for home cooked meals and is thinking about moving up. Okay well the plating needs a little attention but after watching Masterchef Australia so many times a little inspiration is rubbing off. I enjoy the Australian rendition more I do the original UK, the South African, and the American one, go figure.

So today for dinner I plated sliced roast pork shoulder, glazed with caramel, served with spinach and feta, butternut, porcini mushrooms, pecorino cheese, baby potatoes and barley mixed with risotto.

Yeah baby!

The Fringe

When it gets very busy in the office, the thought of a photo a day sometimes nearly slips past without being noticed. Mondays for me have always been one of those demanding times when the boss’s blog post has get out error free. Stressful times but I think the team handles it well.

Home time has somehow crept up on me unannounced and I hadn’t any idea of what photo would represent today that was until I saw Ilana’s fringe across her eyes as she did creative stuff. Ahhh these right brain peoples of eKayaMedia. I like balance in my life, a bit of expressiveness, a dash of creativity, a pinch of rationale, a sprinkle of colour, and a little slice of stats just spice things up a bit is all what my brain needs. I must be on the fringe of society, uhmmm, oh well.

Order! I say order, everything must be in its messy place that only I know where they are.

Biltong, Gout, and Cows

Biltong (ˈbɪlˌtɒŋ) strips of spiced meat, cured by drying in the open air.

Now I do enjoy biltong and when my brother Anthony offered me a large packet, how could I say no. I even ignored the reason he gave when offering over such a prize. “It is giving me gout”. So there I enjoyed my day in Nature Reserve yesterday along with some tasty biltong.

This morning I woke up with such bad gout on my knee that I was struggling to function. In such pain and agony, I wondered what I could have eaten or drunk that could have caused such severe gout. And then it dawned on me that it could only have been the biltong. It never occurred to me that biltong could cause the gout. Last time I got it this bad was when I drove up from KwaZulu Natal and stopped to buy some biltong at my favourite biltong butchery in Mooiriver. Clickety click, barba trick, biltong was the only common element.

I overdosed on puricos and pain killers but to no avail. Later in the afternoon I had to drive to Benoni to take Matthew back and could barely drive, but drive I had to. Just outside our yard we came across a herd of cattle and noticed two freshly born calves.

Ahhhhh biltong which I ate was made from beef aka cows. These four legged beasts caused all my agony and pain but how could I not stop and look at these strips of biltong, sorry cows and swear never again.

Sigh I still love biltong!

Hanro and the Hunger Games

Okay well not the Hunger games but an archery competition at the Ngomo Safari Lodge inside the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve. The National Archery in Schools Programme held one of competitions at the lodge with another one which had contestants walking through the veldt and shooting at targets at various ranges and elevations.

My nephew Hanro from Rustenburg has been selected to represent South African juniors in the National Archery in Schools Program World Tournament to be held in July this year in Nashville, Tennessee.

Today’s competition Hanro shook his head as he was upset as he scored 270 out of 300. He was aiming for much higher. At only 12 years old, Hanro has the world before him. Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favour.

Other than watching the archery, we got to tour the nature reserve and see some amazing animals up close.

Please note poachers and those that believe that rhino horns give you some special powers, that all rhinos at the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve have had their horns treated with toxins that make them unfit for human consumption.

Sign of the Times

Yes it is sign of the times when we see the writing on the wall. The water issues at our cottage are getting worse and the landlord is finally sending a plumber so we put up signs at each problem area which we need him to fix. Basin - Cold water hardly flowing.

Bath - Cold water hardly trickling out.

Washing Machine - Water pressure into machine very low. Machine has to strain to fill.

Kitchen - No hot water at basin

Bath - Outlet very slow. Outside drain blocked and overflows every time empty bath.

Toilet - Water continues to leak into the bowl after flushing. I wonder if these signs are telling us that it is time to get a place of our own instead of renting.

Red Fingernails

It is nearly Friday followed hotly on its heels, the weekend. Before that can happen we have to prepare. Noma is busy being the lead character in a short video about safety travel tips which we are promoting. Here she is getting ready painting her fingernails red before traveling to location. Forget Ice Princess, it looks like we may have a diva on our hands.

Okay Lights! Cameras! Action!

CUT CUT CUT!

What is wrong with the script now Noma?

I need some more coffee... Please someone just bring me more coffee, yes and a shot of vodka, no scratch that just bring the whole bottle.

Sexy Models

I’m a model you know what I mean.

And I do my little turn on the catwalk

Trying to get my dogs posing all together is like pulling hen’s teeth, well not for Podge, my Jack Russell who is here to serve and please, and Maxy of course my Italian Greyhound who is a too sexy model, and he knows it.

Jade my hyper Italian Greyhound finally made an appearance on the catwalk whereas the old man iggy also known as Patch just put his nose up and watched all the models strutting their stuff on the catwalk from the sidelines.

I’m too sexy for my cat too sexy for my cat

Poor pussy poor pussy cat

Nou gaan ons Braai

The days are still warm and pleasant but with a slight nip in the air. Living down by the river, the nights drop down to the low single figures close to zero. Winter is coming!

Nou gaan ons braai! This may be the last stretch of autumn before Jack Frost arrives so I just felt that it was the perfect time to have the last barbeque of the season before winter arrives with full gusto.

Dressed in only a tracksuit pants and a t-shirt, you could see the cold on my breath while I was braaing some mature rib eye steak, wors and roasted vegetables on the grill. But the fire was warm and I was alive as the aroma from the braaing meat was ticking all the right boxes.

What could this be?

Today turned out to be hit the tarmac running Monday, with all things that can happen on a Monday, happening all at once. With no time to breathe I suddenly found myself at the end of the day exhausted and wondering what happened.

With the sun low in the sky, I trudged to the car park wondering what I could use for today’s photo, when I saw this strange white fluffy thing on the tarmac near where my Vespa was parked. What could this be? Some type of seed pod that uses the wind to disperse is my best guess. Now if I was on the coast I would have mistaken it to be some beautiful sea creature that was washed up onto the shore.

My wild imagination could have taken over, could this be proof of fairies? But I was tired and the quackery of today was behind me with water crystals and fairies far from my mind. Oh wait I heard something rustle through the reeds next to the pond.

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand.
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Sexy Hair Trends

Hair trends change with fashion, whether you have a bob, a lob, slicked back, long wavy, or simply like me shaved all off. Dare I say my style of cleanly shaven has never changed and will always remain sexy.

Take Chris, the BBC’s youth pastor shown above, his hairstyle has changed recently from dreadlocks to the half shaven look of not quite Mohawk. Okay not as sexy as me but let’s say half sexy, shall we.

Colours of Scotland

South Africa, the place where many different people have come together and now call her home. And this struck home once again today as I went to The Jeppe Gathering at the Jeppe High School in Kensington.

The Scottish heritage was brought to South Africa firstly by those fleeing the persecution of England and its Highland Clearances, many more came with the 1920 settlers, then came the diamond and gold rushes, and later the Boer Wars. But bonnie Scotland was here to stay and become part of a now vibrant South Africa.

As Lucky Dube once sang “We’re different colours, one people”. Yes today it showed in this Highland Gathering as Black, White, Asian, Indian, gathered together as South Africans to celebrate the Scottish culture, we are one people.

This gathering at Jeppe was also the Pipe Bands’ Association of Southern Africa regional gathering with the results counting towards the Champion Award which meant all the regions pipe bands turned up in full force to show us they have what it takes to be this year’s champion pipe band.

There were many pipe bands that turned up that I never knew existed, I saw the Transvaal Scottish, Sandton Scottish, African Skye, Benoni MacTalla, St Benedicts, Jeppe Boys, St Johns, King Edward, Christian Brothers Boksburg, Cornwall Hill, Pretoria Highlands, and many more.

One other interesting thing I saw was that the Benoni MacTalla Pipe Band brought their own wench to make sure that the shoes were kept clean. No wonder they are winning competitions.