Dad's Pheromones

I shower every day yet my cats simple love my armpits, I mean the pheromones are so intoxicating that my cats get so high. Many times they bury their heads in my under arm region that I am starting to worry that something is not right. I have gotten other humans to do the smell test and I am okay so it must be some undetected pheromone that our human noses can't smell yet my underarm is like catnip to my cats.

Home Dakotah

I haven't seen Dakotah since she left the birthing clinic 3 weeks ago. Her parents Robynne and Marco have been sick with flu , followed by Lynda, so we stayed away thereby making sure that little Dakotah does not get any germs. 

Yellow Rubber Gloves

There is supposed to be the first of the summer storms this afternoon which means I have to take the pickup and not the bike to work. Going to work in a cage means I need to leave a little extra early, hence not dawdling in bed. Opening the blinds in the scullery, half awake, I got a little fright by seeing  this pair of yellow rubber gloves hanging on the security bars. Uhmm I think I shall go back to bed.

Thursday

When I was in the Netherlands many moons ago, I used to walk the streets of Papendrecht to the market or to the confluence of the Noord and Beneden Merwede rivers, old people used to peep out of the rijtjeshuise. 

Very inquisitive were these older people. Well I had to go see an older person today and I was surprised to see a sign stating "Thursday" in the window. Well today is Thursday so whatever or whoever the sign is meant for, I was on time visiting this older person. Although she was very happy to see me and very talkative, at least she wasn't peering through the red framed windows. No Netherlands but she is French, I better learn how to pronounce her surname correctly.

Fever Weaver

It is that time of year again, the Black Eagle has fledged, the swallows have returned and nest building is in frantic mode. This Masked Weaver is building his nest in the Fever Tree just as he did last year and perhaps the year before. 

No Trust Discovery Insure

When I arrived home back from work this evening, the house felt empty without Matthew around as he is back at Res. His Sky Watcher telescope was still out and not put away as it should be. Oh well perfect opportunity to take a photo for the insurance, not that I need to but I don't trust my insurance company Discovery Insure anymore, well not after my pickup debacle which still remains unresolved.

On Thursday the 1st of February 2018, my pickup caught fire, yes it is a Ford, but due to quick thinking on my part I managed to stop the fire by disconnecting the battery. Discovery Insure sent a tow truck to fetch my pickup and it was taken away to their yard to await on one of Discovery's assessors. An assessor phoned me the next day and asked for a copy of the receipt that the tow company left me when they took my pickup. The following week, every day other people from Discovery Insure's appointed assessor company phoned me looking for my pickup. Yes they had lost my pickup and they only found it a week later on  Friday 9 February. An assessor then phoned me and asked if my pickup battery was flat, my answer was no. 

Then the following week the claim was approved and my pickup moved to a Discovery Insure appointed panel beater, Nu Wagon. On the 5 March my pickup was returned but that is when I discovered my alarm was not working. I took it straight back to Nu Wagon the next day but they told me that there never was an alarm system. WHAT! Then why do I have a remote, why is there alarm wires, an anti-hijack button, and an alarm siren still on my pickup? Someone stole my alarm system while it was lost for a week.

And to this day Discovery Insure has not come to the party and replace the alarm that was stolen while on their watch. No one at Discovery Insure wants to take ownership and just hopes that I would go away. And then today, 237 days later (33 weeks and 6 days or 7 months and 25 days), is the first time a Discovery Insure employee phoned me. I nearly fell off my chair. Oh no wait he was just informing me of the person who will be looking into my matter. Nothing has been resolved yet.

Nothing, so you can read, you can not trust Discovery Insure.

All Braai'd Out

Sjoie, I must be all braai'd out by now if a person can ever have too many braais. Well I am not that perfect, give me a salad now I tell you. Anyways it is the last day of Matthew's holidays and I took him back the his residence then dropped him off at his cousins place, where as you can guess since today is National Braai Day, they were having a braai. So with the moto "Nou Gaan Ons Braai", I did what any South African would do, I did some kuier'ing and some more braaing. 

Sundowner Braai

The day before National Braai Day, the weather was perfect for a sundowner braai on my deck. Even though tomorrow is Braai Day, any excuse for a braai is the order of the day. So with meat on the grill, Lynda, Matthew, Bradley, and myself relaxed on the deck while the sun slowly sank below the horizon. 

Black Eagle Mountain Run

A 166 runners turned up this morning for the 1st Black Eagle Mountain Run all in aid of supporting the resident Black Eagles whose juvenile fledged last Wednesday. The organisers are aiming that this race to be the toughest trail run in Gauteng, and from the looks of the runners as they returned, it sure must be one tough run up and down the Sugarbush Ridge. 

Nearly 100

Wow, petrol is expensive in South Africa; it is the first time that it took nearly R100 to fill the tank of my Vespa. And to make matters worse it is going up again next week. Well the reason is all the tax and levies that is being added to the cost of the fuel. We export fuel to Botswana, Swaziland, and Lesotho yet their fuel is sold at nearly half our price per litre.

Oh well I better tighten my belt with all this commuting on my Vespa lately.

Red Tiger

Oh well, the good traffic did not last, back to normal rush hour traffic sitting in a cage while bikers wizz past. Finally I got home to a sick Lynda in bed and 2 hungry boys. Thankfully I was prepared, and threw into the oven a Woolies lasagne and put my feet up.

Next to my feet lay a Tiger on the red covered ottoman. The pheromones from my feet is just what a cat needs to sleep.

Queen of All

גוט יום־טובֿ, to all my Jewish readers out there, have a good Yom Kippur. Going in to an office now days means traveling in rush hour traffic. Normally going by Vespa has made me immune to its affects but lately I been using my pickup because my tenant's bike has broken down and he needs a lift, hence I am using my pickup and being sitting in rush hour traffic, but today it was somehow beautifully clear, wow there must be a lot of practicing Jews that sit in traffic and are on holiday today. All I can say it was pleasant.

Arriving back home after an easy drive home, I found my cat Minky being queen of all she surveys. Oh well l'shanah tovah.

Finger Condom

Yes, you read the title of this blog correctly, this is called a finger condom. Lynda during her cleaning spells, while pushing some plastic into the recycling managed to cut her fingers on some tins. So off to the ER with fingers dangling, okay not quite but I am trying some empathy here people. 

Cat on High

Arriving home from work, I went straight into the kitchen to start the supper, when I felt someone watching me. Looking around I didn't see anyone, and continued preparing the evening meal. While I was well into the preparations, something caught my eye and I looked up. There was Bebe perched up on high, on top of the kitchen cupboards. Uhmmm sneaky cat.

Battle of the Vowels

Not to name or shame the brand, but I enjoy seeing mistakes like this. Yes we all human especially me who is dyslectic and swapping of the vowels is a common occurrence. So now in the battle to spell correctly we have a Lemon Mirengue as in a sour Ferengi not a Lemon Meringue as per the Rules of Acquisition.

Father and Son

It is good to have Matthew home for the holidays. No more exams for a little while, until the finals in a few month's time but for now he can relax at home. 

Nailed It

Arriving at work this morning, I noticed that I had nailed it, well not quite. I saw that my rear tyre of my Vespa had an 2 inch nail through the side wall. Eish, really!

By lunch time the tyre was still inflated, so I decided to slip out and see if I can get it repaired. The first place I found was a tyre place and just one look they turned me away stating that because it was through the side wall, they can't fix it. I finally ended up at a bike shop, and priced their tyres. Okay reasonable so I gave the go ahead.

The repair technician, came up and simply pulled the nail out and the tyre did not deflate. He said that the nail didn't go through the tyre and is safe the still use.

Well that saved me some money but I still have to take it easy riding home just to be sure.

Tony's Wild Olive

What a rush today has been. The boss man is flying out tomorrow and I had to get the rest of the week's workload to bedded down. This morning I remembered that I had to be at Tony's Memorial Tree Planting but due to my head spinning with all the work, I arrived home, totally oblivious that I had to be elsewhere. Halfway through cooking supper, I got the message reminding us that we planting a tree in the next half an hour. Oh (&@9. Drop everything...

Tony was a long time Neighbourhood Watch Patroller, who pasted away a few days ago, and we decided that planting a Wild Olive tree in the park just down the road where he lived would be a good way of remembering him. So that is what we did. 

Shaved Dog

Matthew is home for the holidays and first things first, we had to pick up a shaved Podge from the vet. Thank goodness, it wasn't as bad as it looked. All the bites missed all the vital organs. Podge is one lucky dog. Just hope that he has learnt his lesson and not go running around the neighbourhood, as I can't afford his vet bills.

Big Dog Attack

Ouch, this is not good. For the last 5 years we have been looking after my brothers dog Orion, a cross Jack Russel and a Pug. Temporary became permanent and we changed his name to Podge as he was  obese from living the good life with my brother. After a balanced diet, Podge was soon back to an healthy weight but remained naughty.

Lately Podge has been climbing over our fence, and whatever I did never seemed to work as Podge just found a new way out. Once when arriving home, we found him 2 blocks away and when he saw us, he simply just turned and ran all the way home. 

This evening when we were about to go out for a neighborhood patrol after arriving home, I saw Podge by the front gate looking all sorry for himself. He is supposed to be at the back, and must have escaped again. I was going to chase him back when I saw that Podge wasn't himself. Upon investigating I saw that he had bite marks all over him, so instead of the patrol we rushed Podge to the vet. 

Feed me Human

Monday morning and I woke up to this... "Feed me human!" Oh my word that look that Rosy is giving me while I sit in bed doing my Quiet Time. I better just give her what she wants, or I will never hear the end of it plus it is very un-nerving having this cat just looking at me in this way. 

Masked Screaming Babies

This morning I went to the African Bird Fair for a meeting about the Sugarbush Ridge Coalition. It was here in the crowds of all the birdies, that I was introduced to this pair of screaming hungry baby African Masked Weaver chicks. They were rescued when the tree that they were nested in was cut down.

Strawberry Smoothie

Yesterday Lynda brought 2 punnets of strawberries for me to enjoy. So I was so eager to get stuck into the strawberries this morning that I was salivating by the time I started making my strawberry smoothie with yogurt. 

First Rains

Finally the first rains of the season have finally arrived with a thunderstorm in the early hours of the morning. It wasn't supposed to rain during the day but someone forgot to tell the weathermen that. So now I sit a work while it gently rains outside on my Vespa. 

Taleesha's Glasses

"Oh my Taleesha, what big glasses you have"? "All the better to see you with" answered the wolf. Taleesha must have new glasses as she wanted to show me them on her face. Okay, I have seen them now let's get back to work.

Dakotah

Welcome baby Dakotah into the world yesterday afternoon. Here is granny Lynda with her latest granddaughter Dakotah. She is Lynda's 2nd grandchild and my 7th one. Oh dear there goes me giving away my age. Both mommy Robynne and Dakotah are doing well.

All the Ladies

All the ladies in the house lets PARTY!!!

Okay lets backtrack a bit. Last Saturday, Robynne was due to have her second daughter but baby was on her own time. This morning Robynne's waters broke and she went through to the birthing clinic. It was here that they noticed that she was only 1cm dilated and baby seemed to be stressed. So she was rushed to have an emergency caesarean.

This afternoon we are proud to announce the birth of baby Dakotah into the world. So now Lynda has to spend the night at Robynne and Marko's house and babysit Rebekah. So that gives me time to do anything I want.

Yay, so ladies, I decided to go to Connect group. With Lance chaperoning, Monique, Kerry, and Jesse joined us for some deep decisions of what was preached on Sunday about Moses before the burning bush and when God asked Moses what was in his hand. So when Lynda's away, this is how I party, by catching up with my Connect family. 

Oh and both mother and baby are all fine.

Taleesha Challenge

This is my view past the partiton to the desk next door. Taleesha at her desk watching In my Feelings song by Drake. I am trying to get her to do the Kiki Challenge and she is about half way there, she just has to learn the moves of the Do the Shiggy Dance as she watches some videos of how. I will post a video if and when she dances Kiki do you love me.

Bone Crusher

So now I have a new nickname - Jerome the Bone Crusher, just because I gave Lynda a small bear hug last Monday and broke a rib. Sniff, now she is on pain meds and is suffering while we wait for the baby sitting duty. Robynne is still waiting for baby to come and I imagine it must be like "MARKO, you put this baby in me, NOW GET IT OUT!"

Anyways Lynda and I went out to try the new Sticky Waffles that everyone is raving about, uhmmm not much to write home about but it was worth the taste, Mr Bone Crusher.

Hurry Up and Wait

This has turned out to be a lazy Saturday. Yip we had to hurry up and get all ready for Robynne second daughter who is due to be born today. We are on short notice for baby sitting duty and now we wait for that phone call or message.

And we wait...

I see the cat Princess has the right idea, sit in the sun and chillax.