Amagwinya

 

It has been raining all week, but on these cold wet mornings, I start my day with some warm magwinya, that I buy from a street vendor along the road on my way to work. Amagwinya or vetkoek are small balls of deep fried dough that costs less than a R1 each.

Wacky Wednesday

 

It was getting near midday, when the boss man piped up, "What's today?". "Wednesday", came our reply, "all day". The boss man then exclaimed "Wacky Wednesday" and went on how he loves Steers, Wacky Wednesday deal of 2 burgers for the price of 1 on Wednesdays at this South African burger joint. And before we knew he had ordered everyone in the office Steers burgers for lunch.

Welcome to my world.

Tricksy little Hobbitses

 

Taleesha has been trying to get me take a photo of her engagement ring for some time now and so far I have avoided falling for her sneaky little traps, that is until today. "Look at my beautiful nails, why don't you take a photo of them for your blog?" Oh that tricksy little hobbitses. Do you see what she had done there? "It isn't fair", I cried, "my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in it's nasty little fingersess?"

Have you Forgotten

 

With all the celebrations and our home being like a train station, have you forgotten about us animals? Nope, how can I forget about all our dogs and cats, spiders, and a lizard? Let the week to recovery begin.

Weekend Party's Over

 

It was good spending time with Matthew on his birthday and sharing him with his friends and family but now Matthew must go and be the adult God wants him to be.  

Happy 21st Matt

 

Although your official birthday was a few days back, and this is your 2nd birthday party in a week, I hope this is a good send off into the world of adulting. Happy 21st birthday Matthew. You have grown up to an awesome young man and may your adulting years be just as awesome.

 I can't remember all your friends names

 

Dael, Ryan, Dakotah, Danielle

Jaen

 

Matthew, Danielle, Hans, and oh course Minky

 

 Lynda

Bees vs Ants

 

I see that the Ants have stepped up their game to get rid of the bees. Once the bees are gone, well that is it tickets for us humans. These ants in Johannesburg are sure getting out of hand. 

Model in da House

 

Oooooh we are so blessed to have a real live model in da house! Welcome Sadie, to our weird yet lovable Connect group. Okay we should not forget the male model and the ginger one too, but the UJ girls just connected with each other. What was that new word, Jess, oh yes racial hybrid, but we are just one happy connect family even though we are about to lose Lance and Kerry to the other Centre Church Connects, we are still tight and da best!

Oopsie

 

Last week we had an oopsie with Lynda's car as it saw the back of the garage a little too close and poor Lynda had to continue to drive it without an air conditioner that is until this morning as we dropped it off at Auto Magic in Strydompark to see if they can work some magic to restore it like new. 

Pain Pool

 

Sigh, I feel the pain as I struggle to get our swimming pool perfect for this coming Saturday. Yes I kept the pool cover on for a week longer than I should and the result was an stinking cesspool. Thankfully we had rain last Friday, 30mm of mana filled the pool so that I could vacuum the fine sludge from bottom. The pool is crystal clear but has this slight sulphur smell which I can't get rid of. 

Oh well I have a few days to go so let it rain, let it rain, pleeeeeeeease.

Monday Bran and Yogurt

 

It is Monday morning, and here I am suffering from gout eating my yogurt and bran breakfast. When will I ever learn that orange juice and I and not good bed buddies. Oh ow I hate this gout.

Oh well, I better grit through the pain, as Matthew turns 21 today while I make a revamp of an existing website go live. Mission: concentrate on finding any bugs and eliminate as soon as possible. I think I managed to minimise as few bugs as possible for an successful revamp.

Happy birthday Matt, I love you.

Breakfast Apology

 

Well not to give away any personal details, somethings happened in all the celebrations yesterday while we were in Pretoria, well more like didn't happen, so to make it up to Nikita, Bradley organized breakfast on our deck. Okay more like brunch but the apology breakfast went down well and all the little campers are happy once again.

Lets Start the Party

 

Matthew is turning 21 on Monday, and as usual his birthday falls in critical exam times, so to start the celebrations off we had a family get together had my sister's place in Pretoria. 

But first we had to drop off Bradley and Dael at the local sports pub so that they can watch the World Cup Rugby 2019 final with South Africa playing against England. So while the Boer War III was on the go, Lynda and I drove north to be with Matthew and family.

Good news is that the Springboks won, and that we had a good time with family celebrating Matthew. 

Most Offending Gum

 

This really peeves me off. Here I am standing at a urinal in the men's toilets at out office park, only to find that some low live has stood here before me and spat out his chewing gum into the urinal. Now who does this low live think is going to pick out this offending gum and throw it into the waste bin only a mere 2m away? 

Arrrrrrgh, this is not how I want to start my weekend. 

What Remains

 

Oh my word, I missed Halloween, I didn't even noticed it until I found Shaun, shown above, washing off his face paint after his office celebrations were over. So what remains? Here we have another overseas function that commercialism want to push down our throats just so that they can make money. Anyways I hope you all enjoyed your All Saints Day, while I quietly worked away preparing for a new revamp of a website to go live next week.  

Nescafé Espresso

 

Okay shoot me, I know it is instant coffee, but the Nescafé Espresso has become my favourite coffee. I never liked strong coffee that could make a girl grow chest hairs, no I love a smooth, rich, and full of taste cup of coffee. Gone are the days when coffee smelt good and afterwards you were sorry that you ordered it. Made from 100% Arabica coffee beans and the mix cream powder with it to create this velvety crema layer on top of your espresso in this parisien style.

Uhmmmm deeply satisfying! Let the day begin.

Over Ripe

 

This heat wave is relentless, and no rain in sight. The bananas that we bought a few days ago has all ripened far too quickly and now we are left with over ripe bananas to eat. Will it be banana loaf or will they simply be added to my breakfast yogurt?  

Come on summer rains, do I have to do another naked rain dance in my garden? I am sure my neighbours do not approve!

No Cellphones

 

What no cellphones allowed? Oh dear well I have been here at the Bedfordview Drivers License Department for just over an hour with my cellphone in use all the time and only now just before I finish up that I saw these signs "No Cellphones". Goes to show how observant I am, especially for a Monday morning.

Craig at 43

 

I have only seen Craig once this year, and now he is 43 years old. To celebrate the momentous occasion we had a braai at his house. It was good to see him again after all this time, even though I meet with this group of board gaming friends once in a while, it was a good meetup today.

Checkpoint 20

 

This afternoon, a sundowner meeting was organised at Checkpoint 20 on top of the Sugarbush Ridge by the Sugarbush Ridge Coalition for all the stakeholders involved in protecting this amazing ridge. A storm threatened as we made our way through the Protea Forest towards the top of the ridge where the meeting place was setup.

This sundowner meeting was a lovely ending to the year of conservation. Our job has not ended, but just to take time to meet all the other Eco-warriors in the middle of this awesome environment.

Hobbit Praying Mantis

 

We are so quick to use insecticides in our gardens or to whip out the Doom to rid ourselves of that spider in our bathroom that we don't know the damage it does. Because of all our pets at home we make a point never to use insecticides in our home and garden. We care for all the creatures that share our space even those we don't like.

Take this little fella, I am not sure if it is a baby or a fully grown hobbit sized praying mantis. I found it this morning when I was about to fill up the watering can to give the dogs fresh water in their bowls. As the water gushed out of the tap into the watering can, I saw this little fella as s/he got washed into the can. I immediately stopped and poured the water out and fished out the hobbit sized insect, and called Lynda over to come see. After taking this photo we gentle put it onto the lemon tree which is outside our kitchen door.

Please remember not only do we have birds, butterflies, snakes, spiders, bees, and hobbit mantises but also faeries that visit our gardens.  

Much Better

 

Now this is much better after 48 hours of loving attention, the pool is starting to turn blue. It still has a slight green tinge from the micro particles too small to be filtered by the sand filter. I need now to use chemicals to coagulate these micro particles into larger pieces so that the filter can remove them from the water but that is for about a weeks time, just to let it all rest for a while.

Getting There

 

After our pool went to the dogs last week, we started on a strict regime Monday evening to get the pool back to its normal self, sparkly blue. And this what it looks like this morning 36 hours later, a cloudy green. Still a long way to go but hopefully we can swim soon.

Friend of Piglet

 

In our lounge on the other couch that we seldom sit on are quite a few stuffed bears and a piglet too. "The things that make me different are the things that make me me" - Piglet. Yip that is so true, we all different in many ways and you can't simply put me in a box.

Poor Fella

 

While I was working on our swimming pool this evening I noticed this poor little fella lying on the paving stones. Although it has been extremely hot these last few days, this small chameleon seems dried out. There is no visible marks from either a cat or dog so I don't know what happen. Poor fella.

Green Eyed Monster

 

My world has turned green today as the green eyed monster raised it's ugly head. No I am not taking about Lynda, shown in the above photo, although she does have green eyes, she is not the green eyed monster but in the news today, it is all about Hellen Zille, the Witch is Back, and the reason why the mayor Herman Mashaba shirked his duties yesterday (read all about it here) and has tendered his resignation. Not good at all for the City of Johannesburg, not good for us as a people.

Anywho, the Springboks won against Japan in the Rugby World Cup to progress to the semi-finals. The green and gold victory might be a silver lining for us in the gloomy day. Talk about gloom, there is our swimming pool. As you can see it is green and murky. A few weeks back it was nice and blue but the now it has all gone wrong. So starts the long progress to getting it back all sparkly blue again.

Baby Moses

 

This morning I went down to the stream below my house to meet one of my inspirations, our mayor Herman Mashaba on one of his A re Sebetseng clean up Saturday Projects but I did not find our honorable mayor, instead I found these children parting the bulrushes. The mayor had been called away on an urgent matter and the Baby Moses Children's Sanctuary stepped up to the plate. They are a children's home for abandoned and abused children. 

It is a pity the mayor wasn't there as our kloof needs all the publicity and protection it deserves. At least it is in good hands with all the children I saw down in the kloof today.

Sink Princess

It was an extremely hot day and we had our office airconditioners on full ball but when I arrived home I found this. Princess, one of our cats, the most hairiest one that is was sitting in our kitchen sink, which is most likely the coolest part of the house. Shame poor kitty, now I am debuting if I should get all her fur trimmed but I am not sure the is the right thing to do. The jury is still out. 

Industrial Sunset

The dreaded loadshedding has once again popped up its ugly head and showing us that Eskom can't even organised a party in a brewery and that is saying it nicely. Yes the incompetence of our government leaves lots to be desired, in fact Trump can run a government better, or can he?

Anywho, I now needed to find some dinner for the family as we Connect group tonight and our house is in darkness. I first had to rush to Catbox to buy dog food as we were out, then to find a pizza joint that wasn't in darkness too. Eventually I found one in Krugersdorp and this is the photo I took waiting for my pizza to be prepared.

I call it an Industrial Sunset because with the railway tracks and the street lights having no power, all I had is this glorious sunset, oh and pizza on the way.

Most Hated Crew

Yes I am still caged bound while the mechanic is struggling to find the cause of my Vespa being a jerk. Anyways here I am sitting in traffic, trying to find new routes to work avoiding the traffic snarl ups, and I see this. Here was graffiti sprayed by a crew I never heard of, the Most Hated Crew! Well the must be because I've never heard of them, oh that's right I am currently out of touch in whats happening lately. Don't hate!

Ring of Fire

What is happening in Kenmare? There I was meeting with an old acquaintance from 20 years on my deck when an orange glow started to edge up the gorge on the other side. The hot winds did not help one iota and soon it was a roaring bush fire. Those 2 white lights at the bottom right are Hanno and his team of fire fighters fighting to save their homes from this ring of fire. Thankfully no homes nor people were harmed in the fire but I can't say that for the countless animals that live in our veld. I was told that at one fire they found plenty of snakes and other animals burnt to death up against a Clearvu fence as they could not escape the flames.