I've moved...

New home of 123 Blog Myself

Sorry, but I had to do something before I kick my poor defenseless laptop off the desk in frustration...

Please feel free to visit me - hope to see you soon!

Louisa

..

Something is broken...

I have been trying for the better part of two days to post...
Also I can't post comments on other blogger-blogs...

And while I attempt to use this as a cry for help - might I add:
Dear Blogger people,
Your "next blog" button is as random as a hired hit-man. It hits the same four blog almost continously, only alternating now and then between that and a number of blogs about golf, sex and religion.

I WANT MY BLOG WORKING AGAIN!!! please...

Spending too much time indoors?

I am very happy to report that my flu has kicked the bucket! So back to normal craziness here, and not a moment too soon I think.

You may or may not know (probably may not since I am only writing about it now), that my reading lamp had to be retired about a week or so ago. It was acting funny for a couple of weeks already by flickering on and off at the strangest times and with no apparent provocation, so it was not that big a surprise when it started smoking and threatening to burst into flames. It was disappointing, and inconvenient (and smelly), but not surprising.

My mom was kind enough to buy us each a new lamp this week because her lamp has also started flickering ominously recently. (Thanks Mom!)

My new lamp is absolutely amazing – I love it! It has a cool blue shade visor thingy that can be moved round so that the light shines on what you want to see without blinding you in the process. It has brought to my life both light and inspiration! *pats the good lamp on the shoulder – err I mean adjustable fitting*

Inspiration you might ask? Well, it’s almost like lying flat on your back looking up at the sky and trying to see different shapes in the clouds. At this point you probably think I should go back to the doctor and get something for my hallucinations? Have a look and decide for yourself (You might have to click on the images to open them big so you can see the corner comparisons that I added).

The Locust Lamp

The Eyeball Lamp

The Droid Lamp (This is my favourite)

The Spidy Lamp

The Jet-plane Lamp

The Rocket Lamp

The Puppy Lamp

See what I mean? This might be a clear sign that I am spending too much time at my desk. *Note to self: spend some time OUTSIDE looking at some real clouds!* Or maybe I should spend more time looking at my textbooks and less time at my lamp?

Anyway you may have noticed that I’ve taken down the sign that said “Updates on Sunday”, because I plan to update a bit more frequently now. I will still post my quotes of the week on Sundays and I’ll try to do the Weekly Update ones on Sundays too.

I hope you all have a fantastic week! One week to go till April Fool’s Day…(just a thought).

Ta-dah! More quotes...

Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats. - Howard Aiken (Quotationpage.com)

I will live this day as if it is my last. And if it is not, I shall fall to my knees and give thanks. – Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

As we look deeply within, we understand our perfect balance. There is no fear of the cycle of birth, life and death. For when you stand in the present moment, you are timeless. - Rodney Yee (Erno)

Be the change that you want to see in the world. - Mohandas Gandhi (Adam)

Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion. - Robertson Davies (Quotationspage.com)

Where there's smoke there's fire...right?

I finally caved and went to see the doctor yesterday. My doctor was so busy that I had to see one of his side kicks (dear side kick I was not really blown away by your expertise - it was probably a once off event).

Initially I phoned for an apointment:

Voice, "Medicross, Albert speaking how may I help you?"
Me, " I'd like to make an appointment to see doctor Trevor".
Albert, "Sorry he's fully booked till half past six".
Me,"Okay, well can I have the one after that then?"
Albert, "No, sorry we don't make any appointments for him for later than half past six."
Me, "Looks like he's becoming too popular, maybe I should go somewhere else?"
Albert, "NOOOO!!! Your doctor is like your husband...you can't just leave them!"
Me, "So if we brake up do I get half back?"
Albert...chuckles, "Uhm...no...probably not."
Me, "Who else is good there?"

Albert wisely decides not to pick a favourite and tells me to come in and see the first available doctor...this actually took less time than I thought due to the fact that flu season is not in full swing yet and there are almost 30 doctors there.

I end up seeing a woman doctor there. When I told her I wasn't even aware that they had any she got very huffy with me and gave me an injection on the but. Apparently she started two weeks after Dr.Trevor seven years ago...well your bedside manner needs a bit of tweaking no wonder you're always available!


Anyway, with that behind me (pun intended) - I decided to take it easy and get an early-ish night. Only to wake up at 3:30AM because the power went off and my brother's celing fan makes a thumping noise when slowing down. Also I'm not sure if this is a side effect of my medication but I woke up and I was sure I could smell plastic burning...eeeeeeuw! At first I thought maybe someone was burning something outside my window to drug me so they could steal my laptop (this is not really as irrational as it may sound), but when I peeped outside there was no one there. Eventually I actually got up and randomly unplugged stuff allover the house just in case...I did not sleep easy after that because I was convinced of our imminent DOOM stuck in a death trap fire hazard or something.

But now I know better...my throat is burning like a house on fire and I smell burnt platic everywhere I go, but no one else does (lucky them - I mean have you smelt burnt plastic?!). I'm pretty sure my throat is not actually made of plastic, so I don't know what's going on?

Hope everything goes back to normal soon...looks like it's going to be a weekend of quality time with Tigger, DVDs and honeyed herbal teas.

Flu...

Needed: Someone to administer chicken soup and sympathy...
On second thought - I don't really need sympathy cause I feel sorry enough for myself.
Seems to be alot of this going around at the moment...if I figure out who gave it to me revenge will be mine!

Piece of cake...

I’m starting to wonder about why I have cake stories two weeks in a row now? It’s been a great week really, lots of reason to celebrate and lots of celebrating done. Today is both my mother’s birthday and Simone’s birthday…it seems like a very popular day in March to give birth on because as a family we know so many people that have their birthday on this day. My mom’s aunt Ellen, my dad’s university buddy’s wife Deidre’, Simone’, my mom, a barman named Tony that I was planning on hunting last year about this time, and so on. That’s just today! The rest of the month looks pretty popular too.

This past weekend I attended a party for both Simone’s kiddies. Mishcke just turned 5 and Jean-Antonio (a.k.a. Vlam) turns 3 on the 4^th of April. Pooh bear and Barbie cake was had by all…and I saw firsthand that many hands do not necessarily make light work. It was already in progress when I arrived at 11:00 and after another 3 and a half hours mommy’s temper was running pretty thin with her little helpers who kept breaking the icing piper or poking holes in the Barbie dress while she was icing on the other side. Simma, I didn’t know you had it in you...I find it just extremely funny and it was so worth getting my fingers stained purple helping you ice a Barbie cake. Hahahaha! You have very cute kids and I will call you St.Simone’ for all the patience that you showed on Saturday. You’re doing a great job buddy!

Also had a great Friday p*ss-up with Daedalus and Professor Linda at Paddy’s on Friday. I don’t think the professor enjoys chatting to me anymore. It was fun…although it felt like something died in my mouth on Saturday when I got up and I had to run around and attend a multitude of parties with an extreme aversion to sunlight and loud noises. (Yes who knew…and I didn’t even have red wine).

Saturday night I had a Generation X get together reunion type event at Tanja & Henning’s house where we had a lasagna potjie and played 30 seconds with a twist. Everyone agreed to make it 1 minute instead although it seemed kind of pointless since mostly they finished in the first 30 seconds anyway. Also we heard about the terrible medical trauma of their cute little cat Snuggles who has had more than R9000 worth of vet’s fees in the last two months. Shame - poor kitty. First depression, then kidney splinters, then a slight eye injury picked up at the vet, and lastly running onto a cactus and injuring the other eye. He apparently spends a lot of time in the bath (empty) staring and just sitting there. To hear Tanja talking about explaining to the vet…”something is not right with Snuggles…he spends hours in the bath” is quite funny!

Happy St.Patrick’s day to anyone who enjoys a bit of green in their lives for yesterday…and I hope you have a great week ahead! I know I will because I have no more assignments to do for the rest of this term (obviously still a fair amount of studying need doing before May, but no more assignments. Whooooohooooo!). I am also very excited (a just the tiniest bit nervous) because this week (if all goes according to plan) we will find out when John can come over from the UK. So you can see that this is going to be a really big week for us and for me. I’m sitting here grinning like an idiot at my laptop while writing this…yep…this week is going to be HUGE! ;-)

Quotes...

Never has there been a map, however carefully executed to detail and scale, which carried its owner over even one inch of ground. - Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by. - Annie Dillard-The Writing Life (Erno)

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. - Oscar Wilde (Quotationspage.com)

A single question can be more influential than a thousand statements. - Bo Bennett (Adam)

Humankind cannot stand very much reality. - T. S. Eliot (Quotationspage.com)

Till death do us part?

It’s been a busy week as always…but I’m sitting here and I have no idea what to write.(actually I have plenty ideas, but I find that I’ve been censoring myself lately). I suppose I could do the normal weekly write-up of what I’ve been up to? To be honest I don’t see that happening (or I might just make it a separate post)…this has become too much fluff and not enough teeth.

Call me hormonal if you want but I just feel like taking something apart today. So…what to do? The topic that has been niggling at me for a while now is one of dependence. My little dictionary describes it as: The state of needing somebody or something in order to survive or be successful. Hmmm…looking at it in that light I suppose everyone is dependent to some extent. Where does it cross over to being unhealthy? When do you become so dependant that you are the emotional equivalent of a parasite, unable to live without your host to cling to?

Mulling this over brought to mind a particularly memorable Bible study I once attended. We were discussing the topic of love. The preacher told us that he believed that there was three types of love…Eros (The erotic kind a.k.a. Lust), Philia (Like the love you have for a brother) and Agape (The only true love…selfless love).He also said that he believes in soul mates and he always cautions people not to marry their soul mates. Sounds funny, not so? He told us that he has seen on many occasions that when one of the two die the other follows soon after…they become so intertwined that they literally cannot survive without each other. They die from a broken heart… I think that actually sounds a lot more romantic than it actually is? Imagine physically dying because your heart is broken ?!

I am confused. On the one hand I am looking at two people who are very dear to me wasting away after losing “The One” on the other hand not going for “The One” is much like living a very long life after living on health food and giving up sex…you might live to be 100 but will you really want to? It’s like sky diving…yes…it is most certainly safer to stay in the plane…well actually if you want to be picky it’s probably safer on the ground since the door is open. But when you jump you feel so ALIVE! (But oddly more alone than anywhere else, which makes me wonder how the hell I connected it to this particular topic to begin with?).

To tell you the honest truth – it scares the daylights out of me. Okay…I’ll admit it. I want the soul mate kind of love. I think what everyone is really most scared of is falling that hard (or opening that completely) for someone that won’t waste away when you’re gone. Is that selfish?

This photo is off Deviant Art. It's called Stronghold - by *kailorien. (I really must figure out how to link it nicely like Gobody does). Follow this link to find out more about the artist and the photo.

This also brought to mind an old poem I wrote yonks ago. I’m adding it on here (hope you enjoy it) – be nice – I wrote this when I was 16.

Would you be there?

Will you be there for me,

If I need you someday?

Tomorrow? Today? Or Forever?

Could I feel safe with you?

Would you hold and protect me?

Could you never say never for me?

Could I call you at four?

Could I knock on your door?

Would you be there for me if I did?

Would you love me or leave me?

Protect or deceive me?

Will you always be there just for me?

And when I die someday,

Would you scatter my ashes

In the deep, dark, mysterious sea?

And when I’m gone, and you’re alone...

Would you always keep thinking of me?

So tired from sleeping...*yawn*...

I had the weirdest dream last night…I dreamt that I was trying to get into a racing club where they make you drive odd looking cars that are driven by keyboard like controls on a track that runs through Brightwater Commons (the place previously known as Randburg Waterfront). Then my car fell apart and I lost the keyboard so I ran 100 laps round the place…turns out I only needed to do 10 laps anyway, but the man who was supposed to count my laps got bored and left to have a beer. And in my dream my brother was crying because I got in and he didn’t. A whole team of dream analysts would probably battle to get to the bottom of all of this…I’m writing it off to a slight fever and crazy genes.

It’s very strange – especially the running. I only run for spiders. It happens from time to time that I feel remotely interested in running and at least this time it came to me in a dream instead of a gym membership, or a skipping rope, or a bicycle, or a sit-ups competition, or new ice skates, or a boxing bag! I was exhausted this morning when I got up…100 laps is a loooong way to run.

Urggggh…I need coffee…and painkillers.

Hands off the @#% cupcakes!

This past week has been an extremely exciting week...also at times a very exhausting and trying one. Either way, it is done now and I'm sitting here trying to catch my breath. If I didn't have a camera to remind me what happened I wouldn't have beleived it all happened in one week!

The first thing that happened was that Daedalus gave me the next Survivor series...it is awesome! Really the best one so far in my opinion. My brother and myself have found it irrisistable and watched it all in one week between doing assignments and him trying to sell houses. Unfortunately we had to leave the parents behind because they did not show the necessary dedication and we couldn't make ourselves stop watching! Hehe...Thanks D!

The next thing to happen was that our street has become a crime hotspot. Last week the people in 18 and 20 were hit with armed robberies, and this week it was us at 22 and the people at 26 with theft out of our cars. It sucks... Initially my brother saw his car was broken into and phoned the police station - they told him to fetch the police two houses down himself. When they got to our house we noticed that my car had also been hit. Everything inside is full of candle-wax...a-holes. Consensus is that if you want to get that out you have to iron on a piece of brown paper to draw it out after you scrape the most of it off. So: not only did you rob me but you are now MAKING ME IRON!!! Just for that I am leaving the glass on the backseet for a week for in case you decide to hit me again.Anyway, back to the events in question. The police arrived at which point my brother's stress levels were extremely elevated and he started bickering with the inspector about lack of service, racism and case numbers. My mom started shaking from head to toe and our assistant walked around holding her head and mumbling about tsotsies alot. After the cops left my brother decided to launch a one-man telephone assault on his insurance and PG glass untill he had all kinds of authorisations. My dad phoned my insurance (his insurance) and some little man called Jessie phoned me and told me how he was arranging everything for me.I still have to go and get quotes for the stuff they stole from me, but the window was another adventure on it's own. Initially the folks from Glasfit promised me that it would be sorted out the same day still - but that did not happen. The manager (Andrea) and myself had some words the next morning and she graciously offered to pay for my window to apologise. I have completely forgiven them for the delay and plan to write some very nice things about Andrea on Hellopeter.com for the professional way in which she handled the situation.

Little bit of good news after that was that *Esmerelda*'s mom has sent me an Ice Cream Bush, because she has them in abundance and she heard about my thing for gardening. It's sooo cute! When they grow a bit bigger some of the leaves go purple and pink too. Thanks *Esmerelda* and your mom!





Next fun event was Friday night waffles at Freddy and Adam's house...yummmm...I think it's safe to say that we all ate until our stomachs cramped. Freddy also gave me the next few episodes of Heroes to watch and I'm looking forward to them watching it. Thanks guys! I had a lot of fun.



Then the week's events came to a head with the wedding of my cousin Wynand and his ballerina Lizelle, at Didimala Private Game Reserve. Wow! What an event and what a venue. My google addicted mother informs me that it is the biggest hay stack structure. They apparently stack it and cover it with some concrete-ish layer and ta-dah! you have a room. It actually looks great and they have two guys named Jaco running the place that really keep it in an excellent condition.

Anyhoo, my dad was a bit slower than expected on the trailer packing (we had to take the chairs, the flower and the wedding cake) so we got there an hour and a half later than planned and since alot of work still had to be done to pull everything together we all had to work together fast to get it done. I ran around like a mad person to help get it done. What a shame that I left my medical aid step counter at home...we had to get 80 chairs and covers set up in the chappel, trim and fit 8 bunches of roses to the lollipop arrangements, assemble close to 30 table arrangements and get them on the right spots and build a four layered display of cupcakes and roses balancing on nothing but glass plates and champagne flutes, get the individual cupcakes for the guests into a the lodge cold room, get cleaned up and dressed and be on time so that we don't come in after the bride.

We managed, but the guests had other ideas about the cake. See, after the ceremony the guests were milling round waiting for snacks and sherry while the happy couple were getting the last of the photos done. The caterers however were slightly behind schedule and the guests picked the wedding cake (cupcake display) clean while they were waiting to be served! Did we panic? okay yes...initially we did. Did we scream? Not right away. My parents took a "quick" three hour trip to drop someone off in Pretoria and left me to deal with it. Mmmm...well the show must go on. I had the manager help me unwrap another 28 cupcakes from those that were meant for the guests (we had some extra for a crisis and besides they already had theirs - not so?), and just as I finished re-stacking the extremely fragile cupcake constellation another guest reached out to help herself to the wedding cake. I would have wrestled her for that cookie at that stage. After a warning and a stern look (in which I tried to build in alot of insinuation about lack of etiket and manners) it became apparent that I would have to be the wedding cake bouncer until they took the photo. I had to turn away 4 more people - can you beleive it?! Anyway...despite the fact that I am dead tired and don't want to see another cupcake ever - it was a great wedding of a very cute couple and I have only best wishes for them for a bright and happy future. :-)

Now...I must sleep.

This week's quotes

Within me burns a flame which has been passed down from generations uncounted and its heat is a constant irritation to my spirit to become better than I am, and I will. I will fan this flame of dissatisfaction and proclaim my uniqueness to the world. - Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing. - Oscar Wilde (Quotationspage.com)

Its not having what you want. It's wanting what you've got. - Sheryl Crow, Soak up the sun (Erno)

A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times. - Oliver Wendell Holmes (Quotationspage.com)

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece. - John Ruskin (Adam)

Everything is going just swimmingly...

Where to start...well, I suppose last week will be a good beginning? As you may recall we were in the middle of a fierce heat wave. Just after I posted last week I got an e-mail titled "You know you're in SA when:". I opened it and was expecting another list of crime or similar, but instead I got this!

1. The best parking space is determined by shade instead of distance.
2. Hot water comes out of both taps.
3. You learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron.
4. The temperature drops below 35c and you feel a little chilly.
5. You discover that in January it only takes 2 fingers to steer your car.
6. You develop a fear of metal car door handles.
7. Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to prevent them from laying hard-boiled eggs.
8. The trees are whistling for the dogs.
9. While walking back barefoot to your car from the beach, you do a tightrope act on the white lines in the carpark.
10. You learn that Menlyn isn't a shopping centre, its a temple to worship air-conditioning.
11. If you don't wear your slops to work you probably don't have any.
    

I especially like the one about the chickens...:-)

The pool is at last finished! Yay!!! I have been homebound now for the last 4 weeks more or less in one way or another with the pool and the contractors and my joy knows no bounds that this is finally behind us. Initially we beleived that it would take another three weeks before we were allowed to swim in it but that is in fact not the case. The Penguin Pool people assure us that it is perfectly safe for us to swim now - however we cannot use the Kreepy for another three weeks. The family has decided that all potential pool parties will also have to be delayed until then. Luckily it has a heat pump... Anyway here's me - in the pool at last (the ducky is the thermometer).

On Thursday our neighbours (Marius and Chrisna) were robbed in their house by gun point...Apparently the neighbours next to then on the other side also got a taste of it. I was sitting at the Keg with Annelie when my mom sent the panic-stricken SMS for me to be carefull when I came home. As you can imagine you see all kinds of suspicious shadows when you get news like that. Luckily I arrived home without any incident. However, later on when I got off IRC with John at about 2:00am I heard our back door open unexpectantly. I say unexpectantly because my dad already said goodnight about an hour or more before that. So, in typical thriller movie style I did not shout out or call for help or investigate escape routes - but picked up my hockey stick and went investigating myself. Luckily my dad sniffed when he did or I might have brained him on the spot! Note to self: At all times attempt to get an accurate visual of perpetrator before assaulting with intent to cause grevious bodily harm.
On Saturday I accompanied my mother to a Ladies Wellness Breakfast to benefit the Reach for a Dream Foundation. I wanted to chew off my own leg to get away! From about 9 to 12 we had to listen to various "experts" and "doctors" tell us about the miracle and harmlessness of Botox and Fillers and Lazers and Chemical Peels! I hardly wear make-up...I can assure you that I am not, nor will I ever, be tempted to inject POISON! into my face in an attempt to fight aging...grrrrrrr! The funniest thing I heard on stage was one Doctor who got involved in the event through her church somehow proclaiming that there really was no need to worry about that aspect either because it was in fact not Vanity but fell firmly within the parameters of treating your body like the temple of God. Mmmm...now that was an interesting theory...Hahahahahahaha! Yeah right... this event has put me off charity events for a bit, and I've also decided to listen a bit more carefully when my mom describes these things to me in future.

The best part of the morning by far was the coffee and the therepists from Mangwanani Spa who gave anyone who was interested a relaxing foot rub...I was very interested in anything that could get me away from the Botox party that was developing at the other end of the venue. Also nice that my mom had a foot rub too because she has now decided that we need to go there for a day to get rubbed all-over. It's the spa that Louelle always goes to so I know it's an open bar full day event, 7 treatments and two meals. She claims that it is a little piece of heaven...;-) Apparently they ask you in the beginning of the day whether you want to be rubbed with salt, sugar or various oils - and Louelle claims that the only bit of you that doesn't get exfoliated is the little strip of skin between your ...well use your imagination on this one...I'm not elaborating. I look forward to reporting back on what I find there - although I regret that there will most likely not be any photos of the event.

On a totally unrelated issue...I've been meaning to share this with you for a while now. Recently I had the oppertunity to look for a Tiger Eye stone, because I wanted to give it to Freddy for his birthday together with the book version of Practical Magic (His favourite movie). So I thought a good place to look for stuff would be the internet right? Not right in this case! Although I learnt many things about Tiger Eye, I also learn that the net is a super-crap place to shop for them. I am truly horified at the prices (in dollars) that people are willing to pay for something that I could probably find in our garden if I looked long enough. Okay Freddy, if you're reading this don't worry - I didn't find it in the garden, I found it at Clearwater Mall. Anyway, what I want to tell you is that I'm not sure everyone knows but it's actually some morphed form of asbestos and apparently this is one of the only places where it naturally occurs. So that brings me to my question...who?! named it a Tiger Eye?! We don't even have tigers here...the mind boggles.Okay, this is turning out to be a monster big post here! I'll end it off now... Update on New Years Resolutions: (You might recall that I made 7 because of the fact that it is 2007)

1. Laugh...Love...Live (Still on track with this one)
2. Walk as much as possible...look at the sky often...enjoy the simple things...plan less experience more...breathe deeply (doing okay, but this one still need alot more work)
3. Study hard...be passionate in my thirst for knowledge again (I am way behind in this one, partly due to the construction and chaos that came with the pool. But that is no excuse so I'm fixing that straight away)
4. Listen (If I had done this I would not have had to listen to three hours of Botox-talk, so I have to say needs work)
5. Do enough Yoga to do the dreaded four-legged-table position without hurting myself or looking too ridiculous (I'm busy with that, but I don't look anything like a table yet...hahahahaha!)
6. Try new things...be unafraid (Unafraid almost got me to clobber my dad with a stick, so maybe I need to relook at how I do this?)
7. Host an awesome theme party...make time for old and new friends (This might well be happening when we do the first of many pool parties...we'll see).

As you can see, I have my work cut out for me! Hope you all have a brilliant week ahead.

And more quotes! :-)

I actually thought this was going to look really cute - but I can't even make out the word in the draft version of this post....back to the drawing board I guess? ;-)

Anyhoo! If you too cannot make out what the hell I wrote here, the text reads:

Assuming either the Left Wing or the Right Wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles – Pat Paulsen (Quotationspage.com)

Every horse thinks its own pack heaviest – Thomas Fuller (Google Quotes)

I will laugh at the world. And with my laughter all things will be reduced to their proper size. I will laugh at my failures and they will vanish in clouds of new dreams; I will laugh at my successes and they will shrink to their true value – Og Mandino (The Greatesr Salesman in the World)

Those who flee from temptation generally leave a forwarding address – Lane Olinghouse (Quotationspage.com)

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step – Confucius (Adam)

Gimme the good news...

This week has been unbearably hot! It feels like my brain is in a slow cooker (my skul- my slow cooking skul…mmmm…there might be a poem in that somewhere?). I don’t know if the weather buro is just trying to make us feel better or what, but when they say 30’C the car’s thermometer indicated 38’C after about 5 minutes in the sun. This is not my car that we’re talking about by the way – some days it feels like I am the only person in AFRICA who doesn’t have aircon in my car! Anyway, when I get into that car it is of little to no consolation to me to hear that it’s just because the car was standing…a moving target apparently gathers less sun? It’s 38’C – deal with it. The car feels it, I certainly feel it, and we don’t know why you can’t just admit it and move on…

In an effort to entice thunder and lightning and a reprieve from global warming and heat waves – I will attempt to wash my own car this week – by hand! If it doesn’t rain then I have no idea what I will do…be warned that it might actually snow, or hell might freeze over.

A progress report on project proper swimming pool: It has been established that the pool is too deep and after thinking that the worst of it was behind us now, we were once more visited by our “friendly and efficient” construction team yesterday for the pouring of another layer of concrete to rectify this problem. Now it will have to stand another week being watered three times a day. At that point they will return to put the last layer and the water in. Rumour has it that the pool will have to stand for three weeks before we can swim in it after that. And my dad plans to empty the temporary pool into the new pool because it will halfway fill it up and save on water. So I see plenty of cold showers or hosing down in my future.

I should be happy to report that I now have access to my dad’s uncapped ADSL for free (the little pleasures of unemployment), however – I can not download my Gmail to outlook with it or access IRC with it for some reason only known to Telkom. And to be honest that’s basically where I use most of my data anyway so I’m not getting as much joy from it as I had hoped. It seems that intentionally or unintentionally every telecommunications network in SA is out to get me…yes…you guessed it! I am still not at peace with Vodacom either. I will be investigating the training and maintenance needs of messenger doves in weeks to come. ;-)

Other news this week: I managed to see Freddy for a visit. Initially we were going to re-inact a pancake day that the people in the UK had on Tuesday which we only found about afterwards – but it didn’t work out that way exactly because Freddy also helped me restore some stuff on my PC which didn’t make it through the re-install after Trojan, and we never got round to the pancakes – although we did have some excellent coffee. Thanks Freddy!

Also I saw Louelle on Friday and again on Saturday because it was the food collection week for the Lions. Every month they collect non-persihables at the Pick ‘n Pay at Heathway Shopping centre for soup kitchens and impoverished families in the area. Louelle is such a ray of sunshine when it comes to this. She smiles and works the kids and it’s clear to see that people find it hard to resist her request. We collected an astonishing 4 trolleys between 8:00 and 13:00. I saw with my own eyes how a guy walked out with a bag containing a loaf of bread and a liter of milk while leaving us with half a trolley of canned goods. When you see genorousity like that how can you help but be positive?

I was also invited to a couple of braais over the weekend. Yesterday our family went over to our neighbours house and today I attended another one at Tanya’s house. It was all very nice but I think I should keep a low profile at places without pools until the end of the heat wave at least! Sitting outside in this blistering heat for 5 hours will take it right out of you!

Some sad news: an old friend Desire’s brother died in a car accident this week and the funeral will be held on Friday. It’s a terrible shame - and my thoughts and prayers are with her family in this time of need. He was such a friendly little guy with so much potential when I saw him. We met on a Voortrekker camp that I used to help organize (many moons ago), he was a junior (std.6) and it was his first Seekamp ever. Des was also one of the organisers and so her brother tended to tag along quite a bit. One day he injured his wrist with some careless horseplay on the beach and as luck would have it both his big sister and the lady in charge of first aid was out on overnight trips with other groups. First aid was my baby for the day and after doing a thorough examination on his hand I came to the conclusion that he was just craving a little attention. It was a sprain but not very serious in my opinion – not even any swelling and the injury seemed to flare up whenever he needed to do something or wanted to chat a bit. So I played a little trick on him. I bandaged his arm all the way to his shoulder and put it in a sling for him. And I told him that if it didn’t feel better soon we’d have to take him to hospital! He got such a fright that the arm was miraculously cured within the hour. We had some good giggles about that afterwards when he realized what I had done… he was a sweet kid and it’s a shame that his life was cut short so suddenly. I want to go to the funeral so I will have to figure out where Springs is before Friday. GPS, don’t fail me now…

That’s about it for this week – I hope you all will have a good week. Keep a lookout for that rain!

Quotes of the week...

It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others – John Andrew Holmes (Quotationspage.com)

He who slings mud generally loses ground – Adlai E. Stevenson (Google quotes)

He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it - Douglas Adams :The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Quotationspage.com)

You can learn from anyone even your enemy – Ovid (Adam)

The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age - Lucille Ball (Erno)

Heat Wave...

Heat wave…

This day is wind-still and feverish

Hedges full of brown beetles

Provide the shrill-screamy backtrack

To this hellish summer's day.

I pause and wipe my brow

Sweat trickles down my neck and breasts

Into my already soaked shirt

That clings to me like a lover.

Force another deep breath of scorched air

My footsteps soft on melted tar

Walking amongst the wavy heat ripples

Always walking-walking to where you are…

Infestations all over...

What a crazy week!!

Firstly, my computer (momma’s little sweet laptop…*sniff*) got infected with some wicked Trojan. This is the first time EVER that I’ve had a computer virus…and it was very traumatic. When I became aware of it was when I tried to log onto IRC to chat with John on Valentine’s day, and it wouldn’t let me! I was directed to go to some bogus scanning site for a free scan and to get my PC cleaned up before trying again. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Well, out of desperation I did go there where I was scanned extensively for hours, only the site never ever come up with a diagnosis or a cure- just scanning forever. I did the next stupid thing by downloading probably close to 12 different scanning programs and trying them all. Even after I allegedly cleaned off 3 Trojans and a worm (according to free programs) I was still unable to get into IRC. So on Valentines Day I basically stayed up the night trying to get my Trojan destroyed with no joy, and no chat to John either. *sigh*

Two days I battled without any results, before calling in the big guns. My buddy-old-pal Tiaan...henceforth will be known far and wide as Tiaan-Trojan-Slayer entered the battle field and after installing a shiny new anti-virus called BitDefender on my Laptop which also did not defeat the beast he spent a whole day working on my problem and won the battle on the 17^th of February after four days of our combined efforts. I have dedicated the day to him and erected a commemorative plaque in his honour on our news group’s pages (Kwaaiplaas). Basically we strongly suspect some dodgy Microsoft updating let it in and it wormed into my registry nice and deep where we couldn’t find it. So we backed up documents, pics, e-mails and music and re-installed. It was a scary and horrific experience (the four days, not the cure) and not something that I wish to go through ever again.

So my advice to everyone out there is:

* Get decent anti-virus and malware protection

* Be vigilant about downloading anything (not everyone is your friend)

* Trust no one, and don’t open dodgy e-mails in funny formats even if they are from people you know

And if you’re an idiot and you do everything wrong hope that you have a super-cool-trojan-slaying friend like I do. J Thanks again Tiaan!

Here is a picture of the master at work on my poor little laptop…

As if that’s not bad enough even more pests have infiltrated my world. Due to our dogs’ feeder and therefore constant availability of food, we have developed a rat-problem at our house. (I know: the shock! The horror!) Actually I’m not really afraid of rodents (unlike spiders who are all out to get me), but I am getting nervous because they are starting to vastly outnumber us now.

And our little rat family (who are as big as small dogs due to the very nutritious food they enjoy here) have been blessed with a litter of baby rats. The grown ups up until now have had the decency and good sense to keep to the ceiling where they enjoy midnight romps and day-night-series soccer games, and occasionally send someone to the trap so that we don’t get discouraged and call an expert exterminator. The babies however have less sense and two have found their way into the house. One was running for its life away from Diablo when my dad unsuspectingly opened the back door at just the right moment to make it a viable escape route. It now lives in my brother’s old speaker box.

The other has been graciously brought to my room for inspection by my cat Tigger. It would have been gross but okay if she had brought it in dead or killed it once she showed it to me, but Tigger is not interested in anything except her Whiskas and only wants to roll on prey. She honestly doesn’t even use her claws…and that is how the second baby came to live behind my bookshelf with an enormous spider that I saw going in there a while ago and have been too terrified to find and destroy. I think if it does not eat the spider or the spider does not eat it, one or both of them will want to come out again at some point and that is why I now study and chat at my desk wearing my winter slippers (boot-like and fluffy with lots of protection from little scampering feet on my bare skin…urrrgh!). It’s a bit uncomfortable in the hot summer climate I’ll confess…but probably more comfortable that jumping into my ceiling fan head first – which is what I almost did when I first saw Tigger’s catch hot-footing it across my room for the safety of the bookshelf. Here is a picture of Tigger at the entrance of “behind my bookshelf” waiting for her toy to reappear.

Other news this past week, not related to pests: Bug-boy and Bugzilla have both disappeared…I suspect one disappeared into the other one. Vodacom, the bane of my existence, have informed me that I will be getting a R1600 credit on my next phone bill – we still have one outstanding issue between us, two if you also consider the mailing list they sold my details to. Louelle came to visit me and has offered me a commission for selling her paintings for her (I’m very excited about this). And a rabbit has taken the opportunity while the dogs are confined at the back for our swimming pool construction to move in under our deck – I have decided to call him Deckster for that very reason. He is fast but cheeky and I suspect that Diablo will probably attempt to eat him as soon as they get released to the front again…in two weeks at the most. Hopefully he will go back to where he came from before that happens?

I hope that you all will have an excellent week ahead… I am looking forward to it that’s for sure! Thank you for everyone who participated in last week’s poll…it looks like everyone agrees that the police (super-crime-fighters) are afraid that their trailer will get stolen if they don’t disable it.

Have a great week! Take it easy…