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Today it rained!
The midday high was 17 deg celsius.
I never thought I'd see the day!
It was wonderful.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Time for a new watch.
My husband has an obsession with watches! I, on the other hand, do not!
Thank you, kind husband, for a beautiful gift.
I wear a watch purely for practical purposes i.e. telling the time!!
Grant would happily have a different watch for every day of the week!
Now about a year and a half ago my watch broke, first the strap, which was replaced and then the battery - or so I thought. After replacing it a few times in a very short space of time I finally gave up and resorted to using my phone to tell the time. It got to the point where I thought I may never need a watch again - why buy 2 items when you can buy 1 that does 2 functions?!!
Well, obviously that was not the right attitude for the wife of a watch-obsessed husband to have!
So, yesterday Grant had a day out with his friend Alan, they go off to the Blue Route Mall and whizz up and down in their chairs popping into coffee shops and to watch a movie etc. etc. This time a watch-hunting expedition was also on the cards!! (Unbeknown to me!!)
When he got home I was presented with a belated anniversary gift, a beautiful Fossil watch! Grant is good at watch-shopping, but finding the right watch for me is quite a feat. You see I do not wear watches without numbers! I cannot tell the time on them, I simply cannot and nowadays it's quite hard to find one with a full face of numbers, but he did a pretty good job:
Thank you, kind husband, for a beautiful gift.Saturday, March 14, 2009
Splish, Splash!
This morning Abigail went to a(nother!) party. This time it was for her friend, Jody who lives in Table View - which explains the view from their back garden:
- beautiful.
Anyway, Jody's grandparents are our neighbours and the girls have become good friends and enjoy riding bikes together when she visits over the weekends. Kelsey, our other neighbourhood friend also went along - actually we went along in their car!!
It was a beautiful day and there was swimming and sliding galore!
Jody had triple-layered-chocolate-mousse-cake!! It was enormous!!
Happy Birthday Jody, and thank you for a fun morning.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The case of the missing disc: (The kindness of strangers.)
Grant has a disabled disc so that he is legally allowed to park in a disabled bay.
In the past these discs would be stuck to the windscreen like a license disc but nowadays they make them "portable" with a hook to hang it over the review mirror so that the disabled person is not limited to one vehicle.
That makes sense, but we live in Cape Town i.e. gale force South Easter wind a lot of the time!
So the story goes like this: the disc was there one day and not the next! We turned the car upside down (not literally!!) and searched in amongst the toddler debris and came up with: 4 plastic fish, 2 plastic horses, 2 coke bottles, at least 1 pair of shoes, 1 blue matchbox car, a lot of papers and a number of other things but - no disc!
So, we were destined to visit the traffic department to acquire a replacement. Now a visit to the traffic department does not conjure up positive emotions for me! It has invariably been a place of intense frustration, complete disbelief at the level of incompetence and/or inefficiency and finally utter despair! I realize I am painting all employees with the same brush and that is probably unfair and inaccurate but I have never had a positive or even remotely pleasant experience at the traffic department!
Anyway, they only replace/issue discs on a Wednesday and we had to have 2 items in our possession before we could pluck up the courage to go: 1) a letter from the doctor to verify that Grant is disabled and 2) ID (passport) photo's.
Now I just have to say that this is a replacement and considering that a large percentage of people applying for /in possession of these discs are paralysed it seems strange to me that we have to present a letter from the doctor saying that he is (still) disabled.
The traffic department must know of some secret procedure that can reverse paralysis because surely if you are coming to replace an already existing disc it must have already been proven that you are disabled. Anyway, that's just my little rant!!
So, last Wednesday came and went without the letter or the photo's and it's only when you need something and don't have it that you realize how much you depend/ed on it so parking became a bit of an issue and we decided that today was going to have to be the day.
So by this morning I still did not have the letter (although it had been written) nor the photo's (which were on my computer and had to get to the printer at the pharmacy!) and I was running very late to fetch Grant and head off armed with all the necessary items to the traffic department!
When I finally got all my ducks in a row and headed out the door to the car I found a letter in the letterbox addressed to Grant with an unfamiliar name and address on the back of the envelope. I decided not to open it because it was not addressed to me and tossed it into the passenger seat and went on my way.
When I finally got to Grant an hour later, he found the envelope and opened it while I was packing the wheelchair into the boot.
What was inside? Our missing disabled disc!!!
Some kind soul had found it and taken the trouble to find out our address and send it back to us.
You cannot imagine my relief!!
I actually felt lighter!!
So, Thank you S. Kruse, whoever and wherever you are, for your honesty and for taking the time to mail it back to us. It's probably more than most people would have done.
In the past these discs would be stuck to the windscreen like a license disc but nowadays they make them "portable" with a hook to hang it over the review mirror so that the disabled person is not limited to one vehicle.
That makes sense, but we live in Cape Town i.e. gale force South Easter wind a lot of the time!
So the story goes like this: the disc was there one day and not the next! We turned the car upside down (not literally!!) and searched in amongst the toddler debris and came up with: 4 plastic fish, 2 plastic horses, 2 coke bottles, at least 1 pair of shoes, 1 blue matchbox car, a lot of papers and a number of other things but - no disc!
So, we were destined to visit the traffic department to acquire a replacement. Now a visit to the traffic department does not conjure up positive emotions for me! It has invariably been a place of intense frustration, complete disbelief at the level of incompetence and/or inefficiency and finally utter despair! I realize I am painting all employees with the same brush and that is probably unfair and inaccurate but I have never had a positive or even remotely pleasant experience at the traffic department!
Anyway, they only replace/issue discs on a Wednesday and we had to have 2 items in our possession before we could pluck up the courage to go: 1) a letter from the doctor to verify that Grant is disabled and 2) ID (passport) photo's.
Now I just have to say that this is a replacement and considering that a large percentage of people applying for /in possession of these discs are paralysed it seems strange to me that we have to present a letter from the doctor saying that he is (still) disabled.
The traffic department must know of some secret procedure that can reverse paralysis because surely if you are coming to replace an already existing disc it must have already been proven that you are disabled. Anyway, that's just my little rant!!
So, last Wednesday came and went without the letter or the photo's and it's only when you need something and don't have it that you realize how much you depend/ed on it so parking became a bit of an issue and we decided that today was going to have to be the day.
So by this morning I still did not have the letter (although it had been written) nor the photo's (which were on my computer and had to get to the printer at the pharmacy!) and I was running very late to fetch Grant and head off armed with all the necessary items to the traffic department!
When I finally got all my ducks in a row and headed out the door to the car I found a letter in the letterbox addressed to Grant with an unfamiliar name and address on the back of the envelope. I decided not to open it because it was not addressed to me and tossed it into the passenger seat and went on my way.
When I finally got to Grant an hour later, he found the envelope and opened it while I was packing the wheelchair into the boot.
What was inside? Our missing disabled disc!!!
Some kind soul had found it and taken the trouble to find out our address and send it back to us.
You cannot imagine my relief!!
I actually felt lighter!!
So, Thank you S. Kruse, whoever and wherever you are, for your honesty and for taking the time to mail it back to us. It's probably more than most people would have done.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Pancakes for supper
Last night we decided to have pancakes for supper!! Primarily because all the food groups are covered!!! First we worked up an appetite by walking to the shop to buy lemon juice - not that any appetite is needed for pancakes - not in this house!!!
Mmmmmm!
Gotta love that cinnamon chin!
Now the best part about pancakes is the flipping! Abigail tried to take some pictures of me flipping the pancakes, she did pretty well seeing as they were action shots and we had to time it quite carefully.
Then Grant got in on the action
Up she goes!!
and before we knew it we were all having a turn,
they didn't always land in the pan!!!
(Oops!)even Niave who has a blister on her hand as proof, poor thing.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Greenfield's Family Fun Day.
This morning we set off bright and early for a fun sports day at Abigail's school.
We were first to arrive, even before some of the teachers!! Talk about keen beans!
Fortunately the weather was kind to us and the temperature stayed under 32! It was a little overcast at first which was wonderful.
The children took part in all sorts of fun races on a completely voluntary basis, the morning was about having fun not about winning.
It was a relaxed and fun morning, one which will hopefully become an annual event.
We were first to arrive, even before some of the teachers!! Talk about keen beans!
Fortunately the weather was kind to us and the temperature stayed under 32! It was a little overcast at first which was wonderful.
The children took part in all sorts of fun races on a completely voluntary basis, the morning was about having fun not about winning.
There were straight races,
sibling races - you had to hold your siblings hand the whole way, some were dragged more than held!!
3 legged races - tied to a parent,
sack races,
potato and spoon,
"long distance" - twice around the field,
water balloon throwing - they had to line up in pairs facing each other and throw a balloon full of water to each other, if your balloon dropped or burst you were out,
parent, grandparent and teacher races
(here the teachers are in action)
and a tug of war.
It was a relaxed and fun morning, one which will hopefully become an annual event.
Niave got up to all sorts as usual!
Heat Wave!
This past week we've had some soaring temperatures in Cape Town but Friday was by far the worst. 42 degrees Celsius - need I say more??? Well, Abigail was fortunate enough to have a swim at school and Niave had a swimming lesson scheduled but our saving grace was our friends Lisa, Bryce and Mitchell who invited us to swim at Lisa's mom's house.
It was great, as you can see the kids had a ball.
Thank you to Aunty Wendy for having us and to Lisa for these stunning photo's.
Last night was really hot, at 7pm the temperature was 32 which is usually a pretty good midday temp but try sleeping in that. Not pleasant, Niave only fell asleep at 9:30 and Abigail at 10pm because it was just so uncomfortable.
Fortunately today was MUCH more bearable thanks to a lovely breeze.
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