What I've done.........

I found this on Janet’s blog, and thought it looked like fun. If you want to play along just copy this and then bold the things you've done.

I HAVE….

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

And…

100. Ridden an elephant

Wow 52, more than half... One thing I really really want to do sometime is go to Antarctica, but somehow doubt if it will happen. ..... in the meantime I travel vicariously, I read everything I can find about it, and drool over iceberg photos!

7 strange things

This one has been doing the rounds for ages, I keep meaning to get to it. Shirley tagged whoever wanted to do it, so here goes. I have a no tag policy on this blog, so if you want to do it, cool, if not, cool. Just let me know if you do because I’d love to see yours.

7 little known facts about me….
1. I am not particularly freaked out by snakes, but I am horrified by frogs! (teeny tree frogs, and the little stripy Clicking river frogs with pointy noses that we have in our garden are exceptions) but the rest give me the willies! I know they are harmless, but they still creep me out. Ian once collected some of the big flat slimy ones that we call ‘platannas” here and put them in my freezer to use as fishing bait. I didn’t know they were there, and pulled them out of the packet thinking they were chops. Let’s just say he was a little unpopular!

2. I used to work at a brewery doing chemical and microbiological analysis in the quality control department. (I got 2 free crates of beer a month, Max’s friends used to say I definitely couldn’t marry him for his money, so he must have married me for my beer!)

3. When I was a baby, in Capetown, I had a nanny called Rosy. She used to call me ‘little miss buttons’ because I was fascinated by buttons. I still like anything dotty… go figure!

4. I could swim before I could walk, (both before I was 1.) My mom taught me because they spent a lot of time around water and she wanted me to be safe.

5. I used to specialise in decorative paint techniques and painting murals. When my mom was in hospice, her room looked onto a blank wall, so a friend and I painted a mural on it so she, and those who used that room after her, would have something interesting to look at.

6. My family tree on my dad’s side goes back to Lady Jane Grey and King Henry 7th. (They would be mortified to have such an anti-royalist, anti-authoritarian slob in their line, but hey, you can’t choose your family!!)

7. When I was 21, I went to the Chobe Game Reserve in Botswana, and Liz Taylor and Richard Burton were there for their honeymoon after their 2nd marriage. When I went down to breakfast I walked right by her, but I didn’t stop or even show that I recognised her, I think celebrities must crave anonymity sometimes so I respected her space. She just looked sad and middle aged to me at the time.

There you have it.

And by the way ............
WELL DONE BOKKE ............. you did us proud!

Going Grey

A while ago, Terry from Oregon was discussing the various merits of going grey vs, dying one’s hair, and a Time article which seems to say that going grey is a new trend. As she sports a spectacular head of really stylish silver, it is a no-brainer for her, it would be a shame to colour such lovely hair. My hair was blonde as a child, but went progressively darker as I got older. By the time I was a teenager, a school friend commented one day “you don’t even qualify as a dumb blonde, you are just a dumb mouse.” (yeah yeah, with friends like that…….) But sadly, it was true, my hair could best be described as “dark mouse.” Then when I was pregnant with K, my hair turned really dark almost overnight, must have been some hormonal thing. But it never felt like me, in my mind I was supposed to be blonde. So by the time I was 22, I was regularly highlighting my hair. However, another of those passing remarks that has a lasting impact was made by my mom about a friend of hers, who she described as “fair, fat and forty.” (as I said, with friends like that…….) anyway it hit home, and as 40 approached, I realised that I did not want her applying the same scornful label to me. The fat and 40 were things that were not going to change, but I could do something about the fair…. So around my late 30’s I started to go red. Over the years I experimented with many shades, from bright tangerine orange through to deep plum, sometimes one tone, sometimes multi layered with brown, and once, in a “what was I thinking?” moment, I even went pink!

By co-incidence, a few weeks before Terry’s post, I had decided that it was time for me to see what my real colour was, as I had not seen it for 30 years, and had no idea what it looked like these days. The comment I left her at the time (end of August) read "What an amazing co-incidence! Here I am, on the southern tip of Africa, blissfully unaware of any global hair trends, and 3 weeks ago I decided out of the blue to let my roots grow out and see how grey I am, because I have dyed my hair for so many years that I have forgotten what my real colour is! So I am also in the process of going grey, and loving it!"

Luckily my hair is short and grows fast, so 2 cuts 6 weeks apart have almost eliminated the coloured bits, and this is the result! I think I’ll stick with it for a while, I feel proud of my grey hairs, I’ve earned every one of them!
At great personal risk of public humiliation, I put together a collage of some of the colours I have sported over the years. Top row left to right… B&w taken at about 6 years old, showing medium blonde. Next at 14, darkish blonde. At 18, still more blonde than brown. Top right, one of our wedding photos, definitely dark mouse by then!

2nd row left, around 25, and it is a dark nondescript colour. Late 20’s by now I am highlighting regularly. 2nd row 3rd from left, one of the first reds, more like ginger, in my days as a DJ on a local radio station (that’s something you didn’t know about me!!!!)

The others show some of the various shades through the years, in no particular order, note 3rd row right, the infamous pink! Blurry bottom right was at K&J’s wedding 5 years ago, when I tried brown for a while.

As you can see, neat groomed hair doesn’t seem to be my thing, I often forget to comb it, and even if I do, it seldom co-operates.) I will be devastated when bed-head goes out of fashion! I may never turn out to be the sort of granny who cooks wonderful memorable meals or lovingly knits jerseys and bed-socks, but at least I am a grey haired granny. ………… for now!

getting to know me-me

These questions were posted on “getting to know you” over at Create a Connection…. It’s a while since I had the time or the mental energy for a meme, so here goes…

Where were you in 1987? In school? Working? Single? Married? Attached? What was important to you? What were you doing creatively? Tell us a bit about your life then. I realize some of you were children then...all the better!Sorry, I was not a kid then, I was 33 (which feels like a kid compared to now!!) I was married (still am, same guy!), and our kids would have been aged 10 and 8. We lived on a smallholding, and I was a studio potter, so my work and creativity coincided. Although to be honest, I think the most creative and important thing I was doing then was raising my kids. I worked from home to give me an opportunity to be a full time mom as much as possible. We placed a big emphasis on quality family time.
I was also into self sufficiency, so we grew our own veggies, I milked our jersey cow twice a day, made my own butter and jam etc…. I had a crazy horse called Tangy and used to love riding around the surrounding countryside. It was pretty idyllic, although finances were tight .But as time went on, squatters moved onto the surrounding vacant plots and we increasingly experienced problems with drunks fighting over weekends, and it was no longer as safe as it was in the early days, when I never bothered to lock our front door.
When I look back on those years, it seems almost like a different incarnation because it was so different to the way my life was 12 years later. (Not that I believe in reincarnation…. which is a relief because I’d hate to have to go through those gawky teenage years again!)

Where were you in 1997? What would you like to share about the nineties?By 1997 we had moved into town (but the outer suburbs, not the middle of town where we now live.) I had given up the pottery because of an injured back, and was building up my increasingly busy interior design business. South Africa had become a democracy and I was very optimistic about the changes that were taking place, and increasingly irritated with the diehards who did nothing but whinge and whine and resist change. (This does not mean I was wearing blinkers and not seeing the problems). Of course there have been sacrifices for the privileged members of our society, and ongoing corruption, ineffective justice system etc are concerns, but I am still happy here and believe this country is a special place with huge potential.

Where did you plan to be or think you'd be in 2007? Have your realized your goals?
I think I am more of a “live for the day” kind of person. I tend not to set huge goals for the future. I even hate making appointments, I love to be spontaneous, so planning ahead just isn’t part of my thinking. Having said that, Max was retrenched from his job in 1998. It really forced us to re-think, because with ‘affirmative action” which means that legislation forces companies to employ “previously disadvantaged” people, namely blacks, and jobs for middle aged white men are like hen’s teeth, he went into business on his own. Suddenly all your complacency about your future, your pension etc is turned upside down. Because Max and I both ran our own 1 man businesses which totally depended on us working for income, we could not afford to go on leave, or be sick. We realized we needed to do something about that and started planning the direction of our businesses. To a degree we have realized some of those goals, but there is a way to go.

What is one thing about your present life you love
Being married to Max, being a granny (and BTW great news is there’s another on the way, Ian and C are going to be adding to the family soon, YAY!!) living in town, overlooking the bay, doing art…ok I can’t count to 1!

and one you'd like to change?The crime around here…. It would be cool if the prisoners lived behind bars and locked doors, and the citizens were free to roam the streets, instead of the other way round!

How do you see your life in 2017? Do you have any goals or dreams for your future? Well I have just done another U-turn, going into art full time, so who knows where we go from here? One of the things we did was buy a derelict cottage and renovate it, I enjoyed it so much and hope to have the opportunity to do more of that. Anyway, apart from an ongoing strategy of trying to invest in property as a hedge against a future of sponging off our kids, I will continue to enjoy living a day at a time! My one HUGE goal is to get to a point where we can do some serious traveling. We have decided to work towards a trip to Scotland next May, after that, hang on world… here we come!

Rainy day ramblings...

This is a meme which Swampgrrl posted over at Create a Connection last Wednesday, I worked on it over the weekend, but this is the first chance I have had to get online and post it.....

Getting to Know You Day Wednesday
1a. What is one thing about your body that you hate, deny, talk trash about?
To be honest the list is big, one thing…mmmm…. Well you would think it would be my weight, but actually I have already come to terms with that, I think it would have to be my teeth. My bite should have been corrected as a kid, but it wasn’t, and as a result, because my teeth meet when closed, instead of the front teeth overlapping the bottom ones, they have worn down a lot, they are now short and uneven, and I have had to have root canals when the nerves are exposed.
1b. What can you do to make friends with this part and show it a little love?
I am not on medical aid so restructuring my bite is out of the question at this stage. So I’ll live with them as long as I can, but I really don’t want any more root canals. At some point, I will probably have to have them out and get false teeth. Although I hate the idea, it is the most practical option I can think of. Since I have had really bad experiences with dentists, and avoid them wherever possible, I am going to procrastinate on this one! It will be “management by crisis!!!”
2a. What is one thing about your home that doesn't feel good?
Until a couple of weeks ago, I would have said that the sitting room was too narrow, but we fixed that by moving the doors out, so I think it would be that our bedroom is a bit dark, there is just a narrow courtyard outside that doesn’t let much light in. Since we are hardly ever home during the day, it is only a problem if I am sick and have to spend a couple of days in bed.
2b. What is one thing you can do to change that?
I have already had a skylight fitted in the passage, which made an enormous difference. As we have lovely high ceilings, and picture rails at door height, I would love to make a row of funky square windows along the wall that adjoins the passage, above the picture rail, to let some of the light from the skylight in. But I’m not sure the problem is bad enough to justify the mess and expense, so I am not too stressed about it right now!
3a. Is there a relationship that you have difficulty with?
Yes, my Father and I have a tense relationship. He is 88, (89 on Tuesday) so obviously there is not an endless amount of time to build bridges. When he is staying with us, I really have to keep reminding myself to keep my sense of humour, and not let his selfish, demanding and manipulative ways get under my skin. (This is not a new thing since he has been old, our whole family life revolved around him and his obsessive/compulsive fixations since I before I was born)
3b. What is something small you can do to either salvage it or come to terms with it? I know he is too old to ever change, so I have to change the way I react to him, and just be very patient. I find the thing that helps the most is reminding myself that he had an unhappy childhood, so it is not surprising he is an emotional cripple, which helps when I need to cut him some slack, and I am better at setting boundaries to protect myself from constant manipulation. Also Max is really good at helping me see the comedy in the whole situation.
4a. Is there something you are afraid to do, but would like to try it?
I am not a very fearful person when it comes to daring stuff, in fact I am a bit of an adrenaline junky, but one fear I am aware of is on a more personal level. I have lost many friends and family members since we were married, we have had 2 family members murdered in separate incidents, in one year 3 people I was really close to died of Cancer within a few months of each other, then my mom died a few years ago, and my mother in law (who I adored) 2 years ago. I also have a sister who suffers from Lupus and it is a miracle that she is still with us. What I have noticed is that, apart from immediate family, I have tended to distance myself from my friends more and more, and I know where it comes from, the irrational fear that if I get close to people, they die and I hurt. I had quite a wake up call a while ago, a friend phoned and said Sue, please come over, L (Her husband) is lying on the floor and I think he is dead!” I rushed over, and it was dreadful. He was dead, and his son was hysterical and trying to give him CPR. (He had just come home from hospital after a routine knee op, and a blood clot had broken loose and caused a massive pulmonary embolism.) They were in their mid 50’s, and he had just taken early retirement, they had all sorts of plans for the future. It was at a time when both of our kids were living out of the country, and we have no other family living nearby. I thought if (God forbid) the same thing happened to Max, who would I phone? And that is when the penny dropped about how I had been distancing myself from all my friends, by getting completely wrapped up in my work.
4b. What can you do to begin a plan to try it?
I have been making a conscious effort to balance my work/leisure time better, and make time for my friends. I am still far from where I need to be, so I must continue working on this.

Phew Mo, that was a tough one, but you asked us to dig deep! And thanks, I think it was a valuable exercise.

YAY it's raining!

I woke up today to my FAVOURITE weather! Bucketting with rain, wind howling, just look at the atmosphere in these photos!

This one is helped by the wonderful ripples in the antique glass in this old window.

Daily pix.....

Looking out my front door....

Here are a couple of zoomed shots of the slivers of bay and city that you usually see in the distance. I have never seen them this clear, you can even pick out houses right across the bay!

So I'm off to snuggle up with a hot cup of coffee, a good book and a few kitties....cheers!