your one stop blog.....

Well it seems like, whether you are interested in nature, politics, art, people, family news, or all of the above you will find it all here, and often all in the same post... I'm afraid today is no exception!

I dare not get onto the subject of Zimbabwe, for your sake and that of my keyboard, I will just post this cartoon from the paper earlier this week, it pretty much says it all!

GRRRRRRRRRRR....

But I will just say that I am impressed with the stand being taken by COSATU (the trades unions), who are capable of some pretty insane and inane opinions, but in this particular case, in the continued absence of any leadership from our President and his cronies, they are standing up and taking the moral high ground. They have done a great job in ensuring that the Chinese ship full of weapons destined for Zimbabwe does not offload on our coast, and hopefully not in Angola either. So a bouquet to them!

A few overflow photos from interesting items on the PE Daily Photo:

I was so glad to have an opportunity to see the latest sculpture done by Graham Jones, who is, apart from being a brilliant artist, also the brother of a friend of mine. You know you have arrived at an eccentric artist's house when you find a giant fly made from a gas cylinder on the veranda!

He was commissioned by the Sunday Times to do the next in a series of monuments they are putting up around the country, to celebrate the achievements of prominent South Africans. In this case, it is for Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, at one time curator at East London's small museum, who is credited with discovering the fascinating coelacanth, a pre-historic fish which even pre-dates dinousaurs.

Graham made it out of cast iron, so it has a wonderful surface texture that suits the subject perfectly. He has added all sorts of fascinating bits and pieces, and the mouth is stuffed with fishing gut, a silent protest against the wicked exploitation of this hugely endangered species.

Here he explains his passion to raise awareness about these amazing fish.

This is the stainless steel cutout which will eventually surround the base when the 4 and a half ton fish has been mounted at its permanent home at the museum in East London.

A while ago I was doing a series called "now and then" in which I featured historic buildings, as they look now, and also vintage photos of how they looked in the early years of Port Elizabeth history. The first one I featured was a little cottage on the brow of Richmond Hill, which overlooks the bay. Well sadly, it burned out last week.

According to Graham, who lives in the same street, it was inhabited by Nigerian Drug dealers. Such a shame!

And finally, Max's sister popped in from Durban for an overnight visit, and took us out to dinner. Simultaneously, winter arrived with a bang!

It has been so dry lately that the question of where to go in foul weather hasn't arisen. This weekend it did ! Where do you go where you can park undercover and enter the place without walking miles to the car and drowning or freezing to death on the way? And where do you take a bunch of people ranging from 3 to 58, with an assortment of food allergies, and in particular one who has had a bypass recently and is FANATICAL about eating heart friendly food? We found the perfect solution... Carolina Spur at Greenacres. The 3 year old (you know who!) was so well cared for in the play area that we couldn't even prize him away to eat chips, and that is VERY unusual for this particular little gannet!

The gluten/dairy intolerant ones had a ball at the salad valley, and the heart patient was ecstatic to see little heart foundation logos on many of the items on the menu. We had a great evening, and will definitely be back there soon! There was even good food for the "normal" ones in the group (MOI!!! LOL)

After dropping them off at the airport the next evening, we went for a stroll on the beach and ended the weekend on a lovely note!

Cheers for now.

and we wait...and wait...........

is there now hope of rebuilding the ruins left by Mugabe?

Goodness, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission are certainly making a meal of releasing results, wonder if they are getting paid by the hour? Certainly any credibility they may have had is evaporating more with each hour that passes!

However, it does look promising, and it seems the political tide has turned there. It will take many years to undo the damage that has been done, but at least there is now some sort of hope for the future there. We still have to hold our breath though, (as if we are not blue already!!!) because it all hinges on Mugabe bowing out gracefully. It appears the fly in the ointment is the Chief of the Army, who refuses to let him do so, as he has claimed the armed forces will never be loyal to any other leader....... without the co-operation of the police and army the handover could be very ugly. And these guys have enjoyed absolute power for years, they have "tasted blood' so to speak, they have enjoyed getting high on brutality and controlling people with fear. It seems unlikely that they are suddenly going to put aside self interest and care about human rights and integrity overnight.

So for the MDC, winning the election is only the first step on what promises to be a very rocky road, but I really wish them all the best.............. may they be wise, honest, and strong leaders. And I really hope that the leaders of the first world, who have, to their shame, remained so passive in the affairs of this desperate country, (obviously not enough oil or gold there to make it worth their while!!!) will now come to the party, and help rebuild the shattered lives of so many Zimbabweans.

On a lighter note, it is school holidays now, and living in a house with a pocket handkerchief sized courtyard with a very active 3 year old gets somewhat stressful, so our daughter was feeling the strain. So yesterday I took K and the wee E on an outing to the Boardwalk, and he let off some steam in the funfair. Great fun!

if he could have thrown money into the wishing well all morning he would have!