Hi to everyone so another year gone and we are in to 2019. Most accounted for only Laura I can't seem to raise. Hopefully she is cruising somewhere in Blondie but miss her posts. So to everyone else may 2019 bring you much happiness, love and laughter.
Can't wait for the holiday folk to go home and life to get back to the slow coast. Unfortunately younger people today seem to have an air of entitlement, are arrogant and disrespectful in general and as for the masses that trashed the town and the surrounds over the holiday period the less said the better and that is my rant to start off the year.
I don't get out a lot having my Mom living here and her short term memory is now completely gone. She doesn't really want to be here but unfortunately where she wants to be no longer exists it is in the past probably 50 years ago when she had a home and young children. That said while forever longing for the young children when her great-grandchildren were visiting for 10 days she was complaining about peace and quiet so you can't win. Over the holiday periods everything is so overcrowded I haven't taken her out but we will do a outing on Saturday as it is her 95th Birthday. Probably just down to the golf club for breakfast but after this weekend we should just have the stragglers left as schools will have gone back.
Very peculiar weather for summer usually it would be the lazy, hazy days of summer but we have had overcast weather for weeks and rather tired of grey skies. Hopefully the sun will come out when my Daughter and family arrive from New Zealand on the 21st of January. I haven't seen them for 6 years other than on Skype so we are really looking forward to their visit. I have booked them on the shuttle from the airport as it is a 6 hour round trip if you travel both ways in one day and the shuttle is reasonably priced and not much more that gas would cost you.
Hi Shirley,
Well now I know why we haven't heard much from you. I guess you have your hands full with being your mom's caretaker. Her "poor management" comment at least provides some humor to the situation.
The lack of power and water shortages makes for some miserable times. Our weather has become very unpredictable. I think we have had changes all over the world. The severity of storms has increased.
We are now just about half way through the year and wondering where time has gone to. We had huge floods last month with very heavy rain over a 3 day period. I am safely perched on top of my hill so we never had any damage but a large amount of infrastructure was damaged including the pumps for the water for which our dear bankrupt Municipality has no spares. Fortunately we have been spared and our water has stayed on but the villages further South and the rural areas have either had no water or a few hours a week for the last 7 weeks. It is a horrible situation for the vunerable and the elderly. They are also not supplying relief and it has once again been left to the Gift of the Givers in conjunction with public donations of sealed water that is barely keeping things ticking over but has badly affected an area that is reliant on tourism.
We had an attempted break in but they only managed to dent my bars slightly and they make a lot of noise if anybody fiddles with them after they had managed to get in next door to us. They are very busy all over at the moment. Won't find too much of interest here as they like expensive electronics and cellphones which we don't own.. Other than my engagement ring and my wedding ring which I no longer wear as my knuckles swell I gave all good jewelry to my Daughter in New Zealand long ago so nothing much of any value in that line either and it doesn't pay to wear any and advertise. I do, however like crystals and rhinestones and have enough costume jewelry to keep me happy.
Hard to believe my Mom has been with us a year on the 15th of June. I think her health has improved with supervised meals but unfortunately nothing can be done with the memory. It has its funny moments as well as she calls us by the right names but doesn't know where we fit in. When she talks about family it is her siblings when the mind is way back. She thinks she is in holiday accommodation and the other day I was told she is going to report me to management. I told her I am management and was politely told in that case I am poor management and with that I will love you all and leave you. until another day.
Hi all - Family has come and gone. Unfortunately the weather was not that kind to them but they managed to have a couple of glorious days and did Water World and the Zip line at Oribi Gorge which is about 14 different zip lines that criss cross the gorge and end at the bottom at the lake. Well the best laid plans of men and mice.................. the Granny Nanny didn't work out with the unexpected pregnancy at 42 and being so close to due date so it was one or the other that went out at a time. They did spend a week in Cape Town where the weather was fabulous but they under drought conditions The dementia has progressed extremely fast over the past few months and now I have had to remove the kettle. It is rather draining but my Sister is coming down again next month and she see for herself how things have regressed as it is hard to believe.
Load shedding is in full swing again with the state owned electric monopoly facing another crises so no power 2 or 3 times a day is happening. Flask actually keeps water piping hot for hours so easy to make tea or coffee and meals we just working around the power outages and will either have the main meal at lunch time or evening depending on the schedule of when we are out. Computer is still on an inverter and it has plenty of time to charge inbetween outages and as long as I am in contact with the rest of the world all is good.
We have had a lot of rain but the weather is still weird we will have oppressively hot and humid days especially with it being so damp and all of a sudden a breeze will come up and the wind can get quite cool and this is supposed to be the hottest time of the year. But I am thankful I did not have your polar vortex.
Nice to hear from you again. Seems you are keeping very busy being your mom's caregiver. At least your water troubles and internet weren't mentioned so things may have gotten better along those lines.
Enjoy your daughters visit and hope the weather is nice while they are there.