I’m surviving

… or at least I think I am.

It’s been an absolute torrid time since I last posted. Between the onslaught of the carrion crows which descended upon us to check that policies, procedures, appointments were all being adhered to and then a visit from one of our ‘esteemed’ ministers, I haven’t had a semblance of a normal life or work day for that matter.

But, I am strong. I am woman. Hear me roar! (purr). From having to close the carrion crow onslaught with a summarised report to having to present a speech to the minister on the status of our particular business unit’s progress in the Province; the one and only highlight was my Giant Rat returning home a week earlier than scheduled! And the cherry on the top (with whipped cream, nogal) is the fact that he’s actually here with me until the end of April 😉

So, as hectic as my work life is at the moment; I know I can relax over the Easter weekend especially as I have been a real clever clogs and have taken the three workdays as leave after the long weekend, giving me a whole 11 days off or so to spend some real quality time with my Giant Rat and Marmee.

And while I’m off? I shall be switching off the cell phone and changing my name 🙂

With this quickie, let me love and leave you all for a bit whilst I enjoy my cup of coffee in my little oasis and chat with my colleagues.

Wow!

Check out my new phone* I’ll be collecting today 😉

 

The iphone 5

Decisions, decisions. Which feature should I try out first?

 

 

* Image received via email.

Goodbye, my Sweet Thomas

You entered our lives on 05th November 2010, brought down from Richards Bay by hubby. A tiny 5 week old scrap who, the minute I took you from hubby, held my face between your paws whilst looking into my eyes. Your little V8 motor started revving immediately as you washed my face.

You slept with me night after night, settling down on my pillow where you would brush my hair with your little paws before washing my hair. I wondered if your acidity levels were as strong as our friend’s Red Setter who used to lick his mate’s forehead eventually bleaching a blonde stripe between her ears, and decided it would be pretty neat if I ended up with a blonde streak too.

 

Your big sister, Lucyanydots, was not too impressed by your arrival into the halfy household; hissing, spitting and growling at your mere existance, let alone your early attempts to make friends with her. You crept into her heart, and we witnessed you holding her face between your little paws as you washed and loved her. Before long, you were sleeping soundly together with her, grooming one another and taking over my desk so I would be reduced to sitting with my keyboard on my lap.

You were inseperable from Hannah when we adopted her in December; the difference in size made no difference to either one of you as you took turns chasing each other around the garden or spent time grooming and washing each other. It always brought a smile to my face to see you lying on top of Hannah as you gave her a thorough good washing before turning to pounce on her wagging tail.

 

And the last photo we took or rather hubby took of you on Monday morning before he returned to Richards Bay. He waited with me for my lift to collect me with you sitting on his shoulder before you jumped down onto the wall to stalk a lizard. A perfect photo to show your original uprights just how nicely you were growing although we think you were destined to always be a littley.

Tommy Tucker 14 March 2011

Tuesday, 15th March 2011: I arrived home to find you, Lucyanydots, Hannah and Cleo waiting for me at the front gate as you always do. Brad still smiled and remarked that the family were all there. You and Lucyanydots followed me into the house, winding yourselves around my ankles until I picked you up for your afternoon cuddle and greeting. We spoke as we always do, and after hearing just how hungry you were, you ate and scooted off into the garden to play.

 

And that’s when I heard the commotion. The mangy mutts from across the road in the street again, and before I could get the security gate unlocked they had you. Sean and I went running after them into the nature reserve but by the time we fought our way through the bush it was too late. He beat them off so I was able to take you back home, and I laid you to rest in your favourite sunning corner.

 

Goodbye my sweet Thomas. You entered my life a short 4 months ago, but you will live on in my heart forever.

Corruption is rife

There’s nothing like getting a new hard drive for your computer and after installing it, commencing with the installation of your OS only to have it bomb out at 4% with the following message: ‘files are corrupt or missing. Go and play in the traffic.’

 

After reformatting the new drive and trying a couple of times, we tried hubby’s disc as well in case it was my own disc which had become as corrupt as some of our politicians but alas I got no further with that either. So it was back to the store on Sunday with said new hard drive as well as my disc for them to check in case there was a fault with the drive and swap it out if necessary.

 

Lo and behold, my new drive was connected, reformatted and the disc loaded completely the first time round. Trying again on our return home, the corruption was alive and well and all the Doom in the world was unable to get rid of the nasty little goggas living inside the innards of my poor computer.

 

My kind and much loved Giant Rat has now relocated my pc to Richards Bay where he feels the sea breeze may magically restore some serenity to its’ innards, failing which he will be handing it in to Matrix to run diagnostics on the motherboard and processor, one of which obviously needs replacing (hopefully not both).

 

I miss my pc 😦

 

 

PS: Sidey, your weekend theme was a snapshot of me looking to the horizon wondering if there’s enough mouthwash to get rid of the taste of the flock of carrion crows which descended on our offices yesterday for a two-week audit!

Battered; not fried.

I’ve always been under the impression that the colours representing Valentine’s Day are red and white, but it appears that I was sadly mistaken and they are actually black, blue, purple and a ghastly yellow hue.

 

It was off to work as usual on the morning of the 14th after a wonderful weekend with my Giant Rat; and in the midst of repacking and resealing boxes in preparation for our move the following week I decided to traipse down to the supermarket to get sugar for Big Sweetie’s coffee as he’s nowhere near as sweet as I am

 

So there I was, innocently walking down the stairs minding my own business when all of a sardine three hoodlums came screaming up the stairs being chased by building security for having snatched someone’s bag. Needless to say, I was in the proverbial wrong place at the wrong time, and ended up being swept off my feet landing flat on my back up the stairs and knocking my noggin for good measure.

 

After being assisted by security and Big Sweetie being called, I made my way back to the office where I promptly fainted and then made an urgent trunk call into the great white telephone. Being dizzy and not quite there, Big Sweetie rushed me off to my GP who confirmed that while I was lucky enough not to have broken anything or cracked my noggin, I had a mild concussion and promptly booked me off work.

 

I spent the rest of the day and the next at home, lying on my stomach and being unable to sit down properly for the severe bruising, but returned to work on the Wednesday stressing about our move as I was co-ordinating the move of my particular division of 70-odd staff scheduled for the 21st Feb.

 

So there you have it. I think it may be an indication that I’m a hard nut to crack!  Or it simply means that I do need my head read after all. Personally I think it’s the latter, but if you don’t tell anyone, I won’t either

 

As I said to Granny47 yesterday I’m ecstatic that we’re finally out of The Wheel and the whole Point Road area. The week prior to my little incident saw one of the tenants being held up at gun point in the basement parking, and the week prior to that saw a Chinese chap being stabbed to death just outside the block. These were the types of things I don’t mention to my Marmee or my Giant Rat as they both stressed daily with us being in the area. I’m afraid I told my Marmee a half-truth to explain my being booked off work and my back being black and blue by simply saying I had taken a tumble on the stairs. So T, if you read this and speak to my GR, silence is golden. Please. While he would have rushed down, there really was nothing he could do but let me cry on his shoulder, and as comforting as it would have been to be cossetted, it would simply prolong his time away from home. I’m a big girl. I think.

 

And with that, I must love and leave you lot for now to get ready to take my Marmee shopping. As much as I really don’t feel like going near a mall and crowds of people, a promise must be kept.

 

Ups and Downs

Good morning Vietnam all!

 

Let me start off by apologising for Eskom letting me wake up in total darkness yesterday morning, and no, it had nothing to do with the usual hour I get up at ! No electricity = no post, no coffee and a very miserable Halfy stomping around the house in the wee hours of the morning.

 

UPS: Not an Uninterrupted Power Supply, but that’s actually something to consider for the house, even if it’s just for the computer. Two very big UPS at the moment!

 

Hubby is here for the weekend (can you lot see the huge ear to ear grin on my mug?) It’s been a very looong four weeks without him, so I shall not whisper about the fact that I woke up with terrible backache from having to adjust to having him hog the entire bed again!

 

And the second big UP? We finally started our move to new premises yesterday! After a lot of politcal inhouse fighting to establish who has the bigger set of brass ones, keys being accepted by one party and then being declined by the other, a directive finally came through from our highest authority and that was that. To say that I am thoroughly sick and tired of the politics that accompanies establishing your own little kingdom by appointing friends and relatives as ‘yes men/women’ would be the understatement of the year. At least the move has commenced, and I have 5 days left in Hell before my particular division start our great trek on the 21st!

 

Happy days are indeed here again…

 

DOWNS: Hubby lost poor little e-storage during the night on Thursday. He called mid-morning yesterday to say he had woken to find the little mite dead to the world in the morning. Sadly, I fear he may have had internal injuries from his fall out of the nest which was a couple of stories high, or he was just too small. Maybe a combination of both? I don’t know.

 

With that, let me love and leave you to haul hubby’s rear out of bed and to our hair guru for his 8am appointment and whatever else he has planned for the day. I shall catch up with you all later.

Let’s get jiggy.

There’s nothing like waking up at just after 02h00am to use the loo, and realising that you’re also not going to be able to snooze again. So you lie in bed until 03h00am until you really have to get up and end up walking face first into a spider web which has been spun during the course of the night. *sigh* nothing wakes a girl up quicker, heart pounding, than doing the ‘Trapped in a web’ version 2.5 jig so early in the morning!

 

So, to all my arachnid squatters who are uninvited and most unwelcome: I’m only 4ft11 for pete’s sake. Show some respect and spin your webs at least 6ft up from the ground. Pffft.

 

An update on little e-storage:

 

Hubby was stressing on Tuesday that his little adopted Barn Sparrow was not taking the raw mince to heart (and stomach) very well and contacted C.R.O.W. to discuss the feeding and care of the little mite only to find out that mince should not be given to the bird as it’s still far too small and young. He was advised to rather feed it ProNutro mixed with water, and the little mite has been doing so much better.

A bird in the hand.

What appears to be grey feathers in the wings is actually bald patches. He still needs to grow all his feathers!

Dizzy at this height!

He’s taken to tweeting to let hubby know it’s feeding time, and once he’s had his fill of food, he clambers up hubby’s shirt and sits gripping his shirt and tweets away merrily!

Gripping the edge of hubby’s shirt for dear life!

 

I hope he continues to flourish 😉

Douglas and Kate

Because I’m in a really good mood, and I’m also really tired, a little joke from me to you all.

Mind you don’t splutter your morning Java or tea over your keyboard like I did 😉

 

Douglas the humble Crab and Kate the Lobster Princess were madly, deeply and passionately in love.

For months they enjoyed an idyllic relationship until one day Kate scuttled over to Douglas in tears.

“We can’t see each other anymore…” she sobbed.

“Why?” gasped Douglas.

“Daddy says that crabs are too common,” she wailed.  “He claims you are a mere crab, and a poor one at that and crabs are the lowest class of crustacean and that no daughter of his will marry someone who can only walk sideways.”

Douglas was shattered, and scuttled sideward’s away into the darkness to drink himself into a filthy state of aquatic oblivion.

That night, the great Lobster ball was taking place.  Lobsters came from far and wide, dancing and merry making, but the lobster Princess refused to join in, choosing instead to sit by her father’s side, inconsolable.

Suddenly the doors burst open, and Douglas the crab strode in.

The Lobsters all stopped their dancing, the Princess gasped and the King Lobster rose from his throne.

Slowly, painstakingly, Douglas the crab made his way across the floor…….and all could see that he was walking, not sideways…………but FORWARDS………Yes FORWARDS, one claw after another!!

Step by step he made his approach towards the throne, until he looked the King lobster in the eye.

 

There was a deadly hush…………………………….

 

 

For quite a while………………………

 

 

Finally, the crab spoke…….

 

 

 

“F**k, I’m pissed.”

One bird flees the coop

…whilst another comes home to roost.

 

My poor sister is devastated after flying down to drop her daughter off at Rhodes University where she will be living and studying psychology as well as furthering her studies in Greek.

 

Συγχαρητ?ρια, Τζ?σι. Σας συγχα?ρω για την εξα?ρετη αποτελ?σματα Matric σας και ε?ναι ?λα εξαιρετικ? υπερ?φανοι για εσ?ς!

 

She did however, manage to contain herself until she landed back at OR Tambo International before the deluge of tears started! Sorry sis.

Jessie on the steps of a Grahamstown church.

And the one who has come home to roost?

 

Meet e-storage (as named by Vuzi, one of my Giant Rat’s students). A fledgling barn sparrow which hubby picked up in the one storage area of the harbour yesterday. A photo quickly sent to my phone and then an urgent call, begging me to find out how to care for the little mite.

A couple of quick calls and then my GR informed he has to feed it raw mince and give it a bit of water using a dropper. The little mite needs to be kept warm, which he did yesterday by carrying it around inside his shirt pocket the entire day.

 

A bed has been made inside a shoebox, using a soft hand towel and little e-storage spent last night in the bathroom at the guesthouse as it’s nice and toasty. And today? He will be spending the day in hubby pocket as he goes from one student to the other testing and requalifying them.

 

And moi? I just hope the little mite survives. And if he could grow big and strong and fly away by Friday, that would be a bonus.

 

I’m trying not to picture Lucyanydots and Thomas’ excitement if my Giant Rat brings this little fella home this weekend…

From Fun to slavery

Let me start off with an apology to any friends who have sent me email in the past three weeks. I’m too scared to open my email and see how much is there waiting for me…but I will get round to it this weekend.

 

So without further ado, in chronological order (seeing that’s the way the remaining dregs of my logical brain works):

 

Saturday, 15th January 2011: Up bright and early, a litre of water guzzled down (and my usual ½litre mug of coffee), my Giant Rat and I scooted off to the local Path lab so I could finally have my non-existant veins poked and prodded for my thyroid test. After having both armies strapped and slapped silly by a skin, bone and poephol alone little nurse, she was finally able to insert a babies needle into the top of my left hand and extract a smidgen of blood for the test. Scooting out of the rooms like lightning, I jumped into the car and we were about to leave when hubby realised I had left my watch inside. Not being entirely daft, I sent him back to retrieve the offending time-piece in case Draculina decided she wanted a further offering from me. And then we were off to Gateway to have some fun.

 

And what a wonderful day it was too! We met up with Young Lady at the information counter, and after introductions and hugs, hubby went off to do his thing while we meandered outside looking for a place to have breakfast. Bad news for all us smokers too, all the restaurants with outside areas have now also banned smoking at the outside tables. Luckily Primi is situated around the corner away from the very, very long and wide open entrance to Gateway and their outside area is still smoker friendly. And their food and coffee is excellent!

 

We had a marvelous time, drinking swimming pool sized Caffe Lattes and chatting up a storm, laughing and exclaiming as our hands and arms emphasised different points! I think the waiters were quite bemused by our little table of two, especially as I think it took us nearly an hour to actually look at the menu and order our breakfast. As you lot know, what happens at a MOB stays at a MOB, so let me just tell you that Young Lady is a warm, caring Lady in the true sense of the word; and as beautiful inside as outside. It was wonderful finally meeting up with her face to face, and being able to spend a few hours with her.

 

Monday, 17th January 2011: My Giant Rat took me into work bright and early before he left for Richards Bay, and no sooner had I settled in front of my pc when we were called into an emergency meeting and informed there was a crisis at our Ulundi office. In terms of confidentiality clauses, I can’t say much more than that I’m afraid, other than to say I returned to my office to shut down my pc, grab my bag and was on my way to Ulundi. For the next fortnight I left home at 04:00am each morning, arriving in Ulundi at 07:30am and only left the office again at 19:00pm arriving back home at 22:30pm give or take a couple of minutes. My home pc stayed firmly shut off, as I used my work laptop doing reports, recommendations and submissions until after midnight each day before grabbing a couple of hours shuteye before it was time to get up and leave promptly at 04h00am again the next morning. And so it carried on, although the weekends inbetween I was at home but working with the exception of one Saturday night when my second hubby kidnapped me for a braai. A couple of hours of fun in great company and with superb food and wine, but one which saw me fall asleep sitting outside in company and being carried off and tucked up in bed! Something that will take me a long time to live down!

 

Monday, 31 January 2011: Arriving at work, expecting a relatively quiet week and being able to catch up on things, only to discover our Director in a flat spin when she eventually graced us with her presence as she had forgotten to let us know a team of auditors were here for the week. And so the fun began. Considering that we are waiting for the go ahead to move, 90% of files and records are already packed and boxes sealed shut. Oh, the indescribable joy of having to unpack boxes and Murphy’s law dictating that items needed are in THE LAST TWO BOXES….pfft!

 

But all’s well that ends well, as they say. I was personally audited as I have been directly responsible for appointing staff in various fields of work which carries a direct risk factor. Yay me for a squeaky clean audit.

 

Saturday, 05 February 2011: Off to take Marmee to the Pav for breakfast and shopping, and myself off to the bank to be issued with a new card *groan*. So with that, I shall love and leave you until later.

 

Ooooh, and lest I forget. Yay me for getting a call from my Doctor’s rooms to tell me my thyroid is perfect and I’m to stop taking my meds for now. A further blood test in three months will tell us how it’s progressing.