Someday My Prince will come...

So all this time the fairy tales were a lie ... when you kiss a frog he does NOT turn into a handsome prince ... he just stays a pretty frog!!!!

Check out this little chap ... all day yesterday it rained ... that fine misly pissly kinda rain, but it was warm !!! and then about 2ish the heavy fog settled in and that was it for the day ...

There I was sitting 'bored' (oops I mean beading) and I heard this 'plop' behind me ... at first I thought it was Kelsey mucking about but then it jumped towards me ... and it was a frog... tiny little thing ... no idea where he came from but I picked him up and took him outside and there were loads of his family ... on the walls and the door ... in Indi's water bowl ... it was quite bizarre !!! I had to return 3 to the outside world before the night was out and they climb too ... think they are tree frogs ... but I have no explanation as to why we seemed to have a 'plague' of them last night ... No sign of them this morning ...

But the rain's still here ... but it's not cold !!! :-)

OH well the mysteries of African wildlife ... so only 12 SLEEPS till my Prince will come !!! (PMSL, in fact fall over PMSL)

Oh! Ho! No!

Maybe I spoke too soon (about the Summer thing !!!) temperatures have dropped drastically again today !!! and there's a 60% chance of thunderstorms later today!!!

But we had our summer yesterday ... they (don't know who they are) say that the weather patterns are all changing and so we could be ending up with the North's weather patterns which means 1 day of Summer is normal !!! (PMSL)

Kelsey had a great Summer's day yesterday ... it was their grades Pool Party (that's the North's equivalent to the kids year end Christmas Party!!! Tough eh?) Well he came home looking like a very ripe tomato!!! The kids skin was glowing !!! AND he has dislocated his right thumb !!! (mucking about in the pool, mum !!!) So poor lad had a very restless night - sun burnt back and throbbing thumb !!!

I too am an injured duckling !!! Bruce the Builder very kindly helped me out yesterday by getting a couple of his guys to deliver my pot plants from Aunty June's ... of course I got them to put them where I thought I wanted them ... then after they left ... I decided to move them myself ... pulled a muscle in my back !!! (silly cow)

So the 2 of us are feeling very sorry for ourselves (AGAIN)

My Car !!!! O.I.A again ... seems my tensioner thingy for the cambelt/fan/whatever is 'broken' and NO they don't have one ... so my car was at the garage for 91/2 hours yesterday to finally be returned to me un-fixed and when they have the part I must take it back in for another 91/2 hours !!!!

I've told Kelsey if he wants to make money when he grows up, become a mechanic in Africa !!!!

What a beautiful day ...

Finally, maybe, perhaps ... Summer has arrived ... It is such a pleasure waking up (except the 4.30am goose call !!! ) to a beautiful morning like this :

(oh! the culprits that wake me at 4.30am... I'm told I need to invest in a super duper water pistol ... that'll get rid of them without hurting them!!!)

As I attempted to chase the geese off the roof I looked out over the golf course and the 'castle wall' and there was some of the 'buck' that keep the green short, just standing in the cool morning breeze ... an ideal photo opportunity !!!!

Sorry don't know which type of Buck they are - Nan need your help here !!!!

And this little chap (a weaver) decided to investigate the newly 'hacked' bushes at the bedroom window ... sorry about the blurred photo - this was taken thru the window ... not bad eh?

I'm car-less today waiting for the diagnosis !!! somehow I think this is going to cost me !!! (AGAIN) ... feeling a bit 'trapped'!!! Isn't it strange the car can sit outside on the driveway all day normally but the minute you don't have access to it you suddenly have all these places you have to be ... and things you have to do... TYPICAL!

Car Trouble AGAIN !!!

Started 'Bessy' this morning and WTF!!!

Sounds like someone left a bag full of hammers in the engine ... and there's been no-one near it !!! Those damned Gremlins !!!! Why do they always have to pick on me ...

So this weeks SA challenges:

Keep Kelsey happy and not too sad about loosing his best friend AND find a way to get him to school and back and all the other things he does ... my mum to her shopping etc ... and NO CAR AGAIN !!!

Thanks Juno for coming to my rescue tomorrow ... Bruce the Builder for offering your help too ...

When I don't have my car I feel like I may as well not bother getting up in the mornings!!!

AND bet you can't guess what I'm having for Christmas Dinner - Egyptian Goose when I catch the bugger that keeps waking me at 4am with his 323 single syllable squawks !!!!

WHY did I say I liked birds ????

Haircut 100!!!

Hey guess what the sun shone this weekend !!! I know I can hardly believe it myself ... Saturday all day and Sunday morning ... however it did'nt last, hey this is Africa !!! ... by Sunday afternoon the clouds came in and bam! it's overcast and cold again !!!!

Remember I mentioned last week with all the bad weather I thought I'd got out of 'pruning' the hedge outside my bedroom window ... well I thought maybe I needed to tidy it up a bit ... So I gave the hedge a haircut !!! (More like a scalping !!!)

Don't you just love the string holding the bushes together !!!!

And talking of haircuts ... school had nothing else to moan about last week ... exams are over and so lets pick on the kids for their dress code instead !!! The boys were told they'd all be in detention on Thursday if they did'nt all get a haircut ... well I had promised Kelsey he could have his 'convict 99' hairstyle for the summer (ha! ha! when???) holidays !!! So I took out the razor and szszszszszs ALL GONE !!! He'll probably get into trouble now cos it's too short !!! (remember there's just no pleasing them teachers !!!!) I left him a little kiss curl as a joke ... but he's not like his dad who would have happily gone to school with the whacky haircut ... I had to cut his kiss curl off too!!! Spoil Sport ;-)

We have'nt heard any news about exam results yet !!! I'm hoping no news is good news ... don't know who's more stressed me or him... but he's not the happiest kid in class at the moment ... his best friend since he started at this school (Matthew), came into school today and told us that he is moving ... out of the area !!! So Kelsey is a bit gutted ... they both joined the school at the same time and hit it off like a 'house on fire' (well maybe too much) ... when there was trouble one or other of them was nearby !!!! But they also stuck together through thick and thin ... Matthew's the kid I've been giving a lift home after school or cricket or rugby etc ...

I wonder sometimes !!!! I did happen to mention earlier in the year that maybe putting them in seperate classes next year would be good for both of them ... you know the old saying "be careful what you wish for" now I feel really bad!!!

What do ...

Socks, a 15-Tog Duvet & a Hot Water Bottle have in common ???

They spent the night with me last night .............. It was so freaking cold ... and to make matters worse I could not even hug my new best friend cos our electricity went off at 7.30pm and did'nt come back on till 2.45am this morning ...

SO today I'm going out to buy a GAS FIRE ¬!!!!¬!

It's still raining ... still grey ... still cold ...

Now even I am getting sick of this weather report ... being the Weather Witch is not working here in SA ... in fact I think KZN is in competition with Cumbria for the highest rainfall at the moment !!!! (PMSL)

If any of you want to hear local news on the radio etc. go on line to ECR.co.za and you too can listen to our news !!! And you can hear that I'm not lying to you ...

How sad am I that I have nothing else to tell you about ... only been helping with some collating for school this week ... been beading some more ... nothing too exciting !!!

Don't even have any news or updates on the house cos they can't do anything with all this rain about ... well at least we know the roof does'nt leak and we can see exactly where there are going to be any flooding problems in the future so we can fix them before we finish the garden !!!!

Now only : 21 sleeps before Paul & B arrive, before we go on holidays !!!
AND only 35 sleeps till Christmas !!! (AAAAAAAh!)

SA Weather report for Thursday....

One of the things on my to do list since we moved in here was to 'trim' the hedges in front of my bedroom window... to let some more light in ... well I have been saved that job !!!

Today's torrential rain and gale force wind blew 2 of the hedges over !!!! I now have a lot of light in my bedroom !!! ;-0

The local gardening committee had sent out a notice to all residents of the estate asking if anyone wanted any trees pruning ... don't have to do that now either !!!

Freaking weird weather is putting the gardeners out of business and the tree fellers in business ... I have decided I think I should move into either the 'drain unblocking business' or 'trees blocking the road moving business' !!!

Both are doing some serious business today ....

And there's even talk of there being SNOW on the BERG ... that's the local range of mountains here that seperate Kwazulu -Natal from Gauteng !!! When there's snow on them it means we're going to have even colder weather .... What the hell is going on ??? I would have been better off staying in the UK for this crappy weather ... I mean just what can I tell folk now when they ask me why I came back ????

Oh how silly of me : So I could live the dream !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 1/2 hours !!!

That's how much sunshine we've had today !!! In fact that's all the sunshine we've had since Friday Night !!! (NO this is not yet another weather report!!!)

Mind you I took every advantage of that 51/2 hours I had the washing machine going 10to the Dozen!!!! SAD very SAD.

Hey Guess What? My DHL parcel finally arrived today ... and all that Christmas stuff I thought I'd ordered turned out to be lots of Disney and Fairies ... who needs Christmas stuff when you got customers asking you for Disney and my sister-in-law wanting any fairy things she can get her hands on ... BUT if she thinks she's getting the Tinkerbell Album she's wrong that one belongs to MRS BELL not Tinker !!!! (PMSL)

Why don't I have a lovely girly girl to make girly girl photo albums of ??? All this Princess stuff and fairy stuff is sooooo cutsy ! ;-)With tons of GLITTER !!! I guess I could borrow a friends daughter or 2 !!! Or I could use a glittery album for Kelsey ... save it for his 21st !!!

The kids at school finally finished their mini albums and I didn't get any photos !!! But here's my album done ... now all I need are some photos ... well not sure what I'm going to use it for ... Probably Kelsey or maybe Indi !!! The colours would suit either of them !!!

So now only : 24 sleeps till we see Paul,B, J&N, only 24 more sleeps till we go on safari again (whooppee!!!) and only 38 more sleeps till Christmas !!! (OMG and I haven't started the shopping yet !!!)

Meet my new Best Friend ....

PMSL but seriously this is my new best friend ... I have spent ALL weekend hugging her ... sitting next to her ... she has kept me company ... OK I can't really lean on her cos I'll get burnt but we're really getting to know each other !!!! ;-0

I had a nightmare last night about frogs ... and when I woke up this morning I had webbed feet but that's OK cos I needed them for wading out to the car through the flooded front garden !!! IT HASN'T STOPPED BLOODY RAINING SINCE FRIDAY NIGHT !!!!! AAAARGH

This is the view from our patio today ... wet, misty, and damned cold ....

I have to say ... I think I have to stop with this weather reporting ... my whole blog has become one big weather report !!!! BUT sorry I have nothing else exciting happening in my life right now ... how sad is that... AND if you knew just how cold it was ... I know Paul told me you guys have all had cold weather too ... but you can all cuddle up in your double glazed houses with the central heating turned up full blast !!! We have gaps !!! in our windows ... for ventilation when it gets hot !!! Like is that going to happen some time this year ???

Can you see just how much it is raining .... look closer ...

This is the view on a normal clear sunshiney day oooh about a month ago!!!

Oh and still no parcel from DHL !!!

Friday 13th !!!

Today's colour Duck Egg Blue !!!!

And a lot cooler ... sleeping was not on the agenda last night ... tooo hot with no breeze ... Indi didn't even want to come in at all last night ... her and I were wandering around the garden at 1am trying to get cool ... but THIS IS NOT A COMPLAINT !!! Just a statement of the facts ...

Still no parcel from DHL !!!

J&N Only 28 more sleeps :-)

Nan Only 28 more sleeps :-)

Paul & B only 27 more sleeps ;-)

And girls enjoy yourselves tomorrow with Paula ... I am soooo jealous and wish I was there too.

Today...

is SUNSHINEY YELLOW and only 32c.... ;->

Still no word from DHL and no parcel ...

If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries of tomorrow,
you have no today to be thankful for.

Todays colour ...

is bright blue ... the sky is clear as a bell and the sun is shining ... the birds are singing (except those damned Egyptian geese ... they need shooting with their 'sqwaking' at 5 am in the morning) Temperatures are expected to rise to around 27c ... so needless to say the washing machine is working it's A. off this morning !!! ;-)

Do you want to hear yet ANOTHER challenge???
When I was visiting the UK in June/July I popped into one of my regular suppliers - Craftime and the Christmas catalogues had just returned from the printers ... SO as I'm a bit of an addict (oooH! ;-0) I just HAD to place an order ... (some of you know just what that's all about ... and I figured as one of these days ;-> I may just get the business up and running and I also want to import some of the lurverly stuffs that you lot have available at your finger tips !!!)

I told Craftime to keep hold of the order till ALL the Christmas stock was in and then send it ... which they did ... it was sent at the beginning of October and landed in JHB 9th October ... guess what I still don't have it !!!! I am definitely naming and shaming DHL for this 1 ... as soon as Craftime gave me the consignment number I contacted DHL and asked what to do next ... gave them my Importers Code (yes I do have 1 of those !!!) and my contact details ... and NOTHING.

I waited a week knowing just how slow it is in Africa and since then I have phoned them daily ... as usual spoke to a different person each time ... apparently my goods were finally 'cleared' thru customs on the 28th October ... and I'm still waiting BUT you want to hear the best bit ... DHL finally contacted me yesterday to say my goods were sitting in the 'States Warehouse' and now I HAVE TO PAY STORAGE FEES BEFORE I CAN GET THEM RELEASED!!!!

You know --- 'ya just gotta love Africa!' and well I kinda gotta take it all in my stride ... I really truly believe that NOTHING can be done here without it being a mission !!!!

I promise you I am not making all of this up ... everything you have read on this blog is the absolute truth ... do you really think I have such a good imagination that I can make all this up ... and keep it going ???

I'll keep you informed of the progress OR NOT of my parcel ....

AAAr...

Sorry to say but today's colour has gone back to wet and washy GREY...

Temperatures have dropped again ... last night there was THICK fog and mist - well it was rain actually ... this is why people are all sick at the moment ... sick of the damned changing weather ...

Kelsey is sitting his final exams this week so we are spending a lot of time studying ... stressing and on bended knee for some guidance ... I have to keep positive for him.

AND on another positive note only 31 sleeps till Paul gets here ... 32 sleeps till J&N get here, 32 sleeps till we go on Safari again ... and 45 sleeps till Christmas... other than buying the decorations for the house I haven't even started the Christmas shopping ... maybe Paul will bring it all in his suitcase LMAO!!!

And for the rest of the weekend ...

Friday we sorted Kelsey's bike out ... got the tyres fixed ... so he decided he's going to become a cross-country cyclist ... that was until he fell off ... he went over sideways and landed quite badly on a rock which injured his back ... hence the bruises ... he also took a bit of skin off his elbow and arm ... well it gave him something else to moan about !!!!

Above: The back ...

Above: The arm ...

Above: The leg ...

Sunday we popped round to June's and then the three of them ... Kelsey, June and Shadow (who let me tell you was petrified of water when June first got him) went swimming ... Shadow just would not stop running around the pool and barking so eventually June persuaded him into the pool ... Kelsey got him his Boogie Board and that was it ... Shadow was worse than a kid ... we couldn't get him out of the pool ...

Bella on the other hand went for a dip only cos she fell in with all the excitement but she wasn't that enamoured with the swimming !!! But she loved digging in the mud after the ants and bugs!!!!

Two exhausted childrens at the end of the day ....

Actually crafted this weekend ...

Yup you heard right !!! I actually did some work this weekend... See I knew that teaching the kids at school would get me A. into Gear !!!!

Oh 1stly ... this weekends colours = sunshiney yellow moving into blazing bloody hot for the whole weekend ... that might have helped with the motivation too !!!!

Well actually we're running out of time to finish the projects that the kids have started at school so I started out on Saturday by cutting the spines and centre cards to size and even scoring them all for them ... hopefully that means on Tuesday they can finally put their mini books together...

Something I've wanted to try but didn't have the courage or the knowledge so thanks to Dyan from Art from the Heart and Sue from Paper Paradise ... I've been playing with newspaper, gesso and acrylic paints and I've finally got the recipe right to convert newspaper into usable paper for ART or I want the kids to try Art Journaling ... I've always loved cutting up magazines and 'sticking' the images in books but that was it ... did nothing else with them... and in fact since moving here and starting to unpack the 'boxes' that have been in storage for goodness knows how long ... I have found some of my old 'scrapbooks' you know the old sugar paper ones with cut out dollies in them and dressy up clothes !!! And some of the weirdest poems too... Another long standing habit ... collecting poems, sayings and words !!! (now laugh all you want that was the only girly thing I ever did as a kid... the rest of the time with 3 brothers around it was cars, action man and armies !!! but mum said I always found some time to faff!!! well I loved the times at school when we had to do projects and I could cut, stick and paste !!!)

So here's a batch of photos of my progress ... it was soooo hot on Sunday that I sat outside under the trees and the cool breeze was lovely ... (yes! Steffi that is me painting !!! is it still called painting when you use baby wipes???)

Above is step 1 - newpaper with a layer of Gesso.

Above: Step 2 a layer of white acrylic paint

Just look at the state of these hands ...

Adding some colours...

A finished prepared page ...

And I even had to take photos of the used baby wipes ... do you think I can sell these to those head doctors who give you a picture and ask you what you can see ??? So what can you see???

This is what the tablecloth looked like when I was finished!!!Mind you the nails are stuffed today ...I can't do this faffing thing without getting everything covered in paint... and now that I have these lovely pages I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with them ... But I can show the kids what their pages should look like before they start journaling ...

WOW !!!

Can you believe it this is blog post 201!!!

Who would have thought me the techno-phob ... would still be blogging 200 posts later !!! OK so we've had our problems and well at times I did wonder what exactly I was going to blog about ... (lmao like I would have a problem -- I can talk the hind legs off a dog so blogging would be no problem ... !!!)

Sorry to say today's colour is back to Grey ... and unfortunately no poem to entertain you this morning... BUT there is other colours at the end of the rainbow ... the forecast says sunshine and heat for the weekend ... you'll be able to tell if it's true if I let you know my daily colour !!!

A quick Happy Birthday to Gussy Tucker (you know who you are!!! ;-) the card's in the post honestly !!! but almost guaranteed to be late ... Blame the post in Africa & UK!!!

Sorry to upset the Ba! Humbugers! but now only 48 more days till Christmas and J & N only 35 more sleeps !!! Ha! Ha !!! Paul & B only 34 more sleeps !!! O.M.G I have to get that shopping list sorted and whatever can I ask Santa for this year ???

Those of you taking a trip to NEC this weekend ... buy something extra for me !!! (you can tell hubby I was the reason for that unexpected extra purchase he! he! ) Wish I was there with you ... Sharon/Glenis sorry no HoT Chocolate and bickies to look forward to .... ;-0

O.M.G!!!

When I woke up this morning and looked out the window I thought oH! No not ANOTHER grey day and in fact I even lay in bed for a few minutes at 5.30am and made up a miserable grey day poem:

Even though I hear the birds singing

I lie her and pray

That when I open those curtains

I'll see a colour other than GREY!!!

But it wasn't meant to be ... so I thought girl! you have got to pull yourself out of this sad grey world ... despite the clouds touching my head !!! I ran around and filled the washing machine and bravely flicked the switch ... I figured even if we have to sit around with wet washing on the clothes airer all day I HAVE to find my way back into the bathroom through the mountains of dirty clothes!!! PMSL!!!

AND then slowly the grey turned to white and the white turned to blue and there in the sky was a huge big ball of SUNSHINE !!! Can you believe it the sun DOES shine here in South Africa !!!! And now 5 loads of washing later and the sun is still shining, the birds are singing and my day has changed into a BETTER colour !!! Bright lovely sunshiny yellow I think!!!

(Yes, guys, I think she has finally well and truly LOST IT!!!! Not like I ever had IT in the first place)

I've had another busy hectic week doing UM nothing !!! well it feels like nothing ... I can't remember what I did on Monday ... it was obviously soooo exciting !!! (Oh yes I remember now we doggy sat didn't we... ) Tuesday was spent as usual running around from early till late ... food shopping, then teaching at school, (we're still not finished those mini books and we're running out of time) homework and cooking (exciting what?)

Yesterday morning was a bit more exciting ... Year 6 (Kelsey's year group) as part of their EMS for this term had to go to Mugg & Bean (that's a chain of coffee shops here in SA) and the kids were given a budget, they had to order their own breakfast, pay their own bills and leave a tip etc ... I had volunteered to be a driver to take the kids back to school ... so dam it ... had to hang around waiting for them, what else was I gonna do but have breakfast too !!! (it's a tough life but someones gotta do it !!!) Kelsey then had a cricket match on yesterday afternoon ... it was bloody freezing ... there I was sitting with vest, long sleeve shirt, gillet, fleece AND jacket AND blankey wrapped around my legs !!! Unfortunately the boys didn't win but at least Kelsey got to bat this time round !!!!

He's writing year end exams at the moment and so most nights we have about 2 hours of studying !!! I really hope he does well in these exams ... his marks have been fairly good for the last 3 terms but they work on aggregates here, so all you need is 1 term with poor results and the whole years marks are affected !!! I'm only worried about 2 subjects and of course I have to try and keep positive for him ... You see here in SA if the kids don't PASS the year they remain in that year again, and I think he will really suffer if he gets left behind !!! After all he's been through this year ... BUT lets not think about that ... I just have to try and help him and encourage him as much as I can !!! (why doesn't anyone warn you about this kind of stress before you have kids???)

This morning I've spent time with some of the mum's committee 'collating' next years workbooks for the school ... before now I always wondered who got this wonderful task of putting all the classes workbooks together ... covering all the new reading books ...!!! And we've done that now for the last 3 Thursdays in a row and Kerry kindly informed us we've only done years 1 & 2 ... there's still more to be done for year 3 !!! (The joy of volunteering!!! ... mind you the conversations around the table are VERY varied and interesting !!! it it quite surprising what a bunch of women will talk about when they get together!!!)

Oh have to tell you Daisy a.k.a Hope now has ANOTHER name but June has said this is now officially final ... so her name is actually now Bella. And she's doing well, eating properly and looks like she's going to recover completely... which is great news.

Wat? Another weekend gone by ...

A belated Happy Halloween And now only 53 more days to Christmas ... wtf!

And what have I done all weekend ??? Not a lot ... well we had friends (Elaine, Wayne & Matthew) around on Saturday for a braai ... (BBQ for the overseas lot) and it was soooo funny ... one the legs of the braai broke and Wayne ended up looking like a Witch sitting around A BIG BLACK CAULDRON !!! (But the food was the best yet ... who says witches got it wrong?pmsl)

So (Saturday) Halloween we had all the kids from the estate calling round for Trick or Treat and as I just so happened to find the Halloween Box, I managed to find a costume for Kelsey & Matthew and I also decorated a couple of the front windows. We have this really UGLY door decoration that looks like a piece of driftwood and when you walk up to it, it opens it's dayglo eyes and has this cackling witches voice that scares the shit out of all the kids ... now keep in mind that we have used this 'door decoration' for the last 5 years in the UK, had it hanging on the front door on the main street ... no fence around the front of my house in the UK ... I come here ... live on a 'secure' estate and one of the little buggers nicks it !!!! I was furious ... it was on the door when I called the boys in for their food and when they went back out after dinner it was gone ... (so much for the secure estate, and the community spirit!!! )

I contacted the Estate Trustees and told them what I thought about their secure estate ... luckily they have an emergency SMS system that can send out a message to all the houses and about 20mins later I had a couple of parents contacting me to say their 'little angels' weren't to blame ... but they were very soon pointing fingers to 1 particular boy ... and after much too-ing and fro-ing and plenty of denials ... guess what !!! my Halloween decoration turned up back on my doorstep this morning ... covered in Icing Sugar !!! Don't ask (I'm sure it's icing sugar ... well I didn't taste it and it smells sweet !!! But at least he's back and he's definitely NOT going to be out on the door next year !!! well I hope I'm not on this estate next year ... I should be in my own place by then I hope, please !!!)

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful after that ... Kelsey went for a sleep-over to Matthews on Saturday night after all the excitement and with their bags full of sugar ... TG I did'nt have to deal with the sugar rush !!!! Thanx Elaine ... pmsl.

Mum & I are doggy sitting today at June's : Good news Daisy Dog (new name HOPE) is back home recovering nicely ... and full of nonsense .. she's chewing everything in sight and is running Shadow and Indi ragged today ... Indi has retired gracefully to the bedroom to get out of her way ... As you can see she's having fun chewing Kelsey's face !!!

Well lets see what the rest of this week going to bring ... I'm not even going to mention the weather cos .... !!!! Nothings changed .... cold, wet, miserable....

Oh! forgot to mention the latest on the house - it nearly burnt down last week Thursday !!!! Yes you read it right ... Bruce the Builder told me that some of his guys were staying on the property cos there's a lot of sand, bricks etc. and they can act as security as well start work earlier and finish later !!! So as it was so cold last week the idiots decided to build a 'bonfire' in my lounge !!! It was pay day ... they took a walk along to the local pub ... !!! and well left the fire burning ... the neighbours across the road called June around 9.30pm to tell her there were flames leaping out of the windows on the other side of the house (the side she can't see). Needless to say she called the fire brigade and then me !!! Luckily June, Irena & the neighbours got the fire under control and put out even before the fire engine arrived ... but the flames were almost touching the roof ... which has timber struts !!! I was furious ... told Bruce that in future we'll worry about a few bricks getting nicked versus the idiots burning down my house !!! (Did you know we can't insure an unfinished house for fire !!!)

I do wonder just what will be next ... but I am learning to take it all in my stride ... for some unknown reason I wasn't even stressed about it !!! O! no me not stressed however will I cope?