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 ....