more puppy

Freddie has graduated! He is now adoptable. This is him under my desk last week, drooling on my knee. There has already been a family who is interested. Now that he has come out of his shell he loves to run around the room like a maniac and then play-bow at you. Tooooo cute!

Whoah!!

So this morning when I was shaking out our rugs on the back steps, I heard a Toktok. When I craned my neck around the back of the house there was the biggest woodpecker I have ever seen. I wasn't even sure if I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. His body was big and he had the hugest fire-engine red mohawk. My first thought was that it was the Ivory billed and I had made a wonderful scientific discovery, but immediately dismissed it. I called K out and he said it was the pilleated. Which did not reduce my wonder at all. SO big! He is the size of a crow. Oh, also, he is a she.

The other photo is of a little downy munching on our suet. It is funny to watch the downy's get to the suet. They land on the crook and then sort of slide down the pole till they hit the suet box, on which they sort of hop into position. We are going to take pity on them on hang a new suet in the tree.

Freddie

Freddie is the rescue dog I told you about, the one in the men's bathroom as you can so clearly see. I had the pleasure of his company today as he has been upgraded from the loo. He is socialised enough to be allowed to hide under someone's desk. Initially that was the ED but I asked for his company and was granted. He is so scared of humans and loud noises that he just needs to be somewhere where he will meet humans but still feel safe. poor baby.

Sammy

So this is Sammy, he is nasty looking. And going to be more nasty looking as all his hair falls out when he eats the other cats' food. He is diabetic and he doesn't know it but he loves to eat. He'll even eat your sandwhich if you leave it unattended. Even though he is mean and slightly gross, I feel affection for him. Maybe it's cos I naturally love all orange cats.

A few observations from my first day

There is a creature for every office. It is a very smart office space as they recently had the entire facility rebuilt and it is very Posh. But it is covered in Cat hair. Sammy lives in the Building directors office. He is a large 18 yr old, ginger bully. He lives to push my office mate around. Her name is Violet and she is a fat little siamese. Alley lives in the Executive Directors office and she is very shy and pretends not to mind when Sammy doodoos in her litterbox. I suspect that you will be hearing a great deal about these three characters. In the men's bathroom is a 10 month old beagle who is being socialised. Which means the bathroom door is open but barred so that he can get used to people going past and talking to him. Talking to him and even scratching ears is encouraged. This makes me glad. In the broom closet are two cats who are also being socialised. They are less cute. Even though they are cats. I know, very surprising, coming from me.

The worst thing about my day was the discovery that there is no kettle. None. People just heat their tea water in the microwave. Heathens. My first job as "development assistant" will be to raise funds for a kettle. freakin' coffee drinkers, the lot of them. There are THREE coffee machines.

The best thing about my day was beginning to navigate my way around the donor database. I always enjoy learning new programs and this one is delightfully complicated. Despite the complexity I am confident that I will get the hang of it quite quickly and will soon be able to pull reports detailing all kinds of details!

Ooh, I will share an office with the other person who will be at my level but has not come on board yet. It has a window that opens and I will actually get sunlight! Yay! An upgrade from my previous corporate office. It's a big office and I have a big swivel chair and all the filing cabinets in the room are mine, MINE!

Another triumph of the day was to walk past all those sweet little kitties in the adoption center and not take one home! Another Yay!

Ok, now I really must go and unwind or I will never sleep, and getting up for unemployment was a lot later than getting up for employment. I have now been awake for 14 hours IN A ROW! Impressive.

The view from my bed.

While talking to R on Sunday I saw three different woodies, a few Carolina Chickadees, two bright Cardinals chasing each other and lots of singing House Finches. I didn't even have to get out from under the covers for all that. What heaven.

Cat Flap resolved

Yay! I no longer have the urge to respond when I hear bells at the back door. K is my kero and the cat flap is once again functional. Even the cats are happier. Henry now gets to play his favourite game: sit-at-the-flap-and-stop-my-sister-from-getting-in. Meanie!

a fish on a bicycle.

K and I both loved the juxtaposition of the Guinness in an old POM glass. It's such a healthy seeming juice, and I know certain people will claim the same of guinness, but that just seems like a stretch. ; >

repeat tragedies

We keep finding ladybirds all over the house. I don't know where they come from but it is like they come inside to die. We find them crawling up the walls and across the ceiling. Each time we find one, we rescue it and put it on our only plant. A Bonsai, which was a housewarming from S&B. It is then only a matter of 12 or so hours before I have to scoop the little carcass up and dispose of it permanently. Our dustbin has become a ladybird graveyard. It just makes me so sad to see each tiny one that didn't make it. Putting them outside doesn't help either. I think they just freeze out there. I am looking forward to real spring when we can let them outside and know they will actually survive.

All Quiet on the Western Front

It has been really quiet here the last few days. I basically do the same thing each day which includes dishes, cooking and sweeping. Oh and reading. Which is really the only thing I have to talk about. I have started re-reading the whole Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. It is just excellent junk reading and I am working my way through it quite quickly.

I am also reading a book called 'The Pink Carnation'. It's loosely based on the timeless 'Scarlet Pimpernel' and has a taint of 'literature' only because the woman writing it is a Harvard student studying the time. Not sure any of it is actually based on the French Revolution but it is also excellent escapism.

What is not escapsim is Margaret Atwood's 'Bluebeard's egg'. Short stories from the heart. I really can't read more than one story a day as she leaves you with a disturbed mind for a while after each story. Really excellent writing though, as much because the content stays with you as because of her prose.

That's it from me. Will save the rest of my books for another day in case the next few days are as still as the last.

The Human Cat Flap

That's me. We haven't rigged up our usual window-box-cat-flap yet as the box is too big or too small or too something that needs to be fixed with wood and a saw. This means that the cats must exit and enter via the back door. It's too cold to just leave the door open a little and this is where I come in. We hung some bells on the outside so the cats can let me know when they want to come in. I let them out, I sit down. Five minutes later, one of them is too cold and rings the bell. I get up and let him/her in. I sit down. five minutes later the other one wants in, I get up... you see the pattern. I do this all morning till I get sick of them and make them come in permanently. WHY you ask, would I do this tedious task? How much have these animals got me wrapped around their little paws. Well... you clean the litterboxes twice a day and see if you don't rather let the little eating/pooing/peeing/crying things outside instead.

Lovely Sunday

We are having one of those excellent Sundays. Lazy and still productive. Perhaps slow is a better word. I called home and had a chat, by which time K had made croisants for breakfast and a big fat cup of tea. Then he fiddled with the blender to see if he could fix it and I played some online scrabble and cleaned up the house a little. Now we are both just sitting at the comps being geeks. All I plan to do for the rest of the day is watch some Roswell and maybe do the grocery shopping. What a wonderful life!

More birds

We think that the bluebird may actually live in our backyard, now that we see him or his mate almost every day. We also could not resist this image of the Turkey Buzzards (Vultures) sitting in a tree waiting for something yummy and dead to come along.

another lucky discovery

Discovered a really deliscious salad dressing last night. 1/3 olive oil, 1/3 balsamic vinegar and 1/3 POM original pomegranate juice and some fresh ground black pepper. It's excellent on a Waldorf salad. Just another reason to have POM in your fridge. Yay.

You won't believe it!

We had ANOTHER power outage! It went out around 9:30 last night and didn't come back on till 6am! It wasn't as cold last night as the last time, thank goodness, but it was still wretched. I just can't believe that in this first world place we could be without electricity twice in a few weeks. On the other hand, it does give us a great excuse for eating all the ice-cream in the freezer.

eina.

Last night we played squash and then fiddled around on the gym machines after. I was on a high from winning a game against K for the first time in... well pretty much since the first game I played with him ever. It was also his first game ever. In order to win last night's game it required K to be daydreaming and me running around the court like a fly in a window. My gym machine of choice is what has fondly been called the gynecological machine. It's the one where you put your knees against it and strengthen your inner thighs or outer. This morning I am paying for my enthusiasm. I can barely walk and if anything falls today it is staying on the floor cos I can't bend. I am going to try and get to the pool when it opens to try and work out the kinks but K may have to carry me there.

Yikes!

There is currently a tornado warning on for C'ville. Which translates to sheets and sheets of torrential rain. K and I did our groceries and when we came out of the store it was starting to pour. By the time we got home, and got out of the car it was like walking into a shower! We actually had to change our clothes when we made it into the house. cray-zy! mmm think I will now go online and research what one is supposed to do in a Tornado or to prepare for one? Hopefully it is make pasta for dinner and watch CSI.

gone

We have eaten all the cookies in the house. At least, all the ones I like. THANK GOODNESS. Now I just have to avoid the little pushers, so we don't get any more.

House Finches

The photo is a little blurred cos I have to stand on our rocking chair and lean left to get past the screen on the window. But aren't they adorable!

Bus musings

I rode the bus a LOT yesterday, had to take three buses to get to my interview and the reverse to get home. SO I had plenty of time to make comparisons to my previously adored bus route straight down Connecticut ave in DC. Firstly, buses here are practically empty and therefore a lot less frequent. I never minded waiting for buses in DC cos the next one would always be along presently. Not so here. If you miss one, you could wait 45 minutes for the next! One of yesterday's observations was that there is a coffee shop near every bus stop I waited at. Smart of the owners. Total niche market.

The biggest difference I found though is the social interaction on the buses. In DC people were mostly quiet, or at most talking gently to the person they were riding with. Of course there was always the occasional boffoon on the phone letting us all know about how much beer he and Brad drank last night. On the buses yesterday, everyone was chatting to everyone. As far as I could tell they were all complete strangers. One particularly long, tedious and loud conversation was between five guys sitting at the front with asides from the driver. It was all about how to get money from your workplace by falling down. Additionally, there was a segway about how one guy was arrested for harrassing his girldfirend and was looking at 6 to 15... also, a segway about how one guy beat up the chef of one of the downtown restaurants where he was a waiter. Charmers the lot of them. Quite the incentive to get my license.

cookies and calories

The squash courts at the gym are longer and narrower. Which puts the T far back on the court. You'd be surprised at how this affects your game. Taking control of the T means you can't reach the drop shots anymore. It took us a good half hour to work out the problem with our game. (and it wasn't that we hadn't played in months!)

Girl Scouts are EVERYWHERE! This is dangerous because it is cookie time. They are ruthless in their little uniforms with their little puppy-dog faces. And if that doesn't get you, their Mothers loom in the background promising flat tires and lipsticked windscrrens if you don't buy some cookies. IF you manage to get into the grocery store through the exit, thereby avoiding scouts and mothers at the entrance then there is always someone you know whose daughter is selling the things. An entire hour of squash down the tubes alongside a handful of Samoas. Let me explain why I can't just say no. Donut shaped goodness, shortbread biscuit topped with toasted coconut, toffee and drizzled with chocolate. erg.

Mostly quiet

Aside from getting an interview, life has been mostly quiet. I do have a few interesting things to note though. Or at least they are interesting to me.

We went and sat in a coffee shop on Sat evening, just to get out of the house. While we were sitting there the girl at the next counter got up and went to the loo. She left, on the counter, her books, papers, laptop, cell phone, blueberry and wallet, amongst her work. Keir and I stared at each other in amazement and fascination. After spending a year in WHK we couldn't believe that she expected it all to be there when she came back from the loo, and more amazing, it WAS still there when she came back. Huh, I guess we really don't have to worry so much about whether the back door is locked.

K wrote a test on Sunday. There is this Honour system at Uni's here. You collect your test paper from your lecturer, due a week from when you collect it. Then you study. At some point you write the test, and it is just trusted that you won't cheat, or take longer than you are supposed to. Wow.

In the grocery store there were 27 different kinds of milk to choose from. Including vitamen A and D added kind. I made K decide as my brain was boggling.

The bird bath was frozen over this morning

It made me glad I was snuggled up in bed all night.

even more ooh, aah than the moon!

JUST saw a HUGE sharp-shinned Hawk sitting at my back door. Literally! I opened the back door and there he was, we gave each other such a fright. It looks amazingly like southern Africa's Rock Kestrel. The book says they like to sit near bird feeders and nab little birds. Shame! Now the birds will never come to my feeder. You should have seen Henry and Oleo scurry inside after he flew off. Don't think he is big enough to actually catch them though, especially with Oleo's retrieved beer belly.

Eclipse last night

Last night was a full eclipse of the moon. We didn't stand outside in the freezing the entire three hours but instead dashed out, oohed, aahed and then dashed back inside. It was really something to watch, very eerie and ghoulish. These are some of K's photos over the eve.

Today at the bird feeder

Two Carolina chickadees, a female red finch and a tufted titmouse. Also something small and adorable and too fast to identify.

The weather

It's so cold outside today that when I opened the back door for the cats this morning, Henry decided to pee in the litter box and Oleo went back to bed. They didn't even stick their noses out and sniff. They both sat about a foot from the open door and gave me the classic "is she crazy?" cat look. Hence I have decided to do the same. I peed in the loo and went back to bed. I am sad to say that after some time under the covers, the weather is still freezing and now the reports are offering rain and possibly snow. erk. What an excellent day to write dozens of cover letters. double erk.

Learning to share.

YUM!

We made a fantastic discovery last night, an excellent combination...

Bird feeder

Nothing new at the bird feeder today. Am beginning to wonder if our wind chimes are keeping them away?

The best spot in the house

And he kicked his sister off to get it!

Outside

The weather is absolutely stunning right now, (as in, this half hour) so Oleo and I sat outside on the side steps for a little, while Henry gallivants. While I was sitting there I had to rush back inside for the bird book and binocs. A pair, male and female, of House Finches came along. Not exciting for anyone else as they are apparently quite common, but exciting for me, sweet little re-headed chap and his stripey lady. Speaking of red-heads, the woodpecker was back too, and he was in a fould mood. Dashing around the trees in the back garden making his angry little Chchch noises. He sounded like a squirrel so I ignored him for ages till I caught sight of his bright red streak.

Back to birding

Yesterday as we were about to leave the house, a bluebird just casually sat down on the fence in front of us. We were in raptures. We have only ever seen a bluebird once before and it was exciting then too. It was a female and it wasn't long before a male joined us. We then noticed all kinds of little birds hanging about. Including a few chicadees, a junco and a red-bellied woodpecker! We were so excited that we went out and got a very nifty bird feeder for the front garden. More on that later. Meanwhile, here is a pic of the female bluebird and also the woodpecker.

More on the Teapot

It is wonderful and fabulous. It is the teapot that keeps on giving. I believe the search has ended. Of course there are two new problems, we don't have anyone to share the tea with yet and the kettle in which we boil water is half the volume of the teapot. SIGH.

P.P.S

Also found Mrs Balls. Halleluja for no more dry sandwiches. AND found rusks, both K's and my favourite flavours! Both these items at VERY reasonable prices and affordable as daily consumables. On the other hand, we also found five roses tea at an extortionate price. Seriously, anyone wanting to import the stuff el cheapo could make a killing underselling the current distributor.

PS

The marmite bottle is to give an impression of size. Also - YAY - I found marmite for my breakfast toast!

In search of the biggest teapot

Some of you will know that I have long been searching for a teapot that can serve 6 mugs of tea, and then give everyone a second cuppa, whithout being refilled. We found this one today. It did not have a volume marked on it, so I can't be sure if it is THE ONE but we bought it in an optimistic fashion. Purchase based mostly on the fact that it has been provided with a second handle, at the spout. Which says to me: this pot has so much tea, you need two handles to pour it. Of course there are no longer six people in our house, or even in our neighbourhood who need a cup, but K and I will try it out, and see if we can a) have three cups of tea each, and then b) another three and c) does the pot need refilling. Think kindly of our bladders this evening.

Freezing Rain

It's disgusting when you are outside in it, but quite pretty when you can stay in your pj's indoors!

Overheard while walking down the road

Gent A: I had me a 'Gator once
Gent B: ya don't say?
Gent A: Yeah, Sowth American Red
Gent B: them big suckers?
Gent A: 4, maybe 5 feet
Gent B: Ya get it down in Florida?
Gent A: Yeah...

I wish I could have found some way to hang around and hear the rest of it!

To make up for power outages

Excellent things about Cville, VA.

Clumping cat litter actually clumps and truly nuetralises odors.
62 (we counted) different flavours of mustard in one grocery shop.
Really good microbreweries which make excellent beer and so many to choose from.
Hank would be considered a small car. (can't decide if that is good or bad)
Holly trees everywhere.

from Carter Mountain and bending pines

The wind in the pines and not the first world

We such a full day yesterday, woke up late and had scones for breakfast and then dressed up woolly and warm and headed out towards the mountains for a walk. It was just a short walk as the weather was brisk. We walked up to Carter Mountain lookout which looks towards Cville. The amazing thing about the walk was the wind. There was a weather advisory out for extreme windiness so of course we decide to go walk in the woods. At one point we both had to resist running back to the car because the pines which line the pathway are a few stories tall and were bending over under the wind. The rushing sound in the tops of the trees must be like what a flash flood sounds like, loud, elemental and feeding directly to your reptilian brain. When the pines bent over too far you could hear cracking and creaking low down in their trunks and sometimes they bent far over the pathway shedding needles and cones down in front of us. The experience was so heady and intense that we went grocery shopping after to calm down.

When we arrived home the power was out. Which is apparently common in high winds as all the electric cables are above ground. We fluffed around the house all afternoon feeling bereft of our computors and radio. As it started to get dark and the power was still off we assessed how far reaching the lights were out in the neighbourhood (far as the eye could see) and located our headlamps, gas stove and LED wind up lamp. At this point I would like to take a moment to thank C and P for that thoughtful and perhaps prescient gift. They live not far from us, and I begin to wonder if this isn't a common pattern in VA, the loss of electricty due to weather.

K poured us each a beer and we played a close and comptetive game of scrabble by headlamplight. Of course our scrabble dictionary is currently somewhere over the Atlantic ocean so we had to make frequent calls to the ever patient S to settle our challenges. As the scrabble scores mounted we became horribly and terrifyingly (for me anyway) aware that we hadn't heard the furnace come on for some time and that the temperature in the rest of the house had dropped considerably. K had started a roaring fire early in the day so the lounge was still toasty, but the cool from the kitchen was seeping it's way across the wooden floor towards the dining table. I valiantly fetched my gown from the bedroom and pretended it was ok if we froze in our beds. I couldn't contain myself for long though and started pacing the house, assessing the situation from the windows as the lights coming on in the neighbourhood crept closer and closer to Broad Ave, our current place of residence.

Imagine my horror and also indignance when the lights came on all along Cherry rd, our closest neighbour and yet nothing for Broad Ave. K eventually convinced me to desist my pacing by serving me hot pea soup. Thank goodness for our camping gear! We used the last of his laptop energy in watching three-quarters of a CSI and then went to bed.

The night was a true test of the quality of our duvet (very good) as when we awoke this morning, the rest of the house had a layer of frost on every surface. OK OK. not EVERY surface. OK. Not any surface. But it was VERY cold and neither the heat nor anything else was on yet. K kept the bed warm while I popped out and fed the cats. The loo seat was not for the faint of heart, and I was not faint of heart, but in fact full of bladder. Not an experience I wish to repeat. K got up to go to lectures and I poked one hand out of the blankets to call the electric company with a quavering voice. The lovely lady on the other end promised they hadn't forgotten us. I think they did, cos 15 minutes after my call the miraculous music to my ears of the furnace kicking in was heard. Hallelujah I cried and sprung from my bedcovers.

And they call this the first world. Where is eskom when you need them!

The new House

This is the house from the front, also a photo of the lounge, except of course I have changed it already. Will try and post a more up to date photo. Things I love about the house are the shower is intense and hot, the wooden floors are warm and easy to clean, the fireplace is cosy and the afternoon sun streams into most rooms and lights them up.

First Impressions, again.

I feel almost as though I have not lived here before. I am having to relearn everything. It will be some time before I walk around to the correct side for the passenger seat of the car and I hope I relearn the direction to look before I get hit by something. I think the worst was doing grocery shopping. I cannot seem to recall any of the products and brands that I used to buy. I spent about an hour and a half for a few bags of shopping because I was pricing, checking ingredients and mostly just feeling overwhelmed. I did spend the first few days just feeling overwhelmed, like I knew nothing and was completely out of place. Now though, my feeling of adventure is returning. I am looking forward to figuring out which bus to take, and am quite excited about finding the Library downtown, of course, Libraries have always been happy places for me. Things that are strange once again include how big everything is. The highways are huge, they go on forever and they fit so many cars at a time. The cars themselves are generally twice the size of cars in Namibia. It is so strange, I feel a little like Alice in Wonderland and I drank a small-making potion. The trees are huge too. Which is something that I love about this part of the world and I love that we have so many huge trees in our garden. The weather adjustment has actually been quite easy, probably because I have been able to just stay indoors on nasty days. What is strange though is the constant cloud cover. My eyes feel like it is just before sunset all the time. More later when I have explored Cville more.

The best thing about the US of A

Tissues with lotion and ... wait for it... vicks! Oh yeah... it's soooo good. you breathe in, it clears you up, you blow out and it clears you up and no sore, red and chapped nostrils. What a wonderful thing.

crazy for crockpot!

There is so much to say about being back in the states, and I will get there. But for now let me talk about the simple wonder in a crockpot. S gave me one that she wasn't using and I am inordinately excited about trying it out. I have gathered together the ingredients for Chilli, vegetarian of course. The beans are soaking overnight and they look gorgeous with their deep and fresh colours in my bright green bowl. tomorrow early I will set everything cooking and hopefully by sometime in the afternoon the whole house will smell edible like when Mom made various deliscious things for meat eaters in her slow cooker. Next I will try three potato soup and maybe even eggplant parmigiana! Will let you know how the chilli works out.

and another one

lovely sunday!

Cat's Bday

My Garden after a rain

Today a monkey got married. The sun was shining into my garden when all of a sudden the sounds of fat raindrops hit my ears. I looked out and each drop was shining on it's way down till it plopped in the dust. After the cloud passed onto the next garden I couldn't resist taking a few photos!

'cos he's just too freakin' cute!

henry makes sure he gets packed too.

Things I wish I'd known before I started to mow the lawn

- WHERE is the double adapter? Did we already give it away?
- Wear long pants, not shorts in order to avoid changing the colour of your legs to green and also to avoid nasty sticks and equivalent hard things thrown at velocity.
- Ditto glasses of some kind.
- Rake the lawn first so you can reach the grass through the dead leaves, this will also reduce aforementioned hard things.
- build muscles with push ups before attempting holding onto mower while it runs across the lawn.
- Do lawn often cos it is FUN!

Keir hard at work

So many samples, so little time.

More craft days!

Who knew fabric paint had so much potential for fun! Unfortunately, my impatience got the better of me. I couldn't wait for the paint to dry on mine, so that I could do the back. I put the shirt outside on the table. Of course I forgot that it has been raining and the table is wet. So while everyone else is wearing their craftiness, I am re-learning the lessons of my childhood.

paradise in a pool

We have been trying to go swimming every two days, and I just can't resist showing off to those of you who are in the Northern Hemisphere.

The water is just the right kind of cold where it is hard to get into but you feel refreshed for the rest of the day!

That's what holidays are for!

Yesterday we pulled out Mom's sewing machine and all the gear that goes with it. I had bought "african" print material to make gifts for various people and C had a special project. Mom was trying to iron but spent so much time showing us how to measure, thread, cut and sew that the ironing took her all day! We eventually sucked her in though and now she is making a pair of trousers, which is far fancier than either C or I could manage. I LOVE craft days!

the Human Jungle Gym

Thought I'd share these. We taught two small and dear people how to play twister. They loved it, but it soon was not enough and poor K was challenged to go through the game with Sheena on his back! It was MUY entertaining! He of course ended up on his butt splayed across the twister board, but he managed not to squish Sheena.

Thanks for Thanksgiving

This is easily my most favourite of the American holidays, it is Christmas without the religion and without the commercialism. It is all about friends and family and reflecting on your life and focusing on the good things about it. It's like the government has given Americans three days to just be together with their favourite people and enjoy each other.

Our usual thanksgiving is for Keir to make the turkey (a Happy one) and everyone to bring sides, I make the Tofurkey - yum - and then we eat till we can't. Then we all lie around or play baord games and perhaps manage a roll around the block before we face the dishes. Of course, here in Namibia no-one has the day off, but K and I took it off. We shopped from a list that reached my knees and then we chopped, peeled and mixed to our hearts content.

There were of course some of the usual mix-ups. I completely forgot to do the peas and we had to use philo pastry for the pies! Plus it never even occurred to me to make Gravy! Essential to all large dinners, shock horror. Then there were the uniquely Namibian hiccups. No Turkey... well, no WHOLE turkey. The closest we could come was to find four pre-cooked turkey legs, which looked very funny lying side by side in our roasting pan. We were all left to wonder where the rest of the Turkey's were. Perhaps they were only eating turkey breast for thanksgiving in Zambia, and only thighs in Botswana? Of course, if we only managed to find turkey legs, what was the chance of finding a tofurkey... Sigh!

The dinner itself was so wonderful. Somehow it still had the feel of thanksgiving, even though it was hot and the Bird carcass was missing from the middle of the table. I was so thankful to be sitting at a table with my Mom and Sisters. The whole evening had this lovely feeling of companionship and contentment that I always associate with Thanksgiving.

K made the most amazing pumpkin pie from scratch! From an actual pumpkin! I really enjoyed it, but he felt like it tasted too much like pumpkin and not enough like pie. Also - HUGE shoutout to KO for the stuffing recipe. Sooooo Good. I think it's the thyme - apricot combination that make it!

Of course all this has left me feeling very thankful for thanksgiving.

This is the weekend.

They wrote my paper on Friday and so this is the weekend for marking. So far I have two complete failures and two kids who got 78 out of 80... lets hope there is a lot more of the latter and not so much of the former hidden in the rest of my pile of papers, or it is going to be a very grumpy weekend indeed.

Almost over

Tomorrow is my second last class, ever, with my Grade 8's. After spending the year with them and seeing them grow up a little, and finally figuring each one of them out I am feeling stupendously sad. Most of them are really great kids and even those that aren't have still taught me something this year.

sniff sniff.

Talk to you again when I grade their papers and have to polish off a bottle of wine cos the little b's didn't study.

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. Mark Twain

When we moved here, I was invited to join Mom's bookclub. One of their ladies was going to be away for almost exactly the months that I am here and so I took her place. The way that it works is that the ladies each contribute $$ each month for the person who is hosting the next month. That person then uses those $$ to buy as many books as she can afford, prepares a simple meal and sends out an email with directions to her house. I didn't think I would get to host as the lady I was replacing had already hosted, but they didn't have anyone for October so I got given a wad of cash and instructions to buy what I liked.

This turned out to be a very stressful job. Let me first explain the ladies that belong to this bookclub. These are all ladies who are my Mom's age and older. They have already been through children and careers and all that nonsense and are at the peak of their wisdom and experience. They are almost all involved in some sort of job where they are contributing to society, through lifeline, USAID etc. Their thoughts are well developed, they can tap smartness at the blink of an eye. In short, they are mature in a way I can only hope to be when I get there.

The books they choose are about child soldiers in Rwanda, women in Turkey, slavery, Autism, male dementia and so on. The books I typically choose to read are fantasy, historical novels, murder mystery and the occasional Jane Austen.

Sooooo, when I took my $$ into the bookstore, I ended up on their couch with piles and piles of books, trying to eradicate some of my choices. I was torn between what I thought the ladies would choose to read and what I would use to while away my brain. In the end I settled on a fluffy dan Brown meets Phillipa Gregory, a Jon Ronson, which is sort of like an immature Bill Bryson. The latest bill Bryson joined the group as I thoroughly enjoyed it and as I had never read out of Africa but had cried for the movie about 100 times I added that one too.

Then I took two unknowns. The first was called 'McCarthy's Bar' in which Pete McCarthy travels around Ireland going into every single pub he sees and commenting on Ireland and himself as he goes along. A book that I would call highly entertaining and an excellent read for when you are traveling too. The second is by James Chatto, love, life and loss in Corfu. It's beautiful. The most of the book is a rambling tale of how they are enchanted and adopted by the island. You get so involved in their lives and in their characters without even realising it, then suddenly the 'loss' part hits. I was left sobbing into my pillow, but so glad that I had read the book.

I made an excellent chickpea curry and fruit salad with icecrteam for desert and told the ladies about my books. Luckily October is everyone's busy month, so they all felt like and had time for easy reading and my books got snapped up.

Just the right smell

This evening was the first of the rains. It was only a spatter, enough to make the dust settle but not enough to actually wet anything. The clouds have been slowly collecting all day, starting first as puffy whites this morning and getting lower and darker throughout the day, till this afternoon was stifling hot and muggy.

It feels as if all of WHK pauses to listen when the pat pat pat starts, and everyone perks up and says; 'is that rain?' The scent of ozone follows so quickly that you don't even need to go outside to confirm, but each one of us did. Not together in a group, but trailing each other for to each have that feeling of silence and peace as you turn your face up and the cool water hits your closed eyelids. As if that weren't enough, there was a double rainbow, glowing above the Jakaranda which is in full bloom across the road.

The country here is so desperate for rain, and we have been looking at a brown landscape for what feels like a very long winter that the first rain is something we have almost been holding our breath for. Now the grasses will start to grow, the trees will suddenly burst out with green and all the thorns will flower with bright yellow stars in patches all over WHK where there are no buildings.

When you bite off more than you can chew

If you're wondering why I am not posting as often as I should... here's why, I'm two timing, I'm doubling up, I'm leading a double life.

http://stpcnamibianews.blogspot.com/

Nothing to report

I'm sad to say that life is really quiet here. Mostly we are just getting on with our daily busniness. K has gone to Gobabeb and will be there all week. It has been very odd adjusting to having the house completely to myself. Well aside from the cats, who must be missing K cos they have taken to following me around the house. Henry has a little sniffle and has had a drippy nose all week and so just wants to snuggle everytime you sit down for more than 30 seconds, which is adorable of course. The worst of being home alone is when I come back from TV watching next door to a dark and empty house and then get into an empty bed. I miss K's feet the most at this point. They always find me in the night.

Other than that - bird club at school is hilarious, every Tuesday we take out the students and spend an hour an half trying to convince them that if they chat at the top of their voices they won't see anything, which doesn't seem to bother them that much, and at least we haven't heard the dreaded "B" word yet! The club does remind me how quickly time is passing - it seems impossible that every week Tuesday is here already and we need to arrange what and how and communicate that to the students. Thank goodness for assembly.

Next door - R is writing exams this week, L took a spill and has her arm in a sling, which is teaching me how tough it is to plan supper for a family every day, you can't jsut tell them to make toast like I do for K quite often. Ooh - we watched no less than five episodes of West Wing last night. Whenever we get to the end of the season there is absolutely no way we can go to bed without watching the first of the next season. The of courses the brilliant bastards made that a cliff-hanger too! Will CJ become the new chief of staff, will Josh finally realise that he is in love with Donna, will they ever bring peace to the world and good, free education to the USA?

Working and on a Friday night!

Sometimes the internet can be the most frustrating time spender. I have just spent the last 45 minutes looking for a map of namibia showing the areas occupied by which tribes. I am CONVINCED that it exists and that someone has published it online. I am also convinced that I cannot teach the next chapter without it. This after an hour of reading the textbook, making a timeline and scrunching up my brain to come up with some interesting way of teaching this stuff. You see, I feel that one must have some concept of the geography of Namibia for it to make sense that Witbooi and Maharero couldn't get it together and sort out the Germans.

To temper my frustration and kick start my creativity, I have been working on a few different techniques for making me feel better. First a glass of crisp cold white wine, then balance on my excercise ball in front of the comp. Trying to sit cross legged on it has given me a good few minutes of entertainment while I wait for a site to load. Also Chris Evans is helping considerably by playing some absofab music! The I decided to become completely distracted and read my new fave blog: http://www.hoboteacher.com/blog/index.html It's great if you are a teacher - and perhaps if you aren't one too. But he makes me laugh and laugh because so much of what he says happens in my classroom daily!

Maybe I can come up with some version of Risk that shows the movement of tribes, troops and Germans around Namibia around 1890. Or some kind of role play? urgh.

Our fifth anniversary!

It was even harder to leave K wrapped up and snuggly in bed, and go to school to face rambunctious and enervated Gr. 8's yesterday. It was our fifth anniversary, even though it seems like we have only be married a couple of years, it's just been so easy. I guess in the grander schemjavascript:void(0)e of things, five years isn't that long actually. I'll get back to you at 25...

Found this in our local squash club's newsletter - couldn't believe our eyes!

Click on the photo to open it big enough to read the text.

Home improvement

I had such fun today - As you know, Henry has been making a pest of himself two doors over so we have had them inside for the majority of the the time. This has been fine because it has been winter and having windows and doors closed kept the cold out. Well Summer has arrived and the days are suddenly hot and the closed up house seems stuffy, confining and smelly.

After a week of thinking about it, K and I came up with a complicated plan of attaching some kind of netting to the burglar bars on the sliding french doors which open to the garden. I became determined that this experiment should happen this weekend. So this morning we went on a hardware shopping spree - netting and cable ties!

After a brief break for West Wing we locked the cats in the bedroom and went to work. Our four metres of netting spread out onto the lawn and we began cable tying it to the burglar bars. Disappointment quickly raised it's vicious head. The cable ties were too small, but we are smart and we connected two together and continued. Of course now our number of ties was halved and K had to jump in the car and fetch more. By the time we were finished we were hot, bothered and our fingertips raw from the plastic cable ties.

We let the cats out to see if our construction would stand up to them. It passed the sniff test and then the scratch test. Then Oleo climbed up the netting for the climb test and that passed too. Now we are waiting to see if it passes the neighbourhood Tom-cat at night spraying and howling test.

Ok, now I am actually busy

Term started. And it's haaaaard! Firstly we have changed times back so not only am I getting up early, it's in the dark! Yuck. Plus it is still chilly so it horrid getting out of the shower at that time of morning.

Enough whining, I am enjoying being back. It seems as though people have brought a new energy with them from the holidays and are excited about new projects and old that are happening this term. Of course I have had to say goodbye to afternoon naps as I am now planning and doing extra work in the afternoons. I made it through 7 books this holiday and I suspect that the current one will take me all term to read.

My most exciting thing about this term is that I have an office! No more working on the staffroom comfy chairs and coffee tables for me! I share it with an energetic and friendly teacher and it is situated in the quiet part of school, next to the chapel. It is under a massive pepper tree (schinus molle - not indigenous but wonderful shade and scent) and there are lots of other trees around so the birds are constantly chirriping. This morning when the students trooped into chapel I realised that I am directly underneath the church bell, which is one of my favourite sounds.

As a result I am looking favourably at the new term, and expecting to enjoy not carrying all my books back and forth between home and school.

Long time no see

I was just going through my favourite blogs and being mad at them for not having posted anything. (With the exception of one) When I realised that I have not posted in the longest time either!

This is because I am realllly busy.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH. No actually it is because laziness begets laziness. We are on school holiday and here is our schedule:
get up late, feed the cats and go back to bed
get up again, decide we don't need to shower EVERY day and stay in our pyjamas while we check mail, eat breakfast and then read something on the bed.
get up again, eat lunch
watch an episode of Bones, and one of West Wing, this is exhausting so we must go back to bed with our books.
get up again, wonder what to make for supper, order pizza and eat it in front of CSI. (Which is unadvisable if you have a sensitive stomach - seriously)
Then pretty much we go back to bed.

It is heaven, but I am starting to feel restless and am quite glad that school starts again on Monday. I suspect that on Monday I will not be glad that school started because I will want to be in bed frequently.

Also - the weather here is really wierd. Spring in Namibia means that outside can't make up it's mind whether it is really hot, or really cold. There is a haze in the air from all the veld fires up North and it feels like you need to turn the light on all the time. I am really looking forward to the crisp mornings of summer, which incidentally is tomorrow. Clocks change at 12, which will then be 1.

OK, now I've posted - it's your turn!

Bird list for Etosha, as promised

Redbilled Hornbill
Monteiro's Hornbill
Yellowbilled Hornbill
Red-eyed Bulbul
Rock Kestrel
Black Shouldered Kite
Groundscraper Thrush
Longbilled Crombec
Fork-tailed Drongo
Dusky Sunbird
Glossy Starling
Kori Bustard
Pale Chanting Goshawk
Red-billed Quelea
Marico Sunbird
Helmeted Guineafowl
Lilacbreasted Roller
Whitebacked Mousebird
Pririt Batis
Crimson-breasted Shrike
Whitebrowed Sparrowweaver
Crowned Plover
White-bellied Sunbird
Lappet-faced Vulture
Swainson's Francolin
Grey Lourie
Cape Turtle Dove
Double-banded Courser
Pied Crow
Black Crow
Northern Black Corhaan
Redcrested Corhaan
Secretary Bird
Double-banded Sandgrouse
Spotted Eagle Owl
Gabar Goshawk
Blacksmith Plover
Egyptian Goose
Red-billed Teal
Cape Sparrow
Southern White-Crowned Shrike
Namaqua Sandgrouse
Pearl-spotted Owl
Blue Waxbill
Violet-eared Waxbill
Grey-headed Gull
Fiscal Shrike
Short-toed Rock Thrush
Laughing Dove
Grey Hornbill
Purple Roller
Greater Kestrel
Burchell's Starling
Black-chested Prinia
Greater Blue-eared Starling
Red-headed Finch
Black-cheeked Waxbill
Scaly-feathered Finch
Ant-eating Chat
White-throated Canary
House Sparrow
Tawny Eagle
Red-billed Francolin
Common Moorhen
Red-billed Buffalo Weaver
Ostrich
Marico Flycatcher
Sociable Weaver
Wattled Starling
Namaqua Dove
Titbabbler
Black-throated canary
Masked Weaver
Acacia Pied Barbet
Hoopoe
Giant Eagle Owl
Rattling Cisticola
Hottentot Teal
White-crested Helmut Shrike
Little-banded Goshawk
African White-backed Vulture
Bare-cheeked Babbler
Stark's Lark