Share your World – Week 7

2016-02-18 | puppy1952

These are my answers to Cee’s Share Your World Questions

What are you a “natural” at doing?

This is a difficult one. There is nothing that I am really very good at. I throw myself into all sorts of things and enjoy them but I don’t ever reach very high levels. The one thing I do find is natural to me is relating to children.

I also find all things computer related easy to learn and I enjoy teaching others how to use their devices.

Would you prefer a one floor house or multiple levels?

When I was a child I always wanted to live in a double story house and my wish came true at age 13 and I loved the house on the mountainside that we lived in. It’s the only double story I’ve lived in and it had a view of the sea.

What was your favorite subject in school?

English and Typing. The most important and useful things I ever learnt at school was how to read and how to type. But I also enjoyed History and Accountancy.

Complete this sentence: If only the rain..

If only the rain would fall in the drought stricken areas of South Africa. It’s the worst drought we’ve had in 30 years. The crops are failing and the food prices are rising. People travelling to the worst affected areas are taking drinking water with them. Hopefully relief will come soon. In South Africa we don’t complain about rainy days – well hardly ever.

“What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?”

I am grateful for new friends made and old friends who remain good friends.

I am looking forward to whatever the new week brings – hopefully a drop in the galing south easterly wind so that the fishermen can go out and compete in the Marlin competition here in Struisbaai, Western Cape, South Africa

Share Your World Week 6

2016-02-09 | puppy1952

What is your favorite word? Stunning – It is so expressive in the variety of different South African accents. I use it often!
What is your least favorite word? No. It’s so negative.
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? The outdoors – mountains, sea and bush.
What turns you off? Stubbornness – It’s such a block to learning, enjoying your world and moving on.
What is your favorite curse word? The South African version of ‘shit’ – Kak, pronounced Kuck. Of course I never swear!
What sound or noise do you love? The dawn chorus of birds
What sound or noise do you hate? Fire engine sirens and the tocotocotoco of the helicopters’ rotors – it usually means there’s a fire on the mountain and there’ve been just too many here this summer. Also Police sirens as then I know another crime has been committed. One hears them too often.
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? “I’ve been known to say – “In my next life I’ll teach at a Girls’ School” – so no, No other profession comes to mind.
What profession would you not like to do? One school holiday I signed up to be a Nurse’s Aid – Definitely not something I’d like to be forever. I think nurses are amazing.
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Which Game Park would you like to start at – oh and none of our creatures are endangered here.

Share Your World Week 5 – Happiness

2016-02-03 | puppy1952

Cees Share your World Challenge

If you had a shelf for your three most special possessions (not including photos, electronic devices and things stored on them, people or animals), what would you put on it?

This is a tough one because my photographs and electronic devices are the first things that I’d grab if my house were on fire! My favourite pieces of art hang on the wall so they wouldn’t go on the shelf – I have a painting of a house that hung in my grandmother’s house that I really treasure. The artist was 11 years old when he painted it. He grew up to become a successful and very well-know artist in this country and is now about 70 years old.

Another painting was done specially for me by my Aussie friend Wendy – I love Rainbow lorikeets and she painted the most beautiful picture of them for me.

There are others – too many to mention so I’ll save them for another time. Other things I treasure are my jewellery – specially a gold and diamond necklace given to me by my darling husband. Then there are all the cards our kids have given us over the years. I keep those in a file. I have a little memory year book made for me by a class I taught a few years back – well it was organised by Ashleigh’s mum – but it has a message and a drawing from each child – and that is probably my most prized possession of all.

If you had a box labelled ‘happiness’, what would you put in it?

Lots of things make me feel happy – the view from the top of Sir Lowry’s Pass, arriving in Kruger National Park on the first day of a holiday there, plunging into the sea early on a summer morning. But I can’t put these things in a box – I would have to put photographs or a poem about them inside the box instead.

What do you want more of in your life?

Not much, actually. I have pretty much everything I’ve ever wanted. However, I would love to travel to Australia again. I’d also like to go to some places I’ve never been to before -India, USA, Italy and Holland. Also another trip to the Greek Isles wouldn’t be shunned.

Daily Life List: What do you do on an average day? Make a list of your usual activities you do each day.

Now that I’m retired I’m asked this question quite often. It’s not easy to answer as I don’t have a routine and we’re not always in the same place for long so what we do differs from week to week. But when I’m at “home” my day would go something like this.

Wake up any time between 7 and 8:30 – Check my emails and Facebook in bed – sometimes, not always. Get up and do 45 minutes of gym ( I have a space set up for this) After this run (slowly) to the beach and have a swim in the sea. This is the best part of my day.
Hubby brings my towel to the beach and drives me home. He then cooks me breakfast which we enjoy at a leisurely pace.
While he is cooking I make the sugar water solution for the birds so that we can enjoy the sugar birds, sun birds and witogies who partake of this treat while the seed eaters enjoy the seed we put out for them.

The Hoopoe doesn’t rely on us for seed or sugar water – he is a worm eater

Sugarbird at the sugar water feeder

After breakfast anything can happen. I try to do all the necessary household chores first. Monday and Thursday are my house cleaning days when the house gets a thorough doing but on other days it’s usually just the kitchen and bathroom that has a proper cleaning. Then there is washing ironing which might get done in the afternoon. (Boring I know – but it has to be done!)
We sometimes take a trip to watch birds or to shop in our nearest big town – Bredasdorp. Sometimes we’ll even take a longer drive just to explore other places in the Overberg.
The computer consumes quite a bit of time – I organise functions for The Bird Club so emails have to be sent and dates organised. Hubby does a lot of business on his computer and often yells for me to help him with this and that. I blog and check facebook. I sort out and edit photographs.
Then there’s my new hobby – crochet. I am busy on a blanket at the moment. I also read a lot.
Most afternoons I head to the beach for an afternoon swim and/or surf on my boogie board.
Then there’s shopping and dinner to be cooked.
I’ve left out socialising. We don’t have a huge circle of friends in Struisbaai but we often have people to stay. Having said that friends of ours have moved to Struisbaai now and we’ve seen quite a lot of them!
After dinner we usually watch television – we have a media player and have just finished watching the entire series of Downton Abbey which we loved. We’re now on Suits and White Collar. We seldom watch SABC television and we don’t have DSTV.
Sometimes I read before going to sleep – this includes reading Blogs.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful for the great weekend we had with friends and I’m looking forward to spending this weekend in Cape Town.

Struisbaai and Share Your World Week 4

2016-01-26 | puppy1952

It seems a while since I’ve posted anything about Struisbaai so I thought I’d write something today and combine it with Share Your World Questions.

1. What one thing are you really glad you did yesterday?

I’m going to replace the yesterday with today!

This morning we got up later than usual. I have always been an early riser and thought during retirement that I would continue to be up with the sparrows – but not so – Sometimes I only get up after 8 o’clock! Usually, I do a bit of gym then run to the beach and have a swim before breakfast. Today we skipped the gym part, drove to the beach and had a delicious swim just after 9 o’clock before returning to an ‘Early Breakfast’ of giant black mushrooms and fried banana, tomato, bacon and eggs. “To die for doll!”

After breakfast, we walked to the harbour to see what the boats had brought in. I will never grow tired of Struisbaai Harbour! It must be the most picturesque and interesting little harbour in the Western Cape. Or maybe I’m just biased.

Commercial Fishermen rowing back from their moored boat

I’m sorry I didn’t take photos of the huge yellowtail being off loaded from one of the ski-boats but believe me there were some beautiful fish. I concentrated on the commercial fishermen gutting on the slipway and throwing the guts to the stingrays and gulls.

I am glad we did this today as afterwards we sat at Pelican’s Cafe and had a cup of coffee and met a couple from Cape Town and had a great chat with them. I overheard them talking about birds which is what started the conversation!

2. Are you generally focused on today or tomorrow?

Definitely I am focussed on today although I do make plans for tomorrow. But especially in my retired state, I let things happen on a daily basis! So far I’m having a fabulous day!

3. Would you want to have a guardian angel/mentor? What would they tell you right now?

I am convinced that my guardian angel works overtime on me! Why else would my life be so good and full of good things happening in it. I think she would tell me to take every opportunity that comes my way and to enjoy every minute of my life.

4. Would you rather live in a cave house or a dome house made out of glass?

I would definitely choose a cave. One of my fondest memories is staying in cave accommodation in Kagga Kamma – a private game reserve in the Cedarberg Mountains. Originally this area was home to the San people who lived in caves. Caves have cleverly been recreated using artificial rock to blend in with the surrounding mountainside. They are so cosy and it was great fun staying there.

kagga-kamma-game-reserve-accommodation-480

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

On the mountainside of Fish Hoek which is near to where I lived in Cape Town, there were horrific fires which threatened the homes of my sister, aunt, sister-in-law and many friends. I am grateful that none of them lost their homes in spite of being evacuated or nearly evacuated (some refused to leave in order to fight the fires themselves). I am grateful to the amazing firefighters and helicopter pilots who worked so bravely to beat the fiery monster.

Next week I am looking forward to entertaining friends and fishermen who are coming up for an angling competition. It will be great to have a houseful again.

Share Your World Week 2

2016-01-13 | puppy1952

Do you believe in extraterrestrials or life on other planets?

I know some fascinating people who do not fit the bill of human characteristics – but seriously – no – I don’t think they’re aliens. They’re just highly evolved and interesting people who have their own agenda and way of dealing with life on Earth.

It is easy to blame all the unexplained phenomena on Earth to extraterrestrials but just because we don’t know the answers doesn’t mean there are beings with higher intelligence out there is space who come down to Earth to tease us – why would they?

Not to say I don’t think there is life on other planets. Most likely there is and probably very different to what we see here – or maybe very much the same. To me though, it doesn’t matter. There is so much to discover right here on Earth that I couldn’t care if there is something else out there or not. It is fun to think about it though.

How many places have you lived? You can share the number of physical residences and/or the number of cities.

When I count it up it seems that I have lived in many different addresses – 17 at last count but I have lived most of my life in Fish Hoek, Western Cape, South Africa and now I’m in Stuisbaai, Western Cape South Africa. How lucky I am to have found myself in the most beautiful parts of the world.

If you given $22 million tax free dollars (any currency), what is the first thing you would do?

The first thing I would do is buy each of my kids their dream homes or give them the means to pay off what they have and to improve it to their needs.

I would also like to do something charitable but not just to give it away. I would prefer to invest in someone or a group of people to be trained and in some skill that would benefit others when they’re done.

The Never List: What are things you’ve never done? Or things you know you never will do?

I have never Bungee jumped, skydived, paraglided, flown in a hot air balloon, committed murder, arson or grand larceny and hopefully I never will!

Well – I might think about the hot air balloon.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful that my grandson’s surgery was successful and that nothing serious was found in his MRI. I am looking forward to settling back into my home in Struisbaai. The weather is stunning, the sea is warm and my garden is growing!

Share Your World Question Week 1

2016-01-04 | puppy1952

I am taking up the challenge from Cee’s Photography Blog

Cee’s Photography

Question 1 – As a child, who was your favorite relative?

My answer. My maternal grandmother. She was so serene and a ‘real’ granny who never grumbled or scolded. Her melktert was the best in the world and nobody can bake scones like hers. All her food was delicious. She told wonderful stories and loved me unconditionally. My childhood was totally wrapped up in my grandmother.

Question 2 – If you could be a tree or plant, (or an animal!) what would you be?

I would choose to be an elephant. Elephants don’t have to worry about getting fat – they’re supposed to get fat. I like the idea of a matriarchal society. What a good idea to have the older sisters and aunts to help care for the babies and only to have the males over by invitation. It makes for a peaceful lifestyle. Elephants are intelligent, have excellent memories and are kind and caring unless there is an extreme need to be aggressive. I like that!

Question 3 – What would be your preference, awake before dawn or awake before noon?

My preference is to wake up with the sun. In summer this is easy and I find myself up and off to the beach very early. OR if I’m in a Game Reserve ready to go off in search of wildlife at an very rude hour which doesn’t make me popular with my travelling companions.

In winter it is harder but I’m still up pretty early and before I do anything I exercise in some way or another. This gets me going for whatever else the day has to offer.

Question 4 – Would you like to sleep in a human size nest in a tree or be snuggled in a burrowed spot underground?

I like the idea of a human-sized nest in a tree. I don’t like the idea of being underground at all. Caves and holes are dark and dank and that would be depressing. I would love to wake up to the sound of nature – birds singing, wind rustling the leaves, the sea crashing or a tinkling stream. I’d like to feel the first sun-rays warming my skin and to be able to breath in the fresh morning air as I am roused from my night’s rest. I’m a morning person and so I identify with the early bird who catches the worm.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful that my family and I have remained safe during the holiday season. We have not travelled long distances as we often do at this time of year but there have been the odd short excursions on the treacherous roads of South Africa. I pray every day that we are all careful and safe on the roads so full of idiotic drivers who don’t seem to value their own nor the lives of fellow road users.

I look forward to another week with the family before returning to our home in Struisbaai. I look forward to catching up with friends and hearing about their lives since last seeing them. How lucky I am to have a circle of friends that have been part of my life forever.