Feeling like Garfield

GARFIELD is one of my favorite cartoons and characters and the 'Monday Madness' posts were meant to be the funny ones that really crack me up - nah it won't be every monday and they will happen on different days of the week.

Lately I have been feeling a bit like Garfield and have not had time to post one of those corny jokes we sometimes get from other crazy friends, who like me, also have a twisted sense of humor. Maybe I am the one that is twisted, but they are the ones that send me the stuff  :)) 
This is me - first day of the week and already feeling like Garfield, exhausted! I'm starving or reaching out for something (maybe it's caffeine)....and I don't have the energy to get it, oh that one little crumb lying on the table! 

Ah too much effort. Hope it's a short week.

Tiny Hands

Three months is a long time, it is long enough to get acquainted with little nephews and to really get to know them, they were here visiting us for three months and during that time -
Andrea went from disliking me to tolerating me and when he left I am sure he liked his aunt (tia ya ya is what he calls me).

Little Leo went from always screaming for his mom to most days walking up and down the passage calling me or greeting me in the driveway and calling for 'ti ti' and not mom :)

I have two beautiful poems of foot prints and hand prints and the actual prints of my kids and these prints are in a special album so I will always be remimded of their little hands and feet. Having little nephews around I was left with some works of art on the walls, and hand prints on the glass cabinates, tables etc. they didn't leave a print on paper or on a place I can keep forever but the hand prints that are still visible remind me of this ....

My Tiny Hand Prints 

My little hand prints on the walls

on the mirrors and the halls

I'll be grown some day 

And all those tiny hand prints

will surely fade away

so here's a special gift 

just so you can recall

exactly how my hands looked

when I was so very small

What joy and what a pleasure it was to have them here. Here are some pictures of the three months we spent together...guess which pics are my favorite

Thanks for the memories little ones, love you lots and lots like jelly tots, mwah xxxx

Thank you

Our church celebrated it's one year anniversary today. It was nothing big or fancy but it was another beautiful Saturday. As some people talked about their experiences of the past year and what the year has meant for them, in my mind (with a tear or two) I was thinking of my own experiences and my feelings about the past year.....


This is what it means to me ..... Thank you 

Thank you to the:

• Children - for filling the church with funny faces, for your running around, for the laughter, games, fun, happy and sincere smiles every time I see you
• Ladies - you are the pillars and the voice of the church, you make everything beautiful and make it feel like 'home'. Thank you for your delicious food, friendship, advice and much needed shoulders to lean on. You have become very special and dear friends and I treasure that
• Gentlemen - for all the fixing, for making things happen, for being elders, leaders and mentors. I have new friendships forming and growing every week; so much respect for so many of you
• Visitors and fast becoming friends and part of the family - thank you for filling my heart with warmth and friendship 
• Musicians - thank you for sharing your talents, I enjoy every hymn and song you present. Today was just beautiful, and I now have a new favorite song, thanks to uncle D and the Burts Brothers!

On most Sabbaths I still miss the old familiar faces and special people in my heart but I am grateful that I have to learn a new persons name every week. 


Church family - thank you for the emotionally special memories and delightful Sabbaths I have had the past year. I am privileged and honored to be part of your family.

love this quote about our special day -- "The Sabbath calls our thoughts to nature, and brings us into communion with the Creator. In the song of the bird, the sighing of the trees, and the music of the sea, we still may hear His voice who talked with Adam in Eden in the cool of the day. And as we behold His power in nature we find comfort, for the word that created all things is that which speaks life to the soul." EGW_The Desire of Ages, pp. 281-289.

Thank you for the last year. 

My Family

Introducing My Three Boys 

21 January 2012

Hug a Vegetarian

Its time, I have to do this. 
We have been vegetarians for about five years, but not 100% vegetarians because we do sometimes (very rare occasion) eat fish if we go somewhere where there really isn't anything for us to eat. But this year I have decided that I will be a true vegetarian. No more fish! If I am in place that has nothing I can eat then I’m leaving.

Not vegan but vegetarian by choice - so here are my rules or what ever you want to call them for dining with a vegetarian - 

1. Vegetarians eat a PLANT based diet.
2. We do not eat anything that has a face or a mother. NO chicken is not ok and NO fish is not ok either. If I have just said I’m vegetarian sea food is also a no no. 
3. Where do we get out protein? Do some research; use google if you have to, read the ingredients in the package of any food item you buy and you will see how many carbohydrates, fat and protein it contains. You don’t just find protein in meat, so relax and eat a peanut! We have plenty of protein. 
4. I am not vegetarian just because I feel sorry for animals being slaughtered. There could be lots of other very good reasons for not eating meat. So please don’t tell me that tomatoes also cry and bleed when they are being sliced, that's just corny.
5. Vegetarians are not spartans from some ancient BC civilization that only eat raw unwashed carrots.
6. "So what do you eat?" I hate that question, especially when people say: "you Portuguese and you don't eat chicken or prawns?" No Shit Sherlock! Do I have to eat something to be classified a certain nationality? I eat: chickpeas, lentils, lasagna, pies, tofu, potatoes, broccoli, quiche, soya, pizza, beans, aubergine, hamburgers, bobotie, sausages, olives, corn, stews, curries, pasta, roasts, wraps, tortillas, minestrone, salads, hummus, pesto, risotto, artichokes, mushrooms, beetroot...should I go on? So tell me what do YOU eat?
7. Learn a little bit of biology. I don't know what to do with people that claim to be intelligent human beings and think that a slice of cold meat (ham) is not meat. Or worse when ordering breakfast and the waiter says they can replace mutton sausage for bacon! Of course bacon comes from trees! Duh! And it really bugs me when someone tells me they have a friend who is vegetarian that eats white meat .....*strange conversation* 
8. If I am vegetarian for ethical and religious reasons, it is not ok to use a tiny bit of meat in the food. Seriously?! Would you offer or put some alcohol in your recovering alcoholic friends glass? Just one little tot? 
9. Don't try tempt a vegetarian to have a bit of meat. Stop convincing me of how delicious it is. I used to eat meat so I know what it tastes like. Really, as if I have a taste of your food and I will stumble back into meat eating. Please just stop telling me how nice it is. 
10. When I get sick - don't tell me it's because I don't eat properly and I am losing out on essential vitamins and protein found in meat and especially iron found in liver. You eat so well and you get just as sick or worse. So please just stop it! 
11. Don't tell me my food looks yuk and pull funny faces. Just because it is so common and so acceptable to eat beef it does not mean that it is not a gross site for another person and I don't go around pulling faces at other tables in restaurants. Some of you eat some really gross stuff but it's your food so behave when I'm eating mine.
12. When at a function go to your corner and binge on the sausage rolls, chicken wings and calamari rings. Stay away from the tiny vegetarian table with the carrot sticks and two pieces of margherita pizza, it's for us vegetarians. Ok?! It is really rude when you fill your plate with meat and still want our food leaving us to nibble on the parsley intended for decorations.
13. "I can't invite you over I don't know what to cook for vegetarians" phone perfect pizza they deliver or once again ... use google - http://quickvegetarianrecipes.com/ 
14. Finally, be nice to vegetarians, we care about our health and the state of the earth, we even care about wolves and meat eaters. 

That's all for today, don't know how I landed with 14 rules, it was not planned but these seem the most important. 
I'm going to eat a carrot stick now :)

Drifting away from ma....

Thank you Mr A for reminding me of this poem and making me cry. 
I found it and I remember we did this at school when we were kids, it means a lot more to me today than back then....it took a few years but I finally understand it! 


Walking Away was published in 1962. C Day-Lewis dedicated this poem to his first son and recalls a day when he was watching him go in to school. 

- Walking Away - 

It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day –

A sunny day with leaves just turning,

The touch-lines new-ruled – since I watched you play

Your first game of football, then, like a satellite

Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away

Behind a scatter of boys. I can see

You walking away from me towards the school

With the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free

Into a wilderness, the gait of one

Who finds no path where the path should be.

That hesitant figure, eddying away

Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem,

Has something I never quite grasp to convey

About nature’s give-and-take – the small, the scorching

Ordeals which fire one’s irresolute clay.

I have had worse partings, but none that so

Gnaws at my mind still.  Perhaps it is roughly

Saying what God alone could perfectly show –

How selfhood begins with a walking away,

And love is proved in the letting go.

Jameson Memorial Hall

Your lack of experience scares me my child but ... love is proved in the letting go.

I love you.

GP or CA?

I love Cape Town and if you have been here you love it too; I haven't traveled all over the globe either and I don't need to I just know that Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. 
On the one side you have Table Mountain it's an awesome - awesome view looking up and that's not the only mountain here, sometimes people forget the others! Then there's the ocean! I LOVE the ocean and mountains so combine these two and you have a perfect combination and city. 


But there is something about this place and these people....must be the mist from the mountain that makes them all seem a bit crazy. This week here has not been a holiday all that was missing from a real working week was my drive to the bank. We came here to settle Moo in his flat (my cousin's flat) we had a huge to-do & to-shop-list and it's not complete yet (we leaving Saturday). So this has definitely not been a holiday we are busy running around finding things, painting, fixing, shopping and sitting in traffic. 


Capetonians don't like drivers in cars with GP registration, lucky for us we are using a CA car :)
Capetonians think we are bad people, funny thing is they are terrible drivers and you better watch out when you're on the road or avoid them at all costs, take a bus or cycle.

• They never indicate
• They love to cut-in in traffic
• There are way less taxi drivers here than Jhb (that's a plus) but the ones here are just as dodge, although 'whities' ride on them happily
• There's less hooting, yeah, one good thing
• When you do use the hooter they ignore you anyway kind of like 'I can't hear you'
• Peek hour starts at 16h00 sharp! They leave work way too early...need to speak to my boss about my work hours
• They are very slow, chilled and relaxed bru (that's scary when operating a vehicle)
• Capetonians insist there is no traffic in the city but that's because they only drive to the Waterfront 
• There are hardly any beggars at robots .... mmmm that's because they are also at the Waterfront

So what is it that makes them such bad but non aggressive drivers? Is it the mountain mist or the wind? They seem crazy but they do have a different and very care free attitude on the road. Drives us GP drivers insane!

This week has been fun, and with Moo down here for the next four years I guess we'll be back more often to socialize with these bergies. More funny stories and experiences for us can't wait.

   xoxo