Tangent: Xmas quiz

Good morning sunshine(not).

Here's a quick Xmas quiz for you all that I've adapted from Bohemianmom's site.
1.)Egg nog or hot chocolate? (Hot choc for me every time)
2.) Do you hang mistletoe ? (No, we never have, get enough kisses all year round, ha ha)
3.) What is your favourite holiday dish? (Xmas pudding and brandy sauce of course)
4.)What is your favourite holiday memory? (All of us in Northmead, Ma and Dad still alive, before emigration, when kids were all young).
5.)When and how did you learn about Santa? (When my friend's dad dressed up as Santa for the local community party)
6.) Snow, love or dread it? ( Love it falling, dread it thawing)
7.) What was your favourite gift? (The gifts we give now. We all give the amount we would've spent on presents to the person's favourite charity)
8,)Favourite Xmas song? (Silent night, always brings tears to my eyes)

Forty-four: Send a message in a bottle

I've always wanted to do this.

I know what I'm going to write and who I would send it to.

Maybe while I'm in Australia at the end of the year watching my son getting married as the sun sets on a gloriously beautiful beach, I'll just scurry away and launch my bottle into the sea with kisses and 'waves'......

(BTW this is the sun setting in Llandudno beach near Hout Bay, and I was there. African sunsets are quite spectacular.)

Tangent: Top hats (IF)

I adore penguins and have visited the only place in the world where Jackass penguins live, Boulder's Beach.

They are regal, stately, majestic and, although cumbersome in thier movement, somehow seem to totter along quite amicably. They mate for life and recognise their partner whenever and wherever.

I have spent more than one blissful occasion picknicking amongst them, and learnt a lot from them about life!

In their honour I declare today 'Penguin Day'.

So, I painted these two gents in their 'tuxedos', then just to be devilish, I added a 'mad hatter' green hat, to submit it to IF.

Forty-Two: Watch a rugby game

I have never watched a whole rugby game, but tonight's the night.

England vs South Africa in the final; of the rugby world cup and I WILL be watching.


Mind you, wish they were playing in their 'birthday suits', I would certainly become an avid fan!

GO BOKKE GO!!!

Tangent: More reminisences

Am still in reminiscent mood.
Cape Town again.
Painted this from an original that I bought there.
Am sure you can see which is which.

Thirty- eight: Reminisce about Cape Town

Cape Town is one of my favourite cities. I got a kick out of living there, the diversity, the beauty, the people, the mountains. I painted this long ago, and I like it a lot.

Tangent: Nelson Mandela

I painted this picture of Nelson Mandela in 2003. Isn't it glorious?

Yesterday, 29th August 2007, a statue of Nelson Mandela was unveiled in Parliament Square in London. I forgot the date, and wasn't there to see him, so feel cross with myself.

When asked who I admire most in my life, my immediate reply is always 'Nelson Mandela'. I remember the day he was released from prison (11th February 2000). We were all watching it on TV and crying. There is no greater man than this one, his love of mankind and his penchant for forgiveness are great examples to emulate. Hail 'Madiba'.

Tangent: Scary or what?

Joss and Ian 1952

(age 4 and 3)

Ian and Joss 2007

(55 years later)

Tangent: So excited

Looking through some old negatives, Neil found these two photos. I am so excited as I thought I'd lost most of them.

The first one is my Ma and Dad on their honeymoon in February 1947.

The second is Ma and me (about 2 years old) at a Sunday picnic in 1950, with my aunt and uncle and cousin ( he was about 7). I ruined their fun by getting measles and causing the whole outing to be cancelled.

Aren't these photographs marvellous? They are very special to me now.

Thirty: See my bro again

My brother and I have always been very close, and losing our parents while still only in our early thirties, cemented this bond even more.

In 1986 I emigrated from South Africa to England, and since then have only seen my bro sporadically. I know there are lots of families where siblings don't communicate very well, or see each other often, and I feel sorry for them, as we are best friends. Over the past 21 years we have both missed so much time together, although thanks to relatively cheap international phone cards, we talk every week. But somehow it's just not the same.

I used to travel to see him quite often, but since my back surgery I cannot manage long journeys, so he comes here. He tries to come every year or 18 months and for this I am very grateful. He only manages about 10 days at a time and this speeds past within an instant.

We 'connect' immediately and start a 'downhill race' against the clock. How does one cram the past year, into such a short time? I get so weary from the excitement, urgency and whirl of him being here, but I hate going off and sleeping as this seems to waste more valuable time. I feel like a thirsty person gasping for a few sips of precious water. The expectancy of the arrival and the terrible anguish of the departure (which we have both learnt to hide in order not to upset one another) overwhelms me. After he leaves, I feel so wrung out, so unnerved, so upset, so incomplete, only to start all over again the next time.

He is the only living soul left in this whole crazy world who has shared my history, and I can't wait till we are together once more.

Two: Write a blog

Of course this has to be near the top of the list else I wouldn't be doing this. Giggle, smirk, titter, chuckle, sneer if you like, but I reckon that if my sons can write blogs then why not me.

Let me first state that I am NOT a computer boffin, actually I don't lay claim to being any kind of boffin, but I must say with a certain amount of pride, that I became a 'silver surfer' long before they were ever heard of.

I guess in my household it was a case of 'if you can't beat them, then join them'. My husband, and two boys used to spend hour upon hour using 'Betsy' the very first machine we ever got. It was an Apple II purchased in 1979 in South Africa when the hubby decided to change careers and enter the 'computer world'. Since then we have never been without a computer in our home, and often more than two.

In watching the whole thing develop, from being able to enter data, to auditing household accounts, to one of the best forms of relaxation there is - Solitaire- I gravitated towards e mails and then actually conceding to use the bloody thing for my teaching.

Now, almost 20 years later I can no longer do without it. I am as hooked as the rest of you- particularly those 'silver surfers' who have just discovered it's magic. Compare it to when you got your driver's licence long long ago and the freedom you felt- and you'll know what I mean.

I switch it upon waking up and switch it off upon retiring, much as I would my spectacles. I fiddle with e mails and 'google' anything and everything that I think of. e.g spots on the backs of the hand, itchy palms, a sudden headache. In fact this search engine has become like my 'Black's Encyclopedia of Medicine, which I used to pour over in the pre-computer era. Of course I really wanted to be a doctor but that's another discussion for another day.

Imagine my concern and indignation when this thing goes wrong, when the page is unavailable, when the printer won't print or the saver won't save. I find myself getting into a real state about it and the day seems only partly complete if I can't have my 'first computer hit' before breakfast.

What is doubly annoying to me is that I am the very one who used to scoff at everyone around me watching their utter compulsion and mesmerised staring and chronic habitual attraction to this - what was after all - a glorified typewriter.

But like every other addiction, when it grabs you, it grabs you and I am grabbed! So I will venture forth with my very own blog, using only my two index fingers to type, at a furious pace, and hope that one day I will be offered a book deal. Grin.