Grandma's cat

My grand cat India has come to stay while Darling Simon goes to South Africa to have a holiday with Dr Lauren when she has finished her medical elective.

 Obviously, Darling Simon has taken good care to provide all that India needs in the way of food and cat litter and so on, which is very sweet and thoughtful, because I would have bought all that stuff myself.

 India does come with many accessories and instructions.

 Toys:  Blue Ball
            Purple Ball
            Purple Mouse
            Mr Sheep
            Coloured feathers on a stick
            Green plastic thing
            Feather ball
 (15 minutes interactive play every day)

 Activity: Tunnel. (quite large, is in the conservatory) (self play)
                Scratching post

 Food: One Natural Balance pellets
           Whiskas tradition meals in gravy
            Dreamies treats
            Cats delight tasty sticks
            Like a liks with salmon

 Protection: flea control
                    Strips to stick on furniture to stop scratching

 Comfort: blankie

 BEST OF ALL ( you will not BELIEVE this )

 Covered litter tray with filter and frosted glass privacy panel.

 I am not allowed to cut India's nails if she scratches the furniture.

Think it may be frowned upon if I take her for a trip in my bike basket.
 So far, The Hubby and I go and check on her every five minutes.
Is like having a new baby.

April Showers

Suddenly the sun came out today.
Yay! Thought I, and set off for a walk to the shop to buy rolls to accompany the boerewors I bought from the Saffa shop.
 Not as easy as it sounds, there really are no 'hot dog' rolls as I know them, but not a major issue..baguettes work just as well.
 So, off I go...two minutes into my walk, the heavens opened and I was drenched. Being the tough Pom that I am, I soldiered on and made it to the shop. Of course, on the way back the sun was out again, looked like a summers day. Apart from me..soaking wet. In the sun.
Got some strange looks. Probably everyone thought I was on day release.

Moss ?

There is Moss in my grass. Well, not my grass, but the grass in our kak rental. I don't think The Landlord cares about the Moss. Nonetheless, if we have to say here till June, somebody has to care about The Moss, and I guess that would be me. The Hubby, not so much. If it is green, it is just fine by him. So, at Asda, I bought weed and moss killer All well and good. The instructions tell me not to spread this stuff in conditions of drought, freezing, or imminent rain. Oh please. We apparently are in the middle of a drought, with a hosepipe ban, it is fecking freezing, and rains every day. What chance do I have? Also, the soil needs to be wet, but the grass dry, and 'actively growing' So, am thinking The Moss is here to stay.

New Car

Most Exciting...today we bought a car.
What a pleasant experience.
Had an appointment with Car Man,  who had done all his homework, and before we got there, had a range of cars we may be interested in, plus all details already ironed out.
Interestingly, we don't have to go and have a roadworthy done, nor do we have to go and have number plates issued...Car Man was most intrigued by this! (Saffa thing)
Car comes with £500 worth of petrol vouchers, all services and MOT's done..in the end , at the incredible price we paid for this car, we felt as though we were doing Mercedes a disfavour.

Nonetheless, we overcame our guilt.
Easiest Piesiest car I have ever bought.
Find car
Nice Car Man
Debit Card

All done and dusted!
So..details...the car is black. It has 2 doors and a boot door, lots of fancy stuff inside, and a speedometer in km's which is good for me!
I like it!
The Hubby is happy

Good Day all round.

Apart from the kak weather.
And the fact that on the test drive, The Hubby suddenly thought he was Stirling Moss and frightened me to death as he hurled The New Black Car around the wee country lanes and on the A14 .

Car Man was not in the least alarmed.
Brave man

Nope

Couldnt eat it. Yukky Bleh.

Quack quack

I have never eaten duck, nor have I ever cooked it, or indeed allowed The Hubby to eat it whilst dining out. I have thought about this all week. The Hubby likes duck. I don't like chicken, so rarely cook it. He also is not allowed to eat quail. Seems a bit unfair. But, the cook does choose the meals, I hate green beans so we never eat those either..or pumpkin...a bit selfish actually. May have taken me 30 years to realise this. I looked at duck in Tesco and was rather surprised to see that it was red and not white meat. I have bought duck, for the first time ever. I am cooking it tonight. Already I feel a bit sick, so not sure if I can actually eat it.... There is no reason for this aversion, other than the fact that I do love those dear wee white duckies. I also have never eaten rabbit. Or cat. Or a puppy. These all fall into the same category for me, which I know is absolute nonsense seeing as I eat goose, lamb, not veal so much, but I have eaten it... I have also eaten crocodile, snake, kudu and kangaroo. Apparently only the queen may eat a swan. Strangely, I probably would eat a swan. I was a vegetarian for many years. As was The Hubby. It was bacon that made us succumb. If I can eat a teeny wee pink piglet..... Anyway, the poor duck is in the oven as we speak. If this is a success, perhaps I will try rabbit next. Apparently The Hubby likes rabbit stew. Water ship Down See the movie...eat the cast Not sure I can actually do this.

City Driving

Today I drove into the city centre for the first time. This is not as unusual as it may seem, it is generally not a good idea to drive into Cambridge, the parking is horrendously expensive, and once you are there, everything is walkable, so no real point taking the car in. Also, there are the Rising Bollards. All very well, all the signs saying "Beware! Rising Bollards" This is assuming one knows what a Rising Bollard is. I know now. So, Cambridge is a pedestrian city. ( in all meanings of the word) The reason I took this momentous Trip Into The City, was to drop The Hubby off at the station. At the station, there are the nine million bicycles, the six million taxis and the two million buses. And me. In the Wee Silver Bullet. Poor Hubby was shoved out of the car so quickly there was barely time for a goodbye kiss. Our new Sat Nav ( her name is Angela) insists on referring to the circles ( which I have only just got the hang of calling roundabouts) as " rotaries" At the Rotary, take the second exit. I now have at least ten destinations I can find without Angela's help. Ha!

Weather update

Indeed, I have totally transformed into a Pom seeing as all I seem to talk about is the weather. The Hubby went to work yesterday with an umbrella, arrived at work with a bundle of wire and shredded cloth. Did make me laugh. Today there was a Weather Warning. High winds and hail as big as MARBLES. Marbles, my life! Hate to be a Whenwe, but saffas have hail as big as snowballs that can kill sheep. Still and all, did try to make The Hubby take the car to work, but he said he was not going to give in and be a Sissy Baby Pom. As it turned out, there was neither wind nor hail on his journey to work. To be totally safe, I thought I should stay in bed today.

Housework comment again

After a long period of trial and error, I have found them. Window wipes that are really streak free. Be still , my heart! Cleaned all the mirrors and interior glass. Cleaned windows. Needless to say it rained again. But, very cleverly, apart from the kitchen door, I did not clean any outside windows. Ha ha! Take that, Pom Weather!

KAK weather

Not even funny. Today we had HAIL. And rain. And sun. And clouds. It is supposed to be summer, for god's sake it is April. It is very sad that I have packed away all my coats in the theory that the worst of winter was over. Apparently it is going to snow next week. That is just RIDICULOUS. Get with the programme now...it is supposed to be summer.

Blog spot/Wordpress

Am going to have to move to Wordpress....blog spot is kak on an iPad...you may have noticed that there is no spacing...after I have written the blog, I have to plug in the poor neglected wee pee cee, and edit the spacing on the blog. Still, I am afraid of new things, and would hate to lose all my blog followers...but will have to give it a try...so bear with me.. Am going to give it a try tomorrow......

Grand National

It is taking me a while to get used to the Pom fixtures...the Grand National, The London Marathon, (not so much The Boat Race because of The Hubby) The Boat Race! What a fecking travesty. This is our fault, an Oxford alumni moving to Cambridge. It has upset the balance. It should be declared a rematch. (not sure I would be saying this if Oxford had won) Anyway, I digress. I always knew when it was The Comrades and The Argus and The Durban July...now I have to learn all new events here in Pomland. So... The Grand National. Not loving the fact that I enjoy watching it as horses die. So a bit kak actually. But, shallow as I am, I did put a bet on the race. In fact , we all did, as The Hubby and I went to a potjie function with some fellow Saffas in Cambridge. Ha! Yes! We found some! I put my money on a horse called Shakalackaboomboom. The commentator had obviously been practicing this name, in fact he said it so often that I thought I was going to win. Loved it...yelling out...Come on Shakalackaboomboom...and the commentator was saying "it's Shakalackaboomboom coming up on the inside, very very exciting, but sadly, came ninth.

I am very grateful for the NHS.
 It seems a bad thing to moan about the fact that we have to pay for dentists.
But Bloody Hell
 Dental examination. Plus x rays ( times 4)
 Well yes, because I have two sides to my mouth,up and down...duh,
 Which also made me gag and almost vomit seeing as this was an X-ray procedure hitherto unknown to me where they put a slide in your mouth mounted on a plastic thing about the size of a motor bike.
 £93
 This , actually , did nothing for my toothache, apart from giving me something else to think about.
 Next visit, this will be a 'hygiene' visit, accompanied by the replacement of 4 fillings that currently look crap. This was in SA before anyone had heard of white fillings. So fair enough, I guess this could be called cosmetic.
 This will cost me £393
 Next visit, a crown, to replace the filling that cost me £100, and fell out two weeks later, this will cost £580
 The tooth in which I have the actual toothache which prompted this visit, needs to be extracted. For this, because the roots are enormous and burrow into my brain (this is what I saw on the x ray) needs to be extracted in a hospital.
Thank god for that, the minute I set foot in a hospital, the NHS pay for it. Nonetheless, this will take a considerable amount of time to actually get an appointment.
 So, I am nearly £1000 down and I still have toothache
 Priceless

summer wardrobe

I realise, after re reading old posts, that I have been going on about the summer wardrobe for some time.
The very summer wardrobe that The Hubby has been warning me not to get too excited about.
I did go into the loft, and I did take some summer items down and iron them, now the weather has taken a turn for the worse, and as Darling Simon says, it is minging.
Which in Saffa talk equals worse than crap.
I have moved all the winter coats up into the loft onto my very clever garment rail.
I am so not the fuck bringing them down again.
It is summer, damn it, I am not giving in!

Pesach

Went to stay with The Gorgeous Son and The New Girlfriend in the new apartment in Surrey.
What a wonderful place it is!
It was very strange (but lovely) for the first time ever to stay with our son in his own  home.
Had to resist the temptation to keep saying "OMG you are all grown up!"
But, indeed he is. The home is neat and clean as a new pin, very impressively decorated and just charming. Family pics on the walls, books in bookcases, clean linen and towels. Both he and The New Girlfriend are neat freaks...works very well!
The Hubby and I are very proud  of him.

The New Girlfriend cooked us a wonderful Pesach dinner, it was most impressive, and we loved every minute.

Not easy though..she texted me frantically as both she and I tried every shop we could  to find matzos.
Absolutely ridiculous.
Massive displays of easter eggs and bunnies and easter cards...not a matzos in sight.
I told the manager at Marks and Spenser that Mr Marks would be turning in his grave.
This did make her feel quite guilty and she looked somewhat shocked.
The twit Customer Service girl at Tesco asked if I could not perhaps adapt an easter card for passover?
I brought a few to the counter and asked her if she would suggest I cross out Jesus  or just scribble over the easter bunny.
She got the point.

Eventually I found matzos on the bottom shelf in the savoury biscuit department in Waitrose in Surbiton . (we really did go everywhere !)
So well done Waitrose.

I then sent off e mails to all the stores.

The New Girlfriend made a wonderful meal nonetheless, not as kosher as it should have been thanks to the supermarkets , but for a Jewish/Atheist seder, it was probably just perfect.

Dr Lauren

Wonderful news....after all the years of hard work, Dr Lauren is now truly Dr Lauren.
 The Hubby and I are so proud!
We went off to London in The Wee Silver Bullet to have a celebratory lunch with all the family.
I have managed to slip " My daughter The Doctor" into every conversation I have has since she qualified on Thursday.
 I asked her if she had yet found a cure for the cold/hay fever I have developed. She told me to stop complaining and gave me an antihistamine.

Day Release

I don't know how to be PC about this.
 Cherry Hinton has a large mental facility.
 How PC can I be?
 Psychiatric wing? Challenged department?
Anyway, Wednesday seems to be Day Out .

 I now have 2 friends that I do not want to go there with.
 I have strangely signed up to a knitting circle ( I can't knit) and a poetry evening.
 I hate Cambridge .
Is not even funny

Anosmia

This is what I have, it is actually quite sad, but I have got used to it over the last ten years as it has got worse, leaving me now with no sense of smell whatsoever. But, today! Amazing! I cycled to the shop, as I do every day, and they had mowed the lawns...now , I did not actually smell the smell of newly mown grass, but I ALMOST did, I could sense it, and I think I could smell just a bit of it! With this newly revived ability, I have sprayed about £50 worth of that Charlize Theron Perfume all over me. I could truly almost smell it. Poor Hubby.

Things that amused me today...

White Easter

I do not believe it is going to snow over the Easter weekend. It is not that cold (yet) Surely it can't go from nice sunny weather to kak weather and snow? This is what they are saying...but The Poms do always go worst case scenario. I was all ready to bring down the summer wardrobe...now I am not so sure. Is very interesting , this whole winter/summer wardrobe thing. In South Africa it was never an issue, seeing as there were always enough cupboards to house all clothes. Here, not so much. But, in fact, it is a good thing. I am fed up with the winter clothes I have been wearing forever and a day, and , apart from my jeans and one pair of good black pants ( oops, trousers,pants are underwear here), I am chucking out my entire winter wardrobe and will start afresh with the sales. I have no idea what is in my summer wardrobe as it has been packed away for months. Will be a nice surprise.