Xmas a coming...

When I went to Tesco today, I heard my first in-store Xmas song of the year.

Happily, it was neither "Mary's Boy Child" by Boney M , nor " Little Drummer Boy" By Katherine Kennicott Davis . (bet you didn't know that)

No, happily, it was  "Stop the Cavalry" by Jona Lewie.
This is a quite splendid and perfectly acceptable Xmas song, even though it was not intended to be a Xmas song, but indeed was written as a protest song. (bet you didn't know that either)

This happy mood was somewhat  ruined by the fact that I had forgotten my handbag and had to leave my shopping and go back home to fetch it.

On leaving the house I had put my house keys ( with my Tesco Card on the key ring, so that I could do a self scan shop) into my pocket, my coupons for the Alessi Cutlery Offer ( 5 coupons, save £30 on an Alessi place setting) got the car keys, had a mini crisis ( sunglasses or no sunglasses, slight glare left in the sky, but essentially dark already, maybe very light Ray Ban Black Lens?)
Which jacket? Cold, but not that cold...coat not necessary, but blazer may be too light?
Which pashmina...or maybe time for a scarf?

The Hubby was home early, so he asked for a kiss goodbye...
That's it!
Must be his fault.

Distracted me.

I think Dr  Lauren is right.
Time to get a job.

But, maybe it is too late?
I think the brain is beyond help now.

Rodriguez..A Legend in SA

If anyone had told the 14 year old Amiga Jane and myself  that when we were in our fifties we would be in London together at a concert with Sugarman...

Can you imagine?

The fact that we would ever be that old would have made us laugh until we peed.
The very thought of ever seeing our idol? Unimaginable!

The  thought of living in London?

Just as unimaginable, this was apartheid South Africa, we knew little of the outside world, and the fact ..Cold Fact.. that  "I Wonder"  actually had the word SEX in it, that was such rebellion for us.

Yet here we were, full circle , and we cried our way through the songs that were the soundtrack to our early adolescence.

And at the heartbreaking sadness of the Sugarman story.

Seeing him having to be led onto the stage  (glaucoma)  after living in obscurity, never knowing of his cult status in South Africa, not being able to see us standing up for him...this broke my heart. He had to wait until he was 70 to play the Royal Festival Hall?

The Saffas were fabulous...in every break between songs , someone would  shout out

" We love you Bru! "
"Cape Town loves you!"
"Jo'burg loves you!"

There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

"So, thanks for your time, and you can thank me for mine...and after that's said..forget it.."
That was his last song.
We cried.

They led him off the stage to a standing ovation. And many tears.

He came back out.
To even more cheers and tears , and sang Bob's "Like a Rolling Stone"

How does it feel 
To be on your own 
With no direction home 
Like a complete unknown 
Like a rolling stone.

Damn anosmia!

Most of the time I dont care that I can't smell anything. I am used to it now.

Sometimes , it is a blessing, like when I get the train from London to Cambridge , and the only seat is the one next to the toilets...
Sometimes it's hard , when the chicken looks a bit dodgy , one day out of date...
Don't want to poison The Hubby!
Glad we don't have a gas hob!
On the up side, anyone can fart next to me...no problem!

Phantom  smells are the worst. You would think that you would get a nice smell to compensate for this affliction, but ..no. I can't believe that with anosmia comes a phantom smell. You would think it was bad enough not to be able to smell anyway, but, no, let's make it worse.

So far , as my phantom smells go , I have had cigarette smoke.... Not as nice as you would imagine actually....
That lasted about  6 months ...
However, much nicer than the next phantom smell which was urine.. About 9 months...

Now I am stuck with the smell of old clothes.

This is not as bad as you would imagine, some people have petrol or sewerage as the
phantom smells.

I try to smell nice smells, I hug The Hubby and inhale as much as I can...lordy if I could just smell  anything!  I wear perfume ,...not for me anymore,
.

Amazingly, in my dreams ,sometimes , I can smell. I love those dreams,but they are few and far between.

Sometimes in the fabric softtener aisle  in Tesco, I can almost smell it!  I don't know if it is a remembered smell or an actual smell, but I like it anyway!

So, all my friends, don't ever take for granted your sense of smell.
Who ever knew this would be an issue?
Bloody hell.

Drying washing?

If anyone ever asks me what I miss about South Africa, truly, the one thing I miss is hanging out the washing. In real actual air.

I do have a washing line here, but it collapsed in a spectacular manner, the ground was too wet to sustain it.
This was never a problem in South Africa, not even in the Western Cape where it did rain for weeks on end...
Despite the fact that the odd Ha Di Da did crap on my washing..
.( a massive bird, for non Saffa readers,  big bird...green bird crap, )

It is pretty odd having to hang the washing all over the radiators and on clothes horses
So, this is my question to poms , who have more experience in these matters than me ( Cousin Jane, this is you)
Is it better to hang the washing over the radiators, or tumble dry ?
It seems to me that I can simultaneously warm the house and dry the washing? Or does the drying of the washing take away from the heating of the house?
The Hubby says that the evaporation...takes a lot of  energy...blah blah blah, stopped
 listening...
Sure he is right, he usually is.
Seems easier to tumble dry?

Manflu Day Three

The Hubby has made a remarkable recovery and gone to work today!
Lordy!

Birthday Boy

 Today is The Gorgeous Son's Birthday.

As he always points out to us, he was born exactly 9 months after Valentines Day.
How much more of a Love Baby could you ever be?

We are heading off to London this weekend , (The Hubby's Manflu notwithstanding) to go to a Medieval Banquet to celebrate this Birthday. We will be celebrating in grand style and full costume, along with The New Girlfriend (I have to stop calling her that, she is not so New anymore) and SA Sam.

Much as I rarely get sentimental on this Blog (Do I?), I must say that this boy has given us nothing but pleasure, love and laughs for the entire 27 years of his life.

So, Happy Birthday Darling Boy!

How much more fun could there be?

Manflu ...Day Two

Indeed, going to work was not an option for The Hubby today.

Apart from the fact that a cold does not feel good, it is never nice to infect the rest of the workforce.
The main problem with The Hubby is that he spent all his formative years in boarding school.
With Matron.

So, I have put my (always) freezing cold hands on his fevered brow.
I have administered the medication.
(maybe  overadministered, but I did need to study...)

I have run a bath with bubbles.

I made food, coffee, brought extra liquids,  floofed the pillow, tidied the bedside
table, I am not sure what other services Matron supplied...

I have been very sympathetic.
I don't actually feel so well myself.....

Tai Chi

MOTHER  has started a new activity.

This is the MOTHER whom Dr Lauren describes as a Medical Miracle.

MOTHER, despite Dr Lauren's best efforts, smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish, does not eat her 5 a week, never mind her five a day, does no exercise and continues to defy all medical odds by seemingly never needing to visit a doctor , nor taking any medication.
It drives Dr Lauren insane

MOTHER is going to Tai Chi.

MOTHER has never taken any exercise in living memory, apart from a brief flirtation with badminton in Rhodesia, yes, when it was still Rhodesia.

That's how long ago it was.

So, the Tai Chi.

She is attending with her friends Charlotte , John and Clara.
Clara is John' s guide dog.
I truly want photographic evidence of this.
I know for a fact that Clara will out Tai Chi MOTHER.

You cannot make this up.

Manflu

Oh god help me, The Hubby has a cold.
It started this morning with meaningful sniffs and complaints about a sore throat, and culminated in a pathetic call from Tesco after work, asking me what he needed to buy for his Cold.
And where such items would be in Tesco.

This is what he came home with:

Halls extra strong
Lockets
Lemsip All In One
Night Nurse
Strepsils for sore throat and cough. This is a new strepsil, have never seen it before.

He does not actually have a cough (yet)

He had to lie and say they were not all for him to be able to purchase this over the regulated amount of paracetamol.

I have made him soup and toast, made the lemsip, and now am in bed while he is in his dressing gown(a sure sign of illness) watching tv and sniffing.

Day one.

Movies..Be part of it!

http://www.startme.co.za/groups/projects/film/there-will-be-blood

Can you imagine making your own movie?
Got to be the most fun ever.
Not so easy though, seeing as it costs money...
So, Dear Friend Desmond is making a movie...here's your chance, add a bit of funding and you can be in the credits.
And we all know how important the credits are, The Hubby and Darling Simon make Dr Lauren and me stay behind at every movie until the last name has scrolled up...
Took forever with Skyfall...
A B movie is great fun , and when have you ever had the chance to be part of a movie?
Come on all my faithful bloggers...let's support a great Saffa project!

Like Button

After much fucking and farting around, and being married to a computer genius, yes, Margie and Zelda.. I now have a Like Button!!!

http://www.justgiving.com/Susan-Hewlett?fb_action_ids=10152230391615251&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=fundraising-page-new&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210152230391615251%22%3A281180562002998%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210152230391615251%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%7B%2210152230391615251%22%3A%22fundraising-page-new%22%7D

Movember is a really good cause.
The Hubby is growing a Mo.
He has decided to grow a "Horse  Shoe Mo"
He is so not keeping it.

This is why I have started the Just Giving Page for us women to ensure that the Mo gets Mowed.
I can see that The Hubby is getting a bit too attached to the Mo.
I will happily pay at least £20 ...in fact, I will probably go to ten times that if necessary to get rid of it.
The Gorgeous Son stopped growing a Mo because it made him sneeze(?)
He is so donating on my site.
The Famous Brother has been a bit silent on the Mo Front, sister in law had better
donate big time....

Saffas seem to be a bit scared of the Just Giving Site.
Don't be afraid! It works in Rands as well.

Having lost my dearest friend to cancer, I am in future going to do whatever I can for cancer research, whatever type of cancer it may be....please join me in this my blogger friends! 

Sadly, when applying lipstick, I noticed that I could be a contender in the Mo stakes...
Doesn't count! 

Magic moment

Magic moment indeed in reading group today.

We have a young Chinese Woman in our Reading Group.

This is the story she told today.

" When I was a teenager, I read Jane Eyre , in Chinese, and was fascinated by her description of a tree with red berries on it.
It was an amazing thing to me, and I wondered what such a tree would look like.

Many years later when I came to live in the UK, arriving in Belfast, I saw such a tree with red berries , it was the happiest moment of my life.

Jane Eyre is still my favourite book. I would love to read it in English, and , now I can try"

She is lovely .

I am spending all my days at the minute learning to Teach English As A Foreign
 Language .
It is really hard. 
And yet, here is she, with a knowledge of English literature, having read a classic, and me, trying to teach my own fecking language to people who probably appreciate it more than I do, as I curse the Second Conditional Past Simple.....

Day out in Cherry Hinton

This was my day.

In the Post Office , the guy in front of me.
"If you need a lawyer, or a psychiatrist, or a dog handler....just give me a call."
He then did a little frog jump up the queue.

Crossing the road, man doing mad dance next to me.

" I can do The  River Dance " says he .
"Are you Irish? " I asked
"You don't have to be Irish to do The River Dance" says he as he danced across the road.

In the charity shop, where they had a special, 4 books for £1...the lady behind the counter was singing..." We buy any car dot com! we buy any car dot  com!"

Across the road, the Plymouth Brethren were shouting their doctrine.

I just went home and finished the ironing.
Is always best not to spend too much time in Cherry Hinton High Street.