Behind bars...

I recently heard this story on the radio, and found it quite amusing. I don't remember where, but somewhere in Eastern Europe I think, a pigeon was captured and put behind bars for smuggling drugs....! Apparently he visited some inmates on a regular basis, with little packets of drugs tied to his feet. Apparently his fate is still uncertain, but he will remain behind bars for now.....

It gives new meaning to the word jailbird! :-D


UPDATE:
It seems this is not a new thing, it is actually quite a problem in some countries, like Brazil.

wtf ?

Heard this little titbit on the radio on my way to the office this morning. Apparently a police officer was fired after using the F word in the presence of his superior. Now....I wonder what the unemployment rate would be in this country if that became the norm?

Ridiculous...

...niks gewoond nie...

Early last week a friend of mine sent me a funny email about being "Proudly South African". One of the points were: "you'll drive 100's of kilometers to see snow". That made me smile, because its so true :)

Snow is not a common phenomenon in this country, in fact: most people never experience it. When we were little we thought of snow as a kind of fairytale land :) And we can't imagine how it must be in other countries where people experience it daily during their winter time (though I've heard many regard it as an annoyance).

And then late last week....it snowed! Not everywhere, just in the higher mountainous regions. Yesterday we decided to take a drive, and go have a look. We thought it would be a quick trip, but didn't realize that hundreds of people had the same idea! Boy, what a surprize!


I've seen snow in New Zealand and Europe, so it was rather disappointing for me - only patches of white, no white carpet. But it didn't seem like people minded. Snowmen were being built everywhere...mostly on people's cars, or in pickup trucks! It was quite amusing to watch them all :) Some would stop often, to fix it up again.


Needless to say, on the way home we hit traffic! At some points we went 10kmh max. Got home wayyyyy after dark, but it was fun nevertheless:)

I love winter. And I love knitting. We lived in the Philippines for 4 years, and there its never winter! So I really missed knitting every winter...... Now its winter here, and I'm sooo enjoying knitting again :)

The little man is so proud :-)

There's a first for everything

I bought brussel sprouts for the first time in my life yesterday!! Hated them as a child...eww! And I lived in a house where you had to eat whatever was dished up, no matter what. That made me hate them even more......

So, of course, I've been avoiding these cute little veggies as far as I could since then. But then the other day I had some (don't remember when and where). And it wasn't as bad as I remember!

So I bought some yesterday...and cooked them last night :)

I'm quite fascinated by them now..... Never even knew what the plant looks like!! Cute eh?

knit volvo cover

knit volvo cover
Originally uploaded by secretagentmartens

I found this pic on flickr....and my first thought was: how weird is this? And more importantly: WHY???

Couldn't quite get my head around the idea, but then noticed that it was actually meant for an art festival.

Its pretty awesome... I love knitting, but can't even imagine doing something like this!

Now count with me: 1 2 3 4 1 2 ....

I don't have huge gripes with the whole Eskom issue. Yes its somewhat inconvenient not to have electricity at times, but hey...we've had some cool picnics because of it :) And I love candlelight!

But, the one thing I don't get, is why traffic lights are switched off too. Can't they bypass that? Especially at peak hours. There seems to be confusion at the intersections, especially the big ones.

Usually people treat it as a 4-stop when the lights aren't working, and that's the right way I think (though its really slow). But people get impatient I guess....and sometimes cross in huge clumps. That makes it even more confusing and slow, because you never know which will be the last car to join a specific group. And they don't take proper turns either (I guess some people struggle to count 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4......)

And we're gonna have How many more years of this??

*sigh*

3/4 cake

It's my brother-in-law's birthday today, and since he loves my chocolate cake (he says its the best ever....and he's very fussy *grin*), I thought I'd bake him a cake. Problem is, trying to bake a cake with so many little fingers around, only about 3/4 of the batter actually make it to the oven!! *sigh* Oh well....

The birthday boy (hmm...man) loved the surprize. That's all that matters....

What? I'm a spammer?

Ok, so I'm the person that NEVER responds to or forwards any junkmail...even from close friends. Be it the 'return this to me if you're my friend' or the cute little bear 'have a nice day' variety. Even the 'you will never have good sex again in your life' type. I just don't.

But then today, Facebook decided to call me a spammer!!?? Huh? I wrote a message to two different people (people that I know btw, not strangers), and the next thing a big red block pops up informing me that my account is suspended because I was spamming! So what's the deal, only allowed one message a day? *shakes head*

And then they don't even have any address on the site to contact with little issues like this.

Okay, so the refund for the Josh Groban tickets (show that didn't happen) might not be paid out after all? How do people get away with this stuff? *shakes head* And we had 5 tickets....not small change... :-(

Dilemma...

A friend of my son (8) came to play and slept over last night. He's been over before, and though he is quite a 'busy' chap, he's never really been too out of hand. But this time he was just wayyy too much for me....and even for my son (who told me last night already that he thinks we should take the friend home). And by noon today he was almost begging that we take the guy home. I was completely shocked at how a child can become a scary terrorist! I was soooo relieved to drop him off at home around 2pm today.

The problem is, I like his parents. Get along great with the mom, they seem like really nice people. But I will not have their son over ever again! Don't know if I should tell her, or just make excuses.... My gut says just tell her...in a nice way. But how do you tell someone that their child is a tyrant, and you can't stand the little bugger? *sigh*

Not a fan of the FanBox

I must be getting really old....or I'm a real prude!

A friend of mine recently sent me an invitation for FanBox. I usually don't bother with social sites, but accepted this one (not sure why). I've been a Facebooker for a while, and thought it was similar. The great thing about Facebook is that its private - no one sees your profile if you don't want them to. And its been awesome getting in touch with old friends. But.....FanBox is not the same thing at all!

Even though I set in my profile that I am married, and only interested in friends, I've been flocked by so many weirdo's. I was logged in for about 30 minutes this morning, and almost 80 men wanted to chat! A lot will just say 'hi', but then you get the ones that keep nagging 'are you not gonna reply???'. Oh, and then of course the 'do you like sexy talk?' ones. But my favourite; 'I bet ur a lioness'. Not sure if I should laugh, or vomit!

Went to collect our refund for the Josh Groban concert tickets yesterday...the concert that was cancelled last week. The one concert I've been looking forward to for so long, the one I missed some years ago when he was performing in South Africa but we were living abroad at the time, the concert I missed abroad because it was also cancelled ("postponed") due to some or other circumstances. And now.....the same thing! There's something very wrong in my world.....

I'm sensing difficult years ahead of me.... My oldest is 13 (THIRTEEN!!! *gasp*), and lately we are constantly at each other's throats. *sigh* But I love her to bits.

Thing is.....I get freaked out! I never had a good relationship with my own mom. In fact, there was no relationship. She was emotionally unavailable. We hardly spoke, never hugged. Never once told me she loved me*. I could never do anything right in her eyes, and she had no problem telling anyone that. Not even being a straight-A student did the trick. There were very hard years growing up, and I always envied friends' families. I still do. Its always been a very sad spot in my heart. But, I learned to live with it. I got to a point where I didn't care anymore, it didn't matter anymore.

And then I had children of my own...

So even though I have pretty good relationships with my children, and we have good communication, I can't help but freak out when things go rough. And I'm so afraid of finding something of my mother in myself. And I'm so afraid my kids might someday feel the same towards me as I do towards my mother. Its such a huge load to carry...I want them to feel what I never did.



*A couple of years ago, while talking on the phone (while we were living abroad), she told me she loved me....and I was stunned. It was just too weird.

What could be worse than cleaning up the cat's poop on the carpet?

Cleaning up the dogs vomit 'cos he got to the poop before you did!

Phew.....

I have survived my son's 8th birthday party....and I am exhausted! But, not just any party, a sleepover party!! I don't know what possessed me to say yes when he asked. What helped was that we only invited 6 other boys, and that was his idea too (smart kid - I would never have survived more...).

But man, its hard work!!

My oldest daughter had her own sleepout planned, and I panicked just a little about that, 'cos that left me and my other daughter (who'll be 12 next month) to handle the whole event. But luck striked when her best friend slept over, and the two of them kept the group of boys busy for hours! Some days I'm so grateful for older kids :) They did treasure hunts, and invented other cool games like Fear Factor.....and the kids loved it! Its so satisfying to hear children say; This is the best party I've ever been too in my life!

The only problem was getting them to sleep!! Its not an easy thing, and you can't really go to bed and let them be.....the house might not be standing the next morning...not the way you remember it anyway. :-/ So yah....the last one dropped off by 2am! And this morning they were up with the sun....how do they do that? I'm definitely not young anymore :-(

After another marathon play session in the pool and in the park next door, they each walked out the door like zombies when their parents collected them.... Most parents thanked me, cos it meant they'd have sleepy tired kids most of the day :)

Phew! The end of another weekend... I'm exhausted.

When did my life start revolving around my children's social lives!?

I wonder what I was supposed to think when my oldest daughter (now 13) told me the other day: Ma, you look like a Desperate Housewife today.

Huh?

It sometimes feels to me like I'm living someone else's life.... Its like I'm supposed to be somewhere else, doing something else...

I just can't shake the feeling.

Life was exciting for years - we lived abroad, travelled a lot - and then we decided to return home and settle down. *sigh* Bought the house, found the kids a nice new school, got a bunch of pets.....but then it felt wrong and we started itching again. Maybe we're just spoilt.

I'm waiting for a sign.....