An interesting day...........

Yesterday was a public holiday here in South Africa. I am renting a house in Pringle Bay for some 4 weeks whilst we wait for the completion of the kitties inoculation period. It is a tiny cottage and I have been a little concerned with the safety of my city cats in the country with baboons which apparently will get into the house at the first opportunity. Having spent so much time and effort to move the cats I do not want a kitty to take off into the veld or be dismembered by a baboon. After much consultation and discussion with family we agreed that it might be a better option to put the cats in a cattery for the time we spend in Pringle Bay. As this is the busiest time of the year for most pet boarding establishments I was concerned whether I would find a space. My vet's assistant recommended a new cattery which has just opened and is in close proximity to our home. After visiting and deciding that my cats would not mind such wonderful five star accommodation I have booked them in. This is an expense for which I had not budgeted but I feel a great relief knowing that they will be safe. So the morning that the removal company arrives to start the mammoth task of packing, the cats can be taken to their temporary home and left in safety without the trauma of being in the middle of strange people in the house as well as being moved to a tiny cottage where we would be constantly worried that one of them will escape and get lost or eaten by a baboon!
The cottage belongs to a neighbour who invited me to go with her to have a look around and orientate myself with the area. So we set off early yesterday morning on one of the hottest days of the year. It is a good hour's drive from Cape Town (depending on how fast you drive and my neighbour is a slow, cautious driver). The cottage is tiny but perfectly adequate for our needs and I am looking forward to having a break for a few weeks 'tho I will have to take sewing to do as Hugglets is just around the corner. I was amazed at how much this area has grown and the new shops that have opened. No more country stores but fancy shops with an amazing range of items for sale. I am looking forward to strolling along the beach in the early morning and evening as I love the sea and don't get the opportunity to spend much time there even though I live right at the coast.
Saw the fire damage in Gordon's Bay and several burnt out houses, quite amazing that there were not more damaged as it was quite some fire with the a gale force wind helping to spread the fire over a very large area.
Today I am waiting delivery of Bronwen's belongings as well as going to collect Megan from the airport. She phoned me from Frankfurt last night to say that her flight left London an hour late. Have just checked at Cape Town International and her flight is expected almost an hour late so she will be exhausted when she finally arrives.
Packing is moving slowly now reaching the stage where the house is less 'furnished' but there are boxes everywhere.
Advertised the computer workstation last week and received a phone call from a chap who was positive that he wanted to take it and please could I keep it until Monday. No problem I said as I was not going to tell him that he was the only taker! Monday morning I removed a considerable amount of stuff from the desk, two printers, monitor, discs, files etc. Carried the workstation out on to the front verandah and started trying to organise my life on a table. Really miss the pull out little shelf for the keyboard as the table is quite high and it does make a difference. Phoned the purchaser to confirm that the desk was ready for collection to be told that sorry he was going to phone (yah right) but his parents had delivered a workstation to his flat the night before and he really was surprised etc etc. Now this was the guy who said that he definitely wanted it and please would I beat off anyone else with a big stick. So I now had a large desk in the middle of my front verandah, stuff everywhere and was feeling totally fed up. One of my neighbours stopped by for tea and when I told him the sad tale he said he would like to buy it, of course he beat me down in price but what the hell I was by this time just glad to see the back of it. Another sad tale, really think I should write a book of the Chamberlain's house moving experiences.
On a different note I went shopping for food on Monday morning. Considering that we are supposedly in a recession I was amazed at how busy it was and how much money people seem to be spending. Either they know something I don't or they will all be crying come January when the plastic needs to be paid. Our wonderful 'fat cat' governor of the reserve bank has reduced our prime interest by .5%, bringing it down to 15%. He then says that the public must not go on a spending binge as if they could!!


Oh, for the good old days when people would stop Christmas shopping when they ran out of money. ~Author Unknown~