Snowy Birthday to me!

Oh my gosh, I'm 34!! When did that happen?

Almost my whole life I was a summer baby and was used to having my birthday around the pool or on camping holidays with my parents. However, since I moved to the UK I've had to get used to wrapping up warm on my birthday. This year even more so as we are completely snowed in! It's the first time I've ever had snow ON my birthday. It's odd, weird and very very strange. You would think that I would be used to it after living in the UK for the past 14 years, however it still seems slightly wrong.

In some ways its great as my hubby has decided to stay home due to all the trains being cancelled, but in others it's not so good. All my birthday cards and presents that have been sent by family and friends are all stuck at the Post Office because the Postie hasn't been able to deliver in quite a few days now!

Anyway, this is my car today.... despite the fact that it got cleared of snow yesterday!!

Now I'm wondering whether I should try to clear the car again and attempt to go out and do something special for the day or whether I would be best just snuggling down with a duvet and a cup of hot chocolate for the day. Any ideas??

I shall let you know what we decided in my next post! Thanks for dropping by!

Anthea

PS. Can you tell that my writing skills are a little rusty? It's been ages since I last did any sort of post and I'm feeling a little out of practice! 

Madam & Eve

Fun Friday is here again and this week I'd like to introduce you to one of my favourite comic strips! I love this strip for its uniquely South African view on life. Most of the time the comic strip is a commentary on the politics, news or social state of the 'Rainbow Nation', which means you really have to understand what is happening in the country... something which I must admit I have lost track of. However, sometimes they produce a gem that works no matter what nation you live in. This is one such time!

Madam & Eve takes a humorous look at the daily lives of two people from very different backgrounds as they experience life in postapartheid South Africa. The strip's main characters have become icons of a changing South Africa, providing light relief through the days of transition to democracy. Madam, is a typical white South African madam struggling to come to terms with the new South Africa.Eve Sisulu, Madam's "domestic maintenance assistant" actually runs the household. Always fighting for a wage increase, Eve often sets up mini-businesses to run from home to supplement her meagre income. Madam & Eve fight a lot, but they secretly like each other, even though neither of them will admit it. Mother Anderson is Madam's mother from England. She's a guest who arrived but has never left. Her hobbies are watching TV, drinking gin & tonics and fighting with Eve.

Prompt #4: Blogging the Mundane...

I'm loving Shimelle's class! Today's prompt is all about blogging mundane things. Things that we think are 'boring' that might actually be interesting to other people. So, life is not always a rollercoaster of highs and lows, sometimes its just nice and flat and uninteresting... so what? Perhaps nice, flat and uninteresting is good - because a rollercoaster life can make you sick! Shimelle was talking about blogging about things like

• going to the library
• doing the shopping
• the school run
• filling up at the petrol station ....

....oooh now there's one that would do me! I nipped there this morning to get some milk after I had dropped herself off at nursery. I filled up with petrol too at the same time... and then came home to find Shimelle's prompt sat in my inbox. It did get me thinking! I remember when I was a kid I used to sit in the car with my parents while the petrol was being filled up! Yup, my Mum and Dad sat in the car too! See I grew up in South Africa where illiteracy is high and lots of people don't have jobs. There is no dole, no benefits or handouts - so if you don't work, you don't eat. Consequently, there are a lot of things that people are 'employed' to do, that here in the UK we do for ourselves... and one of them is filling up at the petrol station. You drive onto the forecourt, open your window and hand a guy the keys. You tell him what type of fuel your car takes and then wait for him to fill up. I remember as a child thinking how it all sounded like a foreign language as my Mom would hand him the keys saying "fill up, 98, oil and tyres" Suddenly there would be three guys rushing around. One would be filling up, one would be checking the oil and another would be checking the tyres. A fourth man would approach the window and ask if she would like the windscreen cleaned. The petrol attendant would then tell my Mom how much it cost and she would give him the cash (before the days of credit cards!) he would take it to the kiosk and bring her the receipt and the change. She would then have to tip him and they would divide it between them. That is how they lived... on tips. I only found out years later that the garage didn't pay them a salary, they did all that in the hope of a tip... and quite a few people didn't give them even that much! The only time my parents would actually set foot anywhere near the kiosk was when us kids nagged them into getting us some crisps or a drink. Quite unlike living here in the UK... where we now have to get out the car (shock, horror!) and do it ourselves. So I filled up the car; watching the numbers whizz by until it clicks. Then I do this "thing", I rock the car - to get the air out of the petrol tank - and then continue to fill it up until it clicks again. Does anyone else do this? I'm not sure where I picked it up from? I think I must be the only person who does this. LOL. I collect my wallet from the car and then head into the shop. Of course it is a *shop* now - not just a little kiosk- petrol stations have now become mini-supermarkets. Our local one has a Marks & Spencers shop, so I often get stuff for tea from there too. I wander around the shop; even though I know I really only need milk -  and pick up a quiche, milk, bread, a snack selection, ham, cheese and sushi. Mmmmmm, yup Sushi. Its a M&S and their sushi is gorgeous. I'm addicted to it! I can happily walk right past the chocolates and crisps as long as I can get my hands on some sushi! I take my stuff to the till and pay.... £60 later I walk out of the shop with a full tank of petrol, the milk I originally wanted and nearly £20's worth of stuff that I had never intended to buy! And sushi. Yum!

I think that the old South African system was probably better, the temptation to buy additional stuff was easier to resist when it was someone else who was handling the money and doing all the work!

(Photo source)

Back with a Bump

Well, the Christmas is officially Over, the after-effects of New Years has finally worn off. The Decorations are down and have been put in the loft for another year.  Life goes on... or maybe not.  My Dad phoned on the 2nd of January to tell me that his cousin in South Africa (who we all knew really well) had committed suicide on the 30th. A mutual relative had phoned him that morning to break the news to him and he was really upset. I don't blame him either, we knew things hadn't been going particularly well for Owen but didn't realise it had gotten that bad. Also my Dad being an only child Owen was more like a brother than a cousin and was really close to him even when we moved to the UK and Owen remained in SA.  It turns out that the company Owen was working for told him and several others that their contracts were not going to be renewed and that their final working week was the week before Christmas. They only told them this during their final week. What a stupid time to tell people they're losing their jobs!  Especially as a 50-odd year old white male has virtually no prospects of getting a job in SA at the moment due to "Affirmative Action" (aka Racism in Reverse).

Forgive my cynacism on this topic. It seems my former homeland has decided that all white people supported apartheid and must therefore be punished. They forget that there were people like my parents that stood up for them and their rights, that gave them decent salaries, housing, medical and other perks that were not usually allowed for black workers. My parents were followed and had their phone tapped regularly because they were known as "black sympathisers". At 13 years old, I myself stood up for black kids in my own school after integration was started, due to the simple bullying that was happening.  Yet we are all tarred with the same brush as the racist sector of the population is.  Why? We did so much for these people when they needed it and we are now being repayed for this kindness. 

My father often tells me a story of how my Grandfather nearly prevented apartheid from happening at all.  He was a big man: standing nearly 7ft tall and heavy set too. He was a real Boer farmer with a healthy respect for his black workers. He could give them hell sometimes but they all knew he was a fair man.  He was also the chairman of the local farmers co-op; during election season the farmers co-op used to invite politicians to speak to them about their political agenda's. One of these speakers was Hendrik Verwoed, who would later establish apartheid as law during his leadership of SA. During his speech Mr. Verwoed outlined his racist plans to segregate blacks and treat them as third-rate citizens. My grandfather was so enraged by his proposals that he rugby-tackled Mr. Verwoed on the stage infront of the whole audience, sat astride his chest and started throttling him with his bare hands. Apparently it took 5 men to restrain my grandfather and set him back on his chair!  I only wish that my grandfather had succeeded... it would have saved South Africa a lot of heartache and possibly his nephew's life.

Handbag envy

Ok.... just to loosen up! This is todays blog prompt....

What’s your handbag like? What makes a ‘perfect’ handbag? What do you carry in your handbag? What's in it right now? Do you ever have ‘handbag envy'?

My initial response was that I don't carry a handbag! So how do I function without one?? One word..... Jeans! I always have loose change in my right hand front pocket and my bankcards in one of my back pockets. Keys and mobile phones go in jeans pockets too. I have been known to buy/not buy a mobile phone depending on whether it could fit in my jeans pocket. Ok, so technically I have a handbag... but it mostly sits in my wardrobe and does nothing. I also own a wallet although that generally gets left in the house while I just grab the cards I'm going to need.

Do I get handbag envy?? You bet! Although mine usually consists of... nice handbag! Damn, there's no point buying one cause I'm never going to use it. How do they make one of those things work for them?? So, I figure although I love the idea of a handbag.... I'm just never going to be a handbaggy sort of gal! Pity really cause there are some lovely ones out there!
So why am I like this?? Well I grew up on a farm, or rather, several farms in South Africa. At that time in a girls life where handbags become the 'must have' item, I was more concerned about helping Dad milk cows and whether I was too old to be climbing trees! So while all my friends became real girly girls I stuck with my jeans and wellies. Several years later I'm still in jeans although the wellies have been exchanged for trainers. Would it suprise you if I said : "I never wear make up??" and "I don't really like pink" .... probably not! Strange then that I want these girly things for my Erin. I want her to enjoy girly things and definitely would love it if she carried a handbag when she got to that age!