Not for the faint hearted!

Last post I told you about Gemma's dog fight. And told you about the incredible fact that there were no wounds to be seen!

On Thursday, Carl got home from work and pointed out that Gemma had a very swollen face, and on inspection, we could feel that there was a great big abscess under the skin where she had been bitten. So on Friday, I took her off to the Vet. On the way there, her abscess popped (fortunately she was in her crate, so it was quite contained!). And there for the world to see were two HUGE gaping holes!! I was mortified and kept telling the Vet that I had checked her so carefully and there were no wounds and what a terrible owner I am, blah blah. She listened to my confessions (Forgive me Dr. for I have sinned!), shaved the area, cleaned out the holes, gave her an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory and then told me what she thought.

Turns out, she believed me about the wounds story, but the bruising from the bite must have been so severe that the skin died, and an infection set in underneath, creating an abscess. Which created a whole lot of pressure, and so it popped through the weak points - the two bite wounds.

Hah! Vindicated!

I have to put in this picture, but my apologies for those of you with sensitive stomachs!!!

The 94.7

For those of you non-Joburgers out there, the 94.7 is a massive cycle race organised by our local radio station, 94.7 Highveld Stereo. The truth is that the race was actually 96.5km, but don't let the public know! So, Carl and my two brothers, Roland and Bruce, and 26 000 other crazy people took to the streets of Joburg for this race on Sunday 15 November (you can see it has taken me a while to get around to writing about it!). It was a clear, boiling hot Highveld day and by all accounts, the race was longer, steeper, hotter and tougher than last year, but apparently still enjoyed by all (OK, most!!). Carl did his race in 3:11 but was a bit disappointed as he was hoping to break 3hrs. To me, it was an excellent time, and the most important bit was that he beat my brothers! Not that we are comparing or anything!
Check out Carl leading the pack (OK, so you can't see the thousands of people in front of him, but anyway!). GO DELOITTE!!
For the spectators, it was great fun! We went up to a nearby water point and got to see all three men (plus thousands of others!) ride by. It is a great thing for Joburgers, because we spend so much time behind our high walls and electric fencing that we never really get out onto our streets! Sad but true!
The most dramatic moment came when our puppy Gemma got attacked by another Jack Russell and I could NOT get this dog to release her! What was more scary is that there were two other really big dogs right close by who also wanted to get in on the action and take a chunk out of our baby!! So, I was fighting off the two big dogs and at the same time trying to get Gemma away from the attacker. And let me tell you, Gemma was shrieking like she was being murdered!! It was terribly scary! The kids were crying, I was yelling and the dogs were snarling. Not nice! The minute I got her free of the other dog, we literally ran back to the car and hot-tailed it home. On arriving home, I cleaned and checked out Gemma from head to toe, and there ware no puncture wounds! Incredible! Did I say no puncture wounds? Well, I lied - only the wounds were on ME not her!!!! Turns out my foot got bitten (punctured), as well as my finger (bad bruising only). I only realised that once we were home! So, I then cleaned myself up, took a shower, popped two Rescue Tablets to calm myself and we headed off to Waterfall Estate to meet Carl at the end of the race! Whew! What a morning!

Here is Carl looking very lean and mean on his bike!

The Vaal (again!)

We have just enjoyed another pleasant weekend at the Vaal, this time with my folks, brother and his kids. The weather was once again fairly missy, but we did still get out on the boat. Austin skied like a champ, and Liam managed to get up, although not stay up! He gets a medal for trying though!!


I have to include this photo, which I took with my cell phone, of our other member of the family on the boat. She looks like she's ready for lift-off (Gemma, that is, not Megan!).

Other than that, we did some paddle-skiing, fishing, cycling, braai-ing, sleeping, eating, chilling!

Y'know, the usual!

The do-ers and the don't-ers

We had our school's White Elephant Sale this past weekend. Which means that for the past few months people have been bringing all their old junk (sorry, treasures!!) and dumping it in a trailer in the car park. Which had to be manned. And then the stuff had to be sorted. And then carried up to the store room above the church. And then resorted. Priced. Cleaned. Etc!!! Are you getting the picture?
The amazing thing is that the bulk of the work was done by so few people! Mom keeps telling me that's life and stop complaining, but it never ceases to amaze me how little some parents do for their kid's school! I get it that the working mom's can't exactly take time off during the day to do all the above mentioned work, but at least on the Saturday they could've come and helped with the selling. But no! I eventually had to corner people to ask for help, but they unashamedly said no, they have other commitments! Person after person after person.
The good news is that the sale was a great success and we made R54000!!! Megs and Ali each got R50 to spend for the morning, and that kept them amused for ages! Megan bought a Willard Price book on arrival, and pretty much spent the rest of the morning in her own little world (as usual!). Even I got some real bargains - so the whole thing was not a complete waste!
Thanks to those of you who donated stuff towards it!
OK - done grumbling!

A weekend at the Vaal

I saw something this weekend at the Vaal that I haven't seen before, in three years of going there......Yip, sunrise!!

Why, you may ask? Well, we took our puppy Gemma down with us. She slept in her crate in the kids' room, but at 5:15am I heard snuffling and decided that getting up at 5:15 was a lesser fate than getting up at 6am to a crate with a poo and a wee in it! So I quietly removed Gemma from her bed, and took her outside for her to do the necessaries. Which she did. And then I spent 45 mins playing with her, until the kids woke up and took over their duty. At which point, I returned to the place I should have been all along - my bed!

Saturday was very laid back (for me. Carl did a 92km training ride). We took the boat out and I had my first water-ski of the summer. Brrrr, the water was still pretty cold, and I am a total wimp. But I still had fun, and still popped out the water first time. As did Carl. The kids didn't even try.

On Sunday Carl had invited his work colleagues down for the day, which was pleasant, even though it was totally hectic (for me!). We decided to do all our entertaining, including braaing and eating, down by the water's edge. However, this involved carting all the required equipment down. Hmmm, very busy, especially when I kept forgetting things!!

I think they all had fun? Carl took some of them out on the boat, some kayaked, others just chilled.

Gemma had some time on the kayak and even had two swims - one on purpose (she lept off the front of the kayak) and the other by mistake (she lost her balance and fell off).

Mpumalanga

Those of you who read Roland's blog will have already heard about this trip. However, the people who went were clearly divided into two groups - those who cycle and those who don't!

Let me tell you about the weekend from the latter group's point of view!

Roland, Carl, Hennie and Jason decided to embark on a mad-cap, hare-brained idea of doing a cycling tour through Mpumalanga (yes, that of Robber's Pass fame!). Much excitement in the organising, and the time for the great 'tour de mpumalanga' arrived.

Carl went down on Thursday with Roland, Caron and Jason, along with the van der Merwes. I believe their accommodation and food was fabulous that night, although I cannot comment as I was not there! The next morning the little troupe of intrepid cyclists set off and cycled an obscene amount of kms up and down some obscenely steep passes (for those of you who really care, check out Roland's blog for the graphs of the routes and profiles - I kid you not!!).

However, the jury is still out as to who had a tougher day - I left JHB at 2pm, drove solidly on my own with the kids for 5 hours through JHB traffic, rain and past accidents to arrive in Graskop after dark. Fortunately, Carl and Roland came and met me in Graskop because the last little bit would have been very confusing. Whew! So, to add to my not-so-nice afternoon, I was confronted with the fact that we were sharing a tiny little wooden chalet (read VERY NOISY!) with Jason, whom we had never met. That wasn't so much the problem as the only toilet was en suite to Jason's bedroom!!! Those of you who know me, know that I am a girl who enjoys her luxury and privacy and here I had driven through hell and high water to be confronted with neither!! Anyway, once I was over the shock, it was super to be there. And it turns out Jason is a pretty nice guy after all!

I arrived with dinner (pre-prepared bolognaise - so I couldn't even have turned around and gone back home!!) which we all wolfed down and headed for bed, after enjoying some time sitting around the fire.

The next day the cyclists set off again and after some time reappeared, claiming that the weather was terrible and they had to change their route (naffs!). Once again, if you want the low down on the cyclists, refer to Roland's blog!

Those of us who stayed behind - Dee and her kids, and me with Megs and Ali, enjoyed what the accommodation had to offer (other than the toilet which I could now freely use before Jason returned from his cycle!!).

The chalets were on a working silk farm, so we did a tour of the farm.

The biggest saving grace, however, with 4 kids on a rainy day with not much to do, was the jacuzzi!! Lovely! They wallowed for hours while Dee and I chatted and read.

Caron escaped the chaos of the kids and chose rather to drive at a snail's pace behind the cyclists - for which we wives were extremely grateful!

Once the cyclists were back we did the obligatory visit to Harrie's Pancakes in Graskop, and then had a whopper of a braai in the evening!

The next morning was a disappointment for the cyclists because they had planned to go up Long Tom Pass, but the mist was just too thick and dangerous. Instead we converged on Dullstroom for lunch and wended our weary way home wards!

I fear that Carl had a super time and that this may be the first of many such weekends!

Mitzvah Prize Giving

Yet another Mitzvah event has been a highlight of my year, and a restorer of my faith in this crazy country of ours!!

Yesterday was our prize giving. And let me assure you, it was a prize giving like you've never seen before! The afternoon started with a series of songs, dances, poems and speeches done by the pupils. Then we had a speaker, a woman my age, who was one of the first students to go through the Mitzvah School. She spoke so well, and directly to the students - how she knows about their lives in Alex, she had the same up bringing and hardships, and yet, here she is, so successful, due to a combination of hard work, and SA being the land of opportunity! She said very firmly, that poverty is no longer an excuse to not do well in life!

Then all the prizes were handed out. It is always agony for me to decide on who should get a prize (other than the top student, that's easy!), and I always feel like I've let someone down by not choosing them. Anyway, the maths prizes were not the highlight of the afternoon (I know you can't believe it, but it's true!!). Rather, one of our boys who is a Geography boff has been given a scholarship to study town planning, with his tuition in first year paid for, as well as tuition and work experience for his second year. This boy's mother was so over-whelmed that once the bursary was awarded she went up to the stage, and weeping, threw her arms around the man who awarded the bursary. Well, there was hardly a dry eye in the house!

The school was also so lucky to have been given four bursaries from Boston College (3 x R10 000 and 1 x R15 000!) which were awarded to some top achievers. Boston is fantastic as it offers heaps of short courses which, if not these pupil's final destination, is an incredible start to their lives! Lastly, our dux scholar was awarded a full bursary from a company called ZenProp, which covers tuition, books and a living allowance for 3 years for the course of her choice!! Itumeleng, who received the prize, is such a hard worker and has been so determined this whole year, that I really hope that she manages University. She has all the right ingredients!

What an inspiring and quite overwhelming afternoon! Once again, I wish more of you out there could experience this slice of South Africa which fills my heart with JOY and HOPE!!