Germs, germs and more germs!
I started it, Craig continued it and now the dear man carries on the tradition of winter woes.
Coughing, sneezing, wheezing and all the other noises that are associated with winter germs.
We have just been so out of it. Every day has been a hardship and a challenge.
While winter can be a glorious season, when we can really cocoon and make wonderful food that warms the body and drink lovely wine that caresses the soul, it can also be an absolute bastard of a season that saps the strength from you and weakens the resolve. If...you know what I mean?
It is a dark season. One which pulls all sorts of thoughts out of you that you didn't even know were there.
It is a season where lots of things seem to die a natural death because it is the right time for them to do so.
It is a season where we recognise that something has died. We don't quite know why but it has.
It is a season where some of us appropriately recognise that something has changed.
Winter is a harsh season. It is a season that wrings something out of us, whether we want to recognise it or not!
Winter is a season where you wrap your arms around yourself, you comfort yourself knowing that no-one else will.
I think winter is a time for introspection. There is a stillness about it. And a silence where all you can hear is your own heartbeat and all you can listen to are your own thoughts. Winter is a time when you are alone. And perhaps we all need a time of aloneness.
I think there is a reason for the seasons.
Winter plays a very important role. For it is a season of dying, it is a season of nothingness where everything seems to fade and wither and all living things suffer in some way or another.
But I believe it is a season that insists we put our lives on hold. It insists we evaluate and re-assess our lives, because while it is a dying it is also a chance for regeneration.
Winter is another chance at life.
Some famous poet wrote ( I should know who it was but at this moment in time I don't and I can't take the time to look it up!) " If winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"
And that's the thought you see.
The light at the end of the tunnel...the silver lining on the cloud.
A wet winter promises an abundant spring.
And there is no suffering without learning and no sorrow without joy.
So I will sniffle away into my tissues and hope you will forgive my musings.

The vine on our pergola in our lovely kitchen courtyard has only a few leaves left.
The dear man planted the vine a few years ago. He was dismayed when this year the grapes were green! He was convinced he had planted red grapes. And so he had...green grapes eventually turn red!
We had a good harvest and handed out bags of lovely sweet red grapes to all and sundry.
What I love the most about the vine, apart from the fact that the fruit attracts little birds who come to drink the juice of the fruit, is that the leaves change colour.They turn red and bronze and gold and I am so aware of the season when I look out of my kitchen window and see what they are doing.
My kitchen garden is a joy. I have lovely fresh herbs for the picking; thyme, oreganum, celery, flat leaf parsley, bay leaves, fennel, beetroot, majoram, sorrel and sage. We have even had 4 beautiful aubergines. And let me not forget the lovely basil which has bloomed and bloomed until I haven't quite known what to do with it. (And yes, I have made pesto!) And of course, the rosemary just keeps going. It's one of those lovely herbs that just minds its own business and grows and grows.
I do have a horrible problem with mint, however. It simply will not thrive. There is an old wives' tale that says mint will only grow if you steal a cutting. Well, I've tried that. It hasn't worked for me and nor has the honest buying of it at the nursery!
Life is filled with simple joys sometimes( if we will allow it to be!) and going out into my kitchen garden gives me more satisfaction than I would ever have thought. A handful of mixed homegrown herbs is a wonderful feeling and it makes me feel all sort of creative and I find I do wonderful things in the kitchen because of it.
So the vine is now almost bare and the pale sunlight of winter filters through and provides some light, whereas in summer, the bright green leaves of the vine give us dappled shade and some respite from the harsh summer sun.
I think a grapevine is a wonderful thing. It gives us what we need no matter what the season, especially wine, which sadly we do not produce ourselves.
Although I must admit, when we were picking copious bunches of lovely ripe red grapes this summer, I was tempted to have a grape-treading party and to make an effort to make our very own Plattekloof Hills wine!

For Tony, the eldest of my nine cousins, who died last weekend of Altzeimers disease.I didn't know him that well. I remember he rode a motor-bike and did weight-lifting. I know my elder sister was very fond of him. Only a few months separated them.
I have not gone to his funeral. I think that would be a very empty gesture. I have had very little to do with him over many years and he had very little to do with me.
It is indeed a sad thing.
I pay tribute to his wife who did everything she could to care for him. She was indeed a good woman who loved him and cared for him until the end.
How odd it is that we lose contact with our relations. Our older family members die and we younger ones forget our connections and stumble across each other at funerals and then vaguely remember each other and exclaim in amazement.
I have at least 2 cousins in Cape Town that I have not seen for many years. I have another in Uitenhage.
Why have we lost each other?
We share a common history. Why do we not care about each other any more?
Perhaps we have to accept that all we have in common is our blood-line, and maybe that is not enough.
Fair enough!
Just because we are related doesn't mean we have to like each other, does it?
I imagine a re-union where everyone is obliged to attend. I would be happy to meet all those who belong to our family again.
Just to say hello. Just to say I remember you and the history we share.
But life is not that easy and one cannot gloss over the reasons why we do not keep in contact with each other. There are reasons which we either do or do not understand.
But another branch of my family tree has withered and died.
And I have become a lesser person for that.

What, I wonder, does that actually mean?
I assume that it means you can say whatever the hell you like!
I like that.
This weekend has been abysmal!
The weather has been foul. Raining and pouring ( and the old man is snoring!)
Everything drips and leaks and is wet and damp!
And I am bored. Seriously bored!
We have watched rugby. We have watched cricket. I have watched 2000 episodes of 'Has Potential'.
The dear man thought it was a good time to play...in the kitchen.
I don't know what it is about cold weather but it certainly sends one straight into the kitchen to cook up food that will warm the bones!
When the dear man thinks it is time to play, that generally means that I must write out a shopping list and then don an apron and be prepared to spend the rest of the day in the kitchen!
And I did.
But let me explain how my day was planned!
Being Sunday. I would lie abed, sleeping late until the dear one brought me coffee. So spoiled am I.
I had planned to get up, cook the beef and bacon stew that we had decided on yesterday and set it a-simmer.
After the bacon and egg brunch that the dear man would cook me, I thought I would take myself off to the casino! Which I dearly love and I could not have thought of better place to be on this cold and wet Sunday!
But one phone-call on the same morning changed all my plans for this day.
Amy was to grace us with her presence. Caroline was off to a birthday tea, and as Amy has a cold she thought it was better to leave her with us, for lots of unselfish reasons which turned out in the end to be rubbish!
I spent the whole day in the kitchen. I made an oxtail stew. I made a beef and bacon stew. I made an aubergine and chickpea stew for Caroline ( which by the way used the aubergines which the dear man had grown in our own garden.)
I even stewed some guavas which Caroline loves, and so does the dear man.
What a great day it was.I spent most of it feeling aggrieved!.
I could have thrown a tantrum. But I have this strange inheritance where everyone else comes first and you come last...and I gave into it. Besides, I adore Amy and she will always come top of the list.
But I was really resentful, mainly I think because everyone else had decided what I would do with my day!
Call me selfish but I really didn't like that!
So I minded Amy. To be honest she doesn't take much minding because she gets to watch TV when she comes to us. We faithfully record 'In the Night Garden' for her as well as other programs, and once she is settled on the couch, we might as well not be there at all! We try to interact with her while she is watching but she just seems to find us annoying.
She honoured me with a really poofy nappy, and as I was changing her, her mom arrived. I should have held off for a little longer, but the poor little thing was grabbing herself with a really desperate look on her face until her stupid granny got the message.
Although she has a nasty cold, she is not sick. She was in good spirits and we spent a lot of time playing games. She put on her dads shoes and had us in fits of laughter as she stomped around in them. Peter has taken some lovely movies of her and we watched after they had left and really had a good laugh.
So, my weekend wasn't quite what I had wanted or planned but that's life!
There's loads of time for me ( I hope) so having family around and giving things up here and there is no big deal.
But I am pretty much cooked out!
Tomorrow is the start of a new week!
Here I go again!

For the first time in more years than I care to remember I had a Mother's Day where I didn't have to do a thing.
Richard had volunteered to have the do at his house and he and Caroline and Sion had organised everything between them.
I must admit it felt quite odd for me not to have to do anything.
Richard was killing two birds with one stone. He was hosting Mother's Day and his gran and aunts and uncle were getting their first view of his home in Pinehurst.
The weather was glorious on Sunday. We could have had that braai after all!
Sion made a lovely Balti chicken curry with basmati rice and sambals, while Caroline made her delicious Moussaka.
I faffed around feeling quite useless and eventually succumbed to giving in to the moment and just enjoying myself. I don't know why I was anxious! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree! They did a grand job of it all and Caroline's pudding just put the cherry on the top.
We used the time to watch Andre and Jenelle's wedding video which we had not yet seen. We had a few tearful moments. I wish now that we had tried harder to be there.
Amy had a ball running around the garden and walking around the house, knocking on the front door to be let in, a few times!
Nina just lay in the arms of whoever wanted to hold her and smiled and cooed at everyone.
It was a lovely day.
Family is very special!

Tomorrow, our president-to-be will be inaugurated. Do watch, even if it is to see how R75 million of our tax money is to be spent!
Our future president, with his Std 3 education, will attend the ceremony with three of his wives.
Tonight I watched TV and found out, along with many other South Africans, that the presidential inauguration will be toasted with nothing less than Dom Perignon champagne at R 1800 per bottle!!!
Marie Antoinette said: " If they have no bread, then let them eat cake!"
Perhaps dear Jacob should then say: " If they have no clean water, then let them drink Dom Perignon!"
What a disgrace. Our blacks have railed against Eurocenrtic practices. How more Eurocentric can you get than French champagne?
South African wine makers are insulted. Achim van Aarde, he of Haute Cabriere fame, who makes the closest thing to French champagne in this country, is insulted. So should he be! What happened to 'proudly South African?'
I weep quietly.
We should be ashamed.
After watching this extravaganza, after the jubilant toyi-toying, will the ordinary black person go home and be any better off. Will they even be able to drink a clean glass of water? While their new president quaffs French champagne?

First Bit
Well, I voted along with several million South Africans.
Nothing new has transpired. We are back to the good? old days where the main party alway won and you wondered why you bothered. The frustration of it is what gets to me.
The majority of people in this country don't even understand how the election process works! How can they then even understand the implications of their vote?
However, you get what you ask for!
On the TV tonight a commentator said that people will be wondering what the new government will do for them!
WHAT new government. It's the same one they've always had! Same old, same old!
I'm just a sore loser!
Second Bit
My driving ability( or lack thereof) has always been a source of amusement to family and friends. It is a true and sad fact
that I have never driven more than 5 kilometers from my home! Pathetic, isn't it?
But over the years I have managed to do my shopping, get to the doctor, the dentist, the hairdresser and to fetch and carry my children to and from school.
I have had various mishaps whilst driving.
In the days when I still smoked in my car, I managed to set fire to one of my newly acquired acrylic nails.
I nearly drove up the nearest pole while I tried to put out the fire.
Today was another driving nightmare!
I set off to my hairdresser in Edgemead while the sun was showing a somewhat watery appearance to what had been a bit of a gloomy day!
I had my hair done and felt really great as I hadn't been in a while. I'd been doing my own hair for about 3 weeks ( and that's another story!)
While I was paying I heard this thunderous noise. My hairdresser assured me that it was just the noise of the supermarket trolleys being pushed back into the supermarket!!
NO!!
The heavens had opened over Edgemead and there was a thunderstorm to beat all thunderstorms. I believe the hail was so bad that people had to pull their cars to the side of the road because they could not clear the hail off their windscreens.
So there I stood under the shelter, newly done hair and wearing sandals, for God's sake ( although as my eldest sister would say, leave him out of it!)
Smokers don't mind waiting, and so I sheltered while I smoked and waited for the rain to stop.
I eventually made a dash to my car and several tissues later( to dry my feet and my sandals), I set off for home.
Perhaps I should explain at this point that I am driving a new car. All I can tell you that it is a Mercedes. Do not ask for any more detail. All I require from a car is that it goes and doesn't stop unexpectedly!
However, I realised today that there are certain finer points with this new car of mine that I am not familiar with!
Like the windscreen-wipers, for example, and the lights.
A lot of it the car, clever thing that it is, does automatically. Beyond that some human intervention is required!
So with the lightening flashing, the thunder thundering and the rain pouring down, I drove very slowly home in traffic that seemed to have gone mad. Edgemead is inclined to flood in this kind of weather and so it did. Scary!
At last I reached the corner that spelled home. I flicked on my indicator( NOT!) and when I wanted to turn into our driveway, my car gave a great surge of power and carried me past our house and up the hill.
Well, I freaked out. Here was I, being taken over by a machine that had chosen not to turn when I so requested!
I ended up driving around the block.I tried again and this time I managed to get into the driveway and my garage.
It appears, in my frazzled state, I had pushed the cruise control instead of the indicator!
Time to read the manual!
Pieces
Today Nina and I had our first play date. Thursdays Caroline takes Amy off to Top Tots and I get to mind Nina.
She is the dearest and most patient little thing. I really enjoy cuddling her and chatting to her without feeling disloyal to Amy who I adore and would not hurt for the world. But it's a bit tough on little Nina who doesn't get the attention she should from her granny. So Thursdays are going to be great. I really enjoyed looking after her today. She is starting to smile now and that really lights up her little face. And my day.