Feeling a little jaded ...

.. hubby and I are taking a few days break to the Cape :)

Skywatch Friday :

While waiting for our hired car on our last visit to Cape Town about a month ago this is what the clouds looked like ...



... and travelling from Cape Town International Airport to the City Centre, this was the cloud cover over Table Mountain (side view) ...

I notice the street lights are on in this photo above .. there is so much reconstruction of highways and byways in all our city centres ... I suppose 'they' forgot to turn them off !! or maybe the lights were being tested ?!

Hubby and I are off to the Cape tomorrow (Sat) ... again .. until Thursday next week .. sooo

.... bye for now

For more spectacular skies around the world visit Skywatch

Barges,canals and locks ..

... the likes of which I found so fascinating when hubby and I were holidaying in England two years ago. I had never seen a barge before, or for that matter, canals and locks ... I am from Africa .. we don't have such things !!


My previous post with photos of barges and the relaxed lifestyle it portayed ... although, I would hate imagine what it's like during the winter months ... brought back memories of our visit and in particular the Kennet and Avon Locks in the quaint town of Bradford-on-Avon , near Bath, Southern England ...

Hubby and I watched the process or whatever it's called .. of a barge going through the locks from the one canal to the other. Friends of ours have done a barging holiday and they said it was glorious but going through the locks is tough going, especially if there is no Lock Key Keeper - he is the chappie in the photo above wearing the red T-shirt.

His 'special key' unlocks the gate .. and the gate has to be cranked open - he on the wide side and one person from the barge, on the other side ... if there is no Lock Keeper then it really is tough!! That 'chosen one' from the barge has to run from one side to the other (one gate to the other) and crank each one open a little bit at a time ...

Once the barge is within the two sets of gates water gushes through the small gap between the gates ... raising the water level to the height of the next canal ...

... and 'Bob's your uncle' as they say in the classics ... the 'chosen one'-from-the-barge, in this case, the lady with the white shorts and pale blue T'shirt, pops back onto the barge ...

... and off they go ... ready for the next barge to come along .. in this case it's that red one on the left side of the photo below ...

... and so the procedure continues .. in reverse ...

... the barge is safely tucked into the lock while water gushes out ...

... lowering the level of the water to the height of the next canal ..

... and off they go ... " cruising down the river ... on a Sunday afternoon .... with the one that I do love ... la la la la la la ... "

Another thing that was fascinating were the aquaducts where the canals are carried along bridges over other canals and rivers .. !!! Mind boggling!! Of course, I've seen them in photos and read about them in cultural history books .. Romans etc .. - as we had to do at school - but to actually see them is amazing!! Mmm .. another post in the future !!

Wordless Wednesday :

Avon River near Bath, England

For more Wordless Wednesday contributions to here and here

Not quite a felt-tipped pen ..

... but have had a spa pedicure today ...

.. where my feet were wrapped in hot paraffin wax ... oiled and massaged ... filed and buffed ... and finally prettied up with polish !!!

I also had a hot stone head and neck massage .... ooooh ... h e a v e n l y !!!!!

... and ... just when I thought she ... Lexi, the therapist from Body Therapy at the Lifestyle Garden Centre .... was finished ... she ... Lexi ... smeared my already-relaxed-oiled-back-and-neck with exfoliating scrub .... oooohh .. aaaahhh !!!

I stepped off the planet for two hours today ...

.... thank you soooo much Jeanette and Lance for an amazingly unforgettable birthday prezzie ... mwah !! x x x

Weekly Winners :

A mix of photos this week .... as I seem to do every week :) !


From autumn shades in a fruit basket ..

... to two Grey Louries against a dark stormy sky one evening ..

.. to more autumn colours of one of the plectranthus plants in my garden ...

... "er, excuse me ... don't photograph us beautiful creatures from underneath (thro' windows).."

... "that's better ... from above .. but I'm keeping my beedy eye on you .. " (see the little black dot of his right eye!!)

.. and from triangles on wings ...

.. to circles ...

.. GO Bradley .. GO ...

.. how l..o..w can you go ?...

... " not fair .. I can't do it like that :( "

Promise ... no influence here !!! ... Yesterday, I was sitting in the garden while the boys were playing .. Bradley plonked himself on one of the logs and sat in the meditating pose ...

me .. "what are you doing?

Brad ... meditating

me .. where did you learn that?

Brad .. Master Yoda !!

me .. who is Master Yoda?

Brad .. He's in Star Wars .. meditating makes him strong !"

What can I say ... go Bradley go ... !! or should I say .. om .. om ... om !!

... and bless his little socks .. Connor tried too .. :) !!

For more Weekly Winners go to Lotus' blog here

Skywatch Friday :

After my ordeal yesterday with the 'sky falling down on me' .. I spotted this silver lining in the late afternoon sky ....

For more spectacular skies around the world go to Skywatch

"The sky fell down today ..

.. and I must go and tell the King .... "

... just like Chicken Licken ... an acorn fell on Chicken Licken and he went on his way to tell the King that the sky was falling down.

I was shaken! Still am !!

A ceiling board fell on my mat at pilates this morning ... square onto the mat .. with a thud ... dust and bits and pieces from inside the ceiling fell with it. We were doing leg stretches ... lying on the back, one leg up, stretching the hamstring muscle ... and then I saw it start to fall above my body!

In a split second I rolled over to my left and the entire piece fell ... with a thud .. onto my mat .. where I had been lying .. just a second earlier!

Nobody else saw it .. it happened that fast!! The other ladies all said they heard a noise and saw me sitting .. upright ... in a cloud of dust !!

I was lucky ... very lucky ... I could have been badly hurt - it could have done a lot of damage to my nose, eyes, face and body ... I was lying on my back ...

.. and .. as luck would have it .. the chappie who was up in the ceiling ... and whose leg dangled out through the gaping whole ... didn't fall with it! He would have landed on me too !!! Iwas so shaken I didn't realise there was anyone up in the ceiling or for that matter, saw the dangling leg!

We carried on with the pilates class after I recovered a bit from the shock of knowing that I was in one piece, but I moved well away from all the debris and kept my eye on the ceiling in case anymore bits came down !

I have had apologies from several people in Management of the gym - Virgin Active, Roodepoort - as repairs to the airconditioning should NOT have been carried out while there was a class in progress.

All 'things' happen in three's ... this, I am hoping is the third.

A couple of years ago, Elaine and I were driving on a public road which goes under part of building which connects two buildings of the Cresta Shopping Centre. A long piece of metal casing used for covering wires came away from the building and dropped onto the bonnet of my car, narrowly missing the windscreen and Elaine. We were not hurt.

Two years ago, the whole ceiling in our lounge fell down. The first section fell while I was in the bath. My hubby came to tell me what the tremendous noise was, at which I left out of the bath and with towel wrapped around, I gazed in disbelief at the mess and the gaping whole, when the rest of the ceiling gave way, covering us in a cloud of dust. We were not hurt.

I think this is no. 3 ... I was not hurt .. I was sooo lucky !

I have just bought a lottery ticket! :)

Wordless Wednesday :

Guinness Storehouse, Dublin, Ireland

For more Wordless Wednesday contributions go here and here

Photographing a family ..

.. with two boys who would not co-operate ... at the same time - Bradley with thumbs in ears! - Connor smiling ...

... it was not easy - Mom and Dad smiling .. boys messing about!

Mom and Dad still smiling .... boys making silly faces ...

.. smile ... say cheeeeese ... look at the camera, pleeese !!

... nearly got it right this time ...

... nope .. still not ...

...the photo session all went pear-shaped and I gave up !

The occasion ? ... Lance's 40th Birthday ...!

Weekly Winners :

There was a little girl
who had a little curl ...

... that wasn't on the dollies in a 'barrow ...

She ate icecream in a house ...

.... and watched Ariel swim about ...

... ummmm . .. is he going to 'kiss de girl' ?? (Erin watching The Little Mermaid!)

A Lourie basking in the morning sunshine ...


... "I won't look at you if you won't look at me ... "

Football is on everyone's lips .. er .. shirts .. with the World Cup Soccer looming in a few months ...

... with the South African flag on the back ...

... and on ... ???? ...

... her 'ears' ... !!!

Oh .. hum ... roses from my garden again ...

... thisIceberg rose is called Brilliant ....

... and this Iceberg rose is called Burgundy .. a rich deep velvety burgundy colour ...

And what's this ? ... Smarties ... but take note ... 'No artificial colours' ... which make Smarties rather dull ...

... and what do I do with Smarties .. dull or not ... ??

... put them on a 'Granny's Speciality birthday cake' !!!!

Happy 40th Birthday to our SIL, Lance !

For more Weekly Winners please visit Lotus' blog