I have changed ...

I have moved my blog to a new site as I ran out of photo space ....

please visit me on .... http://momsmeanderings.wordpress.com

I still pop into my blogspot to look at the feeder as I have no idea how to do add one on the new blog !!! I find the Google Reader/Feeder 'thingie' not that easy to follow. I shall figure it all out some day but in the meantime ....

I am changing ....

.... 'cos Mr Blogger says I've used up my photo quota ...

soooo ... going to try this now ...

http://momsmeanderings.wordpress.com


but that's as far as I've got .. ' me of little brain ' .. I am now stuck ! J says she will help me ... yay for clever daughters !!!

Sooo .. I will be back with all my topsy-turvy stuff and photos ! Thank goodness my anxiety levels are balanced .. !! Yoga, psychologist, amazing (and patient) family, wonderful friends, prayers have all contributed to my positive attitude which has crept back .. slowly but surely !!! I can face the world again ! :) :)

Watch this space !

Created a wordpress blog ..

.. but now I'm stuck ! There are no instructions as to what to do next ? I follow instructions - I always go the 'manual first' .. there is no manual here !! Help !

Isn't blogger easier ... or is it just because I know what to do here ?

Why do I have to pay ?

HELP !

Mr Blogger won't let me download anymore photos unless I pay (in American dollars) for more space? I have not ever paid for space - has anyone else?

Ooops !

Ooops! I have a 'technical hitch' here with my last post! All my spacing ended up at the bottom and I don't know how to get it back !!!!!!!

Heeeelp, Jeanette !!

"The little red car .... "

"The little red car goes vroom, vroom, vroom
Vroom, vroom, vroom .. vroom, vroom, vroom

The little red car goes vroom, vroom, vroom
Vroom, vroom, vroom .. vroom, vroom, vroom

The little yellow taxi goes toot, toot, toot ..... "

We (Pete and I, Elaine and Bryan, and Carl) went to the Johannesburg International Motor Show on Saturday. It has all the up to date vehicles, some very very smart and some not so very smart. Apparently this runs after the Paris Motor Show so it has the latest cars etc. Pete has been to several shows previously but this is the first time we tagged along - very interesting and well worth it - if you like this sort of thing, of course. All types of vehicles are there from trucks to street sweepers but we concentrated on the 'good stuff'.


We all had our cameras !!!! So we came away from the show having taken loads of photos ... here are just a few .. from both cameras ..

The Audi stand was very smart - all black and white. Elaine was impressed! She had recently done a project for her Honours Marketing degree on VW and knows lots! and she knew their new image and advertising would be and now is, all black and white ...

This was the cutest little concept car (like a teenie tiny space car) - Nissan Nuvu

Cute, hey !!

Maserati

Aston Martin

Bentley

On our recent holiday to England (and my very very first !!!) we used to pass the 'Bentley shop' near Berkeley Square. Our hotel was close by ... and hubby drooled over all the smart cars in and around that area. The cherry on top was the Bugatti in the window of the 'shop' on our last day there ... but that's another story ! The jaw dropped as well as the drooling and he marched right in to take photos ! None of the 'taking photos through the window' stuff !

"Strive for perfection in everything that you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it!"

Sir Henry Royce

Ps - Jeanette - it's taken me simply ages to do this post !!!! I hear you now - download photos first then write - I keep deleting photos by mistake! Still learning !!

4 x 4

Jeanette tagged me to do this and thought I would do it now - before it rains. When it rains we don't get internet !! apparently the little box on top of the telephone pole is rusted and the technician put in an order for a new box a few months ago and we are ... still waiting !! so every time it rains .. bad phone line and no internet !!

Right .. so now I had to :-

1. Go to your picture file
2. Go to the 4th file
3. Go to the 4th picture
4. Post it and tell the story
5. Tag 4 more people

All very simple except the last one! I haven't been 'in this whole new world of blogging' for long enough to pluck up the courage to tag anyone !! Silly me! So I will tag Dale at The Gecko and Natalie (Natsg) - 2 out of 4 is not bad! I just need to remember what Jeanette said about how to 'link' them!!! Still learning !! I see the 'link' symbol but it needs the respective URL and that means I have to write them down beforehand. I know there must be a way to 'see' them but that I cannot do! Yay - seem to have done it to Jeanette (hubby helped there) - going to rain just now ... so Dale and Natalie .. you've been tagged!

Getting to the photo ..



Our other photographs, earlier than 2006, hubby has put in the little black box which he calls a 'something or other' drive ?! and I have no idea how to get at them! so this picture below was taken on 8 Feb 2006.

It's Elaine and Bradley licking the utensils I used to ice a chocolate cake. I always find it amazing how members of the family 'come out of the woodwork' when the baking is done and utensils need to be 'licked clean' before washing!

Elaine about to embark on her 2nd year at university and Bradley nearly 3 years old!

Also note to self - must read my blog through ... c a r e f u l l y .. I seem to skip words when typing! And my first job was a copy typist ... back in the old days!

Breast Cancer Awareness Walk - Johannesburg Zoo

At the start of the 5 km walk

I joined friends to participate in a Breast Cancer Awareness Walk at the Johannesburg Zoo on Sunday. A 5 kilometre walk - stroll actually - around the Zoo. Have never walked in any organized events before. It was fun! .. although I was told that it was badly organized compared to others. Note to self - must do more of this kind of thing!

- we felt the starting time was too late in the heat we experience at this time of year

- there were obviously hundreds more participants than they were expecting so they ran out of 'goodie bags' which are apparently given to each participant. (Need to do another walk to see what comes in those 'goodie bags' as we didn't get one)

- lack of facilities to buy water .. we only found one

- only 2 water points en route .. the first one had large containers of water (about 4 of them) which was fine if you had a bottle in the first place to fill up as there was nothing else available with which to drink the water!

- the second water point had little empty plastic sachets strewn on the ground and nothing left

- the 5 Km walk took us all around the Zoo which is OK but we had to be channelled into pathways and over bridges where only three at most could walk abreast .. this held up the pace of the 'stroll' and we had to stop several times - at least there was something to look at ..! animals in their freshly rained on enclosures - at least it wasn't dusty.

All sorts of people took part in the walk, young and old and quite a number families with babies in pushchairs. As the walk progressed, people veered off the route to stop to look at the animals and even stopped to have picnics along the way (they were prepared!).

Jeanette - HELP ! pressed the centering 'thing' to put the title of photo in centre and now EVERYTHING is centred! SIGH!

Also wanted to add another photo - that will go at the top then - help again!! wanted it follow at under text.

Deep yoga breathing here !! Oooommm!

Oh no - WORSE - Elaine has tried to help and now the typing has gone all strange! Ooooommm !

Sweetpeas, Kookaburras and Hippos

Sweetpeas

Trying to copy photo from Picasa this time to see how it works ! Title of photo needs to go above .. mmmm .. can't remember what I did! Will get there, slowly!!!!!

I was going to chat about 'sweetpeas', one of my favourite spring flowers - love their beautiful soft and sometimes vibrant colours, and the fragrance is just so lovely. I always plant some in the garden, sometimes the tall climbing variety and, like this year, the short knee high ones. Spring went straight into summer - very quickly - and we have had extremely hot days lately (well over 30 degrees C). Poor sweetpeas have wilted already, except for the ones I planted at the back which are somewhat sheltered ...

.. but - when I woke this morning, I had a tune stuck in my head. I must have dreamt about Kookaburra's - why - have no idea - we live in South Africa and it's an Australian bird! There is a very pretty kiddies song about Kookaburra's and it's on one of the many kiddies CD's I have. I have loads, some in the house and most in the cubby hole of my car. Great for singing along with the grandchildren, while we go 'here and there' everyday. It really is a pretty song and is sung like we would sing 'Row row row your boat gently down the stream' (when one person sings a few bars and then another joins in, and so on). No idea what that's called but we used to do that in singing lessons at school - way back!

So I woke this morning, singing to myself about Kookaburra's whilst our usual garden birds twitter their morning songs!

Singing kiddies songs reminds me of a braai (barbeque) over a weekend some time ago. P (hubby) had several colleagues over here on business (from Columbia and Belgium) and they love our braais - relaxing in the garden, sipping very good South African red wine ... ! We had never had the chappies from Belgium before here and they were interested in what I did .. as my house is strewn with toys etc. After proudly showing them photos of the grandchildren (as all good grannies do!) and telling them that I look after two of them so the conversation went on and turned to kiddies songs ... remember we are sipping glorious red wine! I then had to sing to them the song about the hippopotamus - in the deep, slow voice just like on one of my CD's!!! I cringe to think about it - these are work colleagues of P's but hopefully they've fogotten about it.

Just imagine, memories of a traditional South African braai with the hostess singing about hippopotamus'!

learning curve

Oh my .. this is a learning curve !! I was doing so well with downloading a photo and adding a 'story' and then I deleted the whole thing trying to go back to edit it. Think I need help there, J ?!! How do I label photo - 'tiny deep blue lobelia' ? and how do I change layout (photo back to centre and text below it) - let me try 'publish post' again- pls don't be deleted again !!!!!