Tiah Beautement's Blog, page 138

The last week of summer break...

...has been rather educational. And chaotic. Estate Agent madness (Yesterday, I think I managed to accidently hang up on 3 people at once, not knowing my phone could do wacky things like take multiple calls) to Thing 1 going to Cango Caves, to getting everything ready to go back to school. Thing 2 could have started school this week, too. But she's been in such a fantastically pleasent mood, we thought we'd keep her. So Thing 1 had his visiting day on Friday. It lasts a little over an hour. Children pitch up and go to their teacher, parents pitch...

The next adventure begins

Renting can be hell. Often you can't do anything with the property to make it more livable. You don't bother to buy anything that may not work the next place. You can get kicked out. You can get stuck with some pretty funky (ugly) decor. And when things break the landlord isn't always in a hurry to fix them, even if said issue is rather urgent. Then again, renting can be fab. You can live in a place you could never afford. If something breaks you don't pay for it. And some rentals are very flexible about putting up shelves,...

How to braai

Braai is a type of meal. It is an act. It is an object on which to do the act. Got it? South Africans take the art of The Braai very seriously. How seriously? Well, they have a holiday where they all braai. Desmund Tutu even told the vegies to braai mealies (corn) on the day and not be spoiled sports. Why? Because it is one of the few things other than eat, shit, sleep that South Africans, of eleven official languages, seem to do reasonably as one (this too, however, is up for debate, just like everything else in...

This is a holiday?

Try telling that to my poor kids. They've not had any fun since we left their Nana's. The electricity drama continues. It is clear that the law is what it is, regardless of the fact that nobody thought to clue us in. While the powers that be refuse to explain everything, they did feel free to put out information on how many people in this area get free electricity - THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS. I get that the people getting free electricty probably have no money. Nor do I wish to swap lives. But there seems to be missing some middle...

Electricity Drama

And this time I didn't lose my little meter slip. Yesterday I spent 2 1/2 hours with children restocking food and sorting out school needs. I left everything else for D's visit. So today I bought electricity, took the duvet in for cleaning, paid a certain person's speeding fine, got cash so I could pay the council tax and pay my son's cash only stationary and text book needs, went to post office to pick up council tax & phone bill and... My bills for council tax tend to be between 250-330. This was more of a 300ish one. I...

Happy New Year, by the way

Hello, still here. Actually I wasn't here. We left on holiday as originally planned. All that drama for nothing. Except it wasn't nothing. Husband phoned in on the 27th to see what was what and...a man died. Husband doesn't know him, but still, how sad. As far as I am aware, it was health, not directly work related, but a death at husband's work must still go through certain procedures and thus the delay meant we could stay away. As much as I like being on holiday, that was not the excuse I was looking for. Holiday was nice. I...

'Tis the season

...to be reading. The month began with me delighting in some great library finds: Cion, by Zakes Mda One Tongue Singing, by Susan Mann Each deserve their own holiday write up. Zakes is, well, Zakes. And if you don't know who he is, become acquainted. Mann...she has a quiet tone, but it is oh so powerful. I adore her. Then Husband gave me kindle for my birthday. It has resulted in many classics, including Vanity Fair, which I've never read. (Still working my way through that one). I was also given two non-free books by Michael Cunningham: By Nightfall (loved...

Merry Christmas!

We're having a wonderful day. Hope you all are, too. Husband is home. In fact, things are so screwed up at work that the big 'fix it' bit he needed to do is now delayed. So we're going to leave on our holiday, keep the phone on, and just come home when they say 'ready!' Who knows, maybe they won't be until after his hols is done and this was just one big April Fools (okay, the problem wasn't April Fools. The problem was more a 'Holy Sh..' But let us all be grateful it was caught before it became...

Ice Cream at 9:30am, because we can

So I forgot to buy bread. I usually keep a good freezer stash of the stuff, but somehow I neglected to restock. I don't do the mad Christmas rush. I go out for food and essential bill paying and then hide. Thankfully, you can do such errands early in the am. Thus, me and the crazy Things went out and bought bread. And more, because we may be here much longer than planned (as you know). Then we went out for ice cream by the sea because we can. Take that Northern Hemisphere! We still don't know what is going...

And this is why we're simple folk

I should have known that there was something in the air when D sent me panicked message this morning saying she couldn't come today. So all those errands I delayed until I had a babysitter? Yeah, we did them in trio. Actually went rather well. Not sure if everyone at Pick n' Pay wanted to hear my children sing Jingle Bells at the top of their lungs, but there we are. Women at post office got weird looks from my children when she suggested Santa sent the big ol' package to us. Thankfully my son only replied it was 'from...