It wasn't the aliens...this time

On Monday evening, when I got home, I planned to turn my room upside down until I had solved the mystery of my missing cellphone. That morning, I had looked under the bedclothes before throwing a huge load of clean washing from the kist next to my bed onto the bed in my search for the phone. So now I worked my way down the pile of clean clothes, folding and packing clothing away in the cupboards as I went. Eventually I was down to the loose sheet and the mattress - lifted the sheet to throw it in the laundry and there was the phone lying innocently on the bed about where my legs would be. I still don't know how it got there from next to my pillow or how I hadn't seen it that morning when I was looking through the bedlinen but I was very grateful to get it back. The very nature of cellphones being portable is irritating to me because they can end up anywhere. At least a landline is always in one place, firmly attached to the wall by its cord!

On Wednesday, I got a phone call from the school again (I'm almost on a first name basis with the receptionist) to say that Bradley has twisted his ankle and sprained it and could I fetch him. I was a bit livid since it was only about 10.15am by then. I couldn't believe that he had injured himself that early in the morning, apparently jumping from a wall by the swimming pool. "Everybody was doing it, Mom!" But only Brad got injured. He had to get signatures from all the teachers for that day's lessons so that they knew he had gone home. And that's how I came to find out about two LO (Life Orientation) assignments due respectively in February and that day, which Brad hadn't done. He told the teacher that his work was at home. When I picked him up I berated him for doing this last minute thing again because last week alone he was off school for 3 days and could easily have completed these assignments. So when we got home, it was me and him sitting on the couch to complete assignments. I coloured in and searched for pics while he filled in the worksheets and used the stencil. We worked until late with a break for me to cook some supper and then I sent Brad to bed. I still stayed up and washed dishes and cleaned the living area because I knew we would have to carry on in the morning to finish the assignments. Dael had friends over. They are friends of his and 'S'. They arrived with a bottle of alcohol and mixer. Dael built a big bonfire and cranked up the music but Brad and I slept through it.

In the morning, I got up to make coffee and carry on and found two extra people sleeping in my lounge, the two friends from the night before. So I couldn't have carried out my normal morning chores anyway, with two sleeping bodies in the lounge. I woke Brad and we carried on with the projects, only stopping to get ready for work and school. Brad was limping badly and had bandaged his foot. He had to go to school though to hand in the projects and to write a test. I ended up picking him up again before the end of the school day but his foot was quite sore by then.

He is off school today although he was supposed to attend a two-hour detention today after school from 1 to 3pm. A special warning letter had arrived in the post, no less to advise me of this detention - for bunking geography on the 24th February. I was prepared to fight because I thought that this was the day he had bumped his head at the swimming pool and I had picked him up early. He was unfazed though and admitted with a grin that he HAD bunked geography and stayed in the library instead. Okay then boykie, enjoy detention! I phoned the school to let them know he was off and I'm sure they'll reschedule this delightful activity for next week.

I do so hate a mystery!!

And that's how I started my day and the mystery may never be solved. It goes like this...

I had fallen asleep on the couch during the Sunday night tv movie but woke up for the end and decided to move to bed. I was fully awake by then because I still had to clear a load of clean washing off the bed and change into something more comfortable to sleep in. I went back to the lounge to fetch my cell phone which was still lying on the couch. I popped the phone next to my pillow and settled down under the cover to read my library book. After a while I nodded off and when Brad came through to the room he snapped off the light which woke me again but I soon nodded off. I woke again at 3am and not finding my cellphone, assumed it had fallen off next to the bed. I got up and wandered through to the lounge to look at the clock there. I decided it was too early to get up and went back to bed until 4.45am. At that time I started scrabbling on the floor next to the bed in the dark, feeling under my pillow - nothing - no phone. I then got up and put on the light for a more thorough search - nothing. I pulled out the bed and looked under the bedside cabinet - nothing. I started to stress. I went to bed with my phone next to my pillow and wake up to - no phone. I ended up waking up Bradley to ask him if he had taken my phone after I had gone to sleep to go on mxit. He denied taking my phone and Dael also knew nothing about it. Then I started to question my own sanity. Had I in fact taken the phone through to the bedroom or had I left it in the loung on the couch. I discovered a window left open behind the couch. The boys know to close all windows but this one was obscured by the curtain. They had left the living room light on. Maybe someone sneaking round outside at night had discovered the open window and the phone on the couch. Its easy to see when the light is left on! No - I'm adamant that I went back to the lounge and returned to the bedroom with my phone. The dogs sleep in my room, one on either side of the bed and I know that anyone entering my room during the night would have caused the animals to react.

So now my deduction is that cellphones are developing little arms and legs and going off on social jaunts during the night. Maybe my cellphone had a little too much to drink and not being able to find its way home, lay down somewhere to sleep it off. Maybe I'll go home tonight to find it happily lying next to my pillow again, having reabsorbed its little arms and legs.

Needless to say all the stressing and turning the house upside down wasted a lot of time and made Bradley late for school. I ended up bringing an old secondhand basic phone of my mom's to work with me just so that I can be got hold of in an emergency.

The weekend had at least one eventful moment as well. Saturday early morning, my mom woke me up with an sms to say she was on her way to fetch me. This was 5am. We had made an arrangement earlier in the week that I and my brother would go with our parents up to the local Farmers' Market where they have booked a stall for the month of March. Dad is selling his plants and mom her craft. The rather large gazebo they have purchased is of the concertina variety and needs 2-3 people to put it up and take it down. Mom is too short and I thought it might be a nice outing. 5am though! On a Saturday! Anyway the weather was good and dad made a few sales. At about 11am mom dropped me back home and I took Dael out to get a little part for the other car which he is fixing up. All the way across town to the CV joint workshop. They gave him the part for free and we went back home. He worked on the car and declared it fixed.

That night he wanted to go to the local nightclub, 54, and I gave him money for it. He left but soon returned saying that the car's petrol light had come on. I gave him R10 for petrol and this time friend 'S' decided to go with him. I was settling down to watch the movie when 'S' came on mxit to say 'The car is broken again'. Oh no and Dael uses my car's battery when he uses the other car. I couldn't go help. Luckily they had just gone down my road and turned right into the main road when the same clip broke again. I was stressing and standing at my door staring out down onto the dark road when I saw a small figure trudging along. 'That's one of them' I told Bradley. Eventually Dael arrived carrying the heavy car battery all the way from where the car broke down to home. He placed the battery back in my car and reluctantly I drove both my boys back to where 'S' was waiting with the car. Now everyone knows my car has had its share of problems lately. Poor car is just okay now and its expected to tow a car bigger than it home. Bradley wasn't impressed at that idea because he was worried about the car but I said 'Lets just do it'. Dael attached a piece of nylon rope he had found in the garage and I engaged gear. Now my car, being an automatic has two 'pulling' gears which don't change to another gear automatically. I used this gear and just went slowly. After a bit of bouncing to start with, it soon settled into a smooth movement. As we went uphill, Bradley and 'S' pushed the towed car to help my car with its task. We were soon home, luckily not encountering any other vehicles while we were in the road. It was 10.30pm. Dael untied the rope and I drove up the driveway. He took out the speakers and the radio face and left the other car parked across our driveway for the night. On Sunday when we had to leave our drive, Dael and Brad with me steering had to push the car back down a little slope onto the road and then aim me to the verge which has quite a high kerb. They pushed as fast as they could and I bumped hard onto the kerb. Dael kept shouting 'Turn turn' but I knew what I was doing as I always used to park on that kerb when I first bought the house. I had a VW Beetle then that had bad brakes and I couldn't drive up my hill. The driving up wasn't the problem, the coming down would have been. So I was quite familiar with that kerb...

At least I know now that my car can tow another car. I live and learn.

Living with boys

Every morning I leave my living area - kitchen, living room and bathroom clean and tidy and every afternoon when I get home - the house looks like a bomb hit it. I clear the counters and wash a few things that I need to prepare supper. Supper is usually a meal that can stretch to 3 hungry boys. After feeding boys and cats and having worked a full day, I'm feeling kind of tired. I may try to watch a programme on television but if the boys put on wrestling, that's my cue to head straight for bed. I then try to read a few pages in my library book. Maybe two pages in my eyes start closing. I switch off the light and that's me for the day.

I've been waking early recently and there are a few reasons for that. Dael's friend S who is staying with us permanently now and often works the evening shift at the restaurant seems to be coming in at about 2.30 in the morning. I'm sure the restaurant is not closing them but maybe he's hanging out with friends. The dogs, Piglet and Pup, who sleep next to my bed do not like people coming in the house at that time of the morning. It makes them very nervous especially Pup who is a bit of a coward anyway. He starts to bark sharply and no amount of shushing from S will make him calm down. Only a cross "Stop it Pup" from me will calm him down. So if the sound of the key in the lock didn't wake me, the dogs certainly would. If I manage to get back to sleep after that, my 1 year old 'kitten' Lovey, who is one of Kittykie's first litter, a little girl, makes sure I don't go back to sleep for long. At about 3.30 or 4.00am she meows outside my door. She's feeling the need for love. The boys close my door when I'm sleeping to keep the noise down. But early in the morning it gets like a railway station. The cats inside want out the vice versa. I prefer my door to stay closed because if the kitty litter box (which I line with newspaper) gets too wet, they like nothing better than to jump on me and use my bedlinens as a toilet. If I happen to be lying there at the time, that's my problem.

It happened yesterday. I had just woken up with a noise when I felt that the duvet was wet..and so was I, right down to the mattress. So generally the baby kittens are banned from my room at night. Anyway if I'm awake at 4.00am I get up because sleep time is over and I just start thinking about (read: worrying about) my finances, my car, the kids, etc. So I get up and as I swing into my regular morning routine which also includes going outside and looking at the beautiful sunrise, I regain my usual positivity and mentally prepare for the day. I have tried listening to music in the morning but I find this disturbs my mental preparations for the day. I enjoy the quiet. Well, that the quiet of the morning other than the meowing of the felines until they get their meal. There's something really steadying about greeting the day with a routine that cant be beaten in terms of settling the equilibrium. If I leave the house in a mess, I feel very unsettled so I am definitely an early bird rather than a night owl. That's the only time of the day that I'm guaranteed to have the house to myself as none of the other human inhabitants would dream of getting up then.

When things are getting busy, problems are cropping up, my routine helps me to stabilise my thoughts. It calms me to repeat actions that can be carried out automatically while my thoughts drift like clouds in a Summer sky.

So its no use complaining about doing all the housework because I need that work and that routine to keep on keeping on.

Insy Winsy was hitching a ride!

The other day driving Brad to school, I hadn't gone more than a few hundred metres down the road when Brad pointed out a jumping spider on my steering column. I couldn't stop at that stage as I had cars in front and behind me and there was nowhere to pull off. I was trying to avoid Insy Winsy jumping on to me while still keeping my car on the road. The spider ran up the indicator arm, then jumped on the steering wheel. I kept moving my hands out the way while Brad kept up a running commentary as to the whereabouts of the spider. Eventually thank goodness, I managed to pull off into a bus rank and encouraged Insy to jump onto an old envelope and then out the car. Phew! The traffic is enough early morning excitement for me...

My car seems to have stopped its major oil and water leaks for now. The next things on which to concentrate are the totally broken front shock absorbers and the bald back tyres. Every time I see the traffic police pulling cars off in an early morning traffic check, I just hold my breath and try and look innocent. A friend of Dael's whose father drives a very old bakkie just had his vehicle pulled off the road as unroadworthy. I don't need that to happen to me. I am taking my car in this afternoon to get new shocks and front tyres. Its going to cost but I would rather spend the money on replacing these items than on a traffic fine!

Brad seems to be developing his problems with school again. He is getting sick and twice the school have phoned me to fetch him early, the last occasion being yesterday. Now I don't like to fetch from school unless there are definite symptoms of illness like vomiting or fever. It was only an hour until school finished for the day and I had already taken time off work to get Dael to an interview that morning. I told them to keep him until the day was over.

I had taken Dael that earlier on Monday for an interview as an Adventure Instructor. The venue is situated on the far end of the local industrial park which gives way to virgin bush and to get there entails a bundu bash along a corrugated dirt road for about 3kms. That short distance never felt so long before especially as it is also the road to the local stone quarry and trucks race along the same road to get pick up their loads with choking dust clouds as they pass. Obviously they were passing as I wasn't driving very fast with my bad shocks. It was a short interview/training session as there were only 3 young men who turned up. I left Dael there to return to work and luckily he managed to get a lift back to my work with one of the other young chaps from the interview.

While the caller from the school was on the line to me, the line was distorted but I still managed to gather from what this lady was saying that Brad's math teacher is worried about him and he doesn't seem to be coping. Then when I asked her what the problem is, she didn't know who the teacher is but said she would find out and get her to phone me. She hasn't done so yet but I will be sending a little note through to her very shortly. He ended up staying at home yesterday complaining of feeling nauseous. So the drama begins....

Robynne's bunny that had its eye removed is still on antibiotics for an infection in that same wound. And unbeknown to either the vet or Robynne, the little thing was pregnant because what did she do on Monday night during the night but go and give birth to 5 little babies. So Robynne's little bunny family has increased in size dramatically. I think she will probably find homes for them in due course though.