Cat burglars in my house..

I decided to keep the Easter chocolate low key this year. The boys are teenagers now and we have teenage friends staying with us at the moment and I don't think the boys would have got excited over mom embarrassing them with an early morning egg hunt wakeup call. So I bought each of them a giant slab of chocolate and that was that.

I decided to defrost my fridge on Friday as it was nice and warm. Inside the fridge against the element had grown an iceberg which was slowly engulfing the contents of the fridge and the freezer was just as bad. After switching off the fridge and removing the contents to the old fridge in the garage, I worked on the ice until there was just a big blob of ice left slowly melting inside the fridge and another big sheet of ice against the top of the freezer. This had taken the better part of the morning and I was hungry. I fetched a few items from the garage fridge to make myself a burger. Amongst these items was a brand new block of cheddar cheese newly purchased. After fixing my burger, I popped the fridge items into the defrosting fridge which was still cold even with the door open. While I was sitting in the lounge eating, a movement made me look up and there was Kittykie, the tortoiseshell, carefully stretching from the stove next to the fridge and climbing onto the fridge ledge, reaching for the block of cheese. I shouted and she darted out the door. Thats where I went wrong. After finishing lunch and still waiting for the iceblock to depart, I settled in to watch a movie. After the movie was finished, I returned to the kitchen to check on the iceblock and my first indication of a crime was the cheese crumbs left in the fridge as evidence. Outside lay the plastic clingfilm wrapper and the label. Of the brand new cheese block there was no sign. Oh how I screamed. A hardly used R17.00 block of Cheddar. My cats had selected their own Easter treat. Dael came to bash out the remaining ice as my patience was now exhausted and added insult to injury by saying "You should have put the cheese in a container!" And don't I know it. That sounds like something I would have said to him.

That evening I still baked biscuits to sell at the morning market. I baked until I was exhausted. The boys hadn't wanted to eat at the same time and I had left the pot of stew and rice on the stove for them to help themselves. After finishing up the last batch of biscuits, I fell into bed and the first thing I knew was a tapping on the door. It was early morning, still dark and my brother was knocking me awake. He and mom hadn't been able to raise me on my cellphone (not charged) so they had come round to see if I was all right. I threw on my clothes, grabbed the biscuits and locked up.

Later on that morning, about 11am when I returned home, the boys were awake. "Oh mom, the cats knocked off the (almost new) tub of margarine from the counter and a lot was wasted." Dael had scraped the clean marge back into the tub. First irritation! Then I discovered that whoever dished up stew last had not put the pot into the oven or fridge and the cats had eaten the remains of that too. Second irritation! Grrr! I can't blame the cats. They are opportunists and all they know is to hunt for food. But I hate to waste food especially if it can still be eaten by the human scavengers in my house.

Thankfully that was the last of the cat incidents for the weekend.

You are speaking to Susan...and this is not a recording!

Shame, I hope the lady I just spoke to is not too sensitive. I do suffer from inherited and incurable foot-in-mouth syndrome!

I had dialled the number of a major insurance company in Gauteng but while waiting for the line to be picked up, one of my co-workers was talking to me from my office door.

In the background, I could hear that the line had been answered but it sounded like an automated voice answering machine and I didn't quite catch the message. So I stayed silent, waiting for the next recorded message. The voice started up again "You are through to 'our' company and you are speaking to Susan. How may I assist you?"

I suddenly realised my mistake and that I was speaking to a living person and I laughingly replied to her "Oh sorry Susan. I thought I was speaking to a recording!" Oops, probably not the best thing to say but I did qualify my statement by saying that I hadn't been listening properly. She didn't seem too worried and soon put me through to the right department where the queueing system IS a recorded message and blow me down if the recording didn't sound the SAME as Susan!

I come to work for peace and quiet!

Dael hasn't been called to camp this week and Bradley is off school with a 2 week end of 1st term holiday. Friend 'S' hasn't been working and other friend 'S' also seems to be there permanently since the weekend even sleeping on my couch. Luckily the two friends 'S' have been given some of their pay (another story) and they are contributing to the food. Their new fad is to whip up a batch of chocolate muffins. They have discovered the Snowflake Easymix muffin range where you just add 2 eggs, milk and some oil to the powdered mix, mix it well and pop it in the oven for 20 minutes and whallah...instant meal. I think they are surviving on muffins at the moment. The major food items that I'm using a lot are eggs, bread, milk, coffee, sugar and butter. I had two muffins for supper last night but tonight I feel the need for some substantial 'real' food.

Bradley was so desperate for me not to see his school report that he organised for his whole school bag to go missing! Kidding....but his school bag is gone. I had picked him up from school and we went to a local shop and bank. Then he was at my work for the afternoon and I dropped him home before going on to the supermarket for my 'big' shop. I shopped for groceries for an hour and then still had to stop at a another corner shop for rolls. At either the corner shop or the supermarket, some 'kind person' spotted Brad's bag on the floor of my car and forced my passenger door with another key and lifted the bag. We only discovered this loss on Saturday afternoon and I racked my brains thinking when the bag could have gone missing. At the corner shop I remembered that when I returned to the car, the passenger door was unlocked but I thought at the time that I had left the door unlocked by mistake. This with 'car guards' on duty. In general, they are worse than useless and sometimes I wonder if they are not guilty of the theft themselves. So the bag is gone as well as his new school shirt, new grey pants, school shoes and the report! I will have to replace the shoes and bag before the new term. Its this kind of petty theft which frustrates the heck out of me and chances are that the whole bag with its contents was dumped around the corner once the perpetrator discovered nothing of value in the bag. Nothing of value to them not me. To me its just another thing that has to be replaced. There is just no way of being that vigilant all the time because the one time you slip up, there is some layabout to pounce and take advantage.

I am looking forward to the long Easter weekend though so roll on Thursday afternoon. The Easter bunny won't be doing a major visit at my house this year as my kids are mainly grown up but I might just put on an Easter braai for them. I think that will go down better with them!

What was that you said? Sorry I wasn't listening....

Dael came back from his camp last Friday feeling positive and rejuvenated. After a long refreshing bath and a good meal, he was feeling relaxed. He enjoyed being around the other staff members and he was amazed that no one had an attitude with him or treated him like the 'new kid on the block'. He just felt like he fitted in.

We didn't do much for the long weekend. It was very relaxing for me but Dael became bored and just wanted to get back to camp. He had been told that there was another camp on for the following week and he was asked to work on Tuesday. I told him I wasn't going to take him anywhere unless they confirmed beforehand and he was thrilled when he got the call on Monday afternoon.

I borrowed petrol money from Greg and got Dael to the head office on time. This time he was going in the other direction, down the South Coast to Port Edward. A lovely spot but an all-boys complement of school kids this time and apparently very naughty. He must be under considerable strain at the moment because when Bradley irritates him, he can respond with a punch, a kick or with throwing a matchbox at him or something. When the irritating ones are customers you can't really do that. It doesn't go down so well. Anyway, if anything this experience is going to teach him some patience...

On Monday, the public holiday, my dad and Greg came round to help out with some garden work. Dad had started working with his new weedeater and I looked and had to look again. He was wearing a long waist apron which almost looked like an apron that the Blacksmiths of old times used to wear. It tied round his waist and dropped down to his feet. I soon saw why he needed that. The grass was flying furiously in all directions as he whizzed along and he needed the apron to avoid being stung or cut. I was doing a bit of cutting with my clippers but if dad started even approaching Greg or I would have to duck away to avoid being hit by flying debris. I was a bit worried as dad worked his way along a narrow path that I cut halfway down my bank for access. He is 74 and I was worried that he might overbalance. He was fine though and soon finished. He was rushing to cut while Greg was loading garden refuse onto the back of the bakkie as he wanted to get to the dump before they closed. That night when I popped down to my parents to pick up the petrol money, I laughingly mentioned my fears to dad as I chatted. In mock disgust he returned "What do you think I am, an old crock!"

My dad is definitely a strong man who doesn't buy into the traditional scenario of how an older person should act. I think my sister of 39 acts older than him. I'm also as active as him and I use him as an example of how I want to be when I'm his age. Age is after all relative and inside that older shell is still an intelligent and creative hardworking person. A lot of people irritate me because they just see an old person or a disabled person or a person of colour. They don't see the spirit of that person. I challenge everyone to look beyond the stereotype of the people you meet and see the spirit of the person that is inside that frame.

Just as important is how you perceive yourself. Do you restrict yourself to a certain set of actions because you have reached a certain age. Do people perceive you as older than you actually are because of how you react to them or the things you say. Its not to say you have to act like someone younger or older. Its all in how your relate to people and if you are genuinely interested in what they have to say. If you can really see people as individual spirits, you can relate to them in an interested and non-judgmental way. Are you really listening or are you just waiting for them to open a topic of conversation so that you can put forward your point of view. Learn to listen before you talk. If others can see that you are interested in them, they will also be interested in you.

Be as open-minded as you can be today. You owe it to yourself and to all the wonderful people you know or have yet to meet.