Positive start to the year.

Robynne had registered on the Au Pair website, looking for work and while she was visiting me over Christmas, she received a call from a gentleman who was also registered on the site looking for an au pair for his 14 year old son. They made arrangements for an interview the following week.

Robynne attended the interview and liked the family although she didn't receive a reply immediately as the man was still interviewing another candidate. She sms'd me on New Years Day so say that she had the got the job.

Unfortunately it worked out that she hadn't worked her notice at her current employers and was in fact on leave from them. She decided that she wasn't going to work her whole month's notice as she hadn't been happy with them for a long time and despite meetings with her bosses, conditions were still onerous with nasty emails and comments flying about. She went in to work on the day that the company opened and cleared her computer and packed a box with her personal belongings. She had intended to work at least that week but the only other person at work was a woman who had hounded her for the entire period of her employment and she decided to just leave that same day. She emailed her resignation to all the applicable people, got in her car and left.

She apparently had a phone call from her boss as she was driving away saying that her leaving like that was illegal and she should return to work immediately. She phoned me for moral support and information and I told her that these people were just trying to intimidate her. Obviously, this is not the usual way to handle a change of employment but these people were pushing her into depression. It was only by me counselling her over the phone on various occasions that I think she hadn't walked away from this company before now. I told her that the most they could do was to charge her with absconding, hold a disciplinary enquiry and dismiss her in absentia.

She started work with her new family yesterday. The 14 year old and his younger sister (who will be living with her mom but is there this week) were playing Xbox and then Robynne helped make a meal. She had to take the kids to meet their dad later that afternoon to register at a new school. Today Robynne and the kids were going for brunch and then ice skating this afternoon. What fun. From working in a stuffy office to being able to have fun with kids and earn your living while doing it. Robynne is very responsible and quite strict but she knows how to have fun and enjoys going places and doing things. I'm sure she will do wonderfully in this job and its so different from what she was doing before that I'm sure it will have a positive impact on her health and outlook. Also good as while the boy is at school, she will be able to return home to supervise Brad with his work and spend time with him. Much more flexibility now and she gets a car while she is at work so she doesn't need to use her own car for running about.

I'm so happy my girl has made this a positive start to the new year.

Another year older and more handsome every day.

This pic of Bradley was taken at the Johannesburg Zoo at the end of September 2010 the day before I had to leave him with his sister and return alone to KZN. :(

My baby celebrated his 15th birthday on December 25th, 2010 - my Christmas baby.

This fact went unannounced on Blogger but not unnoticed in our family. Bradley came down from Jhb with Robynne for just six days.

When I saw Brad again after two and a half months, I couldn't believe how much taller he had grown. He is towering over me now. He seems to be maturing so much now at this stage and unfortunately I am not there to spend this time with him.

Happy Birthday, my Brad and may this next year bring you a lot of success as you continue with your homeschooling and also continue to develop your character as a strong, resilient, good-natured and loving young man of principle. I have every faith in you, my son.

I love you and miss you a lot.

Lots of love, Mom. xxx

Babies in the house

I have a big fish tank which sits on my kitchen counter and I decided towards the end of last year that I needed some more fish as I was down to two neons and one of those big tank cleaning fish whose name I can never remember. So I popped into our local petshop and bought two Platies one orangey one and one yellowy one which turned out to be a pair. I only realised this when, while making coffee one morning I glanced into the tank and noticed some tiny new inhabitants looking out at me. I did a double take in surprise and then sprang into action as I knew that the bigger fish would soon be trying to eat them. I got a small bowl (since I can never find my fishnet when I need it) and after scooping and chasing for a while had caught them all and placed them in a large vase.

After a few days the water in the vase was getting smelly and I decided to visit the petshop again for a better method of separating the tiny fish. I purchased a little plastic box with tiny holes in the bottom of it which is placed in the main tank with the top of the box just above the surface of the water in the main tank. Then I separated out the slightly bigger baby fish from the really tiny ones and the bigger ones went straight into the big tank with the really tiny ones being placed into the box. I think I'm going to have a population explosion soon as I now have about six baby fish of various sizes of growth in the main tank and nine teeny tiny fish in the box. From having an empty tank Ive now got a fair fishy population from one set of parents. I'll have to start selling them back to the pet shop soon.

Anyway I decided to take some of the larger babies out of the box on Thursday but while I was pouring the water in the box into a container I was careless and two tiny babies fell into the main tank. Immediately, one of the neons was chasing after them wanting to eat them. I chased the neon away and luckily managed to catch the babies again as they come right up to the surface of the tank. I got a fright though. I also saw a tiny tiny baby which hasn't been in the box at all but it was too wily for me to catch. I have some floating bushy plants which the little fish love hiding in so I think these have helped the babies to hide away from the bigger fish when necessary.

I have started talking to the fish as well. I call to them: "Fish, fish, fish" They come over to the side of the tank that I'm on. I'm sure they recognise me.

Obviously not being goldfish, they have more than a three second memory. :)

Its time to blog - and a Happy 2011 to you all too..

A couple of my friends in the blogging community have come looking for me to see if I'm still alive - and I am! I greatly appreciate your concern as we all like to know that we have left a tiny footprint somewhere in the world.

Christmas has come and gone and I enjoyed a visit from Robynne and Bradley who drove down from Jhb with Marco, Robynne's boyfriend. It was also an introduction for Marco to my parents and our Christmas traditions. He is probably still getting over the shock of it all! Kidding, we're not that bad.

Unfortunately for a lot of Jhb holidaymakers, Durban is not the sunny destination it used to be some years ago at this time of the year and the weather is very unpredictable. I think we had two days of sun out of the six that my kids were here visiting. They brought 3 baby bunnies that couldn't be left at home and two dogs, my granddoggies, Tiny and Mini who are miniature Doberman Pinschers. As they arrived my youngest kittens, Dusty, Toby and Pixie decided to leave. Dusty in particular decided to go live in the garden under the trees for the entire duration of the visitors' stay only sneaking back for meals when the coast was clear.

I am now one dog down. Robynne decided to take Piglet, my cross Dachshund/Maltese who is about eight years old to live with her in Jhb. He is actually her dog from when she was still in school but basically also my dog from living with me all these years. I decided to let him go because he really loves her a lot. Bradley is also up there and he knows him and he will be spoiled up there even being allowed to sleep on the bed and being sent to the doggie parlour. He was really being dominated down here by Pup, his own son who made his father groom him all the time. Sadly, just after getting to Jhb, Piglet killed one of Robynne's guinea pigs in the garden. I think he must have thought it was a mole and my dogs have always been very good at catching moles. She is having to retrain him on how to act around bunnies and guinea pigs and is watching him closely at the moment.

My favourite Christmas gift was from Robynne - a book of patterns of knitted toys and I have been like a machine or a robot since they left knitting almost all the toys in the book and building up my stock for when we next go to the market. Now you know what has been keeping me busy. I have spent some time this first week of the new year looking for work and phoning some agents and am still positive that I will find the right position soon.

Dael only had Christmas weekend off and then had to return to work. He has bought a motorbike courtesy of a loan from me and has been riding to and from work. He is very sensible with his riding and doesn't mess around. Unfortunately though, on Wednesday he had just left home in the rain only to return a few minutes later saying that he had fallen. A medical vehicle had passed him on a blind corner sounding its alarm and he slowed down but suddenly realised that the car in front of him had stopped and was turning off the road. He thinks he pressed his brakes too hard for the wet conditions and his wheel slipped out and down he went. Luckily he was wearing jeans and another pair of waterproof pants. He still suffered roasties on his foot and knee and banged his shoulder and his head. He was a bit shaken and he ended up staying home. Its lucky he was only going about 40kms/hour at the time otherwise it could have been much worse. Bikes are very unforgiving and other drivers can be very thoughtless. His guardian angel was really looking after him.

I'll sign off now but I'm very glad to be back again and to see that my blogging mojo has returned. :)