An Unwelcome Visitor ...

Yesterday was a fairly quiet day for me. I got up at 5am to get ready to assist my club, PDAC with registration for their 10 and 21.1km race. I wasn't racing as I had a rather stiff ans sore back. Once I had finished with registration I sorted and rolled up socks for the participants and then tallied up all the boxes of money. I helped the tea ladies cut up the cake for the athletes and then came home.



I worked on a collage that I am doing for a friend's daughters 21st. At about 13h30 Dereck went out to his friend, Darryl's place to watch the Grand Prix. At about 14h10 while I was in my study the dogs started barking frantically (the sound when someone or something is there). My heart jumped into my mouth as I thought someone was in the house. Imagine my horror when I came through to the lounge and saw this ......

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have a total fear of snakes, including the toy plastic ones!!! I was due to go to a Tupperware Party at my friend Karen's house at 15h00 and there was this snake in my house with no-one to help me. I managed to get the dogs away from it as once I came into the lounge they were trying to get it. I phoned Dereck, who was by now in Glenashley and knew that he could not come and help me, but I had to tell him. He informed me that I must get a broom and let it hook onto the broom and then just take it outside - me get a snake on a broom!!! what if it turns round and comes up the broom?? While I was talking to Dereck, the snake turned around and started looking at me - that just did it!! I tried to phone my brother, Malcolm who lives in New Germany, but they were out. I phoned Grant to see what time he was coming home and that was only going to be later. As I went a little closer to see this snake, it turned around and slithered behind my wall unit. Ok cook - now how was I going to do anything and with me going out, it might have come out of there and then anywhere in our house! I tried sliding some newspaper along the wall whilst shining my cell phone light onto it, but it just curled up tighter into the very very small space. Time was fleeting and I went to get changed and when I came back, its head was sticking out from behind the wall unit, but facing into the lounge. When it saw me it went behind the unit again. I locked the dogs outside and went to my Tupperware party and when Dereck got home he sent me an sms and informed me the snake was not behind the unit!! I told him he just had to keep looking for it! I then got another sms stating that he had found the snake. It has slithered accross our door and was in the opposite corner behind the curtain and Jemma our sausage dog had sniffed it out. Dereck put it onto the broom and very kindly took it out into the garden where it very quickly climed up the Yellow-wood tree. Relief!! In between all this, I just had to take a photo - don't know what I would have done if it had slithered towards me!!!!

Snaked out signing off ....

And a Dash of Speed ..

Well it was the inter club ladies time trial league race last night. This time it was at Forest Hills. It was a 4km route which was fairly flat, but some gentle inclines that "bite" your legs when racing!! Sharon fetched me and then Nicky and to avoid a traffic jam we had heard about on Fields Hill we went via Wyebank. Got there with plenty of time to register and warm up. We started a bit late due to the traffic jam, but then we were off. Sharon did 27 minutes and came fourth, I did 32 minutes and Nicky did about 34 minutes. I felt really great and had racewalked the whole race, which for me was a very good thing considering I have not been "racing" much over the last few months.

Speedy signing off....

The Movie Experience ...

I belong to the Edgars Club and they had a preview on Thursday evening of the movie called Äre we done yet?" It is about this guy who is married to a women with two children and they live in his one bedroom apartment and how he wants to get a house of their dreams and everything that happens. It was quite funny, but not the best that I have ever seen. Anyway Dereck didn't want to see it so Grant came with me. It was out at Gateway and when we arrived there as we turned to park, this guy in uniform indicated to me that I could park in a designated area. He lifted the chain and usshered me in! We had a good laugh at this thinking that the guy must think we were some dignatories or something. We got our tickets and then had Barccelos chicken for supper. We got 2 free boxes of popcorn and then bought a coke. After the movie I drew some money as I knew that I did not have any cash on me bar a few coins. The machine only gave out R100 notes. We went to the machine to pay our parking ticket and I said that I didn't have any coins - Grant said it should only be about R5 which I did have. We put the ticket in and it wanted R8-00. Out came all the coins and I only had R7-50 as it would not accept 20c or less. We had a problem as I was not going to put in R100-00 and get R5 coins as change!!! I ended up asking the guy next to us for 50c. Grant and I just packed up laughing - he could not believe what had just happened. The guy who gave us preferred parking ended up getting a handful of coins as his tip. Every now and then I just packed up laughing at our experience and we said that we should have phoned Dereck to tell him that we were 50c short to get out the parking, but we both decided that he would have just said "so what do you want me to do?" Anyway, we got home ok.


Short of change signing off ...

On a sad note ...

We found out from Leanne yesterday, that although her first day at work was great, it is currently door to door sales and until one makes a sale, here is no income and one has to pay all costs ie travel and meals while trying to make a sale. So.. for a first time job needing an income, this is not a great option at all.

But the worst thing is that she twisted her ankle on the week-end and with all the walking on Saturday doing training as well as on Monday, it has got worse and she was not able to go to work yesterday. She ended up going to the local hospital and it is a grade 2 sprain, is strapped up and she is on crutches and has to rest for at least a week - no income! On top of that she has what looks like a spider bite on her shin which is adding to the whole swelling of the ankle/leg look.

So, my baby girl is just not a happy person at present. She has another job interview lined up for a live in position at a sports centre, so please pray hard that she is able to get this position.

Sad mom signing off ....

News Update

Well, the great news is that Leanne has landed herself a job in London, starting this morning. It is a Sales/Marketing position in the sports field. She is very excited about it and we wish her well in the start of her working career.

Wednesday evening Dereck and I went to see Die Hard 4.0 - if you like action and of course Bruce Willis, this was a great movie. On Thursday, Rayna, Nicky and I went to Hobby-X. A big disappointment from last year. There were not half as many stands like previous years and I think there were only 2 big scrapbook stands, but were so crowded, you had to be desparate to buy something from them to wait inthe queues - even just to look at their products. Rayna treated us to something hot to drink and a HUGE piece of lemon merangue pie - it was really yummy!!

I had taken Friday off and at about 08h15 Dereck and I decided to go and see the Bourne Ultimatum. There are three movies that follow on from each other, and this was the third. Excellent - lots of excitement and adventure. I then went and had my hair cut and did a bit of shopping at Makro.

Once home I carried on with a collage that I was requested to do for a friend's daughters 21st coming up in September. I have almost finished all the cutting out of the photos and now just need to do a few more then stick them all down. I have really enjoyed doing this and will post a picture once it is complete.

Saturday, I spent most of the day doing my collage.

Yesterday whilst reading the paper, I saw a notice that the Black Mamba - Directors Cut was having their last show. I fetched Dereck's sister, Lesley and her son Nicholas, and we went to the Heritage Theater to see if they had any space available. They did and made up a table for us. Saw Rayna and Louis there too. What a great show! The food was good - I had the peri peri beef strips as a starter - others had butternut soup and vegetables and for main 3 of us had calamari and the other 3 had lamb shanks (me, Grant and Lauren, Lesley, Nicholas and Dereck). For pudding Lesley and Nicholas had creme brulee, Dereck had cheesecake and Grant, Lauren and I had chocolate overdose - very yummy!!

Got home and cooked some mince for later while Dereck and Grant took Lesley, Nicholas and Lauren home. Sat and watched TV the rest of the evening.

A great long week-end having achieved quite a bit.

Collager signing off ...