Holiday Memories.

This time I am going to add some more photos. On the left is my precious grandson Luc.

Then a view from our holiday cottage, & John enjoying the scenery there.

I can't believe that just as I started to write this, the sky went black & we are now in the throws of a major storm.Well, that's South Africa for you, you never know what's coming.

I think I'll sign off for now, as computers & storms don't mix very well.

Back from our holiday.

Well the wonderful break away from it all is already just a memory,as the day to day activities once more take precidence. We had a really lovely time though & the weather was a lot warmer than we had anticipated.We took two trips out, to Graskop & Sabie, & on both occasions had pancakes for lunch. They are very popular & yummy too.The rest of the time we did what we had promised & chilled out with a good read. I managed to fit in 4 treatments for myself, 2 detoxing & de-stressing back massages, some reflexology & a wonderful foot treatment with dead sea mud. We both slept very well,but I couldn't stop myself from waking as soon as the sun rose. It really is a great place to unwind & the standards never change.Next time though we will be able to enjoy another heated pool which was nearly finished.
Our workmen arrived monday morning to finish off our two bay windows at the front of the house.We incured some damage when we were broken into last month,so as we needed to have that repaired thought it wise to do a proper job. They look a lot better,but we will no doubt still have to replace them one day,as they are all of 80 years old!!
I have some catching up to do & have just read Heidis' blog.Next will be Hazels'. I must say that they are both great writers.
I managed my first Yoga class for a couple of weeks & was pleasantly surprised that I wasn't too stiff. We did do a fair bit of walking though so I don't feel too bad.
Our home was still here when we returned.The alarm was repaired on the morning of our trip as it kept giving wrong signals,it was certainly a relief to find that it is alright now.
Can't think of anymore for now, but it's a start. Bye bye.Gilly.

The Wall.

Hope that I can add some photos of the wall for further comment.Not a pretty site,would you agree.

We will continue our fight for our rights.

As my dear brother Tony say's ,'Get a life!!' Trouble is I am not Tony, & being female take things entirely to heart with the subsequent emptions. Anyway, enough of that. I had a lovely phone call from my dear daughter Hazel last night,wishing me a happy Mother's day for Sunday.

Now I must put all things of a disconcerting nature onto the back burner & look forward to our holiday starting friday. I hope that when we come home refreshed & full of the joys of autumn I can do another far happier blog. Bye for now Gilly Jones.

A cold & wet Bank Holiday.

Dear All,
We were awoken early this morning by our alarm going off!!No panic, as it was a fault yet again with the time setting. They have already been to fix it once, I managed to reset it & turn off the flashing lights.( My intuition says, is it never going to end!!)
It seems like this holiday will be a stay in & keep warm day.The sky has gone a distinct shade of dark grey.I must send John out to see if he can buy The International Express, then at least we can do the big crossword puzzle for entertainment.
We watched the movie' Cape Fear' last night.Last saw it many years ago, but Kevin my son has a large collection of DVD's which he sometimes remembers to offer us. Must say that it is one of those movies that doesn't seem dated, & still managed to scare me.
I still can't log on to my Acenet mail account.We bought a new Hard drive last saturday,& yesterday I was back at the shop with it. It wouldn't switch off!It was worked on for two hours while I waited patiently in the shop.Eventually the technition had to replace the motherboard as he realised that it was faulty.He also said that I could use my broadband connection to send & receive mail,thus saving on our telephone bill. Still can't work the dam thing though which is why I am writing my blog instead.
After our break in we are now having our two bay windows re furbished ( At a cost of course) hopefully after being properly prepared & painted they will last awhile longer, until we can maybe afford some new windows. The gate guy has been to measure up for a replacement garden gate,so hope that all these things get finished before we have our holiday next friday.
Then I really do promise myself lots of coddling.
Ah well! better finish this rambling. Bye for now Gilly.

It,s been a tough few days.

Hi again from Gill,
It has been a tough few days or is it already a week or so . Again I am in negative mode after our recent break in at home.To awake at 4 am to a sound that your intuition says,is a break in. In the aftermath, it's all about what might have been, with the awareness of how close we were to perhaps being harmed!!We have now done all the usual things,after the event, have installed an alarm system with panic buttons.Bought a safe,& have gone through all the things that we did wrong!!. On our first night away, after the event ,we returned to find that our small front gate had been stolen.For the thief it was just a scrap metal piece of income, but for us it's another problem which has to be rectified. Our alarm system also caused us problems as it was activating at the control room every time we switched on or off!! We couldn't understand why the patrol men came round so often.Hopefully that has now been rectified.
All in all I'm not doing too well at present. We also have an ongoing problem with our neighbours after they erected a huge wall on our property. It was agreed for them to erect a Yoga Studio on our boundary wall, but the final height of 8 meters was never fully appreciated.Their idea of a finishing coat was to, as they said, cement wash it! One can never realize until near the end what that would be like. I now fear that my dear husband is feeling balistic about the whole thing, & I am in a very difficult position.
I would like to add a note of humour, but unfortuneately I can't thing of anything funny about this problem that I could add.
At this time I have bought a new harddrive , but after a few attempt,s still cannot activate my normal email address. I asked for & have been given a new password, but am still rejected when I try to log on. All in all I'm a disappointed little bunny.
Wish I could be as optimistic as my two daughters, who have blogs that I really admire. I must tell myself that I must have done something right when I was bringing them up.
Please excuse the content of this blog, but I have to vent somewhere. Maybe next time I will feel a little better,but thanks for caring.

An enlightening day.

Hi everyone. Today I had a first for me. I went to see a Psychic. I had heard about her from my Yoga teacher,who was impressed with her ability.I am probably a normal sceptic,not ever having had an experience that would rate as out of the ordinary.
As I have said in earlier posts, I am at a crossroads with regard to my emotional health & feelings.Since my Mum died 2 years ago, I have felt that I am in emotional limbo. I could not get my act together or make any decisions about, where to go from here. After years of being a carer of children,husbands, & Mum. I have been in emotional" lock down",preferring to accept the" status quo",rather than to confront a new era in my life.I went, hoping to receive some guidance.
I am happy to report that I felt quite relieved to accept the reading that was given. It was almost spot on!I was a little tense,& not about to give too much information,in case it was all to do with psychological assessment & body language.
I can truly say that what was said was without prompting. What I have been told is very much what I knew inside, but found hard to accept. I am the master of my own destiny & all change is within me.
To my family, I can say that nothing was revealed about my daughter in Nova Scotia, or my son in Adelaide, but I was given information about my two children here in South Africa. Of course that will remain at my discression.
It was an enlightening experience,& left me with plenty to think about.I can only hope that what I learned I can put to good use for my own good.
On a lighter note, autumn is really getting a hold on things here. My pool is covered with leaves & I will spend much time in the next few days & weeks removing them.
Life is what you make it, so they say, or rather how you view it!
Bye for now Gilly.

Another sunny day in Africa.

Hello again.It's a Tuesday morning & I've just come back from my Yoga class. Wish it would get easier but everytime it hurts!My neighbour is busy building a new Yoga studio above the existing double garage.When it is finished, hopefully by May,it will be a lot nicer for all of us students. A wall of mirrors will be there to see all our faults & funny dangly bits!!
I am popping into town later to do a few bits & pieces. I will soon need to start planning our holiday in Australia,so want to check out the flight details first. We want to see my son Michael who lives in Adelaide ,as well as my sister who lives in Sydney.Like our holiday last year in Nova Scotia, it is going to be very different meeting up again with our grandsons as we haven't seen them since June 99.The youngest one was born there so he is absolutely new to us.
My daughter Hazel has just had a weeks holiday in Cuba,so I am looking forward to hearing all about that too.We enjoyed a very lazy Easter,but that is what breaks are for.
The weather is slowly turning into autumn,with a different kind of sunshine.I am not looking forward to the winter this year as it is predicted to be a very cold one this time.
With our power cuts looking like they will continue for a long time,it could become rather nippy!!

Hope everyone enjoyed the Easter break. Bye for now Gill.