Does the morning have to come so early? My typical morning goes something like this…. become aware of the birds twittering and tweeting outside my window (more like a cacophony of screeches and squaawls), five minutes later… the cell phone alarm goes off…. beep, birrup, beep. Attempt to get out of bed quietly so as not to disturb more fortunate individuals who don’t have to get up at 5:30. Stagger to the shower, shoo cats out of the way so that I can get into the shower. Stand in front of wardrobe wandering what the hell to wear. Stand in front of four slices of bread wandering what the hell to put on them. (To make tasty and imaginative school lunchboxes every day - is an artform all of its own). Try to shut the two delinquent cats up - so that they don’t wake the entire household. Tip toe into youngest’s bedroom to say goodbye (if I don’t, there’s hell to pay later on), tip toe into my bedroom to say goodbye to the ’more fortunate individual’. Try once more to shut the bloody cats up and then slip quietly out the door to start my day.

I just wish someone would push the morning back a few hours…

Well the first day of school has come and gone and apart from a few hiccups all would seem reasonably well in the land of new schools. Jessica seems to be taking to high school like a duck to water - only thing is - all she seems to talk about are the boys in her class, the boys in other classes and well lets just say - it’s all about boys!! (Not sure if I should start to worry now or just be delighted she’s stopped wailing “I HATE SCHOOL”)

Tamsyn was very brave her first day at her new school - poor kid didn’t have too good a start - first off her new shoes gave her a nasty blister, then someone (for once not me) didn’t read the fine print on the stationery order form and thought the school would have her stuff.  Turns out the local stationery shop had the stuff so Tamsyn had next to nothing with her. Which then put me in a bit of a tizz worrying that she’d suffer for this. So having dropped her off I raced down to the shop - rather serendipitously (sic) the owner arrived at the same time I did (half an hour before the shop actually opens) and falling at her feet I pleaded with her to find Tamsyn’s order. Clutching the bag to my chest I roared back to the school and somewhat out of breath asked the school secretary if I could take the stuff up to her.  Must say they all seem really nice and she buzzed Tamsyn’s classroom and had her come down to pick the stuff up. Yay, I survived the first day of school too.

We shall have to see what day two brings…. maybe Jessica will have something to say about the education - yea I know, dream on.

I was quite chuffed when the high school’s headmaster upon seeing us there on orientation day says “I know you” - now consider that it has been 20 years since I was at the school, how I look nothing like I did back then and when I was at school I was one of the quietest kids there. So to be remembered was quite something, to me anyway. Especially as I’ve spent 20 years consciously forgetting about school - wasn’t the best last two years of my school life.

Although I suspect our two cats need about 149 lives. Jessica has been away since Wednesday evening at a guide camp and so Bagheera has been sleeping in our room. Picture it - one very small cat sleeping at the head of the bed and one somewhat larger cat sleeping at the foot, this in itself is not a problem, the problem comes when they both decide it is time to get up. Somewhere between 5:00 and 5:30 the games begin.

Thumpitty, thumpitty, thump…. one cat streaks across the wooden floor - followed shortly by - thumpty, thumpty, thump…. crash. Then Gymmie starts his… meeeuw, meeuw, chirrup, meeuw. Then more galloping, only now they’ve switched places - more thumpitty’s and thumpty’s - more crashes, wallops, scratching of furniture and meeeuw’s. This goes on for as long as it takes for me to get out of bed - yell at them and figure if I don’t get up - they’re just going to get worse. So I get up and suddenly all is quiet and they disappear somewhere.

I’m going to bliksem them.

Not that I nag…much. My one goal this holiday was to get my scrapbook room sorted and after some gentle hinting, ingenious clues, loquacious comments and whispered pleas in the dead of night I got my much anticipated shelves.

Originally we were going to put up three shelves but once the bottom two were up, it became very apparent that there wouldn’t be enough space for my printer so the top shelf got axed and the second shelf raised a notch.

Then the great sort out began.

As you can see - there was much to be done.

Must say I’m really looking forward to spending time in here.

Meet Sophie Bagheera, having had her for a few days it was obvious that Sophie wasn’t going to cut it. We needed a name with heaps of potential, a name that would symbolise great things to come, a name that would strike fear into the bravest of cats…Rudyard Kipling sums it up best…

“Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path; for he was as cunning as Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down.” Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

She’s already living up to her name - then again Gymmie isn’t exactly the bravest of cats.

He’s trying really hard to ignore her in the vain hope that she’ll just disappear one day soon. In a way it’s a bit of poetic justice - when we had to relocate Gymmie to Bellville (for health reasons - both Gymmie’s and Tamsyn’s) he became the thorn in Wouter’s cats sides - so much so, that Benny packed his bags and moved in with Wouter’s Mom almost immediately - it took another year for Joon to follow. Not that Gymmie remembers any of that - all he knows is there is this upstart, this pipsqueak of a cat who scares the bajeesus out of him. It’s driving him to *drink*.

We reckon she’s going to grow up to be a cat to be reckoned with.

Although how anything this cute could be so scary is anyone’s guess.

I have cooked two recipes from The *Bloody* Book and the last one was an unmitigated disaster.

Not only did I injure myself (apparently slicing parts of one’s finger off isn’t part of the recipe) but the mince for the lasagne was so watery I had to strain it through a colander before I could spoon it into the dish - AND I followed that part of the recipe to the letter… so Jamie, it isn’t true - not anyone can learn to cook in 24 hours!! Put that in your signature line of cookware and smoke it.

My mother, much to the annoyance of my father (most of the time) has decided it is her duty to keep the entire bird population of the area they live in, in a life they probably weren’t accustomed to - that is till she got there. Mango, kiwi fruit, strawberries, pineapple - to name but a few of the fruits they get given on a daily basis. There is however one blight on her horizon - her nemesis - a pigeon that just will not take the hint that he is not welcome. He eats up the bird seed of the smaller birds and tends to scare away the rest. Well all but the Louries that is.

Tamsyn spent much of her time chasing him away, not that it made any difference - within two minutes he was back again.

The area is a bird sanctuary and therefore cats are strictly forbidden - being a cat family I suspect my mother is adopting the birds as a substitute. Pretty poor substitute in my book.

We took a walk on the beach on Leisure Isle the one afternoon, the tide was out so it put pay to any ideas Tamsyn had of swimming. She walked for ages to try and find deeper water, to no avail. Jessica did the teenage thing, walked on the beach in her ‘leather’ jacket and music blaring from her ipod.

Trying very hard not to smile

And finally not often I’m not behind the camera, but with Tamsyn now deciding she rather enjoys photography, there are more pictures of me - well the few I haven’t deleted due to reactions like - oh gawd do I really have that many wrinkes? Or - frek, this camera adds 20 pounds, it must be defective.

The kids and I decided to spend a few days with my folks in Knysna and rather than drive we opted to take the bus. Which surprisingly turned out a lot better than I thought it would. Due to the days and times I chose we ended up going up on City to City and coming back on the Citiliner. The City to City buses are very basic, ours had no aircon but despite this the trip really wasn’t that bad, we were allowed two ‘pit’ stops with strict instructions to ‘be back in 20 minutes’. We were also bang on time, probably had something to do with a driver who drove like a bat out of hell most of the way, not that we ever felt unsafe.

The trip back was billed an hour and a half longer, I’m still not sure why and it was made longer by the 45 minute delay waiting for it to arrive. I must say though the Citiliner buses are much more comfortable, have aircon and movies! Oddly enough though - no toilet on board. Not that one would use it, but I still thought it strange.

The time spent in Knysna was lovely and relaxing - we ate out, went shopping, ate out some more and would have gone on Dad’s boat had the weather not turned icky. (To be honest, I’m rather glad it did - I’m not a boat person but had agreed to go along, reluctantly)

Tamsyn and I played photoshoot a couple of times and if I do say so myself, I think the photos came out rather well.

My folks’ garden is the ideal place for taking pictures, truly stunning.

Not to be outdone, Tamsyn decided she’d like to try her hand at photography too…

Not bad for a nine year old… she’s rather taken to it now and has decided her ‘point and shoot’ digital camera just isn’t good enough any more, she wants one like mine.

(to be continued)

I blame my in-laws.

Isn’t she cute? We went and collected her this morning, having been to the vet to collect food for her and just to check that the hernia she has is as easily corrected as the woman who sold her to us said. Apparently it’s a minor procedure which they can do at the same time as they spay her. She’s a sweet little thing, haven’t really been able to gauge her personality yet, as she’s been intent on getting rid of the fleas she brought with her. She has pledged her allegiance already though…. to her mommy

We haven’t introduced her to Gymmie yet, although I think he knows something is up - because he’s acting up more than usual. Fool of a cat.

More photos……

It’s very tiring being a kitten…