From the time I woke on Monday I avoided anything political. I usually wake before my alarm goes off and I grab my phone and check my social media accounts and my Covet Fashion results. I’ve played Covet for years but I don’t spend cash on it like some women who allocate a budget each week for it. I would rather take my family out with the cash I would spend on paper dolls but I do find it relaxing and continue to play it.  I have made some great friends from the game as well.

Anyway, I digress.

On Monday I avoided Facebook and just updated my status. Everything else on my timeline was toxic other than a few friends who seem to be on a similar place as I am – heart sore and in need of a mental break. I know that this is the plan of the Fascists in charge of the US government, to keep pushing the boundaries until the resistors are too tired to carry on resisting and become numb to the pain. I am not down, I am just resting. I will continue to resist – maybe I should limit it to one of my social media platforms? I will decide on my approach once I feel a bit more balanced.

I drove to work with minimal swearing and did not overtake anyone. I made an effort and talked myself down off the precipice when I threatened to derail.

I facilitated a workshop that lasted all day. I had to rehash the same stuff yet again as it was a different audience. But I just kept calm and didn’t lose my cool too much even when people were being annoying.

And believe me, they are always annoying to a rapid thinking Virgo. Luckily I work with a very clever bunch of men and women. Much more clever than I am as a general rule.

Anyway…again I am rambling.

One of the Executive Orders that the Furher has signed this week has a parallel to my own life. We are building a wall. 🙂 However it is not to keep out any refugees, it is to keep in my dogs! Our wall had started crumbling as there was a tree whose roots were slowly pushing it over. We have had our friend Cyril come and knock down the wall, dig out the tree and it’s roots and then he will build the wall back (minus said tree of course).

The top photo is looking down from our house and the second is looking up from below our house.

They have put in a temporary fence to keep the doggies in after they stop building at night, however it is not sturdy enough that it would keep any humans out. On Tuesday the doggies saw a gap and made a run for it. Navajo stood aside keeping an eye on the builders and Panda just danced around them hoping someone would feed or pet him, but Pixie pegged it down the hill as fast as her stubby little legs would take her. Norm eventually caught her but she loves escaping. When she runs away she will stop periodically and glance over her shoulder, waiting for you to catch up and then zoom! She is off again, laughing at your annoyance.

Monday evening I had booked for a group of friends to go to a Music Pub Quiz at Woodcutters Arms in Hout Bay.

We collected Retha on the way and our friends Scott and Karen met us there. (P.S. WTF is that guy behind me and Retha doing? Is it a magic trick? Did doves fly out of that napkin? Is he surreptitiously smoking a pipe? Some crack? Drinking from a brown bag? What IS going on? And why does Norm look so cross? And what am I looking at? So many questions.)

We called ourselves ‘The Five Horsemen (and women) of the Apocalypse’.

Scott sings and plays guitar so we hoped he would be our secret weapon and great at music quizzes. It turns out we are all as rubbish as each other, but we had a lot of laughs. It is so frustrating to be able to sing an entire song but have no clue what the name of it is! For example, Steve Miller was one of the sounds of my high school years. Therefore I was able to sing the entire song from ‘I’m a picker, I’m a grinner, I’m a lover and a sinner. I get my loving on the runnnnnn.’ all the way to ‘I really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree.’ But could I remember the name? No. (It’s ‘The Joker’ for those who may be planning a quiz anytime soon.)

The pub offers a limited menu on a quiz night. We ordered a few bits and pieces.

I love their jalapeno cheddar cigars, these are chopped jalapenos and cheddar wrapped in a thin phyllo pastry. They are just divine.

Several of us had the Scotch Eggs. Norm is mad for these and Scott is also of a Scots background so he was ever so excited to try them as he has not had them in a very long time. They are hardly common faire in South Africa.

Three of us had the Chicken Caesar burger which was a chicken breast with bacon, cheese, an egg and Caesar dressing on top. It was yummy!

We finished up around 10:30pm and Retha’s godson had just arrived into the village on the bus and unfortunately it is not safe on our streets for a young lad walking alone with an iPhone in his pocket so we raced across to collect him and take him home, dropped him and Retha and headed home.

Tuesday Norm did a grocery shop and made us all dinner. It was so yummy and low carb, high fat. It is a simple and quick meal. He wrapped chicken breasts in streaky bacon, steamed some gem squash and broccoli and voila!

I put a beef roast in the slow cooker overnight so that was dinner for tonight sorted.

Every day I walk through the city and notice new people living or sleeping on the streets. There is a spot which is a bit of open ground that is over an underground car park. The city has put large bolts sticking out of the top of a little protruding box that gives air to the car park. I wondered why they would do so as it looks rather dangerous if you were to fall onto one of them. I had also noticed that it seems to be a gathering spot for the homeless. One day the ground around the box was covered in human faeces, another day there were many empty boxes of cheap wine lying around the base of the box.

This week it finally clicked. There will be warm air coming up through the vents, that is why it is a gathering spot as the nights are very cold in Africa, even in summer they can be brisk. The winds from the sea in the foreshore can be fierce. The bolts are put there to stop people sleeping on the boxes.

I can’t imagine what that must be like, desperate for a warm place to lay your head. I am so grateful that I do not have to worry about a safe, warm place to sleep.

My blessings are many.