Last Sunday’s dinner was roast chicken cooked in butter and tons of garlic, mushrooms roasted in the pan with the chicken and red cabbage fried in butter and balsamic. I also made sweet potato fondants, parboiling them first and then frying in butter until crispy.

After dinner we watched the previous week’s Saturday Night Live. Melissa McCarthy is my new hero. Then we watched the Sunday movie which was The Last Witch Hunter.

I would tell you all about it except as always I fell asleep. But Vin Diesel is not one of my faves so I doubt I missed much. If I am wrong please tell me dear readers and I will download it. In the day time when I can attempt to stay concious 🙂

The traffic when I went home on Monday was busy and at one point there were cars pulled off the road with dozens of people hanging over the railings and staring at the sea. I had assumed it was whales or dolphins but it was a car they were staring at and photographing. A guy in an Audi was seen just before the crash driving like a lunatic up Suikerbossie Hill and as a result he shot right off the side of the cliff.

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South Africa can be a deadly and dangerous place. I often experience this up close and personal as my hubby Norm is the area head of Neighbourhood Watch and he is a first responder to many of the issues in our suburb. Any day or night of the week he may be directing traffic from an accident, doing patrols, tracking someone down because their gate is open or dogs are loose, helping with stakeouts or chasing bad guys after a break in. It is sometimes a bit like the old west. This week there was a stabbing in one of the robberies committed, he wasn’t involved in that call luckily, I worry every time he is out on one of these calls.

On Tuesday there was another fire on Signal Hill Road near Lion’s Head. Four fire vehicles, four water tankers, 3 choppers and 24 fire fighters were dispatched. The choppers finally managed to put that one out.

Then on Wednesday there was another 2 fires much closer to home in our village, it was on Karbonkelberg hill on the other side of the bay from our house.

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Taken from another angle from the beach you can see how pervasive it is. These pics are compliments of my friend Suzy.

We have had insane winds here which does not help with these fire related issues. A spark or a ciggie out the window and boom inferno. The fires in our village were allegedly started deliberately by small children for whatever reason. Thankfully we have amazing volunteer fire fighters.

This fire raged for several days. I feel so bad for the little animals who will have perished in these fires.

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The community pulled together and dropped off food, drinks and ice for the fire fighters. 

One of our biggest issues at the moment (besides the on-going issues of our dodgy president Zuma) is the drought. It is estimated that our dams have only approximately 120 days  of water left in them. They are our main water supply in all of Cape Town and the western part of the Cape.

This is another issue that is due to our government not doing forward planning since they took over more than 20 years ago. The locals say that the issue is partly due to many African languages not having a concept or words for future tense, you live for today. This is a wonderful way to live if you are not responsible for the well being of your constituents and in charge of government planning! Now there are whispers of desalination plants which would be sensible as we are surrounded by water, however we do not have the time to implement these to help with the current crisis, this planning should have been done years ago. The entire water infrastructure has now been barely maintained for decades.

Ironically it is pouring with so much rain in the north near Pretoria that there is flooding.

We are saving every drop of water we can at home. I now wash my body in the shower with the water turned off and only put the water on to rinse. (Therefore most of my showers are cold as it takes ages to heat the water.) I only wash my hair every few days. That’s the only benefit of menopause, my previously oily hair has become dry.

We have buckets in our sinks and showers to catch the grey water and we distribute it over our gardens and plants. Blue Kitty decided that he needed to check this new situation out.

Our pool is very low  as we cannot use our limited precious resources to fill it. We have applied these tube-like devices to each of our drain pipes and if we do get a drop of rain we can funnel it to the garden or pool. 

The pool is now so low we shall have to turn off the pump soon.  Many people are converting their gardens to stones or plants that require less water and are planting succulents which can thrive in drought. You can see mine in the pots above are coping fine whereas my grass is dead.

Norm had a swim on Thursday evening as it was so hot! We struggled to get to sleep.

I went off the Banting wagon to have a wee vodka, passionfruit and soda.

I had made sauce for lasagna on Wednesday so I just had to slice the zucchini and the mozzarella for layering. It was delicious.

Norm was kind enough to cook dinner for us on Tuesday as he did a shop. He did chicken breasts wrapped in bacon, with gemsquash, zucchini and other marrows and steamed broccoli. 

On Wednesday I got home by 5 so I cooked. I just grilled pork chips, and served with lots of steamed veggies.

One good news item is that our dodgy SA Prez Zuma had applied to withdraw from the ICC but this has been deemed unconstitutional. Zuma has been ordered to revoke the notice of withdrawal. Thankfully we have the courts to balance out at least some of our insane presidential decisions in both the US and SA.

This week the trial for Carl, my children’s childhood friend who was murdered continued. Caitlin took a half day off of work to go and support Carla and the family. On Wednesday one of the accused (Juane Jacobs’) wife testified. She had given a completely different description of the events on Tuesday and the judge challenged her and she confirmed she had perjured herself and ended up getting arrested. I hope these 2 horrid evil men spend the rest of their lives in prison.

The trial continues on Monday. Spare the family a thought please. 

Tonight there is a lot going on in the spiritual realm. I had heard on Facebook that there was a big movement of witches joining together to cast a binding spell on Twitler. It originated on a blog I follow. I wish them success in binding him from doing any further harm. I won’t risk participation as that much power could repel back and cause me issues. I would hate to be unable to go visit my mom. 

I had also heard on the radio that the Islamic Community in South Africa was going to hold a prayer vigil for rain as we have such a drought. There is a specific Islamic Prayer for rain called Salat Al-Istisqa.

I will spend my evening relaxing and in silent support of both of these endeavors. 

I need to relax as I almost got taken out by a taxi today. I left work and I was running across a 3 lane road when my bracelet flew off! I heard it clatter and stopped to pick it up. Bending over all the way to the ground from a jogging position while wearing a heavy laptop back pack and handbag in howling wind is not high on the list of skills of an old bird like me. I’m glad I both lived and saved my bracelet. 

Tomorrow I’m taking a overseas visitor on a tour of Hout Bay. I’ll have some lovely pics for you I hope! Meanwhile I’m off to have dinner! Enjoy your evening. Xxx