On Thursday Norm decided to go to one of the vaccination centres on the other side of Cape Town which has been vaccinating walk in patients as long as they are registered on the government portal. He did not have to wait long at all, they vaccinated him and he was back home in a few hours! (The drive was longer than the wait!) The government will notify him via SMS when he has to go for the second jab but he can go to any of the venues for the next one. As soon as I can register I will do the same as it worked out so well. I turn 60 in September and can then register, or if they open it up to the next age group before then even better.
After Norm returned home the jeweler arrived to deliver the 4 Seasons Eternity Necklace from the Africa Day contest I won. It was made by Caitlin from Tyldesley Jewellers and has a lovely sapphire which is my birthstone. I put it on straight away (excuse my dirty hair and lack of face paint but we were without electricity). It is so stunning!
I also received an email with my voucher from Orms to have the photo book made. I am so lucky to have won all of these treasures.
Load shedding has been rife this week. We were off for 3 hours one night this week and on Thursday it was off for 2 hours in the morning and I missed 2 meetings because I could not access MS Teams. Luckily I had moved my documents over to my personal laptop and I could at least work. It went off again on Thursday night at midnight and we had forgotten it was scheduled. I was in the middle of brushing my teeth and ended up spitting toothpaste in my hair (just as well it was dirty). Norm was in the middle of bringing the dogs to bed and was climbing the stairs holding two wriggly Pomeranians with Navajo in front of him. I had to rescue him with a torch so they could see to get upstairs. It was off again yesterday from 5 to 6pm. It is such a pain to deal with. I cannot believe our government is so inept and corrupt. It is very frustrating.
I love mandala designs, especially the ones painted with patterns of dots. My kids bought me some stones painted with mandalas for Christmas a few years ago and I decided I wanted to attempt to paint some more stones myself to go into my garden so I bought some bright paints last time we were at builder’s warehouse. After I put the second coat of paint on my little stool I use on the porch as a table, I decided on a whim to paint some dots on it. In my usual bullish fashion I did not watch any ‘how to’ videos or look up any nice patterns I just dove right in. It is far from perfect, my main ‘circle’ is more of a spider web pattern and my dots are a bit squishy but I still like it. I will do some more on it this weekend. Once my skills improve I can always sand it down and redo it.
I want to get some softer colours next, I only bought a set of primary colours but will build up a collection. I may even attempt to mix some primary colours to get some new interesting ones.
Last Sunday was my son Trevor’s 35th birthday.
It still shocks me when I hear my kids ages, I forget how old I am (other than when I am trying to get up off the floor or go up the stairs and then my fat arse and arthritic joints remind me.) We held a family zoom call on Sunday just to say happy birthday. His fiancé Amber is away working but Lily and his friends took him for lunch at Amber’s mom Rose’s fabulous restaurant and they brought his favourite carrot cake. I was very sad to not be there but was so glad that his sister and his friends made an effort.
This week we received the quote on renovating our upstairs. It was a bit more than we expected but we are getting it all done exactly as we want it. I chose colours and designs that should appeal to any potential buyers when we are ready to downsize. We are not skimping on the products, we are using top of the line items. And the builder we are using is reliable and will not subject us to any of the horrors I hear from friends who have renovated and had their builders disappear without finishing the work. And for once I get to live in the renovated house, usually I renovate for the purposes of resale. I have loved my renovated kitchen and cannot wait to have the bedrooms and baths all sparkly and new. I am dreading the process of living with the noise, mess and dust while it gets done but the gain will be worth the pain.
Today our builder met us in Paarden Island and we chose the taps and shower fittings and they are rather gorgeous. They are from Victorian Bathrooms.
These are for our en-suite bathroom vanity, so we ordered 2 of these.
For the family bathroom we will have a Victorian style pedestal sink to go with our claw foot bath so we chose this tap.
We then went to a few different places to look at a variety of stone counter tops for the vanity we are having made. We eventually settled on a dark gray quartz which looks nice with the mosaics which will go on our feature wall. We liked the idea that WOMAG is a one stop shop, they supply the stone, cut it based on the requirements and fit it themselves.
It is all going to look amazing!! Norm is spending today moving everything out of our bedroom as they will start the demolition of our existing bathroom on Monday. I cannot wait to see it completed.
Now for my weekly analysis of the COVID stats for my 3 ‘home’ countries. The count for total cases has stayed static from last week with SA remaining in 19th position with 1,730,106 cases, the UK in 7th with 4,550,944 total cases and the USA still in 1st place with 34,306,446 total cases.
The global ranking for people who have died due to COVID has remained the same as last week with SA in 16th place with 57,592 lives lost, the UK is 6th with 127,884 and the USA is still 1st with 614,738 deaths.
On the more level comparison of deaths per 1 million of the population: SA has moved up to 52nd with 960 deaths per million people, the UK has remained at 17th with 1,875 and the USA dropped one place to 19th with 1,847 out of a million people dying from COVID.
Vaccinations have been rolling along at a rapid rate in SA and the vaccination centres have now administered 1,690,026 vaccinations (whether this is a simple addition of 1st vaccine and 2nd vaccine counts or a distinct count of inoculated people is not stated on the government website). The CDC is reporting that in the US 172,758,350 people have had ‘at least one dose’ and that 142,095,530 people have been fully vaccinated. In the UK the government is reporting that 41,088,485 people have received the 1st vaccine and that 29,165,140 have received the 2nd dose.
I discovered this new track called ‘Bella’ by Callum Spencer this week and I liked it and hope you do too. Callum is a young UK artist that I was unfamiliar with but I see good things in his future as he has a great voice.
The second video is a new release from another British artist who was new to me despite having a musical career since 2011. The song is ‘Heartbreak Summer’ and the artist is Flownn (aka Sophie-Rose Harper). Despite the dour name it is a light hearted bit of pop.
Norm and I have started watching the UK series ‘Line of Duty‘. Series one was released a few years ago but we have started from the beginning and are now up to series 3 (NO SPOILERS!!).
I am used to watching horrific things on television but I can cope with that by averting my eyes from the blood and gore, however this show is horrific in the fact that it is conceivably legitimate! It highlights so many dirty cops and so many shocking scenarios. Is it based on real life situations or is it all fantasy (sung to Bohemian Rhapsody tune). The police force in the UK seems to be very similar to the military in regards to respect for hierarchies, certainly not what I have seen in the US police force. Each series has the same main core characters and the addition of new key characters for each series and while each series is a stand alone story they are all interlinked so I suggest you also start from series 1. I give Line of Duty 5 Kitten Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.
To balance out some of the nerve wracking stuff we watch we always like to finish off our evening with a destressing comedy and we recently started ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘ as our pre-bedtime giggle.
The series began in 2013 and is currently still in production but is rumoured to be ending this year. The main character is NYPD detective Jake Peralta who is played by the adorable and hilarious Andy Samberg, previously of the iconic Saturday Night Live. I just look at him and laugh. Jake is a detective in Brooklyn’s fictional 99th Precinct and his commanding officer is the rather straight-faced and stoic Captain Raymond Holt who is played by Andre Braugher.
The rest of the cast features Stephanie Beatriz as the always angry Rosa Diaz, football player turned actor Terry Crews as Terry Jeffords, beautiful Melissa Fumero as Jake’s secret crush Amy Santiago, Joe Lo Truglio as Jake’s very odd and slightly creepy best friend Charles Boyle, former SNL performer Chelsea Peretti as Gina Linetti, Dirk Blocker as Michael Hitchcock, and Joel McKinnon Miller as Norm Scully who occasionally surprises you with a bit of beautifully performed opera belting out from under his crew cut.
If you are unfamiliar with this series and you like a bit of irreverent silly humour then I suggest you give it a go. I give Brooklyn Nine-Nine 5 Kitten Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.
I hope you have had a great week and that you have an excellent week ahead. Remember to check on your friends and family who may be on their own.
Today while Norm organises upstairs I am going to be painting and faffing around with my plants in the garden.
Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxox
Kitten in the City 