I have mentioned before that Norm is doing an investigation into my family tree? You can read my previous post here. He is making great progress and just today has now followed my father’s lineage back to the 1500s and linked us to King James of Scotland.
In 1530/1533 Princess Jean Elizabeth of Scotland, Kelso was born to James King of Scots and Lady Margaret Erskine. Princess Jean Elizabeth married Sir William Stewart of Moray and had 1 child, Sir Nicholas. At the age of 29, Sir Nicholas and Frances Ann Baker (aged 15) had Lady Elizabeth Stewart of Moray. Elizabeth was born on 26 September 1576 in Teversham, Cambridgeshire, in the UK.
Elizabeth married my ancestor Richard Norwood of Leckhampton in 1600, in Leckhampton, Gloucestershire, UK. They were the parents of at least 17 sons and 2 daughters. Elizabeth died on 11 May 1649, in Leckhampton, Gloucestershire at the age of 72. At least one of their many sons came over to the American colonies from Great Britain.
William Norwood (1615-1703), third son of Richard and Elizabeth, served as a Royalist at the Battle of Edgehill 1642, and emigrated to Virginia in 1648. His son is William NORWOOD Jr. who was born in 1672 in Surry County, Virginia. We think this is our lineage, we just need to link it to the family we have found in North Carolina.
Norm also discovered the Norwood family crest. How cool is this??
Many settlers of English, Scottish, Irish and German descent came to the American colonies to escape high taxes and oppression. Throughout the 1700s and 1800s, more Highland Scots immigrated to North Carolina than any other U.S. state. Many of the Scots bred with the Cherokees and there is a large mix of these bloodlines. I think this is my bloodline as I feel such kinship with both lineages.
Norm has managed to trace directly via my father’s family to the murder I discussed in my last blog, but he went further back 3 more generations to Nathaniel Norwood who was murdered by his workers on 6th August 1794. Since I have discovered the family murders I have been specifically doing the Ho’oponopono prayer to my male ancestors when I pray to the 5th direction, Above to Wakan Tanka, The Great Mystery. I ask for forgiveness from my family who suffered possibly due to mental illness, I ask for forgiveness to the families of those whom my family harmed. It is what feels right to me.
We have traced this branch of my Dad’s family to North Carolina and just need to bridge that gap of info between Virginia and North Carolina.
I am finding all of this so fascinating! So far we have not gotten any tribal links and it is a bit ironic I can trace back to the colonisers and oppressors instead.
I mentioned in last week’s post that I had a busy day planned for last Saturday. First I went for a facial at Skin and it included a neck and shoulder massage which was like heaven! My appointment only ended a bit before we were supposed to meet at Tam’s as our Social Group was meeting in Noordhoek. I was starving! Tam and I collected the other 2 women and off we went along Chapman’s Peak Drive.
This drive is one of the most beautiful in the world, but there was a heavy mist so it was a bit dimmed.
We arrived at G’s home in Noordhoek and unloaded all of our bits and pieces and settled in outside on her patio.
G had invited a new woman to join us. She is one of G’s neighbours, but G herself is new and did not know that new people have to be voted in, but as a once off it was fine. We keep our circle tight.
We had a lot of laughs and talked a lot of nonsense and nibbled cake and crisps and all manner of snacks as everyone had brought food with them. I love picky food but of course I ended up eating carbs. I got back on track that night and I have to be able to go off track on occasion or life is not worth living.
I got completely overstimulated and on the way home the volume of my voice got so loud that Tam had to motion with her hand like I was a puppy who needed calming. I am so glad that she feels comfortable to do that rather than just never let me go in her car again which is probably how other people have dealt with me after a road trip! I know I can be a bit much when over stimulated. But all 4 of us were loud and raucous all the way there and laughed a lot.
We dropped Dee off at her place and me and Deniz went back to hang out at T’s until Norm finished his webinar at 4pm and could come to collect me. It is interesting how group energy changes depending on who is present. We were all chilled and ready for a nap!
One of the things that toxic men do is negging. That means that they intentionally emotionally manipulate their partner with deliberate backhanded compliments to undermine their confidence and attempt to create a need for the manipulator’s approval, or if very explicit, sex. For example, while being intimate they smack her on the arse and say “oooo I love how all of that fat and cellulite jiggles.” On the surface it sounds loving, he even says ‘loves’ and he may even use a loving voice, but what he really does is implant a small seed of doubt and insecurity. He then feeds and waters that seed, slowly, diligently, until it starts to bloom.
It is basically trying to get women to sleep with them by destroying the woman’s confidence and making them believe they are being given a gift by the man paying attention to them, regardless how revolting the man may be. It actually works if they choose women with low self confidence or if they can manage to keep hold of said woman long enough to shave away slivers of their confidence until they give in. It is incredibly misogynistic double speak.
But what is it called when people use terminology usually meant to be positive in a judgmental way? For example, unilaterally deciding whether something is ‘high vibration’ or ‘low vibration’? I had only heard this term applied predominately to food, where a delicious muffin is low vibration and a plate of raw food is high vibration. If it was in a negative context in regards to a person, it was usually as a way to describe a ‘bad guy’. But someone used it in relation to the concept of online dating (after one of us had said they were using Tinder). Branding all men on the app as low vibration or just looking for a hook up. I pointed out that there are plenty of women who are potentially looking for just a hook up. Shaming women for being sexual creatures is also misogynistic.
Then the topic somehow drifted onto ‘swinging’ which Hout Bay is notorious for. Again, this was deemed ‘low vibration’.
I did not like the judgement but I kept myself mostly quiet – I did bite but not as hard as I wanted to as I was trying to be polite in someone else’s home.
When people use these terms to judge others it turns them into what they are judging against, does it not? I am not at all judgmental when it comes to sex but I grew up in the 70s. As long as it involves consenting adults then I am not kink shaming, do whatever gets your motor running, it does not impact me in any way. But then, am I judging those people for judging? It gets pretty complicated!
Meanwhile we all carry on doing our best to get through it all.
On Monday we had a grocery delivery and I had a packet of chicken breasts to cook so that night we had baked chicken breasts, roasted butternut which I sprinkled with cinnamon, and pickled red cabbage.
The red cabbage was a last minute replacement as I had steamed broccoli spears which I later realised were from the shopping delivered the previous week and it smelled strongly and the stalks looked weird. In the bin they went and I desperately sought a ready replacement and found the jar of red cabbage. It was perfect with the simplicity of the other 2 items.
The next night was beef mince roulette and I decided on chili con carne as I had enough beans and that is double protein, the meat and the beans. I avoided any tomato based items other than one squirt of tomato paste, it has to have a wee bit of acidity for balance.
On Tuesday I had leftover chicken breast for lunch and realised that I had inadvertently done meal prepping by cooking the entire pack of 8 chicken breasts. I chopped one up for lunch each day, mixed it with red pepper hummus, cucumber and seeds and it was yummy. In a typically neuro-diverse way, I get stuck on the same food for ages sometimes. I had that all week. Last week I had tuna every day but in a similar salad, the hummus is protein so much better for me than a sugary salad dressing.
Last night I was booked to go to another one of the Secret Garden events but on Wednesday they announced it was postponed until May due to a storm being predicted. Instead the 4 women who I was going with booked to go out for Japanese food, but one was ill so there were just the 3 of us, Yvette, Lou and myself.
I have written before about going to eat at Izakaya Kukai, the restaurant owned by sushi master Arata Koga. This time I did a bit of research on terminology so I did not get any surprises but I was still surprised as you shall see!
First we all shared a plate of Bang Bang Shrimp. I forgot to snap a pic of these last time. These are so light and crisp and delicate, really divine.
I ordered the tempura prawn don on special. The prawns were so fresh and the rice perfectly cooked. I asked for no nori as I learned my lesson last time.
I also ordered the Swordfish teriyaki but the waitress did not hear me and when Yvette’s portion arrived I was glad because it was huge! I was expecting a sashimi sized serving but it was a large slice of fresh swordfish. I had a bite of Yvette’s and it was so tender and gorgeous, I will have that next time if on the menu.
We chatted a while and then Norm came to collect me, it was a nice early night for a Friday having a great night and then coming home to watch a bit of telly with Norm. This morning we stayed in bed drinking coffee and doing ancestry research. Now it is storming hectically and the thunder is rolling and rumbling in the sky.
I am going to make some late lunch and watch a film. I hope you all have a lovely weekend ahead.
Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxxo
Kitten in the City 
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