It has been a busy week! I’ve swam, walked in the forest, gained a new client, spent time with my daughter and granddaughter, and started learning a new technical tool! For a housebound introvert this is a high achievement.

Last weekend was hot but at least the humidity had broken from all of the rain. I did some work in the garden, I clipped an overgrown Coppertone Stonecrop (aka Sedum Nussbaumerianum) succulent and nipped some bits off of a pickle plant and a donkey’s tail and replanted all of these bits on the terraced wall we had just cleared out. I am planting things that trail on the lower sections and planting things that grow vines upwards on the top row. The wind took the sound of my voice in the middle of the video, hope you can still hear me, sorry about that.

Last Sunday I woke up in our air conditioned bedroom and I could hear the wind blowing hard. I had a couple of coffees in bed provided by my handsome husband, then got up to shower. I put on trousers, a long sleeved t-shirt, trainers and a suede jacket. I trotted downstairs and the heat hit like a solid wall. I had to turn around and trot back upstairs. I changed into a cool black linen dress and kept on my leopard print trainers. I added a black hat in case we were seated in the sun.

My friend Louise picked me up outside my house and we headed to The Deli Social. It is so close to my house that if we were in the UK or somewhere that it was safe to do so, we could walk. We were seated outside in the shade and it was perfect. We ordered drinks, I had an iced coffee and Lou had a glass of wine. They offer their iced coffees with or without ice cream and I chose without. It was delicious.

Lou said she loves their Reuben sandwich so I decided to give it a try as well. It was really lovely! I was having some anxiety so could only eat half and took half home for Norman.

Afterwards I came home and changed into something cool and comfy. It got up to 30℃ that afternoon, it was crazy hot. Blue kitty was miserable and followed me around letting me know he was hot. Cats always act as if we control the weather and it is our fault when it is not pleasant for them.

I just stayed in the shade and tried to catch a breeze when I could.

Finn and Poppy quite often lie directly in the sun. Their double layered coats keep them cool. Granted the sun was starting to come down by this time as you can see by the red mountain behind Finn.

I noticed that the bout of rain had triggered my spekboom (aka Portulacaria afra) to bloom! I have never ever seen one bloom. The little pinky-purple flowers are lovely!

Later I watched a few eps of a series about Millionaire’s vacation homes and it was interesting to see that I have been to many of the destinations: Sardinia, England, South Africa, Los Angeles, Mexico, Spain, France to name some of them. I have lived a life of privilege and I am aware of that. For our anniversary one year, Norm and I even did a safari of the same level as the one they showed on the series. You can read about our safari here. I manifested it all and I am incredibly blessed.

Then I watched a home reno series where they do not do any renovations, they just redecorate places for their clients. It is called Recapturing Home. They make the places they renovate look beautiful and quite magical, but a lot of it is just staging. The chairs often look uncomfortable and awkward, but beautiful and ethereal. You just cannot imagine stretching out and being comfy. I am a lounger, I like comfy, I do not want to sit upright on a sofa unless I have something to put my feet on at least. I cannot imagine what a designer would do to my house, I am sure they would want to change everything because my house decor has a million different themes/styles based on my own travels.

In fact, I did win a house design course competition masquerading as an opportunity for the design company to come and redesign your home. They suggested that we shove a big porch on the front as our house is a ‘bit plain’. She said my house was a mix of farmhouse, boho, afro-chic and all sorts of things. I said “I call it ‘eclectic'”. We did not have any designs or architectural drawings to redo our home, we picked a room or a floor and ‘designed’ as we went along, but we did not redo the furniture, just the floors and walls. Norman designed our kitchen and we employed a local carpenter to come and implement the solid wood cupboards we bought. I found a woman who did painting techniques to make my kitchen cupboards look aged. We bumbled along but it has all formed into our dream home, so we cannot complain about the method if it got us to the right place in the end! Even if my mix of African masks, Native American art and Chinese cupboards do not sit well together, they make me smile when I remember us acquiring them.

I have also discovered how soothing it is to watch women build houses. I have a few that I watch as background noise or while I colour in or do something else. It is not something I can watch while working cos I need to flick in and out to get a gander at progress. The women I like watching are Tia Weston and Emma Shaye, both major bad asses.

I sat outside once it started to cool down and the solar lights began to come on. There was an event going on up the valley and I loved the music they were playing.

Monday was again sweltering and got up to 33℃ at one point. There was not a breath of air. I begged Norm to open the pool and let Finn and I cool off so he popped the top off between his meetings and at 3pm I could take it no longer and I hopped in.

Finn jumped in too and had a swim.

I sat on the step in the icy cold water trying to stay in the shade. It was absolutely gorgeous. The pool needed cleaning but it was too hot to ask Norm to do so, and as I was only sitting on the steps I did not care. I felt so grateful for my pool and the fact that I had the option to cool off properly.

It was beautiful on Tuesday when we woke, 22℃ and clear. Caitlin messaged and invited us to come for a walk in the Tokai forest so we bundled up the dogs and headed over at 4:30pm. We met up with Caitlin and Bree wandering around. Little Bree was happy to walk along through the forest but she had to stop, climb on and jump off of each of the tree stumps.

There were lots of off lead dogs so Norm took Finn and walked him away from the main paths as Finn is not happy when dogs approach him that are off lead, but he cannot go off lead as his recall is terrible. I walked with Poppy part of the time and Norm took her the rest of the time. She did not want me to be out of sight but also did not want Finn out of sight and I wanted to walk with the girls so it was a bit of a dance.

After our walk we stopped to get food for dinner. I had sushi (prawn bamboo rolls and prawn roses) and tempura prawns. It was a lovely cool evening.

My new client project has kicked off. I had an online meeting on Wednesday to meet the team, a demo of the new tool on Thursday and I have agreed to go in to town for a once-off in-person kick off session next week. Norm will drive me and go have a coffee and wait. I know the new project manager, my developer seems skillful and nice and it sounds like a meaty project so I am very excited! A good friend is the support person and I am very comfortable with asking him questions that might make me sound stupid. Everyone always has questions but most are afraid to ask. I am a questioner. Autistic people ask a lot of questions.

I am treating my blooming spekboom as portent of good fortunes and I am feeling a very positive shift in my life; I have a new client and I have friends popping up out of the woodwork wanting to meet up.

I was sitting outside with a different friend talking about positivity and a beautiful male sunbird flew down into the garden, flew into the garden shed, around the shed and straight back out exactly as I said the phrase ‘If someone is not bringing anything positive into your life and their energy drags you down, it is time to let them go’ and it felt like validation and support for my latest life changes.

I also finally deleted my little fashion game that can suck hours of your time away with no awareness, it was good as a distraction at a time and it has gifted me forever friends from around the world, but the friends who matter will stay and the ones who do not stay, do not matter. One door closes, another opens.

My previous request for positive energy for my family is still relevant, we have multiple legal and medical things going on. I cannot discuss them so you just have to be positive generically please 💜I hope the positive shift will affect these things too.

Last night Norm and I were going to babysit Bree but Wes was ill and not up for going out. Then I woke at 2am with a bad tummy too and have been lying in bed feeling sorry for myself. I am up, slightly nauseous and feeling a bit less than 100%. It feels like another hot day today, I will be lying in the shade rehydrating. I hope you enjoy your weekend and week ahead.

Until Next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxox