Where did my blinkie go !!

For some reason my DSSA blinkie disappeared ... the code is there but the picture is on holiday !
In any case head on over to http://www.digitalscrapbooking.co.za/blog/ where I've posted a template challenge with a bonus freebie if you use the template and post it in DSSA's gallery.

In other exciting news ... the countdown is ON ! Only 5 more sleeps until I leave for China ... oh what is that, you don't know about it ! I'm leaving for Beijing next week on a business trip and as luck would have it I am scheduled to land on a Friday which leaves a whole weekend to do some sightseeing before starting work on the Monday .... Exciting times!

Bad Blogger.

Yes, Yes I know ... I haven't updated my blog for ages.
Believe me, it is not because of a lack of excitement in my life ! In fact, I think there is too much going on for me to make some time to get onto my blog !
We're talking a new toy (laptop) which took ages to set up, making holiday arrangements, travelling, applying for visas, booking flights, going for surgery .... being on planes where the brakes fail ....

Maybe I get a chance to give more detail ...... most probably not soon !

Sushi, please !

On Wednesday night I felt rather adventurous (again!) and decided to try something new .... I had Sushi for the first time ! Not being a big fish eater (hake and calamari and nothing else!) AND being allergic to shellfish have always prevented me from trying sushi.

After discussing my allergy with the manager and him assuring me that they will take extra care to avoid all shellfish during preparation I decided that I'll try it. I was so impressed with the staff at John Dory's in Canal Walk ! They actually took the time to explain to me how I'm supposed to eat it and what the purpose of ginger, soy sauce and wasabi is. The most entertaining part of the whole experience must have been when they were trying to teach this lefty how to use the chop sticks .... Lets just say that it provided for quite a few laughs and leave it at that ! Or I might just add that the manager later said .. why don't you try the first piece using your hands ....
The biggest surprise of the night was that I actually enjoyed the sushi and will definitely have it again !

Of course, what would the whole experience be without a photo .... Just look at that concentration to actually get the food to my mouth without losing it all !

Well .... Sunday nights are half-price sushi night at John Dory's ... so I think that we'll be back there soon so that I can practice using those chopsticks some more!

It's like riding a bike .....

So, I haven't been on a bicycle in 17 years ... but why would that stop me from going for a ride ? I must admit, I was rather nervous getting onto the bicycle yesterday ... but then I realized that old saying is true! You know, the one that says "It's like riding a bike, it will all come back to you".
I was off to a shaky start, but as my confidence grew, so did the fun !
We went for a ride in the Koeberg Nature Reserve, a few minutes outside Cape Town. They have awesome mountain biking and hiking trails and you even get to see some wildebeest and zebra. And just around the next corner is the beach ... absolutely awesome !
I think the bug has bitten me and even though I have a sore bum and aching shoulder muscles (apparently you really don't have to cling to the handle bars for life or death .... ) I can't wait for the next time we can go for a ride !

And of course what would a bike ride be without the photo as proof ...

Credits: Template, Photo Overlay and Kit by Tash @ DSSA

Peace, quiet and cold !

Are you in need of absolute peace and quiet? Absolute darkness and starry skies ? Ever wondered just how farmers manage to get up at 03:00 in the morning ?

Well, come to this little settlement in the Outiniqua Mountains, situated at the start of the Montague pass. Herold is the name, Rest is the game.



Herold have a church, a postal agency, I think I can recall a 'general dealer' aka cafe. And of course the guest farm. Oh, and two ostriches. And a run-away peacock from a farm 3 kilometers away that were well exercised by our dogs.

We had such a lovely time and it was wonderful to just relax and fall in line with the peaceful pace of this Klein Karoo settlement. Of course our dogs were in the 7th heaven because they had so much space to run around and loved all the attention they got on the guest farm.


Our cottage were built in the late 1800's with very thick walls. Which is probably a good thing since it was absolutely freezing with a mid-day high of 13 degrees Celcius on Sunday !

Oh dear, what happened !

I blinked and all of a sudden we're heading towards the end of September .... obviously it has been a very busy month ... I'll do my best to update my blog soon !

Happy birthday Eric !

Today our dear friends Davide and Claire's little boy is 2 years old.
I wish that we were closer and could be there to share the day with you.
Hoping you all have a fabulous day and that Eric enjoys having his grandparents there !
Happy Birthday Eric !

credits: Kathryn Mhire, Independent Digital Designer, Digital Freebies

Happy Birthday Dad !

Another month went flying by and I hardly realized that it even started !

Well, just a short post today with a birthday wish ....
Happy birthday dad !

Credits: Natasha @ www.digitalscrapbooking.co.za

Gasp !

I've managed to create a blinkie AND link it back to my Blog !
I'm rather proud of myself.... and if you wonder why, well ...... Usually I just don't get it !
I'll start a tutorial and halfway through the tutorial I miss the plot, get bored and don't finish it. What makes it more embarrassing is that I actually work in the IT industry and I really shouldn't be such a techno-peasant.
Anyway, here is my blinkie, feel free to copy it and display it on your blogs! That will be super-cool !

Birthday Love !

I have been so bad as far as birthdays go ...... But, I promise to consult my birthday calendar on a regular basis once again ... and one day, when I finally catch up with the times, I'll enter everyone's birthday on my cellphone and get a reminder on the day.

Today is my niece's birthday - she is turning 17 .... I can't believe it! I can so clearly remember the day she was born, and when she started talking she couldn't pronounce my name and called me mi-mia ...... And now that little girl is turning into a gorgeous young lady... Happy birthday, Leoni!

But wait, there's more ! It is also my DH's niece, Roxanne's birthday. We do not see her often, but we're thinking of her today and hope that she's also having a fabulous day.

And then I also have to think of our dear friend who broke his elbow last night. He is scheduled for surgery this afternoon. I'm thinking of you and hope that you do not experience too much discomfort. All I can say is ... painkillers are your friend !!!!

That's it for now ..... I have so much news, the last few weeks have been a total roller coaster ride for us, but I'll update you on that later ....

Snakes and Ladders

Do you remember the board game played with a dice - where you climb up the ladders to advance in the game or have a setback by getting swallowed by the snakes ?
Well, for a while my life have been feeling like a game of snakes and ladders - and for the last 2 weeks or so I was doing really well, getting to climb all those ladders as my feet felt better and better. But then came yesterday and I got swallowed by a snake.

The casts and pins were removed, and it was not fun at all. The pins are 12cms long ! And from the moment that the pins were out my feet have been burning and throbbing. Yip - I'm back on the painkillers. They not doing much for the pain, but they are working wonders for my mood !
So, I guess now it is time to get these lazy muscles working after 6 weeks and you have no idea how hard it is to make a silly little movement like bending my big toe !
(Imagine the scene from the movie Kill Bill where Uma Thurman wakes up from a coma and can't move her legs. She concentrate on her toes while chanting "Wiggle your big toe" (or something like that!) until she can do it. )
And when I do manage to move my toe I can just about scream because it hurts like *insert nasty word here* .

But, pain aside, it feels great to have my feet fit into my own socks, to soak in the bath without having my feet hang over the side, to wear my beloved, worn-out slippers :) We'll go shoe-shopping this weekend as I have to wear "open shoes that will not push my toes in any way". Oh what fun it is going to be to find something like that in winter !

Oh, and by the way .... if I roll the dice right I think I might just catch a ladder on my next move ...

Friday again !

And not just any Friday .... it's the FIRST Friday of the month and of course that means it is time for our Scrap and Chat paper scrapping evening with Angie ! Yippiee ! I'm getting out of the house for a change and it is not to see a doctor ! Of course my dear husband is driving me there again - not because I'm planning to consume any wine, but because I don't have "working" feet and will probably only be able to drive in about 3 weeks.

Only 3 weeks left with the casts on my feet.... I'm kinda getting used to shuffling around and I suppose I'm not that frustrated any more. Being able to go without painkillers are probably helping a lot in this regard ;O) .
One of my crutches fell on my dog and now he just runs when he sees the crutch coming. That's great my staffie, you just keep on showing people how aggresive you are. At this stage I'll probably have to hit any potential robbers with my crutches.

O.U.C.H !

Everyone told me that I'm going to be in a lot of pain after the operation - some even said that the pain is worse than childbirth and so on and so forth. bla-bla-bla.
Oh. My. Word! They were not exaggerating !

My first night in hospital was spent staring at the ceiling, trying to wish the pain away. When they brought out a morphine injection before bed-time I knew that it was going to be a bumpy ride! It didn't make the pain go away.
"Would you like a sleeping tablet Mrs. McDermid ?" I looked at the nurse and thought "Silly woman - surely the morphine will knock me out !"
And then came the longest night of my life. Every hour the nurses came on their rounds.
"Mrs. McDermid, are you still awake ? No Mrs. McDermid, you can't have more painkillers yet." When they came in at 2am with two painkillers I could have kissed them ! But I should have known that tablets won't take away pain that morphine couldn't kill in the first place.
I spent the next day crying (pain and no sleep doesn't go together.)
At 4pm the surgeon came around and it turned out that the cast on my left foot moved, pinching some nerve somewhere. He moved it and the relief was instantaneous. I was however crying so much that he sent a nurse around immediately with two painkillers AND a morphine injection. This time it had the desired effect and I spent the next six hours in some kind of unreal euphoria.
Then came bed-time and another morphine injection. I can totally understand how it can become addictive, I REALLY do.
"Would you like a sleeping tablet Mrs. McDermid ? " "YES PLEASE". No hesitation this time. Within minutes I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. Total bliss!

It is now 10 days later, the original casts and stitches were removed yesterday and replaced with much smaller casts. Although it is hurting again, my feet (and heart) feel much lighter and I'm moving around easier. Yesterday I couldn't understand why they insisted that I have to take another prescription of painkillers, but by 8am this morning, Synap Forte tablets were once again my best friend !

So, right now I am really looking forward to tomorrow, because I just know that every day will be easier from now on. And in the mean time I'm enjoying my time off and I'm about to start the last volume of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. It is a rather thick volume, but I've got time.

Time to relax

Yay ! The weekend is finally here and we are having a fabulous time at Club Mykonos in Langebaan on South Africa's West Coast. We arrived last night and so far we have just been relaxing, and plan to do that for the rest of the weekend.
Our flat is situated right on the edge of the ocean, overlooking a small beach and some rocks. Oh how soothing it was to fall asleep to the sound of the waves, and, then again to wake up with it ! Fantastic!

Here is a quick layout with some photos I took last night. What a spectacular sunset. I always feel that each spectacular sunset brings the promise of a glorious dawn ....

Credits: All squared Template from sab1desbois@blog.ifrance.com

Just being me.

Yesterday our godchild was christened. I had the opportunity to fly to Pretoria for the event and it was such a beautiful, love-filled ceremony…

Posing for photos was not Willie jnr’s idea of fun and he looks miserable on most photos … but here are the happy family and a very proud godmother ;O)

Of course the day just wouldn’t have been complete without some chaos and at about 16:55 it happened.
I used a friend’s car and when I dropped off his car, he took me to the airport using his other car.
After I checked in I wanted to send Neil an sms with my flight information and …… NO cellphone. I emptied my handbag on the table and then it hit me. “Paul, I left my phone in your other car!”
Well, with an hour to spare (I had to board the plane at 17:55) we ran to his car, raced to his house (on the other side of Johannesburg !), found my cellphone, raced back to the airport …. I jumped out of his car and started running through Domestic Departures towards my plane.
Boy, did THAT bring back memories !! I just thought “If it went smoothly , well, it just wouldn’t be ME!”
But, I actually got to the boarding gate with 5 minutes to spare and I could relax. In the end we waited 25 minutes for 5 passengers and our flight was delayed anyway. But, at least it was no fault of mine !

New Life

Just a quick shout out to my friends Jacque and Sam. Congratulations on the birth of your baby boy ! (even though this is a few days late !) I hope that Leigh and Megan is thrilled about the arrival of their little brother.

Who's who at the Zoo

It's been a quiet week with nothing to report .... as you might have guessed with no updates here.
Today we went to Tygerberg Zoo, just past the northern suburbs of Cape Town. It doesn't look like a lot of people know about it, or as if it attracts a lot of visitors. It is also not at all like Pretoria or Johannesburg zoo - much smaller and more 'rough'. We were however pleasantly surprised at the variety of animals that were there and had a very good time. Unfotunately it was also very hot and a lot of the animals stayed in their shelters. We'll have to go back there when it is cooler and then we might see more of them out and about. One thing that amazed me was the white springbok - I didn't even know that such an animal exists!

And to end off - Happy Birthday Paul !!

Life Sentence

Today Neil have served 3 years of his life sentence ... ;O) and I'm celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary.
Since we are busy tonight, Neil surprised me yesterday by taking me out for dinner in celebration of our anniversary. We went to the "Top of the Ritz" restaurant. It is a revolving restaurant on the 21st floor of the Ritz Hotel. It takes about 90 minutes to complete one rotation and gives you a 360 degree view of the city and ocean.
The views were absolutely spectacular, the food divine and I couldn't have asked for better company!

I woke up at about 02:30 this morning and decided to do a layout with a photo taken of us at the restaurant.



And then I finished another layout that I've been working on. So I only went back to bed at 05:00 and I have a feeling that this is going to be a loooong day !

Proof

So it seems that we all survived Friday the 13th without any glitches. To be honest, I didn't pick up on it till I wished my friend happy birthday ! Good thing I'm not superstitious ...

I just thought that I would give evidence that we actually did some scrapbooking on Friday night ... even though I worked on it on Saturday as well (stitching with scrapper's floss takes forever !) and the journaling is not done because my printer decided to be nasty.

about Fridays and Broomsticks

Thank goodness it is FRIDAY ! Let the fun begin !
Tonight I'm starting my weekend with my monthly "scrap-and-chat-cheese-and-wine" paper scrapping evening. Usually my darling husband drops me off as it is on the other side of Cape Town and he doesn't want me driving home that far after a few glasses of wine. To be honest, he is petrified of my driving even when I'm totally sober ;O)

Yesterday I had the biggest surprise - I'm due for surgery in May (on both feet), and I'll only be able to walk after about two weeks. My mom lives 1300km from here ( (thats a far way away, even in miles !). She told me that she is considering flying down (no babes, not on a broomstick) to help us out for 10 days after the operation. So now her plane ticket is booked and I'll have my mommy by my side . So what is the big deal ? My mom is PETRIFIED of flying, has vowed to NEVER fly, and here she is willing to face her biggest fear to be with me.
Doesn't a mother's love just conquer all !?

And there is another birthday today - Happy Birthday Lauren !

There is a first time for everything!

So, I have finally jumped onto the blog bandwagon! I thought that this might be the easiest way to keep everyone that is interested updated with the latest happenings in the McDermid household. And believe me, there is always a LOT happening ! (to my husband's dismay).
For now I have to steal a few moments at work to publish a post, but as soon as our cellphone provider gets into gear and deliver our 3G modem (which is still out of stock, grrrr!), I will be able to post whenever I want to!

And very important - HAPPY BIRTHDAY Claire !