Stormy Seas

It has been a somewhat torrid few weeks and hence the stunning blog silence.

My 84 year old - and generally extremely feisty (aka stroppy) - mother, started complaining of heart palpitations and generally not feeling too well. Since she's one of those "difficult" patients, the doctor didn't take her too seriously and diagnosed gastric reflux... Well, two weeks later there I was calling in the paramedics and rushing her off to the trauma unit - with pneumonia and a minor heart attack. Let it not be said that she does things in half measures. Anyway, a few days in Intensive Care and a few more days in hospital and she was back home. But we won't even go there. Suffice it to say, she is on the mend.

I, on the other hand, am somewhat stressed out and have been obliged to try and slow down. I keep forgetting that I have limitations which need respecting or I will end up flat on my back or my face. Which means other than running around like the proverbial blue-arsed fly for my mother, not much has got done. I can't even remember when I last looked at my writing or did anything remotely writerly. Actually, come to think of it, I get the distinct impression I'm in dire need of some R&R. Since that is in very short supply at present, I thought I'd just take you with me on a virtual trip to one of Cape Town's fishing harbours in the very beautiful suburb of Hout Bay - maybe next week, I'll even manage to get there in person.

Reflections

Bob-bob-bobbing along...

Immortalised...

La-la-la-laaaa...cough-cough... la la laaaaaaa.....

Reflections II

Dread-locked cool dude

Zimbabwean roadside bead vendors

The best gelateria in town - the real and genuine article! A good way to end any day.

Paying it Forward - Update

In October, I spotted this over at Mouse Medicine and figured I just had to play along in Paying It Forward. I took up the challenge in this post and asked three bloggers to accordingly play Pay it Forward further.

Carla, Sameera and Red Dirt Girl all said they'd like to play and accordingly, I went off and bought little gifts for each of them and popped them into the post. Today I had a note from Sameera to say she'd received her gift - she's even posted about it on her blog! That means that Carla and Red should be getting their gifts really soon, if they've not already arrived. On that basis, I thought you might like to see just where the little gifts came from... And so here's a bit of Novography.

The market where the goodies were bought... It's in a seaside suburb called Hout Bay, which likes to think of itself as "the Republic of Hout Bay" - it's beautiful, go and take a look at the link.

One lot of goodies were purchased from the young fellow on the left - he wanted to know when I'd place a really big order for friends overseas!

A close up of some of his wares... - all sorts of beaded African creatures. These beaded goods can be bought pretty much anywhere, on the side of the road, at traffic lights and at street side stalls as well as at craft markets.

The stall holder and stall from whom the second lot of goodies was purchased. Crafters of all sorts abound in South Africa and I'm constantly amazed by the vibrant creativity.

I've included this shot because I love this stall, the ceramic legs in a chair salt and peppers (at the back of the table) really tickle my funny bone.