Another funny old week which has been all about life, death and everything in between.
What I have done?
I officially returned to work on Monday, 1 August 2022 – still working from home thank goodness so my “mind the gap” in my bottom row of teeth may continue to be keep in hibernation. I had a final check up with Dr Bobat who gave me the all clear after declaring I was a “slow healer” (charming; not one to add to my skills on my cv me thinks!)
Work has kept me busy and its been a welcome distraction rather than facing the tragic loss in our family when my cousin’s husband sadly lost his battle with cancer on Sunday evening. He was only 59 and truly a Giant among men; I am currently composing a blog on the subject of death and so there will be more about William. His sad and untimely end to his life is a great loss in our family). A family friend, whom I have known from when she was born, underwent a mammoth operation on Tuesday to remove cancerous tumours from a section of her spine; and the news of her renewed battle with cancer (she successfully conquered breast cancer 2 years ago) was very distressing for my Mom and myself. Nina’s resilience, her strength, her positivity, her incredibly strong faith and her determination is a lesson and inspiration for us all. She is 40 with a little boy who is 6 and when I held her in my arms as a tiny newborn, we had no idea she would grew up into this amazing force of nature, so brave and fierce; I am in awe and so proud and privileged to be part of her life.
My Mom has battled and is battling with William’s death and Nina’s health challenges. When my Dad lost his fight with cancer 15 years ago, she did not cry as she said she had shed all her tears when he was diagnosed and when the cancer returned after being in remission for a period of time. William’s death has unleased those tears and we both cried (a lot) during the livestream of Williams funeral service on Saturday morning.
I had an amazing zoom catch up with my lovely and very special girl friend Charlene who recently relocated to Cape Town to live and work there – I miss her and look forward to seeing her in person in mid-August. We had to reconnect to zoom because we ran out of time on our catch up call; not surprising at all!
On Friday I had an appointment with the dentist who took impressions so my existing plate for my bottom mouth may be adjusted and have a new tooth fitted. Not the best experience to endure having the impression taken but it was short-lived and nothing compared to Nina’s surgery she conquered (with the second operation taking place today, 8 August) and I seriously have nothing to complain about. An impression was taken of my upper mouth as my existing upper plate needs adjustment. I am so grateful that this is able to happen and I look forward to receiving my new, improved, revised and repaired plates sometime on Wednesday.
Loadshedding and a social weekend
After an intense, emotional and somewhat stressful week, we spent the majority of Friday night in the dark thanks to loadshedding and then a trip at the substation which had us singing “Hello Darkness my Old Friend” again.This happened at 7pm, which is the time I log onto skype for my weekly Italian lesson with Giancarlo – thankfully I had earlier requested for the lesson to be rescheduled as I had to work late, had a headache and was ill-prepared for my lesson. I just had this feeling as while we have a battery back up for our home wifi, I could not successfully have a lesson in the dark.
After being with my Mom to virtually attend William’s funeral, Johan and I returned home and quickly set up and organized for a light lunch with our friend, Lindy. It was very simple – beef pie from one of South Africa’s favourite personal chefs, Wool Worth (aka Woolworths), salad followed by coffee and Geldhof chocolate brownies. Time with Lindy is always refreshing, fun and so enjoyable.
Sunday was a very sociable day for me – crepes and coffee at Paul, Nicolway with my beautiful friend, Bronwyn at 7.30am. It was an ‘early bird who catches the worm’ morning for both of us as we had other commitments and going our separate ways, I dropped off a bag of goodies which I was donating to a guy who was going into a treatment facility to assist him with an addiction; before meeting Colleen, my friend of approximately 30 years for coffee and a catch up. My life is very definitely enhanced by my incredible tribe of friends who are diverse and range in ages. Colleen and I could have spent the whole day chatting and catching up, in an ideal world, as she does not live in Jo’burg – hopefully next visit Col! I spent time with my youngest son, Tristan and en route to meet him, I drove past a guy standing next to a traffic light intersection completely starkers – yes starkers, in his birthday suit, all a bit much of a n eyeful on a lovely Sunday morning!
Tristan and I enjoyed a couple of hours together which I so enjoyed; time spent my sons is always a highlight for me (I had an pleasant catch up call with Morgan on Saturday evening). By the time I delivered groceries to my Mom and finally returned home, an afternoon siesta was in order and it was so good!
Podcasts:
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
The Damage Report
Who Killed Daphne?
The Daily
Scam Fluencers
Fed Up
Audible:
Empire of Pain The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe – so glad I am listening to this on Audible; it is excellent and so interesting but I know I would have battled reading the book as it is very technical.
Netflix:
When Missing Turns to Murder
My Daughter’s Killer
My weekly Bubblegum TV:
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
The Real Housewives of Dubai
Below Deck Mediterranean
Southern Charm
My Weekly Soap Box Rant:
I watched parts of the defamation trial brought by the parents of a child killed in the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 against the despicable conspiracy theorist Alex Jones who makes between US$200k to US$800k a day peddling his lies on his social media channels (Episode “Fiscal Hawk Ca-Caw!, The Damage Report, Thursday, 4 August 2022).
This was the first of 3 trials against Alex Jones brought by family members of Sandy Hook victims. He has already lost a series of defamation cases filed by parents of the victims by default because he failed to produce documents and testify. The financial damages trial was the first where the financial award was agreed by a jury.
The jury awarded a total of US$49.3 million in damages to the parents. Actions and lies have consequences and since he has made millions out of his lies, now he must pay and his attempts to evade paying these damages (and others) by filing for bankruptcy for one of his many companies is not going to fly. The Judge in this trial was brilliant, repeatedly admonishing Alex Jones for his lies and telling him that the courtroom was “not his show”. You must have ice flowing in your veins and an empty chamber where your heart should be in order to claim that this shooting was a hoax, a false flag and the children were just “crisis actors”. A special form of evil is in the minds of people who believe that this shooting and every school shooting in the USA are hoaxes, false flags and other nonsense fairy tales (Alex Jones was peddling a story about the Ulvade school shooter despite the numerous law suits he has faced and is facing about the Sandy Hook shooting). To profit from peddling lies about the tragic deaths of innocent children is so depraved. His false allegations and claims resulted in his listeners and fans (yes they do unfortunately exist!) threatening the grieving parents; some of who were forced to move homes not once, twice but a number of times because Alex Jones saw fit to repeatedly publicise the home address of these families. Another example of what the “fans” of Alex Jones have done to the grieving parents - driving up and down their streets firing guns.
I was apoplectic at the antics of the despicable Alex Jones. Can this excuse of a human being have any friends? If he does they must think like him – we all know “your vibe attracts your tribe”. I did have a good chuckle when his attorneys “accidentally” shared 2 years of the radio host’s telephone texts. Accidentally or accidentally on purpose?
No wonder the January 6 Congressional Committee have now requested access to the messages as they investigate Alex Jones’ alleged role in the insurrection.
Actions definitely have consequences.
In closing:
Introducing our 3 furkids (all rescues as we believe in adopting rescue puppies and dogs) :
Jack the “old man” who is 15 ordinary years old
Cinnamon who is 7 ordinary years
Elmo – our newest addition who is 4 months and enjoys relandscaping the garden
“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
Robert Louis Stevenson