A real “pick ‘n mix” week comprising of cones (sadly neither ice-cream nor gelato cones), stitches, drains, dog-sitting, reunions, reconnections, fake thunder, blood, food, coffee and more! The only constants are 4 letter words and since this is a blog post, not a crossword puzzle, the answers are “heat” and “work” both of which were relentless, hectic, exhausting and intense. Another daily constant of mine is Wordle which I try to crack before I have drunk my first cuppa of the morning.
This is not a riddling let alone cryptic blog post – after that (hopefully) enticing opening paragraph, stitches a cone (for Cinnamon’s head) were a necessity after she suffered a freak accident late last Sunday night. I always say that invariably the delightful squeals and laughter children playing turn to tears, tantrums and sobs no different with dogs playing except they cannot cry but they can yelp and let you know they are sad, hurt and in pain. Not “enter stage right” but enter the lounge from our bedroom one yelping Cinnamon (7 years old and for those who don’t know her she is a cross between a staffie and a jack Russell) sporting a gash on her right back leg (a butcher or the vet would more apply describe it as her hind quarter/leg I guess?). It was not bleeding profusely but the deep gash was clearly visible as was the muscle (sensitive readers, vegetarians, vegans are permitted to skip ahead) and every time she walked / moved this gash seemed to widen in all directions (akin to a toothless grin). Of course, this was Sunday evening after 10pm and the only vets available were those who require you to sell an organ before crossing their threshold (and I phoned twice attempting to offer my eyelashes, fingernails or toenails rather than a vital organ, but they are heartless and are only interested in valuable body parts). After a torrid time trying to bandage up the injured leg Johan finally managed to put a gauze dressing with steritape over the wound which seem to remain place. Thankfully our home first aid kit was able to come to the rescue and after midnight we could finally settle Cinnamon and ourselves to attempt to get some sleep (allergex is a wonderful home remedy for your pets whether for beestings, in the event of a thunderstorm, fireworks or similar trauma).
We were clueless how Cinnamon had sustained her injury, but Johan deduced that in their frenzied playing in our bedroom, the dogs must have bumped the chest of drawers and one of the drawers opened and the handle (long and silver clearly quite lethal) and Cinnamon had an unpleasant encounter. After not much sleep, Johan and I were at our vet as soon as possible on Monday morning (shout out to our neighbourhood vet Boskruin Veterinary Clinic – they were amazing with our dearly beloved and much missed Isis, equally incredible with energetic Elmo and his puppy vaccinations and now are treating Cinnamon with so much care and compassion). 14 stitches, 1 drain inserted and 1 cone attached around her head (and our bank balance substantially reduced but only by a fraction of the ransom jackpot the emergency vets demand), Cinnamon returned to us and her canine siblings.
Cinnamon is recovering well; most of her medication is finished and the drain was removed on Wednesday (by the vet) and her stitches will be removed later this week, ie Friday or Saturday. She is racing around the garden, in and out of the bushes with puppy boy Elmo, Jack and Titan who arrived on Monday night to have an extended sleep over and play dates with Cinnamon, Jack and Elmo while Morgan was booked solid at work and now is enjoying exploring Langebaan with Alyssa.
Its been a week of wonderful real-time face-to-face encounters – Tuesday evening was aperol spritz (yours truly always remaining true to her Italophile obsession) and a delicious dinner treat with the energetic entertaining Eva who was in Jo’burg from Grahamstown (yes now known as Makhanda). It was a great evening and is always so fantastic to see my friend of not insubstantial years (the length of our friendship not our ages!). Wednesday was an office day for me – monthly team meeting and breakfast and I met the firm’s CEO for the first time since joining NRFSA; I also reconnected with a friend who is, like me, back working at NRFSA (we had both worked at the firm when it was called Deneys Reitz) and this reconnection made me think of my original boss at Deneys Reitz, Deseré who is just lovely. We have kept in contact – sporadic at times but c’est la vie – and are connections on LinkedIn. Acting on my gut instinct I sent her a message via LinkedIn and we have been chatting which is so awesome; we have exchanged numbers and I am so happy we are back in contact; different countries and hemispheres can’t come between us.
These highlights of the week far outshone the challenges of loadshedding and other petty niggles and annoyances. Giving a nod to my political viewpoints, my interest in politics which harks back to my childhood and my Dad ensuring that my brothers and I had an acute awareness of what was happening in the world and in South Africa, having to study American politics whilst at high school in the USA combined with my abhorrence and intolerance for hateful cretins who spread conspiracy theories, falsehoods and prey on the lack on intelligence of their followers, that cretin Alex Jones was found once again, guilty of his disgusting “false flag” narratives against the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. He lost another series of lawsuits, and he was ordered to pay US$965 million to the families. In total he has to pay the families over US$1 billion – of course he will attempt to weasel his way out of the damages and/or attempt to have his followers pay. I cannot believe that this cretin has friends let alone followers – if he has friends they must aligned with his lack of values, morals, believes and drink the same conspiracy theory Kool-Aid as he does. After all, “your vibe attracts your tribe”. I am not even going to comment on how while the verdict was being pronounced, live on his “show” he was mocking the entire proceeding. It is beyond nauseating.
I was riveted by the final (for now) live hearing of the January 6th committee on Thursday evening where they voted to subpoena the Orange Stain Trumptard to be deposed by the committee. New footage was shown and testimony where it was confirmed that he knew , he legitimately lost the 2020 election but like the revolting Nazi General, Joseph Goebbels, he believes in “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth” so he continues to peddle the Big Lie because he is such a small little person with the most over-inflated ego and to admit defeat is not in his vocabulary (his vocabulary consisting of so many made up words which do not even exist in the English language).
I do believe in Karma and the adage of “every dog has its die” – the wheels of justice are grinding and having lived in the USA, with family and friends there, I hope and pray that sanity and sense will prevail, and that true democracy does return to the “land of the free”.
Saturday morning breakfast with Mel, Mia and Lesley-Ann was another highlight and I was thrilled that my find of an unique venue just off Witkoppen Road, The Village Café, was a sure-fire win. We sat outside soaking up the lovely ambience and we were so close to a major busy road – these gems exist all over Jo’burg and its wonderful discovering them. I also popped in to see my Mom; and Sunday I was thrilled to have coffee with Bronwyn before heading off to donate blood which I do in homage to my late Dad who relied on blood transfusions in the last year of his life.
Bronwyn and I chatted about my busy hamster wheel life, pressure of my work, being of service and leadership in the support group, Co-Anon and she emphasized how I need to ensure I carve time out for me, my self-care and practise self-care for me, myself and I. I assured her that I do and I really am working on practicing what I preach – while hooked up for my blood transfusion I was powerless to do anything else except lie back, close my eyes, indulge in some deep breathing and drifting away on my lovely thoughts and visualization; and not long after returning home I indulged in a Sunday siesta! Late Sunday afternoon I led the international Co-Anon support online meeting and chose to talk about the reading for that day which was all about self-care; something vital for each and everyone of us - and if you have lost your identity through a controlling, abusive relationship; lost your sense of self through the sheer pressure of work and establishing a career; lost your self when you have a loved one battling the disease of addiction and/or alcoholism; self-care is even more essential than in a person’s “normal daily life” and who actually has a “normal daily life”?
Tristan has added another exciting item to the Exploited range.
Introducing ....
A different kind of mug ....
For all orders, to view the range go to https://exploited.co.za/; please give Exploited a follow on Exploited_Clothing on Instagram and Exploited on Facebook. Grazie mille!
What am I reading?
"To Venice with Love" by Philip Gwynne Jones (a delightful account of the author and his wife swopping life in Scotland for life in Venice, obviously at a time when Great Britain was still part of the EU)
Podcasts:
· Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
· Internal Affairs
· The Daily
· Damage Report
· The Bittersweet Life
· The Tylenol Murders
· Hoaxed (a must listen to - how the lies of two young children exploded into global conspiracy theories; and yes they are lies as the children do recant their lies which their mother's boyfriend made them tell to the police)
· Death of an Artist (true story of the tragic death of Ana Mendieta, up and coming artist – was her husband, world famous sculptor Carl Andre to blame; did he kill her?)
· The Boy in the Woods
What am I watching?
Netflix, downloads and more on my laptop screen:
· Chesapeake Shores (Netflix)
· My usual bubblegum tv
· Pointless
· Bloodlands
· Chicago Med, Law & Order and all the amazing Dick Wolf productions
· Johnny and Amber – an in-depth documentary on Johnny Depp’s lawsuit against The Sun newspaper in the UK, a lawsuit he lost
· The Great Canadian Baking Show
· The Great British Bakeoff
Duolingo - 486 day streak and I am still learning about time in Italian (months, days of the week, seasons)
La fine per ora!! (The end for now!!)
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