Rambles from World's End

One morning the Lollipop was driving her mother a little more dilly than she already is, because this morning despite her mother’s best efforts the Lollipop decided she was not going down for a morning nap! Finally after an hour of trying, what patience I do have completely disappeared and I gave up. I took Lollipop out of the cot put her on her bedroom floor and left her there to go and do the chores that needed doing. After following me up and down the passage a few times she finally decided I meant it when I said I wasn't talking to her and she must go away. She made her way into her sister’s bedroom and had a marvellous time pulling everything she could reach out the book case into the middle of the floor all the while squealing with sheer delight! I know she was thinking: “Right! Mother its payback time!” So just when I was looking forward to a few moments of quiet before heading out to collect the Butterfly I was instead cleaning up the Lollipop’s mess. Oh the joys of being...

So it suddenly dawns on me that I’m not going to get away with not baking cakes and other tasty morsels for long. I have rather a lot of children’s birthdays ahead of me and the Mauritian made a comment that he wouldn’t get away with not taking eats for his birthday again. So I finally face the reality that as a “Stay at Home Mum” or “SAHM” for short I really had no excuse not to at least attempt to bake. So I whipped out my recipe books- yes I actually do own a few and I have used them on occasion stop laughing- and looked for some easy basic recipes, bought the ingredients and so began my foray into baking. Oh me oh my we had some very yummy successes and some rather hysterical failures. The worst was the baking powder fiasco! With all due respect to my “Kiwi” readers, kiwi baking powder does not work in SA recipes. I tell you no lies, I tried three different cupcake recipes and two different cake recipes and though they cooked properly and tasted gorgeous they did not rise in ...

Like any Parent I always feel peacock proud when someone compliments my Butterfly's character. Often when I collect her from “Kindy” I am told by one of the teachers what a great help she is at “clean-up time.” A lot of the parents comment on how well mannered she is and seem genuinely impressed that she holds the kindy gate open for me while I negotiate my way through with the perambulator or that she carries her own backpack and anything else she brings home. Some people are amazed that she makes her bed every morning, I’m not she gets paid $2 a week to do that! She greets everyone we pass on our way to and from school and is well known to the employees of our local grocery store and “get anything” shop. I was gob smacked when standing in a queue at the check out the cashier said: “You’re Sarah-Marie’s mum!” Apparently on one of our trips to school we past her on the street and the Butterfly stopped in front of her and said “Hello I’m Sarah-Marie what’s your name?” I have absolut...

So it’s Thursday afternoon and despite the howling wind and low grey clouds I took the girls out for a walk to the “Wind Wand” to banish the cabin fever that was causing havoc. We ended up sitting at a Cafe’ sipping on a milkshake and a coffee while the littlest sucked on some formula. Behind us was seated a couple who had obviously had a bad day. The guy, openly gay and obviously comfortable with his sexuality was bitching about someone who had offended him in some way. The lady, whose name I assume was “Delta” was very sympathetic and making all the right noises. It was extremely uncomfortable! The Butterfly was fascinated by this very flamboyant man sitting behind me gestating wildly in fury, stopping now and then to sip on his “low fat vanilla latte hold the foam.” It’s very difficult to distract a four year old or not listen when someone is not being discreet or trying to maintain some kind of privacy in a public place. So I drank as quickly as a hot cup of coffee allowed me and...

What an emotional rollercoaster this year has been. The pregnancy wasn't just hormonal; it was the sudden realisation that this time round I was completely on my own. That for me was the scariest thing about this pregnancy, if the new arrival was anything like the Butterfly for the first three months I was in a lot of trouble. So I had just gathered myself towards myself and gotten over my neurosis of the first trimester and we began planning for 2011. We had big plans for this year; we were going to make some big changes in keeping with our newest addition. Bring it on we yelled, we are ready for you 2011 and our third year at World’s end. Then my Grumpy Father-in-law fell ill and landed up in hospital. It broke my heart watching the Mauritian sway back and forth between going back home or not. I watched him pace up and down as he spoke to his God Father, the family doctor and friends of the family. I could do nothing to ease his pain as he tried again and again to contact my ...

Three weeks after my grumpy father in law died the Mauritian received his inheritance; we were both so stunned by the amount that we invested the entire amount immediately before we were able to spend a cent. Afterward we both kept saying that we should have kept some aside to buy this or that or whatever, of course if we hadn’t acted so quickly we would’ve spent most of it with ease. In hind sight investing it all was a good thing it’s given us time to get used to having the money and really think about how we are going to use it or work it. It also got us thinking about providing for our children financially and teaching them the value of money. So we did what most parents do, we opened savings accounts for both the girls and we put a small amount in every payday. We also began to discuss when it was the right time to start giving the Butterfly pocket money and how much. The Mauritian was all for giving her a small amount every week regardless, I believed the only way she would appre...

So it’s October 24th and I’m grateful for three things, today’s a public holiday, tomorrow the Butterfly goes back to school and the Rugby World Cup 2011 is finally over and the AB’s actually managed to pull off a win. It has been the focus of the sports news here from the time we arrived at the end of the world and it grew in intensity until the brilliant opening ceremony seemed to justify all the hype. Now I’m not averse to watching a game of rugby but I don’t spend the length of the game screaming at the television or cursing the ref. In fact if I’m not watching it with a group of enthusiasts I get bored after ten minutes and either change the channel or go do something else. Here at the end of the world Rugby is not a game it’s a religion. The AB’s are the gods and while it is accepted that even these gods are human sometimes, their captain is infallible. The captain, it must be said is also very nice to look at, even when he’s battered and scowling after losing a game. In fact th...