Surviving the Holidays

While the rest of the world were celebrating the end of a difficult year in anticipation of a fresh new year, filled with possibilities, we were doing double duty - guests in our bnb units and the kids visiting.

The Three Men in my Life

Our oldest son celebrated his last Christmas and New Year as a citizen of the country of his birth, in true South African fashion, a traditional braai (bbq) -
Garlic, fresh Rosemary & Lemon juice marinated Lamb Chops with his own blend of braai spice, Boerewors which is our traditional sausage spiced with coriander, black pepper, cloves, and nutmeg, Pap - a maize meal crumbly side dish, similar to Polenta, served with a mild version of spicy Chakalaka, and crusty Garlic bread.

Our son will be leaving our shores for the land of tulips, windmills, canals, wooden clogs, cheese markets, bicycles, canals, and bridges - the Netherlands of course.
We will miss him and his gal sooo much, no more jumping into the car at a whim for the six-hour trip, but we know that we will see them at least once a year, sometimes more often as they're already planning a trip for us in May so we can all celebrate my big birthday in style amongst the tulips!

The kids left some boxes of belongings they've not been able to sell, and which they hand-picked for Mom and Dad to use or give to friends. We'll be driving up next week to sift through the rest and bring more boxes down, donate some up there, and go and say goodbye when they fly off across the waters.

Loot

My dining room looked like a shoe shop, this was my loot, my neighbour went home with even more as I don't do heels anymore. I'm looking forward to the boxes of kitchenware as they have some really good quality stuff that I'll definitely use.

Poe the Hunter

Poe has started hunting - my garden birds being the prey! They will be even more skittish now with a large predator waiting to pounce on them!
We are not friends right now as he killed a little garden bird, judging from the trail of feathers, blood and innards I found in my passage. The little bird is nowhere to be seen.
Poe is well-fed if anyone wants to know, so really has no reason to look for food!
I just hope he doesn't bring any creepy crawlies like snakes inside, as there are some in the garden, but they stay out of sight, so Poe had better not disturb them!

Acrobatics

Hubby did some acrobatics yesterday afternoon when he tripped on the top step and fell heavily on his left side taking a huge chunk of skin off his arm which took the brunt of the fall, bruising the top of his ribcage in the process. Well, I hope it's just bruising! Mister refused to go the doctor, but flinches every time he coughs, so I do not know what's happening inside. It's especially concerning as he only recently had a procedure done. He gave us all a huge fright, unlike him to fall so I teased him and said he just did it hoping the kiddos will stay longer :)

Early morning goodbyes

The first departure was at 4:30 AM, so guess who's going to fall asleep halfway through a series tonight!

I should be as fresh as a daisy tomorrow if I have my coffee at a more civilized time, and if hubby's injury indeed is only a bruise!

Insurance

I took out Hive insurance by powering down for two weeks, hence no Hive PUD for me on the first day of this year...

Unlike in the past, January bookings in our BnB are few and far apart following reports that our city beach waters have unacceptably high e.coli levels, a legacy of the April mudslides that damaged sewerage systems. Yes, you heard right, almost nine months later and there's been hardly any progress with regard to repairing these and other basic services.
This is affecting tourism in our city in a big way, but I think I've spoken of that before, so I'll just zip my mouth!

For now, I'm holding onto my Hive, just in case bookings do not pick up.

I am the eternal optimist though, so even though things are quiet we are starting to get the odd booking.

Now that things have calmed down on the home front, I hope to be sitting here talking to you more often, I've suffered hectic Hive withdrawal symptoms during this busy holiday season. There's no place like this to offload and say just what I feel, hoping someone out there is listening!