Wednesday 19 September 2012
Week 25 - Photos
Week 25 - 16.9.12
This week started with Phil’s 41st Birthday.
Unfortunately he had to work, so during the day, the kids and I did his cake.
Wasn’t my best effort as the cream had been frozen and it did not whip very
well. The kids also hated the mint icing, but that just meant all the more for
Phil.
I also had to deliver the invites for the upcoming morning
tea. So Laura and I went around and hand delivered to half of the rental
estate. Then the kids and I went to the
pool in the afternoon. I then made Phil
honey prawns for dinner. They were delicious. I will definitely make them again
and if I could just find sesame seeds, I am sure they would be even better.
Tuesday was a quiet morning, before heading to Solwezi in
the afternoon. Sally and I went later in the day, so that the shops would be
restocked after the weekend. It went really well. The same boys from before
came up to me and asked to help me, but I told them after what happened
previously, I was not going to have them help me again. It worked and they left
me alone. Maybe I will be able to go back again alone. I then had to pick up a
friends’ car from the airport and drive it home for them. It was a long day,
but at least the pantry got stocked. The manager from the shop on site, did not
have his contract renewed (big, big shame), and as a result the shop is getting quite low on items. Hopefully it will pick up soon.
Then on Wednesday, we had our big power out day. It was so
quiet. When I woke up, we had no water at 630am and then the power went off at
7am. What to do with no water and power. Tom luckily was able to go to school,
as that ran on a generator, so I just had Laura. We went across the road so
Laura could play with Ashleigh for a bit. Thankfully, before we picked Tom up
at 12pm, the water came back on. Which was great, but we were prepared as I had
bought two 20L containers and had filled them with water yesterday. I had also
collected clothes washing water for flushing. So we were doing ok.
A few of us decided to go to the pool in the afternoon as it
was really warm. However, it was closed as it was so filthy. So everyone came
back to my place and we filled a bucket with water and let the kids splash. That
night I got the braai going and reheated sausages that I had cooked yesterday
and wraps. So we had a lovely dinner outside of sausage and salad wraps.
The power did not come back on at 6pm as it was meant to,
nor at 7pm, or 8pm, but finally at 915pm it came back on. What a day of 14 hours
with no power! Thankfully the deep freezer was still cold and the fridge was
just slightly cool, but we did not lose anything. Thank goodness.
Thursday was a busy day. Tom woke up with a nasty fever and
photophobia. I automatically thought ‘Malaria’, so we raced up to the clinic at
630am. Tom had his first finger prick test for malaria and did not like it one
bit. Thankfully, it was not, but he was diagnosed with a throat infection and
sent home with antibiotics. I then had to go to the LTG information session for
a few minutes before heading home to 2 screaming children. Laura did not like
all the attention Tom was getting and so demanded her own by screaming and
crying. It finally settled down in the afternoon and the kids helped me to make
a spice rack. I have included a photo to show you my carpentry skills. What you
can’t see are the bent nails and splinters. But it works a treat! We all went
to bed very tired that night.
Tom was still feeling awful on Friday and so we just hovered
around the house. We have now worked out what type of lizard Harry is. He is a
Blue Headed Tree Agama. We found this out when his head and tail turned bright
blue and a friend leant me her book to find out what he is. Anyway, I decided to
make him a more comfortable environment in the garden suited to someone of
Harry’s taste. So the kids and I went out and grabbed a couple of logs and old
ant mounds. I waved my magic garden wand and voila! I had created a beautiful
spot for him. So beautiful in fact that a female has now turned up. We have
named her Sally (as in When Harry met Sally) and hopefully we will see little
agama’s in 5 months’ time. LOL.
That night I made pizza for dinner as is our Friday night
tradition. I also made banoffee pie and Phil’s work mate Ross came over as
well. I have to say I had 2 drinks too many and woke up with a slight hangover,
but it was a great night sitting around the fire talking. It was a late night
for me and I don’t cope well after less sleep, plus my face felt like it was
going to explode thanks to me grinding my teeth overnight.
Tom woke up somewhat worse for wear and he spent the weekend
being very quiet due to his loss of voice. It did make things quiet around the
house. As a result we had a quiet weekend as we could not go anywhere with Tom
being sick.
I had the Quiz night Saturday night. I was still tired from Friday
night and now had another late night ahead. It went really well though and was
a big success. We raised over 8million Kwacha. We have decided to spend the
money on tables and chairs for a local school in the surrounding area. This was
our aim for the night and we are really glad we managed to achieve it.
Tom has developed a cough now and so we will be back to the
clinic first thing Monday morning. He is also vomiting nightly, poor thing. I
am sure he has a chest infection. A lot of people are sick at present due to
the wind lifting all the dust on site.
The joys of living here....
Tuesday 11 September 2012
Weeks 23 & 24 - Photos
My trendy kids!Weeks 23 & 34 - 9.9.12
This week started off with me nearly being run down 3 times
Monday morning, by dump trucks with wheels higher than me. So much for a nice
peaceful jog / walk along the Dam road. Due to a new Exploration project, our
peaceful walk has now evolved into dodging cars and trucks and being smothered
in dust. It is a 30 km road limit, but the drivers pay no attention to it. The
trucks missed me by 2 feet at the most. I feel as though I need a big orange
flag strapped to my back, like the cars do in the mine.
After that I took Laura to a friend’s birthday party. Danne
turned 3 and Sanette went all out. Each child went home with their very own
Tinky Winky doll and the food was really well done. Each child had their own special plate of very cute party
food. It’s amazing what you can get in from Amazon .UK for kids parties if you
order months in advance. It was a great party although Laura was still a bit
tired and grumpy from last week.
On Tuesday I took Kennis and Brenda to the chicken farm down
the road. They sell eggs, manure and plants. Probably chooks too, but none of
us are into ‘kill, pluck and cook’. Phil and I have bought a lot of plants and poo
from there for our garden, which is really looking good considering the lack of
water for outside use. The mine has only just started refilling our water cubes
again. For the last 3 weeks we have only had bath and washing machine water for
our garden. But it has survived.
That afternoon we had Laura’s friend Janelle over after
school. The kids played really well together.
Wednesday saw a friend drop in for coffee in the morning and
then a loud afternoon with Fabian and Ashleigh both here with my two. Sometimes
it’s great having other kids here in the afternoon as it keeps my 2 busy, other
days it is just so noisy, I could kill them all! Lol.
My busy week got even busier on Thursday. After my 8km walk
I had 5 mins to relax before I held a playgroup meeting at my place. It was the
first one and quite a few people seem interested. If it gets up and running, we should have
about 15 kids involved from 4 months to 3 years. I then somehow got booked to
make 24 mini cakes for Janelle’s 4th birthday party, more on that
later. Janelle then spent the afternoon here playing and we made carrot cake.
Not my finest cake, I am going to blame the recipe I got off the internet, but
it was so greasy. Phil loved it and proceeded to devour it in no time every
night after dinner with custard. So it could not have been that bad.
Friday was a quiet day. I made sure I had no other kids over
and we had a quiet afternoon until it was time for drinks up the road. Byron
made Sangria and my best efforts of only drinking water lasted about 5 minutes.
I have been so determined to lose weight since seeing myself in a mirror for
the first time in 5 months down in S.A. Not a pretty sight! But I guess 1 or 2
drinks a week won’t bust my efforts. Especially with all the exercising, that’s
what I am telling myself any way.
On Saturday, Kat and I busted our guts walking off the
alcohol from yesterday. We nearly died with exhaustion as we pushed ourselves
so fast. We are determined to get our 8 km walk down from 1 hour 10 min to 1 hour by the end of the year. Man
I could hardly move and breathe by the end of it, but it felt good.
And that was basically it for the weekend. I made Janelle’s
mini cakes and Phil’s cake so I could get them in the freezer before
decorating. We just lazed around the house for the rest of it, as Phil has come
down with a tummy bug and just wants to sleep and …..
Week 24
I seriously need some ME time. I feel as though I am going
to explode at the kids very soon. They are driving me CRAZY!! I am just so busy
with LTG, Playgroup, kids and house that I am going to have to give something
up. I cannot keep up with this level of work or I will end up insane in no
time.
I was only able to do 4 km jog / walk this morning as there
was an LTG meeting at my place. That went for 2 hours and then it was off to
school to pick up Tom. Fabian came home with us and then Ashleigh ended up
coming over for a play as well. It is so hard trying to work with 4 kids
running around. Kennis then decided to take all the kids with her and go out
for coffee, so I could get some computer work done. I then ended up with 5 kids playing at my
house as they all came back here. I then ended up taking them to the oval to
throw a Frisbee as they were driving me mad.
I have decided to do a jog at night around the rental
estate, to also kick my metabolism into gear, so I managed to get out Monday
night. If I don’t lose weight I will be very upset. The only problem is, is
that I don’t have scales to weigh myself (thank god) so I won’t know if I lose
any. But I will persevere.
On Tuesday, I spent some time playing with Laura on the
trampoline before picking Tom up from school. We had a quiet afternoon playing
games and colouring and even went to the pool. That night I then had to catch
up on work that I did not do during the day. So I spent a few hours on the
computer after the kids were in bed, writing up the minutes for the Playgroup
meeting and also the LTG meeting. I then had to start on an update of a
Survival Guide that the LTG has previously put out. It was a long day.
I must get about 10 emails a day regarding LTG and
Playgroup. I have set up a Google Group for Playgroup and I am emailing Company employees trying to sort out a venue for it and ATS with regards to food for
morning teas etc. It is absolute chaos some days on the computer. I made the
fondant for Janelle’s cakes this morning and then spent the afternoon creating
quiz questions with Colleen and Bex for the upcoming LTG Quiz night. Why did I
volunteer to make 24 mini cakes! What was I thinking?????? So that night I
started making 24 mini Dalmatians to go on the cakes.
We unfortunately did not finish the quiz questions on
Wednesday, and so at 830am the next morning we were at it again. By 11am, we
had done all 100 questions. I then spent a couple of minutes with Laura before
picking Tom up from school. That afternoon was the PTA, so up to school I went.
After that I had a meeting with Dene (Principal) to go over the quiz night as
he will be the Quiz Master for us. That
night I had to keep going with the Dalmatians.
Friday saw the house in a real mess as the main water pipe
to the treatment works on site broke and so no-one had water all afternoon. My
kitchen was a mess with fondant and kids. The kids and I went to the pool to have
a swim / bath before dinner, poor Phil had to have a bucket wash. The water came back on over-night thank god! Next
week on the 12th, we are going to be without electricity and water
from 8am until 6pm. That’s going to be fun. The local electricity department is
servicing some equipment and so the entire area up here will be without both. Great
huh! But at least I managed to get the cakes made for Janelle’s party tomorrow.
For a first time effort with fondant for a party cake, I don’t think it turned
out too bad. I even have my next order. If I can get the marshmallow and icing
sugar.
On Saturday, after doing all the dishes from yesterday and
my walk, the kids and I went to Janelle’s party. The kids and parents loved the
mini cakes. I don’t think I will be in a hurry to make mini cakes again. They
are a lot of work. But I am looking forward to making my next one. I really
enjoyed it. As a result, I have put aside my Playgroup position and I am asking
another Mum to take over for me. I will still participate with Laura, but I
want time to do my cakes and spend some more time with the kids. I feel as
though I am spending too much time on the computer doing work (plus blog ) and
something has to go. I can’t do it all, it is just too tiring.
Our Library opened on Saturday. A couple of women had been
collecting books and finally someone decided to give it a go. So we now have a
Library in the township at someone’s house. Hopefully, it will eventually go
into a Community Hall. I have had no luck getting a venue for our Playgroup, so the Company may build onto the Kindy and combine a Playgroup / Library there. Let’s
hope.
Phil took the kids to the pool on Saturday. It was lovely to
get an hour to myself. I watched TV for the first time in goodness knows how
long. It was wonderful.
On Sunday we went for a drive on site and had a drink and
cake by the side of a dambo (see below).
It was so lush with vegetation and green. Phil took the kids exploring
for 5 mins and I relaxed down on the mat. It was so quiet and peaceful I could
have stayed there all day. Then the kids starting yelling and jumped on me and
that was that, back to reality.
The weather lately is magnificent, certainly getting hotter.
Most days average around 28 but it is climbing higher. The humidity seems to be creeping up as well.
The landscape is changing also. The fires have nearly finished and the grass is
already getting green. Some wild flowers have started to appear and the whole
place seems to be coming alive. The cicadas have started and it sounds lovely.
Nowhere near as loud as they are in Orange, but loud enough. The flies have
also started hanging around, so that should make things fun in the next few
months. We have the fans in the house going constantly and are in need of
getting our air-conditioner re-gassed. The red dust seems to be fading in light
of the beautiful lush green trees starting to grow. I can’t wait to see how it
all looks after a rain, when all the dust gets washed away.
Dambo
From Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia
Dambo is a word used
for a class of complex shallow wetlands in central, southern and eastern
Africa, particularly in Zambia and Zimbabwe. They are generally found in higher
rainfall flat plateau areas, and have river-like branching forms which may be
nowhere very large, but common enough to add up to a large area. For instance,
dambos have been estimated to comprise 12.5% of the area of Zambia.
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