Postcard: South African Steam Trains

Today a quick post - it's been a busy week, family things are taking up quite a bit of my time at the moment so to keep the blog going, here's a few postcards of steam trains in South Africa that were brought by Marlene of the Ladies-Over-The-Water (a while since they were featured) when she came for a visit in 1997.

The actual cards are up in the attic somewhere just at the moment so I can't be much more specific than "South Africa", though at least some are of the Orange Free State and Bloemfontein. Awesome photos though!

Lyme Disease Rally in Ottawa

I mentioned about three weeks ago the problems Marlene, one of those inimitable ladies-over-the-water was having getting treatment for the illness Lyme Disease.

This week, yesterday in fact, was the rally in Parliament Square, Ottawa to raise awareness of this crippling disease. She sent me an email with photo attached saying "You can see me on the webcam!" All agog I opened the photo...

I... er... hmm...

Anyway this other email came with the following message - this is where I go serious for a bit. It should not be so hard to get treatment for a disease that is so debillitating.

"Trudy (middle) organised the rally, weak and walking with a cane. Kim (right) is 2 months antibiotic free and fine so far after years of treatment in the USA. All three of us are getting treatment not in our own country.
This must change!
About 50 or 60 people here, with canes, in wheel chairs, wearing signs, etc.
M"

Do You Know about Lyme Disease?

My friend Marlene, one of the Ladies-Over-The-Water has been battling Lyme Disease for the last four years and having to battle Canada's medical community for the right to be helped.

It seems that some of Canada's medical profession are so determined that "there is no Lyme Disease in Canada" that they will sue and hound out of the profession those doctors who are willing to treat it.

What is Lyme Disease? It comes from the bite of a tick. There is a typical bullseye rash - a red spot ringed by normal coloured skin with an outer ring rash.

Marlene's summary in her own words from her web site:

Infected Date: August 2007: I was taking pictures and was bitten by something, but did not pay much attention, thinking it was a spider.

Place: Near Picton, Ontario: Taking pictures of Dragon Boat Races in Bloomfield, in pretty Prince Edward County.

Diagnosis: Years later, Feb. 2010: Been sent from doctor to specialist to test to ER over months, with various diagnoses, medications and getting sicker.

Symptoms: Early on, flu-like symptoms, fatigue, headache, low-grade fever, stiff neck, knee pain. A rash appeared a week after the bite, but I did not connect the two, only took pictures.

Problem: Doctors are not trained to look for Lyme disease; there are no conclusive tests; in Canada, many doctors refuse to admit it exists.

Treatment: In March 2010, I started antibiotic treatment, which has to be long-term to have any effect. Things started improving and I was optimistic and grateful.

Update: On March 17, 2011 - abandoned by the Ontario Health Care System, because of a complaint against the specialist for "treating something which does not exist in Canada."

Result: Infections coming back, symptoms becoming noticeable, quality of life affected.

May is Lyme Awareness month: Please be aware of Lyme disease, that it is the fastest spreading infection in North America, and that everyone is vulnerable, even in their own back yards or city parks. How many more people have to be sick, disabled or even dying before something is done to protect patients and the doctors treating them?

Prevention:
Simple precautions can be taken, like wearing insect repellent with DEET, or using lemon and eucalyptus creams. Check for bites. Pay attention to symptoms. If found early, antibiotic treatment can prevent long-lasting symptoms and damage to organs. Fight for doctors to be aware, and for parks to put up warnings and information! Knowledge is power.

Now when Marlene said she had antibiotics, she meant having an intravenous drip - a bag permanently attached to her arm. The side effects sounded horrendous. However, she was starting to feel the benefit when her treatment was withdrawn due to the threat of litigation against her specialist.

Anyone travelling to North America needs to be aware of this and to check themselves and children for ticks, particularly following a walk through grass. See the Canadian CanLyme Association web pages for more details.

There's a month of walks and rallies going on in May across Canada and in America, Amanda has arranged a rallying walk in Virginia Beach on May 21.

Irritable? Downright Grumpy Bowel...

It's been something of a trying week...

At some point on Sunday I became aware of a twinge, a soreness low down in the abdomen. Admittedly we had been out for a meal on Saturday night which was mega in proportions and most enjoyable. But the soreness turned to pains and didn't stop.

By Tuesday I was thinking fondly of starting to whimper quietly and got myself down to the doctor who took a sample ("Ooh, your sugar's sky high!") and my temperature ("Oh, look at that! You're quite poorly!") and felt my stomach and abdomen ("Yeowwww!" - no, that was me...)

So my bowel was diagnosed as the culprit and I've been taking some rather sensationally sized pills and capsules since then.

... For your amusement I attach a scan showing my normal-sized capsules for the blood pressure and two of the socking pills they've given me for this... I ask you - does it even look humane?!? The first attempt wasn't too sucessful but at least I've managed to get used to the horrendous size of the tablets and so far the score is - down the gullet: 23 and halfway down the gullet and back to disappear down the sink: 1 - a clear victory I think...

The Ladies-Over-The-Water asked whether the doctor had diagnosed diverticulitis?

I can't recall the Doc saying diverticulitis - I thought she was saying she had to divert her gaze because of how cute I was...? Or was it something about divers being ticklish? No actually I can't remember her saying anything like that - it was more the description than any name and I was somewhat diverted anyway as the prodding really made me wince... I did sort of lock eyes with her in a fixed gaze but then when I started breathing again I was able to look away and begin to hear again. It is definitely not that bad today! But it wasn't that bad the other day until she tried to make her fingers disappear in an abdominal hole of her own making...

Snow Across the Atlantic

The Ladies-Over-The-Water have been scoffing at my precious inch of snow (now almost totally gone) and sending photos of their collection that they have been storing in freezers from winters over the last ten years or so. They have spread it about and photographed it and will now no doubt be parcelling it up to go back in the freezer for next year...

Amanda started the snowball rolling with this shot of Virginia Beach taken on Boxing Day.

Marlene up in Canada semed to have so little snow she was forced to don a Santa hat to give the photo a bit of interest. I mean... We had that much in Blackpool!

But then in the middle of the night whilst I was tucked up in bed (they keep strange hours over there), Amanda sent this to show it was still snowing in the USA (Under Several Accumulations). This is her hubby, Paul, hard at work digging the snow and putting it in sacks ready for the freezer and Amanda has cleverly thrown a handful of cotton wool balls up in the air to make it look like it is snowing!

And here she is the following day when they emptied the sacks briefly into the back garden to take her photo! Nice try, ladies... but we're not so easily fooled in England!

All White in the End

Amanda, one of the infamous Ladies-Over-The-Water, has sent photos of an accident that happened in South Africa. Luckily it seems not to have been a bad accident but the experience turned people white...

It turned out that the people in the blue car were carrying a 25 litre tub of white paint on the back seat at the time of the accident.

Apparently an ambulance driver refused to allow his female paramedic to leave their vehicle as she couldn't stop laughing...

It's nice when things turn out all white at the end though!

Boy On a Bike

These went through the scanner a bit ago too. Taken in 1967 these show me as a spotty 13 year old, voice just breaking, eyes starting to go blurred but still before I admitted I needed glasses at age 15.

Here I'm showing fine sporting form with my racing bike with Sturmey Archer 3-speed gearing. I think the bike had gears too... My jeans are far too long for my legs but Mum hadn't mastered the art of cutting them off and ripped jeans were still a fashion faux-pas so there are horrendously large turn-ups in evidence here!

I'm standing outside our house (which is behind the camera so you can't see it). We lived then in a village called Milnrow, between Rochdale and Shaw which, at the time of this photo, were still officially in Lancashire rather than some post 1974 made-up area called Greater Manchester.

The chap who lived opposite was called Norman and drove a ten-year-old Ford Anglia with a stick on anti-mist panel on the rear window. This worked on the double glazing theory except that if the glue was missing from any point around the edge of the panel then the panel used to mist up on the inside where you couldn't wipe it...

This one shows me standing in the local park, Stanney Brook park, named after Stanney Brook, the small gurgling stream that flowed through this part of the park on the right of the photo. We would go down trying to entice tiddlers into empty jam jars.

Sometimes we would play at rolling down the slope behind me in the photo until we felt sick, in some cases unfortunately meaning that we would feed the fish in the stream... 13... Such an awkward age for a lad in those days...

The park is seen in the distance in this shot which was taken from the back of the houses at the top of the road. We were on the edge of this little estate of bungalows and therefore had lots of spare rough ground we could play on.

I sent a couple of the photos to the Ladies-Over-The-Water via one of our regular emails.

The other two must have been too busy laughing but I got a comment back from Evy that said "I just love your photos John. You were really quite a handsome guy."

Sigh... "were"... past tense... and is that a note of surprise I read into it? Even bigger sigh...

Large versions of the photos: Oh come on, give over... Apart from anything else they were taken on a Kodak Instamatic so are not exactly great quality!

Nice End to a Not Nice Week

It's been one of those weeks. Started with the car screeching one of those metallic squeals at us. Stopped at the next services on the motorway to find the rear wheel radiating heat alarmingly.

Hang on... I paid £200 to have that problem on that wheel fixed not so long ago! Luckily the problem this time (only this time?) was the handbrake sticking on which required a new handbrake cable fitted. Huge relief until I went to pick it up and found another bill for £200 waiting for me. "It's a right job with them...!" For £200 for a handbrake cable I should bloody hope it's a right job...

Long term readers (er... you do exist, right?) may remember me having to have an operation on the nose a few years ago and whilst it went spiffingly, (ignoring the following infection which had me off work for three months and resulted in some spectacular bouts of nose bleeding) the nasal passages have been steadily shrinking since then and it's getting to crisis point again. Date for the specialist has been set, but for now I'm going through all the familiar side effects of the steroid spray with 2 or 3 (smaller) nosebleeds a day.

Plus my ear bunged up with wax and I've gone fairly deaf in one ear - makes David's singing a bit more palatable of course, but not good really (my hearing I mean, not David's singing which at times approaches ok...) and my ear feels as though I'm in a descending aeroplane and wouldn't I just love it to go "pop" and clear! Putting ear oil in has only softened the outside of the wax "plug" and eventually after a full week of not being able to shift it, I got the doc to have a look to make sure I wasn't trying to soften the remains of a spider that had curled up and died in there... His reaction was that it was unlikely to shift before another week goes by and that it will need syringing out even then. Great... If you ask me a question and I don't respond it's nothing personal, ok?

And then poor Mum got confirmation that she has cancer, though relief all round when it turned out to be contained and should hopefully be easily operated on. But that was obviously the big scare and health story of the week and I'm not even thinking of joking about that.

Finally in the ever-growing health row of dominoes that I've had for the past few years, the doc gave me some water tablets to tackle the size of my feet, which now require clowns' shoes, following my introduction to the pills for hypertension. (I'm busy - I need high blood pressure!)

A week on the first lot made little difference, so yesterday morning the doc, after freaking out a little when I asked him to check there wasn't a spider in my ear, upped the doseage of my water pills with the result that today has been extremely interesting during a day out to the Lake District, where we took Mum for her birthday. That half hour was the longest boat trip I've ever taken. I was thinking I might have to make a personal apology to the residents of Manchester (whose drinking water is pumped from Lake Windermere) but, luckily, I made it onto the pier (unfortunate term...) at Ambleside and they had some Gents...

I don't follow football that much but sheesh I wish I was paid several annual wages every week just for cocking things up. Most people get into trouble for doing a rotten job. Footballers apparently get into a strop at a demonstration of fans' disappointment...

Talking of the World Cup, Marlene - one of the Ladies-over-the-Water, sent news of a woman who had torn her windpipe through blowing one of those vuvuzela horns. She said "I'm not blowing one again - it wasn't much fun..."

Meanwhile, Amanda, another of the threesome that make up the Ladies-over-the-Water, sent me a photo at Christmas of a new wine decanter she was very proud of. She and her hubby Paul and her neighbours were gathered round it drinking the wine from straws... Not sure they quite got the concept of a decanter, but anyway, she's broken it and asked if I'd print a memorial here... It was probably a fight over the last drop...

And (because I just can't leave her out can I?) Evy has had some new decking done in her garden outside her back door. There's been a long standing joke about her house because she once confused me by describing her stairs - it sounded as though they end abruptly halfway up her wall. Anyway... they obviously match the rest of the house because the back door has a drop of three feet to the garden...

The Sands of Tampa Bay

Amanda, one of the Ladies-Over-The-Water spent this weekend in Tampa Bay, Florida and sent this pic to Marlene, Evy and me!

A handwritten note by email!

i-Pod Random Test

Marlene, one of the Ladies-Over-The-Water sent me this one but the answers are mine...

Directions:
1. Put your iPod, iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.


IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
“Dreamin’” – Bobby Darin

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
“I Remember Yesterday” – Donna Summer. Heck, that's a bit sad isn't it?

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
“Caravan” – Jack Ambrose Orchestra (1930s). Oh sorry - I thought it said "What do you like a girl in"...

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
“That’s My Desire” – The Shadows. What do you mean; it's not yours?

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
“Summertime” – Leona Lewis

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
“Loveboat" – Kylie Minogue. (!!!) Oo-er...heck – why limit it to a boat...!

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
“When Lovers Become Strangers” – Cher. Hey – who are you calling strange?!?

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
“The Little Shoemaker” – Petula Clark. Huh, what a load of cobblers...

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
“Ride My See-Saw” – Moody Blues. Oh yes....yes....yes...etc...

WHAT IS 2 + 2?
“Pastures of Plenty” - Solus.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BESTIE?
“Sweet Words” – Peter Skellern. What is my “bestie” exactly?

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
“Good Companions” – Billy Cotton Orchestra. Well....we’re getting on a bit you know...

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
“That’ll Be The Day” – Linda Ronstadt. Ha ha ha yep, had to give a wry grin at that one!

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WHEN YOU GROW UP?
“Om” - Moody Blues. Meditation... it’s all I might have one day...

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
“Our Day Will Come” – Billy Fury. You couldn’t make these up could you?

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
“Take Me In Your Arms and Love Me” – Gladys Knight & The Pips. When will that be exactly? Thought I already was married. Well... make another girl happy - that would be big o' me wouldn't it?

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
“Karlekan Ar” – Jill Johnson. Swedish entry in 1998 Eurovision contest – a translation website merely gave me “Karleken am failing”. Any Swedish speakers out there who can help with that one?

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
“Will I Grow Up To Be A Man” – Beach Boys. Hey cut me some slack here huh?

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
“Old Rocking Chair” – Al Bowlly. When I was 17 my girlfriend’s uncle said “Just get it near the fire with her on top and put your foot on the mantelpiece and just keep pushing...” No idea what he meant...

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
“Shoulda Woulda Coulda” – Beverley Knight. So many missed opportunities... So many friends who won't speak to me after this...

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
“Innuendo” – Queen. ha ha ha now this I really love – see there is someone with a sense of humour watching over us!!!


It was duly sent back as an email with the subject "Innuendo" to the Ladies-Over-The-Water!

Try it and leave your answers as a comment?

There's No Business Like Snow Business

Far too long since I mentioned the Ladies-Over-The-Water.

Evy, who lives in Mississauga (which isn't even anywhere near the Mississippi) sent this photo of her street after shovelling solidly for three days and nights with just a knife and fork to clear her drive.

Now the last time I saw snow like this I was:

a) just a kid
b) in a bright white room and imagining
c) in a cinema watching Scott of the Antarctic

Mississauga is somewhere near Toronto in Canada. Evy writes: "Okay, the drive is cleaned out. It's very narrow at the end of it though but we should be able to get the cars out. When we are more refreshed, we'll go out and see if we can widen it. It sure would be nice to have the double drive back one of these days. With this photo, I think you'll get a pretty good idea with the car in the driveway. You might also take note of the car driving down the street and compare the snowbank next to it. Yesterday's storm is wild."

Marlene, who lives just a snowfall away in Brampton had said yesterday; "We had more snow and don't know where to put it any more - I should send an updated shot of what our street looks like now, since the one taken on Feb. 23 - and we were told to expect another 30 cm / 2 ft (eeek!) this weekend!"

Sheesh. We had a bit of snow falling the other weekend for ten minutes. Didn't stick...

Evacuated!

Ooh, a bit of excitement at the office today.

I live in Blackpool and work for the University of Northumbria so I rent a room at a local college and am a "remote" worker.

This morning we had our usual Monday morning telconference meeting and when I looked out of the window afterwards, this was the sight that greeted me.

The road had turned into a river and there was quite a spectacular waterfall over the sleeping policeman! I popped into the next office to find we were being evacuated as the water was coming from the river that had burst its banks and water was rising rapidly at the main entrance.

In fact there were only 2 minutes separating these photographs which show the same view.

We went out the fire exit and waded out to dry land. Then it was a case of find the shallowest route to the car and hope I could get home wihtout any problems! The A6 and the West Coast railway line were closed nearby but I was heading for Blackpool and managed with a few slowdowns for flooded areas, one being a bit longer than the others whilst a tractor dragged an eejit out of the middle. See, making all that spray wasn't a good idea then!

Addendum

The Ladies Over The Water are killing themselves laughing at the "sleeping policeman". It's what we Brits call speed humps... This one is missing, presumed lost at sea...

The Virgin Festival

Well that's enough to make my ears prick up... It was last week when Evy, one of the Ladies Over The Water, made a tiny comment in an email:
"I also received a weekend pass to our Virgin Festival here on Toronto Island."

Blimey, I thought, because I know she has a string of children, 5 ex-husbands, 3 or 4 lovers and a steady stream of workmen - although she's gone quiet about those recently... (I may have exaggerated here...)
"Evy - do you qualify???"

Then I got to thinking - what would the activities be at a Virgin Festival??? Hey! You!!! Keep it clean!!! But you see what I mean?

Then it got worse. She said, "I think I have decided to go to the Virgin Festival for just the one day. They are suppose to have a goody bag for me." Ok - now your minds are working overtime - a goody bag for virgins... What would be in... whoops - there's more:
"Anyway, I don't plan on staying long but I've never been and want to see what it's all about."

See I told you she didn't qualify! She's forgotten what it's all about!!!

And then afterwards:
"I went to the Virgin Festival yesterday at Toronto Island. Yes John, they did let me in. LOL It was a pretty good day. My daughter went with me."

Now that's just taking the mickey!!

"We didn't get to see all that there was to see but that's okay." Well yes, being a virgin you wouldn't know what you were missing I suppose?

The mind boggles...

Grease Is The Word

Stop that drooling, girls!

This is Theo Spies (it rhymes with kiss). He's one of Marlene's sons and I remember him as a 7-year-old, so to find he's now 5 feet 10 inches and in his final year at school is causing me to think that maybe I too am ten years older... ohhhh noooo!

Anyway, Marlene reports he is getting interested in showbiz - he's done some catwalk modelling and last night...well, let his proud Mom tell the tale!

'So I took Theo to the audition for Grease last night. We got there with his resume and comp cards in hand, and the whole cast started arriving. We watched and waited. Our appointment was at 7pm.

Finally by around 7.20 Sue came and took Theo for an audition. The stage manager or someone went along. I waited and listened to the first run-through of "Summer Nights". (By the way, the girl playing Sandy is utterly GORR-GEOUS! And a great voice too.)'

So where's my photo of her??? Dear me, so inconsiderate!

'Here they came back from the audition, and I push away from the wall so we can leave. But she hands Theo a script and sends him in with the others.

I said, "So --- you mean you are using him???" Jaw dropped and all that.
"Of course!" she said and looked at me like I had two heads.

Rehearsals are lots - 3 hours on Mondays and Thursday nights, and 3-5 hours on Sunday afternoons. Stepping up rehearsals and run-through in late Oct, and the show starts on Nov. 14 - Nov. 17. He has to get out of school early on Nov. 14 for a Matinee. Shows will be at the Rose Theatre (Toronto, Canada).'

Excellent stuff - you go for it Theo!

Long QT Syndrome

I can't be alone in never having heard of this.

My close friend Marlene sent news of a friend from South Africa. She wrote:

This is a syndrome that not many people know about, but my friend in SA and her little girl were diagnosed 2 years ago. It is literally a time bomb in your chest. Just a little while ago, a nurse in her 30s, somewhere in the UK, died from shock when her alarm clock went off - Long QT was only diagnosed afterwards.

Fiona (my friend) sent through a link this morning about a documentary made about the syndrome, by a young man who suffers from it and who lost his father at age 39, and an aunt who was then only 13.

I read the movie description, then commented on the fact mentioned that this little-known syndrome (often wrongly diagnosed as epilepsy) is currently attributed to killing more than 1000 people per year in the USA. She wrote back: "Oh yes. The death rate is higher that those who die of leukemia."

Can you believe it?? She was in a state after the diagnosis; still is. She's on beta blockers now, and her little girl was 7 when she had to start them as well.

Here's a link to the article on the documentary Marlene mentions.

It's not been a good time for the Ladies Over The Water recently. Amanda's son Edwill had a fall from a balcony that will have long-lasting consequences and Evy has been diagnosed with problems with the levels of calcium in her bones. Instead of bathing in milk, she now has to drink three bathtubs of milk an hour...

Your Prayers Please

Your prayers are asked for, to help a young man, Edwill, who fell from a balcony and who has had to have brain surgery and will need some extensive facial repair plastic surgery.

Edwill is the son of Amanda and Paul. Amanda is one of the "Ladies over the Water" with whom I have corresponded daily for years.

Amanda, I so hope for a speedy and full recovery. God Bless.

Woggles

Now if you've been following this blog you'll know all about woggles by now, but if not start by having a look at the entry More from the Ladies over the Water and then have a look at Marlene's blog entry The Story of a Woggle. The sound of intrepid woggle hunting by myself and Marlene way back in 1997 can be heard here. So now that brings all the links together!

And now, children, for the first time in print, on screen or even in thought - the very first Woggle Story:

Wally Woggle Wants to Wet his Whiskers

Wally the woggle lived in a wet patch of grass near the edge of the school playing field. Living in the middle of a playing field was a risky business for a woggle. There were hordes of humans sometimes with studded boots - his Great Uncle Will had gone that way and it hadn't been a pleasant sight! There had also been the time when a woman had slipped on the grass and sat on Aunty Wendy. There hadn't been a lot left of her either. Aunty Wendy that is... So Wally lived close by the hedge where careless feet wouldn't catch him. Not that he was any sort of coward, he was always quick to point out. In his own words, "I'm a woggle who lives close to the edge..."

Wally sighed. The problem was that humans found it hard to see woggles. They could only see them out of the corner of their eyes because being looked at directly makes a woggle so nervous they shiver. At exactly the frequency that human eyes see straight through. So looking directly at a woggle makes them invisible. That's the danger of being a woggle. People step on invisible things...

Wally decided he would nip over to the school and find the saucer of milk that he knew would be left out for the school cat. "Nip" over might not be quite the exact word to use really. Woggles don't move fast. No legs you see. Well... no legs you can't see because the woggle would disappear if you looked at him anyway. If you see what I mean!

Movement for Wally was a sort of rolling awkward movement, stretching out his normally hunched body at the front, then letting the back part slide along to catch up as his back arched again.
"And that," thought Wally, "will be bloody painful once I reach that concrete playground!" Poor Wally...

To be continued...

More from the Ladies over the Water

I've no idea whose this photo is - it was sent by Amanda way back in July 2002, captioned: "Proof that there is marriage in the animal kingdom"...

I've been skimming back through my own web pages of old emails and photos looking for something. It's ten years since Marlene came over for a visit on her way to Canada and during that time we plagued Evy by talking about having seen a load of woggles...

We had - they were round the ties of a coach-load of cubs and scouts on a motorway service station but Evy thought we were talking about some kind of animal and the joke just ran and ran!

Anyway, Marlene had emailed "... ten years since we came to Canada. Can hardly believe it." Evy replied:
"Happy anniversary sis. I remember the day well. There is only one thing I don't remember. I forget what a woggle is!!!"

Tsk! Evy, they have purple fur, live in tall grass, do good turns and drink milk very sloppily which runs down their long whiskers! I can't find the sketch I did...

Talk of Holidays

Talk from the "Ladies over the Water" today was about holidays. The "Ladies over the Water" are Marlene, whose visit ten years ago en route from South Africa to Canada kicked all this off; Evy, who helped provide Marlene with info on Canada at that time and who has since paid dearly by being confused by us; and Amanda, an old chum of Marlene's who now resides in America.

Marlene started things off by saying she had booked a holiday with Sandie Gotours - an honest mistake for anyone to make - what she really said was she had booked a tour to San Diego...

Amanda is getting ready for a trip to Mexico and said, "I thought to myself, in one month we will be on vacation, great was my disappointment when I realized, I will actually be home – back from my vacation - how depressing"

How can you be depressed at the thought of being back home before you actually set off???

"No, I’m depressed because I will be back from vacation"

Yes but... Whoa! If there's one thing I've learned in ten years of regular sparring with the Ladies over the Water, it's that I won't win...!

Anyway I thought I'd better start limbering up the old bod ready for the hols and a few exercises turned my already rather trim figure (stop that laughing!) into this! Alex, eat your heart out, mate!