Today is a very special day. It's Shilo's birthday! Not the day I got him but his actual birthday. So he will be the star of the last photo. My baby boy is 3 years old today!
On with the show.
Day 188: Birthday present success!
This is the same pixie from Day 97. It was her 5th birthday the day before and so we had a cupcake party on the Saturday. She is still very much into Disney Princesses and the one clothing store had a whole range of em, so she got this one from me. With matching shoes. Which don't fit and need to be changed. But from the look on her face I think I did okay.
Day 189: Wedding dancing shoes.
My sister and Darren showed up with these on the Sunday. because there is no way I'll be able to spend the entire wedding reception wearing those other shoes! These are my dancing shoes, and they're almost exactly the same purple as the ceremony shoes. I kinda want to wear them already, but I'm being very good waiting until the wedding.
Day 190: Alien looking flower buds.
So these are poppies. Poppy buds. In Afrikaans, poppies are papawers (pah pah verrs) and the street I grew up on (the photograph for Day 1) is Papawer Street. And now papawers are blooming at my work place. Ah, the circle of life. Or something. Frankly, these buds freak me out a little... They look like something out of Little Shop of Horrors. Or Alien.
Day 191: Silhouette of industry.
I am so proud of this photo. It was taken with my camera phone from inside the car. The glare on the windscreen was just right and my little camera phone captured it just perfectly. I pass this cement factory on my one route home (I have about 8 routes to and from work. I like to mix things up) and I've been wanting to include it in a photo but nothing was ever right. Till I got lucky with this!
Day 192: Home of the best 'slap' chips in Pretoria.
One of my Facebook friends asked the question, "what are slap chips?" This is was I told her:
Slap: Afrikaans word meaning 'loose' or 'slack'. (kinda pronounced slahp) Slap chips are sloppy greasy fries and are best when soaked in salt and vinegar.
Apparently I made her hungry ;)
Day 193: Meeting.
This was a meeting to discuss our rushed planning of an event not actually planned for because top management are douche canoes. See? I do actually do work. Sometimes...
Day 194: Through the fence - Tree Agama!
It's such a pity that the fence got in the way. This guy ran across the driveway while I was leaving for work this particular morning. While I was fumbling for my camera to get a photo of him for y'all, he crossed the driveway, scuttled under the fence and proceeded to scramble up the tree. Isn't he pretty. Oliver killed one just a week prior to this. And I stepped on it in the dark. That one wasn't so pretty.
Day 195: A book rug hard at work.
My awesome friend Worm sent me this book rug all the way from America! Yes we are still going through the wonderful items sent to me from Utah, and we are still not done. My book rug is currently marking my place in The Casual Vacancy, which I am thoroughly enjoying even though JK Rowling describing genitals leaves me somewhat uncomfortable. Not the genitals being described, you understand, just the fact that she's the one doing it...
Day 196: Lazy Sunday.
It really was. And Oliver thoroughly enjoyed it.
Day 197: International familiarity.
See? Even South Africa has these! We may not have Netflix, but we do have McDonald's.
Day 198: Workday saviour. Yum!
I got this bag of tea at a 'High Tea' Exhibition Opening at the University of Pretoria Museums ages ago. I kept it in my work bag for emergencies and promptly forgot about it. This day was kind of rough as the unplanned event we were planning for was happening the next day, and while looking through my bag for I don't know what, I found this. It really was a saviour. And delicious.
Day 199: Officially open for business.
The event. The re-opening of the Kruger Museum took place on 10 October, the birthday of Paul Kruger, not on 1 October with little fanfare as was originally planned. There is still so much to do at the museum. The exterior has been renovated but now the interior really needs to be done. Stakeholders and press were invited and in the end we had about 34 people. It turned out as well as could be expected. And the sky was particularly lovely that evening.
Day 200: 'Slap' chips, just for Charity ;)
Taken specially for my friend... Yummy.
Day 201: Mah Rain Boots!
So, the previous day, while purchasing said slap chips and sundry other munchies, I got caught in a rainstorm. A huge rainstorm. And I was wearing ballet flats, as I do, and they got so wet. Well, all of me got wet, but walking around in squelchy shoes is not pleasant. So when the next morning dawned, as rainy as ever with puddles everywhere, I took preemptive action and wore my rainboots. I have another pair, pink ones with pictures of marshmallows all over them. But they didn't match what I was wearing. The way the weather has been lately, I'm sure I will get a chance to wear the pink ones soon.
Day 202: I think they like each other.
Seriously, how cute is my herd?! The dogs absolutely LOVE Oliver. Too much in fact, because often they take turns trying to love him to death. And Oliver, who is a very capable man cat, just takes it. He very seldom tries to get away, let alone fight them off. He has to be really fed up to wail and make his escape. And they make him SO wet with love slobber!
Day 203: Nursery school graduation present. 28 years later and still going strong.
I would've been about 5 years old when I got this. All the children in the class got one with their name on. I wonder how many still have theirs...? I think, I'm not sure but I think, the class or grade we were in was called the 'Giraffes'. If I remember right there were 3 grades and they each had animal names, but I can't for the life of me remember the younger ones. 'Giraffes' was the 'big' class.
Day 204: To blow a fuse - to explode with anger; to lose one's temper OR when your stove overheats...
I put the oven on to heat up and then suddenly, it just stopped... And the funny thing was I had found some spare fuses that same day but of course, they weren't the right voltage. Murphy can feck right off.
Day 205: Gloriously green!
Really, with all the rain we've having everything is so gloriously green right now. It makes me smile all the time.
Day 206: A ducks dog tags.
My sister had these made for me at one of those arcade machines that stamp them out super quick. Can anyone read what they say...?
Day 207: So pretty.
As I said on my Facebook post, I'm posting a lot of plant photos right now, but everything is so lush and pretty right now, I can't even be sorry. Also, I'm pretty sure these are weeds. I wish they'd grow in my garden.
And finally....
Day 208: Somebody is 3 years old today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHILO!
Three years ago today, my then Caretaker's dog had puppies. I had to go see coz how often do you get to see hour old puppies? I was thinking of taking one, maybe, because the mommy was a Jack Russell and the daddy was a Jack Russell cross and one of the nicest doggies I've ever met, and I always did like Jack Russells.
I'm not sure if it was the same day or not but when my parents came to visit I had to take them to see, coz how often do you get to see hour or day old puppies? And I wanted some help in deciding if I should take one and if I should, which one? I quite liked the one with the all white body. I knew I didn't want a black and white one, don't know why, I just didn't.
BONUS MATERIAL
Shilo at 3 days old.
And after seeing them, my Dad joked that I should "take the one with the bum on his head". Twas fate, coz the one with the 'bum' on his head was also the one with the all white body. PopHaw sees things differently. I have photos starting from the day he was born, documenting all the stages of his young life; his eyes opening, him sitting, him walking... Wasn't my baby the cutest thing ever? And isn't he now the handsomest thing ever?
Pretty sure there will be some stages of Shilo twitter spamming tonight ;)
Two blog posts in one week! That's just not normal.
I've been having so much fun taking photos with Instagram on my iPod Touch. The picture quality isn't the best, but it's pretty amazing considering the Touch has 0.8 mega pixel camera. And I downloaded a new photo-editor app for my Blackberry which I've been having some fun with, as you will soon see.
Day 165: Last time I leave the guest bedroom open for the dogs on a cold day.
The story behind this is as follows: First, I got Shilo. And I saw that it was good.
I never had any trouble leaving Shilo home alone, aside from the occasional accident when he was a puppy, and a few chewed items, but really nothing more than was expected. We lived in my little one-bedroomed flat with a small garden for him and he had access to everything. Oh except the bathroom, because the laundry basket was in there and he had/has a thing about exposing my dirty laundry for everyone to see. But I left the bedroom open, he was always in the living room, I never had to close him off from anywhere. Except the bathroom.
Then I moved to a bigger house on the property, one of the main reasons being, I wanted more garden for Shilo and I thought he might need some company in the form of his own puppy. So a year and a half after getting Shilo, I brought Penny home. I don't think Penny had the easiest introduction to the world, but I brought her home at about 7 or 8 weeks so she didn't have much time to be too traumatised. She did have the worst case of worms I have ever seen on a puppy. She was a bit fearful but also quick to aggression. And she hated being left alone. And she hated driving in the car. For the first week I brought her to work with me, much to Shilo's distress, and those trips in the car were terribly unpleasant with her non-stop and very loud whining. Anyway after love and care and some ground rules Penny has grown into a lovely, loving, confident and fun loving dog, so it was all worth it.
I treated and trained her as I had done with Shilo and things went pretty well, again aside from the expected accident and chewed item. Until I came home one day and found pieces of books all over the living room. BOOKS! After the third time this happened I locked the dogs out of the living room while I wasn't home. But the bedroom was always left open for them because, I mean, maybe they want to sleep during the day, and they have every right to access 'our' bed. Wrongo! They do not, because Penny chewed the headboard, an old chair of my grans, the base of the bed and anything she could access on the night stands. And I am a pretty untidy person in my bedroom so there was plenty for her to choose from. And the worst was that these forays into destruction did not happen every day. We'd go for weeks with nothing being chewed in the living room or bedroom and then WHAM. And irreplaceable item was irrevocably masticated. And I know Shilo was not innocent in these adventures, but I also know he didn't start them because well, he never had before. But once the book was in pieces or the puppy had her jaws around the remote, any self-respecting dog would join in. I blame Penny entirely. So eventually the dogs were banned from the bedroom and I felt like the world's worst mother. They were free to roam the passage and the kitchen and their bed was kept in the passage with their blankets but everything was closed off to them. During winter I made sure there was an extra warm blanket in their bed, but our winters don't get too cold I guess, so I pushed through my guilt, telling myself I could not replace everything that would be destroyed otherwise.
And then it snowed. Well not at my house, but it was damn cold and I could not leave my babies in the passage and kitchen. I just could not. So I had a brainwave and decided I could open the guest bedroom for them. It's just the bed, I would remove the scatter cushions, and I could shift the nightstand so they couldn't reach it. I felt so good. I had discovered the solution. I ruffled up a blanket on the bed and left for work. I did this for the rest of the week and everything went fine. We had a few scattered really cold days after that, and I had no qualms about leaving the guest room open for them. And then one day, I discovered a teddy bear that was on the nightstand in pieces on the floor. "That's okay," I thought to myself, "that is acceptable collateral damage for the comfort of my babies." And so I continued to leave the guest room open for them during the cold spell.
And then I came home to what is pictured in the photograph above. All the bed linen and blankets had been pulled off and left otherwise untouched and a hole had been dug in my mattress. Now, once again I know Penny started this. Shilo was left alone on my bed, every morning for 18 months and the worst I got was a rumpled bed. So now the dogs are once again relegated to the passage and the kitchen. I don't know what I will do if it gets really cold again. Maybe I need to buy them a doggy house... I feel like such a failure as a furparent.
Day 166: It's raining.
Spring has officially sprung, and we are getting some lovely rain. More than we've had in September for quite a few years actually. I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
Day 167: Cheesy goodness. I needs it.
I really did. I still do in fact. I'm on a cheesy binge. Anything smothered in cheese is essential right now. This was a delicious vegetarian pizza. Olives and cheese. Yummy!
Day 168: Hi!
Shilo decided I needed to watch him much more than I needed to watch Supernatural. I may have agreed with him.
Day 169: Rearview sunset.
I have been trying to get a photo of a sunset for y'all for just the longest time, but every time I try, the colours are all wrong. We get amazing sunsets here, and were I live there is an amazing view of the sunset, everyday on my drive home. The road I live in is a long main road, and it always looks like the sun is setting in perfect alignment with it. Anyway, on the way home on this day, I was stuck in traffic and was being blinded by the sun reflecting in my side mirror, and I thought I'd take a chance and see how my iPod captured it. And, aside from my dirty window, it captured it almost perfectly. That'll do little iPod, that'll do.
Day 170: How I almost left the house today. Lesson: always look at the shoes you slip on your feet...
I am not really a morning person. I sleep until the very last minute and have getting ready in ten to fifteen minutes down to an art form. While I was rummaging through my closest with my toes for my shoes, these sure felt the same. Good thing I happened to look down before I left.
Day 171: The Dungeon Of No Signal. Aka part of the archive of the National Cultural History Museum.
I'm sure some of you have seen me tweeting about spending the day in the Dungeon. Well, this is it. It is freezing in here and there is no signal at all so no phone, no Internet, no nothing. If it wasn't so cold in there I'm sure I would be super-productive on my Dungeon days.
Day 172: Know Your New Street Names.
I was driving behind this and thought it would be a good follow up to Day 158. There are numerous buses driving around with these posters on them. I saw one yesterday about Steve Biko, who now has a street in Pretoria named after him. I think this 'Know Your New Street Names' initiative is great .
Day 173: All finished! — at DITSONG Kruger Museum.
After six months and various delays, the renovation of the exterior of the Kruger House is complete! There are still a few small things the contractors are attending to on site; blocked drains, paving etc. But the house is finished and the museum will be reopening on Monday 1 October October the 10th (the CEO had other plans apparently and didn't think we actually needed to know *runs around frantically informing clients that the opening date has changed*). While the house looks great on the outside, the revamp makes the shoddy inside very noticeable. So the acting manager wants to try to get a project going next year to restore the interior. That would be awesome.
Day 174: Surprise Daddy & daughter day.
My Dad and I just haven't spent enough time together lately. He is very busy working, and works most weekends, and the fact that I live 63km away and the price of fuel is exorbitant is not helping any. On this Saturday, I was just out of bed and dressed when I got a text from my Dad:
Dad: Whatcha doing?
Me: A load of laundry. What you doing?
Dad: Driving down your driveway...
This last I actually only got after I heard his diesel engine parking and my dogs going mad. Then I squeed a little. He had brought the fixings for boerewors rolls (hot dogs with boerwors) and some coke and cream soda, and he made me lunch! Yummy lunch! Then we fiddled with my car and sat around talking. And I showed him all these photos. He is so exhausted these days from the long hours he's working that the moment he sits down he basically passes out, but we spent the whole afternoon together and it was great. And I had leftovers after. Altogether a great day.
Day 175: Turquoise.
Can you tell I am not a professional manicurist? Is there such a word? There should be. Just as 'sandwichify' should be a word. As in 'I'm gonna take this bread, cheese and bacon and sandwichify the feck out of em'...
Day 176: Blooming beginning.
First the jasmine and now the irises. I love this time of year.
Day 177: Scrub a dub dub. Nikki's in the tub.
I used my new phone app to edit this and it came out pretty nicely.
Day 178: Two favourite toys working in fabulous union. (I used my new phone photo editor app :D)
Another photo edited with the phone app. Can you tell I was having fun with it? This is my iPod Touch and my fabulous docking station. I have two docking stations: one in my living room, which also has a CD player, auxiliary output and radio, and this smaller one in my bedroom which just docks iPods. The smaller one actually has better sound than the bigger. I needed one in my bedroom so I could be lulled to to sleep by wonderful tunes with perfect bass beat. It has a remote. This makes me incredibly happy. In case you're wondering the song playing there on my iPod Touch is Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas.
Day 179: Good Morning!
The sun was just rising. Don't expect many similar picture from me, but the birds had been incredibly noisy this morning and I had a headache which prohibited sleep.
Day 180: Tomaraisins! Who knew?!
Seriously. Tomaraisins. I didn't buy any to try but it's on my list of things to do.
Day 181: Thanks to Ma, herself and both us girls now have one of these signs ;)
I suggested we should all hang them up in the same place in our houses and what better place than the toilet? Mom's is already up apparently.
Day 182: 365 halfway mark and Maid of Honour apparel is sorted.
Yep, I am halfway through this photo project! And if you want to know more about the wedding clothes go here.
Day 183: Lazy holiday snuggling doggies.
The 24th was National Heritage Day, a national holiday over here. It has also recently become National Braai Day but I don't think the Haw Family has managed to actually have a braai on National Braai Day. Not yet anyway. I spent the holiday reading and and snuggling. Which was perfect for a slightly overcast day.
Day 184: One of the more interesting spam emails I've ever received...
As one of my Facebook friends commented 'WTF?'. WTF indeed....
Day 185: Random traffic shadow play.
I seem to take a lot of photos in the traffic. Makes me think I may be spending too much time in the car.
Anyway, I thought this was really cool. I wonder if Johnny Walker always stays on the headrest or moves around the back of the car a bit. I bet he moves around. I wonder if they positioned that sticker like that on purpose? I wonder what is causing the shortage of bacon?
Day 186: The Casual Vacancy day!
I could not believe this actually arrived on the day of release. I preordered it ages ago, mainly because where I ordered it from had it for the cheapest I'd seen. But I did not believe it would be waiting for me when I got to work on 27 September. So excited!
Day 187: Rainy morning.
Another one. And don't get me wrong, I love rainy mornings. But it does make it just that much harder to get out bed.
Also today is the birthday of the Pixie from Day 97. Pretty sure that tomorrow's photo will be a picture of the Birthday Pixie.
I just realised I wrote an essay on naughty puppy behaviour at the beginning of this post. I hope you enjoyed the effort I put in ;)
We have bought the dresses. This happened over three shopping trips and I was going to post after each trip but then I thought it would just be more interesting if I posted after everything had been bought. Fair warning: there are far more photos of me in this post than the bride because I am just harder to please.
The first shopping day was a few weeks ago. We went to a huge, almost discount shopping centre in Johannesburg called The Oriental Plaza.
It's very serious business, planning where to start...
My Mom and Darren were part of this expedition, as you can see. Poor Darren. The patience of a saint, I tell you. So we walked into the first promising shop, and tried on a few dresses.
This was the first dress Mouse tried one. I chose it because I liked the lace on the skirt. But it's not really her style and she wasn't that impressed. Parenthetically, my sister leaves her sunglasses on for dress fittings - she's just THAT cool.
I really like the top on this one. I think it really suited her.
And then, the third dress she tried on was it...
You'll have to wait for the wedding photos to actually see it.
My Mom and I talked her into at least looking around the shopping centre we were currently in a bit before making a final decision, so she did.
This one looked far better on than I thought it would. It sure was fugly on the rack, but the style suited her.
Serious business, as I said...
Very serious business.
Mouse tried on a few more dresses, and while we were browsing, Darren found himself the perfect shirt. But I don't have a picture of it! I had ONE job!
Anyway, nothing else really caught Mouse's attention so we went back and she bought the third dress she tried on. I guess she knows her mind. And the bonus was, it was on special so it is probably the most inexpensive wedding dress ever purchased.
At this point in time it was decided to look for dresses for the mother of the bride and the maid of honour. Let me just say right now that the maid of honour does not enjoy shopping.
The mother of the bride was easy! We were passing a Chinese clothing shop and...
...MaHaw found her perfect dress.
Also, MaHaw is an exhibitionist ;)
My sister insists there will be no colour co-ordinating among the family members and the bare minimum of co-ordination among the bridal party. She wants a totally relaxed wedding with no stresses about who should be wearing what. Works for me, although I did insist on a teeny bit of colour co-ordination which I'll tell you about shortly.
By now the bride, the groom and the mother of the bride are all sorted for outfits. Which leaves me. Let me just say that what followed did absolutely nothing for my self esteem, but I did get a few giggles out of it. And while I am fairly pudgy, the clothes I was trying on were meant for petite Asian girls, and there was just no way.
Fat fairy number 1. I particularly like the leggings, they're a nice touch.
Fat fairy number 2. The flower strap... I just can't.
This one was quite nice, and was my plan B. It was longer than I wanted, but it looked okay and it sparkled. You can never go wrong with sparkles.
That was that for that shopping day. Everybody was sorted except me, which is pretty typical. The only time I can find clothes or shoes I like is when I'm not looking for them and don't have the money to buy them. We scheduled another shopping trip, two in fact, but Mouse got horribly sick and so I had a two week reprieve.
This past weekend was a long weekend over here, and so we put our walking shoes on and headed to Johannesburg again. This time we went to a well-known shopping mall, where we have spent copious hours shopping over the years.
As we walked in, Mouse headed to one of her favourite shoe stores and found these.
Bridal shoes? Check.
At the same store MaHaw found these...
...and we all agreed they were pretty perfect for her Chinese dress.
So once again the only one who hadn't found anything was me. We headed out with purpose to find my dress. And can I just say that grey or charcoal dresses are not that easy to find at the moment. BUT the retro styles in fashion right now are just so awesome. Every clothing store we stopped in looked like the 50s and the 80s had decided to throw a revival party. Awesome!
I actually found my dress at the first shop we stopped at. But it was in a ridiculously small size so we asked if any of their branches had fat fairy sizes and we got a list of possibilities. But while we were in the mall we decided to keep looking anyway.
This was very similar to the previous dress I tried on. And I liked what it did to my boobs. But it was still a bit small. I tried a bigger size on the next day.
I did like this one, but I really wanted charcoal or grey. And I really think those socks should be standard with any evening dress I wear. Adds a certain something.
This is the most expensive dress I have ever tried on. And I'm not sure what made it worth it's price tag.
This was the first dress my sister actually oooh'd over. I liked it. A lot. But that other dress was still on my mind, and anyway, this one was too big. Ha! Yes it was.
We made plans to meet up at my house the next day, and try the Pretoria stores to see if they had my dress in my size. While we were out we found that other dress in a bigger size and I tried it on as well.
But whereas the first one was a bit small, this one was a bit big. Also, I was told I shouldn't wear those shoes...
And then we found it. The right dress, the right size everything!
It's practically exactly what I wanted.
Well we were just all so relieved. And as we were leaving we passed a branch of the shoe store where by some fluke, we have found all my special occasion shoes and my sister insisted we go look. I do not do heels. My comfort is far too important to me. But I do have a thing for a particular style of pretty heel, and I never get the opportunity to buy or wear such shoes, so I grab it when it comes. I have, now, three such pairs of shoes; my graduation shoes, my best friends wedding shoes (I was a bridesmaid) and now my sister's wedding shoes.
At first I thought these were perfect...
...but then I saw these...
And I needed them.
I should just be able to get through the ceremony wearing these, but a pair of purple ballet flats for the reception will be absolutely necessary.
And now seeing as the the bride and the maid of honour are wearing purple shoes I insisted suggested that that the bridesmaid should too. I think it will look great; subtle and great. I can't seem to convince the groom to wear purple shoes though...
