Belly dancing lessons

No I haven't taken leave of my senses (well, not altogether)

My almost-daughter (the doctor) is getting married next Saturday. It was her kitchen tea yesterday, held at the soon-to-be in-laws' brand new restaurant. One of her friends bought belly dancing lessons for the guests, I can barely move today.

Here the belly dancer demonstrates how to give yourself an appendectomy.


I retired, injured, after about 45 minutes.

Scientist no 1 with the bride to be. BFFs for 18 years.


They went on to movies and then the bachelorette party. I have no idea how they kept going from 11am yesterday until 2.30am this morning.

Meet The Glumms

Edna and Harold Thick-knee. For new parents they look remarkably unimpressed. I'm guessing it's the lack of sleep.


The chick is so well-camouflaged I thought the ginger cat from up the road may have eaten it. It's quite nerve-wracking for me, I'm sure they are exhausted from chasing neighbourhood cats and assorted predators..

Yesterday morning I sent Walter racing down the road at 4am after the ginger cat, dressing gown flapping behind him; hopefully everyone else was still fast asleep.

Happy birthday Scientist No 1

It was Scientist no 1's birthday yesterday. She is now "25 with 1 year's experience"

In Knysna, 1987

Just like that she's 25 with 1 year's experience. High 5 for handing in her Master's thesis.

Quite appropriate that one of the Thick-knee eggs hatched then, on her birthday.

Mama bird, looking fierce

Cycle challenge 2011

Scientist no 1 has crossed to the dark side. Given how I feel about the wretched cycle challenge (which effectively places the neighbourhood under collective house arrest on an annual basis) you would think she would steer clear of it.

But no. 

They're back....

We have a pair of Spotted Dikkops (now referred to as Spotted Thick-Knees for some obscure reason) who have nested in our street for as long as we have lived here.

Their return to the street in late spring is confirmation, for me, that summer is not far behind.

Egg-sitting

I keel you...


Sometimes one will stand in the middle of the road when I'm coming home from the gym early in the morning, almost daring me to come closer. I have to sit and wait for it to calm down before slowly driving on. They are, apparently, monogamous birds so I'd hate to harm one accidentally.

And we can sit in the boma of an evening, watching the bats catching their dinner and listening to the Dikkops calling.

I quite forgot about the Cape Town trip...

The Angola Airlines 747 was still, as of 8th October 2011,  waiting for someone to claim it / give back its engines.

Of the 9 million pictures I took over the Karoo (my seat-neighbour was not altogether sure what I was doing pointing the iPad out of the window and if that required reporting me to the crew for being a potential threat) only 1 was worth keeping.