Today is a perfect summers sunny day in Johannesburg, South Africa and I'm sitting at our bar counter, sipping on a glass of cheap plonk wine, smoking a menthol and enjoying my little family playing by the pool. I'm watching my Boerewors fiddle with his newly renovating pool, I'm engrosed in my 3 year old cleaning my plastic outdoor chairs with a sponge (she's addicted to playing with water as an Aspies child) and my 6 year-old doting on her Daddy in awe.
Its all good. Blissful domestic happiness...what more could a nearly middle-aged daft scots gal want??
So...
We're expecting some visitors later on for a braai (aka a barbeque) and I've done all my preparations for the festivities...I've made a scrummy potato-bake with bacon, onions and cheese, I've out-done myself with a beautiful green salad with haloumi cheese, I've even opened the boxes for a mushroom and cheese pasta salad and a sweet and sour beetroot salad (I'm not THAT domesticated, okay). Everytime I say that I'm remind myself of a movie that Megan and I love to watch called "The Muppets from Space" on DVD - starring a very amusing Mexican King Prawn who has the most amazing Mexican accent and after anything he says he mumbles : "Okey!". My girls and I have developed this annoying habit of doing the same....
Okey???....
Sorry I got distracted again...
...Back to the braai preparations...
Yes, so I'm not a Domestic Goddess. I wash dishes, I clean house and I whip up something for supper but I'm not one of those mums who buy piles of cook books and look for new and exotic things to cook so that I can WOW my family that get bored with their tedious evening meals. I have far too many other talents which will remain my "secret plans and cleva tricks".
There are some limits to this busy working mum of two, who's addicted to blogging. I make time for everything as long as its zippy and soopa quick like Speedy Gozalves. Ándale! Ándale! Arriba! Arriba! Just call me "The speediest mum is all Johannesburg". I love anything that makes my life easier and quicker. I don't worry too much about MSG or unhealthy, high fat pre-packet meals. Hell, I grew up on them and I'm not a complete over-weight blob with high colestorol and heart problems - YET! I may have a mini-blubber butt though...
Got side-tracked again. Back to my visitors...
We've invited my dearest and oldest friend and her husband around for a braai and I can't wait to see her. We went to high school together and we banned from seeing each other in Standard 7 (Grade 9) for an entire YEAR, because we were a "bad influence on each other". We neverless managed to still hang out together and have remained good friends for three decades. I haven't seen her for almost three years and we have the kind of friendship that, when we do chat we just pick up from where we left off.
I'm sure most people have a friend like this. You know, that friends that you don't have to have much contact with but you always seem to find your way back to each other and will remain firm friends with until you are both old and gray, in matching rocking chairs on the porch with blankets and cats on our laps.
This dear old friend is very very special. Okay lets just clear one thing up - she's not old - I just mean she's my oldest friend. She fell pregnant when we were in our final year of high school and her son, Devon is now a handsome young man at 21 years old. God, that makes me feel old.
Not only was she a single mum in high school, but she has subsequently married and has surrogated two beautiful girl-children for other childless couples. How more "unselfish" can you get? She is an amazing woman who is in the process of her third surrogate for a new couple. This will be her third and final attempt at implanting embryos (as she's getting too old now at 39). She went for her third set of embryo implants on Friday and I wish her all the best. She loves being pregnant and looks her best as such. Her hair grows thick, she puts on weight (she's soopa skinny, unlike me) and just loves the feeling of being "with child".
I pray often that she is pregnant this time around and that she can give a wonderful gift to the exicted partents-to-be.
Well, I better dash. More wine to drink, more ciggies to smoke and more Megan and Kaylin watching to be done. Kaylin is in her room in "time out" at the moment for flushing things that she shouldn't down our toilet. So, I better go and let her out and put my Speedy Gonzales parenting techniques into practice.
Its all good. Blissful domestic happiness...what more could a nearly middle-aged daft scots gal want??
So...
We're expecting some visitors later on for a braai (aka a barbeque) and I've done all my preparations for the festivities...I've made a scrummy potato-bake with bacon, onions and cheese, I've out-done myself with a beautiful green salad with haloumi cheese, I've even opened the boxes for a mushroom and cheese pasta salad and a sweet and sour beetroot salad (I'm not THAT domesticated, okay). Everytime I say that I'm remind myself of a movie that Megan and I love to watch called "The Muppets from Space" on DVD - starring a very amusing Mexican King Prawn who has the most amazing Mexican accent and after anything he says he mumbles : "Okey!". My girls and I have developed this annoying habit of doing the same....
Okey???....
Sorry I got distracted again...
...Back to the braai preparations...
Yes, so I'm not a Domestic Goddess. I wash dishes, I clean house and I whip up something for supper but I'm not one of those mums who buy piles of cook books and look for new and exotic things to cook so that I can WOW my family that get bored with their tedious evening meals. I have far too many other talents which will remain my "secret plans and cleva tricks".
There are some limits to this busy working mum of two, who's addicted to blogging. I make time for everything as long as its zippy and soopa quick like Speedy Gozalves. Ándale! Ándale! Arriba! Arriba! Just call me "The speediest mum is all Johannesburg". I love anything that makes my life easier and quicker. I don't worry too much about MSG or unhealthy, high fat pre-packet meals. Hell, I grew up on them and I'm not a complete over-weight blob with high colestorol and heart problems - YET! I may have a mini-blubber butt though...
Got side-tracked again. Back to my visitors...
We've invited my dearest and oldest friend and her husband around for a braai and I can't wait to see her. We went to high school together and we banned from seeing each other in Standard 7 (Grade 9) for an entire YEAR, because we were a "bad influence on each other". We neverless managed to still hang out together and have remained good friends for three decades. I haven't seen her for almost three years and we have the kind of friendship that, when we do chat we just pick up from where we left off.
I'm sure most people have a friend like this. You know, that friends that you don't have to have much contact with but you always seem to find your way back to each other and will remain firm friends with until you are both old and gray, in matching rocking chairs on the porch with blankets and cats on our laps.
This dear old friend is very very special. Okay lets just clear one thing up - she's not old - I just mean she's my oldest friend. She fell pregnant when we were in our final year of high school and her son, Devon is now a handsome young man at 21 years old. God, that makes me feel old.
Not only was she a single mum in high school, but she has subsequently married and has surrogated two beautiful girl-children for other childless couples. How more "unselfish" can you get? She is an amazing woman who is in the process of her third surrogate for a new couple. This will be her third and final attempt at implanting embryos (as she's getting too old now at 39). She went for her third set of embryo implants on Friday and I wish her all the best. She loves being pregnant and looks her best as such. Her hair grows thick, she puts on weight (she's soopa skinny, unlike me) and just loves the feeling of being "with child".
I pray often that she is pregnant this time around and that she can give a wonderful gift to the exicted partents-to-be.
Well, I better dash. More wine to drink, more ciggies to smoke and more Megan and Kaylin watching to be done. Kaylin is in her room in "time out" at the moment for flushing things that she shouldn't down our toilet. So, I better go and let her out and put my Speedy Gonzales parenting techniques into practice.