Monday 22 July

The funny thing is that I thought I would start this issue right on the first day of the month! After the last issue I felt like I was on a roll, but I must have lost momentum somewhere. Moods and events got in the way of that newsletter-writing vibe. Okay I suppose it's not that funny. I only said it was because I feel bad that I'm only starting it on the 22nd. I even told some friends that it should be ready by this past weekend. Still, at least I didn't make any promises.

This afternoon I am going to buy a new film for my camera. Yes it's an additional expense, but I do want to get some new pictures for this issue or if not this issue then the next one. I'm planning to buy a return train ticket to Newlands. There's a Currie Cup rugby game at Newlands on Saturday (Western Province vs Griffons) so I'm going to get tickets for it. I should be able to stop off at Claremont on the way back from Newlands to get that film even though you're not supposed to break your journey or make additional stops with a return train ticket, believe it or not. I also need to pay my annual AA membership fee - no I still don't drive, nor drink much for that matter - at the AA Auto Shop. Even if you're just a passenger in a car you can use your card to get assistance from the AA. Otherwise, of course, I wouldn't be a member.

Wednesday 24 July

Well that was a pathetic attempt at getting this issue going on Monday, wasn't it? And to think I couldn't even be bothered to write anything yesterday. Of course I intended to, but we all know where good intentions lead don't we?

And now I need to pour some hot water onto my Woolworths coffee (cheaper and, in my opinion, nicer than Nescafé by the way) just to get me going today!

I've made some progress with those photographs I said I wanted to take though. On Monday I got my rugby tickets, had my train ticket checked three times (but clipped not even once) paid my AA membership and bought a pack of three Kodak Ultra films. Shortly after I returned home I spent an entire 24 exposure film on pictures inside and outside the house. I don't know what the neighbours thought and I'm not sure what that woman down the other end of the road thought when I was pointing my camera right at her. At least she didn't think it was a gun, and run and hide. This was just to take a photograph of Blackheath Road. Michael has taken the film into Campus Camera to be developed. They ought to be cheaper than the local one up the road. Unfortunately for him I am also going to ask him to try and scan a few at work. !!Newsflash!! I've just called Michael and he's fetched them. He says most of them are good and he'll try and get a few scanned if he has a chance. I won't publish too many in this issue because it would be a mission for Michael to scan them all and also it would mean too many printed pages for the hardcopy edition. But I may add a few more to the web version. Besides, it's only a house and not even a posh one at that. Anyway if you really want to see it inside out, you could always visit.

Below: Blackheath Road - taken from end of cul-de-sac - Chesterton to left (out of pic)

WHAT DID YOU SAY?

Before I get onto some REAL news, I have some edited emails to share with you. Thanks to everyone who had something to say about the last issue, even if it was only "I must admit I haven't read it yet" (Kelvin) or "Oh thanks, I got it, but I forgot about it!! Thanks for reminding me" (Nomfuzo). My responses are in italics, the blue writing if you're reading this is colour.

18 June - Amanda at work in Johannesburg:

I eventually read your newsletter, lots of fun as usual. We also showed the previous letters to a colleague of ours so she could put faces to names.

Thanks Amanda! I will use this opportunity to finally (in ADT) congratulate you and Macjerry on your pregnancy. Looking forward to the birth of your al- I mean baby in December!

 

Below: Chesterton - this block comprises of four townhouses (this is the back view) and we are the first one (left side of pic) - up to the third (toilet) window. You can see a tiny part of the other block of four townhouses, behind our one, in the far left of the photo.

22 June - Paul in Brazil

Yes it's the prodigal reader here, thanks for remembering to send me an email :)

Anyway I have to agree with what Asyia said [see June's ADT - Mel], there is a lot of SAn negativity around. I haven't experienced it here in Brazil, but I met a lot of SAns in Europe who just complained of how things were back home.

As for anti-African sentiment, I think it's actually anti-Third World sentiment. As for SA, we look like spotless saints compared to what has happened elsewhere. Ok look at the exchange rate ... the ZAR took a beating, however after a few months things settled and the exchange rate looks a lot better at the R10 level to the dollar. The Brazilian Real however is at it's lowest since the Real was introduced in 1994, losing more ground than ZAR in the last year. The level of debt that SA has is comparably low, no one even doubts SA's ability to pay. Why do I mention all this? Because it shows that foreign confidence in SA is good.

As for crime etc, let me give you a personal story. For those readers out there that don't know I lived in Johannesburg for 2 years, arguably the world's rape and murder capital. During those 2 years nothing ever happened to me. Now I live in Brazil, and trust me São Paulo and Rio are not all that pretty either. But for the year I've been here nothing has really happened to me. However Brazil is well known for it's "favelas" (shanty towns - Alex was the closest looking to these places), and "sequestros" (basically kidnapping and/or car hijacking). SAn gangs have nothing compared to their Brazilian counterparts. There are stories of gangs that place curfews in a whole suburb with more that 3 mil people. For a week no one left their home! Organised crime, kidnapping of rich businessmen and powerful people, some instigated by heads of crime organisations inside a prison. Yes SA has a lot of prisoners escaping, but it happens here too.

Now back to my personal story, about a month ago I went to the little country that ousted SA from the World Cup, Paraguay. I got there on Labour Day/Worker's Day the 1st of May. Not even 3 hours in Asuncion, I was robbed at gunpoint, the robbers got away with my cell phone and digital camera. Fortunately I got away with my life, wallet and passport. What made the whole thing strange was that it was in the middle of the city, not some bad distant suburb, there was the Town Hall about 100 meters away with a military guard posted in front of it, and last but not least the 2 police officers that were less than 25 meters away. The police were nice enough to ask me if something happened "back there" and then went into the mini-shanty town, guns loaded looking for the culprits. Needless to say they didn't find them.

My point is that there is crime and corruption in many other countries and probably SA is far better off than the press, the expats and even people in SA think.

Of course it still needs work, principally in the AIDS war. Here is something that Brazil was successful at combating, mainly because they were willing at government level to admit it was a huge problem and needed addressing. I can only hope that SA gets a good programme running sooner than later.

Please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors, I don't speak very much English these days… heheh NOT!

Paul, thanks! And don't worry I cleaned up all the Portuguese-English errors ;-) I wonder if I should sign this newsletter from Melody and Paul this time! In fact Paul said a few more things about how SA tops all other Third World countries based on a certain World Bank measurement. And he mentioned how a high standard of tertiary education in SA is much cheaper than say in the USA or the UK, but he didn't want me to bore you guys with all the figures. He also said "Go SA!!!!!" but with a few more exclamation marks. Oh yes, I asked Paul to write a little something about what the atmosphere was like in Brazil on the day of the soccer World Cup Final, but he's probably been too busy. He did say that it was incredible before the final though, fireworks all the time, etc. Oh and the following is a URL Asyia recommended as the best website about South Africa that she has found: http://www.countryprofiler.com/safrica/index_e1.html

22 June - Debbie in Cape Town:

Thanks for your wonderful newsletter. I really enjoyed reading it - along with the pangs of guilt for not keeping in touch with you. I have to tell you that I am an ardent Will [funny, as I got to this point, "Light my Fire" started playing on the radio -Mel] Young fan - he is so divine - he has some kind of inner soul/spirit beauty that just shines right through his eyes. No, I am not crooning [Debbie, I bet you meant swooning - Mel] like some 16-year-old groupie, but this guy has something very special about him - not to mention his amazing voice. It's nice to find somebody who feels the same way - most of my circle prefer Gareth Gates and we have these HUGE debates about that!!

Thanks so much for including me on your newsletter list. I really enjoyed "keeping in touch" with you.

Well I've already told Debbie that I agree that Will Young seems to have an inner beauty thing going on, but I thought I'd better say it here again now in case she sounds insane to some of you! Man, that version of "Light my Fire" is SMOKIN'! One thing we disagree on, which is no big deal, is that I dislike The Doors' original and she loves it. In the email Debbie wrote, she also suggested we have a get-together with some other ex-UCT and UCT buddies. We ended up going to the UCT Club for lunch on Thursday, 27th June. Some of those who were meant to be there didn't make it in the end - a close combination of a misunderstanding and the lack of transport, but it was still great and I got to see Debbie and eat good food which was the prime objective of the outing. Also there were David Beukes, Verity, Rowina (and her twin sons) and Marius. David and Verity actually picked me up from Rondebosch train station. Luckily I got an early train because it turned out to be 20 minutes late. This meant they had to wait that much longer for me in the parking lot, but they didn't seem to mind too much. Anything for me, right guys?

Below: If you come in via the security gate in the previous pic, you will reach our little white gate. So this is the front of the house and part of the garden seen from the driveway.

18 July - Lehlohonolo in Cape Town:

I have not kept in touch for a while, I guess I got spoiled by your ADT updates. By the way, thanks for your ADTs - at least they keep us in touch. It's good to see you rubbing shoulders with die bokke [for those who don't know Afrikaans, he means the Springboks, our national rugby team -Mel]. I think I should stop being modest and put my pics with Tiger Woods and Jack Welch on the web too - what do you think (Hahahaha!!!)? [This is Lehlohonolo laughing, not me! - Mel] Watch this space… Keep those ADTs coming, esp some pics. Dave was right - the beauty in those pics motivate one to keep reading!!!

I think raised eyebrows are in order here. And of course amusement. David might have a thing or two to say in reaction I think! Oh and please send those pics along. Really, I don't even mind if they are a little airbrushed. Yeah the Springboks, they offered me free air-tickets to watch them in New Zealand and Australia, but I had other priorities like doing the washing so I turned them down. I think it's why they lost 41-20 to the All Blacks on Saturday (a very flattering score-line is what most of us think considering that nasty Aussie ref, but never mind). But don't let me get started on that one! Then again I need to take my chances while I can. It was very disappointing that they lost and I felt bad for them, but they will get stronger and stronger and I can't wait for them to beat New Zealand when they come to Durban soon! Didn't Werner Greeff just rock?? Also, loved that try by Marius Joubert (what did the NZ commentator say about our Andre's kick just before the try?? - "That was a horrible kick!!"). But Marius please stay out of the sin-bin on Saturday, boy! Here's hoping they beat the Aussies this coming Saturday! Looking forward to seeing more play out of Lawrence Sephaka and need to see Breyton in action! And Corne (our captain) accused afterwards of biting an All Black when even the one that was allegedly bitten said at the hearing that he wasn't bitten! Do you think I will be able to go the rest of the newsletter without mentioning another word about rugby? Stranger things have happened!

Real News

Seriously though, I have already shared some real news with you, but not very much I suppose. I know most of you want to know if I have a job yet, but then again it probably would have been the first thing I told you. Not because it is the most important thing in the world to me, but because it's the kind of thing that rates quite high on life's scale with most people. After all, money is a very useful tool. And even I can't help asking new people I meet something like "What do you do?" I guess it's more a question of what do you do for most of your day, and generally people spend most of their waking day doing their job. I wonder how I would fit an extra eight hours or nine hours into my day now. I suppose I'd have to get someone else to keep the house clean and in order, for one. It isn't something that's stopping me from getting work though, but honestly I'm generally and genuinely quite happy to be at home. It's just the money thing and trying to find something interesting to tell people about what I do with my days. So yeah I haven't decided that I can't be bothered to make any money, because I will make sure I am bothered, I just haven't reached that point yet, but believe me I am getting there. I suppose I am lucky that I have someone who can pay for my accommodation etc, but that just happens to be how it is. Other people may be lucky in other ways, like doing work they are passionate about! And I managed to save money. That enabled me to do this, even though it may be a "bad thing" to spend your savings. But sometimes money isn't everything. I am really grateful that I was able to take a year off work - that's almost how long it is and I can't believe it's been that long. The time has flown. I also earned the right to get some unemployment money for nine months and I also managed to get a tax refund the other day because I only worked part of the last tax year and therefore was deemed to be overtaxed when the Receiver of Revenue spread my salary over that year. So some of my luck is of my own creation. I guess that's what a lot of people say these days, you make your own luck. So maybe some people think I am lucky and maybe some people think I am lazy, I don't know, but believe me I imagine all sorts of things and I can understand these viewpoints. I am not sure what I really am, but I don't consider myself to have been a happy child (eg. I hated school) and I don't consider that I enjoyed my studies at university and I don't think I enjoyed telling people I worked in human resource management because you have to be enthusiastic about what you're doing in order to make it sound engaging to other people. And I don't blame anyone for any of that. It's likely all my own doing. I should have been able to tap into what would have worked for me instead, but I didn't. I am still trying to get there, but I can't stand people worrying about me. Although my year off work hasn't been something I can call an "incredible" year (bad things happen and things you want to happen don't happen), I think I did deserve some time off and I am quite likely to ease my way back into the working world. That sounds impossible when I also think it will be very difficult for me to get back into employment considering my long break. It's not like I can tell prospective employers that I have been studying during all this time or something. But I just mean that I don't want to go slap-bang back into a full-time job. In fact I still hate the thought of updating my CV, but I suppose I can try and do something creative with it.

Right now, I need to close the windows. It's after 5pm, it's dark, cold and wet and I think I'm making fish and chips for dinner. I didn't mean to write all of that about my "time off" or "time-out", I meant to write about us finally getting our new washing-machine and oven (thanks to the Receiver of Revenue) and about us finally getting the geyser replaced after it sounded like there was a waterfall in the ceiling last week. You know, that kind of thing. But I suppose I couldn't help myself.

Below: Front of house taken from inside the garden. The sun shining on the lens messed up my pic of the back of the garden, but this one and the previous pic show you part of the garden. That's the main bedroom window up there and the lounge window is below it.

I'm back far sooner than I meant to be. I've decided to delay starting dinner for another half an hour. I don't know that Michael will be getting home in the next half-hour and it doesn't take long to fry fish and chips anyway. I want to watch Popstars at 7pm so the only requirement is that dinner is ready and eaten before then. Otherwise it will have to wait until afterwards. Speaking of reality-TV musical types, they've started playing our runner-up Idol, Brandon October's version of Al Green's "Lets stay together" on 5fm now. I am assuming it has been released as a single. It's brilliant! I didn't like Brandon until he sang that song on Idols. There are times I don't like his voice or him and I have to say his face has irritated me at times - it's not just me who thinks this!! - but he does a fantastic version of that song, although it does help that I love the original in this case.

They said on the radio earlier (on the news) that there's another huge asteroid on its way to earth. They say that it could hit Earth in 17 years time taking human civilization back to the Dark Ages, whatever that means. Darren Scott (the deejay) was like "Shouldn't that be the main story in the news??" because it was the last one or something. They say more detailed calculations still need to be done so it may not actually hit us (fancy that) and of course all sorts of other things could get in its way and divert it or break it up over the next 17 years I suspect. So yeah if you had something planned for 18 years from now, maybe you'd better cancel it or, better yet, do it sooner.

Below: Part of the lounge/sitting-room.

There was a story earlier about some 19-year-old guy who died after falling into a huge vat of melted chocolate in the factory he worked at. Apparently he had been doing something on a platform somewhere above the chocolate and it was a while before anyone discovered what had happened to him. The story was called "Death by chocolate". I noticed they didn't mention whether this was Nestle or Beacon or Cadbury or whatever. I'm hoping Beacon. No beacon of light for that poor guy though. Shame!

My sister, Lauren, with her new hairstyle passed all her UCT June exams well so we're really pleased about that. She spent a couple of weeks of her holiday up in Johannesburg with our mother, and the rest of it back here. She actually couldn't wait to get back to varsity at the end, which I find fascinating. But it's good! She visits here quite often which is great and it helps that the train station is right next door to us.

My other sister, Wendy, has been doing some soul-searching and she's decided on a career change. It will involve studying for a few years again first though. She's really excited about doing Occupational Therapy at UCT. She says she would love to do art therapy and also aromatherapy as part of a career in OT. She's going to get temp jobs in, for example, waitressing, so that she can still pay her way though. She quit her job today as well. She can't stand to go back. She said she thought she could handle the world of advertising - they call it "cut-throat" and that's what she mentioned as well - but she's decided it's not for her and with the way things have been going for her lately she thinks it will be unhealthy for her to return. She's been off for a few weeks. Perhaps we can find something we can do together to make some extra money. Speaking of which Tamsyn and I still need to speak about some kind of joint venture doing proofreading and editing. These are the kinds of things that should be considered. You know what some of those new mints they give you in restaurants say: "opportunities multiply as they are seized". But now I sound like all talk and no action.

Sadly, I attended a funeral a couple of weeks ago. My friend, Karen's mother, Thelma Petersen, died from cancer that was too far-gone when it was diagnosed a couple of months ago. It was really so sad. I knew her independently of knowing Karen. She also used to work at UCT in Bremner building and she retired just a couple of years ago. She was only 63 and it's really awful that this happened to her, such a wonderful person.

And then it was Karen's birthday on Friday last week. Of course it was difficult for her to be in a birthday mood, but Karen's an amazing person and she even managed to make a chocolate cake so that her kids wouldn't be disappointed. Michael, Lauren and I went around in the evening for a short visit and the cake was definitely worth eating!

Thursday 25 July

For those of you with cell-phones, how often do you get odd smses? Or emails? The other day I got an email from someone whose name I certainly did not recognise, but it really sounded like she knew me. As it turns out it was meant for some other Melody. I have received emails for this person before because she also has a kingsley email address. In fact she has asked me to let her know if I ever decide to give up my kingsley email address because she wants to be melody@kingsley rather than mel@kingsley. Anyway, that last one I got for her was quite weird - it was an invitation to coffee and then when I emailed the person back to ask her if she didn't perhaps mean to email this other Melody she basically said yes, sorry, silly me, but you're welcome to join us for coffee anyway! I didn't though. And if you're wondering why I thought she seemed to know me - she talked about both of them being writers and asked if she had been doing her homework. I thought she might be referring to that copy editing/proofreading course I went on. Anyway!!

This morning I got an sms that said something like: "Just checking up on you. Hope you are well? take care!" It wasn't from someone in my cell address book (although strangely the phone sometimes doesn't pick up the name initially and then later on does, like when I got an sms from Lauren Reid the other day!) I realised immediately it might be the wrong number, but sent a "who is this?" reply anyway just in case. No response thus far. I'm guessing wrong number.

Below: Part of the kitchen. Out the back door is the courtyard where we hang washing, etc.

I think I have come to terms with the fact that this issue is going to be longer than four Ms Word pages. Sorry to those who prefer the shorter style! If only I'd started the thing at the beginning of the month you would have had it by mid-month and it wouldn't be so long. And I still have to add in the pictures!

Late last month I was smsed an invitation to "soup and rolls". This time I knew who it was from - Mark! Now this is a story about how out of touch with a friend you can be. Ok, I'm sure there are far worse scenarios. Last year Mark worked in Cape Town at Deloitte & Touche (yay I spelt it right! Sorry, just looked it up in the phonebook) in Claremont. Anyway the last I heard he wasn't going to be there much longer. Anyway so Michael and I went to the address in Newlands on the following evening (a Monday, if this makes any difference). I think when we arrived the only person we knew was Mark. Later a few other familiar people arrived (nice to see you again Julian and Gary). Anyway we were told names and one of them was Karin (sp?) and someone said "THE Karin" and everyone else seemed to be in on the joke and I was thinking "Who is THE Karin??". Anyway turns out she's Mark's girlfriend and they've known each other for ages. Only a couple of days later I remembered that Mark had mentioned her to me a good while back. And then I said to the person sitting to the left of me (Michael was on my right) "I take it this is Mark's house then" (see, Mark was up and about getting Coke for people and stuff so we hadn't had a chance to say more than a ltns - long time no see). And then there was that pause you get when the person is trying to think of a way to respond to something that has clearly baffled them. Or when they think you've a screw loose or something. She was like: "This is his sister's house. He lives in Joburg". She must have been thinking: how the hell did you get invited - I wonder if you even know who Mark is!! Anyway so I didn't know that Mark had moved back to Joburg and that he had a girlfriend there called Karin whom he'd known for quite a long time. He was just visiting Cape Town for a week so he thought he'd have a little get-together. And the butternut soup was great J Needless to say, Mark would prefer to live in Cape Town again. It was cool seeing you, Mark.

Michael's father came to visit a couple of weeks ago - was it really that long ago? - he came down on a business trip to Stellenbosch (which is next to Cape Town) and then spent the Thursday evening before he had to fly back to Joburg/Pretoria here with us. So he saw the house for the first time. It was great seeing him. And he took us out for dinner as usual. We went to Jakes on Summerly up the road. On the other side of the tracks. It was a good dinner. Unfortunately he had to park the rental car outside Chesterton, pretty much where that maroon car is parked in one of the pictures. And guess what - someone broke into it overnight and tried to steal the radio. It didn't work so basically they broke a window and they broke the radio. So he had to go to the police station (apparently it wasn't the Claremont one he was meant to go to, it was Wynberg, but they helped him because he had a flight to catch and didn't have the time) and then the car rental people said: "Don't worry about it, it happens all the time". I suppose it does or I would have been surprised. I wasn't. It still sucked, but newish-looking cars parked in a quiet area, in the open, overnight, with radios, yeah they probably don't have such a good chance of going untouched. I'm not sure that the GP (Gauteng Province) number-plate was relevant. It's a pity we don't have a couple of extra parking bays in the complex, but we may have to make another plan next time. When we stayed at a B&B in Glasgow the German-number-plated car that was parked behind our rental car got its window bashed in overnight. Strange world.

I haven't eaten yet today so I think I need to make a plan before I go any further.

Below: A bit of our bedroom - sorry you can't see the mountain; the clouds are covering it!

I'm back after bacon, avo and toast. I first had to take a walk to the 7-11 to buy the latter two items. I have some good news - I do know the person who smsed me from an unknown number this morning. It was Lehlohonolo - not my fault if he doesn't let me know he has a new cell number. Now his message has been publicised, poor thing!

It's about time I said thank you to all my friends who have continued to care about my well-being and kept in touch even though I don't get to see many of you all that much any more. I really appreciate it and I must admit I am very lucky to have so many great friends! At least I know you weren't just friends with me because I was earning money ;)

I visited naughty Alex on his eight-month birthday on 9 July and luckily this was part of a package deal because it also meant that Michael and I had a free dinner a la Verity. We had some spiced up red wine spaghetti blow-your-nose. Yes, similar to bolognaise, but with a twist.

I just spoke to Verity now and she suggested we (maybe) go to Billy the Bum's tonight. Actually yesterday she suggested we go tomorrow night (Friday) because she's been twice and loved it. I have never been although have thought about it. It's a restaurant/bar owned by (did I promise not to mention rugby again?) Bob Skinstad, Corne Krige and Robbie Fleck who play a popular sport. Looking forward to seeing them in play on Saturday in two different games, one on TV and the other at Newlands, provided Fleckie passes his fitness test tomorrow. Anyway Verity has a work social (sounds like an oxymoron) tomorrow after work so she thinks maybe we can go to Billy's tonight instead and David also suggested some Castle Loud party on Saturday night so that's in the pipeline too.

I'm considering going to watch "High Crimes" (Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd) at the Waterfront on Sunday since I can get comps as a result of being "an Exclusive Books Fanatics club member who has bought fiction at EB in the past year". I think it's based on a James Patterson book. It may be free, but it's first come first served, but at least the tickets don't have to be collected on a day prior to the event. You can get them an hour before the show. I haven't been to watch a movie in ages!

Oh yes if any one of you who lives in Cape Town has a desk you don't need, please let me know because Wendy is on the lookout for one. I don't necessarily mean it has to be handed over free of charge. Even if there is a price, let me know. And if you have any cool or even not so cool jobs to offer either of us, let us know! Especially if Michael kicks us out onto the street.

News update on my Mom, she's still working hard at Sasol and she's in the process of buying a flat in Joburg. She will move into it later in the year.

My dad's looking for someone to clean his fish tanks free of charge. Hahaha, not really. I might visit him and my grandparents tonight or tomorrow.

Did I mention that Michael passed his June exams? I don't think I did. Well he did, and got a distinction in his Linguistics course for that matter. He's just got a couple more assignments to go for the year and then five funtastic exams in October and November.

Below: More of the lounge with the archway through to the study type room.

I was thinking how in Cape Town we can have decent gardens throughout the year. I mean if you look at the photo's in here, you'll see what I mean. If it snowed here I think I would just freak out because it would destroy all the funky flowers and we've got some nice blossoming going on here at the moment - impatiens, pansies (but damn those orange-pink aphids, caterpillars and other bugs on them!), geraniums, kalanchoe, roses and other stuff I don't know the names of. Actually it may be some other kind of pelargonium (glad I looked that up in the dictionary first!) not geranium. Anyone know what that tree with the red leaves is called? I've seen it growing in other places, but it doesn't always get so red - lack of direct sunlight I think. So we don't have snow, but we are the windy city and the blasted wind keeps breaking the rose bush stems so I have to bring roses with wrecked stems inside. This is not always such a bad thing - this last one looks really beautiful and Lauren said: "it smells like a Turkish Delight!" and I said "Did you know that the pink Turkish Delight is actually rose-flavoured?". She didn't, and I haven't known for very long time either. It seems kind of strange to eat something that's the flavour of the scent of a flower, doesn't it? And it may be winter, but the white-eye birds come and dive into the bird-bath at the end of our garden on a daily basis. And Lauren even sun-tanned in a deckchair in our garden on both days of this past weekend.

Below: Now you know where I write these newsletters.

Wendy's made some cool things lately - fabric-painted cushions, sun-catchers and bead bracelets and chains and lucky me, I have been the recipient of an example of each of these. In terms of my own creativity, I've painted some greeting cards - love messing with wet paint - and made a batch of condensed milk biscuits. Actually they didn't turn out right because I over-estimated the flour (we didn't have a kitchen scale) and had to add extra milk to ensure that it turned into dough anyway (hence the element of creativity). So Michael, Lauren and Wendy will tell you they were more like sweet, flat scones and some of them had choc bits since Lauren suggested I add choc chips - I put in four broken-up blocks of Top Deck. They made 100 cookies and we're at the end of them now.

I know I must have more news, but there's no way I can or will tell you everything so I think this is more than enough for one month, don't you?

Enjoy August, and to those of you birthday-ing in August (and there are quite a few ADT-readers who are!) have a super month, rain or shine!

Candles of love,

Melody

PS. Keep humming that tune!