Thursday 19 September

I've decided to get this issue going with selected email snippets, rather than my fabulously exciting news. I've got lots of pictures for this ADT as well, so I'm going to try and keep my news briefer and more select than usual.

20 August - Kelvin in Cape Town:

I finished your newsletters; HOPE YOU ARE FINISHED WITH THE AUGUST ONE. Please, never put in something like the choc incident again!!! You made me not wanting to touch chocolates again. I am, for the moment, only buying Cadbury products. But it was a nice one!

It's funny what some people think are the highlights in my newsletters - a guy drowning in melted chocolate and he says it was a "nice one". Where do I find these sick friends?? Oh yes, at UCT. Shame, maybe you mean the newsletter was a nice one, Ken, I mean Kel?

28 August - Marlene in Cape Town:

Thank you for all the other news letters that you have sent me. I really enjoy reading them and always look forward to the next issue. I must say this though, because I am so busy at work and as you know with my children the evenings are very hectic. The only time I get to read the newsletter is in the bath. That is my time to catch up with what you've been up to, and of course it's nice to read the replies from my ex-colleagues. Don't know much about rugby as well, but your newsletter gives me a bit of insight. The pictures of your house are beautiful. Your garden is perfect. Once again, thank you for the interesting newsletters.

Yes, Marlene, I think you, Kelvin and I can be grateful that we can talk about EX-colleagues from UCT. And thanks so much for your compliments. Are you sure you don't want something? ;)

Above: Chameleon pics taken by my sister, Wendy

28 August - Mama Gay in Cape Town:

I have just finished reading your newsletter and have no intention of starting to do work until I have added my voice to your amusing, interesting and fun reporting. In fact, unlike in the past, I didn't print it off to read later because later becomes next week with what goes on in this place. To comment on the rugby, this 56-year-old lady went ballistic on Saturday past. I went to my brother in Hout Bay. He had a bunch of hooligans over for the match and we had all decided whatever the outcome we would shout and scream and enjoy ourselves. I got reprimanded for singing 'Shosholoza' at an inappropriate moment and it was seconds later that the boks showed the Aussie's that SA's secret weapon is the last few seconds of a game. I was then forgiven for breaking out in song. I wonder what would have happened if I had started singing the Toto song "...I bless the rains down in Africa" (can't remember the name!) It always moves me, but then I am from the pop era (like you Melody I LUUUUURVE Pop Stars and Pop Idols.) My daughters (Karen and Lee-Anne) have been celebrating the tri nations in London with an assortment of friends from SA, Aus, and NZ every weekend. They have a braai whatever the weather. As you know Lee-Anne has a Kiwi man (2.5 years now) and they shake hands before every game and congratulate whoever at the end. As Lee-Anne puts it, 'very civilized mother darling, just like you taught us to be'. Referring to the SA / Kiwi game the week before and all the shenanigans, Nick shook her hand at the end and said 'Lee-Anne S.A. deserved to win' - down with Irish refs! Of course SA is popular with the Kiwi's because it kept the Aussies from the cup - what a bunch of barbarians we become when it comes to our sport. I love your piece on the chameleons - I have them in my garden and have to rescue them from the cat - the only thing about the food chain is there is always a predator in the wings. Apparently chameleons in one's garden is a sign of a good balance in your environment. I guess I should get back to work now but before I go I will think of you tonight when the last 5 kids are chosen for pop stars - Last week I actually cried. I cannot stand seeing people being turfed because by the last 50 you have an excellent bunch of talent and at this stage the dance, looks etc., come into the fore. Just to see the disappointment and dreams being shattered breaks my heart.

Gay, the chameleon pictures are for you and for Kerry (see her email later) and also for Debbie who says she wouldn't want to touch a chameleon. Debs, that's my hand in those two left-hand baby chameleon pics. The other pic is of an adult chameleon - the one we see most often (Kel, it's the one you spotted the last time you were here). We've discovered they are called Cape Dwarf Chameleons and there doesn't seem to be much info on them on the Web, but in 2000 they were classified as critically endangered. It's so cool, we have big ones, younger ones (sub-adults?) and babies in our garden and they are awesome - I'm so scared to weed now! Check how tiny the babies can be! Thanks so much for your email, Gay - it was inspiring to know that I share my "odd" interests with other people. Hope you are happy with the five who were chosen for the Popstars group (called 101). Their album is supposed to be out in the shops on Monday - looking forward to it - they are 101% real and obviously proudly South African! Apparently Monday the 23rd is being celebrated as "Proudly South African Day" according to 5fm. Oh yeah and here are a couple of pictures I took of the white-nosed black rabbit that runs around in our area and that visits our garden sometimes. In the second one it's eating a cauliflower leaf I gave it. Glad you got to see it outside Chesterton when you dropped me at home the other night, Gay.

30 August - John in Saskatchewan, Canada:

I have read your newsletter and have found it sorely lacking in any Canadian Current Events... other than that, it was a good read... nice to know yer still kicking....

Gee, I didn't know anything interesting ever happened in Canada. If it did, you'd tell us about it, wouldn't you? And you haven't said anything so… anyway, nice and cold over there right now?

01 September - Ruth in Norway:

Just received your hotmail whilst I was online. So I thought I'd say that I have also read your newsletter...Nice house and very tidy - do you want to come stay with me and tidy my house too? I wouldn't dare publish photos of my house! We've been to the North Arctic on our summer holiday, Spitzbergen to be exact. There is a Norwegian settlement called Longyearbyen there. Had fun. Will probably publish our photos soon for more info. If you think snow kills flowers and trees have pity on the inhabitants of Svalbard. There is not one single tree there but in summer time the arctic flowers grow.

Looking forward to seeing your pics, Ruth - I'd love to see the arctic flowers. Got some SA flower pics for you here. You saw my reply in my email to you about tidy houses being incompatible with your having three kids, right?

03 September - Kerry in London:

Thanks for your e-mail and your latest newsletter! I laughed so much at your & Verity's stories (parking in VIP spaces!!!!). I've got a friend who's mad like that - she's so much fun to be around!! I can't believe you've got chameleons in your garden!! I used to have 2 when I was younger! They also had babies but unfortunately the babies didn't survive. I don't know why - they were so tiny though! But I love chameleons! Amazing creatures!!!!! You've become really rugby crazy hey!!! I was also disappointed we lost the Tri-nations but at least we saved face in the last game. We've got sky tv so we all sat & watched it with great enthusiasm!!

Thanks for your enthusiasm, Kerry! About the newsletter, the rugby, the chameleons, you name it. Don't forget to bring me some pounds when you come to Cape Town in December. No, I'm kidding, of course.

Well, that's the end of emails, but not the end of the photos. Most of them were taken on our weekend trip on 7 & 8 September, all except the chameleon and rabbit pics. Those were taken at home. Wendy used her zoom camera for the mini-dinosaur shots - it would be pretty useless trying to use my camera for those. When I saw the rabbit in our garden one rainy afternoon (possibly 29 August), I took a couple of shots from my bedroom and then one from the lounge so the bunny is pretty tiny in the pics, plus there are reflections/raindrops that blemish the photos slightly. The two I've published here were also taken in the rain, but I was outside and closer to the furry one.

The flower photos (yes, that's what they are - fields of flowers) are all taken by me. Wendy also had a few, but I had sufficient of my own to use. Each year when Spring comes around, an area well-known for awesome flower displays is Namaqualand. I've just looked it up in the dictionary and apparently it is a semi-arid region extending from a point in Western South Africa to Windhoek in Namibia. It's split into two by the Orange River and the South African part is called Little Namaqualand - well you learn something new every day. Anyway we drove through part of the Western Cape (Swartland, Oliphants River Valley) and also a little way into the Northern Cape to see the flowers. Our first destination was meant to be the flower show in Clanwilliam (about 230km from Cape Town) so I looked for self-catering accommodation there. The many self-catering places, guest houses and bed and breakfasts in Clanwilliam I contacted were all taken so eventually I settled for a B&B in Citrusdal, which was closer to Cape Town. So we stopped off at Sophia's B&B to drop off our things on Saturday morning before driving on to Clanwilliam. When I say we, I mean Michael, Wendy, Lauren and me. It was initially just going to be Michael and me, but we extended the invitation to W & L the day after we'd booked the B&B, provided there was another room available for them, and there was. Sophia's only has two guest bedrooms - one inside the house and one outside, we discovered when we arrived there. Michael and I took the outside one.

We left home after nine on the Saturday morning (this is early for us). I would have considered Friday evening as an option, but it's better to travel during daylight, particularly when you are looking at the scenery. And anyway Michael and I watched a rugby game at Newlands that night (Western Province vs the Falcons - a last-minute win for WP) and there was no way we were going after that (it would have been a very inappropriate time to try and check in at a B&B). I baked some cheese puffs for the journey when I got up (thanks for re-introducing me to those at your party, Helen!). Wendy and Lauren napped most of the time when we were driving (both had late nights out - actually they were out together, you know how twins are. Well they are not twins of course, but many people seem to think they are these days. Five-and-a-half years apart, but I suppose these things happen. You will see a pic of them sleeping in the back seat if you look carefully. That was taken when we weren't far from home on the Sunday. Oh look here it is now.

Hmm we weren't overly impressed with any flowers on the Saturday and unfortunately the Clanwilliam Flower show was looking decidedly wilted on that day (the second last day of the show). Apparently they'd had two hot days, and the Information Centre people said they would go and tell them to reduce the entry price if it looked bad. And then the sideways routes we took (on the advice of the info people since we had to return to Citrusdal for the night) didn't really work out. Firstly because the areas we drove through were overcast and so the flowers were generally not open to their potential and secondly because we had to go on quite a few dirt roads and this was not too pleasant an experience for our car.

So we decided to go north, right into the Northern Cape, up to Niewoudtville, the next day. This was partially on the advice of those same info people, but also Michael's parents told us where they'd seen beautiful flowers. We had to be back in Cape Town at a decent time so that Lauren could do some work for university the next day so it was a bit dicey doing this. As it turned out we only got back in the very early evening, but she says she managed to do all she needed to once she got back home so it worked out well.

When we got back to the B&B, Sophia and her husband, Neels, must have thought we were blind when we said we didn't really see any impressive flowers. We're probably partially spoilt, living in Cape Town, where we have Kirstenbosch botanical gardens and just generally pretty scenery all year round. But yeah mostly it was just that we obviously didn't see the right places and get the right degree of sunshine.

We tried to find a restaurant in Citrusdal (known for its citrus farms and rooibos tea apparently) - the one our host, Sophia, had recommended was booked up so we went to the local hotel (Cedar Lodge) restaurant. Everybody, but me had a lovely meal. Something was wrong with my hake, but luckily I didn't get sick - I suppose I stopped eating it in time. Wendy said the ribs she had may have been the best she'd ever had.

Breakfast was quite impressive - full English, if you can call it that in South Africa. Let's say full South African - cereals, toast and jam, bacon, eggs, tomato, sausage, coffee, orange juice, tea and then still muffins. We took those for the road - we think they were carrot muffins. It was a real bonus they were not raisin ones, since Michael and I avoid raisins.

Michael's parents phoned us that morning to say they didn't know how much luck we would have because they'd seen the weather prediction, and I had looked out the window and it didn't look promising. You're supposed to have blue skies to see the fields of flowers in their full glory. But we thought we might as well do the trip anyway. I couldn't imagine going back home with the little we'd seen the day before.

It was definitely a more floral day, despite the clouds (see pics) so we have no regrets. And you will see we met with some animals as well, mostly the farm animal types (sheep, cows, goats and even some really cute, but shy pigs), but we also saw some striking birds, a springbok, an eland and a disgusting patch of slugs. The latter Lauren saw when she was considering lying in a field of flowers. She changed her mind. She did pretend to eat an orange flower though. You will notice that I am not in any of the photos (apart from the baby chameleon ones that Wendy too). I think you know what I look like by now - anyway it's probably enough that you have to read all of this - why should you have to see me too?

Friday 20 September

I spend too much time finding and observing the chameleons in our garden. But it's so interesting and I do wonder how much information is actually documented about these ones. I might actually write down all the observations I have made (or as many as I can remember) and perhaps have a link to it in this newsletter for those of you who are interested and for anyone who might search for info on it on the Web. I don't want to bore those not interested and besides it will make this issue longer than eight pages and I am not prepared to go that far. Here's the link.

Saturday 21 September

I've been trying to clean a mess in the oven - it seems to be getting a bit better now, after a number of phases, but it's not done yet! Michael's just gone off to do me a favour - it's Amanda's baby shower this afternoon, and for two days I thought I was going to it until I realised that it clashed with the rugby at Newlands this afternoon. You know, it was one of those things that come to you when you're about to fall asleep at night! Anyway we bought the gift on Tuesday and Michael dropped it off at Velma's (he's back home now) for me. Velma is one of Amanda's friends and she and Amanda's sister, Debbie, have organised the baby shower. I don't normally go to baby showers anyway, but I hardly ever get to see Amanda these days (with her living in Joburg), so I'll take what I can get ;) Anyway luckily I get to see her on Monday when Amanda's having a big lunch at the UCT Club with other EX-employees and UCT people.

Another phase completed… I can't believe I am cleaning the oven while wearing my Western Province shirt. No I don't have an apron, but that's fine with me, thanks. Anyway I haven't dirtied it - I only mess on my clothes when I'm eating. No I don't need a bib, but thanks for asking.

I suspect we may leave for the rugby in about two- and-a-half hours. While we're on the subject of rugby, I should mention that WP lost their game to the Free State Cheetahs last weekend when they played away from home. Like Bob said, the Free State Cheetahs didn't neutralise them, they neutralised themselves. Here's hoping they pull off a much better game and a win today! Shame, though, they've been having injuries galore. The only advantage of the injuries now is that means they have fewer great players to choose from so the team will have to settle. Can't wait for Corne to come back from injury in a week or two though. I think I should get all my rugby news over with while I'm talking about it. I considered not saying much about the rugby in this issue and writing a separate bit you could click your way to online, as with my plan for the chameleon stuff. Alternatively, for those who get hard copies from me, I could print and post a copy of it on request. But it's not the same type of thing so I've decided against it.

On 31 August, WP played the Griquas in Kimberley. I wish I could have been there because it wasn't televised and they won 68-24! A new points difference record for WP vs Griquas since the previous record of 35 points in 1898 or something. The 1800's! Can you believe it? Maybe WP play better when most of their fans aren't watching them! Although, apparently they had more support at the game than the Griquas that day. The Griquas are actually in the Top 8 section now so don't go thinking they're a bad team. WP obviously had a good day that day even though they were yellow-carded down to 13 men (as opposed to 15) on the field at one point! We listened to the second half on Cape Talk when we eventually found the commentary on there at halftime. We'd actually gone to Match in Claremont to watch the game. It's where the old Sports Café used to be in Stadium-on-Main (previously the Atrium). We were under the impression that all Currie Cup matches are televised live, but we found out the hard way that this was not the case (quite pathetic, DSTV!). I had the biggest chicken burger I've ever seen over there though (had to get a doggy bag for half of it). Then we left to come home and watch the games that were on TV, and in the car on the way home, I found the commentary on Cape Talk (567 am radio), which was at least something!

The following weekend was the one where WP was to play the Falcons (as mentioned before, it was the Friday before we went to check out the flowers). And as it was at Newlands, I went to buy tickets on the Monday (2 Sept). Pat Barnard (under-21 WP guy who played in the under-21 World Cup final this year and who played in one of the WP games earlier in the Currie Cup - I think against Boland at Newlands) jogged past me when I was on my way to get the tickets. Then when I came out after getting them, I saw Breyton Paulse (our SA No. 14 jersey) about to cross my path. He was on his way into the stadium building, so I said "Hi Breyton" to him. And so he had no choice but to say hello. I said I'd seen him a couple of times, but hadn't chatted to him (you know when this sort of thing happens, you're bound to just say the first stupid or redundant thing that pops into your head) and he shook my hand and asked, "What is your name?" That was easy, so I told him. And I said stuff like "You must be really happy to be playing again" and he smiled and was like "Yeah it's really good" and I said how disappointed I was I couldn't watch their game against Griquas and he nodded and said, "It went very well". Oh I also said something about him having met "my sister". I was referring to Wendy when she and her colleague did a live ad on the field during half-time at one of the games earlier this year. When they'd come to Newlands to plan how it would work, someone introduced them to Breyton. Of course then I had to try and explain to him how he'd met Wendy since he wanted to know when I meant. Eventually he convincingly said, "Oh, oh yes", but perhaps that was the only way he could shut me up. Anyway he had to go and I said I'd be there on Friday to watch the game - as in, I'll see you, but you won't see me. Then I went back home on the train. I think I should get a pic of him off the Web for this! Got two for you - one in action, and one not, but both smiling.

Sunday 22 September

Well, Breyton couldn't have been smiling much yesterday since WP lost to the Sharks (36-29). WP were never ahead in the game. The Sharks deserved to win, but, no offence Kerry and Darlene, I would rather die than be a Sharks supporter. It's all uphill now, Province, but all the best to you guys. Another casualty for us yesterday, about a minute into the game, when one of the Sharks ran into Selborne Boome's neck. Hope you're ok, brother! It was really brave of Bob to say that the injuries weren't the reason the wins weren't coming - he doesn't blame outside factors. After the game, I saw De Wet Barry looking all down and then Captain Bob elbowed him as if to say: yeah it sucks, but cheer up, remember it's only a game and at least we're getting paid to play. Or maybe it meant cheer up, yeah it sucks, but at least we got a bonus point for losing by only seven points and we're not out of the Cup yet. No, admittedly I can't honestly say that was the true gist of it, but it was still nice to see him try and pull De Wet out of his dark thoughts.

On 27 August Michael's parents and his younger sister, Julie, came to the Cape. His father sometimes comes down on business, as you may well know by now. This time they drove down, stopping overnight and camping in Kimberley on their way here and they spent their first evening with their friends, Otto and Gill, in Tokai (15 minutes from Kenilworth). It was a Tuesday night and we were also invited there for dinner. We arrived a few minutes after they got there and had a delicious evening. Michael had taken Wednesday off work so that we could spend the day with his mother and Julie. So the following morning we drove to Tokai to pick them up. Rob (Michael's father) had left early for Stellenbosch (a town next to Cape Town) which was to be his base for working the next couple of days and then they were leaving on the scenic route back to Pretoria on the Friday morning. Wendy (Michael's mother) and Julie were to spend Thursday exploring Stellenbosch. We first took them to our house since they'd never been to it before, and hung their wet tent over our washing-line. They'd had a surprise midnight shower (or two) in Kimberley, but luckily the old tent had held out well. Wendy told us some names of some of the plants in our garden - plectranthus, fuchsia… can't think of any others now. Then we drove to Rhodes Memorial for breakfast. Julie had chocolate brownies, Michael has some savoury mince thing and Wendy and I had mini English breakfasts or whatever they were called. Rhodes Mem gives a good view of part of the city, not that I can claim to be able to name all the bits. After that we went to the Waterfront for a bit, walked around the flea/craft markets and found a few fat seals to look at. They might have been dead, but looked too happy in the sun for that to have been the case. Unfortunately (?) Michael missed them because he had to play chauffeur to Lauren. She'd decided to spend the day with us when her university day ended. So Michael fetched her at UCT around lunch-time while Wendy, Julie and I finished our tour of the shops, checked out the seal "cage" (it's actually open, but I assume they get fed there and they can jump (or slump) into the open water/harbour/sea at their leisure. And then they met us at Marcel's Frozen Yoghurt where we all, except Lauren, had frozen yoghurts on cones. She was ravenous, having missed breakfast after oversleeping. So she had some chips and weird pizza from St Elmo's. Wendy needed to buy some airtime so we went to Clicks and strangely enough ran into Wendy (my sister, as opposed to Michael's mother) there. She had other plans for the day so she didn't accept the invitation to join us for our trip to the World of Birds. Ross (Lauren's bf) met us at the entrance to Clicks since he'd decided he wanted to spend the day with Lauren and therefore had to join us. He was a bit skeptical of the "bird park" idea, but said later that it was actually really cool. Anyway we drove there in two cars (since Ross had his too) and spent a few hours there until close to closing time. That's how long you need to get through all the cages. They don't only have birds there, they also have some other small animals like meerkats, mongeese, wallabies, foxes, monkeys, pigs etc. They have the smallest monkey in the world there - really cool. And, quite honestly, a fantastic selection of birds. Visit them in Hout Bay, you will not be disappointed. Wendy (my sister) went there last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. You might even get greeted by some parrots and look out for the black crow who says "Woooooooowww" (wow, but a really big, long wow, with neck movements). They have some cages of birds of prey (including owls) that have been permanently injured (mostly in car accidents), but who are okay in captivity. One owl decided to fly straight at Julie and me and we realised afterwards it was blind in one eye or something so it couldn't see properly where it was going.

We went back home and Wendy and Michael found two chameleons for Julie and Wendy to see. In fact we were surprised that there were two in the red tree (but that's another story!).

Ross and Lauren decided that they wanted to join us for dinner in Stellenbosch (while at the World of Birds, Rob called to say that we should meet up with him in Stellenbosch for supper). So we drove through in two cars again and waited at the guesthouse for Rob. We caught a bit of Popstars in the sitting room and I made a point of remembering to watch the repeat. I'd started getting a headache after we left the World of Birds and it was probably a case of dehydration. I had some water and the last of my Parameds at the guesthouse, but it actually got worse by the time I got to the Cattle Baron (just outside Stellenbosch). We bought some Panado's at the 7-Eleven, where Michael and I had to park over the road from the Cattle Baron since it was so full there. They brought some of those little rolls to the table and as soon as I took a bite of one I felt really nauseous and decided it was best I found the bathroom. I couldn't wait for them to bring my drink and some water when I got back to the table. I figured more liquid would really help (I didn't get sick or anything by the way, just had some water in the bathroom). At least the pain and nausea didn't last much longer after I had quite a bit (for me) to drink. The dinner went very well otherwise, I hope I didn't spoil it for anyone! I think everyone either had a crumbed chicken type meal or else medium rare (urgh) steaks. Oh yeah Lauren actually had "surf and turf" and thought they'd given her chips instead of rice. After they'd left her with the chips and brought her a plate of rice, she discovered that there was actually rice under the calamari as well!

Then we had to say our goodbyes. We hope to see Michael's family and my mother later this year if we organise a road trip around the country and via Gauteng in November and/or early December. My mother's due in CT on 23 Dec so it will be before then. The 28th of August was a good day! They went back home via some wonderful flowers on the 30th (getting home on the evening of 1 September) and recommended them to us, hence our trip the following weekend! Do you like the sheep picture? They were so inquisitive when our car stopped next to them, but scampered away when Lauren got out in an attempt to feed them as she and Wendy had done with the goats.

I have to be brief with the rest of my news now. On 30 August I had lunch with many HR UCT and ex-UCT people. Maureen was leaving (after retiring how many times??) and also her birthday was coming up on Sunday the 1st, so they were having a party for her. Kelvin picked me up and we went to buy a gift for her and then met everyone at the UCT Club for their great buffet lunch. It was fantastic to see everyone and it was a pity no one had a camera! Later that evening Michael and I visited Verity and Alex (Danny went to a birthday thing) and had a second supper. We'd already eaten at home and didn't know Verity had expected us to eat there. Cool evening although Michael was very tired.

It was Helen's birthday/housewarming party on the evening of 31 August - thanks Helen, you fed us well (and she force-fed everyone her yum "Transkei Mud" dessert - she didn't have to force us!) and it was good to see you again!

On Sunday the 1st we tried to see the whales in False Bay, but no luck (I think we saw some seal flippers though). The fish and chips from Fish Hoek Fisheries were fantastic though!

The following week was a UCT holiday for Lauren so we picked her up on Wednesday evening (4th) so that she could spend the rest of the week and of course the flower weekend with us and we visited my dad and grandparents.

On the 5th, I spent the day with Tamsyn in Plumstead and that was excellent. I tried to visit Gay after that, but she wasn't home and then later she called me and we arranged for her to fetch me after work on the 10th. As it turned out, Karen was there as well and we had dinner at Gay's. We had fabulous Thai green chicken curry and a wonderfully contented and fun evening. It was great to finally see Gay's cool house and garden.

On Friday the 13th Debbie and I had breakfast at the Oakhurst Coffee Shop - she was about to start a new job on the Monday. It was a 30 degree day so it was my first wearing-shorts day of the "summer". Anyway Debbie and I laughed about nothing and had a good time.

On the 14th, we went to the Kirstenbosch Garden and Flower show (they had a new hybrid flower at the show and it was on E-news that night). Wendy came along. We bought a few plants there and the next day a few more at Stodels. The rabbit has had the nerve to nibble our new parsley and celery so I've raised the herb box onto bricks now.

Oh yeah after Stodels last Sunday, we saw Valencia, Ashley and their kids at Kenilworth Centre. We were on our way to take my thick-soled black Velcro-strap shoes to the shoe-mender. I wanted them to remove the stupid, pathetic Velcro strap and punch holes for laces instead. R39 and an hour later, they were fabulous. Now they can't come loose when I'm wearing them any more. They are Shelly's (of London) shoes I bought last year at Young Designers Emporium so they're very good quality, but that Velcro strap was about to become the bane of my existence!

The 17th was my grandmother's 75th and Verity's 26th birthday. So we had two birthday girls to visit. Very good evening.

No more space left so bye now. Take care.

M e l o d y