Crazy cat from Mulberry Hill

This was the craziest cat I've ever seen - he arrived at breakfast at a run, across the vast expanse of the garden. After sniffing around, he detected a plastic packet full of biltong and planned his capture of this wonderful aromatic treat. Only to be defeated by me closing the packet... what a spoil sport... He then proceeded to the fishpond and tried to work out how he could catch a fish without getting his paws wet...


Maybe if he can't see us then we won't see him catching a cuddle under the bedspread... seriously now...

It's the inside that counts...

There is nothing quite like sitting on your bed, cappuchino in one hand, rusk in the other hand and an open Bible on your lap.... reading Matthew 5. I don't know if anyone can read Matthew 5 and not be convicted. Each passage I read seemed to be telling me the same thing, in different ways... it is not what you do on the outside that counts the most, it is the what is going on inside you that counts the most.

I've been brought up in a suburb, where most people are pretty decent and lead decent moral lives (for the most part that we know of). It is therefore not incredibly difficult to lead a fairly decent moral life, as that is what I'm brought up with. However, God can see straight into my heart, and he knows what I think about the people I meet, the taxi drivers I encounter, the impatience I experience, the anger I feel... inside me is a big black vast cavern of sin that people only see glimpses of every once in a while.

The only way this can change is through God. I cannot change me in my own strength. I need God's light shining inside me and then then this will also shine out of me. Unless I spend time with God and draw closer to him nothing is going to change for the better.

I was convicted as I sat on my bed about the "forsaking of meeting with other Christians" that often happens due to my fast pace of work life. It is hard to see how the work pace will change, I have my plans, but they don't seem very good, even to me!!

I look around me at work, at the people the same level or higher than me in management, they are either unmarried or are single with kids or divorced. There are extremely few of them that are happily married with kids. So basically, in my current line of work, it would appear that people genuinely don't have a whole lot of time for anything other than work, so in order for me to meet with other Christians and guard my marriage, something has to be different for me. Maybe just having these priorities and striving to achieve them, with God's help, will be sufficient - maybe at some point something more drastic will have to happen.

This is all in God's hands. He has led me thus far, he has led me to my current work, I am where He wants me to be currently. In this I must just rest for the moment - and plan to go to the new Bible Study Group that we are joining on Wednesday.

The Part of Life often Forgotten

I type this blog post, sitting on a King size bed, looking out over the veranda, at the sun slowly setting over the mountains, with the underfloor heating generating a cozy heat… Very different from my Durban life, where underfloor heating is unheard of, the view is of the sea, rather than the mountains, and I can almost see where I work from the flat balcony. Work stress is never quite forgotten.

This weekend we travelled to Curry’s Post in the KZN midlands and stayed at Mulberry Hill B&B, as a friend, Lauren, was getting married in the vicinity. What a pleasure! We were placed in a cottage, overlooking a trout dam. There was a little Bistro on site, where you could have almost any pancake you could think of during the day, both sweet and savoury. The cottage was beautifully kept, even providing a cat for our entertainment. I’ve never seen such an active cat out on the prowl. Someone had innocently left some biltong in a packet out on the veranda and the cat hunted it down and boy did he moan when I closed the packet so he couldn’t get to it. He followed us all the way from breakfast on the sunny veranda to our cottage and proceeded to hide under the bed spread and meeau if we happened to lift the bed spread up.

The wedding was interesting. The bride looked lovely and the Pastor who married them gave such a simple, yet profound sermon and explained everything beautifully.

He explained how the bride had to include “she will obey the husband” in her vows but that for 99% of the decisions made, they should discuss them and agree together, but for the 1% where that is not possible, the wife has to obey the husband. He explained that in order to make it through the ups and downs of life, you need God. I really wish I had a copy of the sermon to really take it in again. He made it clear that a Quiet Time was necessary.

Interestingly, the Pastor used to come to our church, many many years ago. He was selected to marry the couple as he Pastors in the region that they were getting married. He apparently gets any couple that he marries to sign a document that they are happy for him to preach the gospel at their wedding. If they refuse then he declines to marry them. I hope that my friend does come to have a meaningful relationship with God.

We were eating our main course at the wedding at 6.15pm. It was pretty early, for which we were grateful, as it was cold and dark long before that. There were fireplaces in the big room and tastefully elegant bouquets of expensive red roses on each table. The guests each received a box of handmade nougat.

I think that due to the early hour, the DJ panicked a bit and got 12 of the guests to play a game – never seen that at a wedding before – They had to collect certain items from guests, the last one back was out each time and their forfeit was to buy the married couple a gift on their monthly anniversary eg. the 4th person out had to buy a gift for them on their fourth month anniversary. The bridal couple had to send a bottle of wine to the person that won, on their 1 year – anniversary – interestingly different.

I really enjoyed the weekend – and the next day we proceeded onwards to the Cavern Resort in the Drakensburg – from where I am typing this blog post.

Voting Day

Wednesday 22nd April dawned, our alarm clock went off and I tumbled out of bed... (I tumbled out because I was pushed out... ) Nevertheless I jumped in the warm shower, got dressed and went off to vote before the crowds got there... Andrew was due to vote at one station and me at another... We drove past mine first, in order for me to drop Andrew off at his voting station... and there was much laughter at the amount of cars outside mine by one person, as it was jam-packed...When we arrived at Andrew's there was much laughter from the other person in the car as it was even worse... so we decided to head back home and tackle the voting queues later... We however were very happy that so many people were voting...

Later in the day my friends from school and I met up at the Beverly Hills hotel for some 5 star pampering - we started off with cappucino's on the terrace overlooking the sea and then moved inside to the lounge and had "High Tea" for lunch... It is so amazing meeting up with the girls. We are doing such different things, yet still totally bond. The best part for me is that we can be honest with one another and don't have to pretend anything. One is married with a baby, one is just married (that would be me), one bought a house with their boyfriend 6 years ago, one is seriously dating for the first time, and one is happily single (but keeping her eyes open). One is a travel agent, two are teachers, one is a physio and one an accountant. (When the others are there then we have a Chiro, another accountant and an insurance agent too).

The best is being able to hear what it is really like giving birth, not just the "all the pain was worth it" line. And being able to talk through the issues of being married in the current age and how the expectations need to be different to those that our parents had. And discussing the challenges of living with your boyfriend from the beginning vs dating and being able to have some space with your boyfriend when you have arguments (I believe the second way is more what God intended).

It was just so refreshing to be able to chill for a couple of hours and just chat "Girl Chat"...

In the evening off we went back to vote... this time we made it out the car and into the queues - taking 30 - 40 minutes to vote. I felt proud to be making my mark and I must say, after voting twice before, this time I really felt like my vote would mean something and I was glad to see a long queue, even at 7pm...

My thumb didn't fare so well, but it was a small price to pay... the next day, the indelible ink had made my ENTIRE thumb nail brown...