The Four Trucks on a Bridge Story

Ok, so my tum is getting bigger; and the thought of cutting hair off of a miniscule, black, highly strung Maltese/French poodle, is less appealing daily.
I opted for a hair cut ala Scissors and Suds in Pinetown, doggy parlour. I dropped off my drooling, shivering, stressed out poochie at 9:00am and headed off for some grocery shopping.

At about 10:20 I headed back to fetch said mutt, and observed a strange occurrence… The road leading to the parlour (Underwood Road) is straight and narrow...and goes over a river – via an even narrower bridge.
While I was mindlessly ambling around Knowles, there came four trucks travelling at dubiously high levels of speed (Add to this equation heavy rain, road works at the right side of the bridge, gravel, testosterone and bad time-management) and what do you get? That’s right kids – you get a “Op-ge-ferk’de Crash on a Narrow Bridge”

By the time I arrived to fetch Oscar there was:

“One road a-closing,
Two workers laughing,
Three drivers screaming,
Four trucks a-smoking, ‘
Five policemen shouting,
All traffic slowing,
Seven tow-trucks racing,
Eight gooolden riiiingsss….”
(Sorry Christmas is in my blood these days)

They were closing the road as I watched helplessly – I was about 50m from my dog at this point…I stuck my head out of the window and yelled at one of the men –
“Move that beacon please I need to park here!!..” pointing at the verge near the accident. He thankfully thought that I lived there…So lady muck parked right at the scene of the rhyme, I mean, crime, and walked like a maharaja past the accident, with my bright orange and pink ‘hearts’ umbrella, dodging glass and angry men to fetch my dog.

After paying up, one of the parlour ladies carried my Oscar all the way back to my car – I weaved my way through the twisted metal, oil, swearing and tears to my car.

What an adventure! Oh, and Oscar looks great 

Sands xx

My Pretty Garden

Here are some nice pictures from my garden. I am just LOVING this season. Luckily I took the advice of Savanna's Gransie and planted some beautiful flowering plants. It has made all the difference.
These are our new Dianthus - I love them - They are planted in "Poppa's Garden" in the background here you can see my lovely wild fig tree. Love it!


I love this shot - it is a close up of one of the flowerbeds. Unfortunately minutes after taking this shot a troup of monkeys came through and ate the focal point of this picture... rrr. (See monkey posts)

Our Babies Room – the Division in the House…

No, we’re not fighting… Francis is putting up a Divider, turning our Diningroom/Study into a third bedroom. And our tiny dark second room into a music studio/study. It’s so exciting because we want to have more than one little munchkin and the new room is spacious and light – it will fit a bunker set and two kids comfortably.

The house is filled with the sound of sawing and self praising comments like “ah, thank god it fits…good show” from my gorgeous hub and Skippi our mutt barking her head off.

(Before)

(After)

(The partition is up and looks stunning! Our baby finally has a room! Will post a picture of the completed paritioning soon)

xxxxxxxx

Tomorrow a nice guy called Joel (who we hope doesn’t work for a crime syndicate) will be coming in to fit and hang our new solid wooden doors. The ones we have now were subject to the previous owners’ abuse and are being sent to door heaven to rest in pieces. (The new doors are in now and it looks awesome!)

Well, we’re off to drop off a CD in Durban North now, I smell a rat and suspect the worst – My Baby Shower. See you on the flip side.

Sands xx

** My Suspisions were correct...I was pampered and spoilt... came home with a boot full of wonderful gifts :) **

The Issue with Cow Collecting…

I am a cow nut. I have a collection of over 40 stuffed cow toys, numerous cow ceramics, plates, cups, blankets, and now finally… I will teach my unborn child to love “Kooi” here is my latest purchase – her bib.

Don’t you love it?

Sands xx

That Day, on the Road, in my Blue Slippers…

Preggie brains are often the butt of many jokes – I’m usually the one laughing at myself… but this one takes the cake!

When I was about four months pregnant I had an early morning gig at school. I had to lead over 400 children in singing show pieces for a half and hour. We left home on time, and drove albeit casually to Westville where I drop my husband off at work each morning. As I was getting out of the car I looked down and noticed in horror that I was wearing my Hubba’s Blue fluffy slippers! I had to call in and tell them that I would be very late and why…

I was called “Slippers” by my HOD for the rest of the term…

Sands xx

The Problem With Bikes…

My Husband Francis and I are Bikers. In so much as he rides I scream. It’s fun.
Until little baby came along we were biking quite often and it was something we really enjoyed doing together.

(Left Mikey and Franc)

Unfortunately the time has come to sell “Mikey the Bikey” and we find ourselves at a crossroad… DO we trade him in and get a newer beefier version or do we simply sell, enjoy the extra R2000 a month in our pockets and one day get ourselves a beautiful bike that has not even been designed yet?...

At present Mikey is on the show room floor at Perry Yamaha in Umhlanga and we have test ridden two beauties – Yamaha R6 (Red and white) and the Honda CBR 600. Both were stunning and left us drooling.

Stay tuned.

Sands xx

The Blinking Dredded Christmas Season

WARNING: it is the end of the year, all teachers are at breaking point including myself, the following is an excerpt from a private mail that I sent to a friend. if I seem irrational and annoyed it's because I am SEVEN months pregnant and running around way too much.

This entry is for ALL the people in our lives who say "Teaching?? thats not stressful, you should try being in an office all day,...on facebook,...playing solitaire. THATS a real job"

Yeah, well this one's for you.

I lost the plot yesterday -
During a highly stressful, 'running out of time now' Christmas Play practice, in an outdoor open amphitheater; with gale force winds ripping my hair from my hair clips; and blowing the voices of the actors and three narrators onto the tennis courts; While choir children hollered and screamed at one another (they're supposed to be sitting quietly "but ma'am, you just can't even hear yourself over the wind! thats why we're shouting"...) a group of aftercare/homework centre children from senior primary came into the amphi and joined the fray...

They started making a HUGE noise while I was trying to work (At this point I had the entire cast on stage, the choir was running around the amphi and the grade 7 cast members were practically screaming in hysterical laughter after "drop kicking" the baby jesus like a rugby ball across the stage)

They joy of it was that there was a teacher there the whole time (I didn't see her with the aftercare kids) who, I think, just watched in tired 'end of term style' as they went ape for 30 min (until finally speaking up a minute from the bell)

I eventually stormed off-set and sat by myself.

I really won't be doing anything creative or imaginative again at School again in a hurry, there is NO support from staff - infact, I've been urged by a few teachers to quit the "silly christmas idea" because the children need to focus on work. (I am speaking on behalf of all music/drama teachers everywhere - this is not a school isolated occurance)

I am dumbfounded. How do they expect any major cultural growth/changes if they push academics/sport so hard?

I am hearing one message from HOD and principal and getting a completely different message from staff (from the general lack of support) I have to commend my HOD though, she has put up with a lot of nonsense from staff - she assured me that I would have a staff member helping at each practice but that has not been forthcoming. NOT her fault. urgh!

Also - the powers that be would not allow me to come into school early for practices because they didn't want to pay me for my time - the funny thing is that I finish work at 12:10 and all rehearsals have been from 12:10 - 12:30 each day for the past three weeks... who's the sucker here? ME. so they've got the hours out of me, with no support, no pay and high blood presure for my trouble.

I need a chocolate AND maternity leave for a year.

oh well, i've had my splurge.....thanks for listening :)

Sands xx

The Tracy Splurb

This is just a splurb, where I can :



Write about, love, swear, irritate, defame, glamorize, annoy, deride, empathize with and brag about my SISTER Tracy Margetts x enjoy








This is Tracy she's an usual animal. She enjoys Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain... no wait - that's a song.

She has a history of wierd creativity (late night candle-lit poetry readings, cooky photo-shoots, vine-swinging, VW-driving) and intermingled with love dramas and other shenanigans...her life is a book waiting to be written (if anyone can afford a Novelist/Ghost Writer : contact Tracy)



Some pictures that were taken by RACHEL BASCKIN FAERIE GODMOTHER AND FRIEND TO THE POOR:

I've asked Tracy to send me some inspirational messages for all the women out there and all I got was... "Calling all single available men..." or something like that...

We'll wait and see what she sends on.

The Drama of Monkeys Continues...

We came home yesterday after a long day out, to find that we had had a visitor...or twenty. The heavy kitchen window was hanging WIDE open and our new bread packet was lying open on the kitchen counter covered in fang marks, and nail scratches... We found our other bread packet, empty, and lying on the porch at the front of the house.

My adorable and gorgeous hubby remarked - as only Sherlock Holmes and Poirot may remark "I think we've had a little visitor"

Biting back any acidic, female, pregnant, hormonal remarks I replied,

"yeeess, seems so...think it was a monkey?"

To which my darling man replied in all seriousness,

"Ya."

Case closed.

Despite a few crums here and there, and the fact that our two small dogs were actually IN the kitchen at the time of the invasion we got off lightly.

No dead pets.

No stinky-monkey pooh in the bed

No torn carpets, curtains or linen.

Such focussed little critters...

Where's my gun...

Sands xx

The Shame Faced Entry...

Well, I’m rather shame faced – it has been a while since my last splurge… I have been possibly the busiest pregnant lady on the planet. I have to be. It takes full and utter confidence in one’s busy-ness to write such a statement…

I am the head honcho of a production company called Paw Paw Productions SA, I have three amazing actors working on two original scripts at the moment.
“Gangsta’s Paradise – Bullying In Our Schools” and “Stop! Look left” – Road Safety Awareness.
In January we are launching out into the local school system travelling and teaching the kids using dance, drama and interactive stimuli. I’ve been running around buying props, pricing sound systems, getting microphones, and putting together the backing track for the shows. My Actors are Leeann Devlall, Catherine Keogh and Rylen De Esclana.

I am also the head honchorina of The Bigara Music School – I have about 45 students who study piano, keyboard, guitar, voice and theory of music with me every week. This Saturday (yesterday, they had their recital) I was in heaven and ran around organising everything for the big day. About 120 parents and grandparents arrived, the children were so cute! They were so prepared and excited.
The show consisted of:
A piano performance by Mr David Sprong,
Arecital performance by the students, including an item with 16 guitars, 1 violin, one pianist and a choir of talented singers,
Followed by a speech by my special guest speaker; Mrs Gillian Robinson. Principal of Oasis Pre Primary School (and my mom!)
We ended off with the Awards ceremony, with our other special guest; Mrs Joan Bottriell handing out the awards and prizes.
The crux of the days event was the awarding of the “Super Star of Tomorrow Trophy” and the “Robert E. Bottriell Memorial Floating Trophy For Excellence”
The Super Star Trophy went to Seni Sabela and the Memorial Floating Trophy went to Daniel Francis.

Next on my agenda is the Completely Calypso Carol that I have written, Scripted, Backing tracked and organised. It is a Carribean Christmas play – lots of fun, I am getting help from the school and so it has not been too traumatic for me – being 7 months pregnant and running around is not always easy! The show will open in about 4 weeks time eek!!

Finally, we have our little baby girl Savanna Rae on her way into our lives in January and we have not even begun to prepare!! So we’re going to be doing some household alterations for when she arrives J


Ok, gotta go. Work to do…


Sands xx