Now that's a good tonic. Sometimes I sit at home really craving a good laugh, and the animals always oblige with some silly antic or another. Human interactions do provide the best laughs though and mostly I rely on sitcoms to get the laugh rolling and the tensions lifting from my stomach and breathing out with a wave of relief.

How many times a day do we actually relax and put everything into perspective. Seriously I do not believe enough. I know that by nature I am an optimist, and I often seek out the antics of someone or something entertaining in the background. For example, we are on a farm outing and being told about the eating habits of a horse and how to handle it properly in order to be able to mount the saddle without being kicked off. My wandering mind would spot the tame goat eating the corner of the instructor's tracksuit and then I would be quielty smiling at this distraction with the person wondering if I was some kind of an idiot.

When my daughter was on her way my husband and I were almost hysterical with laughter in the waiting room with remembering and wondering why we were going through all of this a second time around. The stern matron wanted to know if everything was allright, and little did she know how we were psyching ourselves up for another round of "the ordeal". Thankfully that really good laughter made me strong and our little baby arrived in peace and joy.

One day some years later my young daughter had managed to get her science project about "why there was a proliferation of crickets in the suburbs during the summer months" into a science competition at the local university. We were of course thrilled for her and assisted in setting up this humble yet informative presentation alongside some very impressive computer and money aided projects that made us shrink with awe. We ended up separated from the students in the belfry of the auditorium and became bored with the over the top applause at the schools with the most money and status. After weeks of angst whilst my daughter prepared her thesis, we knew she was not even going to get a mention. Therein a couple of pigeons nesting on the top of a ledge became a new interest to us. I pointed this out to my better half and we sat bemused watching the birds popping in and out of a hold in the ceiling. Now that would be a project: how to mend that hole, and in fact how many fledglings had been born and raised in this auditorium whilst all the serious stuff went on below.

I suppose I could be studied for some odd behaviour myself. I am not hyperactive nor attention deficient. What we have managed to do with this kind of behaviour of odd observations, is teach our children to assess more than the situation at hand. I guess we have done a reasonably good job, because now we can sit together and watch crazy men stalking anacondas in South America for research, run outside when an owl settles on the roof, stand quietly in awe when an almost prehistoric bird feeds in our small back garden. We are always on the lookout for unusual sightings. My son is able to win the general knowledge quizzes about life in general because of his enquiring mind.

All of this is because of the quest for something out of the ordinary. With a mind that seeks more than the one-dimensional, there is constant exchange of information in our household. The children actually haven't made us feel old or stupid, so we must be getting something right.

A questioning mind is the door and laughter is the key. A good laugh is like a breeze that can sweep depression out of the corners and keep us alert to simple observations in life that will lift our spirits.

Have fun,

Love from Eve

I am seriously in need of exercise. Apparently walking to and from the carpark and up and down a double flight of stairs at work about forty times a day is not enough.

Today I have an excellent idea to lose weight and do the neighbourhood a favour. We have about ten long and loopy streets up hill and down dale to deliver notices of a neighbourhood watch meeting next week. My better half volunteered to help and we were given this strenuous job, LOL.

I managed the downhill walk quite easily. It is wierd to meet neighbours who have lived near us for as long as we have been here and they still look at us as less than hired help for putting pamphlets in their letter boxes. I waved cheerily and placed some directly into the homeowners hands, with a neighbourhood watch whistle. The reaction is usually good after they have decided I am not the enemy. Oh good said a lady, I have been waiting for this. Glad you gave it to me or it would have ended up in the trash.

Good timing then!!! For me I gained the satisfaction of the exercise, and of the actual delivery of such important missives to the neighbours. Maybe all the crime on the increase will force us out of our coccoons to meet and greet.

Why do we as typical human nature tend to stay away from the neighbours. Why does a calamity only bring us onto the grass verge and talk to one another.

Maybe I don't really want to know that home truth. For now I will just believe we are all caring folks who simply need a reason to make friends.

I enjoyed the walk. Tomorrow I will tackle some more roads with the willing walkers in the family. This will be a fun weekend. Hopefully the message will reach everyone and we can effectively work together to keep the neighbourhood safe. It is sadly now an important duty that we need to tackle together.

I realise that after the meeting is settled we will be called on to do the night patrols. Maybe I will get a green bib and a radio and chase the baddies into the arms of the police. Unity is strength after all. There has been a lot of success in combatting crime in other areas and we need to get on board too.

Watch this space......... perhaps we will enjoy a street party at the end of the year for a change.

Take care, love from Eve

Well well, I suppose that could be a question in the Dating Thread. PS - I am anchored down by my little mascot pictured above. She is on my lap as it is cold and she finds humans very useful in this weather. She is a very amusing cat, and I almost got a photo of her sitting amongst my collection of wooden cats and kitties in a cabinet. She has eyes like the cat in Shrek. She amuses us all the time and sometimes gives the dogs a run too.

I am back to blogging because to my embarassment Facebook now has a feature that enables members to see who is viewing their profile. I mean, if you leave it open, why then need to do a survey who reads personal stuff. Lock the profile...!! My daughter's new love may think he is in for it with an interfering MIL, so now I have to keep my nose out of things LOL.

I am very stressed out these days, back into the full five day week with little time off. We are having the usual testing times in this little neck of the woods, and my better half was mugged for his cell phone when working in a local township last week. He was to be de-briefed for post-traumatic stress, but we laughed it off as who doesnt get mugged when they visit one such place. If I think about it too hard it will be impossible to leave the house. Then my daughter was booted off our medical aid for being an adult. It seems that a condition of PTSD incurred by a teacher is not considered a life threatening disorder yet her impaired function is not covered by a medical aid that is not sky high. Bottom line, I cannot afford to send her to the psychologist who has been her lifesaver all these years, and her medication is not available through the hospital and any available scheme without a very high monthly premium. I knew we would reach the end of the benefits without a cure in sight. It was the catch 22 I have been fearing all along. It seems we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and carry on as if nothing happened. If nothing happened why do I feel as if I need some sort of therapy and a good long holiday. The more I work the more expensive everything seems to be getting without a relative increase in income. Fiscal drag is weighing me down.

As for the anchor, there are a lot of books floating aroung with life stories ablazoned about the heartaches caused by cheating partners and spouses. I firmly believe that consenting adults should have their eyes open to the pitfalls of giving away their trust to someone who cannot look after it and nurture it. Sure, my daughter learnt the hard way about men who are capable of devious tactics to get what they want, but even afterward all her trauma and ensuing intense therapy I watched her heart being crushed when she took tentative steps back into a trusting friendship. I truly do not want to be a smother in law, but really I feel I have no choice. Picking up the pieces is a costly exercise. I have no trust left in me for the potential friends who step through the door. I wait for the other shoe to drop.

My advice on life: Do not be an anchor for someone else who is getting the fresh air. If this is happening early in a relationship, cut the line and swim to the surface.

Be free and breathe, love from Eve.

I am up rather late this evening as I am taking a day's leave tomorrow and escaping to the countryside for two days. The economic recession has really cut into everyone's budgets and a two day holiday will be quite satisfactory after all. I am worked like a beaver all week on unfinished projects and am now twice as exhausted as normal. It always ends up huge mission to leave home, but this time tomorrow I'll probably (hopefully) be completely relaxed and able to ponder on the year so far.

The time has flown so quickly that the sun is shifting back into our hemisphere and it always seems that once we reach the halfway mark that the rest of the year is downhill.

I wanted to report this terrible episode in our neighbourood that has upset my children this evening. I will first put a little background perspective to the story:

There is a lot of unrest in my country caused by a lack of resources and a terrible lag in wages and salaries against inflation. Our preparations for the 2010 World Soccer Cup are being delayed by striking workers demanding a 15% wage increase. The magnificent projects beginning to take shape are as a result of team work that extends to everyone who has a hand in the assembly - from the designers to the labourers. I imagine the hardest jobs are the hands on actual construction teams, who will after all the building is completed will no doubt be laid off. There are huge expectations of the profits that will result from the actual event. Sadly however, these common people will simply go home back to poverty and strife. I am so for them being given the increase in the light of the incredible gain from such a huge publicity stunt that will be viewed by once again billions of people worldwide.

Just this evening there was an incident of unrest in our neighbourhood. We had only earlier being watching the news on television where a demonstrator was forcibly removed from his taxi by police for obstructing the roadway and held by the throat and legs and thrown into a police van. My children and I discussed the various almost racist and brutal behaviour meted out by people in authority. It was for this reason that the teacher who molested my daughter so severely ran away from justice. I too believed that two wrongs do not make a right and I did not want his persecution in jail on our hands. I wished that he could have had a good hiding, but not by thugs who would have in fact inflicted HIV and all kinds of living hell on him. I knew we had to turn the other cheek even though we were traumatised by our broken child at his hands.

My kids related various incidents of brutality that they had seen or heard of in the past and we all agreed that this country was still evolving as far as Human Rights are concerned.

Then a bizarre event unfolded after they had left to go to a local club to socialise with their friends. We heard sirens blaring and our neighbourhood watch radio calling for assistance. We suspected some unrest over issues such as housing shortages and wage demands. I was concerned about the children being out, but we knew the noise was from the opposite side of the neighbourhood. Not so, the children and their friend had received a distress call from the friend's family that the crowd of demonstrators had dispersed right into the grounds of their communal residence. They rushed over to see if they could help. It turns out that the neighbourhood wattch had caught the intruders and tied them up on the ground. They then removed their shoes and threw cold water on their ankles. They were then shocking them with tazers repeatedly. Their blood curdling screams to call the police spurred on their abusers. My children and the youngsters gathered around were yelling and taking photos of the adult people behaving so badly, and the adults were retaliating that they should delete the photos. My own son said he was so hyped up that he screamed at the police when they arrived that he had never seen something so wrong in his whole life. The police took over the situation and were very angry with the neighbourhood watch. They would have a lot of explaining to do.

I am so sorry for the victims of this type of abuse. All the while this was going on my daughter was sitting in the house of her friend - and his father was plying her with red wine. She came home bemused by the events of the evening and totally traumatised by the screams of these men persecuted for making a stand about their grievances. My son was in a state of shock and anger.

I am awed at the irony of this story. My daughter was repeatedly abused by someone who should have protected her. We could do nothing to ease her pain, except heal her through therapy and the passage of time. Yet here were grown men who could see their adversary as unarmed hungry men cowering on the ground. They could not restrain themselves from punishing them for trespassing.

I know they saw these intruders as a threat. But we cannot see the real evil that walks among us. I am aware that this anger and torment meted out to the men tonight was referred anger from past transgressions we all suffered at one time or another. The angels among us constantly call for restraint.

What we see and what we perceive are not always correct. I am proud of my son for his actions tonight. The father who gave my daughter red wine and cold water to the captives had no idea of how to protect his family.

The evil among us is not so transparent. There will be repercussions tonight, for once again the youth will speak up. They are our future and the lessons some so called responsible adults are teaching are about how not to behave.

The children are our future. They are learning fast. I am hoping that this is one lesson they will never forget.

Nothing goes unseen.

Take care,

Eve

We have been enjoying some fabulous winter weather this past week, and I am always glad that the laundry dries without the intervention of modern technology. There has been sufficient sunlight and a warm wind to blow out all the damp corners of the house and even the evenings have not been too cold. Last night however the north-wester returned and did its best to lift the roof and blow away anything not firmly tethered down. My red hot poker aloes are bent and close to finishing, but spring flowers are gradually appearing on the bank below us. We call it the green season because in between the storms we can dry out and enjoy the beauty of the wintering flowers.

As much as there is a contradiction in the weather right now, my daughter and I am at odds about her faltering starts to her career. She attempted the university course away from home and now is back in the middle of the year without any purpose or direction at the moment. To her delight she is being courted by a very sincere and caring young man and this is a balm to a soul battered by obstacles that no person should ever have endured in such a young life.

As the parent and responsible adult though I think sometimes that my entire life has been about guilt and doing the right thing. This entails working, working and working. I never had the opportunity offered to me to study at university, and thus my guilt is that perhaps I put pressure on her to study further. Well, I might believe that if she did not visit a therapist once a week who decided she was university material. I actually tried to make sure that she wasn't feeling pressurised into anything that would be too much for her fragile state of mind. She only lasted a few weeks away from home before it all became too much for her and the tablet episode was the last straw for me. She insisted that all was fine and stayed on at the university for a while longer.

Now she is back home I am paying for the wasted course fees and this will take until the end of the year to settle. Her therapist advised her to tackle a new study course and I am fully backing her quest to get studying again. Alas, I do not have additional funding for the new course until next year. She is not occupied now and it is better that she remains unemployed so I can keep her as a dependent on the medical aid for the expensive anti-depressants and therapy she still requires. All of this is a direct fall out of the molestation by a school teacher so many years ago. How long does it take to regain self esteem, a sense of dignity and purpose? She appears to be socialising more and I am grateful she is home safely.

My question then is "when is enough ever enough", to be answered by another one "why do we ask such a silly question"

I am truly satisfied with my daughter's progress right now.

The casual winter is slowly working its way through the dark months and gradually the questions will be answered in the fullness of time.