Catching up while mom’s gone

I plan to go on a PFAFF sew-away next week and my DS offered to invite mom over to visit them for awhile and also to give me somewhat of a break.  I dearly appreciate this even though we knew moving a person with dementia could be risky.  They don’t like being taken out of their comfort zone, so it could either be extremely upsetting; with her not wanting to go or she’d love it and enjoy the change.  I took her suitcase out of the cupboard earlier this week and left it standing in her room after telling her that my sister invited her to visit.  This constant reminder seemed to help as by Friday evening she was so excited that she could hardly sleep and kept asking me what the time was, although she has a HUGE clock in her room.

Saturday morning however when I woke her, she had no recollection of our planned trip as by the time she was awake my DH already took her suitcase to the car.  So I had to explain again.

When my sister offered to help out, I decided to make the most of this time without mom, getting all those tiny things done, just as I did when my kids would go on a school camp or on vacation with friends.  Unfortunately all my dreams of changing the world in this time hardly ever realized and I knew beforehand that it might also be the case with my mom being away.

We met each other half-way to swop mom (sounds bad I know) and once we got home I first took a decent nap as sitting in the car for almost 5½ hours made me lazy but the moment I woke up, I cracked the whip as the week ahead is not going to be less hectic with morning and evening classes every single day to make up for the week that I’ll be gone.

Unfortunately I couldn’t start working on any quilting as I had to tackle the housework first.  I get extremely agitated when my housework is not up to date, so work before play.  I did all the laundry and ironing and then started cleaning mom’s room.  Could only do a part but at least a start.

Catsidy, our black cat, seemed to enjoy helping me and would get into the tumble dryer with every load I took out.  Then again winter seems to be back and he might have just looked for a warmer spot.

Quilt and Craft Fair

On Saturday I could return to my hobby of choice and attend a Quilt and Craft Fair arranged by one of the quilting groups in our guild.  We bought tickets for the entrance, coffee/tea and lunch beforehand so everything went smoothly, just enter, present your ticket and continue.

I chose to do a mini workshop by Nelia Venter showing us how to make pretty 3-D flowers.  Here our teacher can be seen.

Nelia has a soft relaxing way of speaking and where I’d usually just prefer someone to show me the basics and then get home to do it myself, I enjoyed it so much that I wanted this to continue the whole day long.  Just sitting back, relax and make little flowers. 

Unfortunately I couldn’t as I then remembered I had to take photos for our guild blog and sped away to do my duties.

Part of this fair was a 10 minute relaxing back and neck massage by students of the Central University of Technology, which I enjoyed afterwards.

So much better than golf, don’t you agree?

The big day

It started raining Wednesday evening and I so wished for thunderstorms, lightning and hail – anything that would cancel the golf day but alas apart from being somewhat cloudy with only a couple of itsy-bitsy raindrops falling, it turned out the perfect day for any avid golfer (which I am not).  So up I got, dressed in uniform and off to the golf course where my team mates already eagerly awaited the day.

This photo of our 4 ball alliance was only taken after the dinner so we did not look all that fresh anymore but at least we were still capable of remembering to take the group photo.

Before any balls were hit, Hes (third from left on the photo) ordered our first drink.  This must have been around 10 am.  Can’t remember what it was but some cider of sorts and then we set off to start the competition.  We were the only team with 2 carts (what makes you think we’re too lazy to walk?) and our very own personal pointer/caddy which was DH.

Shame, the poor man had the worlds’ patience with us as no matter how hard he coached it was to no avail.  If he said ‘aim left’, you could bet your arm all our balls would go right.  For this reason I kept my sunglasses and cap on even though it was cloudy as this was my undercover look.  I did not want anyone recognize me during play.

Poor Hes had the toughest time driving as Rina would constantly step on the ‘petrol’ while Hes had to control the wheel and direction!! 

Don’t be fooled by this innocent looking face as this team member would think nothing of it to spin around after totally missing a ball, jumping up and down similar to a toddler throwing a tantrum if her ball didn’t catch flight (as if anyone else’s did) or chasing her ball and catching it before it rolled off the green once again!  Now where the hell did that ball go?

Karin was slightly irritated as one of the men in her life (which is my DH) paid more attention to the other 2 ladies in the alliance and totally abandoned us.  She felt rather neglected and at one stage wanted to run him over with our cart.

I had to do most of the driving but we realized without DH there we would not have known where to go next.  Even on the golf course I was more lost than anything else.  Looking at Karin in this photo I can only guess our arms must have been extremely tired already.

I now also know that apart from giving birth there is nothing more painful than hitting a golf stick with all your might, directly into the ground (not planned though) and the shocking pain running all the way from your thumb, through your wrist, up your arm and ending in your shoulder blade is something I don’t wish upon anyone else.  However we had heaps of giggles and sometimes laughed so much that the tears streamed down our faces.

So after visiting the 2 water holes 3 times, begging another round of drinks from a passing cart with our opposition in it, we finally made it to pre-dinner drinks on the porch.

It was here that  another rather funny incident happened.  Team mate Rina’s brother came to talk to us and while discussing how many lost balls we picked up, he remarked that one stupid person actually left a golf iron standing by a tree and how irresponsible that was.  We all suspected it to be someone who might just have had a wee bit too much to drink when Rina bravely announced that this person should be fined heavily.

Luckily Rina’s husband and main sponsor of the day, decided to go take a look at this lost item and recognized it, showed it to Rina who realized it was hers but couldn’t remember where she left it.  Well, well…… I could as I then took charge of her camera when, after a major laughing session, she so desperately needed a bathroom and with none near, had to settle for the bushes.  Caught in the act!!

Before dinner it was the prize-giving and can you guess what?  We won first prize!!  Okay in all fairness I should say that there were only 3 female teams, one group of youngsters had so much to drink, they never even made it to dinner and I suppose the other group was even worse than we were for we definitely did not win because of our abilities.  This is my first prize.

              

An all in one camera-speaker phone, alarm, clock, calendar and temperature reader plugged into my computer.

As if this wasn’t good enough I still won a lucky draw which was this neat desk organizer.

Almost makes it worth entering again next year but I am sure we’re all convinced that we should stick to quilting as our hobby of choice.

Poor walking partner had to go all by herself this morning as I was in absolute no condition to walk and later the morning she stopped by with 3 muscle relaxing/pain killing tablets to get me through the day.

“Never say never” -  heck but I don’t ever want to feel this way again!

                

The bribes

DH suggested I rest my muscles the day before the big golf game but now you try telling it to the 2 witches, I once thought were kind friends, seen on the photo below!!

 No, no, they reckoned we should get in another practice session on Wednesday around 10 am.  Now my day didn't start off well with a scream coming from the blonde’s room.  Ran to find out what the issue was and saw that this little guy caused the commotion. 

 Captured little old spider to set it free in the garden but then I had to get going as ‘walking-partner’ too had her own plans for the day.  She didn't feel much for me having a huge game the next day so we set off to the Botanical Gardens for a steep uphill hiking trail, followed by a couple of tummy exercises and jogging back to the car.  Out on my feet by then but had just enough time to take a quick shower and change attire for the new exercise routine.

I guess the witches read my blog as I barely arrived and was showered with bribes.  Look at this neat hand work case with our festival logo on the outside from witch Karin.

And then I got the lovely needle case from witch Rina.

Once soothed with the bribes, I got my team T-shirt with the name of our team and our sponsor embroidered on the sleeve. 

Then it was time to go hit some balls and don’t I just look the part?  However do not be fooled for a moment, that ball most probably ended just outside this picture.

 Here witch Karin can be seen in action – as she herself put it…. It looked as if it snowed around her with very few of the balls landing very far.

 Then we got thirsty and Rina magically brought out box wine – cool and soothing and that’s about where my practice ended.  This part of the session I enjoyed most!

 Now some of us can take our wine but to some……. They still need plenty of practice and after having her tiny box of wine; Rina thought it a great idea to roll down a grass embankment with her grandson.

 You seriously didn't think I’d help you up now Rina, did you?  All of this was after all your bright idea!!

Being organized.... for once

I wasn’t even as stiff as I thought I’d be after the golf so my day started out well with our brisk early morning walk before getting home to do the ‘rescue-after-the-weekend’ duties.  I however have a nice system going with a little of the ‘must do’ mixed with a little of the ‘want to do’.  So I’d never just be cleaning like crazy, instead I’d do a little cleaning i.e. collect all the laundry and start the washing machine and then take a little ‘me’ time by reading a couple of blogs, back to work alternated by a little play and in the end all gets done.

The only part in this system that I don’t like is when I have to drive anywhere which is the case this morning.  I have lamb shank curry with spinach on the menu for tonight and need a couple of ingredients.  Driving anywhere just seems to take such a chunk out of the day for once I have to go out I always think that it is a good idea to run a couple of other errands while out , in the end losing valuable hours of the day.

Today’s trip however paid off as after purchasing a Max Factor product I got a watch for free.  Way too much ‘bling’ for me but the blonde loved it – can’t imagine her not loving anything that is for free.

Back home the gears started rolling again and I even got dear old mom to sit outside while I cooked, unpacked the dishwasher and folded laundry.  Did the ironing too and early evening with the aroma of curried lamb filling the house, I could kick back and page through a magazine while waiting for the rice to cook.

I might just get some quilting done this evening.