WELL!!!

What can I say? I have not posted on Blogger for two months and man, do I miss it and all my Blogger friends?

As always, I have been busy, but I intend to blog more regularly this year.

I had a WONDERFUL holiday season with my accommodation during November and December and guess what, it's not letting up for January through March either. 

 I am going great guns at Parkrun with five to go to reach my 100th milestone. 

Christmas Eve was the start of the heatwave. Although Skabby and I donned the required festive adornments, we both suffered badly in the heat

Meanwhile we have had a severe heatwave in South Africa and my poor Skabby is suffering. Athough he was shaved and groomed at the beginning of December, a week before Chrisstmas he developed a hotspot the about 5cm in diameter. No matter what I applied, the hotspot got bigger. 

I took him to the vet and then the injections, medicines, cortisone started. I applied pharmacy bought mercurochrome spray and gentian violet to the raw areas. The vet ordered Sulphur powder (priced like gold dust!) and this started to help. But Skabby kept licking and scratching the wounds. 

The vets would phone me before the weekend to ask how Skabby was getting on. I know I was, by now, a welcome cash cow to the veterinary business, but I found it touching that they actually cared...

My answer was always the same: it seems a little better, but he is licking and scratching the areas. 

Finally, last Tuesday I took him to the vet while I was running my Weigh-Less groups in Winterton. He injected Skabby with a "hotspot" injection, prescribed an antibiotic specifically meant for skin irritations and fitted the doggie with a cone. 

Mmm

Poor boy. 

All the older cats scattered as they saw this strange apparition. 

Except Georgie...

Never mind, Unca Skabby, I will stay and care for you!

Yesterday, I left Skabby at home and went to the Parkrun on my own. He sat and howled like a baby at the gate: a really pathetic sight of a sad dog with a plastic cone around his neck! I felt absolutely lost not to be dragged around the 5km track, and everyone who saw me, asked where my dog was.

I just have to get him better...

On 30 December, my brother, Philip turned 75. I joined him and friends for a lovely luncheon at a neighbor's home.

Philip and me on his 75th

Philip was the kind person who took 12-year-old Papa in when the owner of a local lifestyle center wanted to euthanize him.

This month Papa has been with Philip for a year - the best forever home a cat could wish for

Philip's other car, Cat has accepted Papa as if he has been there forever.\

Back home the felines thrive, and Georgie is getting cuter by the minute

Inexpensive and simple...

.

...are toys which delight an active kitten!

MAY YOU ALL ENJOY A WONDERFUL SUNDAY

All in a weekend!

 Good morning dearest Blogger friends. On Saturday Thandi and I cleaned The Bunker for incoming guests arriving on Sunday. I left the key in the normal drop box and we came home. 

I naively imagined the guests would be at the accommodation around 2pm. 

Not so. 

WHY do people leave leaving home, for a destination unknown, so late? 

At 6.30 last night the guest phoned me and told me where they were. I was appalled. They were still about three hours away. 

She phoned me several times telling me where they were. At one stage she said they were at a turnoff, which she named - so I said now you are 3km from the T-junction to Winterton. 

Twenty minutes later she phoned to say now they have Spioenkop Lodge on their left. My heart SANK!  I realized that they were going in the wrong direction! I said you should be in WINTERTON.  She said we were in Winterton and we turned and took this route.  

Oh dear.

I always send a pin drop and no one ever gets lost. I send a series of photos of where exactly to turn into my driveway; the sign saying The Bunker just inside the black security gate. 

I send specific images to show the exact entrance to The Bunker

When they arrive at the gate, they can see The Bunker sign inside

I told them to make a U turn and go BACK to Winterton. 

They finally phoned from Winterton at 7pm. I kept her on the phone until I was sure they were on the regional road facing  the Central Drakensberg.  

They phoned again from the T-junction (5km from where I live) and I told them to keep STRAIGHT.   She promised to phone me when she sees the turnoff to the Drakensberg Boys Choir School. This is 1km before The Bunker.

She DID phone from the boys choir school turnoff. I stayed on the phone as it was about 600m to the turnoff in the photo above. Then they PASSED The Bunker turnoff and I had to guide them back. This time, they went too far south and drove into the Highlands Estate driveway. I asked them to reverse and turn UP again. Mrs was peering into the dark and saying she cannot see anything when MR said: I can see the driveway with  the sign to The Bunker inside.  

Whoop-whoop. 

 I guided them into the driveway, opened the gate remotely and all they had to do is follow the brick paved road onto the patio which is THE BUNKER. 

Of course everything is MUCH easier in the daylight! 

I personally felt as though I had been driving in the dark for six hours! 

HAPPY MONDAY TO YOU ALL!