Hello and here’s wishing you a happy Sunday. Come on in and grab a coffee, tea, whatever beverage you want. If you wait just a few more minutes the bran muffins are almost done. It’s a warm day today the skies are blue and there’s a gentle breeze.

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge

On the blogging front, this week was quite busy. I remembered to sign up for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge only on April 7. Good thing it was still open for entries. This despite me doing a whole theme reveal a couple of weeks ago.

… and about that … I’ve changed my theme. Grammatical Glitches demanded more of me than I had time to give, so I changed the theme to places I’ve visited or passed through.

I’m almost caught up to tomorrow’s letter which is J.

Blogging from A to Z posts – my favourite one is D is for Durban:
G is for Ghent
F is for Flic en Flac
E is for Erawan Falls
D is for Durban (Memories)
C is for Chiang Mai
B is Bangkok
A is for Ayutthaya

Someone stole Chè’s car battery!

The backstory: yesterday someone jumped over the wall, jemmied the hood of Chè car and stole the battery! A similar thing happened to our neighbours some time back. This type of petty crime isn’t new in this area. Recently police caught a group of thieves doing this.

Fortunately, they didn’t cut any cables. I called our security company last night warning them of this and they said they’d send more patrol cars to the area. Chè went to the police this morning and the fingerprint techs came out soon after.

Now for the complacent part – Chè forgot to engage the alarm on the car. He locked it with the key but didn’t put the alarm on. And we didn’t have the perimeter alarm on either because it was still early in the evening. I was in the bedroom, closest to where the car was parked on the driveway and I heard nothing! (Chè is out there at the moment checking for damage to the hood’s latch.)

Instant Pot

Should I get one? Hmm … still deciding but it’s certainly so very tempting.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie the Explorer – she has some pics of beautiful murals this week. Click here for more coffee shares.

Easter

Wishing you all a wonderful Easter! I’ve just arrived home from spending time with my family. I spent a relaxing few days with my sister and niece and today we all came together for lunch at my folks’s place.  This is our usual tradition although last year was the exception – we were at the start of a strict level 5 lockdown and no travel between locales was allowed. So each family unit celebrated in their own homes and we connected virtually later. So, last year no chocolate; this year chocolate 🙂

How has your Easter been, in whichever form?

Unmet expectation

I set an expectation a couple of weeks ago. That of participating in the A to Z Challenge with the theme of Grammatical Glitches. Yesterday was day 3 of the challenge and I’m yet to post anything.

“Why did you pick that theme?” my self-talk demanded.

“What do you really know about teaching grammar to other people?” it continued, “English is not even your first language.”

The second-guessing continues. And writer’s block ensues.

Winterising

Otherwise known as ‘preparing for winter’ (air quotes on purpose).  Although yesterday was a hot day with the heat blending into the evening, overall temperatures are dropping. I’ve reluctantly put away my summer sandals and slip slops, and brought out my sneakers. In another month or two, the sneakers will be stored away and the boots brought out. I’m going through my cold weather clothes and laundering them.

Rogue tomatoes

We have a rogue tomato plant. It’s rather huge and has yielded dozens of tomatoes. It’s still yielding tomatoes, and I’m holding thumbs that the warm weather holds enough for the green ones to ripen. You see, it’s rogue because we didn’t plant it. It emerged in a bed at the front of the garden in an area reserved for indigenous plants that don’t need much watering. Chè fed it some lawn fertilizer and the results have been astounding.

Juggling fewer timezones

European and US clocks moved by an hour so my day starts one hour earlier. This is a great pity because I rather liked my day to start at 10 am. This doesn’t mean that my day finishes earlier though. I think I’m getting the raw deal here (South Africa doesn’t practice daylight saving). On the plus side, I have one less timezone to juggle! Yay (not) … or maybe yes … or not …

Lockdown

South Africa is still on lockdown level 1, the least strict level. I am rather concerned about this: people swarmed to beaches, held street parties and many eschewed masking and social distancing this long weekend. Vaccinations are proceeding slowly – at the moment only health care providers are getting vaccinated. Vaccination for the public hasn’t started. So I’m worried. Our numbers are low and test positivity in the region of 5% so it’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of security. Police have been kept busy this Easter weekend, breaking up the street parties.

Let me leave you today with a funny cartoon about coffee.

Wishing you a productive week ahead.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie the Explorer. Click here for more coffee shares.