Harmony dashes in breathlessly with long overdue news

THE GOOD

STAR

The man of the house is now gainfully employed as a sports coach at the private school he used to attend. So not only is he outdoors all day but he gets all school holidays off. Lucky bugger. We drop Angel off at school in the mornings, and then I am deposited at my offices and thereafter Star drives himself off to work and I get a lift home from a colleague. He is on three month probation, and before the school closes he will find out if he’s position is made permanent. [crossing all digits].

ANGEL

Where to start with all of Madam’s latest accolades? Whilst many of her friends’ parents have taken their kids out of Scouts due to their school marks dropping, Angel’s marks went up by 5% on her latest report and she has been invited to participate in the National Junior Science Olympiads. So there is certainly no concern with her school work suffering due to Scouting activities. Oh and she was voted class captain! As for Scouting, she attended a sailing regatta recently at Harties and instead of rowing and sailing in her age group, the organisers put her with the under 15’s. And I should also mention that the under 15’s were mostly guys [only one other girl].

THE BAD

Mother Dearest has been diagnosed with Parkinsons, so on top of all her other ailments; she is really not faring well. She is already exhibiting uncontrollable shaking of her right arm and at times it seems as though she is pulling faces. We cannot establish whether her balance is effected, as she is still bed-ridden and any hope of her being rehabilitated to walk are now gone. She has also lost an incredible amounts of weight and from being quite a large strapping woman, she appears to have shrunk into the mattress into a frail little old lady.

More sad news is that Aaliyah’s father’s brother passed away a week ago. He was feeling unwell on Thursday morning and went with his mother to the doctor. Whilst in the consulting rooms he had a heart attack and died. Just like that, in the middle of a consultation with the doc. So it must’ve been massive cardiac failure that they weren’t able to revive him.

THE BEAUTIFUL

Would you believe me if I told you that mere days after posting my bucket list, two of the items listed came to fruition?  Three, if you count IndianGal’s enlightenment.  3/6 – not bad odds if I do say so my self!

To cut a long story short, I was asked by the Scout Leaders of Angel’s troop to join as a Scouter as there are currently only male leaders, and with the troop being mixed; they require the assistance of a female Scouter.  When I inquired as to why I was selected [I certainly don’t look the camping / hiking / roping / sailing type], I was informed that I am the most involved mom, and if my passion and encouragement for my daughter is anything to go by, the other Scouts would benefit greatly.

Now who can say no to that!

So # 6 on my bucket list is ticked off! Whilst it’s not MSF or Gift of the Givers, two organisations I would still like to assist in my lifetime; I’d say that becoming a uniformed Scouter still counts:

Volunteer – yup, certainly not getting to paid to give up my Friday nights [19h00 to 22h00 and Sundays [all day]

Humanitarian – [concerned with or seeking to promote human welfare] check!

Organisation – check!

Part of my duties is training and teaching the Scouts in various aspects of Scouting; and since this is a Sea Scouting Troop that I have joined – I have to be able to teach them in the water activities in which they partake. And this includes …

… You guessed it …

Sailing!

Which means I have to learn to sail!

Whoop whoop – that’s # 2 on my bucket list!

I had my first lesson on Sunday at Harties, which was learning the terminology of the sail boat. Not that any of it sank in, I’m still clueless as where starboard is versus port; and who is jib and his halyards and sheets and stays are. What was even more intimidating was watching the kids rig the sailboats on their own and then taking it apart again once they had finishing sailing. It looks like they’ll be teaching me and not the other way around!

So if you’re looking for me on a Sunday, I’m either at Harties, the Vaal or Florida lake making my dreams come true.

Happy Diwali