Recalculating

The other day my lovely companion and I looked up some directions on Google Maps. At first it was very confusing, but we finally managed to get our route planned out. But that got me thinking, are we starting to rely too much on technology? Is studying a paper map becoming a lost art? Now I've got nothing against using a GPS, but I've had more than a few rather weird experiences with them. A while back I had to go deliver a document to a Government department in another city. A city that I have never been to previously. So I thought "Not a problem, I have a GPS." After some fiddling and button pushing, and one or two colourful words, my destination was set. I told the GPS to start navigation. It promptly told me that it didn't have signal. That should have been warning sign number one. So I thought I'd drive in the general direction of the city in question and wait for the GPS to regain signal. When it finally regained its lost signal, it immediately told me to make a u-turn. On the freeway. Traveling at 120km/h. Needless to say I regarded it in the way that one would regard a person who had just sprouted a third eye while yodeling. After it realized that I wasn't going to follow its sage advice, it recalculated along the route I was driving. All went well until I reached the city, whereupon the GPS told me to make a left turn and then started recalculating. I was stunned. It had told me to turn left! And then it started rerouting! I was rather convinced that it was quite lost and wanted me to pull over so it could get its bearings again. Finally, after a minute or so, it regained its confidence and proceeded to lead me to my destination. Imagine my surprise when it proudly exclaimed that I had reached my destination, only for me to see the following....

There was absolutely nothing there! Just grass and some trees and very little else. I found myself wondering if the Government department that I was supposed to visit was underground, or invisible. Needless to say I turned around, much to the dismay of the GPS, who kept advising me to make a u-turn. After suppressing the urge to throw it out of the window, I turned it off and asked directions from a local. Less than 5 minutes later I was at my destination.

The scary thing is, I've heard of people who have driven into grasslands and even into the ocean because they blindly follow the suggestions of a device that is clearly trying to kill them. I'm convinced that the GPS gives you a false sense of security while secretly plotting your demise. So my mind has been made up, until technology improves, and until our electronic devices let go of their homicidal tendencies, I will rely on the trusty paper map!

Party Rock is in the House Tonight!

Well, okay, not tonight, but Saturday night. My lovely companion's 30th birthday party has finally arrived! The amount of effort and planning that went into this event was more intense than most military battle strategy sessions! But, after delving through the internet for party theme ideas (and getting quite freaked out by the wide variety of questionable themes available) we have finally settled on a Marvel and DC Heroes and Villains party. Yes, for a few hours on Saturday our house will resemble Comic Con. Only with better food and beverages. There will even be prizes awarded for the best dressed male and female.

 Now as with any party, we expected a bunch of people to just go "I don't want to dress up" and then rock up in t-shirt and jeans, but so far the response and enthusiasm is breathtaking! One friend even went so far as to ask if she can show up as Squirrel Girl. At first we thought she was joking, but turns out there is in fact a Squirrel Girl in the Marvel Universe!

So I am very happy to report that this will be an awesome party with many colorful and unique costumes! And we are looking forward to it immensely! That leaves just one question......who will I be going as? The truth is.......I AM IRON MAN!

The First of Many!

So, our little angel's first birthday has come and gone. It's hard to believe that it has been a year since she first cuddled her way into our lives! And what a year it has been! She surprises us daily with her cuteness and intelligence. And for such a special girl, you have to have a special first birthday party. This party was planned with more attention to detail than most nuclear strikes. Everything had to be perfect! So she received her first present on Saturday morning, and proceeded to play with the wrapping paper instead. Then we got her all dressed up for a special event. It is called "Smash the Cake" which basically involves putting down sheets everywhere, giving the baby a birthday cake and letting them have their way with it.

Our little angel enjoyed it immensely! When first presented with her vanilla and strawberry buttercream cake, she fell face first into it for the first bite. After that her time was spent alternating between eating off all the icing and posing for pictures. Thereafter she took a well-deserved nap while we went to the venue to prepare for the dedication ceremony. The dedication ceremony was a tremendous success, even though our little angel, with a massive amount of cake-induced energy, ran around laughing like a hyena the entire time! Then it was time for the after party. Another one of her birthday gifts featured quite prominently; an inflatable pool filled with coloured balls for her to play in. The manufacturers of said inflatable pool wanted to make sure that the air that you put into it stays there, but unfortunately they did it so well that it was next to impossible to actually get the air INTO it. After about an hour and a half spent huffing and puffing which would have made the big bad wolf glow with pride, it was inflated to all its glorious rainbow-coloured glory. The unadulterated joy on our little angel's face upon seeing her very own ball pit made all the effort worth it though!

After all was said and done, our little angel drifted to sleep for a well deserved rest, and we followed suit soon thereafter. All in all it was a very memorable first birthday. Even though the following day I had to spend some more time re-inflating her ball pit, which had been deflated for transport.....

Nice to Meet You!

My lovely companion and I have recently come to realise that we have produced quite the little social butterfly! Wherever our little angel goes, she makes friends with all the kids in her vicinity. Restaurants, shopping centers, you name it, she will find someone to chat to. Not that you can understand a word she's saying just yet.

This past weekend we took her grocery shopping with us. She spent the first 15 minutes of the shopping experience snoozing in the trolley, and then, refreshed after her power nap, spent the rest of the time frantically greeting passersby. Her standard greeting is waving while uttering a loud "HAAAAAAAAAAH!" causing most people to be rather startled, especially because most of them only notice her at that point. But then, it would be rather difficult to avoid a friendly toddler squealing in your ear!

My lovely companion takes our little angel to a playgroup once a week. Now there are a few activities that the moms and tots are required to do while at this playgroup, and all the OTHER moms and tots do them quite well. Our little angel, on the other hand, usually decides to explore and make friends. She takes up position in the middle of the floor, selects a likely candidate and crawls over for an introduction, usually leaving my lovely companion to follow her around apologizing to the other moms for the untimely interruption.

We don't mind the friendliness of our little angel, especially as she has shown herself to be an excellent judge of character! If she likes you, you are generally a good person. If she doesn't, and we have learned this from experience, there is usually a rather dodgy side that you are just hiding very well. But few people can escape her falcon-like scrutiny!

We love our little angel to bits, and we are enjoying every moment of her development. She surprises us daily, and at this rate who knows, she might just bring a little light to others as well!

Punching in a Dream

So the past while we've had the unfortunate privilege of receiving frequent visits from nocturnal entities not so interested in drinking our blood but more interested in taking our stuff. Just two nights ago some silent shadow tried to liberate my lovely companion's computer monitor through a window that he had managed to open. Now, while he might have thought this a simple task, in actual fact he did not take into account the size of the monitor relative to the size of the opening in the burglar bars. Hence, he didn't manage anything other than just making a mess.

On top of that the dogs heard his futile attempts and made a tremendous racket, which caused us to open the door and let them out. So not only was the would-be thief faced with the enormity of his failure, he was also faced with a frantically barking Australian Shepherd and a furious 60kg Boerboel. Unfortunately he made a clean getaway before either us or our extremely upset canines could get to him. For those readers who aren't sure what a Boerboel looks like.....

Now this whole situation was weighing heavily on me, occupying my thoughts with visions of various booby traps and other burglar catching technology. So it should come as no surprise that last night I even dreamt about it. In my dream I was walking towards our humble abode when the same would-be thief jumps out of the bushes, rushes at me and starts attacking me. Naturally I defend myself. In my mind I looked like a MMA fighter high on caffeine and Red Bull!

Unfortunately I woke up to a massive crash in our bedroom. Turns out that, while I was fighting my imaginary attacker, I had punched straight through the lamp on my bedstand in my sleep. My lovely companion was looking at me strangely, and both the cats that had up until that point been sleeping peacefully on the bed had vanished, one wetting the bed in the process. After clearing up the chaos (which was considerable) and remaking the bed so that we could continue sleeping, my lovely companion leaned over and whispered "You killed the bad lamp."

So I have come to realise that one shouldn't over-think things. You may just end up fighting with yourself!

Baby Steps

Since our little angel first made her debut 10 months ago, my lovely companion and I have been under the impression that she has some pressing engagement that we are unaware of. She started sitting up by herself and then crawling WAY before any of the guidelines said that she was supposed to. And now, much to our delight, she started taking her first steps!

The only thing that concerns me slightly is the fact that, once she mastered the art of crawling, she can now move about with an amazing turn of speed. It seems that my lovely companion has given birth to The Flash! We have to keep such a close eye on her, because one moment she'd be happily playing on the carpet next to us, the next moment she'd be outside on the patio chasing one of the dogs around! I sometimes wonder if she has the ability to teleport! Now that she has taken her first tentative steps, I am convinced that she'll be running everywhere soon. And now maybe she will actually get to that appointment that she seems to have! We'd better watch her closely, otherwise she'll be doing this next.....

Frozen

Winter has finally arrived in South Africa! Now usually winter in South Africa means that you walk out of your house in the morning and notice that it is only slightly cooler than usual. We have very mild winters over here. But you get freaky winters, like this one, where you walk out the door and 5 seconds later you can cut glass with your nipples!

Just last night I mentioned to my lovely companion that I am thus far unimpressed with our winter. It has not really been cold yet. In fact, most of the time you roll up your sleeves halfway through the day, and your jacket remains forgotten in the back of your closet. Then sometime during the night, the wind started howling, the trees started shedding leaves everywhere and when I walked out of the house this morning, I walked straight into the next Ice Age! I half expected to see a mammoth, a sabre-tooth tiger and a sloth engaging in pithy word play in my front yard. (For those who are now scratching their heads, see Ice Age, the animated movie.) It would seem that my casual remark about the mildness of our winter thus far has angered Mother Nature. She retaliated with polar temperatures, just to put me in my place. When faced with such a response, there is only one question you can ask.....do you wanna build a snowman?