Good evening Negative Soundbyters! This comes to you from a wine region in the Cape called Franschhoek. Mrs H hired a villa for the second part of our stay; I am sitting on a sun lounger with an ice cold Windhoek beer looking onto a plunge pool (filled with borehole water) which I mistakenly fell into earlier. This followed a pool related incident the day before which is described later in the post.
Other than that it has been a very gentle first week. The highlight was having Rafe christened at the church that Mrs H and I got married in nearly five years ago. Those who bring their babies to church and disciplined churchgoers can sometimes be uneasy bedfellows in God’s House. The former try and keep their babies “seen-and-not-heard” but the babas are “sod that” and vocalise at a pitch somewhere north of the choir’s soprano and usually during a prayer that requires quiet contemplation. The latter would prefer a service guided by the wizened hand of the priest with the appropriate prayers and hymns sung strictly in accordance with God’s Word, and without interruption.
Hence the christening service which is designed for maximum interruption – and interaction! Our priest was brilliant and he conducted a memorable service striking the right balance between ensuring that the significance of the moment was emphasised in a spiritual sense without making it “too heavy” from a religious perspective.
And Rafe took it completely in his stride. When it came for his time to be anointed over the baptismal font he stuck his fingers up the priest’s nose - as you do to mark your entry into the God’s World!
And what of events of a geopolitical nature:
A new item to focus on in a South African context. Now that No 1 has become Point One and we have a new man in charge, land reform has replaced Jay Zee as the main talking point around the braai – the reason? that it should be taken, “expropriated”, from the existing owner without compensation being paid and transferred back to the state – that owner may then lease the land from the state. This is a very complex and emotive issue; unfortunately the government has failed to deliver any significant reform under the existing legal framework and now the masses are getting restless – stoked on by the firebrand leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Julius Malema. As you would expect this proposal hasn’t met with universal support – the chaotic land re-distribution across the border in Zimbabwe (from those who were feeding the nation to those who were feeding from its trough) springs to mind. That said I think it will be a while yet before a yuff with a red beret knocks on my Dad’s door in Simon’s Town requesting the keys, but in Africa anything is possible….
Time to move on to this week’s anecdote
Big Love to All.
Hoddy X
Mrs H and her Mom had gone to the shops for supplies and left me in charge of the fort, which included watching Rafe. Now Rafe has recently graduated from his “little ducklings” swimming class so I thought – look, it’s hot why don’t we take a dip together. You might think this a big call - taking a swim unsupervised - but I was like: “I can swim, Rafe is now a signet – what could possibly go wrong?”
I changed him into his dinosaur bathing suit, I got my ghost-white chassis into a pair of very cool board shorts (not a match on Rafe’s but pretty close) and we made our way to the pool. He looked at me quizzically: “New Dad this is something the Boss usually does with me and my other NCT buddies. Two things: I don’t see the Boss and I don’t see my NCT buddies? Are you sure you up for this? Drowning while in the winelands – not cool.”
I was like, “Son, I’ve got this. Don’t worry, you are in safe hands” Rafe didn’t look so sure. We approached the steps to the pool and put our feet in. Granted it was a few degrees colder than he is used to (balmy indoor pools are not a patch on the real thing) and he let me know with a short sharp toot on the air raid siren matched with a very disagreeable expression. The T-Rex was not that happy.
We chilled out on the shallow step for a while and then I decided it was time to enter the water as per the “little ducklings” class. The water wasn’t crystal clear (given that it is coming straight from the ground) and I actually couldn’t see the bottom of the shallow end, but like most pools I have been in, shallow means shallow. Not this one. I stepped off holding Rafe above me and found myself momentarily submerged. The step into the shallow end was more like a steep drop off. I literally disappeared from view.
An observer would have wondered at a flailing baby dinosaur suspended above the water. I eventually found my footing and surfaced. Rafe was not completely unscathed; thankfully he hadn’t joined me beneath the surface (a vexed, water-boarded dinosaur is not to be trifled with) but he had got wet and he wasn’t best happy. This was not the calm and orderly entry into a swimming pool with his NCT buddies, accompanied by a gentle sing-song, that he was used to. He let out a noise best associated with a strangled, and bedraggled, egret and then found a plastic penguin bobbing about in the water which he grabbed and put in his mouth. Not often you see a pint sized T-rex sucking on the head of a small, blue penguin.
This placated him and I was able to engineer an exit from the pool with (surprisingly) the minimum of fuss. I wrapped him in a towel and willed Mrs H and her Mom to come home so that I might be relieved! Thankfully I didn’t have to wait too long; this particular species of T-Rex was going to live to swim another day…!
OUT :)
Pic of the Week
Butter wouldn't melt...(courtesy of Kels's Mom)
