Charlie's Bird
living the dream with Charlie and Thandi and chirping all the way back to the nest.Archive for November, 2009
Apologies in advance
I’m apologising in advance for the next few days. I am going to be caught up in the big move, and am probably not going to get to post much in the next little while. It’s still fairly chaotic, last night they were still painting! But the new rooms look nice, and I think its going to be room 3 for me.
On a tragic note, Baby OM died yesterday morning. While she was still fighting strong, she got an infection of her heart valves, and with the chronic lung damage, she couldn’t fight anymore. My heart is broken, my odds-defying, hope-rejuvenating princess has gone. VM&KM, know that you were great parents to little OM. No footprint is too small to not leave a mark.
Of broken cameras
Hmm… my CT friends and I must be disasterously ugly, we broke my camera! My faithful little Kodak, that I have loved so much! I bought it shortly before I did the otter trail in 2006, and it gave me some stunning shots. I know I don’t know too much about photography, its more a fluke when I get it right, but my little kodak has been eager to please. It started misbehaving on saturday afternoon, and when I turned the camera to do a portrait shot, the screen didn’t work. Then that evening it wouldn’t stay turned on, as quickly as I switched it on, it turned itself off. I gave the battery another charge, even though I knew it wasn’t flat, to no avail. Percussive maintenance hasn’t helped either… Sorry little camera, you will be missed. Damn, I got ugly friends! (ok, ok, I concede, it was just Donzil’s pudding face that did it! – he,he) Gotta love them!
Home again
I’m back, after an awesome time in CT, with my peeps!
I landed on friday (after catching the expected baby and dashing to the airport), in temperatures, probably about 10 degrees higher than here. Picked up my hire car, got upgraded to a toyota verso, which was lovely, but since my usual car is a teeny sports car, did feel like a bit of a tank. Donzil and I met at Cavendish and I managed to put some serious frequent flier miles on my credit card. Sorted out a few christmas presents, yay! Then it was off to Jacqui’s spot in Glencairn, with its delightful atmosphere and calming influence. The 4 of us, (J and hubby Pat, D and me) then had dinner in Kalk bay, at a delightful spot, Live Bait. Jacqui had booked the best table in the house, with this view.
The weather was immaculate, and we were spoilt with the sea putting on a great show. For dinner I had rainbow rolls to start, (we just don’t get sushi like that at home – excellent) and mains I had some calamari, which was lovely, but a little oily, and served with fries, I did feel well lubricated. Pudding was a chocolate and meringue terrine, which was ok. I’m still off the sauce (no, I am not pregnant!) but if I had had some wine, it would have been some Pierre Jourdaan Tranquille (a delicious chardonnay/pinot noir blend)
Saturday morning dawned another magnificent day in CT, Jacqui cooked some eggs for breakfast, delish well cooked eggs, I must add) and then we had a wonder around Simonstown, that credit card was put to good use, and I bought an enormous beautiful tablecloth, a funky chopping board and some other miscellaneous kitcheny things, I also got some sparkly purple shoes! Then it was off to the Shores, M and I had a great catch up, with the girls milling around, showing me their books, drawings and I even got a recorder solo from G. Such precious times to remember. After a lunch, where J and I got to catch up too, we headed off to Fishhoek beach, the girls got stuck into swimming, sand castle building and I snapped some pictures of them all. it was then time for a clean up and J&M and I headed out to dinner at Franck Dangereaux’s spot, the Food Barn. Oh my word, it was magnificent. Simple decor, clean and neat, and food that defies description. We ate off their bistro menu, which gave you a 3 course meal at a really reasnable rate, with a carafe of wine thrown in to the mix. I started with a wild mushroom tart, served with a herb salad, mains was fresh grilled tuna, served with sweet potato, coriander pesto and a chilli and ginger salsa, pudding was a chocolate roulade. Unbelievable! I cannot give justice to this superb meal, The tart was light and airy, and just tasted so good, the tuna was indescribably good, seared well, seasoned perfectly, and the pudding, well, it made my hot choc pots look positively juvenile. It was so good to also spend some good time catching up, and discussing our world with J&M. I am blessed to be surrounded by people like this. I am very sad that they will be so far away, but I guess it gives Charlie & I an excuse to have a white christmas one day!
Sunday felt like such a quick day, breakfast with Jacqui, P and Donzl at the River Cafe, i had scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and hollandaise sauce in a herb pancake, always a hit, and then it was off to the airport, and home to my Charlie. I missed the boy! We had a catch up, checked out the pool guys contract, yes, we are getting a pool installed!!!! Summer here is really hot, so I am looking so forward to that, I have been planning one since I moved in, and after a debacle with an error on a quote costing me more than anticipated, there was never any money to do it before.
This week is bound to be stressful, with the packing really kicking in, and the pressure on the builders on the other side to be done. I also have to decide which office to have, no 2 or 3. 2 has an office in the middle with an examination room on each side, the one room has a big pipe impinging on it, and the other has a poorly positioned door and basin. But it is close to the reception area, and will be easy for patients to make their way out of my rooms. 3 is a little further from the reception area, and no doubt my patients will get lost, and is next to the kitchen where the staff tend to congregate and burn toast), but the exam rooms are slightly more spacious and better laid out. So can’t decide, so lets hear it from you, room 2 or room 3. (the view is the same)
The drama!
I knew this would happen Life with its sick sense of humour is cackling at me right now. I am due to fly to CT at 14h00 today, that means leaving for the airport at13h00 at the latest, I have a patient in labour, and I’m not sure if she will deliver in time… Last night, emergency after emergency happened, ARGH!!!!!! Who did I annoy to deserve this crap.
Anyway, enough woe is me, you’ll get to hear more about that later. The reason for my trip to CT is to bid farewell to my friends J&M and their beautiful girls, G&A. Sadly, we are looosing them to those cold climes in Canada. All I can really say, is our loss is Canada’s gain. J is one of the finest surgeons I know, and he’d come to the peak of his career in SA, without leaving academic medicine. So, when a good opportunity came his way, he couldn’t say no. M is a journo, who got me published first, and she made me a minor household name in SA, I even have patients flying in from elsewhere in the country to see me, after she made me sound intellegent intelligent. And as for the girls, I met G when she was a mere 6 weeks old, helped to deliver A, and love them as though they are my nieces. And now even though we live across the country from one another, I will miss them when they are overseas. Shores, you are legends in my time, a couple I aspire to be like, parents I hope to be like, and people I love.
Aside form from them, I will see Jacqui and Donzil, Yay! Don and I will do some serious shopping, I hope not to alert the fraud squad this time, and Jacqui is putting me up for the weekend, so good to be able to catch up with the stinky shoes, Sadly, Charlie is staying at home, but I think we’ll be fine, and we all know about those reunions, when you have been away (nudge, nudge, wink, wink!) Anyway, I think more shopping and hours of girlie talk will drive him crazy!
Now, lets just get through this morning!
A Chaos
It is a chaos, the move, trying to consult here, everyone is stressed and grumpy.
And tomorrow I fly to Cape Town. Alleluiah!
and so it begins…
the move to the new hospital, that is. All I can say is it is going to be a total nightmare while it goes on. The patient transfers have begun today, and the nighhtmare is there are still things that need to be done at the old hospital,like I have to take a patient to theatre this afternoon, some of the administrators wanted me to transfer the patient to the new hospital! Craziness!
Anyway, by tomorrow, there won’t be an old hospital option for us anymore, all procedures and admissions will be at the new hospital. However, (and its a big however) our rooms will still be at the old hospital until next weekend, so 10 days of disasterous commuting…
I am sure that come december, it will be fabulous to be in a new environment.
It’s monday…
What a busy weekend, lots of news to update you all with.
Friday’s dinner was superb! We all overindulged in J’s excellent cooking, Spinach souffle to start, ribs galore for mains and glorious malva pudding for pudding. The company was great, caught up with some old friends, and met some new people in town; all in all, a great one!
Then there was the scrapbooking, seriously intense, but we made such nice things, we did 3 pages, 1 on friends, so I did some of the pictures from Cape Town, with Donzil and Jacqui; another fun times, which I did with some old pictures of Charlie and I and 1 on sisters, which, since I don’t have sisters, did with a picture of my neices. We also made some christmas cards, and a mini concertina album, which looks gtreat. It was good fun, I was just just bummed that my friend C, who I had planned on catching up with, was sick, and had to bail out. Sorry, dude, you missed out! They are planning on doing one of these days every 3 months, so we’ll be able to do it again!
Then, Charlie and I set off to our night away with our friends, K&A. What a special time we had, that’s another blessing to count, our friends, and just how much they mean to us! we arrived to this view
Simply breath-taking! The weather was a little disappointing, with howling cold wind, but what a pleasure to be in such beautiful surroundings. On sunday morning early, we hit the beach for a long walk, despite the wind, the kids enjoyed collecting shells, found a dead shark, and a dead bird, so their quotient of horror stories for school was fulfilled. There was lots of snoozing, reading, talking nonsense, eating and relaxing, magnificent. Thanks K&A and M&Z!
And now the week has begun. The hospital moves tomorrow, chaos will ensue, so expect a few frustrated posts.
Baby OM has grown to a whopping 970gm, but has a severe pneumonia, and is requiring 100% oxygen again, almost too much to be good for her. keep her in your thoughts, and her family, as we watch and wait. She’s still super active, and waves at us every now and again, but she is so very sick at the moment.
In sight
I am so relieved that the week is nearly done. I always have this sensation of ‘not a moment longer’, when I have been on call the preceding weekend. And its going to be an exciting weekend! Tonight, dinner at our neighbours, J&A, which promises to be a feast, they are both part of cooking club, and I heard what they are planning, sounds great! They are expecting their second daughter, and are due end of january, so they are going to be in for some fun and games. Their first, Bupsie, is the sweetest little girl, absolutely gorgeous!
Then tomorrow, I am off to the Super Scrap!, a 12 hour scrapbooking workshop, which promises to be good relaxation, and hopefully, a christmas present will come out of it (for my brother and his family)! Charlie and I are then heading out of town for the night (yay!) with friends, K&A, we’re heading to a little beach resort, about 100km’s away, really looking forward to it, I must say. The weather, of course, is being typical for this time of year, perfect days during the working week, and the clouds, wind and coolness arrived this morning. So I hope sunday, at least, offers something better. But, quite frankly, just getting away will be great, and K&A are great fun, we will talk lots of nonsense, drink some wine, and get silly.
Sunday, we’ll head home, and probably just collapse in a heap… But today must still be finished off, I have a labouring patient…
Spinning
This year has been rather a hectic one (I know, I say this at least once a week), with the final countdown now really starting to hot up. I cannot believe that we have 43 days to Christmas! Time is seriously amarching! And just knowing what lies ahead; the move to the new hospital, a trip to Cape Town, 2 more weekend calls, a whole host of functions; makes me feel rather spinny!
That said, I have started spinning at the new gym close to the new hospital, seriously good workout! I can’t say I am enjoying it yet, but I appreciate the feeling afterwards, I am also sleeping better and it makes me want to eat better! Last night, we had something totally different for supper. I made a felafel and beef salad, which came out really well, and was really substantial, I wasn’t even able to finish it! Woolies have come up with all these middle eastern goodies, so it was a bit of a cheat really, but delicious nonetheless.
Cooking club tonight, so will give you an update on interesting food tommorrow!
Charlie's Bird 