Something different

Some anecdotes from the last few days that will hopefully bring a smile to your face at the beginning of this new year – just a silly personal touch to my blog, I suppose 😉 :

(Background real quick first : There is a family, who are my friends, but are like family to me. They moved in next door when I was 17, and our friendship has spanned the years – even when we no longer lived next door to each other. They’ve seen me at my absolute worst, but they still love me (and vice versa). We don’t see each other regularly or talk often – but when we do, you’d think we hadn’t missed a day! The friendship started with G as my ‘older, wiser’ friend – and she still is, and more – mid sixties now, but some days I swear she’s more youthful than me! Ha ha!
K was 5 when they moved in – she was the cute, but annoying, kid next door, ha ha! She’s still cute, but not annoying, and is now in her late twenties with a little family of her own. Her and her husband visit me as a couple occasionally – how he puts up with us women is beyond me! ha ha! – and they have the most adorable little 4 year old in this world! I am still baffled at his ability to have a rather grown up conversation!)

Story number one : The not so fun part of this anecdote is that my daughter had Covid for Christmas. And she had it bad. Fevers, bronchitis, a throat infection so bad that they had to inject her to bring down the swelling. (Christmas Day was worthy of celebration in many ways – the most important being that she was a lot better health wise!)
On the 21st of December, K and her little family came to drop off some groceries for us (good old isolation), and the back window of the car opened to reveal her little boy sitting in his booster seat. His request? ”Please can I see her?” We all started explaining at the same time that my daughter was sick and contact was a no, and were all in fits of laughter when he said, ”Excuse me for interrupting, everyone. I don’t want to hug her, but I just need to see her. I have something important to tell her.”
I went to call her, because how could I not? She came through in her pyjama’s and face mask, and his little face lit up when her eyes crinkled their smile at him. He actually brought tears to my eyes when he said, ”Oh! I am so glad to see you, because you look okay. I know you are sick now, but when you are better we will arrange for you to come to our house and then you and me can go for a nice, cool swim, okay? My daddy can make a braai for us! Okay?”
K’s husband laughed and commented, ”Well, I guess that’s decided then!”
It brought a lot of heartfelt cheer to our household that day! ❤

Story number two : (If you have a lizard phobia, I do not recommend that you click on the link.) In my area, these lizard like creatures are rather common…. they’re called Gecko’s. (I know… you get them all over the world…. but the ones that frequent my house look a lot like this! They’re a little bit creepy, but I have lived with them for years and so we’re sort of friends 😛 The only thing that bothers me about them is having to clean up after them, every jolly day!)
I’ve blogged about them before, because some encounters are truly amusing!
At the moment there are about six that live on my outside verandah, two in my bedroom, and one in the bathroom. (there used to be two in the bathroom years ago, until the one ended up in my bath with me… but that’s a whole other story, ha ha ha!) My windows are always slightly open, so more may come and go during the night, who knows!
My little dog often has to be dissuaded from hunting these poor creatures! Unfortunately, once or twice, she has caught them and I find a ‘still thrashing about tail’ in my bed! UGH! Thankfully, the gecko usually makes a remarkable escape!
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and the gecko’s were cross! Ha ha ha!
I lay in bed, watching my two on the ceiling, clicking angrily at each other as they both approached the same poor moth. The moth flew away just in time, but the fight was on. I said out loud, (as I so often do because I am a communicator 😛 ) ”Come on guys, no fighting, please. You need to both stay on the ceiling. There’s no space on this bed for you, me and the dogs!”
Apparently they’re hard of hearing!
There was a mad scramble a few minutes later as one landed on my leg, which my little dog was napping against! I successfully grabbed her before she could do any damage, but watched in horror as it ran towards me instead of away! I lacked grace as I tumbled from my bed, holding on to my little dog protectively (for her protection and that of the dude that was on me), only to hear Mr. Gecko land with a thud on the floor. I flipped on the light switch and watched him cross the carpet and climb back up the wall before letting little Miss go! She pursued him with a few frantic barks, and then settled back on to the bed and curled up and went to sleep as if nothing had happened. I double checked that he still had his tail and then told them both to behave as I switched off the light and went back to bed.

Story number three : I am a water baby. Not so much the swimming kind… although my insides swim in it, a lot! I love my coffee… but can only drink so much (a sad state of affairs, I know!) Apparently this does not apply to my water consumption. I always have a bottle of water with me, and on the rare occasion that I go out to eat, I will order a bottle of still water to drink along with whatever else I may choose (but most times, it’s the water alone). This has been passed down to my children. Like their mom, their thirst is only satisfied by water.
My adult son spent the night at a friend’s farm on the 31st. He came home late morning on the 1st January, rather tired. They had had about four hours sleep, before crawling from their beds and going out for breakfast. He was catching me up on everyone’s news (I’ve known these ‘kids’ for about ten years now and have had them in my home often), while filling his water bottle from the fridge, and I watched silently with a huge smile on my face. I waited in anticipation as he took a breath and lifted his water bottle to his lips. Then I laughed out loud as that mouthful landed on my kitchen counter and floor! I choked out, in between fits of laughter, ”You are tired”, and he shook his head in disbelief before joining me in laughter!
He had filled his water bottle from the milk carton! (I only drink milk in coffee, or the odd milkshake. If I have had a ‘glass of milk’ more than three times in my life, it’s a lot! This is apparently something else that I have passed down to my children. Strange how that works!)
What a rude awakening for his sleepy taste buds!
(One of those ‘you had to be there’ situations, but if you’ve ever experienced similar, it may still make you smile 😉 )

Why share such trivial things with you, you may be wondering?
Well…. once again… it’s the little things that count, right? 😉
Here’s hoping your days are filled with ‘trivial’ bits of your own to make you smile, and warm your heart!

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Tales and Tails

Today’s blog post was inspired by an occurrence this morning – more of an encounter with a local creature. But I’ll get to that 😉

I was going to post a picture of said creature… BUT, I am sensitive to the fact that there may be someone out there who is terribly afraid of this kind of animal. SO….

Here in SA we get lots of Gecko’s – I believe they are a worldwide creature, so they get around 😉
Geckos are lizards belonging to the infraorder, Gekkota, found in warm climates throughout the world. (I got that from the site I’ll link you to in a moment.)

My house sometimes seems overrun by them – I don’t mind, except that they make a mess! Because I am not afraid of them, as such. I welcome them, in actual fact. So long as they stay running along the walls and ceilings!
Mine are Albino. So they’re not as pink as the picture on the site I am going to link you to. In fact, they’re really a creamy colour, with a pink hue – and they’re pretty much see through. Yeah… they’re not very attractive at all! But I kinda like the little fella’s. And in my house they are affectionately known as ‘Geckies’.

I have had to rescue a few, that have dropped in the empty bath and can’t grip the smooth sides. Or the little ones that hang out in the shower and need to be caught and moved before we send them down the drain. Catching them is always quite stressful and usually ends up with an ‘ewwww’ moment – they lose their tails! And the tail still thrashes around for a while afterwards! Ugh!

So before I share my Geckie tales… here’s the link (which has a picture, please be warned) in case you want to check them out and read some interesting facts.

‘TAIL’ one :

That’s not the right spelling, but this mornings encounter was with a tail!
Outside my bedroom, I have an undercover patio area/veranda. There are about fifteen Geckie’s who reside there. It’s not surprising, because I leave the outside light on when I go to bed, and they congregate around it and have a feast! 😉 They usually hide out of sight during the day. This morning, my dogs woke me at 06:00, wanting to venture outside. It was still quite dark out, which meant the Geckie’s were still dining.
I always need to keep an eye on my little dog – she’s a Yorkshire Terrier cross, and loves hunting my poor Geckies. I climbed back into bed, to just be, after I’d opened up for the dogs.
And I heard the Geckie drop off the wall, with quite a thud. I quickly jumped up and cordoned off the area, so that little Miss couldn’t access him. And I watched him run off under the table and up the wall again. But he left his 7 centimetre (almost 3 inches) tail behind! It was thrashing about like there was no tomorrow! I needed to pick it up before little dog decided to try and eat it… so I grabbed a couple of tissues.
And I uttered my ‘Ewwwwwww’ and then picked it up… still feeling it moving around!
Down the toilet it went!
And then I desperately needed coffee!

Tale two :

This has happened to me a couple of times…
Turn off the lights to go to bed, seeing the Geckie on the ceiling near my bed. Telling it, ‘You better stay up there, buddy!’, and then getting myself comfortable for blissful sleep.
Hearing the plop, and feeling it at the same time, as it just drops off the ceiling, on to me!
This is usually followed by a mad scramble as I try and grab the little dog, and get out of bed to switch the light on, as quickly as I can. Then it’s Geckie location attempt time, and if I manage to find him, then I chase him to the nearest wall to climb for safety, before little dog gets released. All the while, she is struggling and whimpering in my arms, because she just wants at him so badly. Thank goodness it’s her in my arms (6kgs) as opposed to my big baby who is 24kgs.
The Geckie usually scrambles up the wall as if nothing has happened – I swear he drops off the ceiling just to try and scare me for fun! 😛

Tale three :

I’ll end with this one – it was the absolute worst! We’re all VERY careful now!
This was a triple ‘ewwwwww’ and had me ‘yuck-ing and gross-ing’ for hours afterwards!

About two years ago, in Winter time, on an unusually cold night for my area, I decided that I felt like a nice hot bubble bath. Someone had gifted me a bottle of Sweet Rosé Wine, so I even poured a glass to enjoy while I relaxed with my bubbles. I never drank it. I did drink a few after though 😛 Here’s why :

I added some Sandalwood scented foam bath to my running water, and went to the kitchen to pour my wine. Back to the bathroom to check the water level, and deposit my glass on the little shelf next to the bath. Off to my bedroom to fetch my warm fluffy pj’s, and make sure the back was locked up. Told both my kids that I was going to bath, and then returned to the bathroom. Satisfied with the water level, I switched off the taps, stuck my hand in to check the water temperature – and I felt like Goldilocks because it was juuuuuust right! Noticed I’d left the window above the bath open, so I closed it, and then quickly took off my clothes to disappear in my bubbles.
I like really hot water, so my skin was almost instantly pink. It took a few seconds to actually be able to lie back properly, which was when I let out a satisfied sigh and reached for my wine.

And that’s as far as I got. I felt something on my leg. Thinking one of my daughter’s sponges or something had fallen in (they’re always on the side of the bath) I sat up and dipped my hand in to get it. And felt something almost rubbery and squishy. I cleared away my bubble heaven….
And there he was, minus his tail. Which was floating elsewhere in my bath. He was about 12 centimetres without it! (approx. 4.8 inches)
And he was dead, either from being burnt or from drowning. 😦
No one has ever before, or ever since, seen me get out of a bath so fast! I pulled the plug, making my usual noises, and both kids came running to the other side of the door, wanting to know what was wrong. I wrapped myself in a towel and opened the door for them, telling them about the Geckie in my bath. Both screwed up their faces, announced ‘Ewww gross!’ and left me to it. I dressed, and had to wait half an hour for the bubbles to clear. His tail had gone down the drain, but there he was, stuck in the plughole. I had to try and dig him out with toilet paper – it was just awful!
He must have come in through the open window in the few minutes I wasn’t there, and lost his grip on the steamy tiles and fallen in!
I was very sad for him.
Nowadays… if I am adding bubbles to my bath… I sit and watch it from start to finish! I don’t like guests when I am bathing 😛

If you ever travel here, don’t worry about encountering them. Most guesthouses and hotels kill them off. Geckies really do make a mess, and they can’t have that!
I just don’t have the heart – they’re harmless, and as I mentioned before, I kinda like ’em.
So if you ever visit me, you’ll see lots  😉