Dorje was UP this morning at 5H30. We were ready for school at 7H00 including a game of Monopoly.

He was quite bummed with me that I was not going to take him to school at 7H00 – he wanted to be FIRST! He didn’t seem impressed that he had to wait for his lift club at 7H30

Dorje and I are driving in the car last night. The dialog goes as follows …

MUM “Its not ok to play with yourself in company, only at home in your room. Remember we spoke about this before”

[So, he gives me the "look".]

DORJE “Ja but MUM you go naked often?!”
MUM “Yes but I am naked at home!”

[there is a PAUSE and lots of thinking going on]

DORJE “MUM this is MY world … and you can’t make rules in MY WORLD, so I SAY it is ok to play with yourself in company”

Dorje and I went for a short walk and we were discussing that he is up to my chest level.

So, he says to me, “MUM you know why you are so short?”
Erm, “NO, why don’t you tell me?”
“Its because when you get really old MUM, then you get lower and lower and lower and … … wider and wider and wider”

I might add at this point is where he was gesturing (in intervals) how you get lower and lower until just about the ground and winder and wider until his arms were stretched WAY out.

Cheeky monkey

Dorje has gone to Oma with Aunti for a couple of days, school holiday

Aunti asks: Do you want to go for ice cream at the beach?
Dorje: “Why? Is Oma’s TV not working because of the rain?”
Aunti: “No, its working but should we go for ice cream?”
Dorje: “No, sugar is bad for you, I’ll just watch TV”

TV

My favourite property in Cape Town is at the top of Red Hill. It was once a yoga centre, and apparently a vastu master had described the site’s alignment and energy flows as highly auspicious. When the yoga centre left a few years ago, I inquired about it, and it could have been mine for a measly R7 million.

Dorje and I went to visit a friend a few weeks ago. Until a few days before, she had been homeless, so I was a little surprised to find her staying on my dream property!

We got exploring the back garden, a wild expanse bordering the nature reserve.

We came across an enormous caterpillar. Quite a few of them, actually, all on the same species of plant.

It wasn’t just the caterpillar that was huge – the eggs were quite impressive too, almost a Dorje-sized portion of scrambled eggs on there.

I’m hoping some botanist friends can help identify the plant (what’s left of it) and the caterpillar.

We weren’t expecting to go bundu-bashing, and the beach sandals weren’t the best for the hike. Of course we got nicely scratched by the knee-high scrub. And moved through it a little more cautiously after seeing a rather large snake.

No, there really is a snake there. It’s body is in the shaded part between the two lower rocks, and it’s head is peering out the top.

In order to help spot the snakes and caterpillars from afar, a birds-eye-view was necessary. The best we could do was the top of a water cylinder.

We also discovered one of those strange rocks that make me wonder if it was not once a sacred site. Standing tall and seemingly artificially lifted while all around it were low and insignificant rocks, with an “eye” in it.

Dorje had to climb it:

After we got back, we tried to fly our kites again. The howling wind meant the kites spent more time trying to decapitate us than soaring peacefully with the currents.

A fun day, and worth the loss of (another) shoe, and a bit of sunburn.

We went to Ocean Basket for supper last night – Oma, Shaun, Dorje and I. Dorje wanted prawns for supper. After eating the 2nd prawn he said “Mum, we can’t eat these!”.

“Can’t eat what, my angel?”.

“We can’t eat prawns and fish, these are mother earth’s creatures!”

Yesterday Dorje was holding the hose pipe, and he asked me to turn it on to water the veggie garden, … with a cheeky grin, I might add.
So, I said no way you are going to squirt me
He tells me, “No I won’t!”, … still with a cheeky grin
I didn’t believe him.
So, he insisted, a fairy promise
Which, in our world, is the BIG promise, you don’t lie to your fairies

But, there is still this cheeky grin … hmmm
So we go over the don’t say promise if you don’t mean it “talk”.
He insists he is NOT lying, he says to me “I am smiling because you are so beautiful mum”
Fark so I turn on the hose and the bliksem wets me
The lying little shit, I fell for the charm hook, “lie” and sinker

Dorje and I spend way too much time locked up in the house. Literally.
.

Occasionally we need to make a break for it.

Thirty seconds into a walk, Dorje can be complaining he’s tired. That is, unless he’s looking for treasure, or being chased by baddies.

I wasn’t sure how our walk up to a lookout point on Table Mountain would go, as it’s mostly steep uphill all the way. I needn’t have worried, as we were both looking for treasure and chased by woses, so we were up in no time.

Dorje seemed to enjoy taking some pictures of me.

But we weren’t safe on the mountain. There were woses, trolls and all sorts of nasties chasing us back and forth.

Luckily we found time to eat.

That’s more than can be said for a couple of Americans we met. Descending at about 15h30, we met the two of them on their way up Platteklip. They asked how far it was, and told us how hungover they were from their night of drinking. One of them was celebrating a birthday. After they left, I realised that, though they were only about a quarter of the way up, their bottle of water was almost empty, and their small bags didn’t seem to have to enough space to carry much warm clothing.

I hope the woses didn’t get them.

Dorje and I recently bought a kite. He was a little shy of the kite man, and all the strange flapping paraphernalia, but eventually chose one that looked like a bat.

OK, a large, bright, multi-coloured bat, but still a bat.

After a few near misses with the trees in Observatory, a few weeks ago we decided to take it out to wild open spaces of Noordhoek beach.

I wanted to walk to the wreck from the Noordhoek side, forgetting how far this is, especially for a 5-year old.

The beach is quite different from when I was a regular living near there. The lagoon has shifted to the south, so we spent much of the walk wading through the warm water. Then there was a large river crossing the beach, courtesy perhaps of all the Port Jackson clearing that’s been going on. With some convincing, we managed to cross the torrential stream.

The shoreline was also covered in bluebottles, but luckily, on the vast expanses of Noordhoek beach, there was more than enough sand to spare.

Finally we made it.

The sand around the wreck, being quite close to the sea, was also covered in bluebottles, which interfered with our treasure hunt. There were ample washed up plastic boxes which looked like they could contain treasure, but sadly, none of them did.

I was worried about getting back, as Dorje was already tired from the long walk, but, with the bat chasing us all the way, we made it back in no time.

A few weeks later, we headed out again with Kirsti and Jemima and their kite. By this time, Dorje had managed to get the kite string so tangled that the weakened bat could only lift itself about 6 metres off the ground