Centre of the Universe

What a weekend that just passed! The family gathered for the first time in an age to celebrate my grandmothers 80th birthday this weekend.

This might not sound like major thing, but here is the kicker – while my family is relatively small, we are dispersed around every corner of the globe. Claudia, Cole and myself had to only fly 2 hours from Cape Town to Johannesburg, but my mother and brother came from the Netherlands, my sister and her boyfriend from Mtubatuba, a sleepy little town (using this word loosely) in northern Natal, and my uncle all the way from Australia.

I can’t leave out my uncle and aunt living in Johannesburg where we were staying, but then they don’t count as they didn’t have to travel any further than from their bedroom to the lounge.

It has been the first time in over 10 years that the whole of my mother’s family had been in one place at one time, and I must say, it felt as if it things just picked up right from where they left off.

This was also all a big surprise for my gran, as she had absolutely no idea that any of us out-of-towners would be there at all, especially not my uncle from Australia. She was just so taken aback, although I must say, it was a big strain on all our parts not to spill the beans.

Now, thoroughly exhaused from the frenetic weekend jaunt, I must say it was a memorable weekend.

Christmas time is here again officially. I heard Boney M heralding in the season at the mall today. The season of reindeer, Christmas parties, presents, and general merriment.

There is another side of it though that as adults we tend to forget. Children are not as patient as adults are when having to wait for things – such as Christmas day.

Think about it. Every day, children see shops brimming full of expensive cool toys (ever notice that the cooler the toy, the more expensive it is!) and know that they have a stash of presents waiting for them under the tree, but Christmas day seems so far away when you have the latest Ben 10 action figure staring you in the face at the local store.

We had a few issues with Cole this weekend with this. He grew quite huffy when he realised he could not get a toy or computer game, even when reminded that it is less than 2 weeks to Christmas, and thanks to a generous Aunt and grandmother, he has quite a few nice goodies coming his way.

Sometimes us adults struggle to contain ourselves too, but at least for the most part, we can control ourselves…….until the day of unwrapping .

Last night, Noisette (our neurotic staffie) was sleeping with Cole when she gave a single bark – which is normally her signal that she has heard something outside and wants to go investigate. When we ignored her, she came into our room and stood there next to the bed, waiting for us to notice her, for what must have been a good couple of minutes.

Then she did something I have never heard her do before. She gave a short yelp, and wanted me to follow her. She often wants us to follow her to investigate noises, but her yelp was a first, so up I got to see what was wrong.

Well anyway, she took me back to Cole’s room, and then stood looking at the window.

Lo and behold, standing on the windowsill, on the outside, was Garfield, our cat. He had managed to jump out the window, and then could not get back in, so was trapped out in the street (Cole’s room is street-facing).

The interesting thing about this whole story, is that Noisette seemed to actually show concern for the cat. I did not see the usual aggression when she was alerting us to the problem.

And to make it even more strange, Noisette and Garfield get along like…well…cat and dog. Garfield is always trying to swipe poor Noisette with her claws, and Noisette is always trying to chase Garfield. Your typical canine-feline relationship.

But I do think, after last night, that as much as they don’t get along, they are actually, deep down, fond of each other. Like most human families – they may fight a lot, but when it matters, they watch each others back.

Today is my 31st birthday, and spent the day at home sick.

Now that I am firmly in my thirties, sometimes I feel old. I feel less depressed about birthdays than I did in my mid-twenties, so I think I am just getting used to the idea of getting old.

Another sign that I am getting older is that I just no longer get most movies (think Road Trip etc) and music today just does nothing for me. It is as if I still live in the 80’s sometimes.

Now I just accept that I am in an older generation and move on, so now it is time celebrate a little!

Although the thought lingers, does anyone know when middle-age starts?

I adore opera music. I really do. And I have my mother to blame for that.

You see, when I was 6 years old, my mother took me to see a ballet, The Nutcracker Suite, and ever since then I have had a love for all things theatre, and that includes opera.

The downsides of this of course is that opera is not exactly seen as an “in” art form. People tend to give you strange looks when you sitting next to them in traffic with an Aria from Carmen or The Magic Flute playing loudly in your car.

Well, I, unfortunately, have repeated the mistakes of my mother. I have introduced Cole to opera and ballet, and he now loves it too.

This raised it’s head this weekend. Cinema Nouveau have over the next few months planned to show several recorded versions of operas at the cinema, and I was planning on taking Claudia to go watch a few. Cole, however, told me in no uncertain terms that I dare not leave him out of it. How many 7-year-old’s willingly want to go watch a full opera?

Maybe opera will never die….

The other night I was playing snakes and Ladders with Cole, and realised what a futile game that is.

Most games tend to be a mixture of logic and luck to varying degrees. Chess and checkers are almost wholly logic (which makes them so much more enjoyable to me), while games like Ludo or Jenga or Monopoly have quite a bit more luck thrown in, but still require a lot of thought to do well.

Now Snakes and Ladders is one of the exceptions. There is NO skill involved at all. The winner is solely determined by who gets to the end first based on what numbers you throw on a dice.

It is pretty much a kids version of playing the slots in a casino. I don’t see any thrill in winning a game where you have no control on the outcome. Winning just means you got lucky, and says nothing at all about how good you are.

Yet for some inexplicable reason, of all the games I play with Cole, he loves Snakes and Ladders the most….

When I saw Harry the hamster’s cage this morning, I noticed that that little escape artist had found a way out and was missing.

Searching every hiding place that we could think of, we could find no trace of him at all.

This leads to a few suspects who could be responsible for the disappearance of poor Harry.

Was it Noisette, our Staffie? While she loves to chase small objects and is, by instinct, predisposed to hunting small rodents, she was soundly sleeping next to me on the bed all night last night, so she has a pretty tight alibi.

How about Garfield, our cat? Every day he sits right in front of the hamster cage eying out Harry, just waiting for an opportunity to strike. I think this is unlikely too, since no trace of either a body, or blood has been found anywhere, and besides, as much as Garfield tries, he has never caught anything in his life.

This probably means that he has gone into hiding somewhere. Now the hamster-hunt begins. I found this site which gives a few tips in finding the elusive rodents.

So, will Harry be found dead or alive……and was he murdered? Stay tuned to the next episode of The mystery of the missing hamster

EDIT: Harry has still not been found. This case will just have to be filed as unsolved.