Caught in a summer's moment

It's been hot and muggy in Tana - real beach weather - for the last few weeks. I went for a ride on the old girl on Monday and came home with burnt forearms and singed knees. But as there is no beach within 200km, it's had me dreaming of my time in South Africa over Christmas (where it also rained too much, unfortunately).

But we seized the moment whenever the sun did shine, and when it didn't we built puzzles, drove to town for coffee and explored the quaint little villages in the area.

I love the beach. On days like this, it's worth dreaming about... Here are some special moments from the short time with friends and family.

(I've linked this post to the L.E.N.S. Photo challenge: This moment)

Puzzle-building niece. And in just a moment it was done!

A moment with no rain... The gulls and fishermen taking advantage.

Beach cricket with no rain. And in a moment. The Ball. Was gone

A little Jack Russell taking advantage of a beautiful evening - caught in the moment.

Watermelon - a perfect summer snack. And gone in the blink of an eye.

A tale of a fish

A tale of a fish, originally uploaded by Robin Malherbe.

Getting my five-year-old niece to slow down even for a minute is a feat-and-a-half, and so, when I saw her sitting quietly one morning listening intently to her grandpa talking about fishing, I had to just take some pics. Her expressions tell something of the tale she was listening to.

She duly asked if he would take her fishing, so that she could catch a pet fish to take home with her. Off they went later that day on their great adventure. Unfortunately, it was a mostly-unsuccessful expedition because, according to her, "there just weren't any fish left in the sea". If there had been she clearly would have caught one! She also left her grandpa to do most of the fishing as she dug for treasure, collected sea snails to throw into the water and ran rings around him.

P.S. As a matter of interest, my previous post about Rabin Ravi Raj Rabin was the most-read post on my blog by a long way. It seems that people are always up for a good laugh. Second-most-popular, this one about Christmas, and coming in a close third, some funny quotes from my school kids.

The Beast!

My 13-year-old, going-on-14, nephew is an upstanding young man. He is an excellent all-round sportsman, having won several awards and provincial colours, is very good academically (with an 85% average at the end of Grade 7) and will be starting high school at the best high school in the world next year - Pretoria Boys High ... which my brother, brother-in-law and I attended many many many moons ago, receiving numerous accolades (and notoriety on my part).

His only flaw, and something which will surely set him up to play the part of Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, or other bit pieces involving animals, is his ability to low like a cow, bray like a donkey, and shriek like one of those monster flying creatures in Lord of the Rings - all while yawning. This has been his unique form of outlet in our shared hell of cabin fever at the beach - something that has done nothing for my nerves. 

And something that is sure to endear him to the female species (with which he is becoming increasingly obsessed in that awkward adolescent time of life).

My girl(s)

Cathy - trailblazing sister on the left
Kimmy - doing her impersonation of an "Addams Family" character

My first draft of this blog post was way too "gushing" and sentimental, so I guess I'll just say well done to my flying-hug girl Kimmy:

Headgirl for a year (keeping her wicked sense of humour throughout), sporty spice, and finally, five distinctions at the end of Matric.

Who would have thought it was possible?

Princess Tequila

Princess Tequila, originally uploaded by Robin Malherbe.

My niece Tahila listening intently to something her grandpa was saying. Although I did recently hear her dad call her Tequila. I don't know where that would come in handy, apart from if she worked in a bar on a beach in Greece one day. "Another Tequila, Tequila," the patrons would ask, and then giggle themselves into an inebriated heap.

Other nicknames: Pinky, Talula, Tahirah ...

Drama queen (at heart)

Click on the picture for a better view of the expressions! I wish I had one of her crying - now that's a sight!

Holed up in the beach house, while waiting for the weather to clear, I had my drama-queen niece to keep me entertained and on my toes. Out of the blue she'll exclaim, "Holy macaroni", or point at a programme on TV and say, "Whoa! That girl is really hot!" Clearly she has a 13-year-old brother and is still at an impressionable age. 

The other day, while driving with her mom, and with no warning, she suddenly started crying - the tears literally jumping out of her eyes. Why? Because of her arms. "No one will ever love me and want to marry me with such hairy arms," she wailed. This blonde 5-year-old wears her feelings on her sleeve, is definitely a handful, but is at least living life large.

I don't know what career path she'll take one day, but something tells me she won't be an accountant, librarian or civil servant...

Cabin Fever

After five days of rainy, miserable weather at the beach house everyone is starting to suffer a bit from cabin fever!  My brother-in-law (seen here) has worn a hole in the couch from watching too many television reruns, puzzles have been done, scrabble has been played. Oh, for a sunny day!

A silent (cold) protest

My drama-queen niece, who was angry at being forced to go to bed earlier than her sister, decided to vent her anger by lying under her bed. Her sister went in to get something later and came out very worried because "Tahila was gone." After a brief search they saw something pink protruding from under the bed. I don't know what this little civil-rights-activist-in-the-making gained, apart from a headache and a cold tummy, but I do know that if I ever start wondering if she's strange or not, I'll just return to this picture ...

The children's beach-holiday sleeping quarters with youngest niece not making proper use of the bunk bed ...

On the other side of the Cypress

Either I'm at the onset of Alzeimer's, or I just don't remember ever playing with Lego. We played outside, we built tree houses, go-karts and a foofie slide (zip line to you non-South Africans) from the Kumquat tree, over the bed of rose bushes and into the base of the Cypress tree ... 

My brother and I became quite adept at zipping down the line, with legs pulled up to our chests to avoid the thorny bushes below, and then, before smashing into the tree at the end, we would jump off and roll theatrically down the lawn. Friends would come over just to see our famous and dangerous ride. My sister, who took a lot longer to pluck up the courage, finally attempted the trick, jumped out of the tree - arms, legs and gangly body fully extended. She plowed through the roses, and in shock, hit the Cypress, bloodied and dazed. I remember asking if I could help pick the thorns out of her legs. My Granny Ruth was not amused ... And that was the end of my big sister's foofie slide career... 

But back to the Lego: The Midgley boys here have more of the little coloured blocks than I have ever seen before. In fact, I think there is some mysterious vortex that sucks lost Lego to this nondescript house in Tana.

Midgley number 1, aged 11, had this to say about his creative process:

I'm no Lego expert, but to ask Uncle Rob, my creations are abundant. I make use of what I’ve got. Mainly, I look at pictures off the Lego site, although it is only relatively useful, as it doesn’t show the mechanics, or every aspect of the creation. I am glad that I have recently discovered the Lego Customer Service site though. Anyway, I should go now. Uncle Rob is showing my brothers pictures of West Edmonton Mall in Canada. It's so cool and we’re stuck in Madagascar. Sorry for us. At least the food is good here.

Okay, so he got a bit distracted at the end. I think I'll go and look for some homemade cookies ...

Midgley # 1 - Legalomaniac