Early January Greetings

8 JANUARY 2011
Good day to all, family and friends!
A week ago the New Year started and I sincerely hope that all had a good time with family and that those who were privileged enough to go on holiday enjoyed every minute of it!
The weather has been like a yo-yo snowing, freezing, thawing, sunshine, blue skies and temp up to 9 degrees and since Wednesday we back into extreme cold and last night it started to snow again not as heavy as last year end but enough! We must be living in a spot where the weather seems to put its deposits down, it snows as we drive out the gate into the village and there the sun shines, on the way back you can see where the line is and we are back into the snow as we drive in the gate!
The Swine Flu has been taking its toll and my colleague
who has her birthday today, is still very sick. I am still on a week’s leave but if so many people are not well the possibility that I will be called in is great. The hospital has finally changed hands yesterday and we are now in a different disposition and pray that the economy will get better and that business will return to normal! There is a crisis in the General hospitals as beds have been closed and staff retrenched during the year and now they cannot cope with the influx of very ill people in the hospital in Mullingar there are 3 people on ventilators because of the Swine flu. Patients are lying on trolleys in passages and the cross infection is rampart!
Not only do they struggle with hospital overcrowding but with the big freeze so many of the old water pipes burst here in the South as well as in Northern Ireland where it was very bad and thousands of families were without water for weeks! The water pressure is down early in the morning but at about 11am you can take a shower , we were very fortunate that none of our pipes burst so many of the neighbours had severe problems especially when they had to get water to their cattle!
The country surely have more water than the whole of Africa together and they cannot manage the water supply and maintenance of reservoirs, unbelievable!!!!
Australia is having floods and where Mendel my brother live in Brakrivier , a sea water desalting process is nearly ready to provide water for household use as it is so dry water restrictions are inevitable! Very glad to hear that rain fell on the farm in the Limpopo province!!!also in Natal!
The economy of our country is in the mud and so are the government, hopefully the election at the end of March will bring a change!
Our grandson Lukas is growing so fast and will be crawling any day! Thank you Fumi for the lovely picture of the children!Tomorrow is Sunday and as always the very best day of my week! Topping up of food for the soul!
Thank you for the letters and photos ,it is always very welcome and appreciated! There are others that had fallen by the wayside! Karen how is the tea garden going? I do have SKYPE and suddenly a very familiar name popped up on my screen and I spoke in person to my dear friend Trish and could see her, that was ever so special! What a great way to start the year!
The pot of soup on the stove needs my attention and I will leave you now with good wishes for all and Congratulations to those who passed their exams!
Warm regards
From a snow covered Cranleymore
Barry & Christina