21 January’12
Saturday
Good day to all, family and friends,
My email address list has shrunk as I have decided that to clutter some-one post box with junk is not advisable!
It is freezing here today –temperature shows 6° but the wind makes you shiver. One moment the sun shines and skies are bluer than blue and the next moment the rain falls in enormous drops and wet you through if you by accident happen to be outside!
Our first daffodil is halfway open standing very brave in the cold wind and 4 more will be open tomorrow! All vegetation and new growth are very early this year because of the mild winter! I usually wait till the 1st of February to prune the roses but I might have to do it earlier.
All the pots with bulbs that were carefully put away this year into the shed were hauled out as they were all growing in darkness covered with straw and lacked sunshine- Chlorophyll is missing in the stems and all you see are these yellow points above the ground- I hope that they will recover!
Our wildlife visitors are looking very good- we are wondering if the mother fox is carrying little ones again as those visiting us were born about March last year- on the other hand so many foxes were killed in the road during the year that she might be no more!
Professor visits now regularly and somewhat earlier and he looks very good- By lack of scrap food they are now on dry cat food- and milk- Have not been to work for a while and there is very little left on our plates except may be a bone or the skin of the chicken and the carcass.
Blackie is very particular with his diet and must be very hungry before he would eat the dry food!
The hundreds of birds are an immense joy – you can watch them for hours. The hierarchy between the species are fascinating.
Well here is the news of the MRI done on Tuesday this week. Knowing what the x-ray looked like I had little hope for a good result and that was then confirmed Friday morning with the emergency Dept Dr phoning and explaining that the damage is extensive and I will need surgery.
I have been referred to a shoulder specialist that will see me Monday afternoon! They are moving quite quickly on this one and I wonder why!?
My absence on night duty meant a whole new configuration of the roster and some of the day staff now has to do a few night shifts in between. I have no idea how long I will be incapacitated if this Mr Lund decides to operate. As long as I do not move the arm away from the body all is fine but neither can I live like that for the rest of a long time!
As long as I keep it still and avoid certain moves I am fine- I have to keep the shoulder warm otherwise it causes a dull continuous ache!
Barry is fine and we thank the Lord for that!
On the political front there looms disaster, I do not understand the economical terms so well but the Austerity measures causes a lot of anguish. They are back tracking on certain things that they were going to implement in the budget as they realise that that they will have anarchy on their hands. They are bringing in a property tax- which has never been applicable to this country- and the people here has no idea what happens in other countries – If I think what our property tax were before we left and that is 8 years ago- and here a €100 per property owner is outrageous- they are boycotting it and are prepared to go to jail if needed but refuse to pay it! I do not have a problem with it as such only that in the future it will be means tested as we live in a very simple cottage with only one toilet and 2 bedrooms where some houses have 3 toilets and 5 bedrooms and they pay the same! They promised to correct that in the years to come!
There is though another problem that faces us directly and that is the upgrading of the sewerage system. The people living in rural Ireland does not connect up to municipal sewerage systems even if they live near enough to town for it- and in our case the system is very, very old although we did improve the whole system some years ago with a new French drain – big hole with 20 tons 3x3” rocks poured into it. The EU has put new guidelines in place and if we not comply we will be fined €2000. A new system will cost the average household about €12000 and there are very few that will be able to comply and we are one of those who will have to be jailed!!
It will start with an inspection of your system which will cost you €50 to register and the inspection might cost you €200 before anything has even happened. Rural Ireland is up in arms and so are we. Watch the press! We might just make the papers as ‘blown ins’ from SA that is going to be jailed as we will not be able to comply!
Well there you have it all!
To help the humour they are going to install water meters in the coming year and we will now for the 1st time have to pay for water (the people here have never paid for water consumption) Unbelievable!
Enough! Lovely to have had a letter from Arnolda and we are very sorry that you are colder than us! Those like Gerlof who are a regular writer- I always look forward to hear what is happening next door! Thank you also to Joy in Australia who writes very regular !We also think of Werner who will receive his 2nd Chemo Therapy course! Everything of the best.
Tomorrow is the best day of the week and with full capacity we will honour and praise our Lord.
Birthdays in my book: Kylie du Toit on the 23rd, Leandra in Jhb on the 24th Dimitrij the 26th who went to big school for the 1st time this week. Congratulations to you all.
I know there are students waiting for results and others who are writing exams- May it go well!
Not knowing what the future holds – I will talk to you again when I am able to type again! This may be very soon or somewhat later.
Watch every step you take- keep security as your highest priority and go well
Windy and rain-filled greetings from Cranleymore
Barry & Christina
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