Tuesday morn and all is well

It astounds me how different Ireland is when the sun shines. After months and months (and months!) of dreary Winter weather, we had four glorious days and today promises to stay that way... and they fell over a long weekend! Now, I realise that my South African readers will think I'm nuts when I tell you that temperature was around 13 degrees C on Saturday and it was so lovely out that we rushed off to get meat and invited friends around for a Braai (BBQ), because in SA 13 degrees is the dead of winter. Somehow it's different here.
I had a really good long weekend, beginning with Hubby and I going on a breakfast run on the Blackbird on Friday that took us into the Wicklow Mountains to the South of Dublin and lasted pretty much most of the day. Nothing beats an exhilerating ride on the bike on a beautiful day. Then we had our Braai with friends on Saturday, and on Sunday morning we went to the beach. Yes, the beach! OK I admit there was no swimming and we were fully clothed at all times but the sand was warm between my toes and the sun was warm on my face. Warm face and warm toes makes for warm soul, so I was happy :)
Yesterday was a model of decadence, involving apple pie and whipped cream, lots of chocolate, crisps, fizzy cooldrinks and lounging around watching TV*.
Heaven!
Yep, for now, all is well in Terriland :)

~

*By the way, I rather enjoyed "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" - by far the most enjoyable of the poor boy's adventures yet - for me, if not for him.

Husband, Father, Zombie-slayer

Something spooked me, and I gathered both children to me, my arms around them so they wouldn't stray. They were about 11 or 12 years old and they were frightened. We would be safer together. I began edging us towards the door that would lead us into the next room, to where I knew D was, to where he could protect us. Looking around I noticed there were poeple under the bed.
No, not people, corpses! Their wax-like features unmoving, dead eyes staring straight ahead. I started feeling freaked out and then I saw a pair of eyes moving, following us. Panic welled inside and I tried to hurry us to the door, knowing safety was just on the other side but unsure if we would reach it in time. My steps were tiny, as if there was some sort of binding around the three of us, restraining us. I tried to call for help but my mouth was taped shut and my shouts were mere whimpers. I realised I could reach the tape that was covering the child's mouth. As I ripped it off he screamed in terror, for the corpses were Zombies and they were writhing and moving and coming to get us! At last my mouth was freed of its tape and I screamed too, as long and loud as I could...

... I woke myself up. My heart pounded in my chest, my mouth burned dry and I was so hot I felt as if I might melt. Sweat poured off me in rivulets. Next to me, D slept soundly, his breathing even and content. I was too afraid to move any more than just my eyes, scanning the shadows that mocked me from all corners of our bedroom. Still blurry from sleep, I fought the need to close my eyes, fearful of returning to that place.
I needed water, but was terrified of the darkness and what might be lurking in our en-suite bathroom.
I needed D, awake.
So I wriggled over to him as noisily as I could. His breathing didn't change. I wriggled some more and put my hand gently on his shoulder - I needed him to wake gently, not with fright.
His breathing altered slightly but then reverted to its familiar rhythm.
Scooting back over to my side of the bed I wondered, Should I give up now? The thirst still burned in my throat and I inched back over to him, making my presence felt. He stirred but didn't wake.
I sort of felt bad so frumped my way back onto my side and propped myself up on one elbow, trying to convince myself it was safe.
And then he woke up, with a groggy, "What you doing?"
Must've thought I was getting out of bed. He always wakes when I get out of bed.
I was delighted and dashed back over to him, mumbling, "Bad dream!".
He hugged me and slurred, "What sorta bad dream?"
"Monsters!" said I.
"Oh no, not monsters!" he said, "Don't worry I'll protect you."
A moment of silence while he held me sleepily, and then...
"Would you get me some water please?"
To be fair, if he'd woken me up with stories of monsters and asked me to get him water I would've told him to f*£~ off, but not my man. Nope, he forced his eyes open and groped his way out of bed, stopping to pick up the nearest weapon he could find - his hairbrush - then stomped his way to the bathroom, making lots of thumping noises and hitting the Big Bad Brush on the ground, all the while assuring me that he was giving the monsters a beating. Upon reaching the basin he said, "You want me to bring you some water, eh?"
"Ah no, don't worry, the cup in there is all yucky - just put the light on and I'll come drink from the tap."
So he did, and I did.
When we were safely back in bed again, he asked what sort of monsters they were.
"Zombies," I said.
"Well don't you worry, I turned them into paste, they're all gone now."
My hero.
I slept like a baby after that.

~

The moral of the story? My mother was right about eating cheese late at night. Next time I'll go easy on the pizza before bedtime.

Thinking bloggers

WOO HOO! I WON SOMETHING!!!
In a manner of speaking.
What can I say? I'm thrilled that the deeply ponderous and deliciously wicked Chitty considers me one who thinks.
ahahaha my Ma would be proud :-D

What am I on about? The Thinking Blogger award. For me. You can read all about its origins here - it's not very long and is quite easy to read so really, take a look.

And having a somewhat compulsive nature I cannot pass up a tag. So now the trick is to tell you about 5 blogs that I find thought-provoking.

I'm also obliged to include the rules, so here they are:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that tickle your grey matter,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

Now onto the meat of the matter...

1. The Clarity of Night - This is where I go to find a bit of peace in the world. He may be a lawyer by trade but if you ask me, he missed his calling. An immensely talented writer, his words, often combined with photographs, soothe the soul... or make your hair stand on end, depending on the subject, mood and genre of his current post / vignette / series. In between the fiction he also manages to occasionally run short fiction contests; and it would be remiss of me not to mention the poignant posts focussed around his fascination with old and beautiful gravestones.

2. Reluctant Nomad - You just never know what to expect from this blog. An informative post on quantum physics or a laugh-out-loud re-telling of a night in the life of a gay South African in England or, since his latest move, Amsterdam. Reluctant Nomad not only entertains, but he also does a lot of the thinking for us, always a bonus, in my opinion.

3. Angel's Mind - Angel is a single mother in South Africa whose teenage son has ADD. Her blog is a mix of normal everyday working mom stuff and passionate, heart-felt musings about life as a single mother, things that have been or will be, and life in general. And then there are the short stories about dragons...

4. Dawn Unplugged - Now I know this is the second tag in a row for Dawn but she really deserves this award. Yet another South African ex-pat, she lives in the USA with her husband and children. Sometimes her thinking posts are SO much deeper than I am, that no matter what comment I leave, it sounds trivial, yet I can't help returning because the warmth of her personality transcends the cables and static that is the Internet.

5. OK I'm going to cheat here and not do a 5th one. I read a handful of blogs - OK, maybe 2 or 3 handfulls (handsfull?) - regularly for various reasons and each of them gives me something, be it emotional support, entertainment, or deep thinking stuff. [Is it even possible that someone who uses the term "deep thinking stuff" was awarded The Thinking Blogger Award???]
So choosing a 5th is just not working for me now - sorry!

...

Wow, will ya look at that? I broke the rules. Maybe I can think for myself after all... or maybe the OCD is wearing off at last hahahahaha!

Expatly tagged

After months of mysterious absence, darling Dawn has returned... and what is the first thing she's done? Tagged me. Yup, in keeping with the ol' homesickness theme I've had going here, this seems the perfect time to share with you this Expat meme.

Name 5 things you love in your new country:
- Great shopping, and enough money to do it with.
- A sense of feeling safe - no burglar bars required.
- The oddness of first-world-meets-third-world and ancient-meets-modern in daily life.
- The Irish. Everybody loves the Irish, right?
- Central heating.

Name 4 things that you miss from your native country:
- My mother and good friends.
- Being able to use words like "jislaaik", "bliksem", "dof" and "vrot" without having to translate.
- Just being, with my people.
- The weather... being able to braai (BBQ) on pretty much any given day for most of the year.

Name 3 things that annoy you a bit (or much) in your new country:
- The long, cold, damp, dreary winters.
- Being an outsider.
- Potholes. It rains so much there are always potholes in all the roads.

Name 2 things that surprise you (or surprised you in the beginning) in your new country:
- How friendly people are to foreigners (at least on the surface and in the beginning).
- How many people know absolutely nothing about South Africa. Some don't even know it is a country ("North Africa doesn't have a team in the soccer world cup so why would South Africa?") and some don't believe we're South African because we're white. Yes, really.

Name 1 thing that you would miss terribly in your new country, if you had to leave it:
- Superquinn's pork sausages. (You've no idea, until you've tasted them!)

And now is the moment you've all been waiting for... {{drum roll}} ... I hereby tag.... my cousin over the Irish Sea, Delboy and another transplant to the Emerald Isle, -ann. Go on, spread the love ;-)