Trimming Trees

We recently had contractors to the municipality arriving at our gate to cut back the branches of trees that have grown and are hanging over the electrical power lines.  We had seen them in the area a week or so ago but didn't really think much then about them coming to us too...but then they did arrive.  Once before some years ago we had some branches trimmed from the same trees and we were not impressed by the way they hacked at the one Jacaranda tree leaving it bare on one side and top heavy on the other, all because they decided to cut off a main branch instead of just the overhanging growth.  This time they arrived fairly late in the afternoon and Johan was already home so he decided to keep an eye on them to make sure they didn't go mad again and just cut wherever they felt like it.

 Johan has felled a good number of trees over the years and I remember many years ago before moving here, he, Bryan (I think) and Matthew (most definitely) felled all the trees that were growing up our driveway as well as a few more for our neighbours'.  It wasn't a one day job and took much planning and precision to make sure that the trees fell in the right direction.  There was one tree close to our gate that gave them a few grey hairs and they also had to be careful making sure that it didn't fall over the power lines. They managed that one very well and were both proud and relieved when it fell as planned, but I remember one of the trees at the top of our neighbours' property that was right on the boundary between us that had to come down and their calculation wasn't quite as they had hoped with this huge tree falling and clipping the edge of the outside room's roof.  Not too much damage but none the less very scary as it suddenly fell after cutting for ages with the chain saw.  Another huge tall tree, poor Matthew was sent up like a lumber jack to tie a rope around as high as he could climb, all in an effort to hold it and steer it in the right direction as it came down.  Well when it did finally fall, Matthew became a candidate for the two minute mile, sprinting away in the opposite direction as quickly as his legs would carry him for fear he would be crushed beneath it.  So you see, Johan has plenty of experience with tree felling and knowing that it is just branches that need to come off and not the whole tree that is coming down, made him curious to see what they planned.

The first few trims were fine as they wielded these very snazzy saws  on long poles that could be made longer as required, but then they decided to aim for a huge branch which we felt was unnecessary to remove.  Johan stepped in and advised them that they should cut here and here and then there...haha...and then they could save the main branch they were planning on cutting.  I guess if they had done it their way, it would have been quicker but it would also have left a huge gap in the skyline and ruined the tree.  Nonetheless they attempted it Johan's way with one chap scaling the tree and tying a rope around the branch in an effort to pull it away from the power line as it fell, which in theory could have worked if they had cut it from top to bottom and not the other way round.  POOOOOFFF!!!!! There it was, the branch fell onto the power line, blew the box at our pole as well as the box somewhere way over there somewhere in the distance and half the neighbourhood was without power.  after that they were quick to pack up their tools and be off but not before phoning the municipality to say what had happened.  We imagined it might be an 'all nighter' with no power again, but were pleasantly surprized when just an hour or so later the muncipal workers arrived to fix the problem.  Hopefully it will be another few years before the branches need trimming again, but maybe we should think of keeping them away from the power lines ourselves next time....

Not a Great Clinic Day

The middle of the week saw us once more making an early morning drive through to Johannesburg to see the doctor.  It was NiQi's first clinic appointment after coming home just before Christmas.  After spending almost two weeks of that time feeling 'fluey' and just plain 'bleh', we were unsure what the outcome would be.

We left later in the morning than we usually do because I didn't want to go outside in the dark to start with feeding.  All the trouble we have been having has really given my confidence a knock and I am very wary about going out when it isn't yet light enough to see.  Johan had said he would do it all for me but I couldn't allow him to do that...the poor man would have been at work really late because even if he went outside at the crack of dawn, it would still have meant he would be late by an hour and a bit.  So I was all prepared and ready for as soon as dawn was breaking, then I dashed outside to hurry through as quickly as I could.  I only left Johan to change the birds water, finishing all the rest by 5.30....the time we usually leave.  So we were on our way at 6am....

Traffic wasn't too bad and even though we left half an hour later, we actually made good time and were there at a quarter to eight, leaving us 15 minutes to get inside and make our way to the pulmonology department so NiQi could do her lung function test.  She took a while to do it and when she came back to me she said she had battled to get enough air into her lungs to forcibly blow out and hold for as long as she could.  The result....her FEV1 shows her lung function has gone down 5% since December and is now back to 30%.  Still much better than the 17% she had in 2011, but distressing to her to lose so much in a month.

Upstairs we went to register and then sit and wait to see her Dr.  Clinic was busy but not too bad.  There was another young girl ahead of NiQi who we have never met before, then NiQi, Ndu - down from Zimbabwe, Kimberley and Jean.  All were comparing notes and commiserating how they have each of them come down with something in the last few weeks that has set their lung functions back.

Weighing was the next challenge and I knew before she even jumped on the scale that her weight would be down.  I can see in her clothes that she has lost weight but I think she was positively optimistic that she would be okay....well listen to mum because I was right.  Down 900g, she is 54.6kg.  She seems to have reached a plateau and is battling to pick up weight.  Her doctor said she must drink more shakes and try to eat small amounts more often as she has to gain that weight....if only I had such a problem, lol.

Results from her sputum sent away when she went home after admission identified 3 different strains of known Pseudomonas now, whereas before only two have ever been detected.  This does not mean that  the third type is new to her system, it just means that from wherever in her lungs she coughed up the sample that was tested, revealed it for the first time.  Knowing this is good in a sense as it helps to explain why she takes so long to recover and where an antibiotic may work on one strain, it may do nothing for the other one or two.

So the day ended with a feeling of deflation, but determination from NiQi to persevere...

waiting to see the doctor

3 bottles with sputum to be sent for testing

her empty plate from lunch at Steers, just to prove she does eat

Home again

I am quite miffed that this month we have really battled with our internet, but then looking back on a year ago I seem to remember that it was just as bad this time last year.  This makes me wonder whether it is seasonal because of the extra growth on trees as well as the long grass or whether it is something else.  All I know is that our uncapped internet usage, for which we pay up front every month, has hardly been used and between the 3 of us we have been using other more expensive data for our phones which has cost us an arm and a leg.  That said, it is probably the least of my worries right now, so moan over.....

Almost a week ago now....my how time flies... Niqi and Kyle went away for a few days to Orkney.  Kyle's dad and Nana live there and he wanted to introduce Nix to them both.

Ever the worrier, but realizing that NiQi is no longer a youngster, I relented and let them go.  You must understand that it is a huge thing for me to cut the apron strings so to speak...it was bad enough leaving Matthew behind when we moved here, so it is even worse to let NiQi out of my sight for a few days.

When we first moved here, I sms'd Matthew every single day for almost a full year and phoned him at the weekends too.  As is probably the case with most mother/son relationships though, I did not always have a response to my sms's...but I wanted him to know that I loved him, and that he wasn't far from my mind, nor was he forgotten.  I think I missed him more than he missed me so it was harder for me than it was for him, but I learnt to deal with it and as time went by, I missed him less.  I still wish I could see him more than I do, I ache for the conversations we used to have together, he was so often my sounding board on so many things...he was always the voice of reason and just always was and still is my boy of whom I am so proud.

So even though I was forced to 'cut the strings' with Matthew by moving so far from him, with NiQi it has been different and made complicated by the fact that she is more dependent on us.  Letting her go with Kyle was a huge milestone in my life, but one that had to be made at some point. It was a decision that was made easier by the fact that he appears, and I think he has proved, to be, trustworthy.  This did not remove any fear from knowing that it would be a long journey there and back though and that there are so many maniacs that drive on our roads.  Thankfully they arrived in Orkney  in one piece as well as back home again.  NiQi is happy to have met both Kyle's dad and Nana, loved spending time talking to them both as well as looking at photo's of Kyle as a small boy and also enjoyed meeting his cousin too.  As for me...I am just ecstatic to have her home again...

Photo's courtesy of NiQi and Kyle...

Entering Orkney

Kyle's Nana

Kyle's dad

Looking at photo's

Photo's of Kyle as a young boy

NiQi making breakfast for everyone

Kyle with his dad

Kyle with his Nana and dad

Update on the Attacks in our Area

I have mulled over my blog that I wrote about the unrest and violence in our specific area and I have decided to write a follow on because things have gone from bad to worse, with more than two weeks of incidences almost every night and more than one, usually two or three, at a time.

At first we thought that it was just one group of people, a team of three men, that is responsible for everything, however it appears that there is now more than one group that is working in the greater area of the Hammanskraal Community.  There are a number of families, all of whom have personally been attacked and intimidated, that have decided to pack their bags and move away from the area.  Their children were used by the criminals to intimidate the parents into doing and giving what was wanted.

The sadness of all of this is that there has been very little help or support from either the local police or the provincial police which is leaving the community with the feeling that they have been left stranded and need to fend for themselves.

For years there have been reports that there has been a marked increase in farm attacks, post 1994, and with all the publicity surrounding them, the government has yet to step in and show that they are serious about protecting the rural areas in this country.

Our community have had meetings together to discuss what has been going on, to warn people of what to expect and largely to stand together and work as one to protect each other.  For almost two weeks I think most people have walked around like zombies from a lack of sleep.  Working at their jobs during the day and patrolling, blocking off roads or chasing criminals at night.

The slightest sound and we are wide awake...Molly has a few times started barking in the middle of the night, waking us all.  Each time it has been a strange dog on our property,but at least her sharp ears have managed to distinguish between the usual night time sounds and the distress calls of the plovers.  We patrol two people in a vehicle, moving around our immediate vicinity, shining torches into the now long grass.  It is difficult to see anything at the moment, which also makes it easier for unwelcome visitors to hide away without being detected.  The community is now investing in thermal night sights so the front men will be able to pick up movement and have a better chance of following anything they observe.

I am not as panicky now as I was just days after our neighbour arrived at our gate but we have changed our lifestyle radically.  No longer is the house left open when we are home but moving around outside.  I (and I say I because I am usually home alone), lock the security gate and take the key with me....half the dogs remain inside in the kitchen and the rest follow me wherever I go.  Even when inside I keep the house shut with all the curtains closed.We have taken to hiding our valuables away.  We don't have a safe, neither do we have or own any firearms...we both believe that having our own firearm can be more dangerous to us than to any intruder.  Listening to others who have had their privacy invaded has made me take extra precautions and we believe we have deduced which is the safest room and the least often ransacked.  At night before we go to bed, we check to see what is lying around and we pack away or hide away....hiding hopefully in areas that will not be checked.  We put away any trace of items or valuables that  are most likely to be stolen....if they don't see anything to make them think there is something for them to steal, then hopefully they will believe we don't have them.

We have discussed scenarios together should we be broken into one day and I hope we will remain level headed and calm enough to play them out.  My worst would be if anyone threatened NiQi and we have given her strict instructions to remain in bed at all times, no matter what might happen to us and we will tell them she is dying...her machinery that works all night long and the oxygen pipe on her face will hopefully convince them that we are speaking the truth.  God forbid that we will ever be in this position...it's too much to comprehend but at the same time a stark reality of  what could very well happen.  Pray, that's what I do day and night, day and night...pray...

Wedding Bell(e)s

We recently received a 'Save the Date' card from my niece and her fiancee for their wedding later in the year and I must say I was quite intrigued by it as this is the first of it's kind that we have ever received prior to the wedding invitation itself.  I always thought that this was something that only happens in the movies...like in Bride Wars starring Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway; however maybe it is becoming the norm or fashion for such things to be sent out to those who presumably will receive an invitation at a later stage.

Considering that Samantha works at a wedding venue I am sure she is ahead of us all with what is in vogue at the present time.  At least she won't have to 'Google' or ask friends who have recently married or are planning their own wedding, for lists and recommendations for photographers, videographers, caterers etc etc as she will have them at her fingertips.....so much easier for her being in the business so to speak.

As you know we recently attended the wedding of another of my nieces, Paige and her husband Gareth, which was really lovely...and I say that because it had nothing at all to do with the venue or the food or the music or anything else.  It was lovely because Paige was absolutely radiant that day and Gareth had a peaceful aura about him that made the whole event wonderful.

I haven't yet been involved in the planning of a wedding of our children as Niqi is quite obviously still single and Matthew, being our son, meant that all was left in the hands of our lovely daughter-in-law, Jess and her family. I have always vowed since my own wedding in 1982, that if ever I was blessed with children and they should one day get married, that I would let them have the wedding of their dreams....that I would try not to interfere but let them plan it as they wish.  Whatever they can achieve within the budget we give them, must give them the day that will make them happiest, for what is a wedding if not to celebrate the joining of two hearts together for a lifetime.  Hearts that ooze with love...that can be seen in the twinkle of the eye, be heard in the nervous giggle and spoken with confidence in the saying of their vows.  If the bride is happy and the groom is happy that the bride is happy then what more could you wish for....the trappings and trimmings will only be remembered in the photo's and the video, invitations will be discarded, flowers die and these days very few brides keep their dress for ever because after the first baby it will probably never fit them ever again anyway...haha

So we have 'Saved the Date' in our diaries and that weekend our home will expand with family that will arrive from KZN for the occasion, so that we can celebrate in another family wedding....

7 Weeks and Growing Strong

Our "Mister" is growing into a fine young lad and today he is 7 weeks old...can you believe it is so long ago that he first entered into this world in the early hours of a Sunday morning.  I still remember when I told my mum that he had been born she was quite surprised as she reckoned that in all the 11 months of Switch being pregnant I had never mentioned it to her....  \\

It is amazing how from week to week he changes and at the moment he is looking a tad moth eaten as he is losing his 'foal' coat.  Not having seen a foal grow from birth we were a bit worried when we noticed around his nostrils and eyes he started to look quite patchy...the rings around his eyes are growing bigger and bigger as is the bareness on his snout.  I wondered if it might be mange, and even if such a young horse could get mange, so I was quite relieved to find out that it is all part of growing up.  Once he has lost his foal coat he will probably be a slightly different colour too.  Whether he will become as dark as Navajo I don't know but I do think he will be darker as the skin where he has lost hair already is still dark and not light like Switch's.  This morning he nipped me on my arm with his five teeth....lucky he was playing and not serious otherwise he could have hurt me quite badly instead of just giving me a bruise...and two days ago he was frolicking around, prancing, kicking up his back legs and suddenly his kick connected with the side of his mothers belly.  He was quite unaware of what he had done and she was not expecting that to happen.  It took a few seconds for her to get her footing again after nearly being knocked for a six.   When he was born he also had quite a lot of really long whiskers on his chin which looked quite weird but they seem to have either fallen out or become darker in colour so they are not as noticeable.  It's for sure that Titan is quite at home with us and his surroundings and I guess the next step will be to have him mix with the other horses instead of just sniffing at them over the fence...

not a clear pic but you can see how he is losing his hair around his snout

and around his eyes

My Mum on the Move

My mum has been on her own since 1995 and although at times she says she has been lonely she leads an extremely busy and active lifestyle.  The lonely times come in the evenings, once the day is done and she closes the door on the setting sun or the night air.  Some years ago she decided that while she is still young enough to enjoy life, spend time with her friends and be as involved as she is with her W.I, Lionesses, Embroiderers Guild, Girl Guides etc etc etc, she would look for a place to settle in her old age.  So it came to pass that she put her name down and became listed at a place quite close to where she is living now.  This suits her as it means that she will still be close to many of her friends and she will be staying in the same area that she has lived for the last almost 44 years.

Last week she had a call to say that a cottage has become available for her to move into sometime in February and she is very excited.   This, after making enquiries late last year to find out where on the list she was now placed and hearing she was No. 4.  On that good news, she decided it was time to start sorting out her two bedroom simplex that she has been living in for almost 19 years, getting rid of the junk and saving her lifetime memories to move over with her.  We are all very happy for her and think it is an excellent time for her to relocate and settle somewhere new.  I only wish that I could be closer to help, but am satisfied in the knowledge that both Sara et famille and Matthew and Jess are all quite capable of helping out.  My only concern is that Matthew's drilling ability for fixing furniture to walls may not be to the standard of his father and for that I wish we were closer, however I may yet be surprized..... At least I know that he has the muscle power for lifting heavy pieces and with his usual quiet and diplomatic manner he will have his Granny's prized possessions moved in two ticks.  Sara is the organizer and I am sure as I type this out, she already has a check list drawn up with things to do and remember and for that I am grateful as her levelheadedness is always needed at an occasion such as this.  She went with my mum on Monday to suss out the cottage, check where power points are, measure the rooms and have a general 'looksy' at the place.  The following photo's are courtesy of her as she whatsapped me later that day so I could see for myself what the cottage looks like.  May my mum have many happy and healthy years of staying pleasure there...

One very welcome visitor...

I have so many things I want to blog about but with so much on my mind right now, plus a lack of internet service the last week I have been compelled to make notes and wait till the internet is strong enough to stay on without being kicked off too soon.  It is most frustrating I must say, but something so trivial and small to complain about....

Every day I am looking to find something positive about living here, focusing on things that make me happy... and if anyone that reads this is a friend of mine on Facebook they will have noticed that I am posting every day on the #100happydays page.  So I am going to blog about happy things, things that are just part of our every day life...

One of these is about a visit we had on Saturday evening from a most unusual guest...she arrived unannounced by climbing through the fence quite close to the house and waltzing around as if looking for something she had lost.  The dogs were most disturbed by her presence and as much as they kept running up to her and barking in an annoying way, she pranced around them nonplussed by their cacophony of noise.  I fell in love with her straight away, even though I knew that her stay would be short lived and she would soon be on her way.  Johan was more concerned with her ravenous desire for  all things pretty and growing in the garden and I surmised she arrived thinking she had been invited for a garden party, only realizing much later that she had the wrong address.

We tried to help by making enquiries from all around us, to find out where she should be heading to continue her gourmet festivity, but alas made no headway.  She was by this time quite at home with the wrong address, and bedded down for the night amongst her new found friends, our horses.  She could not stop talking all night long as her slumber party turned into an 'all-nighter' and we heard her bleating views on everything from the weather to delicacies that tickled her taste buds.  At four o'clock the next morning, she greeted the dogs like a loving sibling and followed them all around the house asking for GPS directions so she wouldn't be lost again and at approximately 5.30 am, she bid us all adieu as she once more scrambled through the barbed wire fence on her way.  I shall miss her presence, her openness, her friendliness -  a guest that I wished would have stayed just a little longer....

Nothing Better than Friendship...

What a joy it was to have one of my best friends visiting with her husband and son late Friday through to yesterday.  We have known Dot and James since Mark was a youngster and often hospitalized for lung infections.  I was honoured to be asked by them 18 years ago, if I would be Godmother to their son Patrick. Now taller than both Johan and I and finished with school, he has come to Pretoria to start an engineering degree at university.

Dot is now the school nurse at one of the private schools in Pietermaritzburg, but at the time of meeting her, she was a nursing sister in one of the children's wards at Greys' Hospital.  I remember so clearly the day she met me in the passage way of the ward and said she had some news to tell me....well before she could say anything I said to her - 'you are pregnant?'  She thought someone else had already told me as that was precisely what she was going to say.  Not too many months later, Alice was born, then came Patrick and lastly Emily.  Alice has just started her fourth year of medicine, Patrick, as I said is starting his first year of engineering and Emily is in Grade 10 at school.

Dot and James have been really good friends to us over the years and of late Dot spends much of her time organizing fund raisers for NiQi's trust fund.  When we were still in Pietermaritzburg, Dot and I met weekly at her home for tea and a chat...I miss those days...and every now and then when we think of each other we will communicate to each other via our cell phones that we are putting the kettle on for a cuppa...lol

So having them here this weekend was lovely and although the time was short, after the terror of the last few days, it was a welcome distraction....

Dot and I

dot with one of the baby bunnies

Patrick holding another bunny

Life today in the New South Africa

It was just before 3.30am and I was still waking up and deciding if I was going to get up now or later when suddenly I heard a noise.  Johan, next to me in our bed bolted up and asked me what that sound was.  Even in a deep sleep, he had been rudely awoken by something out of the ordinary.  Suddenly pandemonium ensued with William barking...barking like there's no tomorrow. And then we heard Trinity too.  I tried to make William keep quiet, while peering through the kitchen window.  I saw both Trinity and Purdy running back in the direction from where they had come.  William, my blind cocker spaniel, sleeps in the kitchen together with the puppies. Trinity and Purdy sleep in the tack room.  Next minute we heard screaming but inside the the house we didn't know where it was coming from.  The night air, the flat open land, the tall grass, make it difficult to distinguish where sound comes from.  Johan opened the front security gate and went outside.  NiQi, awake too by now, and I stayed in the front passage close to the now locked security gate and front door.  The screaming continued, William was still barking as were Trinity and Purdy.  I didn't want to let all the dogs outside as we would then be vulnerable.  We heard Johan running back towards the house, talking on the cell phone.  He asked me for the key to the back gate between us and our neighbour.  It was in the outside room.  I went with him to get the key, then we walked as quickly as we could to unlock the gate. Barefoot and in their pyjamas, our neighbour and her son were at the gate, they were the people we heard screaming.  Together with them both I went back towards the house while Johan walked through to their home.

This is our neighbour's account of events leading up to that point:

Sleeping in her room, she woke to sounds next to her bed.  she thought it was her son coming to look for migraine tablets, which he sometimes does.  Opening her eyes she had an R5 weapon pointed at her head. She realized the man holding it, didn't have anything covering his face and neither did a second man who was ransacking her room, holding a brand new bolt cutter in his hand.  She looked away so that they wouldn't think she was trying to remember their faces or anything else about them.  They asked her where her husband was and she said he was away.  They asked her again and she told them he worked away from home so he wasn't there, but she expected him back at 5am.  She didn't know what the time was but hoped it was close to 5, so that they would hurry and leave.  She's not married, but thought if she pretended she was and that he would be home soon, they would go.  All the while she was thinking of her teenage son asleep in the next room.  She didn't want to do anything to alert them to the fact that he was there.  They asked her for the safe keys.  She told them she didn't have them.  They told her to open the safe and again she said she didn't have a key.  They didn't believe her and one of them reached into her handbag searching with his hand for keys.  He pulled out a big bunch and called her a liar.  She said to him he could try all the keys but none of them would fit the safe as they were the keys for the house and the cupboard in the front room.  She said he must try himself.  He threw the bunch of keys down on her bed.  She was lying but they believed her that they didn't fit the safe and they didn't even try them to see if they fitted.  They told her to get up and open the other doors in the house.  She pulled the duvet around her and they told her to leave it.  She walked ahead of them and went to the first room and opened the door.  Then she went to the next room and as she opened thee door she ran and jumped on top of the bed to shield her son.  She didn't want them to shoot him or harm him.  Then a third man appeared and they left carrying as much between them as they could.  As they left one of the men turned to her and said that he would be back and he is going to rape her.  They closed the bedroom door behind them and our neighbour said she counted in her head for about five minutes before opening it to listen and see if they were still there.  She didn't see or hear anything and motioning to her son to be quiet they crept down the passage to the lounge.  Through to the kitchen she could see the back door and security gate were open.  They had used the bolt cutters to cut off the gate padlocks.  Not looking back they both ran through their property, through thorns and tall grass until they reached the gate between us.  Then they stood and screamed hoping we would hear them...

While I made some coffee she told NiQi and I everything that happened.  I gave her my cell phone to use so she could phone both her brother and her sister.  Johan in the meantime together with Peet and George were at the house.  The police arrived very quickly, as did the dog unit with their tracker dogs.  The dogs couldn't pick up anything and soon left while Johan, Peet and George found the foot prints of the 3 men and started to follow the tracks.  The police came to our house to take a statement from our neighbour.  Her brother and his wife arrived at our house and that is when she broke down, crying at the thought of 'what if'..They then all left  shortly after that to go back to her house so that she could show the police what had happened.  Just after 9 am Johan arrived back home.  they followed the tracks for kilometers, through the back of a number of plots, down to the R101, over the railway track, through the long grass, next to the river, past the power station....they didn't find the 3 men. The tracks stopped...but they did pick up some of our neighbours belongings they had dropped along the way.  Our neighbour and son just popped in to say 'goodbye' for now.  They have packed their vehicles with clothes, bedding, other things of sentimental value and are going to stay with her brother for a while.  This is the second time they have been broken into in the last 4 months.  The first time they weren't home...this time they were.

This is democracy in South Africa, 20 years after we stood in queues to vote for change.  I don't have R200 million rand lying around to improve my security or to protect me from what is happening to innocent people in this country.  This is not what I voted for.  If you are reading this account of one incident of thousands that happen in South Africa daily and you know expats that left our shores years ago, or you are one yourself, you can vote to make a difference in this next election.  When you hold that flag high and say you are proudly South African, please humble yourself before you utter those words, for what is there to be proud of today being a South African.  You miss the sunshine and the beaches, the mountains and the wide open spaces, the sport and your braaivleis....What you left behind doesn't exist anymore and for whatever reason you left, I can guarantee you it is so much worse now.  Even those still living here, if this story doesn't affect you, then you have no idea what it is to live in rural South Africa, where daily farmers are being attacked and murdered.  The millions living here are either brainwashed into believing their turn will come for a better life, or are too apathetic to vote....you can make a difference for us...those struggling in a country that is filled with crime and corruption.  Please register to vote and make sure you do it.  I hate living here.....I wish I could leave....I want a better life than this and yes I am scared.  I live in fear every day, behind closed doors and locked gates, which in reality are not any form of protection against people who come armed with bolt cutters and firearms.....

Martha Beck and Other Authors

My favourite reads have always been biographies and autobiographies and I think it stems from my school days and searching for acceptable reads to add to my personal list of books read when in matric.  I remember scouring the bookshelves of my parents home and picking out a few books, all of which were biographies.  I remember one was 'Piaf' about Edith Piaf the French singer, another was 'The Spirit in the Cage' by Peter Churchill and 'Reach for the Sky' by Paul Brickhill - the story of Douglas Bader.

I like to read about other people, not necessarily famous people, but 'real' people who have achieved something, gone through something or just have a story to be told and I have over the years collected many of these books to add to all my fiction books.

At the moment I am reading 'Leaving the Saints' by Martha Beck, a book written about her recollection of being molested by her father and wanting him to admit it to her after many years of suppressed memories.  It is intertwined with other past stories and her life growing up in the Mormon community in Utah.  This is not a blog about a book review though but rather to say that after reading about half way through the book, for whatever reason I don't know, I decided to Google her.  I discovered that she writes a column for 'O' Magazine, has written many other books (one of which is Expecting Adam, which I read some years ago), is a lecturer and after many years of marriage and 3 children, both she and her husband both discovered they are gay.  Most interesting....but this isn't even the reason for this blog either....on reading further I discovered a number of articles that refute facts written in both the book I am reading as well as Expecting Adam, her previous autobiography.  Not just one person but a number of people say that she has fictionalized some of what she has written which puts everything in it now as unbelievable.  Having read all these articles, I'm now not sure if I want to continue reading the book, because what I first thought was fact, I now read as fiction.

However this isn't the first book that I have read that, after reading it, have discovered it to be a whole lot of hooey.  Some years ago, when we still had DSTV (satellite television), I saw an interview with a chap called James Frey on the Oprah show.  He was talking about his biography - A Million Little Pieces, and I was fascinated by his story...how he had lived as a drug addict and later cleaned himself up and became a changed person.  I was interested enough to buy his book when I saw it in our local book shop and read it with awe.  Imagine my shock and dismay when a few years down the line, there he was on Oprah again...this time apologizing to her and the rest of the world for his book which as it turned out was not an autobiography, but a fictitious story written based on his life as both an alcoholic and drug addict.  It doesn't end here though...remember the books written by Lance Armstrong - It's Not About The Bike and Every Second Counts...well I've read them both, admired him for his strength and endurance, only to be once more dismayed to hear and read that he couldn't have achieved what he did if it wasn't for a particular drug he used during those years of competition.....something he didn't deem necessary to mention!!!!

So you see, I am becoming somewhat disillusioned by these books that are written by people who claim them to be true when in fact they are not.  Why do people feel the need to fabricate and/or embellish their stories, it just makes no sense to me, but I am very disappointed in the way that they do it and then deny, deny, deny, and when exposed, they eventually decide to admit to being a fraud...what message is it sending to the next generation and where will it leave our history???????