We were well chuffed to spend yesterday evening at Donald & Michelle's new house which they've been building for the last two years!
It was just the four of us,a bottle of Moet, a few beers, a bottle of red and a bottle of whisky!
We had a guided tour of the house, almost ready for them to move into, and very nice it is too!
We sat for hours on their bedroom verandah sipping our drinks and chatting and had a great evening!
Thanks guys! We wish you years of happiness in your new home and many more evenings like last night's!
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Snakes Alive!
I had quite a scare about a week ago when I found Tali, our little jack russell, staring at a cobra through the animals' 'tunnel' from their room. I was alerted to this when Satchel, our big lab,, went up behind her and dropped down low and started growling. I knew that a fast movement was probably a bad idea but the thing was sitting up and swaying and staring right at Tali and she appeared hypnotised (do they hypnotise? Does anyone know?). I thought it was probably about to strike or spit. so I grabbed her straight up in the air, shoved Satchel with my knees out of the room and ran down the passage with Tali in my arms, shoving Satchel with me! I screamed for Patrick who was down there cleaning. He opened the door, I put the dogs in (Bella our sausage dog was already in there) and we both ran back up. the cobra was still there, Patrick ran for a stick, calling for Fred, the gardener while I grabbed Ziggy, one of our three cats, and literally threw him out of the front door, poor thing!
The two boys ran to the verandah but the snake suddenly disappeared. We all spent the next few hours searching for the snake as we couldn't risk leaving it. We also didn't know if it had come in the house so we had to check right through inside as well. Eventually Fred announced that it was in the storm drain tunnel that runs under our bedroom passage! We blocked it up and tried to smoke it out, etc, to no avail. We temporarily blocked up the drain and then we had to brick up the storm drain the next day permanently. We had discovered that there was a kind of ledge in the drain, under the house and it had obviously gone in there. The ideal snake nest!
This was enough to stress me out (ok, we've had plenty of snakes in the garden, mainly black mambas, as far as we knew, but the boys always got them further down the garden, this one was a but too close to home!)
The end of the story one would think, but no..........
A couple of days ago we noticed that our water was smelling very unpleasant and when the boys checked our well they found a very large dead snake! Charming! (look, I feel sorry for the snakes, we have, after all, encroached on their natural habitats over the years and where are the poor things supposed to go?)
They got the snake out and it was pretty awful, I must say....took us two days to clear the well and tank, even using pool chlorine to sanitise it.
So now we're left with the mystery................
Was it a cobra sitting on the verandah? (apparently mambas also 'sit' up and they're all part of the same family) Was it a cobra in the well? Have the snakes been nesting under our passage in the ledge in the storm drain? Is that why we've had so many snakes compared with everyone else, in our garden? If so, have we solved it by blocking up the drain? Was the snake in the well the one I saw or another one and what was the one in the drain?
Questions, questions....
But mainly relief that for now, at least, we feel a bit safer!
I've posted a couple of photos of the snake in the well and when we got it out.......not very tasteful, sorry about that, but can anyone tell me if it is a cobra?
The two boys ran to the verandah but the snake suddenly disappeared. We all spent the next few hours searching for the snake as we couldn't risk leaving it. We also didn't know if it had come in the house so we had to check right through inside as well. Eventually Fred announced that it was in the storm drain tunnel that runs under our bedroom passage! We blocked it up and tried to smoke it out, etc, to no avail. We temporarily blocked up the drain and then we had to brick up the storm drain the next day permanently. We had discovered that there was a kind of ledge in the drain, under the house and it had obviously gone in there. The ideal snake nest!
This was enough to stress me out (ok, we've had plenty of snakes in the garden, mainly black mambas, as far as we knew, but the boys always got them further down the garden, this one was a but too close to home!)
The end of the story one would think, but no..........
A couple of days ago we noticed that our water was smelling very unpleasant and when the boys checked our well they found a very large dead snake! Charming! (look, I feel sorry for the snakes, we have, after all, encroached on their natural habitats over the years and where are the poor things supposed to go?)
They got the snake out and it was pretty awful, I must say....took us two days to clear the well and tank, even using pool chlorine to sanitise it.
So now we're left with the mystery................
Was it a cobra sitting on the verandah? (apparently mambas also 'sit' up and they're all part of the same family) Was it a cobra in the well? Have the snakes been nesting under our passage in the ledge in the storm drain? Is that why we've had so many snakes compared with everyone else, in our garden? If so, have we solved it by blocking up the drain? Was the snake in the well the one I saw or another one and what was the one in the drain?
Questions, questions....
But mainly relief that for now, at least, we feel a bit safer!
I've posted a couple of photos of the snake in the well and when we got it out.......not very tasteful, sorry about that, but can anyone tell me if it is a cobra?
Clint & Perri's Wedding!
We all had a rare treat in March when we were invited to Clint & Perri's wedding at the Chisamba Safari lodge, just outside Lusaka!
Friends and family travelled from far and wide (it made our four hour drive from Chingola seem rather paltry!) to attend and it was a fabulous day!
Clint looked very smart and Perri looked absolutely lovely in a dress to die for!
We were chuffed to find out that the DJ was none other than 'Guido', our DJ from the copperbelt...........so we were secure in the knowledge that we would, yet again, be dancing to familiar tunes!!!!!
We all had a ball and wobbled off to our rooms at various late hours to finally appear at varying times for a good old English brekkie!
Mel had supplied herself, Justin & me with KGB hangover pills the night before...........hmmm, she's definitely a bad influence..........but whether they worked or not is an ongoing topic of conversation.................
The drive home certainly seemed to take an inordinately long time.......................
Friends and family travelled from far and wide (it made our four hour drive from Chingola seem rather paltry!) to attend and it was a fabulous day!
Clint looked very smart and Perri looked absolutely lovely in a dress to die for!
We were chuffed to find out that the DJ was none other than 'Guido', our DJ from the copperbelt...........so we were secure in the knowledge that we would, yet again, be dancing to familiar tunes!!!!!
We all had a ball and wobbled off to our rooms at various late hours to finally appear at varying times for a good old English brekkie!
Mel had supplied herself, Justin & me with KGB hangover pills the night before...........hmmm, she's definitely a bad influence..........but whether they worked or not is an ongoing topic of conversation.................
The drive home certainly seemed to take an inordinately long time.......................
Karaoke night at the Carlisles!
Right, the first thing I need to make absolutely clear is that this was not, absolutely not, intended to be a karaoke night! I mean, those things are trashy right? We'd never set out to host a scaly, trashy, bad taste karaoke night, ok??? (alright, so we've got the microphone and the karaoke disc but who hasn't?!!!) (what? you haven't got one?!)
It was just a tasteful dinner party, held at ours in January, with Mel, Donald & Michelle and Val (out from the UK).
What went wrong? To be honest I really don't know. Maybe it was Mel's influence. After all, she does seem to feature with amazing regularity, whenever there's anything untoward going on.............
So, anyway, before I go off on a tangent, basically we had a great dinner party and the wine flowed........Oh! Maybe that was it! It's the wine's fault!
We had this great evening and suddenly we found ourselves up, on the 'stage', microphone in hand, belting out hits at top volume in our best, out of tune, screeching voices!
We sang and we sang...................my poor husband was working that weekend so had to get up early the next morning. At some point he even disappeared for snooze..........
There was no stopping us........until Justin arrived back on the scene with the words "hasn't anyone got homes to go to?"!!!!!! This was about 3am by the way!
The screeching came to a halt at that point and Justin's favourite saying is now "that's the first time I've had to boot a 60 year old from my home!" Good on you Mel! Come back soon for another karaoke night! oooops! I mean, come back soon for dinner (and maybe we can get out the karaoke discs!) sssshhhh!
And Val! As for you! Please come back! Can I tempt you with the fact that I've just purchased four new karaoke discs and two new remote control microphones? Hell, I have got it bad..........................!!!!!
And Donald & Michelle? no worries there, they're just waiting for the next invite!!!!!
Watch this space!
It was just a tasteful dinner party, held at ours in January, with Mel, Donald & Michelle and Val (out from the UK).
What went wrong? To be honest I really don't know. Maybe it was Mel's influence. After all, she does seem to feature with amazing regularity, whenever there's anything untoward going on.............
So, anyway, before I go off on a tangent, basically we had a great dinner party and the wine flowed........Oh! Maybe that was it! It's the wine's fault!
We had this great evening and suddenly we found ourselves up, on the 'stage', microphone in hand, belting out hits at top volume in our best, out of tune, screeching voices!
We sang and we sang...................my poor husband was working that weekend so had to get up early the next morning. At some point he even disappeared for snooze..........
There was no stopping us........until Justin arrived back on the scene with the words "hasn't anyone got homes to go to?"!!!!!! This was about 3am by the way!
The screeching came to a halt at that point and Justin's favourite saying is now "that's the first time I've had to boot a 60 year old from my home!" Good on you Mel! Come back soon for another karaoke night! oooops! I mean, come back soon for dinner (and maybe we can get out the karaoke discs!) sssshhhh!
And Val! As for you! Please come back! Can I tempt you with the fact that I've just purchased four new karaoke discs and two new remote control microphones? Hell, I have got it bad..........................!!!!!
And Donald & Michelle? no worries there, they're just waiting for the next invite!!!!!
Watch this space!
"Caught in action! Photographic evidence of debauched fairies!"
Thanks to all the reporters from all over Zambia and even some from overseas (they were keen!) who sent me photos of the frolicking fairies in Mel's garden!
It's thanks to people like them, who risk life and limb climbing up ladders and things to see over walls, that we, the common people get to see the truth for ourselves. No longer is it just a rumour!
No more words are needed, the photos speak for themselves.........................
It's thanks to people like them, who risk life and limb climbing up ladders and things to see over walls, that we, the common people get to see the truth for ourselves. No longer is it just a rumour!
No more words are needed, the photos speak for themselves.........................
Zambian night at Adam & Charmaine's!
In mid Feb. Adam and Charmaine decided to host a Zambian night at their new home by way of a house warming! (it was also Charmaine's birthday)
Charmaine really did go to a lot of trouble, the place was transformed into a Zambian village complete with thatched huts, log seats around a fire, Zambian drummers and dancers and, of course, all of us in 'authentic' Zambian outfits!
It was highly amusing to see us all, some in wigs, and every style of outfit imaginable!
It was a lovely night although we didn't last 'til the end this time (WHAAAAAT??? THE CARLISLES COULDN'T TAKE THE PACE????.......it happens......!)
Sadly I don't have photos apart from the one of us but if anyone wants to send me one or two good ones......
Charmaine really did go to a lot of trouble, the place was transformed into a Zambian village complete with thatched huts, log seats around a fire, Zambian drummers and dancers and, of course, all of us in 'authentic' Zambian outfits!
It was highly amusing to see us all, some in wigs, and every style of outfit imaginable!
It was a lovely night although we didn't last 'til the end this time (WHAAAAAT??? THE CARLISLES COULDN'T TAKE THE PACE????.......it happens......!)
Sadly I don't have photos apart from the one of us but if anyone wants to send me one or two good ones......
Linzi's Travel & Tours...(probably) the best travel company in the world...ever!
Linzi's Travel & Tours really did the business when Mr & Mrs Nokes visited Zambia and South Africa in January!
A trip was organised that would take your breath away! Well......ok........slight exaggeration!
Anyway, it all started when Justin said he fancied going to the cricket and taking his dad and my dad. The idea grew and the next thing was a whole whistle stop tour from Jo'burg to the Drakensberg, Cape Town via Durban and a grand finale back in Jo'burg!
We spent a few days at our house here in Zambia but basically had a restful time (sadly dad was unwell) and just got ourselves mentally prepared for the forthcoming trip. ( my preparation was mainly to do with writing shopping lists......)
We started off at De Kuilen Cottages in Jo'burg (near fourways) which has to be one of the most gorgeous, tasteful and pleasant places to stay for a couple of nights. No small detail is missed there and the cottages are furnished with antiques and everything you could possibly need.
Justin went to the cricket with his dad on the first Sunday while me and mum & dad shopped up a storm all over Jo'burg and met my dear friend Karen for lunch!
On the Monday we drove to the Drakensberg and stayed at Champagne Valley (courtesy of Dad's RCI swap!) which was also really lovely and peaceful. Justin and I squeezed in a small hike up to the Sphinx and we also visited Thokozisa (owned by Justin's oldest friend Baz) a couple of times for meals. We were also fortunate enough to have dinner cooked by the said Basil one night (a rare feat!)
After a few days there we drove to Durban and flew on to Cape Town where, yes, we shopped.....and Justin & Dad went to the cricket (this is England v South Africa, by the way!) while Mum & me braved the roads to find Canal Walk for, yes, more shopping!
We had some lovely meals out and finally flew back to Jo'burg, where, upon completion of their crossword and word search puzzles I'd designed for them, mum & dad finally worked out that we were staying at The Castle Kyalami!
It was FANTASTIC there! What a brilliant place to stay! Mmmmm, definitely have to go there again some time.....
We hooked up with Justin's folks for lunch the next day and then it was off to the airport for mum & dad and a final night for Justin and me at the good old Holiday Inn before we returned to Zambia!
A trip was organised that would take your breath away! Well......ok........slight exaggeration!
Anyway, it all started when Justin said he fancied going to the cricket and taking his dad and my dad. The idea grew and the next thing was a whole whistle stop tour from Jo'burg to the Drakensberg, Cape Town via Durban and a grand finale back in Jo'burg!
We spent a few days at our house here in Zambia but basically had a restful time (sadly dad was unwell) and just got ourselves mentally prepared for the forthcoming trip. ( my preparation was mainly to do with writing shopping lists......)
We started off at De Kuilen Cottages in Jo'burg (near fourways) which has to be one of the most gorgeous, tasteful and pleasant places to stay for a couple of nights. No small detail is missed there and the cottages are furnished with antiques and everything you could possibly need.
Justin went to the cricket with his dad on the first Sunday while me and mum & dad shopped up a storm all over Jo'burg and met my dear friend Karen for lunch!
On the Monday we drove to the Drakensberg and stayed at Champagne Valley (courtesy of Dad's RCI swap!) which was also really lovely and peaceful. Justin and I squeezed in a small hike up to the Sphinx and we also visited Thokozisa (owned by Justin's oldest friend Baz) a couple of times for meals. We were also fortunate enough to have dinner cooked by the said Basil one night (a rare feat!)
After a few days there we drove to Durban and flew on to Cape Town where, yes, we shopped.....and Justin & Dad went to the cricket (this is England v South Africa, by the way!) while Mum & me braved the roads to find Canal Walk for, yes, more shopping!
We had some lovely meals out and finally flew back to Jo'burg, where, upon completion of their crossword and word search puzzles I'd designed for them, mum & dad finally worked out that we were staying at The Castle Kyalami!
It was FANTASTIC there! What a brilliant place to stay! Mmmmm, definitely have to go there again some time.....
We hooked up with Justin's folks for lunch the next day and then it was off to the airport for mum & dad and a final night for Justin and me at the good old Holiday Inn before we returned to Zambia!
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