"Family lunch on the long weekend"

Shortly before we went to the UK we had a lovely long weekend (don't you love those?!!) and we decided to have a 'proper' lunch out in the garden.
It was a family affair and we were joined by vaious of our 'children' throughout the meal!

my gorgeous husband!
his gorgeous wife! ok, ok....
Satchel & Tali join us
the gorgous Clyde pushing his luck!
our little gypsy trying not to look like she's after the food!

Anyway, it was very nice, especially the cornbread, yum! Which reminds me, I need to get baking, we've got Rex & Prue arriving in 2 weeks!

"Paris Hilton wannabees? Don't think so!!!"

Ok, this was just us being silly, quite some time ago now, but I'm trying to catch up on my pics and things.........

Linzi models the 'Bella' bag!

Justin joins in the fun with the 'Tali' bag!

Going topless in Chingola!

What? What's the problem with going topless? You what? Oh....I see....! You thought.......

No! I'm talking about our house! Yeah, the roof's being fixed!

It's great fun, banging and crashing all day, dirt, dust and ceiling filler falling all around us, the wind whistling in through the gaps.....anyway, it's just a job, that's got to be done, and we're doing it....the only worry we had was that the guys would accidentally smash holes through the ceiling boards,, but Osman assured us this would not happen! (oh yeah??!)

So for those with an interest in roof fixing.....here are the pics!

the front roof

the back roof

Osman's plan to fix the hole his guys smashed through the ceiling board in the lounge...

Then, I just thought this was interesting, we got an old geyser out of the roof that had obviously been there for years and couldn't be removed. The label on it (see below) says "Bulawayo, Kitwe, Salisbury" then "Rhodesia"! How long ago was that?!! (Kitwe being in Zambia, of course, and Bulawayo and Salisbury - Harare now?? - being in Zimbabwe!)

the label on the old geyser

Last Crimbo!

Right, on with the catch up of months past!
Okay, as soon as Justin & I got back from our trip, Mum and Dad arrived, about four days later! So I wasn't very organised!
Anyway, it worked out very well for them as their apartment wasn't ready for them to move into so as they came out for a month it helped them with the whole situation.
At this point - a mention of Uncle John and Aunty Hils who have been absolutely magnificent with Mum & Dad - they basically gave them a key to their house and told them to feel at home and have a bed for the night whenever they needed - without their kind help Mum & Dad would really have been stuck. (They sold their house in Dickens Close and ended up with delays of about a year before they had a home again -apart from the caravan at Pluck's Gutter for the summer months - not easy) So, thanks Guys!!!
Anyway, we basically went into christmas prep mode which was quite fun for us as we're normally on our lonesome!
The weather was the usual rainy season but we did manage some swimming - even got Dad in the pool on Christmas morning with a glass of champers!!


It was really just about relaxing and spending time together......here are a few pics of Christmas day!

me & mum!

Tali & Bella playing with their new toys!

Christmas lunch

a pooped out Pooch with his new toy (note he's nicked his sisters' toys too!)

too much excitment for Dad & Satchel!

"Was it....Colonel Mustard, in the Library....with the Candlestick?"

No..........................wrong! It wasn't Colonel Mustard.....it was Justin & Linzi!
It was the Library....correct ! But it wasn't the Candlestick, it was a bottle of wine!


Our Library is finally finished and we're soooo chuffed with it! At last! Somewhere to put all our books, movies and stuff! So we've been hanging out in the Library of late and filling shelves as we sipped on chilled wine to keep us going!

"Bubble, are you there?"

"Bubble? We're getting into the pool now darling. Literally, as we speak, our feet are entering the pool! We've got the bolly stolly darling and we're going in.......!"

Our little piece of paradise!

Here's the latest pool photo and things are definitely looking better! The water's crystal clear, we're slowly getting grass around the pool, we've re-done all the rockeries and, as I type, Collins the new garden boy, is, under strict supervision from Patrick, vacuuming up the last 'dirties' in the bottom of the pool!
So we're all set for Saturday afternoon! Got the champagne chilling.................in we'll go, hand in hand, clutching the 'bolly' and two flutes...............and we shall then declare the pool officially christened!

"Blogging or Bragging?"

It's a good question isn't it? Are we bloggers just sad people who feel a need to express themselves in cyberspace to unknown hordes (hordes? who am I kidding!) of people? Or are we just complete show-offs?!!
Well....................................in this instant I must confess to a teensy bit of showing off......or maybe we could call it "self-appreciation of my artistic abilities"...........
Ok, enough of the rambling on, what I'm getting round to is that we've just fitted our new bathroom door which was completely hand-carved by a man called Chris. Sadly Chris isn't very well, like, REALLY not well, so he struggles to do work at all. (we're trying to rectify this with ARVs) The door has probably taken him about nine months or more to complete, using ideas from a photograph we took of a door at Timamoon. Have I mentioned Timamoon before? One of the most beautiful, romantic & creative places to stay in South Africa http://timamoon.co.za

So, Chris made this amazing door which is totally cool, funky & arty and .............. I made the handle! whooooo! go Linzi!
Well, yes, I'm pretty chuffed with my handle! I made it from thick rope threaded with hollowed out bits of bamboo and then I threaded beads and seed pods onto the copper wire I used to tie it with and also onto the frayed rope ends!

the handle!
the door!

So, there you have it, a fantastic door, we just need to re-do the whole bathroom now....................

Anyone for a swim??!!!

"Come on in the water's lovely!"

Hmmmm, well, after three and a half days of filling we're there......................only problem, we appear to have accidentally filled our pool with dark green sludge with a delicate hint of brown.....................lovely!!!!! But hey! It was still lovely to get in the pool again, refreshing, invigorating, we had a great swim! Come and join us! Ok, we're kidding.......the shock packs are in and we wait for clarity.....................watch this space!

The Last Day

Well, here it is! Wednesday 23rd August! The plastering was finished by about 2pm! We started filling straightaway! (It's Thursday 10.30am at this moment and the water's only just lapping against the shallow end wall!) We hope the pool will be filled by tomorrow night although the water will be quite dirty and we'll then have to treat it. The colour should actually be fine as it's already slightly darker when it's wet and has a nice look to it! Can't wait for a swim!!!!! We're now busy filling in around the remaining areas, above the piping, with red laterite, black soil and finally grass. So the next photo I post on here should show a sparkling clear pool with everything looking much tidier all around it!

Welcome back Gordon!

Before work began on the pool we traced our original 'Gordon the gecko' on massive, sellotaped together, pieces of paper! Thus, when the time came, the 'paper Gordon' was positioned in the new pool and a team of us traced his shape with chalk! Omari and his guys then sprang into action on day 17 of the job (which was actually Tuesday 22nd Aaugust!), mixed plaster, tinted it and produced a perfect Gordon for us!


The next day, Wednesday 23rd August, was D-Day! They guys started at 7am, mixing the plaster in the deep end of the pool and tinting it. We used pva paint for the tint, mixed with white cement and marble dust. We had a little difficulty selecting the colour as we actually didn't know we were going to need pva paint for tinting until the night before we did Gordon! So we had a last minute panic rush job, frantically trying to decide on the colours which would give an end result of "light grey rock colour....................with Gordon slightly darker............." Hmmm....tricky! Honestly? We probably didn't get it quite right because Gordon's definitely 'feeling a bit blue' and, as you'll see in the next posting, the rest of the pool is quite light, although definitely grey.

Patience is a virtue................

Yeah well, we're not that virtuous and we started to get impatient after about a week!

So anyway, we decided to try and get some grass laid. The bottom photo shows Fred putting black soil down and the top photo shows Patrick (left) and Fred finishing one whole section of grass! (nicked from the front verge - we'll worry about what to do with the verge later!)

They did this from Wednesday 16th to Friday 18th August.

Hard to believe there were pool steps and the old pool right where they're standing only two and a half weeks ago!

So now we await the final stage..............................................!

Day 14....then.....nothing............!!!

At this point we've got the old pool walls bashed away at the top and red laterite filled in between the old pool walls and the new pool walls. The pool guys then pretty much did a 'disappearing act' as they're waiting for 'the boss' to come from lusaka with the white cement for the finishing. This was Tuesday 8th August.

Fast forward to day 12, Sat. 5th Aug.

Day 12

Day 13 (Mon. 7th Aug.)

Pool fever! The latest!

Day 9

(view from deep end, new steps will be where wheelbarrow is)

Day 9

Satchel inspects the day's progress from the shallow end!

Day 8

Base slab laid

Latest pool progress Day 8 - 1st August!

Day 8 early morning

(preparing the mix for laying slab in the bottom of the pool)


Day 7

Our new swimming pool!

Day 5

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1 (above)
We finally went ahead and started work on our new pool this week!
Our original pool was a 1950s monster and we really wanted something smaller, of a more natural shape and warmer!
So, for all of you out there who have a major interest in the building of swimming pools.......(which might not be many of you!).....I've decided to post photos of the progress!
Well I think it's interesting anyway!

New Top Level High Security Company launches in Chingola!

One of the guards on duty

A new 'high tech' security company has opened up in Chingola and demand is high for their services, so high in fact that there is now a waiting list! Mr & Mrs Carlisle were one of the lucky pairs to get a new guard for their home! "It's great!" said Justin Carlisle in an interview with a local newspaper, "I feel really secure now!" "Now I can sleep easy at night" said Linzi Carlisle "I feel great relief knowing that we are protected at such a high level with the best security available!"

Fantastic New Job Creation Scheme in Chingola!

A highly innovative new job creation scheme has been started up in Chingola, Zambia! It aims to provide extra jobs for the local people by initially employing workers for one particular job, then they ensure that other workers will be employed after they have finished by ensuring that there is a new job requiring attention and so on. The scheme is highly successful and the lucky house chosen to start off the scheme was the home of Justin & Linzi Carlisle.
"It worked like a dream" said Mrs Carlisle when interviewed, "We employed electricians to work on wiring in our home, they managed to wire things up so badly that we were then able to emply new electricians to correct the wiring! While they were working on this one of the workers carefully shoved his foot straight through the kitchen ceiling making a lovely hole! This enabled us to then employ a carpenter to repair the damaged ceiling! We were then able to employ painters to repaint the ceiling!"
It looks like this scheme will really take off and there is every hope that it will be a long-running scheme with no plans to make any changes to it!

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?