A Christmas night – 2013

Kate Winslet in age makeup as the 66-year-old Hanna in the latter half of the film (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

O goodness, hard to believe another Christmas has come and gone. I was so proud of all my cooking, but those close to me would know that I actually hate it!! Reason is simple: within minutes, all the hours of work were gobbled up!!! And then I suffered, due to no fault of my own of course, of a tummy so full, it was rolling around like in the old “think pink” ad, shouting “bow-wow” at me!! And giving me heartburn on top of it. The result was it pulled me towards my bed, where I was unable to lift my sorry ass for the rest of the afternoon. Needless to say, sleep was eluding me the whole night! After finally going to bed at midnight, long after the rest of the household had seeked their pillows, I read till 1 am. Then turned in behind my beloved’s back, only to be woken by a massive wee half an hour later – and that was me done. After lying in the dark, listening to the massive thunder storm in the distance, and the thunderous snoring from my beloved suffering from sinus the whole week already, I decided to seek the company of the T V around 2 am. I found some hilarious take on using our bodies as exercise machines, shot on Sea Point Promenade’s outdoors gym, with some really weird, random contestants in a so-called “competition”, trying to out-crawl, out-hang-from-poles-to-strengthen-arms, jump on seaside benches etc, providing much hilarity so early in the morning. After that, I found “The Reader“, with Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, keeping me spellbound until around 4.45 am. In the meantime, I simply had to still add rusks and Earl Grey tea to my already fermenting intestines, and some Rennies had to follow.

British actor Ralph Fiennes, leaving the Booth Theater after performing in a matinee showing of “Faith Healer”, on his way to the 60th Tony Awards ceremony in New York City. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Around 5 am, the storm edged closer to us, and I let the dogs out to do their thing, reckoning that I will not wake up later to let them out, and better to do so before any rain, lest I need to clean the tiles again from muddy paw-prints. I stood in our dim bedroom, watching the sun making a red appearance on this Family Day / Boxing Day, of 2013, realising it will never come around again – another year has passed. By now, the lighting was fearsome, and I gently climbed into bed to not disturb Kobus, after changing his alarm to half an hour later on his phone. He did however wake up, and I found sleep eluding me again. A shower, a cuppa tea, a quick clean-up of the remnants of Christmas, and I could feel sleep finally seeping into my veins. Thankfully, the storm passed some distance away, and I finally fell into the loving arms of a deep sleep at around 7 am, only to be awoken at 9 am, with dogs that were dying to get outside to play. So, with most things in life, this was a first for me – half an hour shut-eye on Christmas night 2013. But, I saw many things I would not normally see – more spiders, crickets, shongoloeloes etc all running around the house at night, and in the morning, after the sun was up enough to see outside, hundreds of locusts on the outside walls. The white plumes of the thunder clouds in the light of dawn were very impressive, and my hubby’s sleeping, lovely face in the dim light of the room very endearing.

May 2014 bring us all moments of looking at things as if anew, and may all storms pass us by as far away as possible. Take care!