A belly post (belly a post)

Is this a bit of a nakedy picture for the world to see? Ah well, I don't mind. The world has seen worse. I have shown worse to the world....(hmm, lets not go into THAT okay!) I am no Demi Moore and contorting myself to try and photograph myself in the mirror does not Annie Liebowitz me make. But still. This is my third trimester belly. 3 months to go. We're on the home stretch, dragging ourselves sweating and limping toward the finish line. It's been good actually. I've been really lucky - so far - as has the father of this thinglette. I have not sent him into the night to buy me ice cream and pickles, I have not burst into tears at motorcar adverts on the tele (maybe coz we don't have a tele), I have been stoic and happy-laughy mostly. And so enjoying having this little creature kicking, summersaulting and hamster-wheeling in my tum. And getting hiccups! Now thats quite weird!



Okay, I'm not going to write too much today. (Having said all that) I am leaning black dog-ward today and don't want any negative-ness out there.

Friday is a holiday!

We're moving house soon!

It's raining!

The trees are flowering!

I have food to eat!

I don't have diarrhea!

We have electricity!

I live in a beautiful peaceful country!

Oh shut up already!

Wresting with sweetcorn and the police

So in a fit of feverish efficiency we moved house at the weekend. Well, we moved all our stuff up to our new sparkly house on the hill, thinking that we were actually moving in. When in fact the house is juuust not quuiiite ready. So Husband has gone off to the Serengeti and I sit here in an empty house save my computer, the cat, a cold box of soon-to-be-rotting meat, some Ryevita, a motorbike helmet, a really ugly carpet, some old shock absorbers and a tin of sweetcorn - which I have been wresting with most of the night because I packed the tin opener.

Anyway, all is well and cheerful. By the end of the week we'll be in the new house (and Friday is a holiday, yesssss) hopefully without a bout of food poisoning (I must chuck the meat tomorrow!). It is a very lovely sweet pink house that gets buffeted by the wind. Maybe some pics once we get up there.

I am 5 days in to a new job. Supposed to be training some street youth in drama and the like but there is an old colonial law here called the "removal of undesirable persons act" that the police tend to cling on to and round up any vaguely dodgy looking people. Last week we had just started working in a field in town and the police screeched in, rounded up almost everyone there, shoved them roughly in the back of a landrover and took them away. "Do you know what thieves look like?" The policeman asked me "This. They look like this". Geez. Now I am not a bleeding heart, but give the kids a break, you know? They have a hard enough time as it is. So much for being innocent until proven guilty. And talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time, a few poor chaps were just walking by and got dragged off. Aish. Anyway, I don't feel like going into the details of it all. More soon.

Okay, time to take the cat and the tin of sweetcorn to bed.

Night night then.

Me me

Thanks to Mud for prodding some fodder my way, in the way of a meme

1. What are your current obsessions?
- Prodding my ever expanding belly and saying – “but it feels so WEIRD!”
- Reading about a pregnancy symptom on the internet and saying “Hey wow, I HAVE that! How do they know?”
- Basically anything pregnancy and all the bizarre happenings that go with it although I’m trying really hard to keep these to myself, and not become a total glazed-eye-inducing bore

2. Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often?
Right now I don’t have an awful lot to wear except a black maternity dress that is very sweet and very comfy and very close to falling apart already. Sounds minging but its not! Oh and my blue beaded Zanzibar sandals I seem to wear every day (Wee Gabby said yesterday "Miranda why do you ALWAYS wear those shoes?" haha)

3. What's for dinner?
Homemade hamburgers and salad

4. Last thing you bought?
Yoghurt, does that count?

5. What are you listening to?
The soft rain outside and the cat purring on my lap

6. If you were a god/goddess who would you be?
Hmmm, maybe Bacchus/Dionysus? God of theatre and general debauchery as well as some other rather darker things. I started going through some of my mythology books to see what suited but it was taking an inordinate amount of time and I’m supposed to be packing up for moving house so although I lurve to procrastinate I’m not gonna give this one too much thought!

7. Favourite holiday spots?
Zanzibar, Laos, Vietnam, oh anywhere really! Bring it on.

8. Reading right now?
Just finished Gem Squash Tokoloshe by Rachel Zadok. If you haven’t read it, do. Now.

9. 4 words to describe yourself.
Cheerful, patient, positive, quirky. (But maybe other people have a completely different view of me. I’m always fascinated by how we see ourselves and how other people see us – sometimes they don’t match up at all!)

10. Guilty pleasure?
Right now? Chocolate. Powdered milk. All food related at the mo!

11. Who or what makes you laugh until you’re weak?
Farts, real-life slapstick (people walking with poles or ladders over their shoulders, standing on rakes, tripping up, slipping on banana peels), you know the score.

12. Planning to travel to next?
South Africa in June to calf

13. Best thing you ate or drank lately?
A most delicious shared Belgian chocolate today from Janelle who got them from Tattie who brought them all the way from Europe. Yummeee - thanks J!

14. When did you last get tipsy?
Oooh boy. A distant fond memory. How long have I been pregnant now? 3 years? 6 months ago, I guess but sadly I forget the happy occasion.

15. Favourite ever film?
Tough one. Gotta be Withnail and I. Although Funny Bones is high up there. It used to be anyway, haven’t seen it for ages

16. Care to share some wisdom?
Uh huh.
Laugh as much as you can
Don’t sweat the small stuff
Be kind
Don’t gossip
Give gifts
Seek out the peculiar
Stop. Look. Breathe. Smile
Don’t take yourself seriously

17. Nicest thing anyone’s ever said to you?
You make me happy

18. Add one question? Ouf, those termites are still munching, sorry.

Rules of the meme. Respond and rework. Answer questions on your own blog. Replace one question. Add one question. Tag 8 people.

Aish. 8 people? Only if you want
Val
Geli
Tanvi
Dumdad
Rob
Lori
and anyone else who'd like to

Brain rot

The termites have been at my brain again. Nibbling away at the lovely polished wood until nothing is left but clumps of clay that’s been excreted from their delicate little bottoms. Pants. I hate it when that happens. They just get in everywhere. Anything left still long enough gets chewed up by their busy little jaws. You think you’ve packed up something safe and secure and a few weeks later you open the trunk to find there’s nothing left but crumbling red dirt and a few scraps of chewed print.

So I’m trying to write a new post, people, I really am, but salt water leaked in and rusted all the cogs together; all the delicate mechanisms have disintegrated and flaked off into a pile of pretty but jumbled, sharp bits. Don’t touch you might get a gash. And then tetanus and that’s just ugly.

The pan has dried up leaving a sulphery salty crust on the top, scribbled with a few bird prints but nothing more substantial than that. Maybe the odd hyena track – ooh look one sunk in here, nearly got stuck, but even she managed to get out and has moved on to tend to her sweet little brown pups in their den. Nothing else to report.

Okay, enough already – you get the idea, no?

Time for another post, don't you think?

I'm back.

With 727 photos of my sisters wedding to sort through. If I get permission from her I shall post some. Once I've found the only three that work. haha - I tend to snap away and hope for the best. As the 727 photos will attest! The wedding was DIVINE. An amazing spot, fab people, a few adventures (breaking down on the way up to the farm and having to walk two hours through the mist at 2 in the morning!), a hilarious pastor, old friends and favourite family members. Staying sober and watching everyone else get pissed should be made compulsory for everyone, if only once in their lives.

I'm home to glorious rain, a small veggie patch ready for the picking, an injured cat, and a move into a new house to look forward to. And a bigger tummy than I went away with.

Lots to say but like the photos, I need to sort through my thoughts first and then will write a proper post.