HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Have a fabulous year, seems we cannot see it in with a bang we will endeavour to make an entire year worth remembering! Love always
Nats

The sweats

We went to Dundrum yesterday; Malcolm wanted to do some shopping. He also needed to return the shirts I had bought him from Esprit for Christmas – as he said, “I am not a skinny Frenchman!” We also needed to get the David Attenborough Blue Planet series, I had got him the HD set for Christmas, but as we do not have a HD DVD player and are not in the market for one we had to change it for the regular series. As you can see I did not do a great job of playing Santa baby this year. In my defence, we do have a TV to view HD….and there was lots of food about at Christmas so the shirts may have fit…once upon a time.
A pair of tracksuit pants for soccer was on the list so off we went to the sports shop where a sale was in progress. My man tried on a few pairs, the ones he liked were not on the sale, another pair was, at E12 worth every cent, so he decided to buy them and then have a look at the other sports store before deciding on the favoured pair. The queue was long and I stood outside the store patiently waiting for 15 minutes. Eventually he came out with his purchase looking a little concerned. The cheap pair of sweats were not actually on the sale, he had paid E40 for them! Our roles reverted to a parent child type scenario…I berated him, pointing out that he should have explained that he thought they were on sale and seems as they were not he did not want them! He had just paid full price for a pair of pants he did not particularly LIKE. I sent him back in with a withering look and told him to get the pair he liked. Another 15 minute queuing session ensued and he came out triumphant, and I wonder WHY I don’t like shopping…but I do still love my man.

What to do for the BIG 4 0

Yep, hubby will be 40 on March 01 and I am already stressing. I have looked at flights back to S.A for us all, obviously that is where all our friends are, but once we pay for the flights there will be no money for a party! Malcolm does not know what he wants, fishing at Lake Kariba (alone), a visit to the swamps (again alone), a sojourn to Europe (with us), back to S.A. with a visit to the bush thrown in or NOTHING. He is SO busy at work he comes home exhausted and the last thing he wants to face is the Natalie inquisition. Do I just go ahead and surprise him or do I bite my tongue, grin and bare it? Now if we had won that lottery a month ago we would have no problem, in fact Malcolm and I had already decided on the party, the venue, the presents etcetera... argh!!!!!!!!

Malcolm's Spectacular Soccer Debut in Ireland...

While paging through the local paper, People of the Southside I discovered a little ad for "over 35's who wish to join a soccer club". I diligently cut out the ad for my beloved and triumphantly presented it to him that evening. He made a phone call and discovered that practice takes place on a Tuesday evening and all was right with his world. Tuesday dawned and excitement built, first soccer practice since his New York days and his foot was itching to kick that ball. Map book scanned, directions ready and at 20h40 he was out the door. At 21h30 when I got a call from him I just knew that he had got lost, but alas I was wrong. He was asking me to open the gates as he was home (but practice finishes at 22h00?) I opened the gates and watched him hobble inside, dejected, first kick of the ball and his grass soccer shoes did not grip to well on the indoor surface and oops...down he goes! Sadly he has pulled his ligaments so we iced it, rubbed arnica cream on it, gave him some Ibuprofen and visited the doctor the very next morning. He will need a bit of physio and all should be okay, new shoes and back to soccer he shall go.