Week 15 One Daily Positive and Project365. Our Grandson came to stay.

It has been a long and busy week, full of family, grandchildren and visits and ended up with us braving the Easter traffic to drive to West Wales for a short break, leaving the cat under the care of the neighbours and taking the dog with us. 

I haven't blogged this week, but I've had a lot of food for thought. Some of it I won't be blogging about as it's not about me, or it will effect the relationships I have with others. It's so frustrating to have so many real life family/friends reading my thoughts without worrying about the negative feedback.

99 Saturday Day spent food shopping, dog walking and coffee drinking. I prepared the Easter Gifts for the small people and baked some cakes and made chocolate moulds. There was some cleaning to do and general prep for Grandson's arrival.

100 Sunday Peter played golf and I ran round making beds and did the final prep for child 2, his wife and their baby's arrival. Mid afternoon they met family and I did some shopping, when Peter got home we had a roast dinner.

He's grandads little man, for sure.

101 Monday a long and busy day for our 5 month old grandson as he was taken to meet his Great Granny, Great Nanna, met 5 second cousins, his aunt, uncle and our other grandchild, his cousin, another uncle, a grandad and various other family members of various ages and relationships. Peter collected his mum from Bristol to meet me in Monmouth as I had to catch 2 buses to get to the flat to do a quick check on the repairs, we got home around 6pm and had dinner, Peter returned around 8pm. Everyone absolutely exhausted.

Grandson, DIL 2a and MIL.

102 Tuesday We started the morning baby watching for an hour and baby sitting for half an hour when he woke up while his mum and dad popped out to the retail park. We then went into Worcester for a couple of hours, the dogs got walked, baby slept and I sorted washing and some tidying up. Out for dinner in the evening.

103 Wednesday Everyone and their dog left after lunch, the cat took a few hours to realise there was no mad Molly dog in her home anymore. We made a half hearted attempt to tidy, wash and clean, before giving in and just watching the telly. |I spent some time in my craft room, putting the finishing touches to next doors Easter gifts.

There were tears when this little man left. Mine of course.

104 Thursday Tidied up, washing on and hoovered. Off to visit child 1 and drop off her Easter Egg. Onto collect mum, DIL and grandchild for a coffee and back to mums house for a bit, then called in at our old neighbours in the Forest of Dean to drop off Easter eggs, home at 7pm and evening spent ironing, packing and watching The Bubble on Netflix. Having worked in a bubble during covid and having had endless PCRs and having to quarantine, it was a funny movie in a bitter, sweet way.

105 Friday Set off around 9am on a short break to West Wales it appears no one was travelling there through the country and the roads were quiet. We were going to meet up with some friends, but their kids came down with a stomach bug and they cut their trip short.

For fear of waking early, but I failed. Ended up with a thicker blanket to block the light with a number of pegs to keep it in place.

Nothing on the blog this week.

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Bob and I go camping and share our camping tips.

Just had an amazing few day at Magalies Sleepy River Campsite  an hours drive out of Pretoria into the middle of nowhere. To be more precise The Cradle of Humankind.

It was wonderful not to be surrounded by security fences, in open space, with a river and plenty of room for Bob to run around and explore.

I arrived Thursday afternoon, set the tent up, then had 2 guys help me move it as I had failed to check how long my electric cable was, it was a common mistake repeated by many. Hubby and friends joined Bob and I Friday till Sunday as it was a public holiday, Human Rights Day and we chilled out, sleeping, reading, looking for Bob and a fab meal at The Black Horse, with a micro brewery a few miles away and they were dog friendly and Bob enjoyed stretching out on the terrace soaking up the sun.

I decided to leave on the Monday as the last tent was packed away and there is no phone reception at the bottom of the field, a little worried if I had an accident it could be a long time before i could get help. As it turned out the accident happened when I got home and was unloading the car. A metal camping table slid out and dropped on my foot, nothing broken but I'm on crutches for the rest of the week.

The facilities were perfect, toilets, showers and baths with hot water, they were fixing up additional braai pits to ensure there were enough for everyone, a swimming pool that is well maintained and plenty of space for everyone.

As per usual there were the selfish campers, the ones who let their dogs run freely and the ones with kids who told them to play anywhere but at their own tents and I did have a word with a couple of parents along the lines of 'your kids, you entertain and stop them running round my tent at 6.30am'

After everyone went on Sunday lunchtime, Bob and I spent our time walking, him swimming in the river, me swimming in the pool. I sat and read my book while Bob happily chased after monkeys and barked at them in the trees.

I will be going back, as often as I can, so close, yet felt like a million miles from the security in Pretoria.

Bob and I have a few tips we'd like to share.

• pack insect repellant and after bite
• make sure you have a very long piece of rope to allow your dog freedom to move but not bother other campers
• take your own toilet paper, although well maintained, on busy weekends they're bound to run out, esp at night
• before pitching your tent, check your electricity cable will reach the plug sockets
• secure a braai the second you arrive
• when packing your car, make sure your tent is the last piece of equipment that goes in. Too many people have to unpack their entire car, before getting to their tent
• pack a sweeping brush, esp when it's dry, there's nothing worse than grass everywhere, esp when it transfers from you to the bed
• string and a sealable box-tie your fridge/foodbox up securley when you go out. Monkeys are persistent buggers and ants will find their way in anywhere
• sunshade for the car for Bob
• food cover to keep the flies off when preparing a meal
• 1st aid kit for you and your dog- I used alcohol wipes on Bob when he returned from chasing monkeys and was covered in cuts and grazes from the undergrowth
• buy dog shampoo/tick powder/pack a brush, lord knows what's in that river, I washed him daily
• load a star gazer app fro your phone, I've never seen so many stars

Looking for monkeys to chase

Plenty of space to spread out in

Bob is in the river all day if you let him

Plenty of R&R time

Car packed and ready to go home :-(

So much land for Bob to run free in