A new year dawns

A slightly inauspicious start to 2013! Woke up to a galeforce wind blowing through Kommetjie and decided to take the dogs early for their morning walk down to the lighthouse and along the boardwalk before it really picked up. Upon opening the gate and going out into the road, the sight of all my carefully sorted, cleaned, stored and tied in a bag recycling greeted me, strewn in all directions up and down the street, under bushes and in gutters. Not only that, but the dirt bins hadn't been properly emptied and a packet of bones awaited any loose dog that might be roaming at that time, and the neighbour's rubbish was also all over the front lawn, all signs of the original black bags long dispersed in the wind. As one who cannot bear the sight of any form of litter, this threatened to ruin my day, and I stomped off down the road with Susie, in a hurry to get back to clean up before too many people came by.

I noticed that not one other bag had burst along the road and everyone else's recycling and household refuse was neatly disposed of or intact. I can only conclude that, once again, the dirt truck rode over the bags. (They once rode over the entire wheelie bin (hard to believe, I know!) and left it crushed and split in pieces at the side of the road! I was on to the Council immediately and they delivered a new bin the very next day.) Anyway, after that mess was cleaned up (I declined to pick up the neighbour's nachos and other leftovers) it was on with the business of the day..

I spent a few pleasant hours in the kitchen making onion marmalade, tomato sauce and a quick chicken and veg curry for lunch. I then stuffed everything into the dishwasher and turned that on, while I did a bit of computer work. After about an hour, I said to Robert, what is that sort of rumbling hum? He didn't know, so I followed the sound and found that the dishwasher was stuck in the middle of a cycle, didn't have any water going in or out, and didn't turn off. I had to turn it off at the plug to stop it. Now if there is one thing I cannot do without, it's the dishwasher. So that's a small disaster. I took everything out and washed it all in the sink. I am now resting the dishwasher, and have asked the technical angels to sort it out by tomorrow, failing which He Who Can Fix Anything will take a look.

Apart from that, dinner just came out of the oven, spicy meatballs in a tomato and basil sauce with parmesan.  Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm! So all is not so bad after all.