A salute and a tribute to our emergency services.

The holiday season is all but over and I have been a saint all week, so am rewarding myself with a glass or two of weekend wine. (Well, a leopard never really changes it's spots, does it?)

I am amazed on a daily basis during my perusal of the Cape Times   at the high number of near  and sometimes actual drownings during this supposedly festive period. Unfortunately they are often the victim's own fault, but are also circumstantial, and all very sad and traumatic. Full marks to teenage surfing star Tanika Hoffman who braved the waves to rescue a little girl off Glen Beach at the end of last year, though she was torn between which person to attempt to save and had to make a snap decision. My thoughts and condolences to the Hoosain family on their tragic loss.

The real heroes and heroines of our city are the rescue and emergency personnel, who work over public holidays, away from home and family, to be ready to cope with all manner of crises. In Cape Town this encompasses so much, that the scope of their work covers a very broad base. When we passed a previously mentioned accident  on the N2 just before the airport on Old Year's Eve, the traffic police were on hand slowing down traffic, advising us when we crawled passed them in blistering heat, (oh to have had a cool drink or two handy to pass out to them) trying to prevent further collisions in the fast lane, whilst the ambulance crew dealt with a grisly and very unpleasant scene. In Hermanus itself, early on New Year's morning when we went to take our dip in the tidal pool, there was a huge show of force, helicopters, rescue boats and ambulances at the ready for a day of revelry and inevitable tragedy as people headed for the beaches and mountains en masse. We left early, so I hope they didn't have too much trauma with which to cope.

Back in Cape Town our fire fighters, shark spotters, traffic and South African police forces, ambulance crews, Mountain Men and hospital personnel are all working and on standby for any disaster, large or small which this city may befall. These are never easy, often dangerous and distressing, and seldom well enough paid jobs which people selflessly do.


From Suzy Q - thank you!

Dog owners!

Well, I did mention that I am a dog lover and I look forward to walking our darling mutt wherever, whenever, but am always a bit trepidatious stepping out with him as he seems to be a natural target for aggressive, horny and occasionally vicious dogs, usually off the lead when they shouldn't be. I'm all in favour of dogs running free, which is why we go to Noordhoek, armed with our Wild Card, doggy bag, and these days a stick to ward off unwelcome aggressors. It's not turning out to be the healthy, stress free walk it's intended to be. It strikes me that it is always the dogs who should be on the leash who aren't, and they belong to the people who pointedly ignore the discomfort and fear they induce when their dogs make a beeline for mine, and either mount him or nip his neck or simply go beserk and go for the jugular. The most common retorts I've heard are, "He's just a puppy," or ,"he's only being friendly" (hiss, growl, gnash teeth and salivate) or even worse when one fat woman's labrador mounted our much smaller (male) dog the entire length of the beach without so much as trying to call him off, much to our discomfort and children's embarrassment, not to mention Rex's, "he's neutered!."

All this to say that I hadn't intended to raise this prickly point so early in the blog as there are so many other topics for discussion, but the mauling this week of a two year old on Clifton Beach by a Rottweiler gets my blood boiling. It's bad enough watching our beloved hound having to fight fang and claw for his life or dignity, but the thought of watching a toddler being dragged and attacked by a known vicious species of dog, in a place where dogs are vorboten is too much for me to countenance. Transpires the dog's owner is an "animal behaviourist"  whose dogs have previously attacked children. His " I'm not allowed to comment" statement must add fuel to fire of the traumatised family of the toddler who had to endure this attack and subsequent plastic surgery, and who knows what long term effects physically and psychologically. According to newspaper reports, she was lucky to escape with her life without an artery being severed. The poor dog has been impounded for being where it's owner should never have allowed him to roam and will doubtless be put down. What will happen to the owner I wonder?

As with children at school, the teachers tell me it's not so much the problem children as the problem parents...


Love from,


Rex and Suzy Q

The Matrics of 2011

We ended 2011 by seeing our eldest daughter finish her schooling at an institution she has attended since she started pre-school there at the age of three. It had been her second home, yet this only started dawning on her as the final term of matric drew to a close, and she began to realize the enormity of the security and structure school had provided for her. For me it was a very emotional phase, as I could remember as clearly as if it were yesterday taking her for her first interview, and being so afraid the principal would enquire whether she was out of nappies, as she still wore one at night.


She spent mostly happy years there, fulfilling my dream of her attending one school, unlike me, who had moved schools so often that it was difficult, if not impossible to maintain friendships. On this front, she has scores of good and loyal friends, so from that point of view, mission accomplished. We all cried and sang as our "babies" walked two by two down the avenue to be seated at the Valedictory, and were each handed a long stemmed white rose. It was an emotionally charged day and a final letting go, which only the beautiful garden party and frothing glasses of bubbly could soothe. For her matriculating also marks us as aging parents, and that takes some getting used to!


Prize giving,  shirt signing and the matric march to school for final teacher farewells preceded the day when the exams officially began. We had only one near disaster, when I received an SOS to bring her exam card to school in death defying time. Fortune favoured us, as I was at that moment able to get to school with hazards on and curse the expense, muttering all the way, "why did I ever have them!?" The atmosphere at home was predictably tense, but it had been worse, so we hoped any prayed that all had gone smoothly, despite complaints about "the toughest, meanest exams ever!"

Come the 5th January and tensions ran high. She delayed so much,  physically nauseous with nerves and not wanting to go to school to collect her results, that we missed the unveiling of the notice board. She has always been a diligent scholar (no learners in this blog) but has never made it into the realms of usual prizewinners, so our expectations were average.  I prepared to avoid the predictably smug parents.


However, our baby shone, and could not hide her disbelief and joy when she opened her results. It was the proudest moment of my life, and suddenly the years spent shopping for uniforms, labelling them (sometimes not so lovingly), driving her to and from school and packing those (often untouched) lunches, attending teacher meetings and boring meet-and-greet the other parents events (when did all that begin, she wonders?) and the financial sacrifices melted away. It had all been worth it.

She really pulled it out the hat, and we are so very, very proud of her! UCT - here she comes...

  Love from a very proud Suzy Q    

New Beginnings

I'm writing a little after the fact, as it took me quite some time with my limited technical skills to get this blog up and running, so after all that, I do hope this will be worth your while and mine.

I wanted to tell you about New Year itself before we get too deep into the year. Traditionally, and sensibly you may say, we tend to stay at home and off the roads with a bottle of bubbly and chat or play games waiting to see the Old Year out and the New Year in. Mr Suzy Q hates all the false bonhomie and would really rather be tucked up in bed to avoid all the hoo ha, though I must admit that I was once quite a reveller. However, we mould into each others lives in marriage, and this is the way it's been for quite some time.

Teenagers however, have changed all that. We've managed to keep them off the roads at New Year by having their friends to sleep over or letting them sleep out. Nowadays though, they really want to party, and this arrangement won't suffice. This year there was talk, vague of course the way it is with teenage plans, of a big jol in Hermanus and " like EVERYbody was going to be there." So I softened dear Mr Suzy Q  up with talk of them not being around much longer to share New Year's, and we agreed to look for accommodation in Hermanus at the eleventh hour so that we could transport them safely, whilst risking the exodus from Cape Town. It was almost a case of no room at the inn, but as fate would have it, we lucked on a guest house which had just had a cancellation of two rooms, one being the sea facing honeymoon suite. 

So with the jubilant teens in tow, and with no small amount of trepidation we headed for Hermanus. We passed one chilling accident en route, but otherwise had a pleasant drive to our destination. We were predictably ditched on arrival, but found ourselves delightfully ensconced on the terrace overlooking the deep blue sea. Things didn't look too bad from where we surveyed the scene. A cliff walk beckoned, followed by a swim, shower and sun downers on the terrace. Needless to say, we'd come well armed for the occasion with a good bottle of bubbly as well as a bit of back up stock, and a crayfish mayonaise salad for a picnic dinner.  (Cholestrol be damned and cursed for once!) The evening was sheer bliss as we had a bird's eye view of the fireworks and didn't have to kiss any strangers. Unsurprisingly, the girls got very little use out of their room, but our mission was accomplished and New Year was declared a great success. We took a refreshing New Year swim in the gorgeous tidal pool before we left, ready to face the year with the benefit of a fresh perspective on life.

So, us old folks have broken out and loved it - perhaps we're not too set in our ways just yet?

Oh, one more thing, we've already booked our room for next NewYear, but just the honeymoon suite for the two of us...

Happy New Year,


Love, 


Suzy Q

The Unsung Heroine

No, I'm not writing about me, even though I often feel like the Behind the Scenes Queen of the Washing Machine. My topic today has to do with the opening of government schools in the Western Province tomorrow.


Most mothers I know are harassed, getting last minute school uniforms, shoes and stationery and are standing as we speak at their kitchen counters making the first of many packed lunches for the year. They are already groaning at the prospect of facing all the school traffic and the inevitable snarl up in the car park. (There's a future topic for discussion! All you 4x4 moms who sit parked in the Drop and Go zone reading your books watch out!!)

In the meanwhile my weekly char, an exceptionally diligent and pleasant woman, will be rising at 4am to accompany her 13 year old daughter by train and taxi from Khayelitsha to her new school in Milnerton, where she will begin high school. It will be a very difficult year for both of them, as the distance from home to school is too great to travel daily, so her daughter will be boarding with her aunt, at a time when a girl most needs her mother. Instead of bemoaning this fate, Agnes is grateful that she has secured a place at a school for her daughter which she deems to be superior to any schools in Khayelitsha, and they are prepared to make the sacrifice.


Agnes has somehow managed to take her daughter for interviews and buy her books and new school uniform, travelling great distances on many modes of public transport at great expense to achieve this dream of a better education. I frankly don't know how she's managed to do it all, as always with a smile and great pride and dignity. As more fortunate mothers jump into their cars to take their offspring to school, having paid for the necessary school requisites with convenient credit cards, I hope we all pause for thought as mother and daughter leave their shack in search this dream.


I salute you Agnes, and wish your daughter every success for her forthcoming school career.

A New Blog for a Bright New Year

Greetings and best wishes for a very happy, healthy 2012 to you, my future friends and readers!


New Year starts late in our house, usually after the Christmas decorations have come down, the champagne hangovers have subsided, the embarrassing bottle collection has been carted off to the bottle bank (everybody empties them, but guess who ends up disposing of them?) and we start getting back to a normal diet, routine and start thinking about the exciting and sometimes daunting prospects of the year ahead.


My promise to myself, amongst many others, is to write regularly in this blog, hoping to share my thoughts of this interesting time of life with like minded readers, who I imagine will also be women going through the throes of midlife. As my profile states, I'm in my early fifties (though I really don't feel it - how did that come about so quickly?) and am a happily married mother of two teenage daughters, living in Cape Town, which is a pure pleasure and a privilege in itself. For the sake of protecting the privacy of those nearest and dearest to me, I am choosing to write under a pseudonym, as thoughts on family life and the trials and tribulations of living with and raising teenagers, whilst coping with my own midlife fears and crises will no doubt feature in the blog. Hopefully these will be issues which other mothers out there in the great spooky world of cyberspace will  also understand and identify with, so I'd be interested in any feedback.


It won't be all domestic drama and trivia though. Cape Town, with all it's spectacular beauty will feature too, so I hope to provide some wonderful ideas of things to do and places to go. Hope you'll join me and have some fun and human insight along the way...