Glowering sky

Three glorious days of sunshine have given way to a sky filled with white cloud and a slightly cooler atmosphere. Rain is once again on the horizon.

I find it quite amazing that for a country where the ‘stiff upper lip’ is so prevalent, water flows from the sky regularly and in great abundance. The sky above is constantly overcast and gloomy, almost glowering at us as though holding on to its emotions. So nature, in lush abundance and revelling in the excess water, gathers around us as we live on our little island. I see the flow of water as a flush of emotions.


The ground underneath the beautiful green grass and in amongst the woodlands is muddy and difficult to walk through. How apt. Don’t our emotions feel similar when they get stuck and stagnate?

Coming from southern Africa and having lived in hot climes for the first three quarters of my life I can honestly say that I have experienced first hand the differences in temperaments of a country of people.

Most of Africa is vibrant, loud, in your face, expressive, passionate and a beautiful continent that has a special place in my heart. In Africa people express themselves without too much reserve.

Whereas here in the south of England it is totally different and most people are quite reserved. When I first arrived, I regularly and unintentionally put my foot in my mouth with my openness and expressive way of talking.

Has this been a lesson in diplomacy? Yeah, big time. Do I regret it? No. It has taught me compassion and humility and how to say things in an inoffensive manner. Many will argue that it has made me become something other than myself. I would say to them – no it hasn’t, cause I’m still me, only more. It has taught me to use my vocabulary in a far better manner – it’s refined my communication skills and has been invaluable while working in the NHS where we have so many nationalities coming through the door.

I have not quite reached perfection – I still put my foot in my mouth and say tactless things without intending to be tactless. I’m not sure I can ever change that as I live with a volatile man who calls a spade by a not such nice name, who is straight and to the point, tends to go for the jugular and has decided he is not changing his South Africanness for anyone. I shrug when I hear him say so – I have a different perspective.

Hubby’s devlishly wicked sense of humour does have me washing his mouth out regularly with soap...but hey, that is part of his charm for me and I wouldn’t want him to change. Charming and sweet doesn’t do it for me, give me a rough diamond any day.

Maybe I am a drama queen who needs a drama king to keep me in hand. *shrug* As you might have gathered there is never a dull moment in our household. I don’t think we will ever be considered saintly by any stretch of the imagination.

Are we a mixture of African volatility and passion and English reserve and coolness? Uh huh

I have digressed again. This was meant to be about the weather actually. I seem to have lost my thread.

Hubby did mention last night that I do waffle sometimes, while we were making waffles. 　It degenerated into a slagging match which resulted in me having a giggling fit ‘n I had to rush off to the loo before I wet myself. I’m not sure how the waffles fared - I think some are still stuck to the ceiling.

Happy Earth Hour to all those taking part at 8.30pm your time.

Which reminds me - the clocks go back tonight... or is it forward - I can never remember which. Either way, it calls for a celebration as we shall only be one hour behind South Africa and means my mom (bless her) won’t be phoning me at some ungodly hour in the morning to chat, cause she’s forgotten we are two hours behind them and it’s actually 6am and NOT 8am.