On friendship and more

 

 It's been a week and a half now of rain, on and off, sunny and cloudy skies, wind, thunder and even some hail. We also had an unexpected cool day or two. As if we haven't had enough dealings with insurance this year (one windscreen claim and one stolen camera claim expertly handled by Santam and one cellphone claim to MTN directly - I am yet to receive feedback) the lightening struck our house on Saturday morning. Thanks goodness we weren't there - apparently it is quite scary and the neighbor told us there were flames dancing on the electrical fence with the gate opening and closing all the time. Turns out both the fence and the gate is fine but our garage motor is totally burned out and the alarm system is as confused as a chameleon on a Smarties pack. ABSA home insurance has been phenomenal and if all goes well everything will be replaced and fixed by tomorrow afternoon. I have had enough of insurance and I am sure the insurers of me too. And the schleb and time it takes and....

Some of you may recall that one of my two BFF and old horse riding partner N has been living in Canada for the last 9 and a bit years. We have only seen them twice since - they waited 4 years to come out the first time and then were here for her MIL 80 th birthday the year before last. Well her MIL fell sick and they came here in haste to organize care for her. It's been a bit of a nightmare for them of course, finding and assisted living facility, organizing to move her things, getting records of her health, etc etc. But last night they managed to pop over for a quick dinner and visit. My was it good to see them. We laughed , had some great red wine and talked and could have gone on for hours and hours. But they have a move to attend to today and the friends they are staying with has early bedtimes so it was shorter than we wished for , but it was there. The kids had a little visit before they went to bed and now have some memory of who they are. I am always amazed at how great these two people that chose not to have kids converse with children. They had such great talks with all 3 - almost talking to them as little adults but about topics the kids can talk about. We were all amazed at the plastic Canadian money- very odd feeling (the notes are not paper but plastic with see through bits)

 We are well into the last bit of the year - next week is going to be extremely challenging, but as more and more things come to an end I feel better and better about things we have achieved this year. Amongst them is the above bit of sculpting work by our Mr C - his very first try and I am over the moon. For 7 years of age I think it's stunning.

So anybody else had weather damage? And how was your insurance year? And how is the rest panning out for your family?