Snow and Ice

Living in South Africa and especially living in KZN meant that we did not often experience snow and ice although we did have some experience of it in Estcourt and when we were in Volksrust. However, this did not prepare us for what we were to experience here.

Since we arrived nearly 5 years ago, we have had snow and ice in our area every Winter and initially the people here said we must have brought it here because they did not usually have snow in this area.

We love it but it does have some drawbacks. I am not too happy to drive through snow and even less happy to drive after there has been ice on the roads so cabin fever is very real.

The environment is very beautiful and there is always home deliveries when the fridge is empty so the draw backs are forgotten and we enjoy the experience storing all the visual images in our memory banks for when we are back in SA and battling with the heat.

Boiler Knowledge

One thing I am sure of and this is that I will not need my "Boiler Knowledge" once we return to SA. I will need to study up on my "Air-conditioner Knowledge" instead.

When we got back from our holiday in Qatar we discovered that our boiler had stopped working. Since Douglas' stroke I have learnt what to do, so promptly got the screw driver and went to work on the boiler upstairs. The result: hot water and a warm house.

Having had the drama with the boiler, I decided to keep checking that everything was on track but soon discovered all was not well as the pressure kept going up and once it reached 3.0 bars the downstairs unit would flash a warning. I had learnt, during the Summer when the house heating was not activated, that this only happened when the house heating was activated as the pressure decreased when the water heating was activated. The result: switch off the house heating and fill the bath. The pressure then decreased and one could activate the house heating once more.

This became rather tedious so we called an engineer who discovered that I had not tightened the screw upstairs enough when I had initially sorted out the heating problem. The result: he tightened the screw and bled the system so lowering the pressure. Success? Not.......

As a safety feature the system tries to lower the pressure and it is now stuck in that mode so with the pressure low, every time we activate the system it lowers it even more. The result: this morning when  I came downstairs, the red light was flashing and we had no heating.

I was in panic mode as the weather forecast is snow for this weekend. As soon as Douglas woke up I got him to use the screw driver upstairs as I do not have the strength to tighten the screw once the pressure is back to 1.4 bars. The result: all is working well once more. we have hot water and a warm house.

Just checked again and the pressure is 2.2 bars. Maybe Douglas also does not have sufficient strength to tighten the screw. We will see what happens after his shower........

Food shopping

Today, while Douglas had a service at one of the Care Homes, I went to the library to change my books and then popped in to the supermarket to buy some food supplies.

It is a lovely clear day today with temperatures in the low teens. The weather has been rather strange and the forecast for next week is not good. SNOW.....

I have been blessed to have been part of an excellent library service here. I can take out up to 20 books at a time and they send me emails to remind me when books are due. I can then renew them on line if need be. The added advantage is that the Library is so conveniently situated next door to the supermarket and within walking distance from the church and even from our house.
Joy of joys, today I even found a Mills & Boone medical that was published in January 2013.

I wonder what lies in store for me once I get back to SA..........

My joy continued as I did the food shopping.  Lovely South African apricots. Yay!
We have always managed to have an excellent selection of fruit available here but then I suppose I should not be surprised as most of the fruit is imported. In fact the South African fruit here is much better than what is available in shops in SA. We of course were spoilt in Mtubatuba because we got our fruit from the farmers in the area.

The meat is another story. Chicken from Holland, British Lamb and Pork. I never buy Beef if I can help it. That will be something to look forward to when we return.

At the checkout I had a lovely long chat with the lady who served me while she scanned my vouchers. I do love living in towns where everyone is friendly and although we are all busy no one is too busy to pass the time by having a chat with those they meet along the way. It will be back to the City when we are in SA but we did always find the local shopping Mall a friendly place. Hope this has not changed since we have been away.

Christmas lights in Downham

As we approach Epiphany, 12th night, and so come to the end of the Christmas decorations, I felt I needed to record the Christmas lights in Downham so that I had them in my memory bank.

On the Q I programme last week there was the debate as to when 12th night was, the 5th January or the 6th January. We have always seen it as the 6th January and the Sunday service is known as Epiphany so we were hopeful that there would still be lights tonight.

Every year there is a big "Switch on" of the lights at the end of November heralding the start of the Christmas season. I usually take pictures but this year I kept putting off the photo shoot. The result was the sudden realization today that if I did not take the photos today, they would never happen.

It was dark by 17h00 so we took a quick drive into town to take the pictures only to discover that some had already been taken down or switched off. I have learnt an important lesson, "strike while the iron is hot" because if you"snooze" you "loose".

All the houses in the neighbourhood had already switched off their lights so I will have to depend on pictures taken in previous years to fill my memory bank. This is of course something that we never see in SA so is yet another difference that I can add to the long list of things that are different in the UK. I am beginning to wonder how we could ever have said that there was not much that was different when we were asked the question in our first year here. "You live and you learn". Old dogs can learn new tricks......

Transport services

Today was our day off but we decided that we needed to visit two of our members who are in hospital in Cambridge.

First we had lunch at the Church Social Centre as I knew that I would need all my energy to get through the afternoon and a warm dinner would do the trick.
Unfortunately it was Roast Beef today and here I can mention another difference that we have noticed.

Beef in the UK does not taste the same as SA Beef. They always serve it with Yorkshire pudding and Horseradish sauce but although it is well prepared and very tender it just does not taste the same. This does not mean that I did not enjoy the meal, it was just different. I usually manage to get them to give me some chicken instead but as they have been closed for the Christmas New Year period, they had nothing in their freezer. The baked pudding however was very yummy and made up for my disappointment.

Downham Train Station

On the train

We took the train from Downham to Cambridge and were amazed to see all the flooded fields on the side of the line.

In Cambridge we caught the Park and Ride bus at the train station. This bus goes past Addenbrookes Hospital and uses the special bus lane to do so. Douglas was thrilled to have this experience.

What a blessing it is to have free buss passes and discount rail passes.

I was impressed that we managed to find the two wards quite easily as Douglas had downloaded a map of the hospital and we had phoned to find out which wards we needed to visit. (That was another experience because of patient confidentiality. It was as if the patients were in jail and not allowed visitors. Fortunately we had the necessary information on our membership lists so were given the ward numbers).

The river at Ely with the cathedral in the distance.

Douglas loves his iPad

After the visit, having found them both in good spirits, we made our way back to the bus stop and train station. A Cappuccino and Hot Chocolate went down well as we waited for our train. We had left Downham at 13h09 and were back by 16h06 so felt it was an afternoon well spent. (It was not dark yet so the days must be getting longer.)

Memories

Yesterday as I was chatting with friends at a birthday celebration at the church, memories of our first few months in the UK came flooding back.

I am getting to be rather forgetful at times because my poor brain has so much to cope with that, like a computer that is overloaded, it freezes and I forget things. Fortunately Douglas with his OCD remember most things so together we cope. But for this reason I thought it would be wise to record some of these memories here.

I remember that as we went around the Circuit meeting folk, the question most asked was, " What have you found different since being in the UK?".

I also remember our answer, "Nothing much, we had a similar diet in SA, we drove on the same side of the road, we also used similar orders of service in church and sang the same hymns so maybe the weather was the only big difference."

Now after four and a half years I can say that much here is different and I need to note these as I am sure that when we get back to SA, we will also be asked, "What did you find different in the UK?"

I will try to mention one big change in each post so hope the memory does not fail.

The first big difference is the seasons. In the UK one sees clearly when seasons change. The weather changes dramatically, the scenery changes and the amount of daylight changes too.

We arrived in the middle of August in the Harvest season. The temperatures were in the high teens and it was still Summer time as far as the cloaks were concerned. Oh my, we had so many Harvest dinners to attend. Little did we realize that there was more to come. Everything was green and and driving along the country lanes was pure joy. The days were quite long but that would soon change as we noticed that these changes happened very quickly. One day it was light when you woke up the next it was dark.

The beauty of Autumn was wonderful with all the different colours all around and as Winter descended and the trees were stripped of their leaves there was a new beauty in the frost covered trees and fields.

Then came the snow. They all blamed us as they said that they had not had snow in this part of the country until we came. It was only when it snowed that I noticed that we did have slopes in our town and that it was not all flat as one had previously thought. As far as the cloaks were concerned we learnt the rhyme to remind us that they go back 1 hour in Autumn (fall) and forward 1 hour in Spring.(jump)

Spring with the lovely daffodils and tulips was also a very new experience. As we drove around we saw them everywhere and soon learned that even in this season there was a set pattern of what bloomed when.

Finally the Summer arrived with long days and short nights. Temperatures were much higher and one even found oneself wishing for a few fans to help make living cooler. Outdoor living became the norm as one tried to get cool. The roses and other flowers were a sight to see and the ice cream van made a daily appearance and stopped outside our front door. Happy times. Good memories.