Saturday 24 December 2011

Merriness, time shifts, naughty little dog and baby blankie deadline

Merry season
Thank goodness for Christian holidays - enjoyed by us all. Christmas comes at just the right time to turn our New Year into a substantial festive holiday season.

The nice thing about the end of the calendar year is that it provides an end, and a new start. We wind up our year and then jump into the next.Without it... nah, wouldn't be good. It's a psychological thing - I like. It's like finishing a project. Sure in reality, project continue into the next year, but it does provide opportunity for finishing, starting, reflecting and renewing.

Time adjustment instead of time zone
During my recent Cape Town visit I thoroughly enjoyed the evenings that stayed light until 8pm. In Jo'burg we're now light until a bit after 19h00. That extra hour seems to give you 'more' time. Although Cape Town would really benefit from daylight savings in winter, two time zones in South Africa is so not feasible. Yeah, it works in other countries but, call me cynical, I don't see it working here. Remember too that we've already kinda got two time zones - GMT +2 and 'African Time').

But a time adjustment... This could work.

I spent my first two years of high school in Potchefstroom and we had this thing where our clocks essentially went into daylight saving in winter. In summer school would start at 07h30 and in winter everything shifted 30 minutes later.

To get more out of summer in Jo'burg - considering that it gets light around 04h30, if you started work at 07h00 and finished at 16h00 (instead of 08h00 to 17h00), then you get three hours of daylight, after work, to play. Or even start at 06h30 (afterall, it has already been light for almost two hours) and finish at 15h30. Nice eh?

The little dog
Dog sitting is going well and the little Jack Russell and I are running well together. We had a little altercation earlier this week when he did a despicable deed. I ignored him for the rest of the day (which this attention-seeking fellow did not like) and he didn't get to go run until the next day. Needless to say he has been an exemplary citizen since as he knows full well that he was a bad, bad dog. That sweet face is tough to resist but doesn't work on me when he is a beast.

We're having fun out running - he runs very nicely - and we've been meeting other dogs - and their owners - in the neighbourhood.

Baby blankie deadline
About two months (or more) ago I started on a crochet baby blankie for my friend's as-yet-not-conceived baby. I'd delighted to report that I now have a deadline. As we're in the first trimester with a first pregnancy we're holding our breath for the next 10-weeks that all progresses smoothly.

My mom has been watching the steady progress of the blanket. Depending on what I'm up to, I add a square or three a night - and sometimes I don't get to it for a week. This blanket is certainly a labour of love. My friend has dogs and recently when showing it to my mom she joked, "Imagine if your baby blanket ends up as a dog blanket". Funny - not.


No comments: