"Anywhere you go, always take the weather with you"

Well, the drama didn't end last night. The fire raged on up the mountain. Me and Aly headed out to check on the maid, Sophie's house. We got there to find a dog chained up about to be burnt to death by a tree. He was so skinny and covered in ticks. I removed the little blood suckers and we let him loose. It was so unbelievably heartbreaking to see such a loveable dog in such a way. I just wanted to take him home and feed him up. But I just keep thinking, what if we hadn't gone out? what if we had stayed here and not bothered? Would he have burnt to death? Being here, on Aly's farm, where the animals are treated like royalty, it is easy to forget how badly other animals can be cared for, or not cared for in this case. I am just thankful we were at least able to save him for a terrible end.

 I most certainly don't feel at all homesick today. The English weather has followed me and it is BAIE KOUD! This has been a day of quickly getting all our jobs done as fast as possible so we can be inside drinking hot coffee and watching movies. I never used to appreciate films much back home, I would put one on every night and barely even pay attention to it as I simultaneously browsed Facebook, but here, we work pretty hard most days, so even getting time to watch a film is kind of a treat. Man, I sound like my Ouma/Gran, next I will be saying things like kids have it easy these days and I'll start every sentence with "back when I was young....". Speaking of my Gran, I just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her ! I am sad I am not there, and I love you sooooo much, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to come here to the farm. I promise, swear on my life Gran, that you are going in the best old folks home when you are passed it :p

 Cloudy, overcast day! 

 Me and Baby snuggling up in the cold.

Cold day cuddles <3

School is all ready for the kids to come back in on Tuesday, we have organised EVERYTHING. It will break my heart when the little snot gobblers mess it up within five seconds, but never mind, hopefully my OCD tendencies for neat piles wont overcome me and make me beat them up the moment they touch anything haha. At least little Sara loves cleaning, I can always commandeer her to help me put it all back together.

 MJ helping me in the kitchen

MJ: The freshest produce there is!

I am attempting the impossible at the moment. I am trying to learn a new language, Afrikaans.I thought I would break with English tradition of being as lazy as possible with languages, and actually give it a shot. So, now in my spare time I am learning phrases to say and the words for things. Unfortunately,  I have the language ability of a deaf mute, the pronunciation elegance of a baboon, and the memory of a day fly. I struggle to remember ANY helpful phrases, but of course I can remember ALL the Afrikaans swear words like it were my own. Maybe this is a sign that I just need to be more aggressive in my learning and come across as really angry.

The only good thing about today is that it made running and cycling easy, instead of the mind numbing heat we usually have, What was not good was me singing along to the Disney soundtrack of Beauty and the Beast at the top of my lungs and bumping into a load of farm workers.....I can only imagine what they were saying was "stupid white girl". Anyhoooo, today is the last day of our "holiday", me and Aly are planning on getting off the farm for a day and going for a day trip somewhere. So Lekker Slaap everyone!

Since this was such a miserable day, here is a picture of a cute goat. Coz cute goats make everything better !

x