The Day Technology nearly got the upper hand.

It was a day like any other day, with me getting up at 5'0clock and servicing R2D2 (my oxygen producing unit)  to get it ready for the day.  After dealing with the morning household chores I got the TV going and discovered that TV guide function was not functioning.  All the normal steps which I usually apply to sort out such a problem was to no avail.  Next step - call Multichoice help desk to see if they can't solve the problem.  After 30 minutes (it may even have been longer) Victoria, the consultant who tried to help me, could not give me any joy.  Her suggestion was to take it to the workshop for a checkup which immediately posed a different problem.  My dependence on  oxygen made a trip to Garstfontein  problematic.  Fortunately Dean came to the rescue and so on Friday 10 August he came and fetched both our decoders to take it to the workshop.  By late afternoon he was back with the news that the technician reset the decoder and that everything seems to be fine.  Indeed once all connections and antenna cables were replaced all seems to be OK and after they had coffee, Dean and Mabel went home.  I am very fond of the sport channels and when I tuned into one of them the picture on my big screen TV had shrunk.  I used the TV remote to rectify that but to my distress it tuned the TV to a different channel which did not function with any of the remote controls.  Phoned Dean and told him of the dilemma.  They were kind enough to help us out and the final solution was discovered by Mabel.  Whenever the picture is of the wrong size, use the shift and TV-guide buttons on the remote to rectify it.  This is very confusing, but it works and I could not thank Mabel enough for her ingenuity.  Now the only problem is to get Granny to accept  this method of making these minor adjustments should it be required. But that bridge will also be crossed one day.

A Winter wonderland in Wierdapark.

7 August 2012 was the day the snow came down in Wierdapark.  This phenomenon was first picked up by Granny when she came back from Unitas Hospital and she heard over 702 Talk Radio that snow in Pretoria was reported.  If I am not mistaken the previous snow occurred more than 50 years ago.  Sonja and Stuart recently moved to Guinevierre, a housing complex within a couple of kilometers from us, and Sonja phoned us to say that it snowed by them and to prove her story she sent us a photo showing the whitish landscape in their little yard.  I did not think snow will reach us but when I picked Cheryl up at the school she was over thje moon with the news about snow in Pretoria.  She was very anxious ton see snowflakes coming  down and was continually pointing at anything she thought could be a lost snowflake.  In the distance toward JHB I pointed out to her that the clouds seem ominously like they may be carrying snow and to please her I took a detour to get home, just in case we may encounter more snowflakes.  We got home and fixed lunch.  I retired to the spare room to watch the Olympics - everything nice and peaceful.  Roundabout 3 o'clock I heard a commotion which gave me a bit of a fright and I made a quick effort to find the reason for the commotion.  It was snowing outside and it was an unreal picture that greeted me when I looked out of the windows.  The snowflakes were slowly drifting down and formed a white sheet over the paving and the grassed areas.  I did not know whether I was sorry or glad that the snowfall only lasted a couple of minutes and any sign of the winter wonderland disappeared very quickly.  At least it satisfied Cheryl's curiosity and we had something exiting to talk about!