THURSDAY EVENING WITH A TWIST.... - 24 May 2007 TWIST No.1:

The regular bunch of Thursday night teacher's pets pitched for their weekly Thursday-night dosage of scrapping therapy. The norm is a jar with choccies on the table which is more often than not raided within 5 minutes of the pets' bums hitting their chairs. Might I add though, Tha Teacha also gets offered a choccie now and then - regardless of the fact that she does not need any fattening up as it is. Whilst munching away at a bite size 'Bar One', one of the pets worriedly said: 'What's wrong with this chocolate, there's something hard in it ...' and hurriedly grabbed a scrap piece of paper and spat out the contents of her mouth onto it. Gross I say. Upon scrutinising the spit-out she came across a small white piece of hard substance .... yes I know what you are all thinking ... and you are absolutely right in your suspicion ... its a piece of enamel and it belonged to a tooth. Now it was finding out whose tooth and which tooth. So the search commenced with the pet herself. Whilst flashing a Wide open trap (wider open it could not be) in the face of her fellow pets, everyone was forced to scrutinise each tooth to make sure its in tact. It was not long before the damaged tooth was spotted. (See pic below - third tooth from right - top jaw). Well before one could say 'Bar One', the trap was shut and stayed shut for most of the evening. The poor pet emailed Tha Teacha the next day: "Just for info - I've just been to the Dentist this morning - What a drama - apparently with this plastic thing in my heart (she has recently undergone a heart procedure - R68k later) I'm not allowed the injection as it has adrenaline in it and with any invasive procedure I now need to be on an antibiotic for an hour before the procedure - can you bloody believe it?? So there I sat with no anesthetic this morning having my tooth done as I was absolutely not gonna have to come back again - It wasn't too bad as apparently the break wasnt too deep. Isn't life always interesting!!!" So the moral of the story 'Beware of those BAR ONE's containing enamel'

TWIST No.2:

Once the situation returned to normal during the class, it was announced that another pet, Beverley, was celebrating her 27th wedding anniversary the same day. Congratulations did the rounds. What a big achievement in modern day society where marriage certificates can be bought, used and thrown away like a disposable object. Beverley, you and hubby deserve a medal. I know you are ultra camera shy, but a least you now have a pic of you taken on your 27th anniversary with all your teeth in tact!Here's to the next 27 years together!

- Weary of the 27th Bar One, Signing Off

THE PICTURESQUE OTTER HIKING TRAIL - SOUTH AFRICA (27 to 31 January 2005)

This 5-day hiking route is without a doubt the most beautiful 5-day backpack hike we have done to date. Its awesome beauty and vast array of different terrains underfoot stimulates all five senses of the hiker. The daily distances are short but difficult underfoot varying in terrain from walking on stretches of beach sand with waves crashing into rocks next to you to clambering over sharp edged rocks to negotiating steep forest paths to knee buckling downhills, crossing rivers with backpacks wrapped in survival bags and criss-crossing beautiful fynbos veld. The soothing noise of the Indian Ocean accompanied us throughout the five days and soothed us to sleep at night snug inside the wooden huts. We saw the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises over the sea that will stay imprinted in our souls for the rest of our lives.

We were privileged to be entertained by a few otters at one of the overnight huts. Only a handful of hikers ever see a real Otter whilst hiking the Otter Hiking Trail. We were sitting on the rocks at our third day's overnight hut, enjoying yet another beautiful sunset whilst feeling the cool spray of seawater on our faces when we suddenly saw a group of three otters swimming in out of rock pools just below us. They were hunting down crabs and it looked like they enjoyed munching away at the sweet crab flesh. I had to pinch myself to make sure that I am not dreaming. This was the highlight of the hike!

It has become quite a tradition that on completing the hike, hikers enjoy their first real food in five days by visiting the local pub at the finish in the small coastal village of Nature's Valley where each hiker receives a certificate stating (tongue in cheek) the following: "This is to certify that DESIRE FOURIE has successfully completed the fabled Otter Trail, and in so doing displayed great endurance, comradeship and skill in managing to avoid being thrown off a cliff by your comrades for any of the following reasons: For putting rocks in someone's backpack and thinking it funny when they only realise it two hours later. Rushing up ahead and chasing all the wild life away before anyone else has had a chance to see it. Excessive farting in the crowded and cramped confines of the overnight hut. Finishing your booze on the first night and then bumming from everyone else. Having too much booze and not wanting to share it with anyone else. Being the last to pack up after breakfast when everyone else is ready to leave. Wanting to party in the middle of the night when everyone else desperately wants to sleep. Wanting to move on after a break just as the exhausted stragglers arrive. For successfully downing an otters arsehole (horrible tasting shooter) without getting sick"

Here are two of my favourite layouts from the 27 layouts I have done of this amazing hike.

If you have perhaps hiked the Otter Trail in South Africa, I would love to hear how you have experienced it. Just leave a comment below.

- Enchanted Otter Admirer signing off

WHAT DOES 'DF' STAND FOR - Take a Guess!

This is a question which has been popping up quite often lately during my scrapbooking classes in the Blue Room. The shocking answer to this question came to existence one late Thursday evening.

As procrastination is a common trait amongst us human beings, it so happens that some of my scrapbooking students has a tendency to yak and yak and yak some more for the first two and half hours of their 3-hour lesson and then attempt to complete their layouts, write up their bills, finish off numerous topics of conversation and pack away their tools of the trade during the last half hour of their lesson. It is therefore natural that once in a while a frantic and bewildered student accidentally packs away some or other tool of Tha Teacha into their crop stations or Totally Cool Bags.

It was therefore not surprising one evening when one half of the Greek Connection hesitantly flashed Tha Teacha's 30x30cm template above her head and sheepishly admitted that she has been in possession of it for a whole fortnight, dangerously leaving Tha Teacha in a confused state of mind for two weeks.

One of the Teacher's pets aka Libby (undergoing an identify crisis), interrupted the Greek Connection and enquired whether the Greek does not know what '{DF}' stand for which is written on the template.

Whilst the Greek had a quick think about this another self-proclaimed Teacher's Pet proudly announced that 'DF' stands for {D}AMN {F}OOL'. A sudden hush swept through the Blue Room leaving Tha Teacha deeply hurt discovering that some of her students believe that she is a '{D}AMN {F}OOL' and not {D}esire {F}ourie. Tha Teacha has consoled herself with the knowledge that it takes one Damn Fool to see another.

"Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit." Elbert Hubbard

- 5-minute fool signing off

to my family, friends and scrapping relatives for all the precious BIRTHDAY thoughts, wishes and gifts received on my birthday, yesterday. You all made my day super special. It is on a day like this that one realises how much your family and friends mean to you.

Hubby enticed me to a romantic dinner, accompanied by numerous full cream sherries, at Makaranga Garden Lodge.

- Young at heart singing off

MOTHER-IN-LAW'S TONGUE ... - Sunday, 6 May 2007

Now don't get the wrong idea ... just in case your own mother-in-law's tongue came to mind - I am referring to nature's own Mother-in-law's Tongue ie. Sansevieria trifasciata or otherwise also known as the Snake plant. In Afrikaans it is better known as 'Ou vrou se geduld' (old woman's patience). One of the traits of this plant is that it 'will withstand considerable neglect', which is a plant close to my heart.

According to my plant reference books it flowers during summer, but these books don't have any photos of it flowering. I have never seen this plant flower and was delighted to see our very own plant sporting a flower bud about three weeks ago. I captured the delicate flower this afternoon with a scrapbook page in mind. What is more amazing that our Sansevieria is flowering despite being in a garden pot. But then these two big pots were a special gift from my 'Pick-of-the-Crop' friends Sophia, Jenny, Ellie, Charmian and Suzette about two years ago - that says it all.

Not teaching this weekend gave me a little extra time on hands which came to good stead creating another layout with some of my recent Cathedral Peak photos. Candice Greenway and Rose from DesignersNotes got me hooked on doing folder pockets for journalling cards on my layouts - kind of like this idea.

Walking a little crooked after doing a bit of distance this weekend - though 10km on the road and 8km on the treadmill may seem like a stroll in the park for the professional athlete.

- Signing off enjoying my last few hours of being 4__

ANOTHER DESIGNERSNOTES {ON-LINE} CLASS .... - Wednesday, 2 May 2007

For those of you who are frequent visitors to DesignersNotes {http://www.designersnotes.com/} ... I have discovered a scrapper who also uses quite a bit of photos on her layouts (not using templates though), but still a lady to my liking ... Rosette. (Rose for short) from Benoni. I have purchased her on-line class "Snapshots of the Tour". The hues of green in this layout inspired me to do something similar with my Xeni Cave pics I took recently during our visit to Cathedral Peak in the Drakensberg. Thanks Rose, I had great fun doing this layout on Labour Day. Spent nearly 7 hours on it, but it was worth every minute.

Here's Xeni Cave's end result:

This is Rose's profile as published on DesignersNotes.

"Hi. Meet Rose – Benoni scrapper – 1965 female model with Cape Townian roots with a permanent urge to creative, decorate and visualize. Mother of two school going girls, one who has ADHD, step-mom of Lara, an independent business woman of note. Soul mate and bud to husband Rob – who puts up with my creative urges – like I put up with his Blue Bull addictions. To be frank, since I took a break from teaching scrapping a few months ago – he has begged me to get back on the scrap wagon – as I am “unbearable” when I don’t release my creativity. All in all, I am a night animal with a love of home decorating, gardening and animals. (I confess my huge ginger cat, Bijoux still demands first place, but our two mini-Daschies have really crept into my heart, as has our Blue Hooded Conjure, BB and even the fish…I have a real love of photo’s and a great interest in our family history. I have stories to tell and memories to capture – and I love doing it!! (Oh, and did I mention – I love chocolate – especially when I scrap!) I love meeting with other scrappers – and some of my best friends were introduced through this wonderful hobby. I have a tendency to get very excited where two or more are gathered to scrapbook. My favourite medium on the page is ink (surprise!), distressing in anyway from texture pastes to sandpaper and I have a soft spot for anything metal. Looking forward to creating some fun pages together via the net!!! "

Rose has got another DesignersNotes on-line class lined up - apparently with even more detail - Hurry up Rose - we are curios!

- Cave Fever Signing Off