Last time I wrote on this blog, the candidates were still going hell for leather in their campaigns. Sarah Palin was still gracing us with her gaffs and supplying SNL with great footage. Obama was holding onto a good lead in the polls and while I was hoping he would keep them, I was so wishing for the whole election thing to be over already. I had had enough…enough of negative ads, and especially enough of Elisabeth Hasselbeck shooting her little republican mouth off at any given opportunity (usually at a GOP rally).

The week before Halloween, the Angel Maker took a turn that devastated me. She is one of the bravest persons I know on God’s earth and her zest for life is a lesson we would all do well in learning. I love her dearly and I want to tell her that just one more time.

I got dental pain. I have a crown that I was told in December 2007 that I need to replace in January and although it was always in the back of mind to do, other things always took preference and I never got around to doing it. So I figured that I had better get this ass into a dentist’s chair. I went to the emergency appointment and after enough Novocaine to deaden the mouth of a small elephant, the dentist said, that he could not understand why I was in so much pain, after all, there was little decay and the tooth was not in that bad a shape. I went home with the new temporary crown and enough vicodin to last me the week. The pain got worse. I went back to the dentist the next afternoon to be told that it was blocked sinus and that my teeth, where I was having the pain, were fine. I was put on antibiotics and more painkillers. Nothing helped and after three nights with no sleep, on Sunday I asked Hubby to take me to the ER. Got it all diagnosed there and then. Trigeminal Neuralgia. A nerve pain like no other. Funny that, both the ER doc and my GP turned and told my husband, “People jump off bridges because the pain is so bad!” Really? I AM SITTING RIGHT HERE IN THE ROOM WITH YOU!

So I am off the painkillers and on anti-seizure meds which takes away the pain but leaves me in a bit of daze for now. Apparently, I might get used to it…or not. But now I am having problems with my speech and trust me when I tell you that that is a first. I have NEVER had a problem getting any words out of this mouth. But all is much better than it was…what I have has a name and there is a plan of action.

Halloween was better than I expected. We went Trick or Treating and the girls had great fun dressing up and getting buckets of candy! If bail outs for Wall Street could be done with candy, I reckon AIG would come a-knocking on our door. On the Saturday we had a small Halloween Party at ours and all our guests dressed up and it was great fun. I had no idea what I wanted to be…Hubby was of course the Angry African. I sat looking at my pics from my MRI and decided that a Cat-Scan would be it. Dressed in my best kitty kat outfit armed with a pic of my brain scan on my back, I entertained.

Hubby was in NY for the week and the girls pulled together to make the week easier for Mom. They did a great job and the military operation in our house ran smoothly. All dinner was eaten, dishes washed and children bathed by 7:30pm. Early beds for all and the week went off without a hitch. My landlord came for a visit which produced a little anxiety because we have a cat (sssshhhh…we actually have three) and we got permission for a dog. What is the difference? I think a cat is easier and cleaner anyway. Miss Fifi Petunia is now the official cat because he saw her and I think he liked her (he took a photo of her to show his kids) but the other two (who were feral when we adopted them as kittens) were no where to be seen. So we have one official cat and the other two are Illegal Kitti-grants. I cleaned and tidied the house before he arrived so that everything looked relatively fine for his visit and so now I have a tidy house.

But with all this happening I took a lesson tonight from my youngest. Life is life and you need to roll with the punches and enjoy the sun. Throughout dinner she laughed, she ate all she could (she critiqued my meatballs with the fine tuning although without the swear words as only Gordon Ramsay could), enjoyed her dessert and proceeded to eat more dinner. All the time laughing and enjoying being with the family – dancing in the kitchen to the 80’s music on the radio. So tonight I will go up to bed to find the same things I have found on my bed every night since I got ill: one of my youngest most prized soft toys, a letter, a drawing, a small pillow for my head, three flowers and a necklace she made me. She puts them down every night to brighten my day and make me sleep better so that tomorrow starts on a good footing…

And it will…Obama is President, Sarah Palin has gone back to Alaska, I no longer take vicodin, Hubby is back from NY and today I baked chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese filling.  Things are looking good…

I received this by email today and it sums up how the truth is distorted by those who have everything to hide and nothing to offer!

* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you’re a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first

black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive

that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law

professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with more

tnan 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human

Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a

state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the

Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs

committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council

and 6 years as the mayor of a town with fewer than 7,000 people, 20 months as

the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to

become the country’s second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2

beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real

Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your

disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the

proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other

option in sex education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen

daughter ends up pregnant, you’re very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a

prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community,

then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don’t

represent America’s. * If your husband is nicknamed “First Dude,”

with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to

vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the

secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

John McCain and Sarah Palin would do well to remember, the next time they trash Barack Obama for being a community organizer:

Jesus was a community organizer…Pontius Pilot was a governer

Holy crap. John McCain must be the most idiotic man on earth. Clearly his view of women has shone through in his choice for a VP. Choosing an inexperienced woman who is pretty face to woo Hillary voters is in sync with how seriously he views this very important job – he has not chosen someone who is good for the country – he has chosen Sarah Palin because she is “good” for his ticket.

Palin might stand and say that she is going to finish Hillary’s work of cracking the ceiling but what McCain might not realise is that when he falls through from the other side, he will have to start pulling out 18 million shards of glass from his backside…Palin will be McCain’s downfall. And should McCain win this election and drop down dead, Palin will be mean the downfall of this country.

How can he now stand on his soap box and accuse Obama of being inexperienced? Something that Sarah Palin should remember:

There is a huge difference between pushing the button to switch on the Christmas lights in some god forsaken Alaskan town and having your finger over the flashing red button…

[Post Script: Considering that a few weeks ago, Palin did not know what a VP did, maybe she thinks, like McCain that it means "Very Pretty"!]

[Another Post Script: I was involved in a commentary banter with a McCain/Palin supporter on his site who said (loosely quoting here) that it does not really matter that Palin does not know what a VP does, because John Adams did not know (really you spoke to him?) and that many VP's in the past did not know what their jobs entailed. That might be true but we should maybe focus closer to the oval office and realise that we currently have a president who does not know what his job entails!]

[Yet Another Post Script - considering that John McCain voted against equal payment for women, will Palin get the same salary as Cheney?]

Another amusing email I was sent this morning, worthy of sharing with you….

To the citizens of the United States of America

from

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate a suitable President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

1. Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

2. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour’, ‘favour’, ‘labour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise’. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (Look up ‘vocabulary’).

3. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ‘like’ and ‘you know’ is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as US English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter ‘u’ and the elimination of -ize.

4. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

5. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.

6. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

7. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side of the road with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

8. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly US$10 per gallon. Get used to it.

9. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

10. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. Australian beer is also acceptable as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting Nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth – see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

11. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.

12. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full Kevlar body Armour like a bunch of nancies). Don’t try Rugby – the South Africans and Kiwis will thrash you, like they regularly thrash us.

13. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1 of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Aussies first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

14. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.

15. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

16. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen

I try to stay away from politics in the public arena as much as possible. We have political discussions and debates at home but as far as getting into the public debate, I am a bit of a chicken really and politicians for the most part, bring the worst out in me. But all this talk around of elections and presidents and politicians, brought back some fond memories for me – a time when all South Africans could vote for the very first time: South Africa’s first real election.

 The year was 1994 and South Africans from every race and group were allowed to vote for the first time. Hubby and I had been married for just under six months and were still students. We decided to sign up to work for the election – two reasons really. Firstly, we were part of this historic happening and process – we had watched Madiba being released from prison and went to watch him talk on campus. Secondly, as students, there was no denying the money was good. We would earn three months worth of ’salary’ in a matter of three days – how great is that.

There were fears of course amongst the ‘white’ population that as soon as the election happened, things would go downhill – as soon as that first democratic and free ballot was cast, there would be no electricity, no food on the shelves and definitely no petrol. They were stockpiling candles and gas lamps, tinned food, bottled water and other basics. Our concerned family thought that we should do the same so sent us, the poor students, money to get all the basic necessities that would tide us over a few months. We accepted the money, filled the car up with petrol, bought food – but we bought calamari and shrimp because we could not really afford it, we bought bottles of wine and a crate or two of beer – we were not heavy drinkers so strictly speaking, we were stockpiling. Things did not go tits up during or immediately after the election and I think, when my father-in-law died and they cleaned out his house, they still found cans of corned beef and packets and packets of candles – this is 14 years after the election!

We reported for duty at 4am on the morning of April 27th, 1994. Ready to work this historic day. Alot of media had concentrated on the fact that ‘your vote is your secret’ (Jou stem is jou geheim) amidst fears of intimidation and retaliation for not voting for the right party. It was a misty day but you could see the excitement in the air and you could hear in the conversations. Hubby and I worked as voting officers on the first two days and my job was to check that there wasn’t any invisible ink on your hands so as to avoid election fraud. I sat for 12 hours behind a table and watched the most fascinating group of people file in to cast their ballot.

There were the die-hard supporters of the National Party and the Apartheid Regime. They were grumpy and looked concerned as though they were lining up to have their hearts removed (did they have any?). This election was nothing but a curse to them and they felt betrayed by the National Party who had made this shift to grant one man, one vote. It was traitorous to them and a sign of things to come.

Then there was the next generation. Younger and more excited about the future and what it would hold. Educated and some seeing the error in their fore fathers ways, these voters smiled and joked about the day and the significance of it all and made their mark before going out to celebrate with a good old beer and braai.

And then…there were those who had never had the right to cast their ballot and determine their own future. This was their first time. An old woman stood before me and was reduced to tears as she started the process of making her voice heard. “I have been waiting for this for 60 years,” she said to me. She moved slowly but purposefully through the line. I watched her all the way. As she left the building, she lifted her eyes and offered a short thanks to the powers who that day, proved to her that justice has been done for her and the generations before and after her. Finally she had the power.

There was an old man who came in with the help of his great grand children. He was almost blind and could not read the ballot paper and so the various political party observers had to stand by while the official from the Independent Electoral Commission had to read out his options (no easy task, there were 19 parties on the national ballot alone). He contently listened to his options, having waited all his life to vote, he was not in a hurry now. When the options were finished being read, he looked up confused at one of his group and asked which party ‘Jannie Smuts’ was standing for. This took everyone by suprise because Jannie Smuts was not only a National Party former Prime Minister but he was the Prime Minister between 1919 and 1924 and then again from 1939 to 1948! He died on September 11, 1950. We were all a little astounded and his great grand children took the time to explain to him that General Smuts was dead and that now, he had a choice, he did not have to vote for the National Party. He made his mark and left, his heart a little lighter than what it was when he came in.

One guy in particular caught my attention. He was a little inebriated when he walked in and being the day it was, he was really doing no harm and they let him through. He happily sang as he had his hands checked, his Identity document marked and took his ballot papers to the booth. He made his crosses and smiled a wide, toothless smile as he posted the paper into the slot. He walked out the town hall and stood on the stairs and shouted at the top of his lungs:

“My stem is my geheim…ek vote vir die DP!” [My vote is my secret and I voted for the DP (Democratic Party)]

The long line still waiting outside, laughed and applauded – not necessarily for the party which he chose, but for fact that four years ago, he was not able to do that.

After all the voting was done, the time came to count the ballots. We were confined to the sports center and the counting started at around 8pm. We were not allowed to leave the building and so the Commission provided us with drinks and snacks. But we were hungry, I had some money on me and convinced the police standing guarded outside the burglar proofed window to go to the local take out and buy Hubby and I some burgers. They were delicious – it was 3am and I was so so hungry by that stage. We counted votes, tallied them up and shared jokes with those seated at our table. We were tired but the exhaustion was worth it. We were part of a wonderful and unique process.

Some one once said to me “There are only two types of government, a corrupt government and a more corrupt government.” So fourteen years down the line and things are looking different in South Africa. Like any new democracy (and in the grander scheme of things, a 14-year old democracy is young) there have been some major teething problems, some scheming and corrupt officials driven by greed have got themselves into power wielding positions and the gravy train has not been derailed yet. But I have hope that with time, it will all come right because the people (not the politicians) have that dream of a wonderful country beating in their chests and the younger generations do not want South Africa just to be another African statistic.