Embracing The Camera With Company

Tuesday was an absolutely perfect day.

*Sunshine

*School holidays

*Family visiting from South Africa

*Gorgeous crawling baby

*Braai

{If you didn’t know already, a braai (like ‘buy’ but with an ‘r’ in it) is a barbecue. SA stylie. Although our braais these days are becoming decidedly English.}

Definitely worthy of being our Embrace The Camera moment for this week. And plenty of photos were taken. Just not with our camera, and I forgot to transfer the photos from my aunt’s camera to our computer.

Doh. Have I mentioned baby brain before???

 

So the pictures I’ve used were taken on Tuesday as well, but just of us, by LOML. And they’re some of my favourites we’ve taken so far… Little Man is becoming so much more affectionate, and he’s been around for long enough for he and I to have our ‘things’. You know, like the way nicknames and inside jokes are ‘things’ in a family.

LM loves doing Eskimo’s noses – Eskimo kisses: rubbing noses. He gives the sweetest smiles and presses his forehead against mine. Aaaaaaaawwwwwww, one of my favourite ‘things’.

*mushy mushy*

 

ETC Eskimo Stylie

And even since Tuesday’s post – when I mentioned that Little Man’s crawling was maybe not good enough to actually call him a crawler – his skills have improved drastically. So no hesitation on our part any more. Our baby can crawl 🙂

Here’s a non-ETC photo. Just because I can (and because we’re busting with pride!):

 

Don’t forget to get in front of the camera at some point each week. Do it today if you haven’t already.

My Reading List. Hmmm.

I am completely and utterly embarrassed to report that I have not even managed to finish one of the books on my reading list.

I am busy reading The Island by Victoria Hislop, but only because a friend loaned it to me so I don’t have to worry about getting a library fine… again.

Yes,  I took out Birdsong but didn’t even start it! It took me three weeks to read Jonathan Ross’s autobiography… and to be honest, I didn’t actually manage to finish it. There were a few pages at the end that I just didn’t get to read because I had to get the books back on time.

Except that I HAVE BABY BRAIN AND SHOULD TRIPLE, NO QUADRUPLE, CHECK EVERY SINGLE THING I PLAN TO DO.

 

I planned my week, knowing that I had to get to the library on the date the books were due back. And when I got to the library I realised that they had been due back the day before. Sigh.

 

So what are you guys reading these days?

 

PS Don’t forget to Embrace The Camera today!

My ETC moment, Thursday 31st March 2011

 

Embrace The Camera

Yip, I’m wearing my pj bottoms.

C’mon – everyone knows pj’s are more comfy for crawling around in than jeans!

 

I’ve started using the 10 second timer with the ‘burst’ function, so the camera takes three pictures in quick succession. That way I’m 3 times more likely to get a decent photo, and Little Man hears the clicking sounds and usually looks towards the camera by the third picture!

Japan

I have avoided writing about Japan.

I can’t even comprehend what’s going on over there.

My brain can’t compute. I don’t think my empathy extends that far.

And I guess that I’ve been avoiding it because if I write posts about every disaster that I see on the news, this blog will just be a constant news stream. How do I decide which disasters to write about and which to ignore? (Yes, I have been ignoring it. Not just ‘avoiding’ it. It’s just too difficult.)

This seems to be one of my ‘things’ at the moment: I’m suddenly very aware of the stuff going on in the world. And I mean the bad stuff.  I’m slowly emerging from my baby-induced bubble and it’s like I’m seeing all the horrible things for the first time. My filters are out of practise. Let’s face it, we all have filters. There is no way we could get  through each day if we couldn’t filter out certain things and just get on with looking after ourselves and our families. But have we become so good at blocking out the awful things that we forget about them completely? Had I become so complacent about poverty, disease and disaster that I’d stopped caring, and now suddenly I feel bombarded by it? My ‘comfort zone’ (for lack of a better description) has been jiggled around a bit, and it’s not pleasant.

I wish I could go out there and solve all the world’s problems. But I feel utterly helpless, and I even feel as though it’s pointless to try to help – I mean, what is my little donation to charity actually going to do? The problems are so big.

 

Sigh. Saying ‘it’s not fair’ is useless. But I can’t stop thinking it.

 

Pie Squared

Oooooooh, I luuurve pie!

Whether sweet or savoury there is something comforting and just… well, lovely, about pie.

My father-in-law has been visiting and he is a bigger pie fan than I am. As his sons would say, hy is lief vir ‘n stukkie pastei (He loves a bit of pie). So pie it is!
Now usually I ‘cheat’ and just do pastry on the top, but in honour of my skoonpa (father-in-law), who is leaving to go back to South Africa today, and celebrated his birthday while with us, I went the whole hog (interesting saying, that one. Will have to look it up) – shortcrust blind-baked for the base, chicken and mushroom filling, scrummy puff pustry for the top.

Love Of My Life and I always decorate the top when we have pie so this one has balloons and Skoonpa‘s initial. Imagination required to see them…

Please note: I am NOT a photographer, I don’t know how to change the shutter speed, my house has terrible lighting and my hands always shake. So excuse the photos, but I like seeing photos on other blogs and figured I’d give it a try. Apologies.

Whenever possible, I make a double batch so I can stick a pie in the freezer. Did I mention I luuuurve pie?

As an aside, after blind-baking a pastry case I always struggle to get the baking beans (ceramic balls) out of the pastry case. This time was no exception: balls rolling all over the floor, under the stove, between the washing machine and fridge and, mysteriously, one landed up inside the mitt part of the oven gloves. Somehow it went in without me noticing, and in the fumbling with baking paper and trying not to tip the entire pastry case out of the dish, I stuck my hand back into the oven glove. Oh. My. Hat. Burn baby burn. I then went chasing after the escaping balls, stupidly assuming they’s cooled enough in 45 seconds-ish. More burn, in little ball-sized patches all over my hands.
And this on the same day that I (yes, stupidly) tried to change a light bulb that had just gone and had been burning all morning. Hmm. It’s the wonderful phenomenon known as Baby Brain.