Today is a misty day in Langebaan and I am alone and catching up on a few things, while Craig tries his hand at Kite Surfing. He is doing a course for most of the day, so I thought I’d take this moment to catch up on my blog.
We had a great weekend, with friends staying over on Saturday night. The weather was good and we all enjoyed swimming in the sea and relaxing in the sun. On Saturday afternoon I was swimming with my friend Anchen, just frolicking in the waves, when I saw a black object a few metres away from us. It freaked me out a little as the day before I had contemplated the possibility of sharks coming into the lagoon (after all I have seen dolphins, seals and even whales before, so why not sharks?). At a second glance it looked like a piece of seaweed, so I relaxed. I continued to just look in that direction and then to my absolute horror, I noticed this mysterious black object now moving at a fast pace. It was heading underwater straight towards us and was larger then I initially thought. I started screaming at Anchen, who bolted out of the water at a very impressive speed, leaving me standing aghast. I realised there was no way I would make it out of the water in time and honestly didn’t know what to do. I was preparing for a chunk to be bitten out of me, when this fierce creature suddenly popped up out of the water infront of me…..it was a seal! Thank God. It looked at me mischievously (clearly seals take great pleasure moonlighting as sharks) and then ducked down again and swam away. Well that was enough of an adrenalin rush for the day. Some how, swimming wasn’t quite as much fun after that!
My second clash with nature came while walking my dog Winston on the beach. I have spent many a day on the beach feeding seagulls and despite one unpleasant side effect of having lots of gulls around, I consider them to be rather nice birds. Well after an incident resembling a scene straight out of Hitchcock’s “The Birds”, I have adjusted my opinion. I had hundreds of these gulls circling around me and Winston while we innocently went on our way. One particular bird obviously had an anger management problem and started squawking loudly and doing circuits around us, each time dive-bombing me. I could actually feel the woosh of air between me and his belly each time he attacked me. I tried to run, but he clearly had it in for me. I had an image in my mind of someone watching from their house saying, “Oh look honey at that poor woman with that seagull on her head…”. Not fun at all. Now when I go on the beach I have to first check the sky, for signs of this freak of nature…
On a baby note, after all that was really my main intention with this blog, I am now in my 11th week of pregnancy! I am thrilled I am almost on my way out of the 1st trimester, which means the lessoning of morning sickness. Indeed the last 3 days have been significantly better. I have also discovered that by eating very regularly, I can keep the extreme nausea and vomiting at bay. The only problem with this is that I feel I am now eating too much and too much of the wrong things…bread; muffins; flapjacks; biscuits; rusks; crackers; nik-naks. These things stay down and make me feel human again, so I am tucking in. I am going to have to watch my weight gain though and not fall into the same trap as Sam Cowen (author of Waiting for Christopher – an excellent book) who put on 12 kilos in the first trimester. Scary stuff, but I so understand the desperation in trying anything that will help with the constant nausea.
Other than that I don’t really have many other changes. I definitely do have a tummy now, although I still don’t look pregnant and I have been pretty emotional lately as well ( I cried throughout a documentary on multiple births, which we watched the other night). On the food craving side I have started drinking milk now with chocolate Nesquik, which I am enjoying. Again this is probably not the most nutritious choice, but I am comforted by the label on the container that says “extra calcium for strong bones and teeth” and convince myself I am being good to the baby by drinking it! I haven’t really stuck to my eating red meat policy while being here and I am going to have to put some effort into sorting that out. Apart from that, life continues as normal and I just count the days until my next scan.
other news: Happy 31st Birthday to my friend Chantelle – hope you have a fab day hun xxx
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I enjoy reading your blog
Hope to see some pics of ze tummy soon!
Love&Hugs,
Lailaa xx
Okay, i have to laugh while reading this blog entry.
Firstly – i absolutely love the ocean and swimming etc. but i have to say that i am a bit weary of ocean life, especially those with bigger teeth than mine. That is what made the experience that Caroline and i shared so funny.
I am the type of person that will always stand by my friends/family no matter what, but the ocean showed my true colours when i left my pregnant friend to fend for herself. As soon as Caroline started screaming i could hear the Jaws soundtrack playing in my mind and i could already see the Newspaper headline: “Curly Sue missing since shark attack”. I then started “running” – well if you can call that running – out of the ocean while the seal stared at Caroline. I thought my speed was quite impressive, but when i looked to the right of me i saw the seal surfing the wave past me.
All in all it was one of the funniest experiences of my life and has taught me not to always expect the worst. Maybe the seal just wanted to play with us and we hurt his feelings a bit, so he retaliated by showing me how slow in the water i really was. I think if he could have given me the finger he would have.
Thanks for an awesome day Caroline, and i promise next time i’ll have your back
How this made me laugh Caroline, just what I needed. I have to tell you Bella and I had a similar experience except with swans. We were at Reeboks Kloof sitting peacfully on the side of the dam. The swans were right on the other side of the dam far away. We chatted a bit relishing the fresh air and sunshine when we looked up a swan was making its way towards us at one hell of a rate. For a second or two we could not believe how fast it was swimming when its feet hit the soil and it started running towards us. Talk about survival of the fittest Bella and I got up and ran like hell and I just about knocked my friend Peter Mapham out of his shoes trying to get away. It seems like birds can be very dangerous animals!!!!!!!!! Love your blog and all the comments. Much love Fiona xxxx