Music, Chocolate and Surgery

The Easter weekend is typically a time when all inhabitants of the little province called Gauteng head en-masse down to Durbs.  It is also usually when the temperatures up here on the escarpment tend to plummet into single figures on the thermometer, so it certainly makes sense to escape winter’s grip for an extra few days! It is also the one long weekend of the year that sadly boasts the highest road death toll in South Africa, hence I am not a big fan of travelling anywhere on the Easter weekend by car. So we stayed home, and had four glorious days of no work!

The weekend started off with a trip to the Vet at 6.30PM on Thursday night. What I thought was just an itchy patch on Fangio’s back, turned out to be a big sore, and was on the verge of becoming septic. With the prospect of all vets being closed for the long weekend, we all piled into the car and off to the vet, who was luckily still open. The vet shaved off a big patch of fur to clean up the wound, as Alex stood by saying “you are such a good boy Fan-jee”. He loves going with me to the vet, and loves it even more when his friends the dogs get to drive in the car with us. The vet sent us home with a three week supply of anti-biotics to make sure the infection clears. (Oh joy, giving medication to dogs is just as bad as giving medication to toddlers. )

On Sunday night, we went to see The Eagles at “Soccer City” Stadium. They were absolutely amazing, and certainly still know how to get the crowd going, despite being in their sixties! Gary and I were having such fun singing along, clapping and dancing, despite some funny looks from the woman sitting to Gary’s right. If the truth be told, The Eagles are probably a little before my time, but I have grown to love them as they are one of Gary’s Favourite bands. (And shhh, don’t tell anyone, but I am secretly in love with Don Henley).

We were about ten rows from the front, so the sound and vibe was brilliant. They opened with Seven Bridges Road, and their harmonising was just fantastic. Their voices were still pitch perfect, considering that they have been performing for over forty years. They also performed a few of Joe Walsh’s solo songs, and of course some of Don Henley’s too, such as Boys of Summer and Dirty Laundry. (So I got to see close-ups of him on the big screen!) Hotel California was left for the encore, and they ended the show (perfectly) with Desperado, one of my all-time favourite ballads. This concert will definitely remain one of the highlights of 2012 for me!

On Monday morning, the Easter Bunny visited Alex and Caris and left chocolate eggs hidden all over the garden. (yes, I know it should have been Sunday, but Gary plays golf on Sunday mornings, so we asked him to come a day later 😉 …) Alex had an absolute ball, and was so excited searching through the garden dressed in his pyjamas and his “wellie boots”. Armed with his basket to collect all the goodies, he had a wonderful time looking for treats behind trees and under bushes. I just love the excitement and enthusiasm that exudes from him at this age. (We later had the family round for lunch, who all brought more bunnies, eggs and jelly beans, and now we have enough chocolate and sweet things to last the rest of the year!)

Just over 18 months ago, I went to see an orthopaedic surgeon about numbness and pins and needles in my right hand, and I was diagnosed with Cubital Tunnel Syndrome. This is where the Ulnar nerve becomes compressed at the elbow, in the spot commonly referred to as the funny bone. I was about 6 weeks pregnant with Caris at the time, so decided not to do anything about it. It is not painful, but it is a pain, in that my two last fingers were going numb more and more often. So after having a neural transfer done a few months ago to test the nerve response, and confirm that it was indeed trapped, (and waiting a few more months for Caris to grow up a little) I had the surgery to release the nerve on Tuesday. It was a short procedure, and I opted to have a block instead of general anaesthetic, so my recovery was quick. (Other than having what felt like someone else’s dead arm attached to me for 8 hours while the block wore off).  Alex was very impressed by the big bandage on my arm, and all he wanted to do is see the stitches and know if it is bleeding. Caris, however, was most unimpressed that I could not pick her up. (I forgot that ten months is the peak of clingyness.) It takes about six months for the nerve to recover, and hopefully by then I will stop dropping things!

And just like that, the Easter weekend waved goodbye, and left behind a rather icy Joburg.