as you will see, we have a racer-in-training 
The first thing Kaydin did when Gideon gave him the car, was to walk straight to the front gate .... Gideon says he thinks Kaydin wanted to take it out to the street to play with it there .... seeing as that's what dad and Gideon2 does when they're testing their cars!! 
We told him no, not now, so he walked to the "workshop" instead, to put it away, seeing as all the other toy cars live there!! After supper, they off course had to go get it, and this was the scene in the kitchen:
Ouma Hettie did come for a visit, so fun to have her here. I must admit, I enjoyed giving her some good quality baby-sitting time, I managed to book a whole week's worth of dental appointments! (don't ask!) Anyhoot, took her to see the Picasso exhibition, which was, shall we say interesting. It made me ponder the whole "but is it art?" question. I do think one should at the very least consider it, even if one doesn't quite "get" it or understand it.
Also took mum to the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, she was appropriately awed and kept on saying how pleasantly surprised she was with the tasteful interior decorating 
Speaking of dentist appointments, I found me a really nice, totally professional Lebanese dentist, called Dr. Grace. She's so cool, she gives me drugs before the appointment, now being on the drugs (it's half a dormicum, but i'm so weaned from "normal" pills like myprodol, it knocks me for a six) I'm not allowed to drive. So it was an interesting scenario, rounding up the friends to drop me and pick me up. Now, one of those days, Marinda kindly helped, it was cool though, 'cause I helped her as well, she needed a car I needed a lift, it all worked out just fine. Jeez, I digress, the funny thing was, when I stopped at the dentist to give the car to Rinda so she can be on her merry shopping way, as she got out, she quipped "Thank God it's not warm" <- yeah, good thing that, with the temps right up at 48C, it just cracked me up
And today I was yet again reminded of the sometimes unpleasant aspect of being a woman here. Went grocery shopping and as I was waiting in line for the veggie-weigh-in lady, here comes a man with about 10 packs of bananas, he moves my one packet of onions out the way and puts his packets on the counter, I looked at him a little bit surprised (though only for about a second) you live here long enough, you learn that this will happen. I say to him, but I was here first? He had the audacity to smile at me. The veggie-lady was too busy with the other customers to see that he pushed in front of me, so she weighed his stuff first (normally, they're quite good with the arabs and will help "first come first serve") anyhow, so she proceeded to help him, I felt like giving a pack to Kaydin to munch away at, but thought better of it .... In the end, I just gave the guy a piece of my mind ... in Afrikaans, so he didn't understand, but there was no mistaken my tone of voice. The thing is though, that to him, I'm really just a woman and as such can be treated without any respect or dignity. He's goat and/or camel probably gets treated better than his wive(s). I also understand, yet it doesn't make the frustration any less, that in his world, in his culture, where he comes from, he did nothing wrong and I really don't fault him for it. Ok, I feel better now 
all sorts of adorable:
Right now Kaydin's being totally cute (I know I've said it before, but it's TRUE!) Both the pups are "Lala", though he knows that one is Lara and the other on Jackie, he just can't say Jackie yet! On the video, I ask him to call Lara, that's when he does the cute little high-pitched "LALA". He does the same high-pitch when Gideon tells him to call me, "MAMMAAA" it's totally funny! He has this TOTAL fascination with Gideon's car keys, ok any keys really, but Gideon's is first prize, now, we've figured out that if he sees the keys hanging on the holder and we tell him that they're "sleeping", he's cool with that, waves "bye-bye" and we can move on This does not however apply when Gids gets home from work with said keys in hand .... then Kaydin WANTS it ... yes, Gideon usually gives in 
Oh and balls, he loves balls, here's another video where he's playing with Gids and kicking it, too cute I tell you!
That's us for now, to those that we'll be seeing soon - YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To those that we won't, hope to catch you in December!
We send much love
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