Batman.

It has been a day or so since my last confession! Yesterday was a wonderful day here. Ingrid left for her Pilates class and I pottered around the house as it was drizziling a bit. I had planned on going into Humansdorp with Mom to pay a fine that my brother had incurred in her car last year and then to go to the bank to sort out internet access for said brother who keeps any eye on Mom's account. The last visit to the bank got us app access for Mom and that kicked brother out of the system, so we had to reaply for online access. Due to the rainy start we postponed our outing and thought it an idea to wait for Ingrid to finish her class and come back home. She was not going to drink coffee after class again so it was a short wait.

Showered and freshened up she was ready to go with us on out crusade. We have been trying to pay the fine for a few days and are getting blocked at every turn, so today was our next and hopefully last attempt. Humansdrop is about 20 minutes drive and spotify had us singing along quitely. At the traffic department we were ushered inside by the "bouncer", guard at the front door and were the first in line. It only took about 3 seconds for the man behind the counter to tell us that we could not pay the fine as it was from another municipality. We were placed in check once again, but the game was not over. 

Mr Helpful turned to his other computer (I guess the National Fine computer) and printed out a copy of the fine and we were back in Dusty in a jiffy. Humansdrop has a bank, but we decided to drive another 20 minutes to Jeffreys Bay to the other branch. This was more, shall we say, 'less chaotic'and Ingrid could walk about a bit while she waited for us. She decided to join us in the bank and was ammused at the chair dance that we performed as we waited for our turn.

When we arrived in the bank they had 8 chairs lined up for the waiting customers. There were already about 6 chairs filled, so I knew that we were nr 7 in the queue. Ingrid sat at the back on a bankie (bench) and watched. As 1 person finished at the counter the whole lot of seated chair line people stood up, moved down 1 chair and sat down again. It is actually quite funny to see, but fun to be in the queue. We were going to have to stand up 7 times. 

Sometimes the queue moved quickly and just after sitting down we all had to stand and move, but sometimes we sat for a bit. I had the stopwatch going for fun and eventually we were at the counter after 31 minutes. Ingrid had logged onto the bank wifi and was sitting patiently on her phone. I really did not need Mom with us, but they might have needed a fingerprint or facial recognition check. She was oblivious to the reason why we were at the bank and it hits home a little harder that our parents are reaching the stage where the children do things for them as they have no idea.

The lady at the counter was very helpful and we went through the steps quite quickly. Mom, bless her, just did as she was told, mostly entering her pin number into the card reader when requested. We moved from the counter to the computer to check once everything was done and we were done. All banking things are now sorted. No more trips to the bank in the near future I am guessing.

We were at the beachfront and the weather had changed. The temperature was lovely, the wind was a breath and the sun was trying to push through the cloud where it could. We went 1 street down to the boulevard and sat outside at a place that looked quaint. We odered our coffee and studied the menu. I was not feeling it. The setting was great and the weather was great and an idea bubbled it's way to the brain. Let us just have coffee here and go to Walskipper for lunch. Walskipper is a restaurant on the beach and it was a perfect day weather wise for this.

Boy, did we have a lovely time there. So tranquil and I was definately feeling it! I am not sure that if 1 were to order the weather and the vibe, that one could have impoved on our experience. The food was perfect and the atmosphere was brilliant. It was almost a shame to leave. "Maagies vol oogies toe". (Stomach full, eyes shut). ZZZ afternooner. So far our day had been scripted. Bellissimo!

I had put Nameless on the roof for a session at the beach after my snooze and just needed to change into my board shorts. I had promissed myself to get out every afternoon even if I did not feel like it. I get so energised by spending even a short amount of time in the sea and after being landbound due to the strong easterly wind and bluebottles the last few days I had enough pent up energy. It was time to drain that battery.

Ingrid reluctantly went with, but was in her bikini. The day had seemed to just improve that little bit more with moore blue sky than this morning. The temperature and wind were still ideal. Having said that, the sea temperature was less than ideal and when the ankles reach the water, the brain says, Mate. Is this a good idea? Onwards and upwards. Both of us had our boogie board in hand and it was wave catching time. What fun we had. For me the most fun is to watch Ingrid enjoying herself and I can see the progress that she has made in the ocean. She was no longer thinking about, ooh waves, HELP!, but her focus was on which wave shall I catch. Weeeee, off she goes all the way to the sand.

If one feels a little tired or lazy or low on energy, get into the sea and play a bit. We were not in for much longer than a half an hour, but were fully hyper when we left for home. Once again today it felt difficult to leave. 

Later Mom and Ingrid were watching their series and I sat on the computer paying that traffic fine. Even that was not simple, but after making an account and logging in and figuring out how it all works we received a message. Payment sucessful!  Mom must have been down the passage and I was in the kitchen when Ingrid let out a shrill! Mom just entered the lounge area and we were looking at something flying around the room. Mom said that it was a swallow, but once we honed in on it, it was a bat! 

Ingrid ducked in under a blanket and hid on the chair. I opened the doors and windows and after a few minutes there was nothing flying around anymore, so I called for the all clear. Whiskey honey? 

At bed time I was brushing my teeth and Ingrid was in the room with her book and she shrieked and came storming into the bathroom. There is something alive in our room. Apparently Batman had not gone outside earlier, but must have hung himself on one of the rafters and was now looking for a way out. He was in our room. Close the door I called to Ingrid. No movement. CLOSE THE DOOR!  I thought best to keep batman in the bedroom as it would perhpas be easier to shepard him ourside through the sliding door. After a third command, Ingrid closed the door from the outside.

Batman and I were in the room together and I tried with a towel to shepard him toward the open door, but he just flew circles over and over again, dodging my towel and either flying over it or around it. Thinking cap on. Try a different approach. I turned off the bedroom light. Perhaps the light was blinding him (LOL!!!! as blind as a bat)... but perhaps that might have an influence on his behaviour. I turned on the torch on my phone, but batman kept doing his circles and dodging the towel.

I decided to turn off my torch and hope for the best. I seemed to have done the trick or else batman also thought, change of tactics, this flying in circles thing is not working for me. We never heard from batman again the whole night. I was asleep in no time and apparently Ingrid had not been able to go to sleep straight away. 

What a cool day in Africa!