My Shangri-La

You know when you are in a Yoga or Pilates or Meditation session and they ask you to go your ‘special place’. Well this is mine and I am there everything morning with Izzi the dog at around 6.30 am. And it is incredibly beautiful and serene. You wouldn’t think when you are there that the world around us is falling apart.

I hadn’t realised that this was my Shangri-La until recently. And having this wonderful place on my doorstep has and continues to be my saving grace. It is also where I have put a beautiful green wrought iron bench in memory of Tod – but mindful of the Corona virus I no longer sit on it.

Where does this wonderful word Shangri-La come from? It is probably one of the most enduring myths of a lost paradise. I think right now we are all drawn to a fantasy of a paradise, safe from the ravages of this horrible virus where we could all live in harmony with nature, and where the wisdom of the planet is saved from destructive elements.

I am feeling quite brave today for last night I had to deal with the things that I usually leave to my son. I rescued a Queen Bee that was stuck in a cobweb — I know I will get to the cobwebs soon — So, unable to open the bedroom windows, and armed with a piece of cardboard and a glass I managed to capture the bee and take her into the garden. And just an hour later, while watching Boris, Mo my cat trots through the cat flap with a little brown mouse, still wriggling. Feeling confident by the bee success I proceeded to use the same method and freed the trembling little thing from the clutches of Mo’s mouth.
She was not amused and refused to look at me for the rest of the evening. I have yet to face my very worst fear ‘the spider’.

So here is one of my spider stories. A few years ago when I was on a Safari Holiday with Tod in Southern Africa I had a really scary encounter with a giant spider. Bleary eyed, I fell out of bed at 5 am and reached for my clothes. And there, sitting on top of my shorts, was a huge –  and I mean gigantic –  no even larger than that –  as big as a house – hairy Spider. I kid you not, it was bigger than my dinner plates.  Now I am no coward: I have faced snakes, scorpions, elephants, and bears but big hairy spiders, well that just feeds my arachnophobia big time.

So, what did I do? Obviously. I screamed, ran into the toilet, and told Tod that our thirty-year marriage was on the line if he didn’t deal with it immediately. As I cowered in the toilet, door firmly locked with towel covering the crack under the door, I heard banging, swearing and the clank of the patio door.

“It’s gone,” he shouted. “Are you sure,” I whimpered cowardly. I won’t report the expletives that came forth. For the rest of the day I just kept looking at him with a renewed admiration. My hero.

Our Game Reserve Driver was not amused. “You should never kill a spider,” he said adding, “ they are just water spiders and are easy to coax outside.”

“Your marriage was not on the line,” explained Tod. Actually it was part of our marriage contract that he would deal with the spiders. But once again it is going to have to be big girl time.

Note to myself: Buy long handled spider catcher from Amazon.

I did start my cleaning today. The internet was down and well what is a gal supposed to do. So I took my first ever selfie. My cousin Barbara said “DO NOT POST THIS PICTURE ROMA”. You know what Barbara its ok I don’t mind people seeing me how I am at the moment. Staying alive seems to be top of my agenda. I have been in slochy clothes ( I think slochy is a word but you know what I mean) for over a week. And very soon my hair is going to start resembling my age!!! And that is going to make me very sad. Anyway because I don’t know how to import the images from the media section on this site and no-one so far has come to my aid, the pic is so small that you won’t get to see all the wrinkles and premature aging that has occurred over the past few weeks. Just wanted to show you that I have started on my ‘to do’ list.

In hindsight she’s probably right I do look a sight. I will just have to go to my ‘special place’ for a bit of TLC.