Closing 2012

Happy New Year to you all! May you be blessed with health and happiness, the most important things in life, in my opinion!
For me personally, it was a very good year but it ended on a sour note. Our water bill at then end of November was beyond high, owing to a leak at the meter that had been reported at the end of October. You need to live in a city like Pietermaritzburg to understand the incompetence of a Municipality! 
Then on the 23rd of December, my DH received a call from this bank to say his Garage credit card had been scammed! That amounted to many thousands of Rands. Just to crown it all, on our way up to Johannesburg for new year and a very important birthday celebration, DH vehicle blows the radiator and that caused immense damage, so bad that we had to be towed the rest of the distance, at an exorbitant cost. We had broken down on an extremely busy highway, known for all sorts of fatal accidents, high jacks and assaults, in searing heat, in the middle of nowhere! Not a soul stopped to help in three hours, but in hind sight, that was a blessing as were would have been at their mercy - good or bad! The tow truck driver was a very obliging man, who with his son, transported us and our car safely to Pretoria.The repairs were done by DH thank goodness, as it saved us a huge amount of money. But we were blessed immensely, as my brother accommodated the broken car, lent us his Jeep to commute between Pretoria and Johannesburg where we were staying and he had some very kind friends, who owned businesses that supplied the spares, when all businesses were actually closed for the holidays! 
It is at times like this that you actually stop and count your blessings, as it could have been a tragic incident.
DH was exhausted after his days on working on the vehicle, when this was supposed to be a break for him. We did however enjoy a couple of very relaxing days down at the Vaal Dam, with good friends and lots of laughter, good food and 'happy' drinks! Our trip home was uneventful, thank God, and we fell into the house just as a huge storm broke, that caused serious damage around the province, our city included, but we were very lucky as our electricity stayed on and we had no storm damage, except for a big branch breaking off an old tree in the back yard. Hundreds of people lost their homes and belongings, others their roofs and others had huge trees blown on top of their homes or cars. It was a very tragic start to 2013, but for us, thank God, all was well.
We still have to sort out the Municipality, who now have the storm damage to contend with, so we will be on the back burner with our huge water leak. The credit card was attended to by the bank and all has been restored to normal. The car is running beautifully and DH returned to work this week, glad to be back as it seemed like a holiday compared to his previous couple of weeks! Me? Giving thanks for all our good fortune, praying for those who suffered during this hectic period and looking forward to starting a new creative year.
My thanks to all my blog followers who left kind words over the last year and to all who just like the eye candy - so glad you all payed me a visit or two!