So this morning we spent hours doing a major spring clean of our little home. For it being such a small place, it seemed to take quite a majority of the morning. So the rug is outside after being sufficiently beated, shaken and scrubbed and now it’s drying in the sunshine. Everything is dusted, scrubbed, swept, mopped, folded, tidied, arranged and in it’s place.
I think we are both reeling from the fumes of potent cleaning supplies.
Okay, so now to the mold. It’s a dry climate here in Joburg, not humid. And it’s been a very dry winter, complete with chapped lips, hands and white flaked skin. During the various sickness we’ve dealt with the doctor recommended the use of a humidifier. Good idea, we thought…a very good idea. Well, we now have a mold problem growing on the windows in our bedroom and threatening our bathroom as well. We have come to conclude that it may be contributing to our adult onset allergies that we’ve been experiencing since we’ve been home from the USA.
Below is a sample of the mold on our windows. My fingers feel raw from the bleach and ammonia I just used to scrub for what felt like forever to try and treat and kill it. But drat those corners it is nestled into…my fingers weren’t sufficient and the toothbrush I tried, well, it’s now broken. So I’m hoping that the little remaining I couldn’t get off is killed through the chemicals (which I hate, by the way, I hate chemicals) and that we come down off of this woozy-feeling high soon. ;)
In other news, our neighbor, who’s unit is attached to ours, found a violin spider (which from my research is more or less equivalent to a brown recluse spider) in their home. Apparently, they are venomous and can have deadly effects causing one’s skin to eat itself. The pictures online are DISGUSTING and I don’t recommend looking at them, although I know saying that will make you want to look. So just take a look at this one and see what I’m talkin’ about…but consider yourself warned.
In happier and funner news (yes, I know “funner” isn’t a word, but I like it) we went out with our dear friends Casey and Gareth last night and had such a lovely time together. We had these incredible ginger mint cordials with real mint and strawberries for our starter drinks and these yummy muffins both made by the amazing Casey. From their house we moved on to Picobella Trattoria, which is a really yummy, ambient and affordable restaurant in Melville. We wined and dined for several hours while taking the chance to chat and catch up with each other.
Before we left their house we took a few pictures of us together, which are wonderful to have because we always forget to do that. Since it was dark we had to use a flash, which aren’t my favorite ways to take photos but heck, sometimes you just gotta do what you can to capture moments and memories.
Those starter drinks sound yummy! I want the recipe :)