I can't believe what's happening in Zimbabwe, Mugabe must be insane. Ever since my Mum came over here, I have been very detached from my feelings towards the country of my birth.I am probably trying to block out all the memories of what it was and what it has become. Now and again, I think about Puppy and I am filled with remorse that I don't have him with me, I hope his new owner is looking after him and spoiling him. I don't know how anyone is faring really, we tried to call some friends today, but it seems that all the lines were down. Who knows what to think when all you see on the news is such terrible suffering and violence. I am haunted by the terrible stories and news footage, like the face of the four year old boy who was beaten and his mother dragged off never to be seen again. He hasn't been able to speak since it happened. Another baby whose legs were smashed , his mother had to walk 12 miles for medical attention , and the best they could do for him was splints, now his little legs jut out at funny angles. All I can say is that the powers that be in this world must want things to be that way, otherwise they would intervene.There will come a time when good will override evil, but I don't think the Zimbabwean people can take much more, they're too hungry, too poor and too beaten.

I know when the dream of going back ended for me. It was November 2002, I had gone on my yearly visit and my sister was there as well. We drove out to a place called World's View, which I have mentioned in my blogs many times. On the way back down to the car I went ahead of my sister, she had recently lost her Dad ( we have different fathers), and I sensed she needed some time alone. I stopped for a moment, because the scenery was breathtaking, the Matobo Hills stretched out for miles in a majestic panorama, and I breathed in the smell of the hot African bush, savouring every moment, for I was soon to return to the UK and it always used to wrench my heart to pieces. The sound of the birds chattering and the droning of all the insects seemed to get louder and louder, then all of a sudden everything was quiet and I seemed to be caught in a moment of time, the earth seemed to pause and I remember feeling the beautiful sun on my face and the breeze that was so gentle. I was struck by an overwhelming feeling of sadness, it was as if something was saying to me that terrible things were going to happen and that I must let go of my home because I would never return to live there. I began to weep uncontrollably as I knew in my heart of hearts it was over, I've never felt anything so clearly. It was quite honestly one of the saddest things I have ever felt, the experience so profound that I have never forgotten it, or told anyone about it. I don't know how long I stayed there, I cried till my tears ran dry. My father's ashes lie in a shrine in the Matobo Hills. It seems ironic that he was born in England and died in Africa and we are all born in Zimbabwe and have ended up in England. I know he would have wanted that.

The Garden

This is a small section of the Cling garden, the view from our living room, the little building you can see is our garage, and if you look closely under the tree by the garage window, you can see the birdbath and my decorative, cheerful scarecrow. We are spending more and more time out here as the weather gets hotter and hotter, I even have a tan now!!

Someone came to fix our alarm yesterday, they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it and now the whole thing has to be replaced and we have to wait till Thursday , because they don't have it in stock. This is the price you pay for high tech gadgets. We did get a new garage door yesterday as well, so we were pleased that we can actually lock things away in there now.

I mamged to get out running yestaerday and I went around the perimeter of this little town, exploring streets that I had never been to before. It was interesting and enjoyable, helped me forget about that stupid alarm hat I have allowed to dominate my thoughts ever since the awful events. I must write the letter of complaint....

Disconnected!

What an interesting few days, we haven't even had a phone working, let alone the Internet. At 7am on Saturday morning the alarm started giving a blaring warning signal, like it was about to go off, I thought my Mum had accidentally set it off, so I leaped out of bed to try and shut the damn thing off, my mum was nowhere in sight, but a panel on the alarm told me the phone was dead. I then had to call the alarm company from my mobile and wait for the engineer to call me back with instructions. Bear in mind the alarm kept sounding every few minutes and I was not really in a clear state of mind, being half asleep and unable to fully register what was going on. The engineer called and informed me he was not familiar with our high tech system and he had to call someone else to find out how to reset the system. That meant another half hour of me having to stand by the alarm keep turning off the awful sound, which has haunted me ever since. Gerald in the meantime , for some strange reason was unable to get up out of bed, he just kept falling back asleep, which was awful for me because I couldn't even go to the loo!! Anyway, eventually the call came through and I was able to stop the noise.
To cut a long story short there had been a fault in the alarm system which caused the phone line to come down. The rest of the story has exhausted me so much, I can't even think about it. Basically, I now have a huge bill from the phone company to look forward to, since I called them out to fix the line and it was our equipment that was faulty, not their line. They said the alarm company had not connected the wires properly to the phone. The alarm company disagrees , so now it is being batted like a proverbial baseball from one to the other. The point is that as soon as the alarm was disconnected from the phoneline, the phone was working again.
At least we found out what it was, and it took about 5 minutes to fix. They must be raking it in! Anyway, I'll let you know what happens.

Exciting

At last I have got a few things off my chest, I became so fed up with this farce of an internet service provider, I wrote such a stinking letter, took me the whole morning, and guess what, since I posted it, we haven't had one single problem, how funny!
Now some exciting news, we have a couple of gigs lined up and now we need 2 different sets because the one venue is so chilled out and we will be playing on a stressbusters evening, so we actually do want people to be relaxing when we are playing. Certainly have our work cut out for us now as I will have 2 sets to rehearse to!
The other piece of exciting news is that we are going to Amsterdam for my birthday next month, we've booked it and everything, I love Amsterdam, it is a lovely place, I'm really looking forward to meandering along the canals and just enjoying the ambience of the place, what a pleasure.
Must go as Gerald has returned home and looks a ravenous, don't want him to become any thinner.

Hi everyone, it's been another busy few days in the Cling household, Gerald is putting the finishing touches to Groovyshoes and I must admit that I am really excited about it because it's always good to have a new track and I want everyone to be able to listen to it and tell us what they think. Still having all our Internet problems , I think it's time to change service provider, because it's all getting very irritating, especially when you are in the middle of doing something and you keep on getting cut off, just makes you want to scream really. At least I had my laptop sorted out so I know that it's not my computer. Trying to remember what I did yesterday, I made a couple of trips to the market, bought a lovely dress, my mother was horrified because it is very see -through, then Gerald was winding her up and saying that he liked it like that, she is now insisting that I buy a petticoat, how old fashioned, ha ha, I will have to go to one of those Granny shops. What is the 21st century equivalent of a petticoat? Later on I went running, it was early evening and rather a pleasant time to go, but a few more people around, they were all playing tennis and seemed very interested in watching me pound around the field. Had a barbecue when Gerald came home and then we had to go out hunting for petrol because all the garages around here have run out. It was lovely to drive around the country roads at dusk, then on the way back we smelt the aroma of a coal fire, so we decided to have a fire as well, in the middle of June!! Outrageous!

The poor blackbird

Morning folks, I've been really knackered over the last few days, I don't know what's wrong with me really, even yesterday when I was running it was like a supreme effort was needed just to get one foot in front of the other, I felt like collapsing, but unfortunately I was in the middle of an overgrown field about a mile away from our house. Still I persisted and made it home in the end.
This morning I awoke to the sight of an injured blackbird in our garden, oh no, not another injured bird, and especially the blackbird whose sweet melody lifts my heart whenever she sings. When I went outside to peer at her, she quickly hopped off into the bushes, so I hope she is concealed from any predators.
When I was small, I used to have a kind of animal hospital for all the injured creatures I found in our garden, These were mainly insects, I always had grasshoppers with broken legs, I don't think any of them survived for long in my care, but I used to like to think I was helping them. I even stole the little beds from my sister's dolls' house so that the creatures I found could lie down. It's wonderful to be a child and be so innocent and naive!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend...

Reincarnated hippie

Back online again after waking up this morning and being mysteriously disconnected, it's like we have some sort of gremlin down the phoneline. Never mind America On- line, it's more like America Off- line.
I was driving home early this morning and I thought I would fill up my car before everyone starts panic buying as some tanker drivers are going on strike, and that always sends people into a buying frenzy. I hate this government for making fuel so expensive, I'm sure they are trying to drive us off the roads, but for people like us who live in rural locations, our cars are a necessity. I'm surprised that the public are accepting all of this, I mean there are loads of petitions on the Internet and everything , but the government seems to ignore all of that. So they can't say they are any better than any of these third world dictators that they criticize all the time. On the other hand, they can't ignore the will of the people forever. I wasn't in England at the time, but I remember reading about the poll tax riots, maybe life will become so harsh that things like that will start happening again.
Look at the world around us, see how it changes so quickly every day, we can't keep up with it. As technology advances , the world's natural resources deplete. Oil prices are hitting the roof and it affects affects everything else. There are global food shortages and unrest everywhere, and that's without all the contributing factors from the constantly changing environment and natural disasters. We are heading towards something, but what? That is the challenge of our collective consciousness, but it all starts with us as individuals. We should feel privileged to be in this life in a time of such monumental change. We have to make sure we are ready to go to the next level, whatever that may be. I still believe, and it is only a personal opinion, that the only way we can do this is to evolve spiritually, for I also believe there will come a time when we will have to account for our actions in this life. I think I must be a reincarnated hippie!

Al Fresco

Spent the whole of yesterday outside in the garden, not only was I sunbathing and enjoying the hot weather, I was doing hard labour! I ache all over, especially in my one shoulder, but the results are worth it and it keeps me out of trouble. When Gerald came home in the evening, he accompanied me into the forest on his bike whilst I went running, as if I hadn't done enough physical exertion during the course of the day. The forest seems to give me energy when I run, I go into a sort of a trance where I start to notice things really clearly and then I forget about how far I've run and my breathing kind of sends me into a moving meditation. On the way back , it's really hard going at the edge of the forest, because the track is all uphill. I though my lungs would burst and Gerald even had to stop his bike, but we made it. Still managed to get harassed by some walkers in the forest, even though I wasn't alone, I don't understand why people always have to shout out to me, I don't yell at people when I see them running, there's nothing unusual about it.
Anyway, we came home and I cooked dinner and we ate it outside in the twilight, it was so lovely. Towards the end of it though, the peacefulness was shattered by the most awful dog fight next door, between our two neighbours' dogs. They are both dangerous pit bulls and it was the most awful sound, with a lot of screaming and shouting from the owners. I wanted to go and chuck a bucket of water over the dogs to make them stop, but I couldn't get there in time and to be honest, our one neighbour is so nasty that when I realised it was his dog I was glad I didn't get involved, I probably would have chucked the water over him! I don't thing either dog was injured though,but I did get a fright!

Competition is closing ....

Hi everyone, are you all ready for the weekend? Our competition will close at midnight tonight, we have loads of entries to choose from, it's been a fantastic response.
I see it is overcast again today, we had two days of glorious sunshine and it looks like that's our lot! We bought some garden furniture the other day and now we are very comfortable when we sit outside, yesterday I thought I was in heaven as I was out there with my laptop, doing loads of things online and sunbathing at the same time. I thought to myself how good life is!
Looks like we are going to be performing at a local venue sometime in the near future, it is like a chill out bar/ coffee lounge and at the moment they have quite a few bands playing, but they are mainly jazz and blues bands, so we will have something different to offer, which will be good and if it turns into a regular slot then we can build up a bigger following as well. So looks like I will be starting to rehearse again pretty soon.
Must get ready now, I have to catch the train into London today, at least I can get a lift to the station which will save me some time! Have a fun Friday !!

Important message about competition

Hi everyone,before I go any further, Gerald accidentally deleted all emails in our spam folder this morning and therefore some competition entries might have been deleted. If you sent your entry to us yesterday, please send it again, we would hate to miss out on seeing any.
I got up this morning, drove my mum somewhere and then came back and went running, I just couldn't put it off any longer, I haven't been for days because of the weather.Needless to say I came back all wet, covered in mud and grass, but feeling good, there's nothing like physical exertion to lift your spirits.
I am meeting my sister again today. Last time we met we were meant to go shopping , it was so crowded we ended up sitting outside in a restaurant all afternoon. I am still searching for certain items, I am in love with the colour orange and would love to get an orange handbag and shoes. Maybe I will find something today...We'll probably just end up in a coffee shop all afternoon. I am looking forward to seeing her anyway, she has been a little crazy in her life, but always my favourite and the one I can identify most with. Will let you know how it all goes.

Will it ever stop raining?

It's been an eventful few days as usual. The roofer came round to fix the leak, in common with most of the workmen that come round here,he seemed to make everything worse, even left a large lump of concrete in the gutter, which yours truly had to remove first thing yesterday morning, before it rained again and the gutter snapped. What is it with people that they give such a shoddy service? I'm still trying to get used to all these maintenance issues with big houses. I can understand why people buy newly built properties, but then you have to compromise on character. I just find it a bit overwhelming at times. In fact it's one of those afternoons where it is quite dark because of the rain and I just feel like cosying up in bed, having a lovely siesta. I'm yawning already!
Thanks to all of you who have sent in your entries for the competition, we even have a prospective entry from a four-year old! Still a few more days left before we announce the winner.
Trying to think of somewhere inspiring to go on our summer hols! As long as it is hot there and the beaches are nice, we are open to suggestions and if anyone has an island they would let us have the use of, it would be much appreciated.