Not only did The Beatles do the infamous walk across Abbey Road this past week, forty years ago, but I too walked a new road this past week, but more about that later. As for The Beatles, their last album ever produced (but not their last album released) sported the four Beatles taking wide strides across Abbey Road, just outside their Apple Records recording studio, in the borough of Camden and in the City of Westminster on 8 August 1969. Some curious things that are worth mentioning about this legendary photo is that the VW Beetle pictured in the photo now stands in the Volkswagen Museum in Wolfsburg, Germany. The man to the right of the photo in the background is American tourist Paul Cole, who spotted himself on the album cover a few months after it was released and owned up to being, well himself! As for the Beatles, Paul McCartney (a Beatle meant to be in the photo) is out of step and barefoot (second Beatle from the left).

Well enough about The Beatles and back to me. The start of the week was quiet with only OT on my Monday agenda. Tuesday Mom and I missed Mom’s club to get some errands done that needed doing. We headed off to Joleen’s house to drop off glasses that Jo used to make a divine chocolate mousse for the chocolate afternoon, and then off to the zoo. We needed to get our annual zoo passes sorted out. Try as we could, we could not get hold of Ilona; as Bev says, she is as elusive as a butterfly. But what Mom and I did do was take the opportunity of a really quiet zoo to wander around and get some more vocabulary under my belt. The things that fascinated me most were the seals which I kept calling cats. This is not a difficult mistake to make, as they have a face and whiskers just like a cat – the rest is of them is different though! The beautiful crowned cranes seemed pleased to see me and showed off their plumage to us. I was most impressed at this.

Wednesday was a most unusual day for me, as would be the next three days, and so I walked a new road. It turned out that Mom was going on a course for the following three days to become a Baby Gym Instructor. At hearing the news I was so proud of my Mommy that I felt like I would burst. At the same time I was also terrified – I would be without my Mommy for three whole days. This will be the longest I’ll have been apart from my Mommy since I was in hospital. On the upside, I was put into the care of Granny for the three days, so early on Wednesday Granny arrived, and as an added bonus, with Tammy in tow.

So without delay, Tammy and I got down to the business of playing on the Wednesday morning. This made me really tired so I had my usual morning nap. As I woke up I suddenly realised that with Mommy being at Baby Gym Instructor classes, I would miss my music that morning! Fortunately I was wrong, as next to my cot Dad was waiting to take me to music. For the second time that day I felt I was going to burst, but this time from excitement! I’ve been hoping for the opportunity to show Dad my musical talent at Be Sharp Beetles (seems to be much mention of Beatles / Beetles today), and now that day has arrived; so without further ado, Dad bundled me into the car and off we went. At music were some of my usual friends – Joseph, Slade, & Enzo. It was awesome showing my talent off to my Daddy, and he kept hugging and kissing me, and congratulating me on how well I was doing – I was beaming. We drummed, we rattled, we maraca’ed, we ran, we jumped and we danced. Having Dad there with me was just out of this world – I so wish Dad could spend more time with me during the week.

After class we waved good bye to everyone, and we raced back home, where Granny and Tammy greeted us at the door; immediately we took to playing again. The day galloped on, with me doing a fair amount of galloping myself, by storming around the house with the walker and doing much crawling. Mom arrived home late in the afternoon and we bid Tammy and Granny farewell.

The next day was pretty similar, with Granny arriving early in the morning to take care of me; we saw Mom and Dad off at the door, and then Granny and I settled down to a quiet day together. Today Tammy wasn’t there, but I had just as much fun with Granny. We walked in the garden, I eat and slept, and Granny crawled with me, read to me and played with me. Friday was very much the same, with Granny taking charge of me while Mom was on course and Dad was at work.

Saturday we spent much of the day at home; both Mom and Dad started exhibiting flu-like symptoms so they opted to take it easy. Around noon we all spent some time sitting on the grass in the garden – the weather is definitely hinting at spring, which is making all of us pretty excited. I also sat in the garden in some sand and dug a small hole and racked some sand. I also tasted some of the sand which I decided I wouldn’t do again in a hurry, as it didn’t taste too good. Some time in the garden was also spent in my swing swinging.

Once I’d had my afternoon snooze, we decided to head off to the Spur for a meal. It was the perfect timing, as there was some or other really hectic rugby game on, so the streets were empty of traffic and we had the restaurant all to ourselves. As you all know, Dad doesn’t really follow sport, but while at the Spur I managed to sneak a glance in the direction of the TV every now and then, where the game was being broadcast. Back home later in the evening I grabbed hold of Dad’s Blackberry and after surfing to a news site I was elated to discover that South Africa had won. Go Bokke!!!

After Mom was up on Sunday morning, Dad put me in Mom’s care as he had to rush out to buy a few things at the hardware store. It seems the list of extra things the builder needs never ends. A few hours later Dad arrived back home and showed off all the goodies he’d gotten at the hardware store, from colour swabs to door locks and handles, right down to a post box slot!

Dad had barely gotten home when we were on the road again, this time for an invite to Helen and Rob’s place in Parkhurst where they were hosting a braai. Chloster and Amy were there too, so we had some good fun playing on the lawn by the pool. There were also some other little’uns there that I shared my toys with, as well as with Boris and Muriel (Helen and Rob’s doggies). It was almost dusk when we headed home, reminiscing about the fabulous afternoon. Helen and Rob had practically served every type of meat under the sun from chicken to chops, boerewors to steak, and everything in between. I savoured some of all of it and I liked it! A bunzy run ensued and it was time to go to bed (but not before I blogged)!

Well, that’s about it for this week. Some of my achievements this week have been to negotiate up and down the stair at the bottom of the passage. I must say that I did do one face plant coming down the stair, and after a soulful 10 minute howl, I tried and tried again, and I now get it right on every occasion. Another feat is that, on most attempts, I can point out Mom and Dad’s nose and eyes, on command. The reason why I say only on most attempts is that I do occasionally get distracted!

I’m ecstatic at the fact that tomorrow is Public Holiday, so I score an extra day with Dad. It is National Women’s Day today, and since it falls on a Sunday, the national holiday defaults to the Monday. So in closing, happy Women’s Day to all my wonderful female readers.

Hugs, kisses and love

Jarrod

Figure 1 Crawling cuddle-bunny!

Figure 2 Bath Smiles

Figure 3 Up Close and Personal

Figure 4 Granny teaching me to go down stairs

Figure 5 Getting the hang of things

Figure 6 Getting better with stairs

Figure 7 Taking a closer look

Figure 8 Peek-a-boo – a favourite pastime is open and closing doors

Figure 9 Wolf time

Figure 10 Chewbacca

Figure 11 Taken a major liking to doors

Figure 12 Eating whole strawberries

Figure 13 Going down

Figure 14 Crawling in the great outdoors

Figure 15 Mom and I

Figure 16 Shatzi stalking me in the garden

Figure 17 Getting dirty

Figure 18 The happy gardener

Figure 19 Spur balloon

Figure 20 Chloster and I playing

Figure 21 Cold bunzies

1 Comment on Beatles vs Beetles

  1. Lisle says:

    Jarrod you Biscuit!!! Your crawling is awesome! Hou bene hou

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