Today we met at Echo with the builder and the engineer….the brave minds behind the build sat around the table and discussed how we are going to do this…
We are motivated and have a builder who is too. The slope is our biggest issue…
The next step is to bring out a guy named John to come quote for micropiling for the foundations. This is not going to be cheap but it’s safe and the easiest way to dig difficult foundations. We have always said the foundations are going to be the wild card. Everything else can be quoted for, but we don’t know how far down the foundations have to go and it could be, literally, a bottomless pit. The micropiling will be expensive but we will be able to budget for it and get it done. That’s the plan anyway.
I worked for the rest of the day, enjoying a beautiful cool day in Cape Town.
What I haven’t mentioned is that on Saturday morning I developed a sore throat and began to feel a bit off colour. Determined not to complain or change our plans, I still went up Table Mountain in the afternoon, but on Sunday I felt somewhat worse. My throat was so sore. Today, while I still have a sore throat, I don’t think it’s as bad, but with a post nasal drip, I’m now coughing. Needless to say, there has been no GYM.
On Saturday morning, I went to AP Jones to buy a swimming cap and goggles, seeing as my set still hasn’t turned up. As I paid for them, the lady at the till said that as I had spent more than R300, I qualified for a prize. There was a big promotion on. The prize lady told me I just needed to choose a box. I thought the box was for taking home, so I chose a small one. “Open it!” she said. Oh, okay, so I then I knew this wasn’t a box for taking home. I opened it and inside was a scrap of paper. “Oh wow!” said the lady all excited. “Go over there,” she gushed, pointing to the underwear department, “you get to choose any two sets of Playtex underwear.” I trotted off to the underwear department where another assistant talked me through what the rules were for the free gift. There were no strange clauses. Literally, I picked a set of panties and a bra (value R410), she took the tags off, I put them in my packet with the cap and goggles and off we went.
Now that doesn’t happen often!
#936 of my 1000 thanks is for free underwear!
The other, more important thing that happened was this morning – I prayed for assurance that I’m doing the right thing with going ahead with all this orthodontic work. It seems such a mission. The Lord has never let me down in giving me the guidance I need. The surgeon who I see tomorrow for an assessment could be anywhere in Cape Town. Turns out he’s at the old Leeuwendal Hospital (now Mediclinic Cape Town), which is where I worked after I married in 1986. I haven’t been back since leaving at the end of that year. The Lord used that hospital way back then when a patient came in for knee surgery. I was one of the nursing staff in his ward and another nurse & I got talking to him. We asked what he did. When he said he was a land surveyor, I immediately said, “that’s what my husband is as well!” He asked for more details. Mike, at that stage, was not in surveying, but managing the YMCA on Queen Victoria St. When I told him that, he interrogated me about Mike’s qualifications and then suggested Mike come in and visit him. His company, which was in Paarl, needed a land surveyor. Mike went to see him and a second interview was arranged with another of the company directors. We drove out to Paarl one sizzling day in spring of 1986 and Mike had the interview. He got the job and we moved to Paarl in time for him to start in January of 1987. We lived in Paarl until May 1989 when we moved to Sun Valley. The Lord used that random encounter at the Leeuwendal to change the course of our lives and to take Mike back into land surveying after he had been out of it for 10 years. It was the assurance I needed that I’m on the right track.
James 1:12
Blesses is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
These are the days.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂