Nice Day at Nine Springs.

Well, since time of last typage, my family have been down to visit again. All hell broke loose as per usual once my mother tried to combine a dubious concoction of Snekeh and Stepfather - but at least it stopped him using that annoying megadeathflashofdoom! It goes "kchkchkchkch-kuh-CHOOM" you know, if light was in an audiable form.

The dragons were perfectly happy once they'd discovered that my little brother had brought along his extensive range of electronic toy gadgetry. (Only joking, this is someone else's shot, but the resemblance to my two is stunning! Contact me for reference, not sure where it came from.) He was amazed at just how HUGE Tsam has grown, having confused him with Ky at first. But then he is a whopping 19 inches or so. Ought to measure him...

Shortly after wrestling Snekeh back into her tank (we never have all the animals out at the same time), we threw her in a defrosted mousey to yomp down. Mum was quite surprised when, having voraciously vanished said mouse, Snekeh charged round the tank looking for more. "Poor Snekeh!" - Stupid Snekeh more like, she only tried to attack the wiggling fingers and smacked her head on the glass. But then she always does that. Snekeh had her lunch, so we went out for ours. We headed into town somewhat late, and met His Lordship whom had gone before us to pay in a cheque. Except the silly man had forgotten his wallet, so we had to do that anyway.

So after a slight detour, we ended up in Mocha cafe. I know, I know, I've mentioned it on a few occasions, but their hazelnut hot chocolate is the BEST! Mum was a little apprehensive (not many things meet her high standards) but I was confident, and rightly so. The owner's loud and cheerful South African manners and impeccably swirled cream toppings won her over. Even picky brother ate most of his dinner! My sister and I split two paninis half and half, salami and mustard in one, ham and cheese in the other - we all dined well. Just as well really, as we all hared off into Nine Springs to hide from my Stepdad! ( -50 points if you spot Mum!)

We spent some considerable time amusing the locals by going "under cover" in our best disguises. Mostly so that my Stepdad wouldn't get a good photo with his insane megayougettheideaflash. My sister definitely had the best, His Lordship had a similar oak twig and a maple leaf on his head, my brother had three large leaves of various species attached around his glasses, Mum was hiding in some lovely spiny chestnut and laurel leaves, I wandered round for some time oblivious of the nut-leaf Mum deposited in my hair and a large ... bouquet isn't quite the right word (or the right spelling I fear) of various colourful Autumn leaves. Stepdad was boring, just blasting us with high levels of light pollution from his large camera.

Nine Springs is truly quite beautiful, even at this time of the year, when the water has turned a chilly crystal clear and the spiralling bracken waves damp curls amongst the colourful leaflitter. The fish had converged in the main lake in a large, slowly shifting mass, something akin to watching a silver lava lamp. The smaller pond had a group of fish leaping out to snatch the small flies skittering across the surface - it kept us quite distracted for a while. Even when the kids threw in little pebbles, the big group of gently shifting fish paid it little heed, barring a slow, almost un-noticable slide further to the depths.

It was at this point the youngsters pegging in the pebbles noticed our "disguises", but sadly my brother had already wiped off his pen moustache. Talking of moustaches, the presentation of the fruit still continues; we were the proud owners of a large green watermelon called Sanchez. With a moustache. Of course.

I have been really good - I haven't opened my early Christmas presents yet!