What a week!

My darling daughter and her equally darling children came to stay for the week. What a lucky Nana I am!! Nothing nicer than having one's offspring safely under one's own roof......

Needless to say the week was not without event, and although glorious time was had by all, one day in particular took years off my life, and I am a bit short of years!!

Our nearly nine year old is fixated with snakes and his favourite ally in Bulawayo is none other than that amazing snake catcher Ahmed Esat who runs Ndoro Reptile Centre in Montrose, up near WaterWorld.

Now Ahmed and Lincoln are always hatching plans to shorten my life, I am not a snake lover remember..

And so Egbert was born ! Egbert is an Egg Eating Snake (Dasypeltis scabra,) and came to live with us for a few days over the school holidays!! Little rascal, he devoured three quail eggs in a day and tried to lose himself numerous times looking for a place to hibernate.

How many snakes however, have ever chosen to hibernate in a Grand Piano

Not just any old grand piano, indeed it was a 'Strad' from Paris bearing the Lion and Unicorn Royal Coat of Arms Crest stamped on the innards!! I can now give you an intricate conducted tour of the inner workings of an antique grand piano, thanks to Egbert who decided this would be a grand place to spend his winter!

Said piano has a dignified heritage, having emanated from State House 'Sunrising' in Bulawayo, way back when!! Admittedly the celebrated Piano Tuner Keith Jarred, did once venture into the bowels of said Grand and guffawed loudly when we suggested he tune it for us, however it still has its original Ebonies and Ivories and the kids love to thump away with gusto.

I am not going to tell you exactly how Egbert was recovered as it would break the heart of any piano purist, but needless to say, it took wire cutters, screwdrivers, pliers and a fairly pressured venture into the bowels of this very intricate piece of machinery. Grandson was horrified at the process and at the thought of having to confess his misdemeanour to Ahmed!! Granddad was aghast at the thought of a future with Egbert lying comfortably on the damper buckskin and firmly ensconced between the Wippen Flanges and the Hammer Shank!!

Fortunately we have an engineer in the household and a few hours later, armed with his trusty Bobbejaan Spanner, Melusi located Egbert cosily wound up on Middle C and with the introduction of another quail egg, he agreed to emerge from his symphonic location and return to the loving arms of his favourite 9 year old!!