ROBBERS and CHRISTMAS

Time flies doesn’t it? Almost three months gone and not a word from the errant Genealogist. Tut tut!! That’s really bad. However…as an excuse (you can skip this part if you don’t want the technical bits) I have been rather distracted by a spate of break-ins in the area in which I live (38 in about a month) and to be honest I thought it only a matter of time before our house was targeted. All the incidents occurred around 3am when all good citizens should be abed (barring those who are protecting the said good cits of course) so yours truly, being a real worry-wart, could not sleep during the wee hours. (My nickname for the foreseeable future is Grumpy).

Anyway, one morning I was checking out the grounds after another sleepless night in which I swore I heard ‘noises’ out in the darkness and was pleased to discover that there is naught amiss with my hearing. The thieves had robbed a house two doors down, used my garden wall as cover to empty and dispose of now useless wallets etc. and then jumped over another neighbour’s wall to rob him! I think we have a guardian angel looking out for us because the robbers used our grounds as a thoroughfare and did not smash our invitingly unprotected patio doors. Either that or they thought “This house looks like it won’t have a flat screen TV and a laptop, let’s hit next door instead, they have a satellite dish.” Have since had one of those slam-lock thingies installed, so feel much safer now.

I think the police got fed up of getting calls from our neighbourhood every five minutes so just before dawn one morning they decided to send in helicopters and police on foot with BIG guns - SWAT style. They apprehended two robbers. Mmmm…they could not have been the only ones but nevertheless it has helped. With all of this and getting a new puppy into the household my creative, genealogical Muse decided to depart for more receptive pastures and I have only just managed to coax her back.

Isn't she gorgeous!! This is Minky (started off being called CoCo but every one calls her Minky now....)

So, having got all that off my chest I must tell you that I have not exactly been idle over the past (almost) three months. The grey matter has been hard at work mulling over all sorts of ideas (this is what happens when you can’t sleep) and hopefully some of them will be revealed in the weeks to come. Can’t let all the cats out of the bag in one go, can I?

CHRISTMAS

I hope everyone has had a truly Blessed Christmas. We had a fairly quiet one for a change and did not overdo the feasting part… well not too much anyway. This did not deter me from having the traditional afternoon snooze though. Whilst in that blissful state I could not help thinking about accounts I have read of Christmases spent in very different surroundings and under very different circumstances. For one I am thinking of the Boer War (or the South African War / Second Anglo-Boer War whichever rocks your boat). I prefer the latter as the ‘official’ name myself – no ambiguity there – you know exactly who was fighting whom. Anyway – I have a book called “Boer War” compiled and edited by Nicholas Riall the grandson of one Malcolm Riall, a heliographer in the Prince of Wales Own (West Yorkshire Regiment) from 1899 to 1902.

In his diary Malcolm describes Christmas day 1900 like this:

“Men are on full rations today, but through some mistake there is not enough bread and they get biscuits instead. Great slaughter of chickens and turkeys which have been fattening up round camps for months past for Christmas dinners.“

Another description of a past Christmas which is a little more poignant for me because my Great Grandfather and his family were all there, is that of Christmas 1899 during the Siege of Kimberley. From a diary written during the siege by T. Phelan and published in 1913 under the title “The Siege of Kimberley : Its Humerous and Social Side” there is mention of the appalling heat on Christmas Eve and how grateful they all were that they had cooler weather on Christmas day itself and had not all been ‘cremated’. The next morning they enjoyed a Christmas breakfast:

“Christmas breakfast consisted of black tea, khaki bread and golden syrup – an appetising rainbow on a ‘merry’ morning.” He mentions the thrill of being served a dish of real butter by their landlady. “It was an astounding phenomenon in itself but the sharing of it in a season of famine with the poor relations like her boarders was the kindest cut of all. Butter it was; we remembered the taste and there was the circumstantial evidence of our eyes.” Amazing how small things can light up one’s life in a situation like that.

The part about Cecil Rhodes “with characteristic thoughtfulness” sending large quantities of Cape brandy down to the ‘camp’ where the soldiers were is too long to include here but the following sentence from the account sums it up: “The quantity of what was styled Cape brandy consumed in camp baffles computation.” 'Nuff said!

Well that’s it for now – we too were well stocked up on our own giggle juice to help usher out the Old Year and ring in the New – not enough to baffle computation though. More on that later.

Oh yes – I once came across a death notice for lady whose surname was Christmas. Her parents had baptised her Mary (Evelyn). Poor thing. I have the death notice to prove it.