The baby Emil brought us all very close together, and for his first bath I was called by Nina, and I had the privalege of introducing the wee thing to the wonder of having a bath! I was on the go all the time, as when he was awake, I was called and I went over to hold him for a while. He was the best baby, and only cried when he was hungry.
But I was also busy packing, as I was going to Stephan and Trienkie to babysit, together with Stephan's parents, as the they were off on a long saved for holiday to Mauritius. From there I planned to leave for my job in Scotland.
But this year a strange feeling kept me from confirming with my employer about when I would be there, and I also couldn't make up my mind about going, but I promised Toni that I would let him know in time to get another chef if needed. As long as I could be there by middle May all would still be well, as the season then takes off in full.
Little Emil was three weeks old when I left for Cape Town, and I was sad, as he would be quite big when I came back in about seven months.
The babysitting started off with Kian, the oldest of the two boys, who had a mild fever as result of a cold, starting to vomit, the moment his parents had boarded their plain to Johannesburg. As us two Grans had enough experience between us, Dina being a nurse, and self having brought up my own three, helped with Irma's two, and was a nanny both in Greece and Miami for quite some time, we were not too worried, and tried some of the medicine in the house.
But Kian just kept on vomiting, so I went up to the Chemist, where I was told to take the child to a hospital immediately, as young children could dehydrate very fast. With Stoffel, Stephan's dad looking after the youngest, Dina and self rushed to the hospital, where we had quite some difficulty filling in the required forms, as none of us remembered to grab our glasses. We were squinting and glaring, and then I took the forms to the window to try and see, all to no avail!
One of the staff luckily noticed that something was wrong, and although everyone was rushing around, she took a few minutes to help us. Not so easy, as none of us could remember the kids's address, or telephone number, well, as a matter of fact, we were so stressed that our heads just did not work and we couldn't even remember Kians two given names! One thing I did remember was the name of their medical aid scheme, so that made things a wee bit easier, but I could see that the staff had a good giggle at the expense of the two dilly grannies!
Kian was kept in hospital with pneumonia and a tummy bug, and we decided to take it in turns to stay with him, as he was only three, and alone in a room.
That night Trienkie phoned, and in a thin voice asked how the kids were, and I lied in an even thinner voice that they were both well. We had decided not to say anything, but will inform them if Kian got worse, but the doctor was quite happy, and said that he believed that Kian would be fine in a few hours.

She then asked in a still thinner voice who was in hospital! I looked at the other gran, and she started mumbling, and self started hyperventilating, and then Trienkie said to stop lying, as the medical aid had sent a notice about the hospitalization, and she knew one of the kids must be ill! Both did some real sweating there!Between us we convinced the parents not to rush home, as we would be responsible and call if neccessary, as they have saved so hard for this holiday, and looked forward to it for more than a year.