We went up Table Mountain Tuesday. Our visitors ended up staying an extra day and a half thanks to the issues with air travel in Europe, and the weather cleared up, so the timing was perfect. And one of our co-workers offered to pay for our tickets to the top, so we were there! Thanks, Courtney!
Table Mountain is a beautiful flat-topped mountain in the middle of Cape Town. Here’s a view from the top, looking towards Cape Town City Bowl. Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent some of his 27 years of imprisonment, is the little island you see in the background.
I had a good Mountain-Top laugh Tuesday. If I manage to pull a Biblical lesson out of this one, I think you should consider me a magician. It’s really just a funny story, and I thought you might enjoy laughing at with me.
At the top of Table Mountain, they have some special toilets. When you have a toddler with a soggy diaper on your hands, you might not have an extra moment to read the special sign on the way in that explains that the toilets are similar to the ones designed for use on airplanes. Such was the case for me. I saw something about a Boeing 747 and that the toilet paper was “green” even though it was brown, but I didn’t care. I was just looking for the Baby Changing station.
After the Bear had some clean duds, I decided to take the opportunity to use the potty myself, since I didn’t know where we were headed next or how long it would be before I had another opportunity.
The toilets were strange to say the least. They reminded me of a porta-potty. Once you opened the stall door, there were two big steps UP to get to the toilet. I hung the diaper bag on the door, stood the Bear on the middle step and then stepped up to quickly tinkle. The Bear often comes to the loo with me in public and stands there politely while I use the potty. He usually appreciates it when he gets to be the one to flush.
However, on this particular occasion, he seemed a little uneasy. Maybe it was because the ginormous airplane-like toilet was five feet up in the air and just plain weird.
So.
There I am going for a tinkle, when the Bear decides he’s totally not cool with this ginormous mountain-top toilet scenario. He decides to step down from the middle step where he was standing. Now did I mention that each of these steps is like a foot and a half high? As you might guess, when you are about two feet high, a one foot drop might as well be a jump off the high dive. Clearly the Bear hadn’t thought this through.
He takes his leap of faith and falls forward, and his head hits the door, causing it to swing w  i  d  e open. And he is lodged between the foot and a half high step and the wall of the bathroom stall. Crying, and as it appeared from my view four feet above, pretty darn uncomfortable.
So I do what any Mom would do in such a situation.
I stand up, reach down to grab him, and pull him up to sit on my lap.
Meaning.
I am sitting on this big old potty five feet in the air with my trousers around my ankles, a wailing baby in my lap, and the stall door wide open for anyone who would care to venture a look in my direction plenty of time to snap a shot with their iPhone. I console the Bear, and I can only smile and giggle, because
#1 This is motherhood at its finest. And #2 No one is around to enjoy the moment with me. Praise the Lord.
I’m really quite thankful the restroom attendant had stepped out at that point. I wondered if the men outside the loo trying to use the pay phone heard a thud, a wail and a big squeal. I was too busy giggling my way back to Hero Hubs to tell if they stared at me when I walked past.
I suppose sometimes, when you find yourself in a situation where it would be easy to freak out or get flustered, it’s a good idea to decide to laugh. The Bear survived without a bruise, and I didn’t end up flashing anyone. And if that’s not a good reason to be of good cheer, I don’t know what is. You know, a cheerful heart is good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones. (Proverbs 17:22)
Perhaps we should all take a moment to have a good laugh today. Even if you have to have a laugh at my expense, it’ll do your heart some good. 🙂
xCC
Here’s another mountain-top shot, with a Bear who was none too keen on being photographed. I’ll share some more soon.
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Hee hee. Oh dear.
Thinking about my lil bro today (it’s his 15th birthday) and this sure does remind me of times when we (the ‘grown ups) had to take him to the toilet with us, and he’d either:
1. Be in the cubicle giving a running commentary of everything – he did this to his Granny in Orlando airport – ‘are you have a tinkle granny? now you’ve got to wipe your bottom now granny…’ in his very loud assertive voice so EVERYONE could hear…
OR
2. Be standing outside the cubicle asking numerous questions about what you were doing ‘Are you doing a tinkle or a sitty-down toilet?’ ‘Have you finished yet?’ ‘Are you wiping your bottom now?’
And of course ‘What’s THAT machine for?’ ‘Why is there a box in the toilet?’ In case you’re wondering how we answered that, we told him that the machine had spare pair of tights (pantyhose) for ladies, and the box was for the ripped tights when ladies were changing into the new pair in the toilet. Duh.
Caroline! You should have taken pictures of the potty! I want to see the crazy thing.
A couple days ago, I drug Ben into a public restroom with me. He did the running commentary as well. “Are you STILL going to the bathroom? ‘Plop, plop,’ I heard your poop! Was that MORE poop?….”
You guys are funny. I am looking forward to the Bear’s bathroom announcements. That should definitely be good for a laugh. I really wish I had taken a picture of the potty! I will see if I can find one somehow, Annie Beth! 🙂
LOL!!!! That is funny stuff!!!!!
What a funny story! Your son will enjoy reading this one when he’s grown! 🙂 Too funny!
hahahaha …. cute Bear, awesome mountains, praise the Lord!
I must go to south africa someday
Bwahahahahahaha – LOVE this. LOVE table mountain. And happy to say I have never had to use their restrooms. But will remember in future not to take kids in there with me 😉
love your blog caroline. 🙂
Caroline, you’re lovely! And I hope I have such a good sense of humor with my own kidlets, whenever they come around… 🙂
Hi Caroline! I’m a friend of Hope’s (we went to college together) and she sent me your way. Just wanted to say hi and tell you some reasons I like your blog and have added you to my reader (really it’s just an excuse to make a list. I love lists. Humor me, mmmkay?)…
1.) You’re hilarious.
2.) I love expat blogs. So cool to see another corner of the world through your eyes.
3.) I love South Africa. It’s at the top of the list of coolest vacations my husband and I have ever taken.
4.) I love the name Caroline because it reminds me of NC (which is apparently our mutual home state!!) — and it’s our daughter’s middle name.
5.) I TOTALLY REMEMBER THOSE TABLE MOUNTAIN POTTIES!!!
6.) My son put me in an “awkward potty exposed!” situation once too. Like you, I decided to laugh about it. 🙂 http://mgoetts.blogspot.com/2009/08/toddler-and-obs-potty.html
7.) My husband’s name is also Mark.
8.) I love your travelling tuesday feature (with two L’s… noted) and I totally think you should turn this into a blog carnival and let the rest of us participate.
9.) The story of Mark and the bird? Awesome.
10.) I’m not much for lurking without commenting, but I promise all my comments won’t be THIS long. But there will be more. Stay tuned. 🙂
Erin!!
1. I’m having a hard time believing we’re not related.
2. I think I need to do more genealogy research because we must be like cousins or something.
3. Mark is a great name for a husband.
4. Caroline is a great name for a child.
5. I’m so glad we share a home state and we’ve both spent time in what has to be one of the coolest places on Earth. I don’t come across that every day.
6. I’m so glad you enjoyed the post where Mark became the Hero Hubby. Even though that bird was sad to say goodbye to.
7. I am excited to ready your potty moment, just now.
8. GOOD, GOOD NEWS, I AM hosting a blog carnival for Travelling Tuesday! I had a grand total of ONE participant this week. But it was the gypsy mama and she is awesome so that was worth it. I had TWO participants last week. So perhaps if you join in the fun next week it will be THREE! I dare to dream big…
9. Long comments make me feel extra special. So thanks!
10. Will you be my new virtual BFF? 🙂
xCC
I just came back to read this story again (I’m not a stalker, I promise) and I saw you replied! Yay! But weird that it didn’t email me or anything. Did I not click the whole “email me follow-up comments” or whatever? Do you have that option? Still learning my way around your site. 🙂
8.) You know I will. I’m already thinking up what place I want to write about next week. Does it have to be somewhere I’ve been, or just somewhere I WANT to go?
9.) Ok then you will love me. Brevity… yeah, not my thing.
10.) done and done. 🙂
teach me how to have follow-up comments from your posts sent to my reader or email?
Hey Erin!
1. Dang! I didn’t know it wasn’t emailing people if I reply. Well I wasn’t sure but I thought if they clicked follow up comments it would notify them.
2. I’m gonna have to look into that!
3. I’ll let you know when I figure it out!
4. I’m pumped for you to join the Travelling Tuesday fun! There are really no limits, as long as the people in your pictures are reasonably clothed and aren’t making rude gestures! The Isle of Skye’s the limit. No just the regular sky. 🙂
5. Your potty story was even better than mine. I commented there.
1.) I can’t find the “follow up comments” button to click. Maybe that’s my problem. 🙂 Help me?
Erin!
1.) Thanks for reminding me.
2.) I haven’t figured it out yet but I will look into it!
3.) I’m leaving home tomorrow for a gabillion minutes so it might not be able to be fixed till I get back!
4.) Forgive me?