I have no idea why I am still at work

So I am a sucker for punishment and I decided to not take any leave in December aside from what was compulsory. I figured that there was so much work due to take place in January 2010 that I should be getting ready and getting all my admin straight.

Sadly it turned out to be one giant exercise in unproductivity. It turns out that as well as I am usually able to work between 4pm and 6 pm during normal work weeks when everything quiets down, I find it extremely hard to work in a deserted office(as in 4 people in a room for 20)

So now at 11am on the day before Christmas whenthe office is closing at 12pm I pause to wonder why I am still in my chair... every one else has left in my division. I sorted my papers, I did my filing, I prepared a to do list for January, I watered the pot plants.

so all is really left to do is to pack up my laptop bag and have to courage to walk past those still left in the office and bid them all the best for the festive season!

I mean if HR says the office closes at 12pm does that really really really mean I have to walk out the door only at the strike of 12pm?

Anyway.... All the best wishes for the festive season to all my friends. I shall duly blog about my non-Travels in staying in Jozi for the entire time. woooo lucky me!

Things that slightly unnerve me...

Some things just make my imagination of worst possible scenarios run wild.

- being overtaken on the way home by a sirens-blaring police car and seeing it turn into your road. or a fire engine, or an ambulance

- seeing three senior management guys rush past you into the boardroom for a sudden meeting and cue: slam door as you walk past.

- when the guy you secretly had a crush on makes a special effort to tell you specifically about his new girlfriend.

- watching videos late at night and listening through your headphones and not being sure if the voices you hear are the soundtrack or from your garden

- when the cat jumps on your bed in the middle of the night and walks around cautiously (burglar!)
- arriving home on the late side and still getting home before your parents.

- being stared at. (no further explanation required - stop that okay? I Said Stop That!)

- funny coloured spots in your protein (red in egg, white in beef, green in chicken, black in sausage)

- seeing a stranger walk away as you approach your desk

- Similarly, seeing your parent walking out of your bedroom

- when you mislay your "very angry diary"

- reading your bank statement before your remember the what the big-spend of the month was

- dozing off when you shouldn't and realising that not 20 seconds have passed but 15 minutes.

- when you look for your car in your usual parking bay - when you have parked elsewhere

- seeing a police car in traffic and not being able to remember if you were speeding when you drove past him

- cars stopped on the side of the road when travelling late at night (road block!)

- being followed along your route home by cars with tinted windows

- speeding and realising the person following is keeping pace

- seeing mould on your bread/cheese halfway through eating the sandwich

- when you don't hear from someone in weeks and you wonder if they are dead... (it is
concerning when you wonder if they are dead and the idea is more curious than sad)

Aaaaanyway enough creepy wild imagination ideas - One hand of fingers countdown to Christmas! (except poor poodle-bait George - shake head)

Fax machine blogging

Need I explain the fax machine again? (the paper shredder still taunts me "feed me Frankie Feed Me!")

This time the message being sent out is 10 pages long - I am hiding from my desk phone that is no doubt ringing with worried contractors!

Whack! My to do list is (momentarily) shortened .... Until I check my email again that is...

I was going to blog about Mr Thursday but the words aren't ready...

So instead I will make fun of some friends and family members (you know who you are)

Tell me please how it is that the movie marketing got so good that grown ass men want to watch Twilight?

And it's not like they try make excuses like "Oh I got the tickets for free" or "My 16 year old sister forced to to go with her" or "I saved a basket of puppies and happened to sit down to see that they were all still alive on a chair that happened to be in the same movie theatre as Twilight" or "The Mob made me do it" or at least "The fighting is cool"

lame lame lame lame lame. make time for a pink drink and High School Musical lads.

Okay so I will admit that the movie might be good and geared towards all ages but it gets worse....

What possesses a girl to get her boyfriend to READ books like Twilight? WHY? Another guy was reading a book called The Princess- it had flowers on the cover!

Harry Potter may be in the same sectiuon of the book store but at least that's written for a male and female audience. Twilight is a teenage paperback lover story. What's next? Barbara Cartland??? Mills and Boon Buy 3 books get 7 more free?

I shake my head. I really do. Call me a Condescending Snob. I don't care. It gets filed away with buying a pink shirt for your boyfriend.

Let men be manly men. Let them make weird noises and be smelly and hairy. it is the natural order of life... (Unless they want to be un-manly men - then I say whatever I am not here to judge.)

Some one please please enlighten me? Why do guys want to be entertained by teenage girl oriented media? (NOT media of teenage girls - I am gonna tell you on Oprah!!)

Go ask exclusive books - they'll point you to the books written for people who have a drivers licence and can vote and drink beer and stuff. and then Take their advice.

I got an award!

So despite having had this blog for many many months, I haven't really explored the niches of having a blog (hence the same font-ness and general absence of photos.) My lovely cousin on the other hand, while also having a talent for putting things across just right, is far more active in the blogosphere and has tagged me for an award -

I am supposed to post six random things about me. So after some thinking here goes...

1. I sing in the car when I am nervous - I sang Singing in the Rain when going to meet Mr Thursday for the first time and Nkosi Sikelele when I drove to the Doors in the pouring rain by myself.... at the very TOP of my voice!

2. Despite my frequent travelling, airports make me sad, melancholy and sad. And while on that matter, Mr X was in town to visit this past two weeks and yesterday marked the first time he's flown back with out me crying at the airport. woo-pee-dee-dooo

3. I can't stand the taste of tomato sauce, never have, never will.

4. When I was young I wanted to grow up to become an opera singer. No ballet dancer or princess or doctor or marine biologist - Opera was my dream.

5. The only school subject I ever failed was P.E. - in the swimming term - I did a face-plant dive into the pool in front of the entire class - oh the shame...

6. I am sitting with over R1000 worth of Lindt chocolate at my house right now... must resist a nibble... I love my friend the Lindt Fairy! I shall take some to work and bribe people into being nice to me :D

Thanks Helen that was fun! However I don't have six blogging friends to tag :(

Frankies Travels - Gaborone Airport

I am only blogging now cuz I am bored... Doot dee doot The fan is moving but there is no cold air to be channelled towards this weary traveller. Lemme tell you what I learnt today...

Double cab bakkies and cars of that general variety will always have extremely friggin uncomfortable passenger seats - the second row I mean. The height of the seat (too low) and the leg room (too little) and the arm rests make for a ride in the very armpit of comfort.

Foreign contractors will complain about a rough ride off road until they work out how much other foreigners pay to do the exact same thing for leisure.

Donkeys and cows meet tragic ends when they walk into the national roads (much to the delight of the locals - they were smoking the meat on the side of the road!) but never ever ever have I seen a road-kill goat.

Squirrels can run like the blazes when they hear a car coming - like a tiny furry streak of lightning. (I saw a squashed hedgehog tho :C I was very very sad for it having it's short life snuffed out)

Swedish people are peeeeee-dantic about saving paper. (blush - mean old men)

It's expensive to check your email from outside the border and expensive to recieve text messages but it's so worth it to know that someone misses you :D

Yaay for December time - bring on the iced pink drinks and the swimming pool - and the sunscreen. Sunscreen smell always makes me think of the beach and holidays - it's a happy smell, a memory of younger more carefree days ...sigh :)

Frankie's Travels - on the long road back home

So we travelled to Selebi Phikwe yesterday and stayed over at the Syringa Lodge. Lesson : Franchise in SA with decent food does not mean Franchise with identical name has identically nice food. I ordered a chicken snitzel at Spur - yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck! My colleagues think I am a fussy fuss pot for only eating half the portion.

It was hot and humid and so much so that I stood in the shower with the cold tap on full throttle and then tossed and turned the night away. Aaah a business trip to the Tropics my friends! (I saw we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn)

Today we drove 60km off road. The first 20 were pretty smooth. The second 20 was pretty stoney. The final twenty was driving in a straight line only in a seven dimensional reference frame. I had my arm around my belly to hold my intestines from being jiggled into knots!

But at least I saw some squirrels and a little bokkie and a hornbill and some guinea fowl. It was kinda amusing watching the Chief and Principal engineers getting medival on the bos with a bush saw!

My scrambled eggs and tinned pears breakfast has long since been absorbed into my blood stream.... Hungry Frank :C I hope the aeroplane food is nice...