Using bad manners to get good manners

I have a pet hate (yes, another one). I understand it is polite to greet people when you see them. When I get to work I tend to politely call "Hi" to anyone I walk past or sit near to. And then I move on irrespective of whether my greeting gets a verbal response or a polite nod or smile. The interaction takes 5 seconds and all parties involved can move on with their lives. I may even be prone to nod or say Hi to anyone walking past my desk in the morning if our eyes meet. 

But some colleagues! some people! They have to have a verbal response from me when they greet me. They actually stand where they gave their greeting and wait for me to move my lips and vocal chords and say at full volume "Hello, How are you, It is good to see you today, have a good day". It is of no matter if I am currently on the phone or eating food or writing a proposal for World Peace or currently in a business related conversation. The Greeting Must Occur!! Worse, they actually raise their voice and issue a second greeting in impatience, usually starting with "Heellloo-ooh" or "I said Hello".

And the dirty looks! The look of rage that I made them wait an extra few seconds before singing a full response to their greeting.  The look that says they think I have no manners, and that I was not brought up proper. 

Seriously, do people have nothing better to do than demand the recognition that they were witnessed arriving at work? Your impatience is intrusive and offensive to my sense of politeness.

Now scoot!

telescope + camera = fun

MrT bought a simple telescope a little while back. It is quite work intensive to get focused on anything other than the moon but I am surprised how good the views are when they can be got.

The highlight has been seeing Jupiter with its marbled details as well as three moons. It is however extremely hard to take a photo of.

We did however have enough patience to take this picture tonight with the help of my little camera and MrT's old tripod. (oddly enough the best results with the camera is with it set to Food mode on cold colour offset. Time delays are also essential).

You can just pick out the moons "belly button" in the top left.

a day off of work feels like a guilty pleasure

I have been very busy at work lately. Lately being the past two months. Busy as in working late is the norm. Busy as in I haven't been to RWFL for longer than I want to admit because i have had to start too early most days.

Now I was expecting all the busy-ness to be tidied and submitted and finished by last week (which it wasn't - not my fault).... So Mr-T and I agreed to take today off of work and spend some time getting some wedding planning done and try have some quality time together instead of deciding with arguments are expired.

So today we achieved:

• a kick off visit to our wedding venue's in-house wedding planner
• opening a wedding savings bank account (yes yes this is many months over due)
• preliminary looking for a wedding florist (friends - we are looking for suggestions. we really don't mind spending our money with people you personally know) 
• brunch - well I had breakfast and MrT had lunch so it counts as brunch
• signing my new lease and paying a whole chunk of money as a deposit
• near bankruptcy for the next 10 days (see above)
• a whole afternoon nap

Now I am cruising the internet catching up on blogs and things while MrT chats to his neighbours. We'll be having left over pizza from last night for dinner and mojitos. And the best thing is that we have still another 2 days of not going to work while we enjoy the same two days of weekend as everyone else.

I feel guilty that my work colleagues have to finish the project without me but this taking leave thing feels pretty good and for once it is really great to have a weekend for weekend fun things like reading and eating lunch with friends and seeing family instead of running from shops to event to errand to groceries to house cleaning to sleep to work.

I could get used to this :)

Frankie's new housie

So I finally found a new place to stay. (truth be told this happened about 2 weeks ago). It is in the same complex as some friends of mine and as I had previously admired the total awesomeness of the house they lived in and the pretty gardens and nice location - I totally jumped at it when the letting agent told me the same complex had a unit up for rent.

It is approximately the same size as my current arrangement aside from a smaller second room. However I get a pseudo-personal garden and pretty flowers to look out on on both sides.

The added bonus (which was purely by co-incidence) is that my old varsity buddies happen to be almost right next door (and they have the second cutest little one year old child in the world (see posts circa 13 September) )

There are a few issues such as the apartment isn't brand spanking new and shows the effects of some wear and I will have to actually water the garden myself and living almost next door to your friends means that your friends get to see what your day to day less than tidy more than messy routine is like.

But overall I see a nice potential in this place to settle for a little while. The landlord wants to sell in the end but hopefully this time it will co-ordinate nicely with my pending nuptials or else that MrT and I may decide it will be a nice fit for two :)

I will be moving house later this month so Ill post pictures of Frankie's Castle 2.0 soon enough.

I can only hope this enthusiasm and excitement will see me through the hard work of packing and moving house...

Not so secret

So - everyone who knows me, knows I am not that fond of dogs. "Not so fond" in that MrT faces a very difficult battle ahead to convince us to Ever own a dog as a pet. Not that never owning a pet dog is a foregone conclusion but I have pre-conditions to the types of dogs I will tolerate and these pre-conditions are strict. I am known to go to visit friends and spend most of the visit avoiding the hosts pets.

Anyway - back onto the topic...  wanna hear a secret? I was very tired and grumpy on the way to Brownies yesterday and battling with bad traffic. On way, short cutting across Parkhurst, I saw a guy walking a pug. The pug was trotting along with its head bouncing around and it was So Adorably Cute that I practically fell out of the window of my moving car waving and smiling at the dog and dog walker person. It kinda sorta maybe may have brightened the entire rest of the day.

ugh... I am so embarrassed with my lost convictions.

Kids, listen up, being old is tough

I kinda landed myself in a prime position on a new project at work and by a weird co-incidence it happened to coincide with a financial reward due to how much people here like me. And I felt So-Cool because I was like a key person in the team. And other key people call me and ask me questions that I can answer right away.

Trouble is... when the proposal for the project landed over a month ago - it was "like-yesterday" urgent and it has lost no urgency since then... we are technically 80% complete with the job.

I am struggling after 6 weeks of having to get 12 hours of work out of every 8 hour day. I am exhausted at having to work flat out day in and day out.  Thrilling and exciting and productive and self-important feelings wear off after the first week of early starts and late finishes.

See, when you are a new person starting your career - people only give you little bits of responsibility... after 2 and a half years at this gig - the responsibility comes thick and fast and people stop acting surprised when you do everything they gave you to do and you complete it on time. It's like the normal way of doing things by then.

They took the training wheels off and for the first time ever I feel like this is a Real Persons Career that I am living but right now, I would like to stop having to pedal so hard to stop toppling this bicycle over for a while.

At the same time, the deadline to find a new housie draws very near and the Wedding Stuffs is getting over due and teh pile of unread books stacks up and I feel the desire to bake delicious things and make dinner for MrT. (don't even ask about Run Walk For Life...)

sigh... being all grown up is tough...

Frankie's travels - More west then east bound once more.

We got up very early this morning to continue our travels to the first site of the trip - which was in Port Nolloth. One of the very furthest west points of South Africa.

We passed over several mountains and hills and each new section bought colourful and wild tints of the Northern Cape. monochrome scrubby grass gave way to grey greens and brown pinks of grass which gave way to bright green bushes and clumps of pink and purple tiny flowers and little yellow daisies. All of this interspersed with rocky hillocks and boulder strewn grassy mounds.

The trip felt a little more like tourism for the first three hours (which is basically about how long it took to drive from Pofadder to Port Nolloth) from the beach where I took this shot we drove back up the road to the dirt road leading to the site.

The site was located a little off the beaten track an so we had to walk the final stretch - This was quite fine with me because my rear end was about to fail in all its cushioning duties from sitting so long in the car.

After we completed the task we stopped off for a bite while a member of the party conducted some business and we watched South Africa and Namibia meet on the rugby field.

In due course of things we turned the car back eastwards and drove back to Pofadder to drop the client off at his car where he left it in the morning.

Then we continued eastwards to find the next site to inspect. Unfortunately an incident occurred where (as I don't have straight facts I can't explain the incident) the client for the next spot was unable to take us on a tour of the site. So we decided to go take a look at where we thought the site was according to the maps given. on the way there we were accosted by a rather curious Boer-sized-shaped farmer who was curious why we were making tire tracks up and down his road on his farm. Luckily we were able to explain our presence and he gave us a tour to the exact piece of ground to be seen and some ice cold water to parch our thirst!

By the time we were finished there it was 30 minutes to sunset and we were 250km from our booked beds for the night. My colleague had done most of the driving thus far and asked if I could take over for his eyes were exhausted.

I bravely said yes and adjusted the ix35 to my legs. The ix35 is a splendid car... however, compared to my trusty old Tazz, the brakes are too responsive, the gear stick is too small, first gear is a small wrist flick and the steering is overly sensitive.... compared to a trusty old Tazz. but golly it glides away at a quick speed. 

I was fine when the road were straight and freaked out a little with the brake around the corners.... then it got dark. The N14 does not have street lights. My night eyes tried very hard and with the help of the greatness that is car light brights on a brand new hire car I was doing pretty well (minus the people driving towards me with their brights on) 

Honestly, it was a very scary stressful 250km drive. my eyes were bad, the road was dark and winding and the car was too quick to jump to 120km/h. 

But finally at after 8pm we found ourselves 5 towns away in Kenhardt and driving into the parking lot of the guest house. 

The owner-lady came out and showed us to our rooms and then said the greatest thing....


"Your dinner is almost ready"

Better yet. she then produced braai-ed ribs, wors and chops with potato bake and salad.   

Bliss....

Now, one dinner and a hot shower later I am ready to rest my tired little eyes and be ready to face the third and final day of this Northern Cape road trip :)

Frankie's Travels - Westward bound

I am on another business trip. Basically we are travelling west from Upington to almost the far north western point of the country and then turning around and driving back to Upington over a period of three days.

The trip didn't start well - we missed the flight. - I'll say no more on this topic because missing flights is annoying and ultimately results in lots of expensive phone calls and rerouting and rescheduling of the trip and many feelings of regret. This doesn't help when the team is yourself and the foreign specialist.

Anyway - 6 hours later we were finally zooming up into the sky and getting on our way with the visit. This is my first visit to this section of the Northern Cape so secretly I was pretty very excited.

First observation is that Upington airport is a really fancy pretty airport. I would proudly send tourists there.

The roads were really quiet and we set off west towards Pofadder. we were travelling at sunset so the landscape was bathed in a poetic golden glow but even with out it, it still is a very pretty route dotted with rocky outcrops and multi-hued grassy patches and (what we assume to be) wine farms.

We rolled into Pofadder in the dark and my trusty GPS pointed us to the correct road to turn down. The Hotel was kind enough to paint their name across the entire flat walled section of the building. There was a friendly business man to chat to us while we waited to check in. Then we found our client booked into the rooms next door and arranged to meeting and gossip I mean make the next days arrangements over the dinner table.

This hotel is simple and plain but not unlikable. the people are friendly and the hot tap in the shower is hot and the beds are clean and sleep enabling.

My business trip has improved greatly from the stressing sprinting pleading regretting disaster this morning and I have many plans to organise a more leisurely holiday road trip this way in due course.

...and what do One Year old boys love to do?

They love to sing and dance with Mommy!

(They also love Daddy but he doesn't always know the all words to the songs... he's much better at the Aeroplane game)



Happy First Birthday Champ!

The nephew is no longer counting months for he is One years old today... and despite that things at work are completely <there are no words> kind of busy... This is a happy day today. whoot!

Spring time becomes a sudden flurry of activity

I was sort of rolling along through the dregs of August and now one week into September I am running crazy like a mad busy person.

Essentially we landed a bundle of work recently that seems to be multiplying. This is a good thing... I think. The problem is that every time I turn around there seems to be another 3 or 4 tasks on the pile and yet the looming deadline is unmovable. The good news is that this is opening a brand new opportunity for me at work as long as I can pick up my skirts and sprint to keep up with the speed that the opportunity is rolling through its lifeline.

Meanwhile the search for new accommodation continues. I went and looked at a 33sqm apartment yesterday and returned home very very depressed. There is no way that I will fit my housie into a 33 sqm apartment and 33sqm is about all I can comfortably afford. And so I will have to start looking at the apartments that I can uncomfortably afford. I still have a month to figure things out but there is rumours on the market that well priced rental apartments are becoming rare... or else it may just be a sales pitch from the Estate Agent.

MrT's idea of a solution to my accommodation prolems is to move the wedding up by 7 months to a week after my landlord wants his apartment back... this doesn't seem like a solution to reduce any stress but perhaps I may be won around as long as I get a nice party with all my splendid friends in a pretty dress. Thus far however I am not convinced yet that Guy Fawks Day is the best day to get married if we are aiming at it only from today.

I have noticed recently in my several many dealings with a multitude of people in this new work opportunity and with real estate agents that occassionally people won't take my calls if I phone from my work desk phone. It seems completely counter productive that people still practice blocking calls from All Private Numbers when it is the cellphone number they give out for business purposes.

Worse than that is the real estate agent that seems to take a week to respond to any emails from me. Isn't the point of email to be faster than sending a letter via the postal service?

So now I will return home and make the most of the opportunity to space out a little over some floor moping and vacuuming.... to return to my desk tomorrow and leap with enthusiasm onto this spinning mouse wheel again.

And there went August

... and like that another month has passed by. 

I have so much to update here but the time to type and correct escapes me lately. It escapes me so much in fact that now at the end of month I have 1 GB of rolled-over data to use up before Tuesday! The student Frank is very disappointed in me - that is like 7 episodes of Anime and a lot of Manga!

So here is 8 current things going on in my life:

Travel: I am travelling back to Botswana for the second time this month on Tuesday. It is kinda exciting to see how much progress has been made on site and frustrating at the same time as the nature of managing contractors seems to be a lot about cracking a whip over their heads about deadlines. A figurative whip only - made of long argumentative meetings with finger waving and pointing and aggressive shuffling of papers.

Exciting travel: The year 2013 may seem FOREVER away but the Gang is planning a huge trip to The United Kingdom together to go visit old and new friends.  I am way excited at the prospect but the time line is long to allow everyone's budget to catch up. 

Wedding: (I am proud that this isn't the first point) The wedding is 90% planned and 5% booked at this stage.  We took the parents to visit the Wedding venue we want to hire... which started out so well and then crumbled into sulking and loud voices over chapels versus churches. I have also started trying on wedding dresses which has been fun and scary. Fun - every dress makes you feel like a princess. Scary - no body ever looks like the model in the same dress. :( my body is funny sometimes.

Mother-in-law: (Speaking of parents) My mother-in-law-to-be is in Johannesburg at the moment and staying with Mr Thursday. It is a little tough because it means I don't see MrT as often as normal because he spends every evening with his mum. Not a big surprise because he last saw her in April - for one luncheon meeting. I am in a little bind as to what to call her when I speak to her. It feels impolite to call her by her first name and impersonal to call her Mrs B and for some one who I have only spent a few days getting to know in the past 20-ish months it feels odd to call her "Ma".. just yet. On top of that we haven't really graduated past polite conversation and awkward silence. The language barrier is still up most of the time... A Language Barrier that MrT says I must fix. Languages and me are not great friends... yet. 

Interwebs Randomness: I discovered tagxedo. it is awesome. Look at the tag cloud it helped me make about this blog. (I am however unsure if it took the most recent 5 posts only..) 

It is a little amusing that proposal is bigger than Engineer. Travel is the most common word - which is quite alright with me.

One year ago: My nephew is almost one year old! He is getting cuter as fast as he is getting naughtier. The naughtiness is always accompanied with a big toothy grin. (lesson - teething babies have very SHARP teeth. The cute playful coaxing of their fingers into their mouths is a trap!) 

I confess that despite my good intentions, I am a dotty Aunty who pays too much attention to him and not enough to the entire rest of the group when I see him. I only get away with it because everyone else seems to find his behaviour fascinating and adorable. Tragically I have been only able to baby sit him once so far because I was sick and unavailable all the other times. I may post a whole set of pictures when I have them readied.

Frankie's Castle: I am still no closer to anything definite as far as housing goes. My landlord will publish a price soon and at the same time I have my eye on a 1and a half room apartment in the next suburb while still debating the monetary benefits of moving home to my parents for 8 months. The exciting news is that I found a really nice potential home for MrT and me once we are wed. It is only available from April next year so it fits our plans quite nicely. And it is very close to our current homes so we know the area pretty well. 

Peace: I had an epiphany in church this evening. The Englishman is thinking of moving back to his home country at the end of the year because he feels his current girlfriend is on the verge of breaking things off. The Lindt Fairy and I were discussing this and we feel that he is a love struck idiot whose girlfriend doesn't deserve his devotion. She doesn't seem to want to make any extra effort to make their (temporarily) long distance relationship work. And so I was thinking that the Englishman will be filled with regret giving up the opportunity working here if his girlfriend breaks up with him anyway at a later stage for another reason. 

Then I remembered how MrX had also said to me that he never wanted to lose me while were dating long distance. How the exciting job was null if he didnt have my support. (or something like that - it is too late at night to dig through old archived mail). And yet, in the end of the relationship with MrX, it was harder to keep things going than to let things (continue to) fall apart. 

MrX is getting married in a few months and I confess I have been less than pleased to hear the news. It riles me to see them living out plans that MrX and I had also dreamt up at one time in the past. It irks me to see their happy lives put in front of me. (hey we can't always be mature and rational all the time - my nephew has taught me much about being selfish... but then I am not 11 months old)

Then this evening while pondering the Englishman's situation, I realised that I should be over joyed for MrX and his future wife. We may have broken promises to each other and broken our relationship off and failed the aspirations of the two and a half years of dating long distance. And yet we have both liberated ourselves from the mire of the past and now... he is happy again. (or so I hear) 

And so for the Englishman - I am ready to tell him that he is being a moron if he asks. But I realise that even at the sacrifice of an opportunity to continue to work here in this country, irrespective of whether his relationship does eventually live or die, it is not the end for him. If his plans fall apart - new plans can be made. It is a tragedy to never move on from when things are disappointing... because disappointment itself is unavoidable. 

Home made art

See the new header? I made that. I made it out of photos I took with my dinky camera and smooshed it all together in MS Office and Paint.Net (Paint.Net is a rather splendid freeware program. Go ahead, check it out - this header isn't going anywhere for a while)

It took me a long time to get the pictures and letters lined up - and just as long to get it nicely sized to fit just just right at the top.

I am so proud (I recognise that a real designer could do something twice as brilliant in 10% of the time but then I didn't go to a fancy art school)

Ta Da! Time for me to seek some sleep now.

A Beginners Love Haiku

Ah, Turkish Delight
Always delicious and sweet
I love thee too much

Ah, Turkish Delight
Pink Rose
Pale Lemon
Green Mint
Sugared and Soft

ah, turkish delight
i have thee in my sight
your end is near

Mid-Winter Tree Art

Some people went and decorated the trees on a main road on the way to my work with multi colour crepe flowers.

It looks pretty (as in, distracting enough that people can't drive straight) but the whole of northern Joburg is dying to know what it is all about.

I couldn't take a suitable picture while driving but the picture snapped while stopping at the robot just after produced a really pleasing result.

Here comes the ...weeekend.

It has been a long week. It sort of started off slow and then climaxed on Tuesday with an urgent deadline with reports to fly about like a toast from the toaster at the breakfast shop on a Sunday morning.  On Thursday I got a polite fly in the ear for failing to send off an important letter. (and attached 30 page document) and that was swiftly followed by another proposal to complete sooner than the first batch of reports.

As stressful as it is to preform and produce quality written documentation, there is a certain thrill that goes with completing a report, printing it in all it's colourful, formatted glory, binding it and wrapping it and dropping it at the front desk for DHL delivery. The fulfilling feeling of completion (on a small level).

I have learned that in the line of work I am in that a lot of the time the delivery deadlines for reports can occassionally be flexible. We argue with the client that yes, the design report is over due but here is the draft report and as you can see, the quality is rather splendid. Or we simply deliver it in teh dead of night and pretend that teh deadline meant by teh end of day and not on the day itself. Or else we offer to present the report in person and buy ourselves a few days.

However when we are competing for new work with proposals, the (future) clients are not forgiving. The proposal HAS TO be in the box before the specified time and date or else it is "thanks for playing, try harder next time."

And therefore, some of the most stressful, leaky eye inducing times I have had in this office have been from assembling proposals because irrespective of how big or small the job is or how well the rest of the team works, the time can not be negotiated and often, lengthy levels of over time must take place.

Anyhow, in between dodging the possibility of being on a plane to a far corner Mozambique on Sunday and getting ensnared into a progress meeting in Botswana instead, this proposal sits on my desk and lurks in the corner of my eye saying "Don't forget me! or else you will regret it."

Often I have no idea whether I am a good engineer (I suspect that in my moments of brilliance I may be). I see myself more of a creative lateral thinking innovator. (Give me a problem and I'll provide 5 solutions, 4 will be ridiculous and physics defying solutions and the 5th one will be unique and some way in which you will never have thought of before. - trouble is getting people to take you seriously throught the first four overripe fruit solutions before you produce the gem).

 

One thing I do know for certain (based on experience of it's importance) is how to produce a report that is a pleasure to read. A report that you can read, get distracted and not lose your place in a mire of words and graphs and tables. A report that glows with inner well-formatted radiance. MSWord is my ever willing toy boy on a good day. (and my elusive unwilling grumpy old man on a bad day)

And so back to the orignal story of my week. My work weeks are accelerating but I look forward to the thrill of another freshly produced proposal by the sweat of my brow and the ever affirming response from the man in charge "Good Job Miss Engineer".

And now for Something more Cheery

I did promise something more cheery/less gloomy, so here goes.
Last week Sunday I cast my eyeball around my little house and decided that paper recycling may be a good habit to allow for a little more space on my bookshelf.

In my teanager years it was fashionable to collect and display perfume adverts (as racy as they were). This was a matter of great competition to display the most exotic and beautiful and fabulous perfume adverts on the front of your school file. The file of course had to be clean and neat and tidy and look completely untouched. (this was true about 3% of the tiem for me)

I found that I still have my plastic folder of hundreds of pages torn out from magazines. Not only perfume adverts are contained in this collection but also articles of interest and recipes and lists left over from my days when I was a big fan of Glamour mag and Marie Claire.

In the process of reducing this massive pile of paper to a small collection of articles of actual interest (as opposed to articles showing shirtless men rolling about in the beach). such as 8 Basic moves in Stance training.

Completely unrelated note: I am experimenting with Stance Training at the moment. The key seems to be shoes with good floor grip to avoid a bruised buttocks.


I read through a list of "Fabulous ways to spend R100". One of them was:

"Send a gift to a friend and brighten her day"

...hmmm...

So I got thinking about something nice to do and came up with the idea of sending a petite bunch of flowers to my splendid friend The Accountant. She doesn't have a significant other so I figured the flowers wouldn't cause a problem and it would make her feel special (in the absence of an adoring man to shower her with the attention and goodies she deserves.)

I ran the idea past MrT over email just in case my wild Sunday evening ideas were too silly for reality. His advice was

"Wouldn't it be highly amusing to send them anonymously?"

So I logged into the flower shop website and sent of the cheapest possible article off to her office with a card saying

“To a Fancy Lady

From Kaptein Jannie Sparrow”

My reasoning that by supplying a ridiculous name that she would figure out that it was a joke and that it would be a friend who sent it that knew she thought Johnny Depp was “yummy” (her words).

Click... and 6 red roses in a plastic sleeve were sent as per my orders.


That was Monday. And I trawled her Facebook page hourly once I sent them to see any evidence of her receiving the gift.


I half expected her to call me and say “what’s the deal with this- I know it was you”.


Monday evening – nothing

In impatience I sent her a “Hey, how are you doing, Good weekend” IM but not a whisper.



Tuesday – nothing

I googled her name to see if there were perhaps two people with the same name working for her employer.



Wednesday – nothing

I decided to distract myself and forgot about the small shenanigan.

This week Monday the Englishman returned from holiday and as we were catching up I told him about the flowers prank.

His response was “What! That was you! High Five!”

He had been out with The Accountant and The Mechanic for movies on Sunday and the entire topic of conversation for the whole evening had been about trying to guess who had sent the flowers and the Englishman and the Mechanic telling her about how it must be a guy and how he will ask for a date and how she must dress sharp for the rest of the week to not scare her secret admirer away and how more flowers were sure to follow.

Now I had been dying the whole past week to tell her but didn’t want to give up the prank. The Englishman proposed that we convince all the rest of her friends to send her flowers weekly in turns to prolong the game. However his one singular piece of advice was “Do not tell her, she will be so disappointed.”

In a panic I contacted The Mechanic, and got just about the same advice. “She will be devastated. We must never speak of this again”

Guilt! guilt! guilt! Guilt! Guilt!

Now not telling the truth doesn’t make sense at all. How much more stupid would it be if she finds out in months time that I sent her flowers and no one told her.

So in a panic I stopped off to visit her on the way home on Monday. I happened to catch her as she was leaving to visit her mum but convinced her to come inside for a cup of tea. I told my long story and the good intentions behind it and made a huge apology.


And her response?

She thinks I am a royal piece of over-ripe fruit for thinking she would ever be disappointed.

However I can understand why the lengthy speculation, the florist delivered a huge bunch of flowers consisting of at least 3 times the original prescribed number of roses..

So the moral of the story is “Do something nice for your friends” but don’t be too obscure about it.

Happy?

Escapism

I am sorry to say that I made a gloomy post last time and I lifted my mood out of it and now these several days later, my mood has dipped again. (I'll think of something happy to post just now)



MrT and I have been brewing up a fight for a while. We had a serious discussion with my parents over wedding financing last Friday and it left both of us feeling very blue. Then after a well behaved day with The Best Friend Engineer - I has a complete screaming angry fit-throwing two-year old toddler to him the whole of last weekend and after some harsh words we made peace over hot chocolate and laptop-tv. (in my defence I was tripping on hormones and suffering a concrete-snollies cold)

Then Monday arrived with some not entirely unexpected but somewhat inconvenient news that I need to prepare to get back on the market for a home in the near future. And this has thrown teh wedding plans into an entirely new light.


So last night MrT and I had a very long and escalalingly tart discussion about how we need money for the wedding, we need money to buy a house, we need money to travel overseas, we need money to replace my car and so on and on and on the money-drains rack up.

Predictably, discussing finacial woes never result in smiles. Voices were raised and eyes did leak and wild insinuations were made.

It is ridiculous that the whole entire world acts in a certain way and just because I want to do things differently, I am made to feel like an alien from outer space. Is it IMPOSSIBLE to get married without having to prempt the thrill by co-habiting?

What is the point in spending all the money on a wedding and celebrating the transition from single-hood to partnership and wearing the beautiful wickedly overpriced dress and saying those vows when the actual transition took place months before in secret under the disapporoving eyes of my elders?

Honestly, it would be very convenient and very financially pleasing to move in with MrT.

But, it seems to me that purity is a lost art in these days. However, even if I acknowledge that I am not a 1800's romance novel heroine and the innocence of my mind long since lost to tv and radio and movies and guys who are frieds who are willing to explain the latest lingo, I know that I worked very hard to be who I am and who my friends know me to be. 

Is it so wrong to preserve something to discover after the nuptials? To leave wife-ery for the stage of my life when I will actually be a wife.

And on top of that, I fought so long and hard for independance and the adventure of living alone, it seems unfair to give it up before the party.

Gloomy Day Tune

This cold overcast weather makes me melancholy...

 

Winter in Joburg can be a little like a mood swinging teenager. Sunny and crisp on one day like the cold doesn't matter and overcast and withdrawn the next like the cold is overwhelming.

 

I heard this song on the radio the other day. It is beautifully played. This song goes out to the remorseful-memory-dregging Frankie, and to any other twenty-something who has lived long enough to have a distinction within their happy and sad memories between these present days and those past days. 

 

Anyway, what goes better with feeling old and pathetic in cold cloudy weather than some mournful piano playing?

 

 

"Someone Like You" (abridged) by Adele

I heard
That you're settled down
That you
Found a girl
And you're
Married now

I heard
That your dreams came true.
Guess she gave you things
I didn't give to you

...

 

Never mind
I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
"Don't forget me," I begged
"I'll remember," you said
"Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead."
Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead,
Yeah.

You know how the time flies
Only yesterday
It was the time of our lives
We were born and raised
In a summer haze
Bound by the surprise
Of our glory days

...

Never mind
I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
"Don't forget me," I begged
"I'll remember," you said
"Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead."

Nothing compares
No worries or cares
Regrets and mistakes
They are memories made.
Who would have known
How bittersweet this would taste?

Never mind
I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
"Don't forget me," I begged
"I'll remember," you said
"Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead"

Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead

Wedding Buzz Slowdown

So after a furious few weeks of wedding enthusiasm and planning and choosing and selecting all the fantastic nitty gritty details, MrT and I have done very very little in the way of wedding planning of late. (Okay correction: we came up with a few Genius Ideas about how to make the wedding more US-ish and less generic-wedding-ish ... but it's a secret - the wedding gremlins might steal the ideas)

We started off so terribly excited and we went trotting through venues and wedding diaries and catalogues and price schedules. We made selections on venue and menu and photographer and cake and flowers and theme and colours. But the concept of the cost of it all becomes really overwhelming stressful. I put on my big girl pants and accepted that my parents aren't being withholding and mean but that they really just don't want to spend frivolous money unnecessarily. (Not that we asked for frivolous money... yet)

Then I delved into wedding dress shopping on a very cursory level. I watched one of my betrothed best friends try on some dresses for herself. I accessed every wedding dress website advertised in my SA local bride’s catalogue. And the result was far less than inspiring; it was more of a boggy disappointment. I am heartbroken that the nice dresses are three times the price of what I want to spend and the ones that are in my price range, are honestly a little bit ugly and out of fashion by half a decade. (Does anyone else want to wear a dress that looks like it was made out of lace table cloths, a ton of pearlish beads and a glue gun?)

So I found a happy place in my head to deal with Wedding Dress Stuff (until I have time to find a suitable solution) I browse all the Really designer wedding dresses (the kind that I would never consider even asking for the price for) and I fantasise about the idea of if I lived in a world where a dress costing the same price as a small car would be nothing. It's like shopping for real estate by looking at buying a castle in Scotland or Bavaria. We don't really want to own a historical land mark but it's nice to think about. I don't really need a Vera Wang wedding dress but gosh, that woman makes a fine white dress.

We will regain momentum soon enough but for now I need a solid break from reality and a little happy time in the 8 year old princess dream land.

Send on the Cinderella pictures! (Castle pictures accepted too)

Secrets!

I have a secret! It's Killing Me! I must tell!

 

I was listening on the radio this morning and they were interviewing a specific personality about his new show. My ears perked up because MrT goes on about him a bit. So I jumped on the internet and nabbed two tickets for tomorrow night.

 

I really hope MrT will be super surprised and pleased.... and of course that we have a splendid good evening tomorrow of course.

 

S-O E-X-C-I-T-E-D. Fun Times! Splendidness!

 

(Now to tell MrT he can't read my blog for a day or two)

 

On another note, PostSecret is addictive and horrifying and funny and scary all at the same time.

another weekend passeth

It has been a rather eventful Sunday. I offered to make potato bake for Sunday luncheon and managed to chop a slice into my finger. I thought it was minor until I realised that the blood wasn't oozing but rather making tiny rivers down my arm.

I should be proud that it took over a year of living on my own to inflict a semi-serious injury to myself (barring burning my thumb on the oven elements.) and since I am a strong and independent woman... I called my mother and proceeded to have a freak the $%&! out moment over the phone. I tell no lies for the sake of drama when I tell you that I said "Mom, I have cut off my finger, well actually I have sliced the tip of my finger off, well actually sliced into the tip of my finger. But it is bleeding a lot. Like fountaining all over the place."

My mother advised me to tell MrT to hurry over and save me and that it was okay to be scared.

MrT arrived (eventually) and took one look and took me off to the hospital. The nurse at the hospital told me in no uncertain terms that my wound could not be called Not Serious even though I was correct that stitches were unneeded.

So after a medical practitioners opinion, I felt less silly for having a tears and snollies melt down after letting the knife slip while chopping potatoes.

My mother offered to take a look 3 hours later after luncheon when it was still bleeding through the bandages. So I proudly eased off the bindings to show my fresh scars of the war with my kitchen knife. She took a look at the flap of skin waving from the C-shaped incision into my pinky finger and went "eeeeh it's not so bad. What was all the fuss about?"

BOOM! It seems I am a drama queen after all.

Now almost 12 hours later it is only leaking that clear plasma stuff through the bandage... typing is amusing and driving is not. I have the rest of the evening to come up with a convincing back story before I go to work.

The funny thing is that the knife I cut myself with is part of the set that MrT gave me for my birthday. I have actually managed to inflict a flesh wound on my fingers with 3 of the 5 in the set... I fear the other two lie in wait in the box for their opportunities to demand their bloody sacrifice from my digits. I am not even normally that accident prone, except when it comes to really really sharp knives. This sounds like the premise for a horror movie.

"BLOODY KNIFE SET
FEED THE KNIVES BEFORE THEY FEED ON THE LIFE COURSING THROUGH YOUR FINGERS"

Last word for today

A Softer World is awesome. You should check them out.

... that is all.

Anyone else check out the eclipse?

The real moon eclipse... not the movie with shirtless lads and expressionless gals.

I borrowed MrT's tripod and we set up my little camera on his balcony last night and we actually got some pretty nice (I admit amateur) pictures of it.

The public holidays...

...they pass too fast. Oh wonderful Youth Day. We awaited your arrival for so many long hard work days and now that you were here and with us we feel you slipping away. Please won't you stay a little longer?

My youth day was actually not primarily spent on Youth - We went to spend the morning with my fathers Mother. (We called her Granny Far Away when were little because she lived in Parys with my late grandfather). MrT and I arrived early to show off our "We are engaged" glow before my sister and baby nephew arrived and stole all the attention. (I have long since made peace with this fact of life: Cute Babies are more interesting than just about anything else.)

After, MrT and I went grocery shopping and browsing the shops. Thrilling stuff really - but when you have that magic ring on your finger, everything you do together is a novelty.

Then, like old people, we hurried home for an afternoon nap.

We had to source some supplies for dinner (left over boerewors goes well with fresh rolls) and MrT decided to let me drive his car. My suspicions are that he wants a new bigger car sooner or later and wants me to take over his car and sell mine. He had a HUGE smile on after the ride - I think he wants a Fiance of the Year award for letting his woman sit in the drivers seat of his semi-new vehicle. I am sticking with precociousness and acting like it was nothing. Secret is, it's a pretty darned awesome car to drive. ssshhh...

At the end of this glorious day of non-work, I must be returning home for an early night and teh frosty early morning that follows to be running and not puking.

Huzzah to Youth!

Lessons in Exercise: Unfit people have Limits

...with a capital letter and underlined... twice.

I went off for my fourth RWFL session this morning. It was VERY difficult to get out of bed and I only had time to gulp down three mouthfuls of OJ before skipping across the road. Now in the previous session I had impressed the others with my ability to pick up on a sprint after 15 minutes of training. (I wasn't as impressed - astonished perhaps that my body still remembered how to almost instantly evacuate one location for another further away one - but I am well trained in dodging water pistols and water balloons - 3 Brothers will train you in that.)

So I figured I was well on the path to a better body. So I pushed myself a little today. Jogged a little faster, jogged for a little longer, pushed my sprint lap a little harder. I completed my new longer training time and was more than a shade out of breath... I felt good at being able to push my self to a limit.

 My body waited while we were chatting over the log books and right as I was making ready to leave and walk home my body tapped me on my hypothetical shoulder and said "Nay, No more of this Frank. I refuse to supply energy to your knees and legs any more. Gravity! Take over!"

I, in reply said "BLEEEUUGGH... BLEEUUGGHH...groan... BLEEEUUUUUEEEUUUUUGGHH... pant pant ... bleugh"

For the record: green grass and (digested) orange juice make a nice contrast...

Oh the shame! The horror! the pity on me! the mess on the grass! The aching diaphragm!

And the saddest part about chucking my guts this morning? I made a nice lunch to make me feel better and now I am not hungry :(

 

The new immediate challange is to arrive at the next traing session and not hide in bed with my shame. (I told The Englishman and he high-fived me for my puking efforts)

Wedding Planning Joys

Today, MrT and I, at long last, had time to go browse wedding venues. We booked appointments at a couple of venues and early (...for a Saturday...) we set off with high hopes.

The first venue was splendid. Quite a lot splendid in fact. We were almost too scared to get out the car and find out how many kidneys they needed to secure a booking of such a magnificent spot.

unfortunately for the rest of the venues we visited, this place set the bar very high for the day... (barring a few minor concerns) We drove across North Western Joburg and stopped of at a few ad hoc venues along the way. Some were so dismal we turned around in the parking lot and drove away 2 minutes after arriving. Some were surprisingly great and are backup plan venues for future reference.

We also collected a fat stack of brochures and now I have adverts for all the unimaginable things I never knew a wedding would fail without.

By 6pm today we have a provisional booking at a dreamy venue, a business card of a perfect photographer and pictures of the exact wedding dress I want that is being sold in a shop in western Johannesburg.

I am almost afraid to ask, When does the bubble pop and reality make things crash?

Frankie is getting fit - session 2.

 So the first visit to RunWalkForLife was relatively uneventful. The greatest achievement being that I actually got out of bed almost 2 hours earlier than normal on a frosty winters morning and arrived in time. The friendly lady went relatively easy on me and I managed a mild glow on my brow. The mild glow may have been more from remembering all the instructions. Tits Out, Chin Up, Arms Swing, Loose Fists, Abs Stiff, Push Back Knees, Lift Feet, Lean from Ankles, Tuck In Tails (that's my butt... I think) and maybe a few other instructions that slipped my mind.

 

And so, full of vigour and enthusiasm and the burning feeling of the hole in my pocket from paying the years membership upfront, I managed to again achieve the meritable success of arriving on time this morning. Dreams of toned and shapely arms under my wedding dress sleeves were dancing in my eyes. (I am aware that results only follow after 5 – 7 months)

 

This time there was another new young lady (in this club, mid forties counts as young) to train with me. (The other members do hard(-er)core stuff like run along the road.) And we worked SO much harder today. I was proper sweating after 20 minutes of training. (What can I say – I really am unfit). Yes, I was beaten by someone closer in age to my parents than me.

 

In the end I feel pretty good even if my arms and legs are warning me of future aches to come.

 

The current goal is to run the 10km Spar Ladies in October this year. My maths tells me I need to gain 2km per month to be ready. Yip, I need to be able to run 2km by the end of June without collapsing .. Honestly, I am mostly scared at this stage of wanting to give up and stay warm and cosy in my bed.

 

But in the end what will be the most rewarding will to know that I can wake up on a winters morning without nightmares of oversleeping, throw on some stretchy pants, stretch my legs and come home for a wickedly hot shower and feel like I am going to live to 100... three times a week.  

 

(A wedding dress that doesn't have to contain parts to "mask" my figure would be nice too...)

After a long hard Saturday....

... We do lunch :)

Vida e caffe, I love you :)

Good bye old life - Hello new life

I have decided to make a change to my life style. After an almost 12 year break (actually more like an 8 year break) I have decided to take up road running again. Indeed friends, believe it or not I used to compete in races like the Spar Ladies. (that isn't really such an achievement)

I used to run 5 km a few times a week when I was at school and I was terribly ridiculously fit (teen age bodies are wonderful dynamic under appreciated devices). Then I gave it up to be captain of the chess team (honestly we mostly played cards). I was fine without the regular running because I was still catching the bus home from school (minus one tog bag of running kit) and taking a brisk walk between bus stops and home. Even into my university years I was sprinting between classes as well as the bus stop run.

But now I am no longer a student and have entered into a professional career and I own a car which willingly carries me to all sorts of places that buses just won't do. I am well aware that I am no longer as fit and spry as I used to be. And so, I was spurred on by MrT and have decided to make a change and take up some exercise before my blood pressure drops so low that standing up from a chair will make me see stars.Before I develop premature flappy arms and a pot belly. Before my metabolism packs up and goes on an extended holiday. Before I can not longer play racing games with my Brownie Guides. Before I have to buy too many more pairs of elasticated pants.

I look at photos of myself in those fitter days and I feel a little tragic to notice that I really was a gloriously slim creature. Not that slimness is the only acceptable form, and not that I am really that dramatically much fatter but having to change trouser size after 12 years of wearing the same size is very damaging to the ego. In fact, my butt should hopefully not vanish to much by this endeavour because I have my heart set on a mermaid wedding dress skirt. My bootahay is part of my beautahay.

I found out, by some strike of luck, that there is a Run Walk for Life crew that meets in close walking distance from my front door. Oh Joy!

...They meet at 7 in the morning. (For reference, I usually only wake up at 8am most days.)

And so today, I am in mourning because tomorrow I will be conscious and out of my warm bed for much more of the early (freezing chilly cold dark dreaded painful dreary winter sub zero cold) morning.

And let us hope that I will be persistent and focused and start reaping some benefits in three to six months time. (I hope my body forgives me of my laziness and gives back the other 90% of my lung capacity)

 

Here's to good health! (and more veggies and fruit and less fudge and chocolate)

Is this any surprise?

...that I would loose all momentum after two days of furious blogging twice?

I am am actually quite disappointed with myself. I specifically took two days of leave last week to have  few free days to get myself and my life sorted. and now what i mean by that is that my little housie is somewhat of an organised chaos of a mess. and on bad days it is a chaotic disorganized mess.

And after two days of leave, what did I achieve - well just about as much tidying as I achieve on any other non-leave taking week. (I vacuumed and wiped down some counters and removed odd smelling things)

...and so after a glorious two days out of the office I am actually back where i was a week ago. still in organised chaos!

I could blame MrT for proposing and throwing out the whole plan so that instead of cleaning I was getting manicures and giving people arc eye by sparkling them in the face unexpectedly... but I am still feeling too good about the whole "I am engaged!!" thing.

And then MrT got a serious case of man-flu and I had to be at his side to feed him soup and make sure he was wrapped up warm and stuff.

So another Monday passed - this Monday came with very poor lunch time food prospects so I splashed out on sushi for dinner - and that was a splendid idea until after 8 salmon California rolls, two chicken spring rolls and four vegetable fashion sandwiches in I was rather tired of the taste of soy sauce and seaweed. I finished off with jelly beans and a big glass of orange juice to make me feel better.

Now at present my organised house of chaos smells like fresh baked scones and the whisper of a lonely pillow begs me to pay a visit (prompted my my back that is telling me to get off the cold hard floor and onto something a little kinder on the butt cheeks and knees.) because sleeping is something I definitely have staying power for.

Let us start with the big news first

so the big news is that... wait for it... wait for it...

After many months of threatening/charming/sweet talking/more threatening, MrT proposed to me on the day before my birthday...

..and we are very very happy.

It started with a breakfast picnic at the Botanic Gardens. Salmon ("smoked Norwegian" MrT wants to add) and cottage cheese on croissants with hot coffee and cuddles on the blanket. Then after some sunbathing we went to inspect the waterfalls. (along with a massive church group... not that romantic)

We found a secluded path and walked through the mud and over branches and found a quiet bench to enjoy the surroundings. Then after a cough and a cleared throat and a bow on the knee (in the mud) MrT simply asked me to be his wife.

I was smiling so widely that I simply nodded... a lot...

and this is what was inside the magic blue box.

...or at least it was modeled on this design from a well known jewelery store (Not My Image - This Image Belongs To Browns)

I think we will feature proteas in our wedding theme in June next year.

So it has been a week almost now. I have decided for the sake of controlling the madness to have a ten minute "wedding time" every day where I let spill out all the wedding things I thought about that day - this all tumbles out into MrT's ears who patiently listens and notes down the ideas that actually make any sense.

I keep being distracted by the sparkle on my finger.

see...

The line I wanted to update my Facebook status with right in the moment was
"He has put a star on my finger to match the stars he puts in my eyes." 

Pity we kept it a secret to tell people personally first.

na na na na doot dee doot...

I am back! After a long drought of no posts I have got my technological ducks in a row and (Let us hope) I will be able to bloggy bloggy blog a lot more often. (As shown before, I should probably disclaimer that I may not always keep this promise)

Anyway I have So So So much to say on here. fast trains and hypothetical ferrari's and diamonds and eagles and giant lumps of cement!!. but for now, I celebrate with a new blog design (for those using the mobile version - sorry - same old, same old for all of you).

And while you glory in the splendor of some one else's artwork...I shall go make dinner for MrT. He needs attention more at the moment :)

Dear Rollercoaster

... I know you are busy rushing around and asking half way through this wild trip is rather inconvenient... but can I climb off now?

Big bloggy news is coming up... (Well not that dramatic really) ..but time runs away from me like chasing tiny rubber balls through a shopping centre - it is utter pandemonium.

It is one week until I turn 26... I'll set my goals at breaking this blogging drought while I am still 25.

Wish me luck!

Update on Frank

The year seems to be rolling away into the second quarter while I turned my back and was busy for a little while. I have been keeping busy at work and keeping busy not being at work. I got to see two good rare friends recently. One - a chap from Cape Town who I have known longer than most of my current buddies (with due exception to The Gang - that is why they are my Gang) Two - a chap from Ze Rhineland who I only got to know in the past two years since I visited Germany.

I draw some interesting parallels between these two gents because both seem to work far harder than me and seem to be achieving more with their careers than me and we're all around about the same age. Both seem to be working 16 hour days on a regular basis and make me feel all ashamed of my humble 40 hour weeks. Both are friends who I have spent very little actual time with in their presence in comparison to the duration of our relationship and yet both I have a lengthy and ongoing email correspondence with.

But despite the work-shame it was a great pleasure to see and spend time with people who are friends because they are your friends. (Not work not school not varsity - but just friendly friends)

Work-shame comments aside, overall work is going well. I tend to set my goals at being as competant as the people who were graduates the year before me. It's difficult to notice one's growth in a career until someone with less experience comes and asks you questions. 20 minutes later you realise that when we are grouped under the bracket of one to five years experience, one year is a LONG TIME.

And yet, I have the honour of working with people who experience in the power network field seems to be only exceeded by my own 92 year old grandfather who was chief planning engineer for the town council before he retired. and still, I work with these people, they make some really dumb mistakes. Silly stuff that my parents taught me before I finished high school.

Long important meetings that get rounded and closed off 35% of the way into the agenda issues followed by 30 minutes of awkward standing around.

Four hours on site in 42 degree weather without a hat.

15 minute progress meetings that get hijacked and meld into 4 hour meetings discussing nothing about progress.

Repeating what everyone else is saying over and over again in a loud informative voice even though everyone understood the junior who said the bright idea first.


I read an interesting quote the other day that rings terribly true in this situation saying :

"Middle age is when you have all the answers and no one wants to ask the questions"

(this could also apply to my father, but I didn't say that aloud - I am sure he is a pleasure to work for. My dad is super smart and stuff)

I have been living on my own in my little castle for almost a year now. Technically I moved in about a year ago. In hind sight it was both good and bad. If I could go back in time I may convince myself not to move out. I miss my parents and my brother so much. More than I could have imagined. And I still see them twice a week! And I miss having the cooking and cleaning and shopping done for me. But in exchange I have been able to explore creativity in cooking and house decorating and time scheduling. I am becoming a wine taster and an expert in the smell of ripe milk.

In the end I am achieving what I set out to do which was to become a functional adult and to learn some responsibility and to look after myself. I am learning there is always some sacrifice to achieve what we want in life.


And so now I have waxed on for a good lump of text. I haven’t mentioned Cirque Du Soliel or finding and engagement ring in the parking lot or the thrills of Aunt-ness or my holiday to the beach coming up or deciding to have a sense of humour about receiving a Save-The-Date to Mr-X’s wedding or trying to convince myself to survive not having a new car or picking out my next holiday or being showered with flowers by Mr Thursday and starting up the Office Rumour Mill.

But be sure of this boys and girls, my life isn’t boring anymore. (at least from my perspective – and I am the one having to live it)

Todays LOL

In the midst of all the things making demands on my time and the other head scratching odd things that happen from day to day, this photo comic made me highly amused.

Credit goes to ASofterWorld.

Giving up the Tube

I found this pretty cool website the other day which the author has collected all the images and quotes on the internet and made one big Tumblr called The Pursuit of Happyness. It is a pretty funky tumblr at that.

 

Anyway I found this picture on the site and I was reading it at the time where the most common thought tumbling out of my mouth all the time was about how little time I had to do all the things I really enjoy doing like Reading and Beading and Painting and Photography and Baking. It struck me as such a simple idea that if I have no time for great hobbies, why don't I turn off the TV?

 

So I promptly pulled the plug from the wall and for a week I had no TV.

 

I confess I still sat in front of the TV at dinner time but that's a habit to break another day. I have read more in that past week than the whole year so far up to that point. It was such a liberating experience; I decided to give up TV for Lent.

 

 

... Not that I make a habit of being big on Lent

 

... I have managed so far with a 75% success... but only because I was between story books.

 

So here goes to acknowledging that: this is My Life and Life is short and if I don't like how my Life is going I can change.

 

Sunset on the way to Francistown

Some days there are perks to my work (other days {cue: palm facing upwards, shrug} eeh... Its okay.

I just spent a full day of traveling on site in Botswana and after driving a good 600 km we were pretty much feeling the whole tired vibe. So on the way dodging enthusiastic land rovers and tailing construction trucks, I snapped this picture of the wicked awesome sunset. It was impressive enough that it made me feel good for a little while. For the record, I was not driving at the time....

Sunsets woooo!

Pipe dream wings

Credit to MrT for the caption

Scenes on the way home

Beginning of the year traffic is always a nightmare and going home on fridays especially are times when I think about biting chunks out of my steering wheel in frustration.

Conversely, the number one way to make sure the traffic moves is to find something else to do while your clutch wears out.

I acquired a fabulous new phone a few weeks ago. (more on that in an other blog post.) So after moving 10m in 5 minutes - less than a kilometre my house... I decided to play with my mobile phone camera. (thrilling story this...)

As I set up the shot of the dark thunder clouds behind the pine trees, the robot changed and I had to move up five cars lest I be hooted at. So here's some pictures of some other foliage amd storm clouds instead :)

I can see you....

I have discovered that my blog has this nifty little feature...  It gives me statistics as to who has been reading my blog and where the got to my blog from and what country they are from. (I will not confess how l;ong this has been a source of both curiousity, morbid fear and ego inflation for me)

This is mostly a terribly amusing tool, especially the obscure search terms people have used that happened cause them to arrive at my blog.

For example if you are searching for barely clothed women who are fully deprived of bodily covering but to spice things up you type in auntys instead of girls or woman you will happen upon a post I made titled "Auntys heart full of Love" about the birth of my nephew.

In a less hilarious example, if you are searching for hotels in Botswana and you look up the Kidron suites hotel you will get my blog as the only three posts on the Internet referencing it. (this is a cause of great concern because my work colleagues could legitimately happen to get to my blog by mistake)

I was smart enough to remove all references to the acronym for the company I work for in cause I have written anything here that could be deemed as a dismissible offence. (does dozing off at work count 18 months after it happened?)

What is also interesting is who exactly is reading my blog - in the past month the stats for page views have been as follows:

1. South Africa 91
2. United Kingdom 33
3. United States 32
4. United Arab Emirates 18
5. Malaysia 6
6. Russia 2
7. China 1
8. Czech Republic 1
9. France 1
10. South Korea 1

Now some of these are confused people looking for pron (misspelling intentional) and several are people I have given the address to and many people are referred to my blog from Facebook. It is kind of very interesting matching countries to referring websites. And some readers are from links from friends blogs. (It seems however that this month my high readership in Europe has lapsed a little.)

 

Finally the most bizarre thing is that there is one post that gets read more often than any other post, more often than the next 6 most often read posts. This post gets read at least 10 times a month. My only hypothesis is that this post pops up most commonly when google references my blog... or else I may need to do some selective Internet searching to find out if I have been a victim of intellectual property burglary. And that post is (one of my finer items I believe) reposted here to celebrate itself as the seeming proclaimed winner of my blog! (I should be able to do better over a year later....) I will start working on a revised list ASAP.

 

With no further ado:

 

Monday 21 December 2009

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)