Welcome to the hood (Take 2)

Lovely weekend which even included some suntanning! (The sun finally made a brief appearance only to be replaced today AGAIN by the rain) Anyway, did some more gardening and went to our favourite restaurant - the cuban place etc etc blah blah blah

And then....

this morning The Band's car was stolen.

Fortunately for my state of mind it was not stolen from our house.

Here's what happened:

The Band left this morning for the week - he's gone to bloem.

On the way (at like 4.50) he dropped off his car at a friend's house for the friend to use. At like 5.20 the friend went outside and the car was gone.

Anyone seen a white Isuzu double cab lying about?

The bad news is that we purchased the car through vehicle financing so it looks like even after insurance we will still OWE R30K AND not have a car. How rough is that???

Gutted. It feels like you are just crawling out of a hole and you get shoved into a deeper one. I am pretty frikken depressed. There go my plans for FINALLY doing up my lounge and much much much worse.... there go my plans for a WONDERFUL December holiday up to vic falls and mozambique. ("I will not cry, I will not cry, I will not cry")

This is not a sad thing. It is not even a scary thing. It is just an incredibly UNFAIR thing and that makes it so frustrating.

Happy Birthday Phoebe

If you can start the day without caffeine,

If you can get going without pep pills,

If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,

If you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it,

If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment

If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him,

If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,

If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

Then You Are Probably The Family Dog!


This is the dog who rules my heart... Phoebe.... It was her birthday on Sunday. If you think it's odd that I phoned her (she's in EL) then you'll find it even more odd that my bro's called her from London. We're not to be mistaken for a normal family, but she is an incredible dog and we love her.

Saving relationships one month at a time!

This is great.... I may have to anonymously and mysteriously add it to the agenda at our next staff meeting!

http://pmsbuddy.com/

WHY I LOVE SA (Inspired by EXMI)

So following on from EXMI's inspirational post and also "inspired??" by a disgusting, racist, awful blog which i will not link to, I hereby start my very own meme. Sorry Slyde and Lotus (and any other foreigners reading this), I know that you'll be gutted, but this is a South African meme... and here is how it works:

• Link back to the original meme (that would be this post) and the meme inspirer (that would be EXMI)
• Link to the person who tagged you
• Give (at least) 5 reasons why you love SA
• Tag at least 5 peeps
• Let me know when you've done it!

Let's get this thing going and get SAns thinking good thoughts about our AWESOME nation!

1. I love the people. WOW. Where to start? I love how when you greet a xhosa person in their language their entire face lights up. I love how afrikaners are so ordentelik - living in Stellenbosch (a place with an UNNATURAL amount of nails in the road) I had plenty plenty plenty punctures over the years and have never had to change a tire. A nice afrikaans boy will ALWAYS appear out of nowhere and change it for me. I love how there is this (sometimes unspoken) comraderie among South Africans. Pretty much all South Africans.
2. I love how SA always manages to shine at our darkest hour. Even the xenophobia attacks were an incredible time of unity for the rest of South Africa. Young, old, black, white, STRANGERS, all came together, rolled up their sleeves and helped.
3. I love our social ways. So many SAns who go overseas stick to being friends with other SAns. That's coz many other cultures don't do the whole "drop in at whim" thing. They are more seperated and detached. We thrive on it.
4. I love that we beat the odds, the stats, the doomsday prophets and proved them all wrong by NOT ending in civil war in '94.
5. I love our language. It's a mix - mostly english but with others peppered in - "yoh!" "eish" "jislaaik" etc. Sometimes english just is not expressive enough all on its own. South African is much better!

Ok now that you have patriotic Jonny Clegg type music swelling in your head, it's your turn.

I tag: Sweets, Glugs (worth a try and it is for a good cause!!), Tamara, Being Brazen, Gill, Charmskool, My so called life, Ruby and in fact ALL WHO READ THIS POST :) I spose I can't reeeeeally tag EXMI seeing as she has pretty much already done it, BUT I can blame this meme on her :)

TELL ME WHY (I don't like Mondays)

I pretty much have that song in my head every monday.

Great weekend. Thurs nite I took the band and some mates to Buena Vista Social Cafe - FANTASTIC. We all assigned ourselves Cuban names (i am now Babarita - pronounced buburrreeetuh) our waitress became Manuel (munwell) etc etc. Great vibe, great food, great evening.

Fri was a birthday braai for the band - had about 30 peeps over. good fun.

Sat I did some gardening!* (No one was more impressed with me than me!! :) and went to another braai and today at 6 frikken AM I started to get my ass in shape.... http://www.adventurebootcamp.co.za/ 6 - 7 am, 5 days a week for 4 weeks. Wish me luck guys!!!

* The things i planted are called bulbines... see the pretty yellow flowers at the top of my blog? they're those and soon they'll be brightening up my garden. yay

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to The Band

27 today!

And HOT AS EVER!

Dam I am in love with this man!!

Politics

What are your thoughts on the controversial Zapiro cartoon which appeared in the Sunday Times this weekend? There has been a huge reaction to the cartoon on both sides since.
What's yours??

Current addictions

I'm a tag victim...Tamara tagged me to do this meme.
So in a vampirey manner reminiscent of those creatures in I am Legend (ok, yes, I totally am mentioning that so I can lure our favourite vamp fan, Slyde, into participating :) ...I tag:

Blue Sunflower
EXMI
Glugs
Slyde
Lotus
I realise the last 3 are guys and therefore I'm perhaps quite unrealistic in my expectation, but hey, c'mon... i reckon your addictions would be VERY interesting :)

Now... the rules:
*Post at least five current addictions (with some details please)
*Mention the person who started this game of tag (Being Brazen) and also the person who just tagged you (in my case, Tamara).
*Type your post with the heading "Current addictions"
*Tag at least two people and pass on the above rules.

And, my current addictions:

1. My hotwaterbottle! Ya, ya, things may be warm up north, but here in the Cape it is still freeeeezing!
2. Not very original but i have to back Tamara up here... I am also completely addicted to Viva la Vida. LOVING IT. Also somehow I only just discovered SnowPatrol now. LOVING Chasing Cars.
3. Rosie Thomas books. I inherited my gran's collection and am devouring them steadily!
4. Blogging. You guys are my sanity. (aaaaaaaah sweet).
5. Prison Break Season 4. You know how i feel about Wentworth!!!!! ;)

Welcome to the hood!

So anyway, we were burgled! (spelling anyone??) Remember our NEW place that we've been in for a month?
YUP!

The sequence of events as retold to the police:

• Got home from church (nogal) on Sunday and our garden gate was open. (*caz and the band are puzzled*)


• The dogs are inside (*puzzled some more*)


• My jewelry is all out of my jewelry box (*growing confused*)


• The band's laptop is gone (*bugger it! A BURGLARY*)


• There is a frikken AXE lying on my dressing table (*lovely!!!*)


• I notice that my gran's earrings and some other sentimental jewelry is missing (*caz decides to not completely freak out... deep breaths deep breaths!*)


• The band's watch is gone (*well that sucks*)


• And then I see it... The VOID.... the VACUUM which was once filled by something vital in my life.... THOSE PSYCHOS have stolen my GHD!!!!!!! What kind of a SICK WORLD are we living???
  

Why I despise David Attenborough

So I'm a greenie, right? A nature lover, if you will. A bunny hugger, as it were. So I should be this huge fan of Dave Attenborough and his work and his ability to invoke a sense of awe for nature. But I'm not.

You guys seen The Planet Earth series? You know 'filming over 5 years, in 204 locations with a budget of $25 million'. Emmy award winning etc etc?

Well I find it emotionally manipulative and disturbing.

Take the snow geese for example.

You watch these little geese fly for 3 MONTHS from Mexico aaaaall the way to the Arctic ("wow such endurance" you think "they deserve a good summer break when they get there". They fly with their man or lady as they mate for life. ("how romantic" you think "and soon they'll be a family!!") Then they get there and all is great. ("if anyone deserves it, they do!" you think) They lay their eggs and really work hard at nesting, incubating and all that stuff (you can hardly wait for the little ones to arrive!). Finally these fluffy little goslings emerge. (despite the heart warming crescendo in the background you are starting to grow suspicious). The music (inevitably) changes. A cloud shadows the sun (ok, well it may as well have!!) And then enter miss arctic fox ("noooo!!" you think). The fox goes for the chicks (obviously). The parents do their best to fight it off (unsuccessfully). In the end the fox kills all babies but only takes one.

So NOW you are hating that fox. Evil wicked little bugger until OBVIOUSLY you see her taking the chick to her little babies.

UGH! I find it draining and awful. Bla bla bla yes, it is nature, but it's also not. Nature doesn't have the emotional music in the background. So there.

That's why i don't like David.

hmmmm

today i am sad.
I miss my gran. I feel kind of homesick for her if that makes sense.

I think through the process of reading through her diaries (20 years worth) in EL and all the letters she's sent me over the years and her bible here I have come to know my gran in a whole new way. Not just as my gran but as the woman.

I missed so much – like her loneliness at loss of my granddad. Every year she remembered her anniversary – we don’t think of these things and the power of phoning someone on the day and just supporting them. Her passion for her family and the impact of hearing from them. Life is so short and it’s so hard not to sit with regrets.

The night before she died I was at church and I felt that I should go out and call the hospital and leave her a message. But I didn’t. I put it off. And now she is gone and I will never get that chance. Stupid stupid me for not listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. A regret I shall have to live with always. BUT God is so good. Last night I dreamt I was in East London and Noon was going to die and we all knew it but I got the opportunity to tell her again for a last time how I felt about her. Amazing how God does that. Noon knew how I felt, I know that, but still… you know? Yes, … you do know.

Anyway, this isn't the point of my post. The point is to say that life is short and it’s the decisions we make on the spur of the moment – the decisions that cost us in the short term but mean something in the long term – that make all the difference.