Contact has been made!!

So how fantastically exciting is this? Some of you may remember a post a while back about Jock straps . Well go see who just commented on it!!! hee hee loving that!!

Back at last

Hi guys.

Wow I have missed you. A bit of a catch up, first of all Natal was great it was really good to be in the bush. We saw some fantastic birds including the pearl spotted owl (I have such a thing for owls and this is SA’s smallest - only 15cm high, I mean SERIOUSLY how cute can you get??) I also am happy to report that I did see the neergaard’s sunbird and a pink throated twinspot. Also a southern banded snake eagle which some of the pro birders seemed to be get really excited about.

I opted to spend an extra night in durbs on my way home to see my bro and his fam. This is my niece… in her ballet outfit.

Go on… tell me she is not one of the most beautiful little girls you’ve ever seen. Dam she is cute. SO on board with everything I say. Whenever I visit she puts on my shoes at first opportunity (even if they are just scruffy slops which have seen better days) and slings my handbag over her arm as if she’s all glam.

Her mom was putting her to bed and said a little prayer with her and before she repeated the “amen” bit she added in “and thank you for cazzy coming to visit”. HALLO!!! Melt my heart!!!!!

Now for the big swallow past the lump part. You’ve probably read my dotings about my niece before so you’ve probably also read about my gran before. Noon.

On Monday morning last week, early early I heard my alarm go off. I turned to get it and realized actually it was my phone ringing. It was my dad. He told me Noon had had a heart attack and had died.
“No.”

"Yes my angel.”

“No.”

He asked to speak to The Band.
He asked The Band to look after me. I lay in bed and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. The Band held me and cried with me I think.

I spent the past week in East London helping sort out my gran's flat and preparing for the funeral etc. No email access unfortunately, so I have really missed you all. I had to do a eulogy at the funeral and so I started by writing it as a blog post then converting it.

Here it is.

Eulogy: Sydney Ella

I don’t think there is one person who ever met Noon that didn’t love her; what an incredible lady!

She was warm, loving, incredibly generous, adventurous and feisty!

Noon walked a lot and she had a few run-ins with thugs. Actually I should say that thugs had a few run-ins with Noon as they always seemed to come off second best. One time she was walking and a guy ran past her and grabbed her cross and chain from around her neck. This poor thug obviously didn’t know who he was taking on. Noon was pretty short, but looks can be deceiving. As she tells it “I shouted all sorts of things at him and called him some very rude words which I won’t repeat to you dear.” So the guy said “Well I’ll give you the cross back, but I’m keeping the chain!” “No you are not!” she replied “You will give them both back immediately!” To which he sheepishly placed both on the ground and ran away.

Why 'Noon'? When Noon was little her mom, her sister and her would go on the ship to England. Noon would hide and her mom would call her “ninky ninky noon”. Since then she’s been known as Noon.

Noon lived at The Woodholme on the East London Esplanade (beach front) for nearly 20 years and that was her territory. Everyone at the Wimpy knew her. She’d say they make the best coffee in the world. I agree. She was one of those who could go in and ask for “the usual”. All along the Esplanade bead sellers would greet her; “hello granny”.

When a ship wrecked at the break wall last year Noon could’ve been a Reuters correspondent. She’d give updates on exactly what was happening with the wreck over the months. She was so disappointed when it was finally gone – she wrote to me that she felt like she’d lost a friend.

Noon was old. 89 last week, but you wouldn’t have said so! Just 6 years ago she traveled to Cape Town and Oudtshoorn to swim competitively in the SA Masters Swimming Champs!

She loved gardens and would often point out trees to me saying “That would be a great tree for climbing.” She really had an adventurous spirit and a fun spirit.

She told me that she was up in Joburg for work as a young lady when she met my granddad and he invited her out for dinner. She promptly spent the money for her return fare home on a dress for the evening.

Another time they were away somewhere and she had been eyeing a certain ring in the jewelry store. My granddad dared her to jump on the trampoline. She said that she would jump for ten minutes if he’d buy her that ring. He agreed. So, being a legal secretary, she quickly drew up a little contract which they both signed and then started jumping. She got her ring.

Noon was a great letter writer – when I was in university I’d get a letter from her every week. She was also a great reader of books. In fact if Noon was around you had to keep an eye on whichever book you were reading at the time! She loved her reading, especially books involving adventures. One of her favourite favourite books was Rosie Thomas’s White. It’s a great book about an Everest expedition. When she finished it she told me she was exhausted as she felt she’d climbed the mountain with the team. My brother Mark, her “Marky-boo”, would send her postcards from his travels to various parts of the world and she would write to him “I so enjoyed our skiing trip… I can hardly wait for Egypt.”

Noon loved dining in fine restaurants and through my high school years and whenever I was back home after that she’d take me out to lunch. It was always a treat for us both.

My grandfather died nearly 20 years ago. They were living in Bloem at the time and when she moved down to East London. Her Alsatian, Blackie, had to be put down. I think it was one of the hardest things for her. But a few years ago we got a border collie called Phoebe. Well Phoebe and Noon just absolutely took to each other. I’m sure many of you have heard her speak about Phoebe. Whenever Noon came to visit Phoebe would go absolutely crazy. They utterly adored one another. I’ve never seen anything like it. I suspect that Phoebe has also developed quite a taste for seafood as Noon used to always sneakily feed bits of her meal to Phoebe under the table. My parents would pretend not to notice and Noon would wink at me conspiratorially. Noon would often marvel to me “I never ever thought I could love another dog…” Every time I spoke to her on the phone she’d give me an update on Phoebe and would end off by saying “Oh I do love that dog!”

Noon absolutely loved her 3 children, 9 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren. She boasted of them at every opportunity. She’d call my brother Matthew her HH – her handsome hunk. She loved to talk about her “Richie” and how he strutted his stuff when he got his matric results. And I suspect that the more he’d cringe the more she’d repeat that story. In a book I found this week she wrote “Every time a grandchild is born, one’s heart opens a little wider to take the new love in. You can actually feel it happening.”

Noon was very caring. She volunteered in the Physio department in Bloem, in the Hospice in East London and at Woodholme’s sick bay. She would quite happily massage a sore back or sore feet. Absolutely servant-hearted if you consider some of the feet in my family! She had patience which you seldom see nowadays.

Something that was always very hard for Noon was that she never knew her dad. Her dad died 2 weeks before she was born and she has always felt that void. She’s often said to me how lucky I am to have a dad who loves me so much and she’s often commented on what a wonderful father this one is or that one is.

When Noon was a little girl living in Queenstown she had a loose tooth. As she tells it, she called her neighbour, a dentist, to show him. There was a drought at the time. He’d just come from the outhouse and he wiggled her tooth and then pulled it out. The next morning she was unconscious. Her gums were swollen over her teeth and they couldn’t wake her. But while that was going on she saw herself walking along a dusty road. She saw her dad standing there. How her heart must have swelled to see the dad she’d longed for all her short life. He was so happy to see her and was so full of love, but he told her that it wasn’t yet time. And then she regained consciousness.

I’ve been left wondering why she lived so long after losing her husband. What was she holding out for? It must be so hard to outlive so many people you love. Why would God keep her here for so long?

I think the answer is for us: her friends and her family. For us to learn from her. For us to be loved unconditionally by this great woman. When I think of why my heart is breaking right now, when I consider my pain, it is all selfish. It is all of how much I will miss her and how sad I am that my future children won’t know her, but for her I am happy. She is with her heavenly Father now and she is with her dad at last. She’s gone home.

Living it up

So had a great weekend...
Jacuzzied :)
unpacked a bit more :(
watched I am Legend :( (FRIKKEN TERRIFYING!! WHY WAS I NOT WARNED!!!)
Made butternut fritters :)
And generally chilaxed :)

Busy reading Freakonomics... anyone read it? And while I'm exposing myself for the book nerd that I am anyway, anyone read The Time Traveller's Wife? Flippen amazing book!

But anyway, so TODAY I found out that TOMORROW morning at 6.15 I will be flying to Natal for the rest of the week. Going to "Strategic planning session" in Mkhuze Game Reserve... BRING ON THE BUSH!! Stooooooked!! Been needing to get out the office so it will be GREAT!
Ok you all have to wish me good game viewing experiences... My wishlist is as follows...
I want to see:

• a leopard. (Not very original, but stiiiiiill haven't seen one in the wild)
• Pink-throated Twinspot
  
• Eastern Nicators
  
• Pels Fishing Owls (seen before but still pretty special!)
• Goliath Heron (ditto)
  
• Neergaard's Sunbird

Ok fine, so now you know: I am a book nerd and a bird nerd :)

Blogspot is paining me

eeeugh anyone else battling to post? I've been trying to post for 2 days and it keeps sticking.
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Oh well so anyway, I cycled home from work last night!! hey??? About 20km (I work in Stellenbosch and the new place is in Somerset West). It was great - first exercise I've done since the Argus (Yep, that was in March - I even still had some powerade in my bottle from then!!) Pretty gross.

Naturally by the time I got into bed last night I had a raging fever and could barely swallow. I'm doped up today and a little better although the ears are paining a bit. It was inevitable really. Haven't been sick all year, naturally my body had to protest the impending threat of regular exercise.

Anywhooo here are some redefinitions for you....

One letter added:

Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject
financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting
laid.

Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very,very high.

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the Person who
doesn't get it.

Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've
accidentally walked through a spider web.

Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your
bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

Same word new meaning:

Coffee,n. The person upon whom one coughs.

Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.

Lymph v. To walk with a lisp.

Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run
over by a steamroller.

Balderdash , n. A rapidly receding hairline.

Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam.

Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.

Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with yiddishisms.

You got any to add??

Being down = reduced productivity

Solution: pay more, increase perks, increase number of days leave.

So anyway, in my depression session yesterday (thanks for all the support :) )I became incredibly unproductive and decided to cheer myself up by blog surfing. I found some pearlers and am very proud to announce that I even updated my best blogs list...a chore which i realllllly avoid.

This pretty much sums me up right about now:

(This was lifted off Being Brazen's blog... thanks lady!)

P.S. Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.

P.S.S. Welcome to all the newbies: Slyde, Ruby, Being Brazen, Don't believe a word I write, Youmeher and Gill

I need a therapist and you, dear reader, are now it.

Ok guys, firstly the very fact that there are no exclamation marks in my title should concern you. I am THAT tense.

It sucks being a girl. When I get reeeeeally angry do I shout? (nope.) Kick things? (and ruin my shoes??! I don't think so) What happens? My stupid eyes well up with saline solution. It really sucks. So now I am hiding in my office, cultivating a massive wrinkle between my brows, heart thumping in my ears. Looking like a weak chick when actually this is FURY

I am over EVERYBODY! Lazy colleagues. Hopeless website developers. Useless ad agencies. It is tough being the only one who gives a damn.

Please leave me comments that either vent with me or say nice stuff to me. Jokes may also help right about now.

Klip daai blomme!!!

I got tagged by cheapthrills to jump on the competition bandwagon and I am a SUCKER for competitions!!

The Rocking The Daisies competition is the competition in question and hey, I am the only 20 something i know who doesn't own an ipod... so here goes!!

1. Blog about the competition, telling us what you would take with you to the concert.
2. Link to http://rockingthedaisiescompetition.co.za and http://www.digicape.co.za
3. Tag your friends in the post. In other words, just link to their website to encourage them to come over and look at your website.
4. Register here, tag your name and my name (cheapthrills) and copy our blog post onto their website.

So what could I not possibly do without at Rocking the Daisies?
Well isn't it obvious?

1. My GHD - I'd have to hot wire the car for a power supply
2. My copy of "Hotwiring cars for Dummies"
   
3. My she-mullet (I better start cultivating that puppy now!!)
4. My garage recording of my own soulful singing - If I could just get a producer to listen I know he'd sign me!!
5. My folder of cut out letters for the ransom note in case the afore mentioned producer refuses. Oh and some bostik (NEVER just stick it!)

So I do hereby solemnly tag:
Sweets, DBAWIW; Doodles, Glugs, Youmeher, Charmskool

THE END

Love it!

Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting.Well, for example, the other day the wife and I went into town and went into a shop. We were only in there for about 5 minutes. When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket.

We went up to him and I said, 'Come on man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?' He ignored us and continued writing the ticket. I called him a Dumb ass. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn tires.

So Mary called him a $#!^head. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote.

Just then our bus arrived.

We try to have a little fun each day now that we're retired. It's important at our age.

Boxing again

As in placing all my possessions into boxes. Yup this is the 3rd move in as many months. SERIOUSLY!! We moved next door so they could rethatch our place (the band was away) then 3 weeks later we moved back home (the band was away) and now we are moving to the new place... THE BAND IS HERE AND I AM AT WORK AND HE WILL DO MOST OF THE WORK! phew!
It's a good thing, really it is, moving makes me preeeetty grumpy!!

Anyway, blah blah blah.

So I am quite relieved that the time has now come... the arachnophobia is now a full blown paralysing fear spurred on my the most horrendous nightmares. I won't share them with you coz:
A) I don't want you all to become as lame and chicken as me; and
B) When I retell them I start crying!!!! (not very cool when you're in conservation!!)

Anywho. Some random thoughts for today:

• ready mixes for cakes and brownies are way underrated
• I am going to have a new boss soon and I understand approximately 5% of what he says - and I have to communicate it to the public!
  
• the move has made me discover a couple of things I forgot about like a really nice top (wearing it today) and some gorgeous vases. Stoked
• nevertheless, my favourite possession is my GHD - no contest
• woolies white hot chocolate is the business!

That's about it :)

Smart? or not so much??

I found this smart-o-meter booklist back at EMCT's blog

Someone reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed (dumbasses). So here we go…

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you started but did not finish.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Highlight the ones you still want to read but just have not had a chance yet!
5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve read 6 or less and force books upon them.

1. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
2. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
3. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
4. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
5. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
6. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
8. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
10. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
11. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
12. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
13. His Dark Materials (trilogy) - Philip Pullman
14. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
15. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
18. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
19. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
20. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
21. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
22. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
23. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
24. Animal Farm – George Orwell
25. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
26. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
27. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
28. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
29. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
30. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
31. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
32. Complete Works of Shakespeare
33. Ulysses - James Joyce
34. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
35. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
36. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
37. The Bible
38. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
39. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
40. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
41. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
42. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
45. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
46. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
47. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
48. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
49. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
50. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
51. Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
52. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
53. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
54. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
55. Middlemarch - George Eliot
56. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
57. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
58. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
59. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
60. Emma - Jane Austen
61. Persuasion - Jane Austen
62. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
63. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
64. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
65. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
66. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
67. Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
68. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
69. Atonement - Ian McEwan
70. Dune - Frank Herbert
71. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
72. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
73. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
74. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
75. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
76. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
77. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
78. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
79. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
80. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
81. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
82. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
83. Dracula - Bram Stoker
84. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
85. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
86. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
87. Germinal - Emile Zola
88. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
89. Possession - A.S. Byatt
90. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
91. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
92. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
93. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
94. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
95. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
96. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
97. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
98. Watership Down – Richard Adams
99. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
100. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

New home!

So yest I left work early to check out a potential new spot and it's great!
and we signed!
and we are moving in next Friday!
and we aren't practically homeless anymore!
and it has a pool!
and it's in the neighbourhood we wanted!
and it has a great kitchen!
and an enclosed verandah with a braai!
and the people living there now are weird and gothy and have fairies throughout the garden and a painting of a creepy goatman on the wall!
and the main room has an en suite!
and the garden is big!
and we can see the sea!
and it is near a brand new Virgin active!
and the rent is what I was hoping for!
and... the most ridiculous thing of all?.......... there's a jacuzzi!

JOCKSTRAP CENTRAL!!

So for some reason at work we got onto the topic of male thongs which inevitably led to discussion of jock straps. Not having ever seen the offending subject of our discussion, I decided to do a little research. (Never am I more creative with my internet usage than when I'm on some sort of deadline)

Definition: A jockstrap (also known as a jock, jock strap, strap, supporter, or athletic supporter) is an undergarment designed for supporting the male genitalia during the performance of sports or other vigorous physical activity

Naturally, it gets even better than that.... wikipedia didn't really have a pic, so I visited www.jockstrapcentral.com - NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART! The pics are HILARIOUS - check out the fetish section - waa haa haa haa - note the ONE model who hasn't been waxed. ROUGH!!!!! hahaahahaha

just a quickie

sorry bla bla bla etc etc

ok, now that i'm forgiven for being a sucky blogger, just a very quick update on the life of caz. Not much to report sadly:

• the big news is that the band has FIIIIIIINALLY cut his hair. I don't know if i mentioned but he hadn't cut it since some time last year and was beginning to look downright Einsteiny!!! Not he looks downright Wentworth Miller-y and is very grrrowl!! ;)
• still looking for a new place. People seriously should not smoke in their house if they ever want to rent it out. sies man. Going to see a place this afternoon. HOLD THUMBS PLEASE. It's an awful thing being practically homeless :(
• just read "The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime". You should all read it. Very good. You can get through it in a day. Awesome book.
• Spent the weekend in arniston - was very nice
• Snow is gone from the mountains around stellenbosch and i am able to feel my fingers again
  
• That's all.
  

Pop the shampers people!

so i know that you have put up with a lot of moaning from me this year. "I'm so busy" bla bla bla. Well now you get to celebrate with me too! 2 cooooool things for today:

1. I fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally got a GHD!!! YAY ME!! I've been waiting aaaaages. It was imported direct from UK. No more bad hair days people. Glugs - a GHD (good hair day) is a hair straightener... not just any hair straightener, mind you. It is basically the Rolls Royce of hair straighteners.... it comes in this sleek black and gold box, complete with a DVD to show you how its done! I have probably lusted after my friends' GHDs for the past 4 or 5 years and today finally, FINALLY I have one of my very own. YAY!!!!! (and yes, after collecting it, i came to my office, closed the door and straightened my hair).

2. WOOOOOHOOOOOOO the marketing campaign that I have eaten, slept and breathed this whole year - WWF's Be The Hero campaign - has been nominated for 10 Loerie Awards.
The Loerie Awards are like the Oscars of the advertising industry. We have really worked our butts off on this campaign and I have to say that I am JUBILANT at the nominations. Hopefully we will bag some awards at the end of the month! Hold thumbs with me, k?

Raindrops are falling on my bed

Not reeally... but that random song has been in my head for 5 days... coz that's how long it's been raining.

My family in Durbs spent yest morning on the beach, my folks in EL had a braai by the pool. And the band and me? We just tried to fight off hypothermia whatever way we could. (and all the dirty minded people's grinned wickedly)

The Cape is frrrrrrrizzzing. It's doing NOTHING for my hair or my self-control on the food intake front. I am just a frizzy haired, many clothing layered eating machine.

This weekend the inlaws arrive. We are going to go spend the time in one of those little white seafront cottages in Arniston. HOPING for decent weather. We still have to break it to the inlaws that we've been evicted. The MIL is probably going to want to do our landlord physical harm. The band is her youngest and she is protective.

The MIL is very sweet, she ALWAYS brings me jewellry when she visits (even though i wear the same necklace just about every day of my life) and she always stocks us up on woolies food. She always brings the band clothes which he ALWAYS returns to the shop and exchanges for other clothes. She reckons that Rafael Nadel looks exactly like the band. hahahaha. Loved that one. Just as long as it doesn't encourage the band to grow his hair again... I've endured a lot of his hair "phases" already thank you very much.

Why is it that...

People are so doff?
Seriously.

So I may have mentioned that since my boss left I am doing her job and mine.... Stressed is the mild, shy, dorky, diminuitive cousin to what I am. Anyway, most people are savvy enough to know this, or at least ONE WOULD THINK SO! But nope, suddenly people are asking me to do the most inane things for them. It's RIDICULOUS.

Let me expand the situation for you:
My job is currently looking after marketing and communication for one of the biggest brands in the country, which includes keeping 2 LARGE websites up to date, writing 2 'work' blogs, compiling an entire annual review (a month's worth of work on its own), compiling a newsletter, putting together a campaign with Cape Town schools, organising the calendar which we want to sell, managing the creation of a cell phone based carbon calculator, writing press releases, organising press launches, managing our participation in a number of expos and events, etc. (and that's just the average week)

I am eating, sleeping and nightmaring WORK. It's bad. I love the stuff I do, but I'm only one little me, you know?

ANYWAY, amidst all this, whilst my hair steadily goes from rich chocolate brown to dull ashy grey and bald spots appear (well probably) I get requests like this:

From the JHB office:

• "A bunch of new staff have started at the Stellenbosch office, maybe you can go around taking photos of them and write a little something about each of them so we know who they are and what they look like. " (WOW! So THAT'S what I spent 7 years studying for!!! I delegated this one to our receptionist to do when she has a moment)
  
• "I DESPERATELY need my letter that I send out to corporates updated. PLEASE can you help me URGENTLY" (NO! It is YOUR job. YOU write it and I will proof read it for you.)

From my colleague here:

• "We URGENTLY need to write a thank you letter to xxxx shop to thank them for providing our snacks for staff socials. Please put something together. There names are XX and XX and keep it casual and upbeat." (Well, sure, after all I do sit around picking my nose all day.... Um... let's just think about it... NO!!! I'm not your little flippen PADAWON. Do it yourself. It is YOUR relationship to manage, not mine. I will proof read stuff and that is it.)

SERIOUSLY have these people no frikken idea whatsoever?? Even our most senior staff compile their own thank you letters. CRIKEY MAN STOP BEING SO BLUDDY LAZY!! AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!

Anyway, that is my vent for the day. Thank you for enduring it.

Self portrait

Homeless

Rejection people. That's what I'm feeling.

So anyway, we got home Sunday afternoon and our landlord was in our kitchen repairing a shelf or something and he was all weird and stuff to us. He was being all weird and evasive so eventually the band asked him what he was trying to say. More weird evasiveness. So the band said "are you saying you want us to leave?" and yes was the gist of his weird and evasive answer.

EVICTION - it's an uuuurgly thing.

So his reasons are - you guessed it - weird and evasive. He said that he doesn't like our dogs barking at him on his own property. Now you guys know full well that I am not the biggest fan of The Mutts, but come on. If you let yourself into our house while we are not there and without our permission then you can be damn sure they are going to bark at you! That is the only time he really sees them and quite frankly what is he doing at our place anyway? They are doing their job. Ironically I have to walk past the landlord's son's house every day and they have a bluddy sausage dog who yaps and yaps and yaps and yaps all the livelong day and goes for my ankles. A real live stoepkakkertjie that one.

Anyway so we have 2 months to find a place. EISH!!!

Maybe it's time to buy.... we qualify for a teeny bond, but you have to start somewhere... right?? Finding a place to rent with dogs is not easy and I'm so tired of renting. I want my own home. I want to nest, you know?

Anyway, it's very awful - we don't even want to be at our place now coz we feel unwanted and unwelcome.

BUT I am looking on the bright side - even though our place was in the most beautiful setting and had a gorgeous view - the positive side is that:

• No more thatch = no more dust all over
• No more thatch = no more gigantic human stalking spiders *shudder*
• No more awful bathroom (rubber floors and GOLD gilded taps)
• No more awful ceramic ice cold bath

That's about it :( All the rest was great. Stunning birds, gorgeous flowers to pick, brilliant security, ok, I'll stop now!! But it's basically up to you guys, dear readers, to keep me from getting very down about this in the coming months. We may well have to stay with friends for a while. Homelessness and being a burden on others is gonna suck.

Overdue post - written a couple of weeks ago

I am a white South African. A couple of weeks ago I received an sms from a family member along the lines of: “Rand is plummeting, xenophobia is spreading. Time to get your passports ready and leave this place.”

At that stage the xenophobic attacks seemed very distant to me. I am based in the Cape and they were happening in Joburg. They may as well been happening on another continent. With all the bad news that the media loves to throw at us, I’ve become selective in my reading and this was one of the stories I had selected not to follow.

Jump forward a week. I’m at work and a friend calls asking for the telephone number of another friend. She is frantic.

Our mutual friend, Anton, is a Zimbabwean. He met my husband a few years ago while selling goods at the side of the road and since then they’ve been good friends. He is now the car guard at our church and everyone loves him because he is the friendliest, happiest person most of us have ever met. On Christmas eve last year his wife and one year old child finally managed to cross the border after many unsuccessful attempts. My friend had phoned me asking for his wife’s number. Xenophobia had spread to Lwandle near Somerset West, where Anton and his family live.

My friend had spoken to him earlier that day and now his phone was off. We tried to get hold of him without much success. My friend spoke to Xhosa residents in the township and they warned that things were getting very bad there. The attackers were after loot and so if he leaves, he should leave bare-handed.

I spent the next while scouring the internet for news on the situation in the Cape townships. The photos of the attacks in Johannesburg chilled me to the core. The rioters, dancing through the streets, brandishing weapons, had jubilant smiles on their faces.

I sat in my office and wept. For Anton and his family who had fled Zimbabwe so that they could have a future and were now again forced to flee for their lives. And for all the people in the same situation. I wept in disgust at how South Africans were treating people who are desperate. For the first time in my life I was truly ashamed to be South African.

We soon heard from Anton. He was a worried man and wanted to get his family out. My husband went and fetched him, he left everything behind. Later on, the police gave them the go ahead to return for his possessions. My husband said that when he went in all was calm and he couldn’t believe how quickly things changed – by the time they left, maybe 20 minutes later, a crowd surrounded their vehicle shouting at them saying “You are lucky you are going now. Tonight we would take your stuff”. The crowd was comprised mostly of school kids.

Soon sms’s were flooding my phone. People looking for accommodation for their employees. Desperate. Our church sent out an sms inviting us to help out that night at a factory warehouse which had been opened to refugees. Within hours the warehouse was full and our church building was opened.

The building is still under construction. It has no hot water and the kitchen is pretty sparse. The upstairs area – which is the biggest at this point and will eventually become the Sunday school – would be where people would sleep. The floor is a concrete slab.

By the time I arrived there on Friday night, everyone – about 400 at that stage had been fed. There was an area set up for receiving donations and the process of assigning task teams for kitchen, sanitation and security was well underway.

At about 11pm we started to register people. By this stage many people were trying to sleep. But we had to have some idea of numbers and also some families had been split and this would make it easier to reunite them. Each person got a ticket with their number on.

We finished at about 1.30 that night. During the time I saw several things:

1. the patience of these people – bone tired but willing to get out of a bed at our asking and stand in a queue slowed by miscommunication because we said it was important.
2. the openness of these people – they were friendly and polite and without anger. It boggles me.
3. the desperation of these people – I saw two men fighting over a Pep blanket – you’d have to be pretty desperate.
4. the caring of these people – they look out for each other and not just their fellow countrymen. They look out for anyone in need whether they speak that language or not.
5. the manners of these people – many of them have come to ask for a broom to clean a bathroom, or simply found one themselves. They collect rubbish of their own initiative.

“These people” have by now become “our refugees” or “our guys”. We are getting to know some of them like Marshall who’s about 5 and is cute as anything and his dad Moses. Or Shakespeare, or Prince or Lovemore or Nomore.

By Saturday evening over 700 people had registered at the building. A fierce soccer match occupied much of the afternoon followed by a warm meal. People are tired, many of them left the townships with nothing and no idea of what the future holds and yet they maintain their dignity.

It is now Sunday evening. This morning I helped with breakfast. The amount of food, blankets and clothing that has come in is phenomenal. The number of people who have arrived with their sleeves rolled up ready to help is incredible. There are volunteers there 24 hours a day with a real smile on their face.

WHY??? Why would people – some of whom I’ve never seen before Saturday – pitch up to help people who they’ve never even met?

For the same reason that I want to be there whether I need to be or not. It is because for the first time we have a real opportunity to DO SOMETHING. To actually be a tangible part of the solution. We read about xenophobia, the Zimbabwe situation, SA politics and all of it makes us feel powerless and frustrated. The sentiment that is shared among the volunteers I have spoken to is that we all feel alive. There is no part of us that wants to leave South Africa like that sms suggested. We don’t rejoice in the xenophobia – we mourn it with Our Guys, but we rejoice at the opportunity to be part of the solution. To be relevant. To be real. To get our hands dirty and show people love.

Arthur or Martha

Hallo bloggies!

I've been reeeeally scarce but i have plenty of excuses. Ok fine, since you asked. In the last 3 weeks:

• my house flooded and stuffed up the wiring so i had to move for them to replace our thatch roof (of course the flooding and resultant moved happened while the band was away - obviously)
• xenophobia attacks meant our church took in 500 refugees and the band was responsible for coordinating it all... they were there for a weekend before being moved to a camp in strand which the band then co-lead for a week until disaster management were finally ready to step up. (While the guys were in our church building TWO bambinos were born there! Pretty hectic stuff!!!!)
• my boss left the organisation which means I am doing her work and mine for the next 3 months til they restructure
  
• we launched the Be the Hero campaign which I've been working on for 8 months... hopefully you've heard or seen some of our ads. Visit www.wwf.org.za/hero and then come say nice things about it
• the band is in madagascar and to punish me our evil mutt zebu peed on my bed and my pillow
  
• I am in JHB for the launch of the Africa Footprint Report on monday

So I hope that I am now forgiven. :)
VERY excited to be meeting Tamara on Monday.... YAY!
Also VEEERY excited to be going on a Ngala walking safari tomorrow!! YAY!!!!

Ok bye