This little life of mine ............

33/365

2012-02-02T20:00:00.000+02:00

A close up photo of my blackberry (or blueberry as I like to call it) buttons. I know it looks a bit grey here, but it is actually ice-blue.

31+32/365

2012-02-01T20:40:00.000+02:00

I didn't follow the prompt for both of these pictures.
Day 31
DD is a real nature lover. She loves animals of all shapes and sizes, and can't bear to see them hurt. She also likes all sorts of creepy-crawlies and is always bringing them inside. If she sees any hurt/lost animal she always has to help it. Amazingly, they seem to trust her and allow her to pick them up. Yesterday was the first time though that she managed to catch a baby gecko. Unfortunately he didn't sit still long enough for me to catch a good photo though!

Day 32

Brenda's first visit to Wakaberry - the place to "see and be seen" for the tweenie/early teen crowd here in the area. She has been begging to be allowed to go, but things kept getting in the way. Anyway, today we eventually went, although I know she would prefer to go without me. In my defense, I did volunteer to leave her there and come back, but I think she was too shy to go in on her own. I also discovered that during the week at least it seems to be popular with everyone. It is a frozen yoghurt place where you choose/pour your own yoghurt and toppings. It is charged by weight, which can be dangerous.

27-30/365

2012-01-30T21:05:00.000+02:00

Catching up again. I have been taking the photos, but not had much chance to post. My internet is playing up too, so I am not able to surf much either.

Day 27 - amazing
This is one of the most amazing views that I have ever seen. Unfortunately when I took the photo it was a little bit too dark to get the full beauty.

Day 28 - Fluffy

Ok, this one I guess you will have to use lateral thinking. But here is a picture of my delicious McFlurry. I am not usually a fan of Sundae type ice-cream, but occasionally get the urge. Saturday I craved a McFlurry, and when I got there I discovered they now do a Cornetto version. (I am probably a bit delayed I know) I just could not resist, and it was worth it!

Day 29 - Kitchen utensil

This picture is actually a re-do taken today. When I uploaded the photos I discovered that all of yesterdays were a bit blurry, so had to take it again. This is a picture of my Shogun Whizz which I got from Brenda for Christmas. I have used it twice, once to whip cream on Christmas day. The cream turned into butter since it didnt seem to work and I just kept whizzing. I also used it to make cappucino and the froth came out beautifully!

Day 29 - collection of things

This is my collection of pens on my desk at work. Now, I know it may look like I have quite a few, but if I am looking for a black pen, I can assure you there is never one there. When I am looking for a red the same thing happens lol. It always reminds me of the saying: Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

Only 1 more day and the first month of this challenge will be over. It is a miracle that I am actually keeping up so far!

26/365

2012-01-26T20:12:00.000+02:00

Savoury broccoli tart, the new recipe we tried out tonight. Yummy, filling, easy and cheap! What more could we ask for? The cucumber was going to be for a salad but I couldn't be bothered to finish it, lol. We just had cucumber.

25/365

2012-01-25T20:17:00.000+02:00

We have a farewell at work tomorrow, so I had to pop to the shops after work. (I normally hate going when I am rushed). This was the state of the queue - motionless! I got to the till at 15 to 6, they were closing at 6. There were about 10 people in front of me, but only 2 tills open. I was eventually served at 6:30. Unfortunately it was either wait or be back there before work tomorrow.

Now, a bonus picture. I am not sure about other countries, but here in South Africa at the end of the school day all children put their chairs up on their desks, this is in order to make it easier for the cleaners to sweep. Being at the shops 30 minutes after closing time, I was tickled pink to see they do it at the shops too!

Catch up - day 23 and 24

2012-01-24T19:23:00.000+02:00

I knew that I might battle a bit with keeping up once work starts in earnest and sure enough, I didn't get a chance to post last night. Work has been very busy and with Brenda's homework, sports etc life is hectic once again!
Day 23 was hot and I chose to show you my cup of coffee. Now, no matter how hot the weather is there are 2 cups that I have to have each day. One when I wake up in the morning to wake me up, and one when I come home from work to relax me :-) I used to be a tea drinker, but since starting my current work, my close colleague drinks coffee only and she rubbed off on me. She has since left, but I still drink coffee. I do like tea still, but coffee has become a habit now.

Day 24's challenge was to take a picture of something in motion. I have taken a picture of my ceiling fan, which is going full blast at the moment. The only thing is......it made me realise how dusty it is, lol.

22/365

2012-01-22T15:33:00.001+02:00

The reason I couldn't do a GLOWING picture today - too much housework, particularly ironing.

21/365

2012-01-21T14:44:00.001+02:00

It is SO hot today, the sun is a ball of white-hot FIRE in the sky. I am hiding out inside!

20/365

2012-01-20T15:21:00.000+02:00

This is a definite SIGN that I need to put in petrol!

19/365

2012-01-19T15:51:00.000+02:00

The amount of work I have to do is bad for me! And don't be misled, most of what I have to do at the moment is on the computer, which is why my desk is neat.

18/365

2012-01-18T17:51:00.001+02:00

Brenda as she was about to take the dogs for a walk. I think the sudden desire to walk the dogs may be related to who she is meeting on the way lol!

17/365

2012-01-17T21:09:00.002+02:00

My "naughty" photo is of one of the monkeys that regularly visits our house and trashes the kitchen. Yesterday they broke in through the dining room, got into the kitchen, threw the coffee, hot chocolate and oats all over the straw, stole the sugar basin and managed to relieve themselves on MY CAMERA which was on a shelf. Fortunately it still works, but I had to drench it in air freshner to get rid of the smell!

I am so pleased with this picture because it is very hard to get a photo of the babies since the mothers are VERY protective!

(PS My naughtiness is that this particular photo was not taken today. I did take one, but for some reason my email on my phone is not working and I am battling to upload from my camera. I will try and sort it out tomorrow and replace it._)

Phone still not working, but here is one taken from my camera yester

16/365

2012-01-16T21:38:00.000+02:00

Had a REALLY busy day today and tomorrow will probably be just as bad. Hardly got to have lunch although I did stop to have some fish curry that was brought for me by a colleague. My snack was a naughty one - the last 3 lines of a bar of top deck, eaten at my desk. All I had time for! Or that is my excuse anyway

15/365

2012-01-15T20:20:00.001+02:00

I am once again off topic. I couldn't really think of anything for generous, maybe because I had such a hot, busy day. Todays picture shows what I have been doing today which is trying to repair Brenda's dictionaries. So, here is what 4 years of primary school do to a dictionary! This picture is half way through the repairing and doesnt actually do justice to the horror of what they looked like.

14/365

2012-01-14T21:58:00.000+02:00

A picture of the Christmas pudding we finally got around to eating tonight! Cake will be next, lol. We ate too much dinner on Christmas day and went away the day after, so only eating it now.

13/365

2012-01-13T17:35:00.000+02:00

I actually have two photos for you today. One taken earlier, and one a while ago. The first one, my official picture for today shows our fridge at work. We have an ongoing argument at work regarding food left in the fridge for weeks on end. Some people will not throw their leftovers away at all, and they stay their for weeks on end. A few months ago their was a container of bean curry which stayed there for 9 weeks until someone threw it away container and all! We have put notices up, mentioned it in meetings etc with no improvement. Anyway, imagine my surprise when I came back to work and found the fridge looking clean. I suspect one of those who didnt take leave last week must have finally flipped and thrown everything out. I am a bit scared to open up a can of worms so have not asked! So, without further ado, here is a picture of my nice clean work fridge.

The second bonus picture shows you what happened in my house when I asked Brenda to clean a small spot of yoghurt that had spilled in the fridge! This was taken a few months ago. Sorry it is a bit dark, but was taken on my phone in the evening.

12/365 Translucent

2012-01-12T19:31:00.000+02:00

I bought 2 of these boxes a while ago to store my Promarkers and some clear stamps in. Today I finally took them out of the car. In a few weeks I may even use them. Please tell me I am not the only one who does that, lol.

11/365

2012-01-11T19:25:00.000+02:00

Sadly, today was back to work for me and first official day of school for Brenda. She enjoyed her day, me not so much. It wasn't a particularly bad day, it was just work. Oh well, I will soon get into the swing of things.
Anyway, on to my photo today, which is once again off topic. When I came home this little guy was asleep on the driveway. He looked too cute to move, so I spent a while trying to take some photos, with limited success. This was one of the best.

And, just for reference, this is him when we adopted him as a stray just over a year ago!

Back to school and 10/365

2012-01-10T15:25:00.000+02:00

Todays word was metallic, so I chose to take a picture of Brenda's juice bottle for school which is lovely and shiny and metallic. Unfortunately the photo doesn't do it justice, but you get the picture@

On another note, today was the first day back at school for Brenda. The first official day is tomorrow, but since this is her first year at High School they had to go in today for orientation. She was quite nervous, but I was very proud that at the school she kissed me goodbye, got out the car and went in. She looked so confident! Quite a lot of the kids had their parents walk them to the gate etc, but she wouldnt have that, lol. She seems to have had a good time and this week is really just full of placement tests, swimming trials, getting their timetable etc, proper work only starts next week. There are only 6 kids from her old school there, so she is really hoping to be in a class with one of them. Anyway, here are two Back to school photos.

10 things on the tenth

2012-01-10T11:22:00.001+02:00

I was sitting in the car this morning after dropping Brenda off at school when I suddenly realised it is the 10th and I had forgotten all about it. This is a monthly meme over at Shimelle's blog where we blog a list of 10 things.

This is my list of 10 things I would like to do before I am 50:

1. Learn to play the guitar
2. Travel abroad again
3. Be debt free (including car etc)
4. Have some sort of nest egg of savings (this is a work in progress, but keeps getting used up)
5. Have completed my degree, masters and be busy with (if not finished) my PHD
6. Brush up on my piano
7. Have researched the family tree on both my mother and father's side
8. Gone on a cruise
9. Swum the Midmar Mile again
and most importantly..............
10. Be fit, happy and healthy!

9/365

2012-01-09T19:05:00.000+02:00

This prompt was perfect for me today. We have a leak in the road above our house, and are waiting for the council to come and fix it up. In the meantime the kids are having fun splashing on the road! I just hope this doesnt mean that we will have no water for the night.

8/365

2012-01-08T17:06:00.000+02:00

I am deviating from the word today. Todays picture shows daughter, Brenda on her return from her church camp. She is hot, tired, sunburnt, covered in a rash on her legs, but extremely HAPPY and EXCITED. Sorry, it is not the best picture since it was in the middle of the day, and I had to crop out half the photo when I realised that I accidentally took a photo of the rubbish bin drying in the sun. Must remember to check the viewfinder for distracting objects, lol.

7/365

2012-01-07T18:19:00.001+02:00

Since today's theme was DRINK, I decided to take the opportunity to show you my one real addiction. (And to prove after yesterdays post that I am not an alchoholic lol) I absolutely love coke and would prefer it over any other drink, maybe apart from hot chocolate in winter. So, I have reproduced yesterdays post with coke instead!

6/365 + Happy Birthday Brenda

2012-01-06T19:40:00.000+02:00

14 years ago today I gave birth to the most precious gift, my daughter Brenda. Unfortunately I dont have ANY photos of her day, since at 8:30 this morning, I dropped her at church for the youth camp, and she hasn't been seen or heard of since. We will have cake and a special dinner on Sunday when she gets back. It feels funny to have her birthday without her, lol, but I guess it is a foreshadowing of things to come.

Being summer in South Africa, and my town being one of the hottest places, I didn't think that I would come across much frost today, (lol) and was looking for a substitute photo to take today, when I noticed some FROST! Here, on the side of the strawberry daiquiri that I opened in celebration of being the mother of a 14 year old. I didnt have any pretty umbrellas or straws to add, so I took a picture of it next to the only Christmas Decoration that is still out. (I didnt think this guy would last the year in a box!) For, anyone who knows me well, that is huge. Mostly we take our decorations down on the 6th, but there are bits and pieces that keep getting forgotten and are sometimes out for months, in fact, sometimes they even last the year!

And, on another note, I got a phone call to say that this little guy started walking today. I only missed it by a day and a half.

5/365 photos

2012-01-05T16:59:00.000+02:00

Causing much EXCITEMENT in our house is the fact that Brenda is going to High School next week. This is a selection of her uniform/ stationery which is currently occupying our lounge awaiting labelling!

365 photos day 4

2012-01-04T14:36:00.001+02:00

I think these mugs of my sisters are so pretty!

365 photos day 3

2012-01-03T13:25:00.000+02:00

What makes me feel ugly today? The fact that all of us, me included have summer colds. Apart from my nephew who started it off and is now absolutely fine! So, since I didn't think you would want to see a photo of the snotty noses, here is a sample of all the medicine that is being taken in the house!

365 photos day 2

2012-01-02T16:44:00.000+02:00

This morning we went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks with my sister and her kids, which we thoroughly enjoyed. I have to say though that I am just about ready for the holidays to be over and to get into some sort of routine again! This afternoon I spent some time adding my NEW refill to my filofax (which I have had since 1996 and STILL love). So here is todays NEW picture - a NEW,clean page on my NEW diary, ready for a NEW year!

Goals for 2012

2012-01-01T18:15:00.001+02:00

Another year has come and gone and we are into the next. It seems like last week that I was setting goals for 2011 and here I am working on 2012. So, without further ado here are my goals for the coming year.
1. Take a photo a day as per the prompt on Suzie's blog. Post at least once a week with all my photos, preferably daily.
2.Maintain the tidiness of the rooms I have already done and preferably declutter the rest of the house.
3. Stick within the budget that I have set up and attempt to save a little each month.
4. Exercise at least 3 times a week, and take a packed lunch at least 4 days per week.
5. Work on controlling my temper and being a little more patient.
6. Try and make an effort to spend some quiet time and read my bible at least 5 days a week.

So, that is what I plan for 2012, it seems like a lot, but I am sure that if I take it in baby steps I can do it.

365 photos Day 1

2012-01-01T14:23:00.000+02:00

This year, having just had a big birthday I decided once again to attempt to take a photo a day. I have joined in with the challenge on Suzie's blog which gives you a prompt each day. Todays prompt was Celebrate and asked us to take a photo showing how we are celebrating New Year. Well, mine says it all..... A book and a couch! If you would like to join in pop over here
http://suzies365.blogspot.com/2012/01/day-1.html?spref=tw

365 photos Day 1

2012-01-01T14:19:00.001+02:00

Storytelling Sunday

2011-12-04T17:07:00.001+02:00

Once upon a time there were 2 little girls and their 4 cousins. They all ranged in age from about 4 to about 13. It was Christmas Eve and the children were all staying at their grandparents house for Christmas.The grandparents lived in a big farmhouse with a wrap-around verandah around 3 sides of the house. The children were ready for bed, baths were done, pyjamas on and stockings (actually they used pillowcases) had been put out waiting for Father Christmas to fill them. There was an air of general excitement and anticipation in the house.
Suddenly, there was a tremendous sound of running down the passage (wooden floors are noisy, you know) and one of the children spotted Father Christmas escaping through the side door! Then there was a shout, someone else had seen him looking in one of the windows. They rushed to the windows and he was seen running along the verandah, down the steps, jumping into the sleigh and taking off into the night sky (!) Of course, there was huge excitement after this. The children all wanted to check their stockings, but there parents would not let them, and made them wait for the morning. Of course, this made the children all believe strongly in Father Christmas for many many years!
Behind the scenes: I found out many years later, that it was my uncle who had dressed up in a Father Christmas outfit and run through the house and around the verandah, looking in at all the windows. The joke of it all: he managed to lock himself out of the house and so had to wait for ages before he could get in without letting us children see. All in December in South Africa, where it can get up to 30degrees at night, dressed in a hot, felt outfit!
BTW: The sleigh was a fabrication of all our imaginations, but we all saw it, lol.
Storytelling Sunday is a monthly meme over at Sian's blog.

Journal your Christmas 2011 day 2 - 4

2011-12-04T16:22:00.000+02:00

I have managed to keep up to date, not hard considering the miniature size of my pages! I have not as yet printed the photos which will go on the back of the card, but will do that when I can go to the shop. This year I havent followed all the prompts since I have done most before.

Day 2 was the weather prompt and here is mine, detailing how we always have terrible weather in November/Early December which was brought home to me by looking at my old JYC's

On day 3 I deviated slightly from the challenge. Here in South Africa the school year ends in November/Early December and then the children are on holiday until mid January. As a result growing up December was filled with anticipation - waiting for results/reports, did I pass, what did I get, as well as the more normal Christmas feeling. Our reports used to be posted to us and what a scary feeling it was to see that brown envelope in the mail. Now that I am studying again and waiting for results (this time on the internet, lol) it seems to bring back that out of school feeling.

Today I went shopping with Brenda for an outfit for the wedding we have been invited to on the 16th. An outfit for her that is, not me. Wow, all I can say is I didnt realise how difficult shopping is with a teenager. She has been complaining recently about some of her clothes that my mum has bought, but today was an eye opener of how fussy she has become, not to mention how grown up she looks. Have to start watching out for boys now.

Journal your Christmas 2011 Day 1

2011-12-01T20:49:00.000+02:00

Over the last few days I have been hard at work preparing for JYC. I wanted to do something different this year, so found an old watch box and painted it turquoise. I have cut little cards which will fit into the box and each day will have one page with a photo opposite. I have yet to decorate the box, that will probably happen this weekend! The pages are really tiny and I am hoping that this will mean I can keep up.

Today Shimelle had something really different from last year for us. Well, as far as I remember anyway. This was in the form of a little printable card to fill in. I have printed it out and then stuck it onto one of the pages. This will probably be my title page unless inspiration strikes later.

And then of course, the manifesto for day 1. This picture shows just how small the page is, since the number is about an inch high! I have decided that as much as possible I will use the numbers from my advent swap parcels to number my pages. That just means that I wont throw away the participants hard work. This one was part of a tag that was bigger than the page, so I just took the tree off :-) The scan makes the picture look a bit redder than it actually is.

What's on your workdesk Wednesday

2011-11-30T18:43:00.002+02:00

I have been really busy with my exams, Brenda's exams etc, so havent had much chance to participate in this, but since things are more settled now, here I am. My desk (the half that you can see anyway) looks quite neat. Not much going on here. You can see the 3 gifts I have got so far from the Advent swap I am involved in. It has been so nice opening a crafty gift each morning. Otherwise you can see my little turquoise box which will hold my JYC album. The little index cards I am using are for some reason nowhere in evidence, maybe because they are so tiny, lol. On the right hand side of the photo, you can see the start of a huge pile of papers, embellishments, books and other junk that I really need to sort out soon!

For more craft desks pop over to Julia's blog

Not something you see everyday!

2011-11-21T18:41:00.001+02:00

I asked Brenda to wipe something spilled at the bottom of the fridge. I went back a short while later and what did I find? She decided to do a full clean, lol

I am sure it is pretty cold in there!

Learn something new every day page 2

2011-09-28T05:14:00.000+02:00

Sent from my BlackBerry®

Learn something new every day day 1page

2011-09-27T05:13:00.000+02:00

Still having computer issues so decided to blog from my phone.

Sent from my BlackBerry®

High Hopes Blog hop

2011-09-18T18:26:00.000+02:00

With all my studies this year, I havent had much time for crafting, although I do keep trying to remedy that! However, High Hopes are some of my favourite stamps. I love that they are cute, but they are also full of character which takes them to another level for me.

There is going to be a new release on Thursday and there will be a blog hop. So, for a chance to win some awesome stamps, hope over to the High Hopes Blog for more info.

Learn something new every day 14 - 6 September

2011-09-16T21:47:00.000+02:00

Still going strong here, although I am a few day behind on my pages.

14 September
I am still trying to word this to be witty and cryptic but still being able to work out what the h*ll I mean, lol. But basically it is that I really shouldnt judge people before I get to know them.

15 September
Today I learned that life is short and we should really enjoy it while it lasts.

16 September
Today I learned that I am an aunty!!!!!!!!!!!! My sister is in the process of adopting a baby boy and she got him today. The legalities have to be finalised still, but he is legally in her custody. Sorry about the small photos, but I got these off facebook since I havent had any emailed to me as yet.

Learn something new every day 12 and 13 September

2011-09-13T22:16:00.000+02:00

Things have been a bit busy and I haven't had a chance to post, but amazingly my pages are up to date apart from today!
So what I learned on the last 2 days is:

12 September
It is important to let go of what is worrying you especially when it is not strictly your problem.

13 September
Sometimes things take a lot longer than expected but if you persevere you will finish in the end!

This week is shaping up to be very busy, but I should have some very exciting news soon. So, if anyone is so inclined please send up some prayers that everything works out!
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10 things on the tenth

2011-09-10T17:32:00.002+02:00

Ten reason I like to live where I do .................

1. The weather. We really have the best weather ever. The only time of year that is not nice is February to March when it is way too hot and humid, but the rest of the year it is awesome. Today at the start of spring the high was 25C, tomorrow is predicted at 30C!. Not many places in the world where even in the middle of winter you can where t-shirts day and night. Sometimes we do have to put on slightly warmer clothes. My coldest I ever remember it being was 5C and that was a few years ago now. We do have a lot of rain but that generally comes in the form of afternoon thunder showers.

2. The relaxed lifestyle. Although the area is growing, it still has a very informal, relaxed atmosphere. Apart from the most expensive restaurants you can pretty much go everywhere in shorts, and definitely jeans. People focus a lot on getting together with friends, socialising and "chilling".

3. The people. Generally friendly and helpful, we have our differences sometimes, true. But, it is a relatively close knit area without being overpowering. I think it helps that there are only a few state schools in the area, so everyone knows everybody else.

4. The cultures. We have a real melting pot of cultures in Durban with evidence all around us. From English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Hindu, Muslim, Italian, Portugese, Chinese, Greek and a few others thrown in between Durban has really been influenced by everything.

Photo: Kleinz1 Flickr

5. The fact that you can buy pretty much anything on the side of the road. These are more traditional souvenirs, but the variety is endless. You could buy any or all of the following: fruit and veggies, sandwiches, cool drinks, cell-phone chargers, jewellery, sports supporters shirts, sunglasses, toys, stationery, batteries, ornaments, furniture, car tyres and hubcabs and the list goes on. (Obviously, one has to make sure it is all legal!)

Photo KarinXan (Flickr) click to see the original.

6. This is closely related to 5, but I thought it deserved its own entry. The ingenuity of its people. There are many very poor people around here, but there are those who do anything to earn a bit of money. The side of the road shopping is one example, but it is taken a bit further. You also get side of the road services: - fortune tellers, traditional healers, hair cuts, braiding, window washers, car aircon regas, people will take your rubbish awy from your car, car window repairs, in fact the other day I even saw some pool tables set up outside at the taxi rank.

Photo: KarinXan Flickr

7. The fact that there is so much to do, and something for everyone - close to mountains, sea, game reserves, battle fields. The shopping centres, the sports facilities, many theatres, art galleries, museums, casinos etc etc.

Photo: TVR (flickr)

Photo: Kleinz1 Flickr

8. The shows,competitions and markets - Durban has many shows throughout the year. House and Garden, Baby show, wedding show, Air show, surfing competitions, horse racing, show jumping and even a Sexpo (although truthfully I have never been, lol) We have markets all over from food to arts and crafts to car boot sale.

Photo KarinXan (Flickr)

Photo: Ims.photo (Flickr)

Photo: Mister-E (Flickr)

Photo: 9. The architecture - from having such a wide variety of cultures we also have a wide varitey of architecture. From eastern to art deco to more african inspired there is really a bit of everything.

Photo: Kleinz1 Flickr

Photo: Kleinz1

10. And lastly, the beach. I love that we have a bit of everything in the coast line. Some quiet and deserted, some small townish, some heaving with people. You can have whatever you want.

Photo: Kleinz1 Flickr

This post is part of Shimelles 10 things on the tenth. Pop over to her blog to see others or to join in.
Most of the photos are from Flickrs creative commons (my computer is playing up) please click on them to see the original.

Learn something new every day 5th/6th/7th September

2011-09-07T18:42:00.000+02:00

Ok, I have been bad at blogging, but have been checking the site and keeping up with my book, apart from todays. I hope to be able to print by the end of the week.

5th September 2011
Today I learned that very often the bad day we anticipate is much worse than the reality we experience

6th September 2011
Today I learned that summer is definitely on the way! (However, you wouldnt know it by the 7ths weather lol)

7th September 2011
Today I finally realised the attraction and use of Pinterest!

MemoryWorks Blog: Guest Designer Tuesday: Mini-Album by Jenn!

2011-09-07T04:56:00.000+02:00

I found this album whilst browsing on my phone. Such a clever idea!
http://memoryworksblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/guest-designer-tuesday-mini-album-by.html
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Learn something new 4th September.

2011-09-05T21:47:00.000+02:00

Amazingly I am up to date with this class. It actually helps having the pages pretty much alreaady done and keeping it really simple,lol.
Yesterday I learned how to make grits. And strangely, after many years of wondering what they were, I discovered they were very similar to a traditional South African dish called puthu or pap. I always believed they were some sort of scone or griddle cake.

Story-telling Sunday

2011-09-04T13:58:00.000+02:00

I was reminded of this story by my mother the other day and although in hindsight it is a bit embarassing, I had to share it. Especially in view of the ending.

My oldest cousin Seona is about 8 years older than me. As a result, her and my second oldest cousin were always in a different life stage than the other 4 of us cousins. My eldest cousin, Seona had a boyfriend called Gary throughout her high school years and being a relatively close family we all knew each other well. When I was around 8 or 9, I fell desperately in love with Gary. I idolised him with that puppy love that I am sure that many others can identify with (well, I hope others can anyway). I spent my time following him around, talking to him and trying to get his attention. It became so bad that I would actually try to insinuate myself between him and Seona continuously. He was always very sweet to me, but of course saw a little girl, but I saw myself as his girlfriend. Needless to say my cousin was NOT impressed and extremely unhappy with me, lol. In retrospect I have found out her mum talked to her regularly about it to reassure her and the adults always tried to distract me to go and play with other kids. Fortunately it was just a month or so after this that my cousin finished school and they both went off to university and so we didn't see them nearly as much. The relationship didn't last and my cousin eventually married another guy who had been waiting in the wings for years and they are still married today.
Fast forward nearly 20 years. The occasion: my cousins second childs christening. My daughter, Brenda is about 15 months old. Since, she was a typically active toddler I spent the majority of the service outside with her at the kiddies play area. There were a few other parents there, but most had smaller babies. There was only one child of walking age who Brenda was desperate to play with. He, unfortunately was terrified of her and kept running away. She would go up to him with a toy and he would run to his father. This happened nearly the entire morning and even at the party afterwards. The funny thing (or I thought so, a bit shamefacedly) who was the father? You guessed it - Gary, my cousins ex boyfriend!
This story is part of Sian's Storytelling Sunday.

Learn something new 3rd September

2011-09-04T13:05:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I learned the The Phoenix, after being stranded off the East Coast of South Africa since July has finally been freed and will be sunk off the coast about 70kms out. The good news is that there were no environmental disasters which was a big thing since at one stage she was thought to be leaking oil. This ship sitting just about on the beach has been a source of much discussion and speculation as to how to get her off and what to do with her if they cant, even from people who know nothing about ships or the sea,lol.

Learn something new every day - day 1/2

2011-09-02T21:00:00.000+02:00

Sadly, what I learned yesterday is that I am not going to have much computer access this month! My computer has had to go in for fixing and it seems like it is going to be a big job, so not sure when I will get it back. The computer I am using now is ok (ish) for internet access, but I cant downloaad photos etc. Which means I cant print the photos to add to my page. So, I hope to blog my lesson daily from my phone, I will do the layouts and then print every few days and upload the pages then.

Since my plan was to learn a positive thing every day I overlooked the above lesson and thought of another!
What I learned on the 1 September 2011:

it was a very good thing I spent half the night (31/8) doing and uploading my university assignment since on the 1st the website crashed! I would have gotten 0!

What I learned on the 2nd September 2011:

There is nothing better than Steers chips and Woolworths triple chocolate Sundae after a stressful day!

I have done yesterdays page, and will do todays either later or tomorrow morning. I haave also prepared pages a few days in advaance in an effort to keep up.

Learn something new every day

2011-08-27T20:37:00.000+02:00

September is nearly here and that means the start of Learn Something New Every day. Now I have been really busy as you know with Unisa work, but now a lot of that is finished so I can turn my thoughts to this. The last two years I have not finished this course so this year I would really like to actually finish it. I plan on keeping it really simple and just having a photo and the words with the odd embellishment. The thing I am not sure of is do I make a new book or just recycle last years one since I didnt get very far last year. THe thing is, I didnt really like the way the cover turned out last year. On the other hand it is not long till September 1st, so not much time to make a boook. Decisions, decisions........

Summer Photo scavenger hunt - rain

2011-08-17T10:48:00.000+02:00

This is the rainiest winter I can ever remember. Durban is a summer rainfall region, but has a little rain in winter. This year we have had days on end. This week was one of those and I spent all of Monday trying to get a good photo but it was so heavy that I was scared to go out and take my camera in it. I did get a few, but this is my favourite of the raindrops on a nasturtium leaf. This is part of Rinda's summer photo scavenger hunt.

This made me laugh out loud

2011-08-16T20:17:00.000+02:00

I received this in my email today, I hope you enjoy it too. I just love the look on the spectators faces!

Summer Photo scavenger hunt - South African Flag

2011-08-13T17:27:00.001+02:00

Despite the fact that the rugby world cup is just around the corner I have not seen the South African flag flying in many places and whenever I have I have not had my camera on me. This photo was taken pulling out of the car park at the shops today. The car was stationery and undercover, so you can see how strong the wind was! This is part of Rinda's Photo scavenger hunt.

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10 things

2011-08-10T09:02:00.000+02:00

Wow the 10th just caught me by surprise, I suddenly realised last night that I had not even thought of what I was going to do. My solution - I went to last months post - chose a random blog and got inspiration from that post. So, actually my post is almost a copy from Stacy's blog. I say almost because I changed it slightly. My ten things this month are scrapbooking products, techniques etc I would like to try/get more of. That should be like to buy actually since I dont seem to be doing any scrapping lately!

1. Glimmer mists - I actually have 2 of these which I bought last year and hve not really used at all. I have sprayed the one and I know Brenda has tried as well, but that is really as far as it goes. I also have 2 smooch spritzers which I have used once.

2. Twinkling H20's - I am not too sure if these are still for sale, but I love the ones I have and would love to get more.

3. Dylusions spray inks which I think are different to glimmer mists. I love the effect they give.

4. Paint dabbers - I have two, just have never used them. To be honest, I am not entirely sure what to do with them.

5. UTEE - I would also like to try this it seems so versatile and I love the look it gives. Of course, that means I will also need a melt pot

6. Some Tim Holtz - or any other - masks

7. Alchohol inks - another thing I have but have never actually taken out of the packet. I am ashamed to admit this because I see them all over and love what you can do with them. I even have the applicator still in its packet.

8. Nesties, I know I know I think I must be the only person in the scrapping world who doesnt own them. I would love to have some, but have not been able to afford them as yet. (They are not available here) Also, on that note, some more embossing folders and other dies would be nice.

9. I would love to get some more Promarkers, or some copics. Although I hear there are some new pens out there called Spectrum Noir as well, lol.

10. Lastly, and this is totally different lol, my most wanted scrapbook tool is definitely ................ a DSLR camera. No link because I wouldnt mind which one!

Looking back over my list I see a lot are actually colouring mediums, mmm, I wonder what that says about me! This list is part of Shimelle's 10 things, pop over to her blog for more!

Women's Day

2011-08-09T10:48:00.000+02:00

Here in South Africa it is Women's Day today. So, happy Women's Day to all my South African friends. And those who are not South African, Happy Women's Day anyway!

On another, sadder note, my heart just breaks for those in London and other areas who have been affected by the rioting. We have been watching it on TV and it just looks horrific. The worst seems to be, that whilst some people may have genuine grievances they seem to be mainly worried about stealing and just general mayhem. I hope that it gets resolved soon and that people are able to put their lives together somehow.

The Phoenix stranded

2011-08-03T20:03:00.000+02:00

Last week we had some awful weather here in Kwazulu Natal. Lots of snow in the midlands and mountainous areas and driving rain along the coast for about 3 days. We were basically cut off with lots of chaos around. Things were not any better out to sea where conditions were apparently awful. Last week Monday a ship which was on its way to India to be scrapped broke its anchor and was driven onto the rocks near Salt Rock about 45 minutes from here. We went up to sea it this Monday, but unfortunately we couldn't get very close to it since they were preparing to attempt to move it. If you go to this site you will sea how close by the shore it actually was.
We did however get to see it and actually saw it start to move as the tide was coming in, however they never managed to refloat it so she is stull stuck there.

This is as close as we managed to get:

The two tugboats Amandla and Siyanda who were involved in attempting to refloat her.

She did move a bit.

The sea was a beautiful turquoisey blue and looked very calm at times.

But it was actually quite rough!

It was lovely to get out there, since I haven't been around there for years. We did have quite a walk through thick mud to get there! Luckily nobody slipped, lol.

Rinda's Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt

2011-07-31T17:53:00.000+02:00

A couple of weeks ago I signed up for Rinda's photo scavenger hunt. I am not sure whether I will be able to get them all, but thought it would be fun to try. Since I joined I have been really busy at work and then laid low with an awful dose of the flu and not really had a chance to either take photos or blog. However, I am back and here is my first photo.
7. A decorated mailbox, but us non-US people can use a garden sculpture.

The moment I saw this prompt I knew that I just had to add this little guy. He stands outsides someones house about 15minutes from me, however it is a road that I probably drive on about twice a year, so dont see him much. I just love him though, I think he is so cheerful and love the little dog he is leading! Now, he is on an extremely busy road and so this photo was not easy to take. I had to stop on the other side and then wait for a break in the traffic to get him in. I took quite a few, but most had cars in the way. This was the best of the bunch. I only realised after I uploaded it to my computer, that he actually has the South African flag in the background, but you cant really see it, so I will take another photo of it somewhere else.

Strange cat

2011-07-20T16:16:00.001+02:00

I left my bag on the dining room table, when I returned it had got a bit fuller! We have a very strange cat,lol.
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Favourite Photo

2011-07-16T18:23:00.000+02:00

An awesome young lady Erika is having a competition on your blog to post a photo. I couldn't believe that I have not posted this photo before. Since they live about 13 hours drive from here, Brenda doesnt get to see her cousins that much, but when she does, they have so much fun together. This photo was taken last year on my grans birthday and shows the four cousins together. From left, Amy (11) Brenda (12), Holly (13) and Christian (4).

10 favourite books I have read this year

2011-07-10T12:12:00.000+02:00

These are the books that I have enjoyed the most this year. This is not actually in order of enjoyment since I find it really hard to score books against each other. I read quite a variety of books, so it is hard to compare.

1.The fabric of sin by Phil Rickman

I love the Merrily Watkins series, but havent read any of his books for ages. It was so good to get a new one

2. Jump by Jilly Cooper

Another old favourite, Jilly Cooper is always laugh aloud funny!

3. Empire of Gold by Andy Mc.Dermott

Adventure and history, what more could I ask for?

4. An echo in the bone by Diana Gabaldon

Had to be here because of my enduring love for Jamie Fraser

5. Towers of midnight by Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson

The long awaited penultimate book in my favourite series

6. The entire Narnia series by C.S Lewis

7. Spud by John Van der Ruit

Had to reread it after seeing the movie

8. The way we were by Marcia Willett

Moving story

9. Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy

I love reading Maeve Binchy, it is like getting a letter from an old friend

10. Inheritance of loss by Kiran Desai

The funny thing was that I only gave this book a 4 as opposed to a 5 on Goodreads, but it has just stuck in my head, so I guess that makes it a favourite book!

This post is part of Shimelle's 10 things on the tenth

The one where we play the tourist.

2011-07-08T20:48:00.000+02:00

On Sunday there was a Madeiran festival in town. I am not Madeiran, but my good friends are and I thought it would be interesting to go to. So, Brenda and I went off to town, we parked at the casino and caught the bus in. We did the entire beachfront on the bus and then stopped at Ushaka Marine World.

We stopped in the Sharks Mouth

Attempted to walk on water.

Watched the pony rides, lol

Caught the people mover back to the flea market

Had lunch at the beach, I had mutton breyani and Brenda had mutton Bunny Chow

Walked along the esplanade

Went to the yacht mole

Had some icecream

Saw an owl on our way home

All in all we had an excellent day, unfortunately as you can see we never got to the festival. Oh, well there is always next year!

Owl

2011-07-04T19:29:00.001+02:00

As we were driving home from church last night, Brenda shouted out that she had seen an owl. Now, this was right in the middle of a relatively built up area, so I didnt really believe her, but we went looking for it and sure enough she was right! This little guy (or gal) was just sitting on the road sign looking at us for ages!

The summer of colour pink

2011-07-03T07:18:00.001+02:00

Pink is the theme for this weeks Summer of Colour, so, since I love pink, I decided to make the cover of my diet journal. It didn't really turn out like I planned it, I guess that sometimes happens! The aim is that as I reach various milestones I will cover up the circles with something related to it, or just fill it in and date it.I planned on the circles representing a path, but looking at it once it is finished, I think it is a bit uneven for me. It will obviously look different once it is full. The small letters are from an old sticker sheet from basic grey, the big ones were also stickers, but not sure who they come from. I added stickles to make them shine and then dimensional magic.

What's on your workdesk Wednesday?

2011-06-29T16:12:00.001+02:00

This week my desk has 2 books which have been gessoed, waiting for a project. One is for my diet journal and the other one is for the first page of my art journal. This is only my second time using gesso, so it is a learning curve, I never expected it to be quite so thick. Considering it took me about 3 months to do the cover and then about 6 weeks to gesso the first page, dont expect much progress on the art journal in the near future. I was not going to decorate the cover for the diet journal, but decided to bite the bullet and do it since I was getting a bit bored with it. Now, i just need to get the diet off the ground again. You can also see my little tree candleholder that I made last week, it will probably stay right there till Christmas time.

For inspiration from more desks, pop over here

The summer of colour

2011-06-26T09:42:00.001+02:00

I saw this challenge on the web the other day and thought I would join in. I was originally thinking of doing pages in my art journal, but have decided to leave my options open and will probably see what each colour inspires me to do. This weeks theme was green, and I immediately thought of this little candle holder. I bought it a few years ago at a fair with the intention of altering it. When I got it home I was told by my mum to hide it, turns out that was what my daughters class were doing for our Christmas presents! (Not sure what happens elsewhere, but here each child makes a gift for Christmas, Valentines day etc for their parents) As a result, this little tree languished in a cupboard for a few years until I found it a few weeks ago.

I decided to decorate it to match the other one. Painted it green first, then glittered the stars. At this point I had some very enthusiastic help so they are a bit overdone. Then did the snow on the branches, this was painted with puff paint. Unfortunately, either I left the paint to dry too long or it is old, but it didn't puff up as I would have liked. Then I added the gems and then Dimensional Magic to the whole thing and a little bit of white glitter to the tree, although you can't really see it in this picture.

Sorry about the poor photo, but unfortunately it is winter here and although we dont really have cold winters it is quite wet lately and as a result cant take my photos outside as I normally do. I will try and replace it as I go.

IMG00372-20110626-1007.jpg

2011-06-26T09:18:00.000+02:00

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What's on your workdesk Wednesday?

2011-06-22T16:57:00.001+02:00

I havent done this for a while, but thought that I would do it this week just to prove that I am still alive. My desk looks reasonably neat, but this photo is taken strategically to block out the piles of stuff on the sides. Here you can see my daughters B for the top of her journal which we have been working on. Her purse (no idea) The believe at the back is also hers, but it was really a project fraught with drama, it worked out in the end though. You can also see my gold piggy bank hiding behind the gesso, as well as some paint dabbers, glitter glue etc. I do have another project which I am working on for the colour project that I found the other day.

For more desks pop over here

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Kids

2011-06-14T16:20:00.000+02:00

Just had a conversation with the 13 year old that went like this:

13 year old: "Whatks for dinner?"

Me: "the remains of last nights supper"

13 year old: "That's the problem. I just watched a programme on talking chickens and I have decided to become a vegetarian"

Me: "but you don't eat vegetables"

13 year old: "That's ok, I'll just eat the rest of the stuff!"

Now, if you don't eat meat and you don't eat vegetables (including beans etc) what is there left to eat. Surely man cannot live by Carbs alone? Any suggestions?
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2011-06-14T16:18:00.000+02:00

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10 holidays I would like to take

2011-06-10T08:54:00.003+02:00

1. Egypt

Source: NidalM (flickr)

2. Pompeii

Source: Alex Ranaldi

3. Turkey

Source: PEACE(flickr)

4. Mayan Temples

Source: Ryan Greenberg

5. Great Zimbabwe

Source: Al Green (Flickr)

6. Zanzibar

Source: C.Ramsay (Flickr)

7. Niagara Falls

Source: Ed Yourdon

8. Bali

Source: zsoolts

9. Terracotta warriors

Source: Gogaps
10. Russia

Source: Joli Soleil

Of course there are many more places I would love to go, but these are my top 10. There are a few more places I would like to go back to as well! I will have to start winning the lottery!

This post is part of Shimelle's 10 things on the 10th, where participants will show off 10 random things on the 10th of each month.

7. Niagara Falls

Crazy hair!

2011-06-09T07:59:00.000+02:00

Brenda is desperate for a hair straightener. I have told her that if she comes 4th in class or if she gets most improved I will buy her one. (She does really well when motivated but is chronically lazy) However, she is on a mission to get me to buy it sooner and keeps doing crazy things with her hair. I have just found this picture on my phone and think she looks remarkably like a sheepdog!
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Mother strikes again!

2011-06-06T10:02:00.000+02:00

Brenda's school have an arrangement with one of the local shopping centres, where each week a selection of art is chosen and displayed at the Spar and if your art is put up you get a free milkshake at the coffee shop. So, this week Brenda was one of the chosen kids and on Saturday we duly went off to have the milkshake. I had not seen the display as yet, but could see it at a distance from where we were sitting. All the pictures were of soft drink cans. I knew that Brenda had chosen to draw a Fanta Grape can of which I could only see one picture. As a result, the following conversation ensued.

Me: "I must say Brenda, yours is the best of all of those drawings. Yours and the coke can at the very top"
Brenda: "mmm, Mum, which do you think is mine?"
Me: "Well, the fanta Grape one in the bottom left corner....."
Brenda: "No, that is not, mine is the one at the top under the coke can you like!"

Oops, of course, much backtracking (amidst hilarity) ensued, but not sure if I managed to convince her. In my defence it was quite far away, and she had coloured the purple in very lightly, which is why I only picked up one Fanta Grape can. Next time I will look very closely before I open my mouth.

Storytelling Sunday - Two little girls

2011-06-05T08:00:00.002+02:00

Todays story is in honour of my mum (still alive) and my aunt who died in March. At her memorial service my cousin gave a talk and a couple of the things he talked about were a couple of things that I used to laugh about with my mum. So, when my cousin talked about it I realised it must have been either genetic or that it was a product of their isolated childhood!

Once upon a time their were two little girls, called Pat and Dos (short for Dorothy, also called Dorothy Dumpling). They lived on a farm outside a small village called Mooi River. Their farm was quite far outside of town and being the 1940's just after the war, life was very different and not as fast as it is today. They had electricity but it was powered by a generator, so at 8pm their father would make tea and then turn the electricity off and everybody went to sleep! They had piped water, but it came from the dam on their farm. Cars were not as fast or as common as they are today, they did not go to town very often. Their father used to use the truck for the farm and if their mother did go out she mostly left the children at home (accompanied of course). Anyway, this left the children at a loose end and since toys were not as advanced and they definitely did not have playstations and TV's like todays children they very often had to make up their own games. Some, very creative game inventions occurred. Dos used to pretend all sorts of things were farm animals, twigs, stones etc she would build "paddocks" and pretend to herd her "sheep" into the paddocks and that sort of thing. They rode horses, went for walks and had a very free childhood. One of their favourite games though, was to pretend to be cattle. This entailed going around on hands and knees with things stuck into their hair for horns, bending over and biting the grass. However, funny as this may sound, this was not the funniest. The piece de resistance was that they would take their fathers socks and put them into their shorts to pretend that they were bulls! Needless to say when Pat and Dos grew up and told this story to their own children, it caused much hilarity.

Although that was my story I would just like to add an aside about their food habits. This was brought to my mind by a comment that jimjams made on my last months story. Pat and Dos grew up to be teenagers and since their was no close High School they were sent to Boarding School, where the food was probably not quite what they were used to. They developed some wierd habits to try and make it more palatable, these 4 are just a few:

If they had sausages they were apparently a bit dry generally, so they would slice them lengthways, butter/jam them (just like you would a slice of bread) and then put the pieces back together, just like a sausage sandwich
peas always had vinegar and sugar added
they would butter bread, add salt and pepper and eat it just like that. Apparently if they closed their eyes they would pretend that it was avacado on bread
they would thickly butter two slices of bread, spread a thick layer of sugar on one, put the other slice on top and pretend it was cake!

Dos and Pat both grew up and had children and carried these traditions on. The last one is my favourite since when I was very little my mum used to give me that and tell me it was cake, I was about 6 before I realised that that was not how you made cake, lol.

For more stories pop over to Sian's Storytelling Sunday

Back again and Thank you!

2011-06-04T15:38:00.001+02:00

I took a bit of a break to finish exams and try and recover from the flu I have had. The exams went reasonably well, although trying to study with flu was not fun, hopefully that is the first and last time! Work is just as busy as every, although I haven't been there that much.

At the very start of blogging for scrapbookers I entered for some Blog Candy and was so excited to win. The parcel arrived about 10 days ago but havent had a chance to post about it before now. So, thanks Bev

(if you click on the link Bev has an awesome recipe on her blog too). I loved all the goodies, especially the flowers and the sentiment on the card which reads "Housework, ummmmm No ....I'm crafting!"

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Rainbow

2011-05-26T21:43:00.001+02:00

We had this beautiful rainbow this morning. A full double arch, about 5 minutes before a huge storm. I thought it was supposed to be the other way around!
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Back

2011-05-24T12:06:00.001+02:00

We have had electricity since last week Thursday, but blogger has not been working for me. It has been allowing me to comment and visit, but not post. Suddenly, today it is working. So, a summary of the last nearly 2 weeks.

I have studied a lot, much more than I normally do, hopefully that will translate into good marks
I have also read a lot, and now am up to 51 books this year!!!!
We had a municipal election. While I do not come from a very political family, it was always instilled that voting is my duty, so I was amazed as to how many people just can't be bothered to vote. What also annoys me intensely is the political parties and how they carry on. Not sure if it is just a SA thing, but I really can't see why I should vote for you if you threaten, scream, insult, promise to burn the newspapers down, call me a criminal, belittle me and even claim that Jesus supports your party. Anyway, I have now decided to stop reading the news and watching TV for a while in an effort to bring my blood pressure down.
Went to my friends 42nd birthday lunch. It was really nice to get to see her and a couple of the people that were there I hadn't seen for years, so it was nice to catch up. What was not so nice was being reminded that I have a big birthday coming up at the end of the year. I am trying desperately to forget again
spent time playing cards, pictionary and 30 seconds
I also became quite a pro at positioning 4 candles, 2 torches and myself in such a way that I could get enough light to study. I only thought afterwards that I should have got someone to take a photo. Hopefully I won't have a repeat just so I can get a photo lol.
Brenda was invited to her first real party, with strobe lights, mirror ball and everything. Up to now she has only been to the yearly school disco. She had a lovely time, I fetched her at 11pm, she fell asleep and slept until 10 the next day. They apparently played spin the bottle, ~~oh how I remember those days~~ , to which I obviously responded in horror, because of course I never did things like that. She will kill me if she reads this, lol

Otherwise, I have an exam coming up tomorrow that I need to get back to studying for. I have a couple of cards and a present to post on here in the next few days. Roll on the 2nd June when the studying will be over for a bit

Camping out

2011-05-15T18:12:00.000+02:00

I really do enjoy camping, although I haven't done it for a while. As a young adult I hitched/camped/bussed/trained around Zimbabwe and Zambia with friends, I backpacked around Ireland and a little bit in the UK. I also have done my share of camping in the Drakensberg mountains and the Natal South Coast, and loved it all. However, for the last few years I have not camped out at all, and in some ways I miss it. However, the last few days I find myself in an different position. I returned home on Friday to find that the electricity was off. Thinking nothing of it we had a barbecue for supper and went to bed. Only to find that the electricity was still off Saturday morning. Apparently there was a problem with one of the substations and the electricity will be off until Thursday at the earliest! So, here I am camping at my own home, and needless to say I have decided I prefer the real version. Ok, I have my own bed to sleep in, but that is about the only advantage. At least at a camp site I have hot running water for a bath and to wash dishes. Ok, I have camped without but that was not by choice. A tent in the dark also is a lot lighter than a house in the dark, well our house anyway. All our cooking implements are electric and so we have been BBQing which is fine for lunch, but not so good for a cup of coffee! Tomorrow I will go and get some gas cylinders so we can at least heat water, and tonight I eventually resorted to showering at the gym, which I will do for the rest of the week. The other thing is unfortunately none of my computers are powered by gas (lol) and so I am cut off from the world, I am tring to conserve my cell-phone battery until I can charge it tomorrow at work. Thank goodness for work lol. (Words I never thought would come out of my mouth/fingers!) I cannot believe how dependent on electricity we have become, and how dependent on the internet I am. What am I doing without the internet, you ask? Well, actually studying, doing some reading, made a card and a half, played some cards and really just relaxed. Sounds idyllic, well it is until about 6pm! So, I will only be around on and off for a few days but hope to be back full time by the end of the week.
PS Power failures are a relatively common occurence around here, but not normally for this long.

The one where I admit how absent minded I am

2011-05-10T18:19:00.000+02:00

The last few weeks have been really, really busy over here. Mainly with work, and now of course I am studying for my exams later this month. Typically, the busier I get the more absent minded I get and this year has been no exception. I keep forgetting things at home or at work. I bought a new mug for work, it took a week to get myself to remember to take it to work. Then I left it in the car for 2 days, then I left it on my desk for a couple of days, and it is only this morning that I remembered to actually take it to the tea-lounge. Amazingly, I don't usually miss deadlines, but anything else is fair game. I have also been known to do really silly things, but this afternoon I think I settled to a new low!
I was making chicken casserole (sounds fancier than stew, lol) for dinner, fried the onions and chicken, added tomatos, some veggies, potatoes etc. Then I had the bright idea to add some split peas, so I grabbed the tin off the shelf, took the lid off and tipped, only to have Brenda say:
"Why are you adding coffee to the stew?" I had picked up the wrong tin, I don't know how because they look nothing alike and was about to pour the coffee in! Thank goodness Brenda was there, otherwise we would have had coffee chicken stew for dinner. I sure hope I am not the only one who does these things!

Difference of opinion, what do you think?

2011-05-07T17:03:00.000+02:00

Yesterday at work we were having a discussion about Mothers Day, which is tomorrow in South Africa. We were discussing what we were going to do, what we would like and what our ideal mothers day was. One of our staff members also has her mother in laws birthday on Sunday, so they are having a big lunch with her husbands family at her house.
Her own mother was invited to the lunch but has chosen to go to my colleagues brothers house for lunch, where she will see the rest of her children. So, my colleague will not see her mum in the day. My colleague mentioned that she will pop around to her mums house in the evening and her mum will cook her dinner. One of us suggested that why doesnt she package up some of the left overs from the party to take to her mum and they can use it as a sort of picnic supper to stop her mum from having to cook on Mothers day.
Well, a heated discussion about the propriety of this ensued. A few felt that this would be lovely since they would probably all be tired and then nobody would have to do any cooking. And that her mum would probably appreciate the gesture and being thought of and that she didnt have to do any work. The rest felt that this was inappropriate since it was left over food and that her mother would be offended, so she should let her mum cook. This group felt her mum would feel that they did not appreciate her if they bought left overs. The left overs in question were going to be roast lamb, potatoes, veggies, dessert etc, a proper meal, not finger food.
Of course, this got me thinking about what is right and what isn't. Personally I wouldnt mind if my daughter bought food over to me to save me from cooking, but maybe it is not right, so what are your thoughts about it? Would you be okay with it, or would you be a bit offended?

Five Question Friday

2011-05-06T16:37:00.002+02:00

This meme is run by Mama M every Friday. Click on the picture to be taken to her blog.
1. Have you ever had roommates?

As a small child I shared with my sister, however as we got older, this became more and more traumatic for my parents and we eventually got moved to our own rooms when I was about 12. The fights that occured in that single room are legendary, lol. When I went nursing I lived in the nurses residence and for the first few weeks we shared a room. I was with a girl whos name was also Tracy, and we got on ok, but after about 6 weeks we got our own room. At the moment I have a roommate since my daughter seems to think she lives in my room!

2. How many names do you/your children have? (i.e. Prince Charming William Phillip Arthur Louis John Jacob Jingleheimer-Schmidt)
We both have two, in fact all of my family have two. Well, that is two without the surname.

3. Did you watch the Royal Wedding?
Every minute of it until just after the balcony scene. I had to go and fetch Brenda from school after that, but I can assure you that I delayed it until the last possible moment. I absolutely loved it. I know there were a lot of people who complained about it, but I thought it was beautiful and besides the wedding, the crowd spirit looked amazing, the pageantry was gorgeous. Seeing all the scenes in London also took me back to my time there.

4. What is the messiest room in your house?
Ummm, all of it. The room where we have our computers though probably is the messiest, but tidiness is a constant struggle around here.

5. What is your ideal mothers day?
Breakfast in bed, a good book, out to lunch with my family all around me.

Goals revisited

2011-05-03T17:49:00.000+02:00

Sadly after having the last 11 days off I had to go to work today. Mind you, after 5 solid days with ~~the attitude from hell~~ a lovely teenager work was starting to sound attractive. When does it ever improve? I know that Brenda is definitely not as bad as some, but there are days when it all gets a bit much. Mind you, she might say the same about me! So before I went on leave I set myself some goals, and I thought I should go back to see how far I got.

make some cards for a couple of birthdays coming up - 3 done, a couple more to do, but they are for later in the month
try to start some art journalling - didn't even start, will get there eventually
read - yes, read 9 books (maybe that was why the others werent so well met, lol)
go to the torture chamber gym every day. I really need to get back into this habit -went 4 times
write some letters - nope
work my way through Beyond Blogging for scrapbookers - I have read all of the prompts and done some commenting, but not much blogginb
do something fun with Brenda on Tuesday, haven't decided what yet - went to Museum
catch up on my huge i**ning pile - did a fair amount, but dont think I will ever be up to date, it seems to grow babies in the pile
Oh, and I suppose their should be some studying thrown in there too, since my exam timetable arrived today - did a bit, but started seriously from yesterday

The one thing I didn't mention in here was that I watched the entire Royal wedding coverage on Friday. For somebody who typically doesn't watch TV I thought that was quite good! Proof that I dont watch TV much. Well, my father (we live on the same property and he does the electrics) set up the DVD machine to record it for my parents to watch it later. When I came to turn the TV on, I didn't even know how to use the remote and which one to use. Being too scared to mess up the recording, I had to phone my father and ask him. Of course, the entire family have been laughing about it for the last 4 days. How long have we had that TV/DVD - 2 years.
I did enjoy the wedding and thought that Kate looked absolutely beautiful and they both looked so in love. Really a nice thing to watch

Story-telling Sunday

2011-05-01T23:16:00.001+02:00

Sian from From High in the sky hosts this bloghop every month. I have seen it around but never joined in in the past. Sian's post this month was titled Some days are diamonds and this got me thinking about the days that stand out for me.
When I was a child, my father and his brother had a huge argument and didn't speak for many years (maybe another story telling Sunday post.) As a result we spent very little time with my fathers family, my grandparents would visit us but we never went to my uncles home. That, coupled with the distance they lived from us meant I grew up almost entirely influenced by my mothers side of the family. My mothers father had come to South Africa with his brother in the 1930s leaving the rest of the family in the UK. As a result we were a relatively small bunch, but very tightly knit. We would get together with the extended family periodically, but the main event of the year would be a big family party on the Sunday between Christmas and New Year. Held by my great aunt at their farm, my grandparents, our family, my aunt and family, as well as my mums cousins and their families would all be invited and I guess it was expected for us to attend. Being from a small farming community there were also a few non-family regulars that attended as well. We would always stay at my grandparents the night before & I was very impatient for everyone to get up and get going in the mornings. I was very young, but I remember that there was always so much to do for us kids. Pony rides, tennis, swimming, snooker, darts, they had a slide and climbing frame, we would run wild through the nearby woods and all in all just have an amazing day. There were always lots of kids ranging from babies to young adults. Somebody would always start either a cricket, rugby or soccer game and we would all join in. There was usually a buffet meal and we would just help ourselves whenever we wanted. Of course, being the 70s we were told not to bother the adults and definitely not to eat before the adults. But, I can clearly remember that my great uncle would always give me sneak portions of my aunts divine meringues with cream. Needless to say to this day I am a sucker for eton mess, pavlova or any dessert with meringues in! Unfortunately eventually the older generation got older and no one in my mums generation continued the tradition. I often wish they would have!

For more stories hop over to Sian's blog (link above)

Five Question Friday

2011-04-29T20:26:00.001+02:00

And Friday rolls around again. Having spent the entire day watching the "Royal Wedding" I am a bit late getting this up. What a lovely wedding it was too.

1. If you could buy any car, money not an option, what would it be?
I would love a convertible BMW, cant remember the model, lol, but it is the one my sister drives. I just love it.

2. What was your worst first date ever?
Well, this was a blind date, but it never went any further than that. It was supposed to be a double date with my friend and her boyfriend, but they pulled out less than half an hour before. I arrived at the restaurant (one where Ioften went with friends and their kids on a Sunday) and the guy firstly was looking very scruffy. Then he spent his whole time implying that I was very wealthy. I dont know if he was trying to get me to pay for his meal or what, but it got a bit tired after a while. He kept hanging over the balcony and saying: "Which one of these flashy cars is yours?" Or, "I guess you earn a big salary" I found this incredibly annoying. Then he told me that he had two children and only got on with one. At first, I thought Ok, sometimes you have a clash with one. (They were both under 10 though) He then went on to tell me all about that child and in the end basically said that he didnt love the other one. But the cherry on the cake was when a stripper came out and stripped naked in front of the table next to us! At that point I just went home. Needless to say I never saw him again.

3. How old were you when you fell in love for the first time?
In honour of the Royal wedding today I will tell you a story about the last one, lol. Bear with me I am getting to the love part. I watched Charles and Dianas wedding (1981) in our school hall and was absolutely enthralled. That was the time where I first discovered Prince Edward and fell desperately in love with him. I wrote him a letter telling him all about myself and received a letter back, obviously written by a secretary but signed by him. Well, I was in raptures and decided that he obviously felt the same way about me. (I was 9 at the time, this is my only defence) My mother, to my eternal gratitude did not allow me to write a letter pouring my soul out and proposing marriage, lol. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) I eventually realised that this was really an unattainable romance and found boys who lived closer to me, lol.
As far as proper love goes, I was 20, although I had had some casual boyfriends before then. But, at 20 I met a guy called Derek who I was desperately in love with for about 6 months until he chatted up my best friend at my birthday party!

4. When was the last time you reconciled your checkbook?
I dont actually have a checkbook these days, lol. However, I check my balances on my accounts pretty much daily on the internet. Please note, this does not mean that I actually stick to any form of budget, just that I check my balances.

5. If you were going to fashion a "Wanted" Ad for a best friend, how would you word it?
Mother of 1 seeks best friend, sense of humour essential. Must be prepared to put up with nonsense, and my forgetful, untidy nature. Must be prepared to accept phone calls late at night since that is when I remember to phone people. However, be my friend, we will have fun and I promise to be fiercely loyal in return.

Easy fish pie

2011-04-28T08:11:00.003+02:00

I thought up this recipe on Good Friday when I wanted something different to do with the fish. This topping is an easy topping that I often use for moussaka.
white fish fillets, 1 per person
1 small chopped onion
mushrooms, sliced (would be nice with any soft veggies eg patty pans or baby marrow)
1 tin tomato and onion mix
250g greek or natural yoghurt
2 eggs
cheese for sprinkling
salt, pepper, garlic to taste
5ml sugar (optional)

Layer your fish, onions and mushrooms in an oven-proof dish. Pour tomato and onion mix over. Sprinkle garlic, salt, pepper over this. I always add a bit of sugar to my tomatoes when cooking, I feel it brings out the taste. Mix the eggs and the yoghurt thorougly and pour it over the fish. If it doesnt look like the topping is going to cover the base, just spread it around, it really doesnt need to be thick. Sprinkle grated cheese over and put it in the oven at180C until browned and bubbling.
The second time I made it I felt there was too many ingredients for the tomato sauce so I added a cup of chicken stock. In retrospect this was too much, maybe half a cup would have been better, or even less. A little white wine would be nice too. We had it with rice, but nice crusty bread would be good too. I hope you enjoy it if you try it.

My day in photos

2011-04-27T09:05:00.000+02:00

See more days here

Easter lunch request

2011-04-25T10:21:00.000+02:00

We are having our Easter meal tonight since Brenda will be back. This is the request I got this morning:
Roast lamb
Roast potato
Mashed potato mountains of it
Potato salad.

Think she is a meat and potatos kinda gal?
Sent from my BlackBerry®

Easter basket

2011-04-23T22:03:00.000+02:00

I joined up for the Easter bunny swap over at UKS this year. I usually take part in the Christmas stocking swap and love receiving a little packet of crafty goodness, especially since I don't really get crafty goodies from my family or friends. This year I thought it would be nice to do the Easter bunny swap. I was quite upset since my parcel had not arrived by Thursday and with all the holidays coming up, I didnt think it would come until May. However, happily for me my mother said to me on Thursday night: "Oh, did you see that box that came for you!" And there it was, my parents had collected the parcel, but not told me about it. So, here is the parcel with all the wrapped pressies. I am desperate to open it, but being good and waiting for it tomorrow. Even then, Brenda is begging for me to wait until Monday when she gets back, so she can see what I get. I am not sure that I can stand the suspense.

Five Question Friday

2011-04-22T18:20:00.001+02:00

Questions for Friday, April 22nd: (Special thanks to @TylerH2102, @jengacek, Pam,Rachel, and Sandy for their question suggestions! I'd LOVE to link YOU in a future 5QF, just c'mon over to my community and offer up your best question suggestions! It's getting a little sparse over there, so I'd LOVE some more questions to choose from! Also, watch for my weekly Thursday shout out for questions on Twitter [@5crookedhalos]!!)

1. What is your favorite Easter tradition?

I absolutely love going to two services on Easter. The first one is the Maundy Thursday service, I always feel that by going to this service it allows me to start to focus on Easter and its meaning. I also love the early morning Sunday services which I think is beautiful, I love how they start by lighthing the candle and the dark church slowly fills up with light.
Unfortunately I didnt get to go last night since the weather was just miserable and Brenda was not feeling well, and then on Sunday I am helping with the babies at the 8:30 service, so not sure if I will get to the early one either.
Of course, I also love roast lamb on Easter Sunday.

2. Are you a "shower" or a "long, hot bath" kind of person?
Once again, a bit of both. I love a shower, it makes me feel refreshed and clean, and definitely on a work day it is quick and easy. However, sometimes nothing beats a nice, long bath. I love to take a book and a drink into the bath and read for ages in the bath. I keep adding hot water as the water cools. I dont get to do that very often though.
3. Can you parallel park and if so when is the last time you did it?
I can parallel park, but prefer not to if I can help it. The last time I did it was in Umhlanga about 6 weeks ago.
4. What is your favorite Easter candy?
Two things, which I definitely was not able to get when I lived in the UK, so not sure if you get them in the US either.
First one is marshmallow eggs. This is a flattish (around 2cm thick oval disk of marshmallow, it has a yellow centre with white around the outside, so it looks like a thick fried egg. The whole thing is then covered in chocolate. A real favourite in my house and they are relatively fat free in comparison to other chocolate eggs. Sorry for the tiny picture, it was the only one I could find.

The second one is called hens eggs. Basically it is a hollow hard sugar candy egg with a thin layer of chocolate (about 3 mm thick) coating the inside. I like to eat the candy off the outside and then lick the chocolate on the inside. You can also colour the outside. Of course, I do love your bog standard chocolate bunnies etc, but these are my favourite. I always think that chocolate just tastes so much better when it is shaped into an easter bunny!

Not candy, but I adore hot cross buns too.

5. Easter: do you go all out with the Easter Bunny or focus on the religious part of the holiday?

I used to do a bit of both. Focus on the religious part mainly, but always did an egg hunt on the Sunday. However, the last couple of years Brenda has been to stay with my sister for Easter. I dont think she does either, although they do go to church.

I really enjoy this meme, so why dont you pop over to My little life (link above) and join in.

The joys of April

2011-04-21T19:37:00.000+02:00

One of the best things about living in South Africa between March and May is all the public/school holidays. 21st March is a holiday every year, then we have the April school holidays, around here these are usually about a week. Then of course, usually about a week later is Easter, so another 4 day weekend. Then there is the 27 April which is another holiday and then the first of May is a holiday as well. This year these holidays have really worked out well for us since Easter falls on 22-25 April, then there is a day and then it is the 27th, so a holiday, then 2 days and another long weekend. So, I have signed leave days for Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and will in effect have 11 days off! Yay!! The schools have been given Tuesday as a school holiday, but they have to go back on Thursday and Friday. (They were given the option of closing, but will have to make the days up, so I am happy they left things as is) Works for me, since I will have 2 days to do what I want to with no interruptions.
So, in preparation for my week of leisure these are my plans:

make some cards for a couple of birthdays coming up
try to start some art journalling
read
go to the ~~torture chamber~~ gym every day. I really need to get back into this habit
write some letters
work my way through Beyond Blogging for scrapbookers
do something fun with Brenda on Tuesday, haven't decided what yet
catch up on my huge i**ning pile
Oh, and I suppose their should be some studying thrown in there too, since my exam timetable arrived today

And, just in case you think these are all our holidays, we have 1 each in June, August, September and January and 3 in December, not too bad!

The one where I say Thank You and then ask a question

2011-04-18T20:43:00.002+02:00

I just wanted to say Thank you so much to everyone who visited my blog yesterday and commented on my blog hop post. Also, to Mel for organising it and for all the other participants for putting up their posts. I really enjoyed hopping around and have to say I learned a lot.
Some answers to your questions

yes I did change each T individually, lol, it took me ages to do it.
the Christmas countdown - Oh dear, I had actually forgotten it was there, it was supposed to be in the footer but somehow got moved to the sidebar when I changed my blog. I am NOT, I repeat NOT eager for Christmas at all. Easter is about as much as I can handle. Not to mention the fact that I have the big 4-0 coming up just before Christmas, so I am trying to blot December from my mind totally.

A question for you all
How long do you spend blogging/reading blogs everyday?
What time of day do you blog?
Oh wait, that is two, oh well. I have always wondered how everyone else manages, since it seems to take quite a bit of my time up.

Alpha-numeric blog hop

2011-04-17T15:00:00.004+02:00

As you know, I joined in wiTh Shimelle's Blogging for Scrapbooker's rerun over The last few weeks. One of The prompT's was To do a blog-hop or join up wiTh oTher blogs in some way. Mel had The brillianT idea of doing an alpha-numeric blog hop which I was lucky enough to geT a place in. Basically, each person on The hop has been given a different leTTer or number and has To do a posT showcasing their letter or number and post it on The given day for us all to visiT each oTher's blogs. You should have come here via Kim but if you haven'T the complete lisT is here for you to follow, sTarTing at Mel.

I Speak Melsh
BE Glorious
Captured On Film
Chatty Crafty Arty Pig
Creating Room
Curiouser and Curiouser
Daily Life - Bits and Pieces
Deb's World
Den's Crafty Diary
From High In The Sky
Gallo Organico
Ginger's Life Of Spice
Handmade By Kirsty
Havoc and Mayhem
Heather's Scraps
Helena's Creative Maven
Holaday's Happy Hearts
Jeant-Jinnag
Just Jimjams
K's Crafty Corner
Life...As I See It
{Life Behind The Purple Door}
Lisa E Design Blog
Living Life One Blessing At A Time
Mary's Musings
Michelle Loves...
Obstinate Pursuit
Over At Our Place
Paper Turtle
Peonies and Pennies
Random Reflections
Rosalind Revival
Scrap Dreams
Scrappyjacky
Scrapworthy Lives
Staring At The Sea
Surefiredaisy Says
This Kalil Life
This Little Life Of Mine You are here!
Xnomads' Blog

When I heard whaT my leTTer was iT Took a few days To decide whaT To do. Then I remembered a couple of leTTers I had boughT to decoraTe The cover of the arT journal I have never goT around To sTarTing. So, I dug Them from the cupboard and sTarTed by painTing Them pink. Once They had had a couple of coaTs I sprayed Them wiTh my new Smooch SpriTz sprays. This didn'T work as well as I had hoped and The painT splodged up a biT. So, I painTed a Thick layer or Rock Candy DisTress crackle from Tim HolTz and lefT Them overnighT To crack.

I did boTh upper and lower case leTTers wiTh The inTenTion of choosing one, however, Brenda, who is definiTely noT of The less is more persuasion insisTed ThaT I use boTh on The book in The end. I painTed the book pink and Then sTamped The cover wiTh a scripT sTamp. This was where I ran inTo problems, since each ink I used rubbed off. I evenTually found some very old chalk ink which seems to have sTayed puT. My original design for The cover was of course ruined, when dear daughTer forced me To use boTh leTTers. I did manage to persuade her ThaT iT did noT need any embellishmenTs since I am worried They will jusT come off. Then I sat and waiTed for a nice day To Take a phoTo of the book, but unforTunately iT has rained for days, so I ended up Taking a phoTo on The bed yesTerday afTernoon.So, withouT furTher ado, here is my finished journal.

From here on The hop, you go over To X-nomads blog, which is quiTe lovely. I especially enjoyed The post about Taking a phoTo every hour, possibly someThing for a fuTure posT. If you geT losT The enTire lisT is aT The Top of This posT. And now, I Think I will make some Tea and starT hopping.

Note: If any of the posts aren't up yet, please bear with us - the different time zones and the peculiarity of blogging platforms when it comes to autoposts may mean that one or two posts don't appear on time! If that's the case, come back to this list to pick up from the next blog, but do please pop back and try the other link later, when the post should be there for your enjoyment.

This week I have .....

2011-04-15T22:34:00.001+02:00

marked 55 exam scripts
made 1 card
done 2 assignments
lectured all week
had 2 braais in one day!
eaten a Creme egg
contacted the high school about Brendas admission for next year
received a letter from someone unexpected (not sure if I will reply or not)
tried to drink water with varying degrees of success

This week I have not.......

blogged
read
been to gym
booked my practical week (still)

This weekend I will be...............

participating in a blog hop, so pop back on Sunday afternoon for the hop.

Five Question Friday

2011-04-08T20:43:00.001+02:00

And so Friday rolls around again...........
Here are my answers to the five questions

1. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?

Definitely my temper which is fiery to say the least. (I would never hit anyone though)

2. Write about a time when you got lost.
To be honest, I have an amazing sense of direction and have never actually got lost, I have always got some idea of where I am in relation to where I want to be if that makes sense. I dont mean to sound concieted, but I have been told I am as good as a GPS, lol. However the following time, although I wasnt really lost I was getting a bit anxious. I was at Hluhluwe game reserve with a friend, in fact it was our last morning and we were on the way out of the park. Brenda was with us, about 5 years old at the time. She was desperate to see elephant and we hadn't seen an Elephant as yet. So, when we passed a road which said river loop, we decided to take it thinking we would come back to the road we started on. So, I turned off on this road and started driving, and driving, and driving. After a while, we came upon a whole herd of buffalo which we stopped to look at. Then we started driving and driving and driving. It just carried on and on and on and seemed to be going nowhere. We couldnt see anything and the bush was so dense that we couldnt turn around. It was also incredibly hot and we were very thirsty and fed up. After nearly 2 hours of driving we came across a dry river bed which we had to drive across. I of course, stalled the car in the middle, started it up and then the tires got stuck in the sand! I was very worried by this time, but stopped the car, said a few prayers, calmed down a little bit and tried again. Miraculously we made it out and shortly thereafter found a place to turn back, and thankfully made it over the river bed with no problem. I think it was one of the scariest times I have had, not that I thought we were in physical danger, but I was worried of us all dehydrating in the car. When we got to the gate we asked the guard who told us that apparently it used to be a loop which met the main road, but now it was blocked off. We told him to change the sign!
3. Camping or 5 star hotel?

Both, depending on where you are going to. I love camping, especially the freedom of being able to do what you want, but I also love the luxury of a 5 star hotel and being pampered.
4. Have you donated blood?

Nope, but I have tried numerous times and every time they have turned me away. I had some health issues as a child, which makes them reluctant to take my blood, although I have a doctors letter saying I can. Whenever they have decided they will take my blood, I have been anaemic!
5. Do you have a budget or do you 'fly by' most months?

Well, I draw up a budget each month which lasts me as long as it takes to pay my bills. Thereafter I am pretty much a "fly by" kinda gal. I do make sure that I pay everything though.

Things I am thankful for today

2011-04-07T20:14:00.001+02:00

1. Brenda being home safe and sound from her trip with my sister. This included swimming way out at sea. They wouldnt let her dive, but she was allowed to swim around the boat, so that I was a bit nervous about. Of course, she came home, sunburnt and with flu, but at least she is home.
2. The rain after a very dry summer!
3. My father for cooking my supper tonight.
4. The fact that in 2 weeks time I will have a weeks leave and
lastly
5. tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!!!!!Yay!

How things have changed!

2011-04-06T20:34:00.000+02:00

I was looking through my blog and came across a post I wrote around this time last year. In fact it was one of the few posts I wrote last year. Last year was a very stressful year for me, busy at work with lots of changes, stress with my sister and at home and lots of financial issues (I know, I know most people seem to have them at the moment.) Anyway, what I also noticed or should I say remembered whilst reading this post was what a bad time Brenda had last year. She just didn't click with her teacher and was bullied continuously by one of the boys in her class. Her marks dropped considerably and she just seemed miserable. I did address it with the teacher but it never seemed to do much good.
Anyway, what hit me when I read that post was actually how much better this year is, I had never really noticed it yet. I guess when you are bogged down in the daily grind you don't always realise how things are changing. I think I have been so busy deciding what school to send her to that I haven't had a chance to really notice too much else.
Brenda got the one teacher that she didnt want, but the amazing thing is that she doesnt actually complain about him any more and even tells us the funny things that happen in the classroom. She has more friends and varied friends this year, and definitely her social life has moved up a notch, although it may be the age too. But the best part was her first term report which we got last Friday. Although some subjects have remained low, especially Afrikaans and Zulu, everythign has improved at least slightly. Excepting for Afrikaans and Zulu, she is above the grade average. She came 9th in class which is a huge jump. After coming within the first 3 in 2009 in 2010 she was between 20 & 24! But the best part is that the subjects which she is good at i.e. Arts & Culture, Life Orientation, Economics and Technology have now become mark subjects and so are included in her average, which has brought her average up considerably. And to top it all, today we got the letter saying she was accepted into the school I want her to go to next year!
All in all, it is a much better year so far, lets hope it stays that way.

This is how I spent my day...........

2011-04-03T21:57:00.002+02:00

I have been trying to finish my assignment, typically everything has gone wrong. Ever read a whole chapter and then discover you have no idea what it is talking about?

Happy mothers day to all in the UK!

April Fools Day............

2011-04-02T15:39:00.000+02:00

Some of you may know that I have recently had a new manager at work. This is not unusual since this is the fourth manager we have had in 3 years, they tend to last about 8 months, then we have a few months without one and then we get a new one. Anyway, this one has been very difficult to work for, really autocratic and totally unrealistic in her demands although on a social level she is pleasant enough.
On Monday she sent an email out to say the National Financial manager was coming down yesterday and there would be a big budget meeting until 5pm and it was compulsory to attend.
On Tuesday she sent us an email reminding us that on Fridays we are supposed to wear our company shirt and that we are supposed to do this in future and if we dont "be prepared to explain!"
On Wednesday she sent an email saying that we must send a list of all the items we wanted in our budget for the year. She sent this list back to us 4 times for changing!
On Thursday she sent an email saying that we must send reports for all the projects we are involved in, make sure our POE's were up to date and be prepared to present in the meeting!
By this time of course we were fed up, but the worst was yet to come.
On Friday she informed us that the meeting had been changed to a conference centre at a shopping mall close to the regional offices. (This venue is often used for meetings so we didn't think anything of it, but were unhappy because it is quite far from our office, I did wonder why they were hiring a venue for a meeting that we could have stayed at the office for.) We were told to be ready to leave at 12. At 12 Vijay our programme manager phoned down and told us that we had to bring prices etc of the stuff we wanted in our budget, so there was a mad rush to get everything ready.
Then we left the office and met up where we were supposed to meet up. Of course management were not there! We eventually contacted Vijay who said that we must meet at Entrance 10, which of course just happened to be on the other side of the shopping centre, and about 3 floors up. So off we trekked across the mall, and up the last 2 flights only to get a phone call demanding where we are. Everyone was waiting for us where we had started off from. By this time I, for one, was hot, thirsty and totally annoyed. We managed to find a lift and made our way back to where we had started only to find that the venue was not booked. By this time I was fed up and ready to pack up and go home. Especially since it was break-up day and my sister, nephew, daughter and parents were out having lunch without me! Anyway, eventually our manager admitted that it was all an elaborate hoax and we were actually having a team building at the adventure golf! The whole thing had been to see how compliant we were! (I was a bit annoyed about that since it felt a bit like being a puppet on a string!)
Anyway, the day didn't turn out so bad after all. We played a round of putt-putt, had some pizza and drinks and lots of laughs. Our team, which included our manager) even won a bottle of wine each for being the team with the highest score. Pity it was the booby prize, lol.

Five Question Friday

2011-04-01T20:13:00.001+02:00

Wow, what a week this has been. We had no water over the weekend due to a burst pipe and then didnt have electricity for 3 days this week! It has felt like going camping with a bed, lol. In this time I had 2 assignments to get done which made life very difficult. Lights came on last night and I eventually managed to get 1 done and will finish the other this weekend.
I haven't done this meme for a while, I did it for a few weeks on my other blog, but then life got in the way. Today I happened to see it on another blog and thought I would give it a go.

Welcome to Five Question Friday!!

Rules for Five Question Friday: Copy and paste the following questions to your blog, answer them, then watch for the linky post to appear Friday morning and LINK UP! Remember, the most important rule of all is to HAVE FUN!
1. Have you ever had surgery?

I have had my wisdom teeth out when I was 16, and tonsils out when I was 19. I also had a lump removed from my back (not cancerous) when I was about 20. Otherwise, no major surgery and the few stitches after the lump are the only stitches I have ever had.

2. Ever ride in an ambulance?
Nope, although I have been in one a few times. I used to work above an ambulance base and the guys would take my daughter in to show her around.
3. How are you in a medical emergency? Panicked? Calm?
Being a nurse, I am fairly calm, in fact sometimes too calm. Also, being a nurse I am quite hard, so it is a case of "oh, are you breathing?" "are you bleeding?" no? ok, off you go. When Brenda was younger she would never come to me if she hurt herself she would go to my mum! If friends hurt themselves when at our house, she would also take them to my mum and tell them: "Dont tell mommy she will poke you or squeeze you!" With reference to the time I drained an abscess on her finger with my mothers sewing needle, well cleaned of course!
4. Do you have a garden? Flowers or veggies? We do have a garden, with poorly tended flowers. I have tried desperately to have a vegetable garden, but unfortunately these little ~~b**ggers~~ cuties, just eat them all.
5. When did you move out of your parents house? Moved out at 18, went abroad at 24, moved back in at 26 after my ex left and have never left. It is just so convenient to live on the same property as them especially since I was working shifts and would have had no one to look after Brenda. Now, they are getting old and so it helps them to have me around.

Ok, so those are my five questions answered, this is a really fun meme to take part in. Why don't you pop over to my little life, and have a look.

Goals for April

2011-03-28T20:37:00.002+02:00

At the beginning of the year I set myself a word for 2011 which was change. I aimed to change my life in a few ways - my weight, my finances and my attitude ie to be more positive.
Things got along well for the first month, and then started to go a bit pear shaped. On the finances side it is not too bad, I have been paying off my accounts and learning to stay within my budget and not spend more on account.
The weight and attitude change is the problem. Weight wise I am actually being relatively good with my eating and have given up coke for Lent. I still am not losing though, and think I need to do some exercise. Attitude wise it is really a day by day struggle, their is so much going on at work and so many changes that it is very hard to remain positive. Their has also been a lot going on at home, so it has been difficult, and at the moment I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. So, in an attempt to get things back to normal I have set some goals from now till the end of April
1. Do all 4 UNISA assignments which are due between now and the end of April
2. Book UNISA practical week
3. Go to gym at least once a week (got to start somewhere)
4 Make lunch every day for work instead of doing take aways
5. Make April birthday cards (4)
6. Make at least 5 cards for the Cards for prisoners charity I heard about from a friend. You make a card for them to send to a family member.
7. Each day think of at least one thing that I am greatful for.
8. Pack Brendas clothes by Thursday

Okay, so those are my goals for April, lets hope that I can keep to them.

Earth Hour 2011

2011-03-25T21:32:00.001+02:00

Earth hour started in Sydney in 2007 and since then has become a global initiative. The idea is that everyone around the world will turn their electricity off for 60 minutes at a particular time and date, in order to bring attention to the way we are destroying our earth. The last two years I have supported it and we have turned our lights off for that hour. This year I hadn't heard anything about it and then last night I suddenly got an email. I popped off to the website to discover that it is this Saturday night at 8:30pm, so I have signed up again. I will be switching off, are you?

Grrrr.............

2011-03-24T17:50:00.001+02:00

We have an old avocado tree in our garden. It has been there for the last 30 years at least. For about 5 years now we have not had any avocados and not even seen any in the tree. Anyway today Brenda spotted a few in the tree, so she went out and picked some. Unfortunately, when I got home after work I discovered the whole kitchen in a mess and discovered one avocado on the floor in the kitchen with a bite taken out of it. Which means that these little b****ers had made us a visit! They are really cute, but I wish they would stay out of the house. Anybody want a new pet? I have about 30 to send you.