Some lists

Excuses for last week's lack of blogging (a quick summary tour):

• Got sick and spent three days between bed and couch with a box of tissues.
• Painted the house (finished at 2.30am on Tuesday morning).
• Started operation clean-up after the epic painting mission.
  
• Spent a night in Pretoria to celebrate my mom's birthday with her and the family at the most awesome restaurant - Hemingways (best creme brulee I've ever had in Gauteng).
• Worked on publicity for my client's big event happening this Wednesday.
• Hosted groups of people at our place on two nights of the week (one included our new neighbours, which was cool).
  
• Hung lots of pictures on the newly painted walls.
• Washed all the curtains downstairs (five sets) and rehung them. Fun times.

Things I've wanted to blog about:

• Seeing Black Swan (what a strange film!).
• The fact that TSC turned down the dodgey job offer I was worried he would accept.
• How I was surprised by wonderful customer service at a Wimpy (of all places) and enraged (but unsurprised) by poor customer service at a Makro.
• The fact that I have Ella back (my car). She's perfect after her visit to the panel-beaters, who fixed the front bumper that someone had kindly reversed into (and had then not bothered to leave their details, of course).
• How much I hate paying my insurance excess for someone else dinging my car.
  
• The fact that some Joburg twit managed to put a tiny dent into the rubber bumper (didn't know you got such a thing) of the rental we were driving while Ella was away and how I'm now worried I'll have to pay for that too. Two accidents where I wasn't even present that I must fund!
• How the world seems to spin faster every year.
• How I should never have made it a New Year's Resolution to blog more.

Awesome highlights from this weekend:

• Having some neighbours over on Friday evening for a braai and chatting till 1am.
• Seeing some lovely girlfriends for a champagne breakfast on Saturday morning and being able to have conversations both silly and serious in the space of a few minutes.
• Finally figuring out (thanks to some help from Phillygirl and Arkwife) how to work my BlackBerry properly.
• A really good church service last night that made me think (about life and death. Our pastor, who has been battling cancer, handed out a template for a will and told us to make sure we're not caught dead (pun intended, I'm sure) without having a will, funeral arrangements and letters for our loved ones prepared. It may sound morbid, but it was all done with a great sense of humour and lots of thought-provoking quotes).

Decisions that have to be made:

• Do I agree to become a member of the board of trustees of our residential complex (they keep asking and I keep putting it off)?
• Should TSC study full-time this year? Should he study part-time and keep looking for a job? Should he study and work for free just to gain some relevant experience?
• Do I take up an interesting offer for some work that came through, even if it's something I've never done before and potentially quite risky?
• What on earth can I do for TSC for Valentine's Day that isn't cliche and doesn't cost much, seeing we just spent our extra cash on painting our house?

And that, dear readers, is me summed up in bullet point lists. Here are some pics, as promised...

Loved this flower... shot at Augrabies.



The view and our breakfast at The Overlook in Keimoes, where we spent our fourth wedding anniversary on 16 Dec.



My two gorgeous nephews at my SIL's wedding on 18 Dec - both sitting still for a change!