Minor journo rant

When I write a magzine story, it generally requires a couple of interviews. I quite enjoy interviews. I always learn something new. Unless the interviewee is completely useless, which thankfully doesn't happen very often.

I need to explain something though: If my story is 2000 words long and I'm interviewing four people, it means that I have at most 500 words per interview. That's one typed page in MS Word. Given that I need to actually write an introduction and conclusion to the article, it's usually closer to 400 words.

Currently, I'm writing a 2000-word story and interviewing six people. So that's around 330 words (maximum) per person. That's the equivalent of three paragraphs. I have learnt that it's pointless sending an interviewee a list of 15 probing questions if I only have three paragraphs to write about their answers. So I will send a list of five questions, the first one being full name and designation. And when I interviewee the person, it will generally take me about 20 minutes to go through those questions. Even then, I will have to distill the most important facts from the surplus information into three paragraphs, which is enormously challenging, especially when the person has lots of useful and interesting info to convey.

But some interviewees... *sigh* They still want me to drive to Pretoria (50km away) for a face-to-face interviewee and spend two hours at their offices chatting to them.

I don't have the time, the petrol or the patience.

Really - it's three paragraphs! When you win the Nobel Peace Prize and I am writing an in-depth profile for Time magazine and being paid mega-bucks for it (in other words, not in the near future), then we can discuss setting aside a whole day for me to record your every word and stroke your ego.

Until then, I really do think a telephonic interview will suffice.

How can it be Thursday?!?!

This week has been insane. I won't bore you with the details, but here are the highs and lows Paula style)...

LOWS:

• Spending the whole day at one of the PR clients yesterday for no apparent reason. What a waste of time!
• Finding out that someone has reversed into the front passenger side of my car and buckled the whole panel above the wheel arch. They of course, did not bother to leave a note. I hate that I will now to pay an excess and have it fixed when it wasn't my fault.
• Realising that I will have to confront Red Tree and Orange Coffee about the arrangement with me going forward.
• Not having enough time to blog, read blogs or comment :(
• Not having a free night of the week.
• Going to Santini's for the first time on Friday to sokkie and there not being enough space to stand on the dance floor, let alone actually dance.

HIGHS:

• Reading through all your supportive comments on my stressed out post last week.
• Getting loads of house stuff done on Saturday that will help get everything ready before the world cup folks arrive.
• Painting murals at Kitty Haven on Sunday and spending quality time with the new kittens (there are about 120 of them, so if you know someone who is looking to adopt...).
• Getting a special mention on Cam's blog when he wrote his 500th post.
• Realising that there's nothing I can do about the whole government project thingey until they actually come up with a brief and put it to me in writing, which has stopped me stressing about it until the ball is in my court again.
• Having awesome sushi at Best of Asia on Tuesday (their buy two, get one free night).
• Lighting a fire for life group last night and having quality chats with our group in the nice warm lounge with hot chocolate.

What's up with you guys?

Limbo

My office is looking empty. Now that the company is merging with another and I'm leaving, lots of packing up has to be done.

So far we've sold lots of the furniture and chucked out lots of random stuff that's been carted around from office to office over the years (we have about 250 lanyards lying around. Weird). My paperwork has all been sorted out and personal items taken home. Now it's just me sitting on my pilates ball at my desk with my PC, phone and my red stapler.

It all somehow feels surreal, like it's happening to someone else. But then again, it's too busy for me to actually sit down and think about it (nevermind blog about it properly), so it's just a case of moving forward everyday until the new reality sets in.

Did that make any sense?

As long as I have my stapler, I'll be fine.

Some thoughts

Funny how running on a treadmill can invigorate you and lying in bed stressing can tire you out.

My money is in my account today. I feel... a mixture of relief, the dying embers of white hot anger and a wee bit emotionally exhausted.

Had a little breakdown yesterday when TSC got home. I can soldier on bravely on my own, but when someone's nice to me and I'm upset... Well, it's a tearful, messy scene. So much for waterproof mascara, by the way. It's about as effective as transparent window blinds.

It's not so much the late payment that upset me, but the way it was handled. And the fact that the cracks are seriously starting to show here at morning job. I don't think I can do this anymore. Lay awake last night and mulled over the options, from physical violence to finding a job flipping burgers. There were a few sensible thoughts in between too. Pity I can't remember most of them this morning.

I can, however, remember one of my dreams, which was like an episode of Scrubs. That could be because TSC and I watched a few last shows night to make me laugh a bit. Alternatively it might be because I dream of having a good old Dr Cox style rant at *ahem* certain people.

"Dr. Cox: [explaining he doesn't care it's JD's last week of residency] I suppose I could riff a list of things that I care as little about as our last week. Let's see... low carb diets, Michael Moore, the Republican National Convention, Kabbalah & all Kabbalah-related products, Hi-Def TV, the Bush daughters, wireless hotspots, the OC, the UN, recycling, getting Punk'd, Danny Gans, the Latin Grammys, the real Grammys, Jeff that Wiggle that sleeps too darn much, the Yankees payroll, all the red states, all the blue states, every hybrid car, every talk show, everything on the planet, everything in the solar system, everything, everything, everything, everything, everything, everythingj every-everything that exists past present & future, in discovered and undiscovered dimensions! [turns away, then turns back] Oh, and Hugh Jackman."

Why Hugh Jackman? K, I'm outta here.

Mixed bag

It was a weekend of good and bad.

Let's get the bad out of the way first. Once again, my company has not paid me my salary. So, once again, I have had to transfer money from another account into my bank account so that my debit orders don't bounce today. I can't afford to buy groceries or put petrol in my car. My colleagues (who are both younger than me and live with their parents - no rent, food or bills to pay) are complaining that they can't hit the sales at the mall. I'm stressing about paying my insurance. It's a bit different.

The newest addition to the company, let's call her Vicki (not her name, but she idolizes Victoria Beckham for some inexplicable reason), resigned this morning. It's a new record - she's only been here three weeks. Sweet girl. I'll miss her. But I'm used to this saying goodbye thing now.

I had a meeting scheduled for this afternoon for possible freelance work, but when I phoned to confirm this morning, they said they've found someone else to do it. So bleak! I desperately need to find ways of bringing in more cash every month if this morning job is going to crash and burn. I've been trawling the net for freelance and part-time work, but it's in scarce supply.

My Ella (she's my car) has to go back to Honda sometime soon for a window check-up. There's been a safety recall on all Jazz models made between 2002 and 2008.

And that's the bad news done. Now, the good bits...

On Friday we had supper with four awesome friends. The one couple we know from church and the other couple are friends that they introduced us to. We had to mission out in the mother of all storms that hit Joburg on Friday evening to get to their house (our road flooded so fast that the manhole cover popped out), but it was well worth it.

On Saturday, I hit the gym for an aqua class and then TSC and I watched a few episodes of Scrubs and ate poached eggs on toast. I had planned a big day for us, starting with a nice home-cooked brunch, but seeing I had almost no money left over after buying my mom's birthday present, that didn't happen.

I had, however, found something to do in Joburg that cost less than R50 and would keep up entertained for the afternoon - SAB World of Beer. Now I am not a beer fan, but I must recommend this tour. Seriously good value for money! It's R25 per ticket (and R20 if you have an Edgars Club card), which includes the 90-minute tour, a small souvenir glass (filled with beer) and two drinks of your choice (beer, cider, cold drinks etc) with chips and peanuts at the bar afterwards. The tour shows the history of beer, from 6000 years ago to the present, as well as how beer is brewed at SAB today.

While there are some corny bits (like the "comedy" 3D clip showed at one point), we loved it. Good fun! There's also a shop selling SAB merchandise and a pub offering lunch and snacks on site. Very kewl.

Yesterday, we met up with my mom (who tells me she's now a lurker here too. Awesome), dad and brother to celebrate my mom's birthday, which is today. We had lunch at Mythos in Design Quarter and it was divine. I have leftover Mousaka for lunch today. Can't wait!

I love my family. They make me laugh.

After lunch we all went back to our place for some of my crowd-pleaser ice-cream (must post the recipe sometime) and coffee. It was so good to sit on our veranda and look out on the sunny garden while we chatted. Happiness, I tell you.

Wish I could stretch it out into today. I feel so helpless with this whole work situation. I don't know what to do, but I can't take this anymore. Anyone know of part-time / freelance work?!

I suppose there's no point in moaning about it, so I'll get back to work. Mom, if you're lurking today, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You are the best mom I could wish for and I love you more than I know how to say.

I feel like a new person

My big freelance project is almost over. I have done my bit and the work is now with the 20-odd people I had to interview. While making corrections from all these people and following up so that I can get final copy to send to the magazine will be a royal pain, at least I know the writing is done and the ball is now no longer in my court.

*huge sigh of relief*

Also, things appear to be more stable at the morning job, which is good, seeing I haven't known if the company would survive beyond this month until now.

All in all, I am feeling infinitely better. TSC and I had a relaxed braai at home last night with a bottle of good red wine, my fabulous strawberry and avo salad and some chilled music. It did me the world of good to not work until late in the night and actually unwind a bit.

Now I can concentrate my efforts on preparing TSC's birthday present for Monday. I LOVE organising presents and spoiling people I care about. Oh, and I can also give some attention to my other clients, who have had to take backseat for the past three weeks.

The Radio Randomness in my brain

Tune into the live broadcast from my brain for a few minutes... it's a mess up there...

• TSC has just found out that he has to wear glasses. The evil eye doctor *makes spitting sound* says the eye op to remove the pterygium was successful but too late - the eye won't get any better than its current blurriness. TSC is quitebummed. I can just picture how many pairs of glasses are going to be sat on, but I think he'll look hot with glasses. Hell, I think he looks hot in anything. Or nothing. Hehehe... Shame, poor man still thinks of all glasses as those worn by Steve Urkel. I'm thinking more Jude Law, actually. Mmmm... So going glasses shopping with him next week!
• Work is still weird. We had another resignation yesterday, only according to Boss it wasn't a resignation. Colleague has apparently taken a sabbatical and will return in a few months. I somehow don't think so (having spoken to her about it). We are down to three again - me, Roo and Boss. *sigh* It's hard to keep saying goodbye to people I really like.
• I am trying to cheer myself up by the thought of the approaching long weekend (it's a public / bank holiday this Mon). We are off to KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) to visit my grandparents and fetch the trailer they are giving us (so cool of them). I CANNOT wait to be off the Gauteng roads. Useless Joburg drivers are getting to me more than usual. I feel my bloof pressure rising when I get in the car. Also, a big part of my heart still lives in KZN and I love going back there, especially to spend time with my darling granddad and Lilly.
• I can tell when my life is feeling all over the show because I suddenly can't let my house that be that way. I get these sudden "must tidy; must organise" urges. Last night I turned my bedroom upside-down, moving furniture around and repacking thinsg to try to make "more space" (ridiculous, seeing our bedroom is huge) and "less clutter" (not so ridiculous - I tend to pile things without homes in random spots around the house. There's one in the corner of the kitchen counter, one on my bedside table, and one on top of the gas heater unit).
• You'll probably think this is sad, but I can't wait to prune my roses today! This is my incentive to finish all my work early so I can have time to do my gardening. I have neglected my plants throughout winter because I've been so busy and it's just so flipping cold outside, but Lilly taught me how to prune while she was here and I can't wait to practice this new skill. Am also busy trying to figure out my plan for my veggie garden (I have decided my haphazard approach of planting things randomly wherever I feel like it at any given time unfortunately doesn't work as well as I'd hoped). I want to set out no-dig beds, which is a major mission, and make sure I follow good rotation rules so that I don't end up with unhealthy, bug-infested soil.
• My freelance work is still scaring me. I get a tight feeling in my chest when I think of it. I think it's mainly because I'm worried that I will forget about an assignment and just not turn in the work when it's due. This is unlikely, as I obsess about it well into the wee hours of the morning. Forgetting is not a problem. I guess I also worry that clients won't be impressed with the work I've done. *sigh* Enough of that, though... making myself nauseous!
• I am so loving the DairyBelle kids' range of smooth low-fat yoghurts! I just had the cherry lollipop flavour and it's really yummy, even in the cold (when I usually go off yoghurt. And most things healthy).
• It's already 11.25am and I am nowhere with my work for today, so if I want to prune, I must stop procrastinating and end this post. Adieu.

It's just all so... odd

Everything is weird at work at the moment. I can't explain, just in cas (as Ches pointed out the other day, you never know who's reading), but it truly is random and unsettling and I don't know where things stand.

*Sigh*

Curiouser and curiouser as Alice would say.

On a nicer note, the weekend was mostly great. I went to a 40th birthday party on Sat with the dress code "black tie or fancy dress". No theme, just that.

Am I the only one confused by that? Generally if it's dress-up, it's a theme. Like mafia. Or Pirates of the Caribbean. Or Medieval. But no, for this one, we had licence to dress up like clowns or queens... whatever our preference.

And normally I LOVE dress-up. I tend to go a bit over the top, actually. But I was nervous going on my own (TSC being away on men's camp), because I knew there would be hardly anyone my age and that I wouldn't know anyone other than the birthday boy and his fiance. I decided to go black tie with a feathered mask just in case no-one else was in costume.

It turned out I needn't have worried - their were scores of people dressed up (from the host dressed as Elvis to a Zorro, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, pirates, convicts and a Cleopatra) and loads in black tie, so I would have been fine either way.

I had also been to a girls' tea party that afternoon (not really my thing, but turned out to be good fun) and a friend who is studying make-up did mine for the evening. Wow! I didn't know I could look like that! It seriously helped me to walk into a room full of strangers knowing I looked my best.

Pity I don't have any photos, but that is typical of me. I prefer being behind the lens rather than in front, so I have pictures of everyone else at the party (even random folks I didn't actually meet), just not of me ;-)

So just take my word that I looked fabulous, k?

After my last post, where I just happened to mention Bosnia, I have been asked to write about our family trip there in 2006. My laptop with all my photos on it was stolen shortly afterwards, so I'll have to see if I can get some pics from my parents, but I'll try to post about that this week.

In the mean time, have a good Monday, folks.

Same old, same old

I feel like I'm stuck in Groundhog Day.

Writing press releases is for the birds, I tell ya. There's only so many ways to skin a cat / push a product / spin a story.

And it's not like it's difficult. I could do this stuff in my sleep. It's just dull.

Occasionally something super exciting comes across my desk (as occasionally as my husband picks watching a travel documentary over a Blue Bulls rugby game, that is). The rest of the time, it's the same old nonsense. The trick, PR gurus tell me, is to disguise it so that it doesn't sound like nonsense.

As a journo, I get press releases from other PR people all the time. I have a list of all the things that irritate me about these releases, and when I write my own, I try not to do these things.

Occasionally, however, I just don't care enough... when I'm writing about the 50 millionth bloody new product distributor the client has signed with, for instance.

Then you might find the occasional flowery sentence littered with adjectives (I recently received a release from a music PR person about some unheard-of singer that had no less than NINE adjectives in the first sentence).

You might find completely unnecessary information that will be of no interest to anyone other than the client (like the release I was sent that detailed every single role a particular actress had taken from age five [she's now in her late 30s] before getting to the point).

You might even, on a very, very rare occasion (if I have been overdosing on Rescue Remedy when I see things are about to reach boiling point at the office, for instance) find me doing the absolutely unthinkable and mixing up there/their or its/it's. But that's only under dire circumstances when the ability to write English has abandoned me completely.

Wait, actually, I'm pretty sure that happens quite regularly on this blog...

Thank goodness this is just a half-day job. I feel like PR eats my soul. At least it pays, I suppose ;-)

When you know it's going to be a rough day

I overslept this morning. So I missed my morning exercise. Which means I missed my morning endorphine rush. Which means I was cranky to start with.

As I got in my car I discovered I had a flat tyre. Thankfully, Tuesday is the day that our gardener is here, so he helped me put the spare on.

I was late for work. I quickly printed my status report for our weekly status meeting. JK was off today for study leave so there were only five of us. We went through our status and when we got to Icing, my current best office friend who recently resigned, Boss asked about how our new business cards are coming along. Icing said she needed to know what job titles Boss wanted the new recruits to have on theirs and Boss told her. Then she said, "Oh, and remember to make your title senior account exec."

We all looked at each other. Ummm... She's resigned. Business cards will no longer be necessary.

Denial much?

Chips left the office at noon for her 3D pregancy scan, leaving me, Boss, Icing and Roo. Icing decided to confront Boss about her resignation. Boss left the office.

I finished typing the nth email begging my client to send me the information I need to get her company a big, impressive placement and went to the nearest wheel and tyre place to have my mammoth puncture repaired (there was a friggin roof nail embedded in my tyre. Dunno where that came from).

An hour and a half later I got home to write this post. Now it's off to make supper, squeeze in some freelance work, phone a difficult client and head off to a church meeting (one of three this week).

Yet another "challenging" Tuesday (to put it politely).

How's yours been?

Chew-on-this Tuesday

Today was drama at the office again. First Boss announced she is suing the last employee who left.

Then the latest addition to our motley crew, let's call her JK (who is a lovely girl, btw, just inexperienced), sent out an email to her contacts with her CV, saying this job doesn't pay enough. She accidentally CC-ed Boss into her email. Boss was understandably not too pleased.

She and JK butted heads. JK broke down in tears. Apologies were made, advice was dished out and things seemed settled.

Roo, one of our other employees, escaped the madness by leaving for her varsity lectures. Chips, our first-ever pregnant employee, kept quiet and maintained a low profile.

I busied myself with getting work done, seeing my computer has been on its best behaviour since Boss's return from holiday on Monday (how typical of this machine). I waited for the next piece of paw-paw (not Jackson's dog) to hit the fan, which I knew would be...

The person who has been around second longest (after me, leading with 10 months) informing Boss that she'd been made a job offer that pays a basic salary of double her current basic, plus commission and perks.

Boss remained remarkably calm throughout these events.

I left the office to come home and blog about it...

You know when...

...You've had a rough day, and then everything looks like it's going to turn out just peachy, and then it doesn't, and then in the end it does?

No?

Sorry... I know, that was a long and complicated sentence. Let me start over:

Yesterday was one of those days where I just couldn't seem to get it all together. I forgot about a telephonic interview I'd scheduled for a magazine feature I'm writing (way to go on the professionalism, Tamara), although the interviewee was very nice about it and agreed to chat a bit later when I recovered at least some part of my brain. Thankfully!

I then got in a rush job from a new freelance client that needed to take precedence over my other work, which I knew I'd have to fit in later. It was interesting though - I haven't done advertising copy since I was first out of varsity, and I'd forgotten how different the writing style is to straight journalism. I struggled quite a bit, but client seems happy, so that's ok.

Things are still weird at the office. In short, boss hasn't been around since about last Thursday. She pops in occasionally, but we haven't had our weekly status meeting with her and things are feeling a bit like we're in limbo. She also hasn't acknowledged the fact that the most experienced employee of our bunch, DK, has resigned, which is making things a bit surreal. DK needs to arrange client hand-overs, but boss is pretending that nothing has happened. She's dealing with the death of a friend, and it's almost like she's forgotten about everything else, including her business.

I feel like we're living in one of those books that don't make any sense (the ones that get turned into Oscar-winning movies). She's talking to DK again (was ignoring her last week), but like nothing's going on. DK finds this totally bizarre, as does the new girl (let's call her Shakira, seeing most people get her name wrong and call her that). I think she's (understandably) a bit freaked out by the vibe at the moment. Poor thing. She seems sweet.

I have so much work to do, but no motivation for my PR stuff. I just want to do my freelance jobs. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position where I can do that, but I need boss's input on the PR stuff, so I'm sort of stuck there anyway. Limbo. Or purgatory. Somewhere inbetween.

I was also supposed to prepare for last night's life group - we were going to talk about Buddhism and Hinduism. I had found some info and was going to take it home to summarise when I started getting messages from a few of our members to say that they wouldn't be able to make it to the meeting. Apparently, everyone else is busy, stressed and not getting everything together either. This made me feel better somehow. Less alone in my ineptitude and procrastination.

TSC and I talked to them all and we decided to cancel the meeting this week. I was actually quite relieved - it would give me time to collect myself and get some work done at home. And hopefully a chance to spend time with TSC.

So I picked an interesting recipe from one of those "quick, cheap and easy"-type recipe books (I call them my slutty cookbooks) to make for supper. It was for Thai-style fish-sticks. And there the fun began.

What a waste of time, energy, money and tuna! Honestly! You're supposed to make this mixture from the fish, the spices, beaten egg and mashed potato, form it into little fish-cake-thingeys and thread them onto kebab sticks. You then brush them lightly with egg, dust with flour and fry on all sides until golden. Serve with lemon slices and sweet chili sauce. Sounded great.

Huh! First-off, I would like to say that I SUCK at following recipes, so I usually amend them slightly. Or more than slightly. This time, however, I decided to stick to every little step and every little measurement and to be totally and completely exact in following this damn recipe.

So why, I would love to know, would my mixture not stick together? I made the little fish-sticks, shaping them around the bloody kebabs, and as soon as I tried to "brush lightly with beaten egg", the stupid things fell apart in my hands. They would NOT stick. I even tried popping them in the freezer for 20 min to see if they'd firm up a bit.

And then, how the heck are you supposed to fry the things if they have a big kebab stick through them that won't fit into any normal-sized frying pan? I ended up taking them back off the sticks and frying them on their own. *Rolls eyes*

They then actually started to look good and smell good (although, being covered from head to toe in flaked tuna and mashed potato by this point, anything else would've smelt good). Problem was, they tasted rubbish.

It's always such a let-down to smell and see something yummy, only to pop it in your mouth and discover that it tastes like crispy-on-the-outside-cold-and-squidgy-on-the-inside-tuna-and-mash-mix... Gross.

So my quick, cheap and easy meal turned into a protracted tuna and mash mixing and frying marathon nightmare that left me both smelly and still hungry. Poor TSC resorted to squashing a few of the revolting fish cakes onto two slices of bread with some sweet chili sauce, cheese and mayo, and making a snackwich of them, which made them slightly more palatable. But never have I seen him enjoy my side salad so much.

That will teach me to follow a recipe.

By the time we had finally rescued our dinner, we might as well have had life group. Grumpy and disheartened, I showered off my pungent meal remains (how does the stuff get under my fingernails?!?!) and felt much better.

And, after I managed to get around to hemming my jeans (been trying to do that for over a month), fixing the curtains and hanging them in our breakfast nook and collating my freelance info for the feature article, I could agree that the day did indeed turn out ok in the end. Especially when I could lie in bed with TSC and cuddle, and the cats actually deigned to join us and keep my feet warm (meaning that last night must've been quite chilly - they don't sleep on the bed unless it'd really cold).

Here's hoping that today is ok too. And that's there's no fish or potatoes involved. Have a good Thursday, all. And stay away from slutty cookbooks.