Photo post

Random snapshots of my life...

A HUGE and slightly rude-looking sweet potato from my veggie garden...

My kitties, snuggling up in the cold winter weather...

The stroppy teenage cheetah we saw when we were last at the Lion and Rhino Park...

A gorgeous tiger at the Lion and Rhino Park. Not sure if he was just yawning, or pulling a tongue at us all...

All over the show

That's how I feel. Let me moan about it and then I'll be cheerful again, I promise (all in one post too!)

I have worked late every night since last Wednesday for a VERY difficult freelance client who hired me to refresh her web copy and now expects me to actually make over her business strategy - not what I quoted her to do! I don't mind working overtime when it's necessary, but not for something I'm not being paid to do!

In between that nonsense I have a magazine feature to finish and only one of my interviewees has responded within the deadline I gave. I had a rush job last week that had to take precedence over everything else and I've been trying to coordinate around 50 people's schedules for our new duty roster at church (we had to recruit new teams for the second evening service we've launched).

My day job is really frustrating right now because of all the politics. At the moment we're at the place where people are being nasty about each other in front of our suppliers, which in my opinion is just plain unprofessional.

I actually haven't had a free night since last Saturday and I'm pretty close to choosing violence as the best way of coping. Or maybe collapsing in a teary, snotty heap - I'm not sure which is the most attractive option right now. All this stress is making me grumpy, unproductive (funny how that works) and forgetful. I feel like I'm constantly dropping the ball.

BUT...

And it's a big 'but' (capital letters, y'know)...

I had moments of great happiness this weekend:

• Seeing the fabulous Angel and awesome Glug for our church quiz night on Friday (which was such fun, even though our team did appallingly)
• Heading to Pretoria to visit two of my closest friends (who were my bridesmaids) for their birthday dinner on Sat (especially since one of them has been out of the country for the past six months)
• Finding out that we are going to Zanzibar next month. This was just plain incredible - we asked my folks to book us in at a fabulous hotel they frequent that was having a winter special. They know the manager, so we figured it would be easier. But when we asked them about ti, they said the hotel was fully booked for that weekend, so they'd decided to send us to Zanzibar! OMW... So excited. Are my parents not the coolest people in the world?! I cannot wait to get away from the city, the difficult clients and the cold!

In conclusion, I'm not loving life right now, but I am hanging on thanks to some awesome moments and friends and the anticipation of a long weekend in Zanzibar from my super-amazing folks. Yay!

The actual hitting of me (teen love story, part two)

In yesterday's post, I started telling you the long and probably boring story of Coach - the first guy I fell head-over-heels for. I'm writing this becuase I've been thinking over my realisation for awhile and I need to have it written down. So, whether you are interested or not, here's the rest of the story:

When I was in grade 11, I remember telling Coach about the guy I was planning to invite to my grade 11 dance (a fellow redhead who didn't last long as a boyfriend because people kept thinking we were brother and sister - eww!).

As a ballroom and Latin champ, Coach got invited to a lot of dances. He was heading off to a Matric dance (the South African version of a prom) at a rival school to mine that week. He said that particular school held the best dances. I asked if he'd ever been to one of the dances at my school and he said no. I told him that OUR dances were INFINITELY better and informed him that he would be coming to my Matric dance the following year. He didn't have a choice.

One year later, I hadn't forgotten about my promise. But... despite my unwavering dedication to Coach, I was getting a bit frustrated with the fact that even though everyone agreed that he had feelings for me too, he hadn't done anything about it (he has always been rubbish with girls). I had started to attend a small group from my church and there was a guy in the group who had piqued my interest. Let's call him Brian (because that was his middle name).

Brian was the polar opposite of Coach... Shy, artistic and in no way a sportsman. We had friends in common and we saw each other regularly. He had a quirky sense of humour and was so gentle with me (unlike Coach, who would just pick me up and throw me over his shoulder if he felt like it). I decided I really, really liked Brian. And when he invited me to his Matric dance, it confirmed that the feeling was mutual. In our oh-so-high-school-way, we tentatively started to date.

But I had already invited Coach to my Matric dance, and I explained this to Brian. He seemed to be ok with it - he was really laid back. I called Coach to remind him of the fact that he was my dance partner and then gushed about Brian for ages. Coach was less chatty than usual. Eventually he managed to gruffly interrupt me and say, "By the way, I hope you know that you're MY Matric dance partner too?"

I hadn't known, actually. He'd never mentioned it before.

As it was, it turned out that his dance was the night after mine. I was thrilled to be invited (because the more dances you went to, the more your pathetic high-school status improved) and set about organising dress number three. Then Tim (his real name), a very odd friend of mine, invited me to his college dance and I was over the moon. Four dances - I was no longer just a teenage dirtbag. Of course, it turned out that Tim's dance was the night after Brian's dance, just to make life that much more complicated.

All the dances were great fun, although I discovered that Brian didn't dance. He also sulked about the fact that I was going to dances with other guys. I had an absolute blast at my dance and Coach's, despite comments from all our teachers about the fact that we'd picked the most unsuitable partner possible in terms of height.

After the spate of dances, Brian and I continued to date and I honestly thought I was over Coach, although we were still great friends. We talked each other through our final exams and then parted ways after high school - me to do a gap year in Pretoria with a church and him to study sports management (what else!).

Brian and I dated long distance for a year before I realised that he wasn't right for me. By that time I'd met TSC and we'd been through the I hate you / you're not so bad / let's be friends cycle and were best buddies. Coach and I had kept in touch but weren't close anymore.

TSC and I eventually started dating (long-distance) when I headed to Cape Town to study. Coach and I were at a stage where we only talked once every few months. Then TSC moved down to Cape Town and things got serious between us.

I had always stuck to my routine of going on camp for the holidays, although by this stage was a leader. Coach hadn't come on camp for awhile, but we'd always said we'd do one last one together.

And we did. And I discovered that even though I was madly in love with TSC, I still found my heart speeding up when Coach was near. I still got that tingly feeling when he touched my arm or spoke my name (he had nickname for me that only he could get away with). Our friendship returned to the way it had always been. He was actually dating his first girlfriend by this time, but we spent more time together that camp than they did, laughing and arguing for hours again.

I saw him a few times after that and decided that I would need to accept that I would never really be able to totally get over him.

The last time I spoke to him, it was to invite him to my wedding. He didn't come. I was a bit hurt, but secretly quite relieved.

TSC and I were incredibly happy together (still are). Coach called me to say he was off to spend a year overseas. I wished him well. I had no way of contacting him (I'm not on FaceBook) and I wasn't that interested, to be honest.

After about a year, I remembering wondering if he was back yet. And then forgetting about it.

Until he called me last week. And then it hit me like a car door in the soft part of a shin...
There were no butterflies...
There was no giddy headrush...
There was no tingly feeling at the sound of his voice...

Just happiness to talk to an old friend.

We chatted for over an hour, catching up on what he was up to and how our lives had changed. I jabbered about TSC and our cats and our house, and he chattered away about his overseas trip and his new job. We shared a few laughs and memories and it was great. And then we hung up.

And this overwhelming peace settled over me that I married the best person I possibly could whom I love with every cell in my body (go ahead and gag - it's true) and that Coach and I were never meant for each other.

We've both grown up. We've both changed. And while I look forward to enjoying my great friendship with him, I know that we'll never be as close as we were and that there is no romantic "what if" floating between us.

Things are as they were meant to be. For each of us. And it's awesome to know that.

And then it hit me...

...Like a car door in the soft part of a shin...

What am I on about? Let me back track slightly.

Just over a week ago I got a surprise phone call from an old friend. Let's call him Coach (he's been obsessed with basketball for as long as I've known him and has played and coached with numerous teams).

Coach was the first guy I ever really, REALLY fell for. I met him on a camp I went on at the beginning of grade 10, so I was 15. When we met, we couldn't stand each other (the same thing with TSC... see a pattern here?) and spent the week trying to avoid each other.

A few months later we bumped into each other again (literally - I was walking down a flight of stairs and he was running up them). We chatted for maybe five minutes and I thought to myself, "He's not SO bad."

It turned out that we had a mutual friend in common and we saw each other a few more times. By the time we went on our second camp, we were friends. By the end of that camp, we were inseparable.

Now if you've met me, you'll know that I am really small. I think I just, just make the 5 foot mark. Coach, on the other hand, is a typical basketball player - 6.4 foot tall. So we made an odd pair. Especially seeing I was going through a phase of collecting odd hats. At any given time, you might find the two of us strolling around the camp, me craning my head to talk to him and him bending over to hear me, both of us wearing some bizarre head piece (his favourite that he liked to steal from me was a luminous pink, fuzzy beanie that made his head look like a tea cosy. My favourite was a rainbow cap with a propellar on top of it).

It was definitely a sight that would make you giggle. Or maybe call the shrinks in!

We had a great friendship going and would argue for hours at a time about inane things like whose brother was most annoying and what breed of dog made for the best pet. But I never felt anything romantically for him. Until...

My school was invited to a huge social dance event at another school and so was his. It was an attempt by the teachers to keep us out of the clubs while we were underage and was supposed to be a club atmosphere without the booze and drugs. I figured it might be lame, but seeing he would be there, I promised I'd go.

It was actually pretty cool - there were people from about eight different schools there and there was a great vibe. Coach is a champion ballroom and Latin dancer (you can actually tell if you watch him play basketball - he's surprisingly graceful for someone so gangly) and makes anyone look brilliant on the dance floor, even someone half his height!

We were all dancing in a group when Coach came and just picked me up and plonked me on one of the sort of dance box / mini stage thingeys scattered around the huge marquee. I think he did it so that I'd be his height and he could talk to me, but the music was so loud that he had to come in really close. His adolescent cheek touched my adolescent cheek and I got a whiff of his adolescent aftershave. And that was it - I was smitten.

This took me completely by surprise. So much so that I jumped off the mini stage thingey and hid out in the bathroom stall for half an hour to try and wrap my head around it. A friend came in and called out, "T... you ok?"

"No. I think I like Coach."

"Well duh...."

Yes, this is also the dominant pattern in my life - everyone has always known about any crush I've had before I have even an inkling of what's going on. Not very self-aware, I'm afraid.

After my little discovery, I did what any teenage girl would do - agonised for months about whether he had any feeling for me.

Unlike most of my teenage infatuations, this one didn't pass within a few weeks. In fact, it went on for years. Boyfriends came and went, but Coach remained. As a friend and as some vague unattainable yet incredibly attractive idea of what I wanted in a guy. It was him I would phone the night before a science test to procrastinate and him I'd call in tears to talk me through my break-up speech that I needed to deliver to some poor sod. In fact, it was him I'd compare all the other poor sods to and find them wanting.

There was only one break in this cycle of puppy love. But you'll have to wait till tomorrow if you're interested in reading about that.

And about what hit me like a car door in the shin. Seeing that, after all, was supposedly the point of this rambling post.

Return of the sci-fi epic

So, having seen Wolverine and having hated it, I was a little apprehensive about heading to see the also-very-hyped Star Trek. But we went anyway.

And it was awesome!

I was crying by about three minutes into the movie, laughing at five, confused by six... It was a glorious rollercoaster of emotions, explosions, paradoxes, people, Vulcans and visions... Just my kind of movie.

See it!

I raved about it to Icing. She laughed at me and said she'd never have pinned me as a Trekkie. I never was. But I may consider it now. So long as I can get me one of those phaser thingeys.

Let's hope the sequels don't ruin everything Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-style.

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?

Tribute to mom

In honour of Mothers Day yesterday, here are a dozen random things I love about my mom:

• She is the most generous person I know. Seriously. The other weekend we went to pick up something in town and there was a thin, hungry-looking stray dog wandering around. She drove to the nearest shop to buy it food and made sure it had enough to eat before she carried on with her errands. This is nothing unusual - I could tell so many stories similar to this one, whether they involve homeless people, animals in need, kids or anyone with a problem.
• She plays the drums. How cool is that?
• She hands her clothes down to me (she has good taste and a great style, so I love that).
• She has a deep faith and is always trying to find out more about God and what He's like - she doesn't just settle for what a priest / church person tells her.
• She is loyal like no one else I know. If it were me, I would've told a few people in her life where to get off, but she loves them despite their issues and behaviour and their lives are better for it (that includes me).
• She listens to me, even when I whine.
• She has accepted TSC 100% as part of the family and treats him like her son (that means he gets teased like everyone else too).
• I adore her quirky sense of humour. It so runs in the family.
• She's quick to share her knowledge if it will benefit others (whether it's helping me with my gardening issues or re-visiting her maths to assist my brother with his).
• She mixes words up and calls anything and anyone thing-a-me, thingey-majig, whats-it-called, thingey-mabob, whats-his-face or some other variant. It's cute. She and my gran can have entire conversations made up of these words and still understand each other.
• She has learnt to hug me. She's never been the touchy-feeley type of mom, but she's learnt to physically demonstrate love to her two touchy-feeley kids. I appreciate that.

What random things do you love about your mom?

Lessons learned this week

I have learned two very important things this week.

Like yesterday, I decided to go for a brisk 30 minute morning walk before work. This is nothing unusual. But it was cold. Very cold. And wet. So I missioned along for a while and then decided to warm up by breaking into a jog. This is unusual - I am NOT a runner.

After just more than five minutes of steady jogging, I got a mammoth stitch that felt like someone had punctured my right lung. It was horrible. Sheer agony, I tell you.

I moaned like a wounded beast and two spandex-clad old ladies out for their own exercise moved hastily to the opposite side of the road.

I slowed back to a walk. My one ear started to hurt from the cold (I have rubbish ears. Had grommets three times as a kid). This turned into a dull headache on the right side of my head. I completed my walk in misery and thankfulyl jumped into the shower as soon as I arrived home.

Lesson: I dislike running.

This is not news to me. If you've known me long enough you'll have heard me say the following at least a million times:

"Show me two people in a row who are out jogging and look like they're actually enjoying it and I'll take it up. Until then, no thanks."

Really... Give me a gym full of other sweaty people who look as ridiculous as I do going nowhere on the stairmaster.

Give me group classes where the butch instructor at the front tells me exactly what to do and when.

Give me my lounge and Billy Blanks shouting daft encouragements from my TV screen in his Taebo workout (good grief, that man is ANNOYING).

But don't give me a slippery, cold open road with lines of bored morning motorists staring at me while I try to jog and at the same time avoid the scores of domestic workers on their way to work who snigger at this mad masochistic woman breathing like a cow in labour as she attempts to do something she's clearly not cut out for.

Another lesson I learned is that I still take water for granted. When I lived in Broadacres, our water would get turned off without warning on an almost weekly basis. We once went without it for four days and were flushing our toilet with mineral water.

Since we've been in the new house, we haven't had this problem at all. Until last night.

When I arrived home at 18h00, the water was off and my mad Italian neighbour was awaiting me to point this fact out a million times over accompanied by grand hand gestures and lots of tutting.

Thankfully, since our experiences in Broadacres, we've been prepared and always have two 5-litre bottles of water on standby. With the water in our kettle and the 2-litre bottle we fill up regularly in our fridge, we were able to manage just fine.

But my sponge bath could in no way match up to the long bubblebath with TSC that I had planned. And brushing your teeth with ice-cold water from the fridge is not fun.

Lesson: I realised again how precious water is.

TSC always says that you can tell a man's wealth by how freely he uses water. The low-earning labourers on local buidling sites can wash up with the water they fill their hard hats with. Those of us spoilt suburb-dwellers used to having water on tap are outraged when we have no water for just one evening.

It makes one think.

What about YOU, dear reader? Learned anything interesting this week?

Have a great weekend, btw.

In case this doesn't land in your inbox

"Really does make one wonder whether this is how Swine Flu is actually spreading….
Spotted in Cape Town, seemingly with reference to the global SWINE FLU outbreak and its possible spread in and around the Cape Flats."

One thing that I didn't think about...

...Is that when I'm sitting in bed, typing away, my cats have easy access to my lap - they simply climb on top of my laptop ;-)

I love my cats. If it were up to me they'd star in the LOLcats newsletter from ICHC every day.

Here are my darlings...

In pleasant news, while the office politics continue, I have my third feature article from the nice magazine I've been writing for. Happiness! The deadline is super tight, but the topic is great.

And, TSC and I are planning a long weekend away near the end of next month, so I'm happily trawling the internet for nice, reasonably-priced places to stay. If anyone has suggestions (must be somewhere warm. Maybe Limpopo or North West?), please drop me a comment and let me know. And before you international smart asses start, I mean somewhere within a few hours drive, still in the country, k?

We're more than halfway through our first full working week in ages and I actually feel just fine. I'm going to enjoy the sense of calm that seems to have randomly fallen on top of me while it lasts.

Have a good evening, folks.

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...

For the first time ever...

...I am blogging from home, sitting on my bed with my laptop. This, people, is a milestone in my life ;-)

After ten weeks of torture, Telkom gave to me...

My ADSL is working at home! This, friends (and random lurkers) is cause to celebrate. So TSC and I are heading to a new restaurant this evening for a dinner date. Tomorrow is a public holida, so we plan to sleep in late too. Yay!

In other words, despite the fact that my email still will not let me send anything at work, which is impeding any progress (I don't understand how it can receive but not send), and certain people are driving me up the wall as quickly as Malema can run his mouth off, I am choosing to look at all the lekker (nice) things in my life and smile.

Here are some more things that make me grin:

• When I went for a brisk walk this morning, my cat tried to follow me. She really is like a dog, bless her little furry soul.
• I have ADSL access at home. Yes, that is definitely worth repeating!
• Cadbury's has brought out a new limited edition chocolate range including the like of a Fudge and Biscuit bar and one called Orange and Almonds. Super yum!
• Tomorrow is pay day, so I can hopefully get my mom something nice for mothers day, have my two warm coats dry-cleaned in time for the cold weather and get my favourite winter boots reheeled.
• I got a new freelance client and her business is really interesting (she wants me to re-write her online copy), so I have a fun job lined up in between all the rubbish ones.
• TSC's parents sent us a load of lamb from the farm yesterday, so our freezer is nice and full, which hopefully will translate into slightly fuller pockets.
• My winter crops (peas, more carrots, spinach, cabbage, radishes and pak choi) are doing well in the veggie garden and I have a recipe for mint jelly that I want to try this weekend.
• Now that I have internet access, I can get started doing some serious catching up on blog reading.

What's making you smile?

Questions...

I would appreciate it if you have any of the answers...

• What should I get my mom for Mother's Day?
• If I used my modem to connect to the net at my folks house, why won't it work at my house if my line really is ADSL-ready (Telkom says it is)?
• Why do our office technology issues just get worse (yesterday we had no electricity the entire day)?
• What would you ask Jacob Zuma, South Africa's soon-to-be president, if you had a face-to-face chat with him?
• What's the best thing about winter?
• Are there any good books I should be reading?
• If you're South Africa, did you vote last week? And if not, why not?
• What's the nicest compliment you've ever been given?

Bits and bobs on books and politics

April, in South Africa, is a total write off in terms of work. We have two public holidays for the Easter weekend, then this year Wednesday 22 April was national election day. Then there's 27 April, which is Freedom Day, and 1 May, which is Workers Day (yes, next week is a three-day week here).

In other words, we've not had one full work week in April. Crazy! And cool in some ways... frustrating in others.

I would LOVE to be going away for the long weekend, or taking the three working days off for a mini holiday as my boss is done. Alas, money is always an issue and it's not going to happen. But, seeing winter has just hit Joburg with force, I will take comfort next to our fireplace (the first time we've had one of our own) and in a glass of good red wine with TSC. Nice...

In other news, I don't usually do book reviews on my blog, but I've just finished Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier. Have any of you read it? If so, how did you find it?

Summary: Raimund Gregorious - Mundus, as his students affectionately call him - is a predictable character. A bookish Latin professor, well-respected, perhaps a little boring. One stormy morning, he encounters a beautiful, distraught Portuguese woman in a red leather coat...Later that day Raimund will realise: that moment changed everything. All of a sudden, nothing in his life feels right. His restlessness is fuelled further when he happens to find a book by a little-known Portuguese writer, Amadeo de Prado. The appearance of the mysterious woman, and Prado's prescient words, all seem to tell him the same thing: that he must leave everything behind.And so, early the next morning, he packs a bag and boards the night train to Lisbon on a restless journey across Europe and deep within himself in the hope of discovering somewhere, someone, who makes him feel alive and connected to himself and the world once more. Night Train to Lisbon is a richly told novel of ideas which will haunt readers with its depth and artistic beauty.

I fought with this book from the first page. I started off thinking it was brilliant. Then I got irritated by the bad typesetting (the spaces between words get dropped increasingly frequently as the book goes on). For someone who habitually reads with a pencil in hand to correct spelling and grammar mistakes (I know you're probably laughing as you think about all the typos on this blog), it was infuriating.

I wonder if the translation is as good as the original German? I found that the book grabbed me in places so that I couldn't put it down. Then it lost me completely in others and I wondered what on earth it was all about.

Nearing the end of the book, I decided I liked it. A lot. But then it finished. I can't say it ended, because usually there's some marker to denote an ending, whether it's a happy or a sad one. This book just stopped. And then I asked whether it had been worth reading through that much bad typesetting. And I still can't give myself an answer.

In still other news (yes, I am attempting to catch up on all the things I've wanted to post about), I voted for the first time on Wednesday. I was at varsity during the last elections and wasn't able to register in my home town.

Voting was very much less exciting than one dreams as a small child. The reality is that we stood in a line for an hour and a half and marvelled at how open to corruption the system could be. But at least I have my purple-stained thumb to prove that I did my bit. Now we sit back and wait for the final count, for all the numbers matter.

We know what the results will be - ANC will rule. JZ will be president. And SA will enjoy some more political fun and games as the new prez tries to decide which of his wives should be first lady.

It finally happened to me!

Yesterday I got a phone call from a nice man named David. He asked me if I remembered entering a competition to win a Ford Fiesta. I said I had no recollection of doing so, but seeing I enter loads of competitions, it was possible.

My name had been put into the draw for the grand prize, he said. That was nice, I said. I was guaranteed to win the Ford Fiesta, a week away for two or some other awesome-sounding prize, he said. That was also nice I said.

I must come in with my ID book and be at the draw, he said. When? Wednesday (national election day here in South Africa). Where? Central Office Park, Midrand. What time? 2pm.

Then he said, "bring lots of friends."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because they might win spot prizes," he said.

"Uh huh," said I, unconvinced.

He then asked for my surname, my occupation and the names of the friends I would be bringing. I waited for him to give himself away by asking for my bank details or similar. Surprisingly, he didn't. But...

"Can you spell the name of your company for me - I didn't catch it," I said.

"T-A-L-K-A-L-I-N-E."

"And can I have a phone number to call, in case I get lost?" I asked.

"073 126 3448."

"You don't have a land line?"

"No."

"I see."

David then told me that someone else would call me with directions to Central Office Park, Midrand and ended the conversation.

So I Googled Talk-a-line. This is what I found.

A few minutes later, one of David's colleagues (who obviously had access to the same database) called me.

"Good afternoon... my name is so-and-so from Talk-a-line... Do you remember entering a competition to win a Ford Fiesta a few months ago?... blah blah blah..."

"Hello so-and-so. Your friend David just called me, actually. *pause, for effect* He told me I must be at Central Office Park in Midrand with my reference number J526 on Wednesday to collect my prize."

"That's correct, ma'am."

*longer pause (more effect?)*

"Uh huh. So I Googled you guys and I see that you're going to try to sell me timeshare for Quality Vacation Club. So I won't be there."

"Thank you. Bye."

Score: Tamara one, telemarketers zero.

For all of you who haven't heard of the Quality Vacation Club (QVC) consider that customer service site hellopeter.com lists 51 postive comments versus 118 negative complaints about the company. Consider also that SA blogger Donn Edwards was sued for almost half a million rand for defamation by QVC after posting about the win a car competition, which he called a "scam". The case was eventually settled out of court.

Some bloggers pointed out that the whole court saga actually caused more bad media coverage for QVC than any blog post about the company could have on its own. Others speculated that perhaps QVC would learn from the public's reaction and stop using their "deceptive" marketing tactics to lure people to sales presentations. But this seems not to be the case... They are still calling and telling gullible South Africans they've won a prize.

I know I'm very behind the times with this whole issue (the Donn Edwards case caused a media ruckus late last year), but it's the first time I've had the call and there are always people out there who need to be made aware. So, if you are willing to sit through timeshare presentations and know that you won't win a car but will get a weekend away at one of QVCs destinations (terms and conditions apply, of course), feel free. But if like me you'd rather save yourself the time and trouble, tell a telemarketer where to get off today.

Ridiculous, absurd and irritatingly true

Directly after typing my last post on Wednesday, my PC crashed. The IT goons picked it up and only returned it to me today.

Without my wireless card, which they forgot, so I still had no internet or email access. Eventually, they brought the card across and the PC seemed to be in working order. The IT goons left.

My PC froze. I rebooted it.

It froze again.

It is now letting me post. I'm assuming it will freeze again in 40 minutes (this seems to be the length of its concentration span).

I don't think I can go on like this. I want to scream.

Assorted nonsense

Yes. I'm back again. Hopefully for good now. My stupid PC has been driving me mental the past few days... Have been able to receive email but not send it and get online but not post. The I-kinda-have-internet-but-not-really is actually more irritating than not having it at all I have decided.

But today, mercifully, technology has not yet tried to thwart my evil (or other) plans and I am coming to you live from my new desk in my new office on our new ADSL line. Can I get a cheer?

I have been so frustrated by the fact that I've been unable to blog over the past while and I've realised that it really is therapy for me. In fact, it's more effective than a few shrinks I've seen in my time.

Now I don't have much time because I am super behind in my work (having not had phone lines the past week and having not been able to send emails to my clients to even tell them we have no phone lines), but I'd love t0 hear how your Easter weekend was.

Mine was great. So nice to have TSC back again! We spent Saturday at the Rhino and Lion Park with our friend from Britain and his lovely fiancee and made them potjiekos for supper. We nearly didn't get them to the airport on time that evening due to a huge accident on the freeway. They were the last people on the plane as we sprinted (NOT an exaggeration) through the almost deserted airport.

Sunday was spent with the family who seemed to enjoy lunch at our house. Monday we chilled and finally finished making our path through the veggie garden. Now it's time to start planting winter crops. Can't wait to have peas out my own little patch ;-)

I'm off to catch up on a bit of blog reading in between my piled up work. I leave you with a few shots of what I got up to during my extended time away from posting...

Making jewellery!

*Having just written how nice it is to have working technology, my PC just froze twice on me and had to be rebooted each time. Nice. Not.

Yay for iburst. Kind of.

I finally have internet access from my own PC, which makes me much less grumpy and far more inclined to blog. We're operating off a wireless system (iburst) until Hellkom can sort out DSL for us, so our internet is very, very slow (low signal here), but at least it's working.



I'm back to blog reading. And can I just say... good grief, but you people post a lot! Some of my regular reads have posted 36 times since I've been away. That's an average of two and a bit times per day. Jeepers! You have time.



Me, on the other hand... I have spent the last couple of days going through potential post ideas in my head. You know how things happen and you think, "I'm so going to blog about that"? Well, now that I'm here, I can't remember any of those ideas. Go figure.



The thoughts in my head at present are as follows:

• TSC gets back from a week away tomorrow! I can't wait! It's the longest we've been apart in our two and a bit years of marriage. The first few days were fine, but it's enough now.


• What am I going to cook for Easter Sunday lunch? I've invited my family over to uor house and they're all so damn fussy. The safest option is probably a roast.


• I loathe strapless bras. I'm wearing a strapless dress today and I keep having to hitch the damn thing up. Grrr! No wonder I hardly ever wear this thing.


• My eye is still smarting. I managed to squirt myself in the right eye with grapefruit juice as I tried to spear the fruit this morning. Why does this always happen to me? And why always in the eye? Grapefruits are probably not worth the effort, IMO.


• This is the second bullet point post in two days. Not very good writing, I know. But then again, two posts in two days is impressive after two weeks of absence, so I will forgive myself.

What are you guys up to for Easter? You're probably all heading off for exotic holiday destinations, aren't you? Sigh... I wish I was...

She lives (although her technology doesn't)!

I am not dead, in case you were wondering. Please excuse my long absence from the blogosphere. It was due entirely to happenings outside of my control, namely:

• Despite every effort at flu prevention, I ended up getting sick after all. Flu plus a nasty ear infection and impressively disgusting sinusitis meant that I was confined to bed for a couple of days. Seeing Hellkom STILL hasn't sorted out my DSL at home (7 weeks now since I ordered it), I had no internet. Hence no blogging.
• We moved offices. And I still don't have access to my own work email or internet connection, more than a week later. Hugely frustrating. Hellkom, the devil of an IT guy and various other evil forces have conspired to keep me unconnected from my beloved intertubes. I am currently writing from a colleague's PC. Yes, every other person in the office is hooked up, except me. NOW do you believe me that technology hates me?
• TSC is away for a varsity practical week, so I have been in hibernation, enjoying my own company and not really communicating with anyone other than the voices inside my head.
• Aliens abducted me and removed the part of my brain that blogs, leaving me without anything worthy of writing.

Ok, so I made the last one up. Partly.

But just so you know... I am alive. In the same way that the hopes of the Azanian Peoples Organisation of winning the upcoming national elections are alive... Not really.

This has proven one thing to me. There is life away from the intertubes. It's just not that exciting ;-)

I will try to blog again soon. Hopefully I get internet access on my own computer this week. And once that happens, I will begin the slow task of trying to catch up on all my blog-reading.