Never been happier it's a Friday

What an admin week! Goodness.

Not only have we been running around trying to manage builders, plumbers, tilers and painters while still getting some work done, but I've also been sorting out tax stuff (hate, hate, HATE) and we've switched our insurer. Finally.

In between, the dishwasher has stopped working, the expensive Floor Wizard mop (or whatever other euphemistic name it has been given) fell apart and my remote control for the gate broke. Our phone line has also stopped working. This not only means that people can't get through to me for business calls (it sounds like it's ringing from their end, but doesn't ring on my end), but also that we can't let our visitors (including the myriad renovation subcontractors and repair men) in through the front gate, which operates through our landline. All of this, of course, happened in a week with a public holiday in it. Which means that getting anyone to fix anything has been unlikely since everyone other than us is on holiday. Or that's how it feels, at least.

Just to make life rosier, I've had to go into the bank twice and spend a few hours there on each occasion. Had to pick up two cards (old ones expire end of this month), extend my internet banking transfer limit to be able to pay the deposit for the new cupboards, update my FICA (what a frikking mission. Might have been easier to let them keep thinking I still live in Cape Town) and I wanted to apply for a credit card. Didn't think this would be a problem, seeing they have my personal, business and investment accounts and know exactly how much money I have at any given moment.

Hah! Should've got a credit card before I became self-employed. They don't want to give me one unless I get a letter from an accountant saying how much I earn every month. I don't have an accountant, so I told them I'll apply through Discovery (where all they need is three months' bank statements). The joke is that a telesales person from my bank has called me twice in the days since to offer me a credit card. Grrrr.

I'm seriously over this week. TGIF. For real.

That said, it hasn't all been bad. I really enjoyed Women's Day on Tuesday. TSC and I slept in late, had scones and coffee at The Tea Room at Crabtree & Evelyn, took a long walk through all of Lonehill's little footpaths, shared a vanilla milkshake from Milky Lane (been craving one for weeks) and chilled at home watching episodes of Glee. It was divine.

Glad I had a day off, because tomorrow morning is a big business meeting and the rest of this weekend we'll have people working in the house. I'm really, really hoping that by next Saturday (my birthday!!!) it will all be done.

On that note, any ideas for birthday parties? TSC and I do a combined one every year as our birthdays are three weeks apart. We've decided we can't host one at home this year, but I'd like to something a bit more exciting than hooking up for drinks at our gloomy neighbourhood pub. I'm open to ideas! But seeing all our money is currently being spent on light fixtures etc, it can't be expensive.

Anyway. Have a fabulous weekend, all.

Yet another catch-up post

Where does time go? It whooshes past at great speed these days and leaves me a bit dizzy.

In the past while, here's what I've been up to:

• Celebrated my birthday with dinner at Hedwig's restaurant. The food was amazing and the view spectacular. The service was sadly not so great. And neither is the loooong dirt road you have to navigate to get there. But I had a great evening with the family.
  
• Got spoiled by the family. Money and garden vouchers have allowed me to dress my lawn and acquire some beautiful succulent plants to adorn the new braai area. My AWESOME new camera (Nikon D3000) from my folks has kept me busy in the few spare moments I have as I try to figure out how it works (very different to my old manual SLR and my little compact digital camera). I will start posting pics once I start taking decent ones ;-)
  
• Went to rugby for the whole bloody Saturday. Seriously, we got to the stadium just after 1pm and the game only started at 5pm. And the Boks lost! But it was awesome to be inside FNB Stadium (if that is what Soccer City is now called. I can't keep up with all the name changes) and I enjoyed the game for the most part. Ran into Jeanette on the bus, which was a cool surprise.
• Recorded my granddad's life story to write his memoirs. I still need more info, but I got a lot from him on Sun and Mon. Such a rich story!
• Did Sunday lunch with the family. Will miss that so much when my folks move back to KZN next year.
• Wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote for this ghostwriting project.
• Had various client / prospective client meetings. Some were very interesting, some were less so.
• Started serious prep for our Casino Royale themed formal dress games night joint birthday celebration thingey this Sat (if you're in Jhb and want to come along, mail me at doodlesofajourno at gmail dot com. Would love to see some of you lot IRL).
• Got my bum into gear and finally started doing all the admin I've been avoiding (switching ADSL providers, getting our own PO Box (been using my folks' one for ages), letting all the relevant people know our postal address has changed, getting business cards set up etc. Not fun, but a great sense of accomplishment when it's all done.
• Started planning all of TSC's bday surprises (his bday is 7 Sept). Now that's good fun ;-)

Today I'm at home all day, thankfully. I'm hoping to get lots of work done while our tiler finishes up the last snags outside and puts up the natural stone around our fireplace. Then we really are done with the home project for now.

What are all you fabulous people up to?

Explanations and deliberations

My blogging mojo, as you may have noticed, has been severely lacking. I put this down to a couple of reasons:
a) my creative writing course is keeping me so occupied that it's difficult to find a moment to blog, and when I do, I feel like I've used up most of whatever creative juices I might have had.
b) I have been otherwise occupied by a crapload of admin, mainly for church and my freelancing business, as well as by the fact that our neighbourhood is up in arms about this big warehouse store that wants to open on our doorstep, so we've been attending, photocopying notices and generally running around like headless chickens.
c) a lot of stuff that's going on in my little world is unmentionable on this-here public space, just in case the wrong people happen to be reading it.

But here I am anyway, so let me give you a little update on happenings:

• We saw Up in the Air on Friday. It was good. George Clooney is as gorgeous as ever and the movie was well made. But I don't quite see what all the fuss was about.
• On Saturday we visited Kitty Haven and signed up to volunteer. When asked about which area I'd like to help with, I ticked "Cat cuddler". Isn't that a dream job?
• We went for brunch at Melrose Arch on the way back at Grand Central. It's the first time I've been to Melrose Arch just for the sake of being there - I've only ever been there to the offices before for work meetings. I must say, we had a divine time at Grand Central. It is the first place we've found in the almost three years we've been in Joburg where the Eggs Benedict matches up to that perfect creation from The Gardener's Cottage in Newlands, Cape Town. TSC had that, while I enjoyed a homemade lemonade (yum!) with my brerakfast of polenta toast with sweet corn, avocado sala, sauteed cherry tomatoes, wilted rocket, pesto, Napolitana sauce and grated pecorino cheese. It was heavenly.
• I got seriously stuck into my garden on Saturday afternoon. I have the scrapes and bruises to prove it.
• TSC went to the rugby with friends and I enjoyed the opportunity to go out gift shopping for Roo and finish up TSC's Valentine's Day card.
• Yesterday we overslept. And it was bliss. Since I started this writing course I haven't been able to sleep properly with all the ideas running through my head (and not all of them are useful. Sometime early this morning, my dreams were telling me that there should be a giraffe as one of the central characters and that I should name her Abigail. Weird). Anyhoo, we spent our day having a picnic on our lawn with sparkling wine and chocolate mousse. It was the best way to spend the day - away from te madding crowds!
• Last night we met my folks for dinner at Primi Piatti in Midrand. It was nice to catch-up, although I did almost all the talking. I couldn't stop myself... I just needed a vent about this stupid warehouse store (noise, traffic, security and aesthetical issues, nevermind the fact that the value of our property will plummet if it goes ahead) and work stuff. The good news was that this Primi still had gnocchi bolognese on their menu. All the other branches have stopped making it and that dish was pretty much the only reason I ever went to Primi.
• Today was the deadline for the submission of our first writing assignment. I had great fun doing mine, but I'm terrified of the feedback! I posted my synopsis on the course forum and the course teacher gave me a great response. He loved my writing, although he reckons I'm giving myself way too much work. I agree with his poitn of using my granddad's life story as background and writing the last bit I'd planned - the relationship this old man has with his second love, and how he deals with the situation. Having a clear focus has helped me more than I can say. I may post the revised synopsis sometime for your thoughts.
• Have a great week. I promise I'll be back soon this time ;-)

My version of hell...

...Would include eternal Chuck Norris re-runs, lots of Barry Manilow and/or Lady Gaga, fountains of custard (can't stand the stuff), pot holes the size of the one in the road near my office and, worst of all, admin.


Good grief do I hate admin! And right now I feel like that's all I'm doing. Since when did it become my fulltime job to follow up on people?! If I'd wanted to spend my time nagging folks I would have adopted a teenager by now.


Please bear in mind that I am not talking about my own personal admin here. I am not half bad at remembering to pay bills, invoice clients, and file my paperwork (ok that last one's a lie. My paperwork is a mess). The admin that is threatening to bury me at present is not mine and is for the most part avoidable if people would just do what they're supposed to do.


If I spend hours and ours drawing up the ushering roster for church (which is enough admin in itself - keeping track of 60-odd people's schedules) I would really, really appreciate it if once I hit the 'send' button I didn't receive 29 replies within the first two hours (not an exaggeration. This is an actual figure) asking me to make changes. If you can't make your duty on a given night, use the contact details sheet I attached and swap with someone else. Please. I say this with tears in my eyes. And homicide in my head.


Likewise, I would love it if just for once my clients would do their bit. It is impossible for me to send your web copy to the developer to finish your sparkly new site if you refuse to take five minutes to read it and sign it off. So please do not complain that we are running late. The copy is all sitting in your inbox.


I would also love to know how it has become my responsibility to fight neighbourhood evil. For some reason it is me that gets the joyful tasking of writing, printing and paying for notices to alert our complex of the meeting happening this week between our town planners and the major retail corporation that wants to plant one of their fugly stores on our doorstep. I'm not even on the board of trustees for our complex, for goodness' sake. How is this up to me?

Grrr.

I would whine more but I have to go. So much to do and so little medication.

Goodness gracious, great balls of ice!

Yesterday evening the northern suburbs of Jozi got hit with a hail storm like none I've ever seen. The hail pieces were like ice cubes. They set off car alarms and made the roads a nightmare. My heart goes out to any pedestrians who had the misfortune of getting caught in that. I actually took pics of the chunks of ice to show you how big they were, but in true Tamara fashion, forgot the camera at home today. Will try to post them later in the week.

I think there's a storm brewing in the office too, but we won't get into that here.

I have so much admin to do at the moment - my CC's tax, my personal tax, renewing my driver's licence, following up on some freelance stuff, sorting out a City of Joburg screw-up with my rates and taxes, church ushering admin, end-of-year budgeting... blah blah blah... I don't feel like any of it. I am not an admin fan. At all. Ever. But I'm going to try not to procrastinate anymore (haha - let's see how that goes), so off I go to try to figure out where to start.

Have a fab Tuesday, folks.