Amazing people rock my world

I am so blessed to have awesome people in my life. My family and friends are the best I could ask for and my husband is my personal Prince Charming. But I realised today that even some of the "peripheral" characters in my life are incredible.

See, I'm doing a workshop on personal branding and marketing next week and as an exercise before the event, we've been asked to contact 10 people we work with in some form or another (colleagues, mentors, managers, associates from places where we volunteer) and ask them for honest opinions on how they perceive us.

I sent out my email this morning and the responses I've had from people have been really touching, especially seeing I hardly know some of these people in a personal capacity. The fact they are willing to take time out of their hectic schedules to help me with this exercise is really sweet, but the fact that they are saying lovely things just makes me want to cry. I'm so grateful for the relationships I have in this world, both in my personal life and in my work capacity.

And it makes me realise how much impact a good compliment can make on someone. So I challenge you to find 10 people you come into contact with regularly and pay each of them an honest, agenda-free compliment over the next few days. You'll not only make them smile, you'll improve your relationship with them too.

Have a fab Friday.

Deck the halls (and block your ears) - Christmas is coming!

The carols concert was, IMO, totally awesome. Between the cute kids in the church children's band doing a punk version of Silent Night (I was super impressed with the kids playing electric guitar, drums and keyboard) and Colin, the lead vocalist, impersonating everyone from Louis Armstrong to Michael Jackson, it was a blast.

Colin broke his foot doing the show last week (jumping off the stage as Angel Gabriel) so he was confined to a barstool to sing and had his injured foot in a festive Christmas stocking. Other church band members had to take up doing his actions. It's always funny for me, knowing these guys IRL, to see them onstage. Totally different!

After the show we headed to Primi Piatti for drinks with Brett, Kim and their mate Mike. After me berating Brett for his bad blogging habits (not posting enough) and all of us listening to Mike's horrible baby jokes for awhile, TSC and I returned home in high spirits, with me singing carols the whole way.

Now that we are only a month away from Christmas, I feel I have licence to continue in that vein. "Oh holy night, the stars are brightly shiiiiiiiiiiining..." Be very glad you don't have to live with me - I try to do the descant at the same time as the melody. Poor TSC ;-)

I am so looking forward to an evening at home doing nothing tonight!

Hello Monday

What a weekend!

Friday night we had some friends around for supper. Sadly, the vegetarian and partner couldn't make it as they were both feeling sick, but everyone else seemed to enjoy the roast veggie lasagne and warm chocolate pudding.

On Saturday morning, we went for our sushi-making adventure. My folks gave me a voucher for two for my birthday, and this is the first chance I've had to use it.

Can I just say that if you live in Joburg, like sushi and ever get the chance, you should do a course at Miya's. It is awesome! Chef Miyamoto is a fully qualified sushi chef (that means five years of training). After he'd explained how year one is spent just training in hygiene and cleaning, and year two is solely about how to cook the rice, I felt a bit bad that here was this group of South Africans all expecting to learn how to make sushi in just a few hours.

But he was really patient with us and his wicked sense of humour made it very entertaining. He was full of fascinating info about the differences between Japanese and South African sushi, how using a different type of rice affects the way you cook it, where the names of the sushi types come from and where to buy the best fish in Joburg. I was astounded to learn that there are only a handful of properly qualified sushi chefs in the country and that in Japan, you don't get wasabi to mix with your soy sauce - the chef just grates the horseradish into the sushi as he makes it.

It was a long morning (9.30am until just after 2pm), but we both had such a great time and really enjoyed eating the sushi we'd made (even though it didn't look as professional as Chef Miya's). Maybe I'll post some pics tomorrow.

After that, we rushed home, did a quick clean-up of the previous night's dishes and then our Zimbabwean mates Sarah and Phil arrived for a visit. I met Phil through my best friend, Nic, at varsity and then TSC became friends with him when he too moved to Cape Town. He was the MC at our wedding and is one of the most lively and entertaining people I know.

Phil introduced us to his sister Sarah and she became a friend too. When we moved to Johannesburg, we got in touch with their parents and now we are friendly with the whole family, bar one sibling (who lives in Australia. We may meet her for the first time in Dec).

We had a good catch-up with the two while we watched rugby as Phil told us some of his bush adventures (he's a professional hunter and photographer) and Sarah told us where she'd been placed for her physiotherapy community service year. It was great fun.

Yesterday we went to the Rosebank craft market again to pick up some stuff my mom wants and then I spent the afternoon making a Christmas wreath and bottles of mint jelly before church.

Tonight we have our church's annual Christmas carols concert at the Barnyard, which is more like a dinner theatre production, actually. I'm lookinf forward to it, although our neighbours who were supposed to be coming with us knocked on the door to tell us they're sick this morning and can't make it tonight, so we now have four empty seats at our table of 12. Anyone keen to come?

Have a good week.

Weekend away in Mooinooi

Monday.

Meh.

Well, at least the weekend was good. Friday evening was spent with my folks in Pretoria and we all went out for supper to Fishmonger in Centurion. It's a Friday favourite with my parents because they serve the most delicious fish (for some reason my parents don't eat meat on Fridays. Catholic upbringing, I guess) and TSC enjoys it because they do a mean steak too. It was great (especially my squid heads - yum). I love that I'm finally at a place where I get along with my folks and we really enjoy each other's company.

Saturday morning we left for Mooinooi, a small town built around a mine near Rustenburg. Literally translated from Afrikaans, it means something alongs the lines of "pretty girlfriend".

Since moving to Joburg we've become good friends with the parents of a friend from varsity, who was also the MC at our wedding. While they are the same age as my parents (maybe even a bit older), we get along really well with them. They (let's call them Elle and Zee, which, lucky for them, are not their real names) had invited us to spend a night at their plot along with an Australian couple who were visiting Africa for the first time, Jo and Steve.

It turned out to be such fun. We arrived shortly before lunch, unpacked and had a lovely al fresco meal on the veranda. We chatted for ages and eventually retired for an afternoon nap. Afterwards we headed off for a short walk (about an hour in total) to watch the sunset. Most of the sun was obscured by clouds, but it was pretty anyway. Well, judge for yourselves:

When we got back, the two dogs who live on the property had arrived and TSC had a great time playing with them (big puppy that he is) before getting the braai ready. I made pap (pronounced pupp) and relish for the Aussies to sample and TSC, resident braai-master, dazzled all with his deliciously spiced and perfectly-cooked beef steaks and lamb chops.

After a few glasses of nice wine (Backsberg rosé and Inkspot vin noir) and a few hours of easy conversation, the Aussies headed off to bed and our friends followed shortly. TSC and I decided to give the outdoor showers a try.

What a cool experience! Because the plot is set in the middle of the bush, there is no-one around for miles. Under the full moon we took a steaming hot shower in the cool night air. The showers are open on one side, facing away from the buildings and have no roof. It was a new feeling - the cold air, the moonlight and the hot water.

If I ever have a house in the middle of nowhere, I will build a shower ilke that. And one inside for winter, of course ;-)

Sunday morning TSC and I awoke before dawn (we're not used to taking Saturday afternoon naps and it completely threw our sleep out) and had a cup of coffee alone on the Verandah before Elle and Zee joined us. Eventually Jo and Steve appeared and we enjoyed a light relaxed breakfast together.

Then at about 10am we donned our hiking shoes, hats and sunblock and climbed into the bakkie (light utility vehicle / ute / truck / pick-up for you non-locals). We stopped on a nearby plot where the walking trail begins and set off for the river. It was really hot, and by the time we arrived at the waterfall and pools, I wished I'd brought my bikini with. Elle and Zee got into the water and the rest of us rolled our trousers up and dipped our legs in. It was cold! But lovely. The rocks are textured from hundreds of years of rippling water, and the deep pools were beautiful. I wished I'd lugged my old manual SLR camera along instead of my snapshot camera.

When we eventually got back it was almost 2pm. We had another great al fresco meal before packing up our things. TSC and I dashed off, picked the cats up from my folks and made it back home in time to have a quick shower before we had to be at Montecasino for church, which was great.

We're in our third week now and we've got an average of 260 people attending. I think the concept of a church in a casino establishment makes people curious. And I think it's more accessible to many people in terms of location and time than our morning services at a local school.

So a good weekend, all in all. Let's hope it's a good week too. For me, for TSC (who is writing his first varsity test today) and for all of you!