Stuff

• There are a lot of birthdays in September. All the New Years' babies... Flip. You're bankrupting me, people!
• We have a charity ball tonight. I can't wait. It's themed too. I love dressing up! Must remember to take my camera.
• It's a busy weekend. We also have a friend's 30th bday bash tomorrow (the third this month) and then our church small group is refurbishing a room at the children's home we support on Sunday. Plus it's the Singapore F1 Grand Prix.
• I am tired. It's been a crappy week. I had a client who misbehaved rather badly and it totally threw me. I tend to work with people who share the same ethics as me, so when I come across someone who doesn't seem to care about morals, it always shocks me. Thankfully it doesn't happen very often. And this person is now out of my life.
• Situations like the one I've just mentioned combined with a general feeling of being on the brink of burnout have made me question what I'm doing for a living. With the amount of crap I've put up with this week, I might as well have been a plumber. It definitely pays better. Thankfully there are good people out there too. I enjoy working with them and they appreciate my work, so I've been reminded that aside from the odd imbecile I'll encounter, I generally do like freelancing. I even love it sometimes. So it's ok if I have days of hating it once in a blue moon. It's normal.
• The things that are making me smile at the moment are spring-time weather and gardens; my cats (we've discovered how entertaining it is to let them chase BB-gun bullets around the house... hilarious); the weavers that have built their nests in my silver birches to house their little chicks; delicious light summery food and having TSC home this week when I was expecting him to be away at the mine.

What's up in your world?

Bullet point updates

Hello! Been desperate to blog all week and catch up on my reading, but it's been more of the same manic pace, I'm afraid.

So here are some quick bullet points:

• It's my birthday tomorrow. Renovations were supposed to be complete by then, but alas it was not to be. The cupboard guy's materials were delayed, so he can only come on Thursday. But the new carpets are in and they look amazing! And they feel good too. Who knew carpets could be so exciting? And yes, I realise I sound like a total loon, but I find them so awesome that I want to take a leaf out my cats' book and roll on them.
• I got rid of my accountants and found a new firm. Yay! The old ones were not very reliable in terms of communication and didn't take me seriously at all, so I'm glad to have found someone who is willing to answer my (probably silly) questions.
• My garden is coming alive again. I love it - spring is on it's way, at last! I'm enjoying peas, carrots, spinach, rocket, Asian greens, herbs and spring onions from my veggie patch, and the gorgeous primulas (two types) are in full bloom, making for pretty bursts of flowers all over the show.
• I took my brother out for coffee yesterday (had the most divine chai freezo at House of Coffees in Menlyn). I'm so loving getting along with him for the first time in my life. At long last, we can chat. And not just about jokes and the weather - about real stuff too. Without jumping down each other's throats! It's fantastic. Makes me very happy.
• TSC and I have settled on a theme for usual joint birthday bash. We're having a bring-and-share gyspy-themed picnic in our garden. So excited! Gypsy decor is such fun and virtually free. All I need to buy is a big bag full of gold coin chocolates ;-) We thought of having a picnic at one of the lovely parks, but I worry that it will rain (usually happens when I have picnics) and I'm not keen to put my friends through the traumas of the public loos (our favourite local park only has a port-a-potty). Also, I worry that if people want to drink wine, they'll get in trouble in the public parks. So our garden it will be.
  
• I cannot wait to show you renovation pics. Hoping by next week it will all be done. And then I'll post some before and after shots.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Some lists

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

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

Things I've wanted to blog about:

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

Awesome highlights from this weekend:

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

Decisions that have to be made:

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

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

Loved this flower... shot at Augrabies.



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



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

Various stuff

A selection of what is going on in my head...

• Looking forward to camera lesson two on Thurs, which should hopefully be less theoretical and more about taking pics! I'm now the (broke) owner of a new 2TB hard drive for my photos, a spare camera battery, a spare SD card, an SD card reader and a UV filter that fits my DSLR's lens.
• Having to organise people is a pain. TSC and I lead a small group for our church, which is awesome - such a nice bunch of people. Problem is, we've decided on a social for tomorrow night. Originally we were going to do go-karting, but it turns out that it's a bit pricey. I've given everyone a whole bunch of options and now I have a pretty much even split of people who want to do each option (except Adventure Golf. Seems we're all very much over that). The social is tomorrow night. What do I do? Sometimes democracy is annoying.
  
• I have a deadline on a big article for tomorrow. I should be writing it now, but my brain is fuzzy and I can't get it right. It's quite a complex subject, so I figured a little break while I blog might help - often if I go back to something I can't understand a bit later on, it all falls into place.
• It's so nice to be eating summer food. Last night, neither TSC nor I were keen for hot food, so we had ciabatta rolls with smoked chicken breast, avocado and sweet chili sauce. Not only was it super tasty, it requires no cooking and minimal washing up. Score!
• I need to invest in a fan for my study. It's a tiny room with big windows that get full sun most of the day, which is great in winter. In summer, however, it's like I'm in a little oven. Even my modem is unhappy with the heat. I've had to stand it on top of a glass to get enough air into the vents on the underside.
• It's nice to occasionally hang out with new people. We had a great braai on Saturday with two guys we've just met - one who has just moved to Joburg from Durban, and the other whom is only in SA for a month from the UK. There were a couple of other friends with us and we all watched the rugby and chatted for hours. They arrived at our place at 3pm and only left at 10.30pm. It was awesome.
• A friend of mine is a headhunter and she just sent me a list of funnies from the CVs people have sent to their recruitment agency. They are hilarious, especially seeing these are not some random ones off the internet, but have actually been collated by her company. I may have to post some this week.
  

Awesomeness is...

• Despicable Me. Hilarious! Steve Carell is much funnier as a cartoon. And I want me some minions. They are awesome. TSC was laughing so hard in the cinema I thought he was going to pee in his pants.
  
• Tin Roof Cafe. This restaurant in Pretoria is beautifully decorated, the service is good and the food is AMAZING. We tested lots of it on Sun with the family for lunch. If you go, note that the map on the Food24 site is totally wrong. Best get directions from the helpful owner.
  
• The fact that one of my (four) big deadlines is out of the way. It was the most stressful story I've done in a bit because the people I was interviewing messed me around so much. So glad that the only thing left to do on it is to invoice ;-)
• Nescafe Alta Rica coffee. It's been off the shelves for a couple of months, but it's available again. Yay!
• Flowers in my garden. Rose, iris, gazania, dianthus, calendula, vygie, gaura, osteospermum, pansy, clivia, scabiosa, hebe, jasmine, yesterday today and tomorrow, Carolina jasmine... they are all blooming at the moment and it makes my heart happy.
• Twilight. Seriously. I got really sick of people telling me I had to read/see it, so after attempting a few pages and being put off by the six-adjectives-in-a-sentence style, I decided the movie might be easier. And TSC and I thought it was absolutely hilarious - the perfect Friday evening switch-your-brain-off rubbish. When he puts her on his back and runs up a tree... I thought I would die laughing. Ok, I know it's not meant to be funny, but how can you keep a straight face through Bella's heavy breathing (I'm convinced she's actually allergic to vampires).
• The fact that this is my 499th post.
• Ending on an even number of bullet points ;-)
  

(very) brief update

In bullet format:

• I have been sick
• I am better now
• But I still sound like a drag queen
• Work is crazy - busy ghostwriting a book for a client on a crazy deadline
• Angel and Neel's wedding was DIVINE (and possibly the biggest blogging community event / Tweet-up in the country)
  
• Bloggers are always an interesting bunch to hang out with IRL
• We are (belatedly) celebrating my gran's 80th birthday with the family on Sunday
• We have had no water today
• Am craving a bath
• I'm very behind on blog-reading and will attempt to catch up soonest.

That is all.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow

Yesterday:

• I got meet Damaria IRL for the first time. She very kindly agreed to give up a big chunk of her afternoon to chat through some of the things I'm going to have to deal with as a fulltime freelancer. What an awesome, knowledgeable lady! And so willing to share her experiences and the lessons she's learned.
• TSC spent the whole day studying for his first exam. He was so desperate to get out of the house that he came along with me when I met Damaria and he sat on the other side of the coffee shop with his books and an Americano coffee. His brain was fried after doing a squillion hydraulics calculations, so we decided to see a movie last night to give him time to unwind.
• We saw Iron Man 2. I was expecting to be disappointed because sequels usually suck big time. But I actually really enjoyed it. Yes, the plot is totally ridiculous (c'mon, people - it's based on a comic book, not a biography) and it probably doesn't do justice to the original Marvel characters (I'm not a comic book fan, so I wouldn't know). But the explosions are big, the CGI is impressive, there are nice touches of humour and there's even a Grand Prix scene. I was sold. If you haven't seen it yet and are still planning to do so, make sure you stay till the end of the credits. There's a (very) short Easter Egg scene that links the film to the next big Marvel adventures with Thor and The Avengers.

Today:

• I woke up this morning to find that I had managed to get rid of the mouthguard I was supposed to be sleeping with sometime during the night. I must have spat it out in my sleep. Even my subconscious objects to wearing the thing.
• I arrived at the office to find an email from one of the PR clients wanting to know how the writing is going on a piece I haven't been briefed on. The deadline for this piece is apparently Friday.
• The freelance client I am supposed to be meeting this afternoon has not responded to my emails requesting confirmation and address details. Why is everyone seemingly incapable of adult communication?!

Tomorrow:

• Is the only day of this week without meetings scheduled. I plan to enjoy that.
• I was supposed to have a cupcake order due, but it has been cancelled. I am relieved. I would have had to fit in the baking between meetings and church small group this evening, which would have been a mission.
• The day before Friday. Yay!

7 facts on a Friday

Well, they're not really facts.


But seeing Ruby and Louisa gave me this award (thank you, my friends), I'm supposed to tell you seven interesting things about me and pass this along to seven people. But you get to hear about me in almost every blog post here, so I'm just giving you all the information I would've posted today anyway in seven bullet points.

• Yesterday I got a surprise phone call from the awesome Damaria. I'd emailed her asking for any advice on transitioning to self-employment as this is something she's done successfully. She gave me a ring and we're going to hook up for coffee next week. Will be so nice to meet her after reading her blog for so long.
• I saw The Men Who Stare at Goats last night with TSC. It was ok. There were some hilarious laugh-out-loud moments, but there was lots of randomness and mediocrity too. I'm glad we saw it, even if the story doesn't really go anywhere. I'd give it 6.5 out of 10.

• While we were at movies at Montecasino, I ran into a girl who was at highschool with me. In fact, we were both in the boarding establishment for grades 11 and 12, so we saw loads of each other. I haven't seen her since. And seeing we went to school in Durban, which is about 600km away from Johannesburg, it's quite a coincidence to run into her at movies on a Thursday night in my neighbourhood after eight years. She's now a doctor, doing her internship. She couldn't believe that I've got married (probably because last she saw me, I was convinced I'd never get hitched). We swapped phone numbers and will hopefully make a plan to catch up soon.
• TSC and I are hosting a red wine and potjie lunch tomorrow for a couple of people we haven't seen in too long. I can't wait! This winter weather is perfect for a potjie.
• I managed to get half of my mom's mother's day present yesterday. Seeing she and my dad have taken to occasionally lurking here, I can't mention what it is.
• I heard a new term this week: vajazzling. I find it a bit freaky actually.
• I am going to suck up my OCD just this once and end on seven points and not a nice, proper even number. Rules are rules.

Although rules are made to be broken, aren't they? I'm not going to nominate seven people to pass this along to because a) so many of the bloggers I would nominate have done this already and b) I don't want anyone to feel obliged to do this meme. But know that if I read your blog, I rate you as a Beautiful Blogger (substitute a suitable adjective for all the men bloggers). So please go ahead and do this meme if you like.

And have a good weekend.

Greetings, Blogland

It's been years since I've gone so long between posts, but I promise you it wasn't intentional. Communication has proved difficult in the last week or so thanks to various factors, such as the fact that my phone started giving me issues and wouldn't let me send or recieve SMS, the work internet was down due to a Telkom problem and I'd used up my ADSL cap at home and the Telkom online recharge facility was not working. Have I ever mentioned how much Telkom frustrates me?

So I would like to use this post to say the following:

• Happy belated 30th birthday to Phillygirl. Sorry it's a week late. I promise that I thought of you on 26 April all day. Hope the year ahead is super awesome in every way.
• Sorry to anyone who has emailed / SMSed me and not received a reply yet. I am working my way through the backlog and hope to get there soon.
• Where the Wild Things Are is one of the weirdest movies I have seen. Ever.
• Packing up a company takes more work than I would have believed. And more boxes.
• Throwing things out / donating old stuff / recycling is cathartic.
• May scares me. There is so much I need to get done this month that I just want to crwal under my winter duvet and keen. It's less than a month till my World Cup visitors arrive. Eep!
• This freezing cold weather is making me grumpy.
• I have no idea what to get my mom for Mothers' Day.
• I am tempted to click "mark as read" on the hundreds of items in my feed reader.
• I managed to get to 10 bullet points. Yay! 10 points for me.

Tuesday thoughts

• It feels like a Monday.
• I forgot that I have a big meeting this afternoon in Alrode South. I better get out my map book (haha... whatever. Thank goodness for Gloria, my GPS).
• Easter eggs get better every year. This year my mom managed to find ones with orange creme centres, my favourites.
• I don't get the fuss about Alice in Wonderland. How to Tame Your Dragon, on the other hand, now that's a fab movie.
• The weekend was good. I got to see some awesome people (Angel, Glugs, Phillygirl and Louisa) and meet a new addition to the crew (beautiful little Nicola, Louisa's baby girl).
• My family are awesome, albeit loony. See exhibit A (my brother) below.

• My pics of my chocolate-making ventures were not brilliant (see exhibit B below)

• The Pantry-Cleaning Moth Apocolypse Mission yesterday was draining. We still have to put the shelves back up and pack everything back in. Joy.
• 4-day weekends are the best thing ever.
• I still feel the urge to have an even number of bullet points.
  
  
  

Weekend lessons

The weekend was not as planned. But here's what I learnt:

• When booking a weekend away next time, it would be wise to check whether it's a mid-term break for schools or not. Holiday spots are busy during mid-term breaks.
• My GPS, Gloria, does not know everything. Sometimes she is a spiteful cow and makes us drive in circles.
• You can be all set up in your nice allocated campsite next to good people and thinking life is grand only to have it ruined by a car full of revolting, noisy, drunken, loud, epically foul-mouthed brats who pitch their tent next to yours and play rubbish music at full volume until 3am.
• Talking to such brats will only result in quiet for 30minutes after the conversation. Then, magically, they will forget everything you've said and continue as before.
• People who don't know how to behave in public should not be allowed out. Especially people who think it's ok to leave dirty diapers lying on the lawn next to the swimming pool when they leave.
• I am only a people person when I am surrounded by pleasant people. Otherwise, I am very intolerant.
• Rules without consequences are only good advice. And not likely to be followed by Joe Public.
• Moving your tent to the opposite end of camp, far away from all amenitites and other people, may secure you the peace and quiet you have been craving. Good red wine also helps.
• TSC and I can have fun together despite imperfect conditions.
• There are few things in the world as refreshing as ice cold, homemade gingerbeer from a farm stall.
• I can cook a mean red curry on a camp stove.
• I love my home. It is the first place since we've been married where TSC and I have had our own garden and not shared bedroom walls with someone else. It is very, very precious to me and I love heading home after being away, even just for two days.
• If I am writing and I am in "the zone", I do not like to be interrupted, even by my darling TSC. It is difficult to pick up where I left off after being distracted.
• I may write better poetry when I am miserable, but my fiction comes more easily when I'm happy. Go figure.
• It is important to set boundaries and to say 'no' to people. I will probably need to learn this lesson over and over again.

Quick update

• Blogger has been giving me the finger yesterday and today, so let's hope this goes up.
• TSC, yes, my darling TSC, has surprised me by starting his own blog. Never in a million years would I have thought this could happen. Yay!
• I cannot find the flipping camera cable, so photos will have to wait until I've sorted out the study (am reorganising, so there are boxes and paper everywhere). I tried to load a few pics last night from the home PC, but the formatting in Blogger was out of whack, so you'll have to wait.
• I'm going now.
• Bye.

A few lessons learnt this holiday

• There is no substitute for quality time with really good friends.
• I will never entirely get over Cape Town.
• A long stretch of relaxing "us time" at the end of the year is the best possible thing I could wish for TSC and me.
• My mom is the most amazing present-giver I know.
• My brother and I have not yet outgrown the sibling arguments.
• Our cats appreciate us a lot more when we've been away for a bit.
• Saving enough money to have a holiday that doesn't revolve around financial stress is a really good idea.
• That said, there is a lot of fun stuff you can do without spending much money.
• Spring cleaning is cathartic.
• Leaving your veggie garden for five days may result in an untamed jungle developing (my baby marrows / zucchini are about six times the size one finds in grocery stores).
• Good music makes a long car trip seem much shorter.
• TSC and I are so blessed with the life we lead.

Assorted Friday goings-on

• TSC and I watched dvds again last night to give me some time to make more jewellery. We saw The Hangover and Management. Meh. Management was ok. It was sweet but nothing special, IMO. The Hangover was daft. And long. I still have no idea why everyone told us it was so awesome. I was expecting TSC to enjoy it, but he reckons it was stupid.
• I spent some time playing Free Rice, the vocab game, yesterday. I don't think I've played in about two years. It's such an easy way to kill time and it's totally addictive, but you can feel good about yourself because for every answer you get right, the site sponsors donate 10 grains of rice to feed the hungry. 10 grains is not a lot, but in about half an hour of playing, I had my total up to about 3 500 grains. There's also different subjects to choose from, aside from vocab and I was pleased to see that in the French language-learning scetion, I did really well and still remember most of the words. The problem is that I don't remember how to put them together!
• I worked late at the morning job yesterday, so I can leave early today. Woo hoo!
• I had a monthly meeting with a client scheduled for Wed afternoon at 3pm and he only called to cancel at 3.10pm when I was sitting in the reception area waiting. This is not the first time. I dislike the lack of respect for my time. It also annoys me that I can't finish up his project without clarifying things in the meeting, so now I am sitting and waiting until we can reschedule. Grrr.
• TSC gave our cats their bi-annual bath yesterday and they are looking all fluffy and clean now. I'm glad he did it while I was out and played the bad guy because when I came home they were so grateful to see me that they were ridiculously friendly and affectionate. They both even slept on the bed last night, which they don't normally do unless it's winter.
• I'm not looking forward to the long drive to Ladysmith tomorrow, or the farewells. But I wouldn't miss it for anything.
• There are the coolest environmentally-friendly Christmas gifts here.
• TSC had to take our little Sapphire cat to the vet today and it turns out she has reacted to the new pellets we've been trying, which disagree with her stomach. She has to have a course of antibiotics, which my brother will have to administer while we're away :-(
• Next week it's December! *slight panic*
• I always have to have an even number of bullet points.

That is all. Have a great weekend.

Things I learnt this weekend

In the tradition of this lovely blogger's weekend posts, I give you a list:

• Sometimes people will let you down. This is especially true of possible interviewees for magazine stories, who have a tendency to fall off the planet just before the deadline.


• Really special memories can be made anytime, anywhere.


• The blueberry cosmopolitan cocktail at Bottega Cafe in Fourways Crossing does wonders on a weary Friday afternoon.


• Ask (or even mention) and you may just receive. I happened to say that I would like a pair of decent sunglasses, and when TSC went to order his prescription lenses and somes frames on Friday, he got to choose a free pair of Daniel Hechter sunglasses. Seeing he already has lovely glasses, he let me choose a pair instead. Love my man and his amazing generosity!


• China Mall offers great bargains but also big headaches.


• Going out on the roads during the 94.7 Cycle Challenge is a bad, bad idea.


• The Rosebank Rooftop Craft Market is a great place to do Christmas shopping. But you need lots of time!


• Sunday lunch spent laughing and chatting with awesome friends is the best way to recover from horrible Cycle Challenge traffic.


• My concentration span is ridiculously short on a Sunday evening.


• Sometimes it's good to be reminded of the bigger picture.

What did you learn this weekend?

PS: ANOTHER friend of mine from real life has started blogging. So exciting! Please go visit Kimmi (Brettuce Lettuce's other half) and welcome her to the blogoverse.

Random bits again

I have no logical stream of thought today (do I ever?), so here's bits of what's going on...

We finished off TSC's birthday with supper at Coco Bongo at Monte Casino. Having browsed around on all of Phillygirl's restaurant posts, I was planning on taking him to Soulsa or The Attic, but both are closed on Mondays.

I'm glad we ended up at Coco Bongo though. It was the best choice for my meat-loving man. He's long been raving about the "perfect steak" that he had nearly three years ago on our honeymoon and how no steak has ever matched up to it. Until now.

I had a bite, and I must admit (despite the fact that I don't ever order steak out - too many other more interesting things on the menu)... It was really good. So were my prawns (the Monday and Tuesday night 1kg of prawns for R100 special). The service was also really good, so despite the fact that it's inside Monte Casino (not my favourite place with its OTT Tuscan theme and permanent twilight), we will definitely go back for a second visit.

In other catch-up news, the weekend was full of highs and lows. Lows first...

• Had to trek through to Pretoria on Friday in horrible traffic to sign-off our company's year-end financials. When TSC and I arrived at the office, it was deserted. They forgot to tell us they'd moved, so we had to get back in the car, head back into traffic and trek through to the other side of town. Grrr!
• Fell down a full flight of stairs at Menlyn shopping centre on Saturday. My useless shoes that have no grip let me down. The whole right side of my body is a mess. I pulled a muscle in my back, hurt my elbow pretty badly (still sore even to the lightest touch), skinned my ankle and knee and ensured that my whole hip area is now a painful and violent dark blue in colour. The worst bit? I sleep on my right side, so I haven't had a decent night's sleep since Sat.

The good bits win through though:

• Friday night we had a birthday supper for TSC with my family at a new restuarant in Brooklyn, Pretoria. Kream is very swish... It has gorgeous decor and an interesting menu featuring things like Avocado Crayfish or Bone Marrow as starters and Duck Confit or Sirloin Aubergine as mains. I must say that my duck was way too salty, but everyone else's food seemed good and the service was superb. The best things, however, are the desserts. The (dark) chocolate mousse is a treat and the Blondies & Brownies are absolutely excellent. I had worried that the place would be a bit pretentious, but we had a great time. Thumbs up for Kream.
• Getting seriously stuck into our home office. I bought us a beautiful secondhand corner desk that we can both work at together (so we don't have to fight for legroom anymore). On Saturday we moved it in and sorted through the various craft, work, varsity, admin and other crap that had made the place almost impossible to get into. It looks like a new room! Now if I can just get TSC to pack away his neatly sorted piles of paper into some sort of filing system, I can take photos to show you.

Must go follow up on useless clients now. Have a great afternoon, all.

Happy bday to my hubby

TSC turns 25 today, and even though he never reads this blog, I am going to use the chance to gush about him while I have a good reason to be soppy.

Feel free to gag.

TSC and I met six years ago and couldn't stand the sight of each other. Since then, we have both changed a lot and I have come to appreciate the good bits about him. And there are a lot. Here are 25 of my favourite things about my husband on his 25th birthday:

1. He stuck with me through some of the darkest times in my life, even when I was horrible to be with and totally ungrateful for his support.
2. When he holds me, I feel totally safe and at peace.
3. Because I am a social being, he has learnt to be one too. Despite not being big on groups, he has moved from sitting in the corner sulking (he did this at the first bday party of mine he attended) to being a fantastic host and someone who's easy to chat to.
4. He has the sexiest backside in the world, IMO.
5. He gets on with my parents and tolerates my brother.
6. He takes care of me when I'm sick / stressed / upset. If he knows I'm unhappy for any reason, he'll run me a hot bubblebath and pour me a glass of wine. Who wouldn't love someone like that?
7. Although his family has never been big on birthdays / Christmas / present-giving in general, he knows that mine has and makes a concerted effort to be good at a) giving me bday presents I will treasure, b) getting excited about presents I give him.
8. Over the years, he has learnt to say 'sorry' after a fight, sometimes even if it wasn't his fault.
9. He's ready to fight for me if necessary.
10. After a long day of dealing with difficult clients, I need to vent and he lets me. He even tries (although not very successfully, I have to admit) to remember which client is which and get upset about repeat offences with me.
11. He thinks I'm gorgeous. And even when I feel hideous, he tells me that.
12. He smells good, even when he's not wearing his aftershave.
13. He makes me laugh.
14. We can have fun doing anything together, from painting the spare bedroom to reading the paper on our veranda like old folks, chatting as we drive, watching DVDs on our couch, grocery shopping or even working out a budget on the back of a serviette.
15. He has learnt to have an argument with me, rather than bottling things up and never sorting them out.
16. I think his family still blames me for the fact that he lives far away (even though as far as I'm concerned, that was his own choice in the beginning). While in the past he has not stood up to them for me, he has now made it clear that although he will always be their child, he has a family of his own now.
17. He feels the same way I do about having kids - not ready to think about it yet.
18. He hates gardening, but because he knows I love my garden, he diligently mows and waters the lawn for me.
19. He can cook. And when I can't make supper (like last week, when I was working on that insane deadline), he steps in and cooks for us.
20. He has the cutest laugh.
21. He's ticklish, which (seeing he's double my size) gives me an effective weapon against him when he picks me up and slings me over his shoulder ;-)
22. He never knows the lyrics to songs, so he makes up his own.
23. We generally agree on movies - what's good and what's not - with a few exceptions. On the other hand, we DO NOT have the same taste in music. At all. But he'll usually agree not to play music that he knows I hate if I'm in the car with him.
24. He does a lot of the icky chores in the house - taking out the dustbin and sorting out the catbox, for instance.
25. He's so different to me. We complement each other and balance each other out.

OK, gagfest done.

10 random thoughts on a Friday

1. While fruit salad may be the healthiest breakfast option, my body is wired for wanting carbohydrates first thing in the morning. Can't seem to convince it otherwise.
2. Having volunteered to write the newsletter for the complex where I live, I have met with the trustees to discuss and now have a sinking feeling that my visions of designer formatting and entertaining snippets will be overruled by the trustee's wish for "pick up your dogs' poop" instructions. *sigh*
3. Law of client probability: the likelihood of all the bits of a project NOT being signed off before deadline is directly proportional to how much crap I will get into if the deadline is missed.
4. Saying "no" to potential freelance work, even if it means saving myself hours of sweat, blood, tears and possible suicide attempts is really difficult. Especially when the pay would have been good.
5. Walking through our neighbourhood with TSC, ice-lolly in hand, on a spring evening in the sunshine, marvelling at the gorgeous blossoms on the trees, satisfies my soul at its deepest level.
6. There are many clients that make me why I picked my line of work, and one or two who make it all worth it.
7. There are some people who deserve a degree in talking crap they are just so good at it.
8. I am always slightly terrified at pressing the "delete all" button on my digital camera, even if I know that I've saved my photos to three different locations.
9. I secretly fear that I will never want to have children. And that it makes me a bad woman. Also, if I were to be unable to have kids for any reason, I think my mother-in-law would see it as the biggest possible failure.
10. Sneezing annoys me. I wish it didn't. I know people can't help sneezing. But I HATE it. The worst is when I have to sneeze. It puts me in a bad mood. Thank goodness I don't suffer from hayfever.

That's what's going around my head this morning. What are your random thoughts?

Have a fabulous Friday and an awesome weekend!

If today was a colour it would be washed out, sickly green

• I missed celebrating my 300th blog post. This is number 304. I think.
• Struggling to keep my emotions in check today. I keep crying at the most random / inappropriate things.
• TSC took my rescue remedy with him to varsity for his maths test today. I feel bereft.
• My increasing dependence on rescue remedy to get through the day is a worry, but I reassure myself that cocaine would be a more serious issue, so I'll let this one slide.
• TSC and I are having a joint bday thingey this weekend. 80s theme. Much as it's stressing me out (dunno when I'm gonna have any time to organise the food / decor etc that I have planned), I can't wait to get my legwarmers on.
• I spent yesterday listening to 80s music in preparation. Thank goodness that decade is over. I don't think I could take any more Dr. Alban or Yazoo. Although I do still have a soft spot for Roxette.
• My boss is trying to guilt-trip me into doing a weekend work event that I really don't want to do. I have so few weekend days free at the moment (between freelance work, charity events and church stuff) that I actually just cry at the thought of it (once again - this emotion/logic thing is eluding me today). Pathetic.
• I think some uninterrupted, nightmare-free sleep might cure all of this emotional messiness. Well, at least some of it.
• It's freezing cold, even though ut was supposed to get warmer today. I really should stop giving the weatherman the benefit of the doubt. Must get more coffee...

What colour is your day?

My darling dad

I was thinking about blogging at about 3am this morning (if I blogged as much as I thought about blogging, I'd have about 16 books' worth by now) and I realised that after Mothers Day, I wrote a post about stuff I love about my mom, but I never did one about my dad. And he is so awesome, that it just isn't fair not to write one, so here's a dozen random things I dig about my dad:

• He is an old-school man's man. No beauty products or pink shirts for him. He owns one mauve shirt and makes sure that everyone he sees when he wears it gets told, "my wife picked this shirt out".
• He is conservative to the point that it's a little odd. His catch-phrase is "I am the only normal one in this family" and he raises his eyebrows at everything from ankle bracelets to any nail polish colour that isn't red or clear. But...
• He owns a head-turning bright red 1996 Porsche that you can hear from a block away. The family calls it The Beast.
• He is passionate about cars (he's a mechanical engineer) and could author books on the subject. He knows the history of car companies, the latest models and specs and everything there is to know about engines, tyres and anything else automotive. He instilled an appreciation of beautiful motor cars in my brother and I, and taught me to love Formula One.
• He is a walking encyclopaedia of general knowledge. And it's all because he loves to ask questions and to learn. He will never pretend to understand something if he doesn't - he'll just find out about it right away so that he can understand. Although he would have liked me to be a chartered accountant and not a journo, I truly believe it's an inherited sense of curiousity I have from him that makes me love journalism so much.
• He pretends he hates cats. But when he thinks nobody is looking, he'll lapse into baby-talk and get all gooey with them.
• He is incredibly and supremely generous. Not in the same way as my mom, who is drawn to any underdog or charity case, but to those he holds dear. He will do anything for my mom, his dad and us kids. And those we love. So TSC, Lilly, my mom's mom and even my not-his-cup-of-tea cousins, aunts and uncles benefit from his family generosity.
• He can make the hard decisions. That's what makes him a good business leader. He believes in efficiency, economy and perseverence. He was hired by his current company to cut out the wastage, optimise productivity and generally stop all the nonsense that was going on (misuse of company assets and so on). It's a tough job that means he's not always popular, but he always gets the job done.
• Aside from his one extravagance (the Porsche. He wanted one from the time he was a mini motor-head kidlet and bought this rare one as an investment. Driving it is his weekend treat), he doesn't believe in excess. He has done well for himself, but he can't see the point of flashy watches, flying first class or other showy status symbols. He is as down to earth as ever, and prefers to spend money looking after those he loves rather than splashing out on himself. He also lets my mom channel money into her charity projects. It's awesome and very unusual, IMO.
• I have inherited his music taste. Well, most of it (not so much Cat Stevens). I'm not sure whether that's good or bad, but thanks to my dad, I love music from the 50s and 60s. Simon & Garfunkel, Herman and the Hermits, The Beatles, Louis Armstrong, The Platterers... I love it!
• He speaks well and taught me to love words and language. My mom is the reader; my dad is the speaker. He does "off the cuff" well, and I'm lucky to have that talent too (I think, at least).
• He has mellowed over the years. While my dad has the temper of a tiger (something I also got from him), he has turned into a teddy bear with us most of the time. He phones me a few times a week to check up on me and TSC ("just wanted to find out how you and your man are" is how these conversations inevitably start) and relishes the chance to spend time with us. He buys my mom flowers every Thursday without fail (did I mention he's big on routine?) and invites us over practically every weekend. The only time I see him lose his temper these days is when my brother damages his car (happens every few months or so). He is such a sweetheart.

He doesn't read my blog (for someone who's a total technology fan and has most IT gadgets, he still doesn't "get" blogging), but if he did, I'd tell him:

Love you, dad. You're my hero ;-)

Added at 6:11pm: Just discovered an old friend of mine is now blogging. Yay! Visit her at http://uttermutters.blogspot.com/. She's awesome.