Happy 11/11/11

I am so glad the week is over, although the weekend looks pretty exhausting too. I need to do some work and sort out my tax documents for my accountant (blergh) and we also have lots of social stuff planned and then quite a serious meeting with some of our church elders to discuss some niggles on Sunday afternoon (not looking forward to that).

What I am looking forward is spending 11/11/11 eve with my uncle, whose bday is today (pretty cool date), and the rest of my family. And I'm looking forward to seeing two friends for coffee, catch-up and jewellery browsing on Sat and Sun mornings.

TSC is miserable at present because he has to pay a few speeding fines (tsssk tsssk) and replace his car's tyres, which are more expensive than he expected. And seeing he had to replace his Blackberry last week after losing his on the mine, it's been an expensive few weeks.

Today has been an interesting day. I presented a small social media workshop this morning for a business looking to tackle its online marketing. And I have Victoria with us for the first time.

Victoria is a lady who sleeps on the grass outside of our complex every week day. Most home-owners in our complex thought she was a lazy drunk, but she's actually a very hardworking lady who just needs a place to get some shut-eye.

Victoria works a night-time cleaning job at an advertising agency in Bryanston, but she lives right on the other end of Johannesburg in what us Gautengers call the Deep South (not the same one as in the US of A, obviously). She can't afford the time or the taxi money to get home every day, and she hasn't been able to find a daytime job or one closer to where she lives, so she sleeps on the grass verge outside our complex during the day and works every night.

Our homeowners actually complained at the AGM this year and asked if someone can't "move her elsewhere". It broke my heart because she's just trying to make a living and she's not causing anyone any harm or even bothering people. She leaves for work around the same time as most people are getting home.

It's been tugging on my heart for awhile, so two weeks ago I approached her and introduced myself. I asked her name and found out more about her. She's such a dear, with a big friendly smile and an open personality. I told her that I'm generally home on Fridays (which is when my domestic is here too) and invited her to use our bathroom, washing machine and spare bed if she needs to do so on a Friday.

She was so, so grateful and she immediately offered to do my washing up and ironing in return, but I've told her there's no need. I was incredibly humbled that such a small thing can make such a big difference to someone.

Today was the first day she's come - last week she was away at a funeral. I don't know her well yet and obviously there's a risk when you let someone into your home, but she's been incredibly polite and sweet. She washed herself, washed her clothes and has spent most of the day sleeping and chatting to our domestic worker.

I must admit that I was a bit nervous to extend an invitation to her, but so far I'm glad I did. She's desperate for a fulltime daytime cleaning job anywhere, so if you know of anyone who could help, please let me know.

I'll keep you updated on how things go. Until then, have a wonderful weekend.

Daydreaming of my duvet

I didn't get a wink of sleep last night. My dear demented cat, Marble, went missing. He's a house cat and only gets to go out when we're home, so we usually know where he is. He's back now (he arrived at 5am this morning in the pouring rain), but between my lack-of-sleep headache, the miz weather and the flickering flourescent lightbulb, I am twitching like I've been plugged into an electric socket.

My monitor seems to be reaching out to me through the glass and then swirling itself around while flashing a bright white light. Soon it will start singing... "Lucy in the sky with diamonds..."

Hmmm... I guess this is kind of what tripping on LSD feels like. Anyone with experience wish to comment?

Post, as promised

It has been a busy time! I guess it's the whole end-of-year-itis that hits around this time every year, but I really feel like I need a holiday now. That's wishful thinking, of course, but we're all allowed to dream.

My folks are setting off on their little little 3-week jaunt around Eastern Europe next week and I am so jealous. TSC and his team will be repainting their house while they're gone, which means that I will barely see him. That man is unbelievable when it comes to work. As soon as he has a project on the go, everything else falls away... his studying, his wife... *Sigh* I'm hoping that he'll be more reasonable this time, but I doubt it. I'm pretty sure that he sees this an yet another opportunity to try to prove himself to my folks.

In other news... I scraped the side of my car on a pillar in the parking bay last week. Argh! I drive so carefully and try to take really good care of my car and then I do something stupid like that. THEN... when I took the bloody thing to the panelbeaters, they tell me that, actually, the front of my car needs work too! Why? Because I went through a huge and completely unavoidable pothole that stretched right across one of the main roads in Rosebank (a very affluent part of Johannesburg) awhile ago, which has buggered up my bumper.

So I call my insurance agency and log the claims. Becuase the incidents are separate, they apparently need separate claims and I must pay the excess twice over. AND... because I am under the age of 26, my excess is very much higher. I could cry.

Sorry - this is very much a rant of a post, isn't it? Even Formula One has let me down. After quite a dull race on Sunday, the last few laps burst into action when the rain came down, and Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton (two of the main championship contenders, from Ferrari and McLaren respectively) were fighting it out on the track. They came close to touching and Lewis, who was behind, needed to go off onto the grass. He came back on the track ahead of Kimi. Now, in this situation, a driver can be penalised for gaining advantage off-track, so according to the rules, Lewis needed to surrender the position back to Kimi. He did, letting Kimi pull in front of him. He then made another attempt at overtaking the Finn, and pulled it off magnificently.

Kimi then lost it and smashed his car into the wall, while Lewis managed to remain cool and calm in crazy conditions (skidding around a wet track on his "dry" tyres) to pull off a win. Celebrations ensued on the podium.

And then... because the body that runs F1, the FIA, and Ferrari are big buddies (fact: the Ferrari team boss and the FIA boss go on annual ski holidays together), Ferrari complained that Lewis still gained advantage off-track, and the FIA penalised Lewis by 25 seconds, putting him in third place, and handing the race to the other Ferrari driver, Phillipe Massa.

This drives me mental, especially because in the last race, Ferrari unsafely released Massa into oncoming traffic in the pit lane, which blatantly trangresses the regulations, which state that a team needs to check the pit lane before allowing their driver out. Did the FIA allow Ferrari's race to be compromised? No, they just gave Massa a fine.

Almost enough to make me quit watching. Almost.