123 Blog Myself

I've moved...

2007-03-28T19:07:00.000+02:00

New home of 123 Blog Myself

Sorry, but I had to do something before I kick my poor defenseless laptop off the desk in frustration...

Please feel free to visit me - hope to see you soon!

Louisa

..

Something is broken...

2007-03-28T13:01:00.000+02:00

I have been trying for the better part of two days to post...
Also I can't post comments on other blogger-blogs...

And while I attempt to use this as a cry for help - might I add:
Dear Blogger people,
Your "next blog" button is as random as a hired hit-man. It hits the same four blog almost continously, only alternating now and then between that and a number of blogs about golf, sex and religion.

I WANT MY BLOG WORKING AGAIN!!! please...

Spending too much time indoors?

2007-03-25T15:56:00.000+02:00

I am very happy to report that my flu has kicked the bucket! So back to normal craziness here, and not a moment too soon I think.

You may or may not know (probably may not since I am only writing about it now), that my reading lamp had to be retired about a week or so ago. It was acting funny for a couple of weeks already by flickering on and off at the strangest times and with no apparent provocation, so it was not that big a surprise when it started smoking and threatening to burst into flames. It was disappointing, and inconvenient (and smelly), but not surprising.

My mom was kind enough to buy us each a new lamp this week because her lamp has also started flickering ominously recently. (Thanks Mom!)

My new lamp is absolutely amazing – I love it! It has a cool blue shade visor thingy that can be moved round so that the light shines on what you want to see without blinding you in the process. It has brought to my life both light and inspiration! *pats the good lamp on the shoulder – err I mean adjustable fitting*

Inspiration you might ask? Well, it’s almost like lying flat on your back looking up at the sky and trying to see different shapes in the clouds. At this point you probably think I should go back to the doctor and get something for my hallucinations? Have a look and decide for yourself (You might have to click on the images to open them big so you can see the corner comparisons that I added).

The Locust Lamp

The Eyeball Lamp

The Droid Lamp (This is my favourite)

The Spidy Lamp

The Jet-plane Lamp

The Rocket Lamp

The Puppy Lamp

See what I mean? This might be a clear sign that I am spending too much time at my desk. *Note to self: spend some time OUTSIDE looking at some real clouds!* Or maybe I should spend more time looking at my textbooks and less time at my lamp?

Anyway you may have noticed that I’ve taken down the sign that said “Updates on Sunday”, because I plan to update a bit more frequently now. I will still post my quotes of the week on Sundays and I’ll try to do the Weekly Update ones on Sundays too.

I hope you all have a fantastic week! One week to go till April Fool’s Day…(just a thought).

Ta-dah! More quotes...

2007-03-25T15:54:00.000+02:00

Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats. - Howard Aiken (Quotationpage.com)

I will live this day as if it is my last. And if it is not, I shall fall to my knees and give thanks. – Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

As we look deeply within, we understand our perfect balance. There is no fear of the cycle of birth, life and death. For when you stand in the present moment, you are timeless. - Rodney Yee (Erno)

Be the change that you want to see in the world. - Mohandas Gandhi (Adam)

Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion. - Robertson Davies (Quotationspage.com)

Where there's smoke there's fire...right?

2007-03-23T13:28:00.000+02:00

I finally caved and went to see the doctor yesterday. My doctor was so busy that I had to see one of his side kicks (dear side kick I was not really blown away by your expertise - it was probably a once off event).

Initially I phoned for an apointment:

Voice, "Medicross, Albert speaking how may I help you?"
Me, " I'd like to make an appointment to see doctor Trevor".
Albert, "Sorry he's fully booked till half past six".
Me,"Okay, well can I have the one after that then?"
Albert, "No, sorry we don't make any appointments for him for later than half past six."
Me, "Looks like he's becoming too popular, maybe I should go somewhere else?"
Albert, "NOOOO!!! Your doctor is like your husband...you can't just leave them!"
Me, "So if we brake up do I get half back?"
Albert...chuckles, "Uhm...no...probably not."
Me, "Who else is good there?"

Albert wisely decides not to pick a favourite and tells me to come in and see the first available doctor...this actually took less time than I thought due to the fact that flu season is not in full swing yet and there are almost 30 doctors there.

I end up seeing a woman doctor there. When I told her I wasn't even aware that they had any she got very huffy with me and gave me an injection on the but. Apparently she started two weeks after Dr.Trevor seven years ago...well your bedside manner needs a bit of tweaking no wonder you're always available!

Anyway, with that behind me (pun intended) - I decided to take it easy and get an early-ish night. Only to wake up at 3:30AM because the power went off and my brother's celing fan makes a thumping noise when slowing down. Also I'm not sure if this is a side effect of my medication but I woke up and I was sure I could smell plastic burning...eeeeeeuw! At first I thought maybe someone was burning something outside my window to drug me so they could steal my laptop (this is not really as irrational as it may sound), but when I peeped outside there was no one there. Eventually I actually got up and randomly unplugged stuff allover the house just in case...I did not sleep easy after that because I was convinced of our imminent DOOM stuck in a death trap fire hazard or something.

But now I know better...my throat is burning like a house on fire and I smell burnt platic everywhere I go, but no one else does (lucky them - I mean have you smelt burnt plastic?!). I'm pretty sure my throat is not actually made of plastic, so I don't know what's going on?

Hope everything goes back to normal soon...looks like it's going to be a weekend of quality time with Tigger, DVDs and honeyed herbal teas.

Flu...

2007-03-20T14:11:00.000+02:00

Needed: Someone to administer chicken soup and sympathy...
On second thought - I don't really need sympathy cause I feel sorry enough for myself.
Seems to be alot of this going around at the moment...if I figure out who gave it to me revenge will be mine!

Piece of cake...

2007-03-18T21:49:00.000+02:00

I’m starting to wonder about why I have cake stories two weeks in a row now? It’s been a great week really, lots of reason to celebrate and lots of celebrating done. Today is both my mother’s birthday and Simone’s birthday…it seems like a very popular day in March to give birth on because as a family we know so many people that have their birthday on this day. My mom’s aunt Ellen, my dad’s university buddy’s wife Deidre’, Simone’, my mom, a barman named Tony that I was planning on hunting last year about this time, and so on. That’s just today! The rest of the month looks pretty popular too.

This past weekend I attended a party for both Simone’s kiddies. Mishcke just turned 5 and Jean-Antonio (a.k.a. Vlam) turns 3 on the 4^th of April. Pooh bear and Barbie cake was had by all…and I saw firsthand that many hands do not necessarily make light work. It was already in progress when I arrived at 11:00 and after another 3 and a half hours mommy’s temper was running pretty thin with her little helpers who kept breaking the icing piper or poking holes in the Barbie dress while she was icing on the other side. Simma, I didn’t know you had it in you...I find it just extremely funny and it was so worth getting my fingers stained purple helping you ice a Barbie cake. Hahahaha! You have very cute kids and I will call you St.Simone’ for all the patience that you showed on Saturday. You’re doing a great job buddy!

Also had a great Friday p*ss-up with Daedalus and Professor Linda at Paddy’s on Friday. I don’t think the professor enjoys chatting to me anymore. It was fun…although it felt like something died in my mouth on Saturday when I got up and I had to run around and attend a multitude of parties with an extreme aversion to sunlight and loud noises. (Yes who knew…and I didn’t even have red wine).

Saturday night I had a Generation X get together reunion type event at Tanja & Henning’s house where we had a lasagna potjie and played 30 seconds with a twist. Everyone agreed to make it 1 minute instead although it seemed kind of pointless since mostly they finished in the first 30 seconds anyway. Also we heard about the terrible medical trauma of their cute little cat Snuggles who has had more than R9000 worth of vet’s fees in the last two months. Shame - poor kitty. First depression, then kidney splinters, then a slight eye injury picked up at the vet, and lastly running onto a cactus and injuring the other eye. He apparently spends a lot of time in the bath (empty) staring and just sitting there. To hear Tanja talking about explaining to the vet…”something is not right with Snuggles…he spends hours in the bath” is quite funny!

Happy St.Patrick’s day to anyone who enjoys a bit of green in their lives for yesterday…and I hope you have a great week ahead! I know I will because I have no more assignments to do for the rest of this term (obviously still a fair amount of studying need doing before May, but no more assignments. Whooooohooooo!). I am also very excited (a just the tiniest bit nervous) because this week (if all goes according to plan) we will find out when John can come over from the UK. So you can see that this is going to be a really big week for us and for me. I’m sitting here grinning like an idiot at my laptop while writing this…yep…this week is going to be HUGE! ;-)

Quotes...

2007-03-18T21:35:00.000+02:00

Never has there been a map, however carefully executed to detail and scale, which carried its owner over even one inch of ground. - Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by. - Annie Dillard-The Writing Life (Erno)

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. - Oscar Wilde (Quotationspage.com)

A single question can be more influential than a thousand statements. - Bo Bennett (Adam)

Humankind cannot stand very much reality. - T. S. Eliot (Quotationspage.com)

Till death do us part?

2007-03-18T21:33:00.000+02:00

It’s been a busy week as always…but I’m sitting here and I have no idea what to write.(actually I have plenty ideas, but I find that I’ve been censoring myself lately). I suppose I could do the normal weekly write-up of what I’ve been up to? To be honest I don’t see that happening (or I might just make it a separate post)…this has become too much fluff and not enough teeth.

Call me hormonal if you want but I just feel like taking something apart today. So…what to do? The topic that has been niggling at me for a while now is one of dependence. My little dictionary describes it as: The state of needing somebody or something in order to survive or be successful. Hmmm…looking at it in that light I suppose everyone is dependent to some extent. Where does it cross over to being unhealthy? When do you become so dependant that you are the emotional equivalent of a parasite, unable to live without your host to cling to?

Mulling this over brought to mind a particularly memorable Bible study I once attended. We were discussing the topic of love. The preacher told us that he believed that there was three types of love…Eros (The erotic kind a.k.a. Lust), Philia (Like the love you have for a brother) and Agape (The only true love…selfless love).He also said that he believes in soul mates and he always cautions people not to marry their soul mates. Sounds funny, not so? He told us that he has seen on many occasions that when one of the two die the other follows soon after…they become so intertwined that they literally cannot survive without each other. They die from a broken heart… I think that actually sounds a lot more romantic than it actually is? Imagine physically dying because your heart is broken ?!

I am confused. On the one hand I am looking at two people who are very dear to me wasting away after losing “The One” on the other hand not going for “The One” is much like living a very long life after living on health food and giving up sex…you might live to be 100 but will you really want to? It’s like sky diving…yes…it is most certainly safer to stay in the plane…well actually if you want to be picky it’s probably safer on the ground since the door is open. But when you jump you feel so ALIVE! (But oddly more alone than anywhere else, which makes me wonder how the hell I connected it to this particular topic to begin with?).

To tell you the honest truth – it scares the daylights out of me. Okay…I’ll admit it. I want the soul mate kind of love. I think what everyone is really most scared of is falling that hard (or opening that completely) for someone that won’t waste away when you’re gone. Is that selfish?

This photo is off Deviant Art. It's called Stronghold - by *kailorien. (I really must figure out how to link it nicely like Gobody does). Follow this link to find out more about the artist and the photo.

This also brought to mind an old poem I wrote yonks ago. I’m adding it on here (hope you enjoy it) – be nice – I wrote this when I was 16.

Would you be there?

Will you be there for me,

If I need you someday?

Tomorrow? Today? Or Forever?

Could I feel safe with you?

Would you hold and protect me?

Could you never say never for me?

Could I call you at four?

Could I knock on your door?

Would you be there for me if I did?

Would you love me or leave me?

Protect or deceive me?

Will you always be there just for me?

And when I die someday,

Would you scatter my ashes

In the deep, dark, mysterious sea?

And when I’m gone, and you’re alone...

Would you always keep thinking of me?

So tired from sleeping...yawn...

2007-03-13T15:41:00.000+02:00

I had the weirdest dream last night…I dreamt that I was trying to get into a racing club where they make you drive odd looking cars that are driven by keyboard like controls on a track that runs through Brightwater Commons (the place previously known as Randburg Waterfront). Then my car fell apart and I lost the keyboard so I ran 100 laps round the place…turns out I only needed to do 10 laps anyway, but the man who was supposed to count my laps got bored and left to have a beer. And in my dream my brother was crying because I got in and he didn’t. A whole team of dream analysts would probably battle to get to the bottom of all of this…I’m writing it off to a slight fever and crazy genes.

It’s very strange – especially the running. I only run for spiders. It happens from time to time that I feel remotely interested in running and at least this time it came to me in a dream instead of a gym membership, or a skipping rope, or a bicycle, or a sit-ups competition, or new ice skates, or a boxing bag! I was exhausted this morning when I got up…100 laps is a loooong way to run.

Urggggh…I need coffee…and painkillers.

Hands off the @#% cupcakes!

2007-03-11T21:56:00.000+02:00

This past week has been an extremely exciting week...also at times a very exhausting and trying one. Either way, it is done now and I'm sitting here trying to catch my breath. If I didn't have a camera to remind me what happened I wouldn't have beleived it all happened in one week!

The first thing that happened was that Daedalus gave me the next Survivor series...it is awesome! Really the best one so far in my opinion. My brother and myself have found it irrisistable and watched it all in one week between doing assignments and him trying to sell houses. Unfortunately we had to leave the parents behind because they did not show the necessary dedication and we couldn't make ourselves stop watching! Hehe...Thanks D!

The next thing to happen was that our street has become a crime hotspot. Last week the people in 18 and 20 were hit with armed robberies, and this week it was us at 22 and the people at 26 with theft out of our cars. It sucks... Initially my brother saw his car was broken into and phoned the police station - they told him to fetch the police two houses down himself. When they got to our house we noticed that my car had also been hit. Everything inside is full of candle-wax...a-holes. Consensus is that if you want to get that out you have to iron on a piece of brown paper to draw it out after you scrape the most of it off. So: not only did you rob me but you are now MAKING ME IRON!!! Just for that I am leaving the glass on the backseet for a week for in case you decide to hit me again.Anyway, back to the events in question. The police arrived at which point my brother's stress levels were extremely elevated and he started bickering with the inspector about lack of service, racism and case numbers. My mom started shaking from head to toe and our assistant walked around holding her head and mumbling about tsotsies alot. After the cops left my brother decided to launch a one-man telephone assault on his insurance and PG glass untill he had all kinds of authorisations. My dad phoned my insurance (his insurance) and some little man called Jessie phoned me and told me how he was arranging everything for me.I still have to go and get quotes for the stuff they stole from me, but the window was another adventure on it's own. Initially the folks from Glasfit promised me that it would be sorted out the same day still - but that did not happen. The manager (Andrea) and myself had some words the next morning and she graciously offered to pay for my window to apologise. I have completely forgiven them for the delay and plan to write some very nice things about Andrea on Hellopeter.com for the professional way in which she handled the situation.

Little bit of good news after that was that *Esmerelda*'s mom has sent me an Ice Cream Bush, because she has them in abundance and she heard about my thing for gardening. It's sooo cute! When they grow a bit bigger some of the leaves go purple and pink too. Thanks *Esmerelda* and your mom!

Next fun event was Friday night waffles at Freddy and Adam's house...yummmm...I think it's safe to say that we all ate until our stomachs cramped. Freddy also gave me the next few episodes of Heroes to watch and I'm looking forward to them watching it. Thanks guys! I had a lot of fun.

Then the week's events came to a head with the wedding of my cousin Wynand and his ballerina Lizelle, at Didimala Private Game Reserve. Wow! What an event and what a venue. My google addicted mother informs me that it is the biggest hay stack structure. They apparently stack it and cover it with some concrete-ish layer and ta-dah! you have a room. It actually looks great and they have two guys named Jaco running the place that really keep it in an excellent condition.

Anyhoo, my dad was a bit slower than expected on the trailer packing (we had to take the chairs, the flower and the wedding cake) so we got there an hour and a half later than planned and since alot of work still had to be done to pull everything together we all had to work together fast to get it done. I ran around like a mad person to help get it done. What a shame that I left my medical aid step counter at home...we had to get 80 chairs and covers set up in the chappel, trim and fit 8 bunches of roses to the lollipop arrangements, assemble close to 30 table arrangements and get them on the right spots and build a four layered display of cupcakes and roses balancing on nothing but glass plates and champagne flutes, get the individual cupcakes for the guests into a the lodge cold room, get cleaned up and dressed and be on time so that we don't come in after the bride.

We managed, but the guests had other ideas about the cake. See, after the ceremony the guests were milling round waiting for snacks and sherry while the happy couple were getting the last of the photos done. The caterers however were slightly behind schedule and the guests picked the wedding cake (cupcake display) clean while they were waiting to be served! Did we panic? okay yes...initially we did. Did we scream? Not right away. My parents took a "quick" three hour trip to drop someone off in Pretoria and left me to deal with it. Mmmm...well the show must go on. I had the manager help me unwrap another 28 cupcakes from those that were meant for the guests (we had some extra for a crisis and besides they already had theirs - not so?), and just as I finished re-stacking the extremely fragile cupcake constellation another guest reached out to help herself to the wedding cake. I would have wrestled her for that cookie at that stage. After a warning and a stern look (in which I tried to build in alot of insinuation about lack of etiket and manners) it became apparent that I would have to be the wedding cake bouncer until they took the photo. I had to turn away 4 more people - can you beleive it?! Anyway...despite the fact that I am dead tired and don't want to see another cupcake ever - it was a great wedding of a very cute couple and I have only best wishes for them for a bright and happy future. :-)

Now...I must sleep.

This week's quotes

2007-03-11T18:38:00.000+02:00

Within me burns a flame which has been passed down from generations uncounted and its heat is a constant irritation to my spirit to become better than I am, and I will. I will fan this flame of dissatisfaction and proclaim my uniqueness to the world. - Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing. - Oscar Wilde (Quotationspage.com)

Its not having what you want. It's wanting what you've got. - Sheryl Crow, Soak up the sun (Erno)

A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times. - Oliver Wendell Holmes (Quotationspage.com)

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece. - John Ruskin (Adam)

Everything is going just swimmingly...

2007-03-04T20:16:00.000+02:00

Where to start...well, I suppose last week will be a good beginning? As you may recall we were in the middle of a fierce heat wave. Just after I posted last week I got an e-mail titled "You know you're in SA when:". I opened it and was expecting another list of crime or similar, but instead I got this!

The best parking space is determined by shade instead of distance.
Hot water comes out of both taps.
You learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron.
The temperature drops below 35c and you feel a little chilly.
You discover that in January it only takes 2 fingers to steer your car.
You develop a fear of metal car door handles.
Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to prevent them from laying hard-boiled eggs.
The trees are whistling for the dogs.
While walking back barefoot to your car from the beach, you do a tightrope act on the white lines in the carpark.
You learn that Menlyn isn't a shopping centre, its a temple to worship air-conditioning.
If you don't wear your slops to work you probably don't have any.

I especially like the one about the chickens...:-)

The pool is at last finished! Yay!!! I have been homebound now for the last 4 weeks more or less in one way or another with the pool and the contractors and my joy knows no bounds that this is finally behind us. Initially we beleived that it would take another three weeks before we were allowed to swim in it but that is in fact not the case. The Penguin Pool people assure us that it is perfectly safe for us to swim now - however we cannot use the Kreepy for another three weeks. The family has decided that all potential pool parties will also have to be delayed until then. Luckily it has a heat pump... Anyway here's me - in the pool at last (the ducky is the thermometer).

On Thursday our neighbours (Marius and Chrisna) were robbed in their house by gun point...Apparently the neighbours next to then on the other side also got a taste of it. I was sitting at the Keg with Annelie when my mom sent the panic-stricken SMS for me to be carefull when I came home. As you can imagine you see all kinds of suspicious shadows when you get news like that. Luckily I arrived home without any incident. However, later on when I got off IRC with John at about 2:00am I heard our back door open unexpectantly. I say unexpectantly because my dad already said goodnight about an hour or more before that. So, in typical thriller movie style I did not shout out or call for help or investigate escape routes - but picked up my hockey stick and went investigating myself. Luckily my dad sniffed when he did or I might have brained him on the spot! Note to self: At all times attempt to get an accurate visual of perpetrator before assaulting with intent to cause grevious bodily harm.
On Saturday I accompanied my mother to a Ladies Wellness Breakfast to benefit the Reach for a Dream Foundation. I wanted to chew off my own leg to get away! From about 9 to 12 we had to listen to various "experts" and "doctors" tell us about the miracle and harmlessness of Botox and Fillers and Lazers and Chemical Peels! I hardly wear make-up...I can assure you that I am not, nor will I ever, be tempted to inject POISON! into my face in an attempt to fight aging...grrrrrrr! The funniest thing I heard on stage was one Doctor who got involved in the event through her church somehow proclaiming that there really was no need to worry about that aspect either because it was in fact not Vanity but fell firmly within the parameters of treating your body like the temple of God. Mmmm...now that was an interesting theory...Hahahahahahaha! Yeah right... this event has put me off charity events for a bit, and I've also decided to listen a bit more carefully when my mom describes these things to me in future.

The best part of the morning by far was the coffee and the therepists from Mangwanani Spa who gave anyone who was interested a relaxing foot rub...I was very interested in anything that could get me away from the Botox party that was developing at the other end of the venue. Also nice that my mom had a foot rub too because she has now decided that we need to go there for a day to get rubbed all-over. It's the spa that Louelle always goes to so I know it's an open bar full day event, 7 treatments and two meals. She claims that it is a little piece of heaven...;-) Apparently they ask you in the beginning of the day whether you want to be rubbed with salt, sugar or various oils - and Louelle claims that the only bit of you that doesn't get exfoliated is the little strip of skin between your ...well use your imagination on this one...I'm not elaborating. I look forward to reporting back on what I find there - although I regret that there will most likely not be any photos of the event.

On a totally unrelated issue...I've been meaning to share this with you for a while now. Recently I had the oppertunity to look for a Tiger Eye stone, because I wanted to give it to Freddy for his birthday together with the book version of Practical Magic (His favourite movie). So I thought a good place to look for stuff would be the internet right? Not right in this case! Although I learnt many things about Tiger Eye, I also learn that the net is a super-crap place to shop for them. I am truly horified at the prices (in dollars) that people are willing to pay for something that I could probably find in our garden if I looked long enough. Okay Freddy, if you're reading this don't worry - I didn't find it in the garden, I found it at Clearwater Mall. Anyway, what I want to tell you is that I'm not sure everyone knows but it's actually some morphed form of asbestos and apparently this is one of the only places where it naturally occurs. So that brings me to my question...who?! named it a Tiger Eye?! We don't even have tigers here...the mind boggles.Okay, this is turning out to be a monster big post here! I'll end it off now... Update on New Years Resolutions: (You might recall that I made 7 because of the fact that it is 2007)

Laugh...Love...Live (Still on track with this one)
Walk as much as possible...look at the sky often...enjoy the simple things...plan less experience more...breathe deeply (doing okay, but this one still need alot more work)
Study hard...be passionate in my thirst for knowledge again (I am way behind in this one, partly due to the construction and chaos that came with the pool. But that is no excuse so I'm fixing that straight away)
Listen (If I had done this I would not have had to listen to three hours of Botox-talk, so I have to say needs work)
Do enough Yoga to do the dreaded four-legged-table position without hurting myself or looking too ridiculous (I'm busy with that, but I don't look anything like a table yet...hahahahaha!)
Try new things...be unafraid (Unafraid almost got me to clobber my dad with a stick, so maybe I need to relook at how I do this?)
Host an awesome theme party...make time for old and new friends (This might well be happening when we do the first of many pool parties...we'll see).

As you can see, I have my work cut out for me! Hope you all have a brilliant week ahead.

And more quotes! :-)

2007-03-04T19:45:00.000+02:00

I actually thought this was going to look really cute - but I can't even make out the word in the draft version of this post....back to the drawing board I guess? ;-)

Anyhoo! If you too cannot make out what the hell I wrote here, the text reads:

Assuming either the Left Wing or the Right Wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles – Pat Paulsen (Quotationspage.com)

Every horse thinks its own pack heaviest – Thomas Fuller (Google Quotes)

I will laugh at the world. And with my laughter all things will be reduced to their proper size. I will laugh at my failures and they will vanish in clouds of new dreams; I will laugh at my successes and they will shrink to their true value – Og Mandino (The Greatesr Salesman in the World)

Those who flee from temptation generally leave a forwarding address – Lane Olinghouse (Quotationspage.com)

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step – Confucius (Adam)

Gimme the good news...

2007-02-25T22:10:00.000+02:00

This week has been unbearably hot! It feels like my brain is in a slow cooker (my skul- my slow cooking skul…mmmm…there might be a poem in that somewhere?). I don’t know if the weather buro is just trying to make us feel better or what, but when they say 30’C the car’s thermometer indicated 38’C after about 5 minutes in the sun. This is not my car that we’re talking about by the way – some days it feels like I am the only person in AFRICA who doesn’t have aircon in my car! Anyway, when I get into that car it is of little to no consolation to me to hear that it’s just because the car was standing…a moving target apparently gathers less sun? It’s 38’C – deal with it. The car feels it, I certainly feel it, and we don’t know why you can’t just admit it and move on…

In an effort to entice thunder and lightning and a reprieve from global warming and heat waves – I will attempt to wash my own car this week – by hand! If it doesn’t rain then I have no idea what I will do…be warned that it might actually snow, or hell might freeze over.

A progress report on project proper swimming pool: It has been established that the pool is too deep and after thinking that the worst of it was behind us now, we were once more visited by our “friendly and efficient” construction team yesterday for the pouring of another layer of concrete to rectify this problem. Now it will have to stand another week being watered three times a day. At that point they will return to put the last layer and the water in. Rumour has it that the pool will have to stand for three weeks before we can swim in it after that. And my dad plans to empty the temporary pool into the new pool because it will halfway fill it up and save on water. So I see plenty of cold showers or hosing down in my future.

I should be happy to report that I now have access to my dad’s uncapped ADSL for free (the little pleasures of unemployment), however – I can not download my Gmail to outlook with it or access IRC with it for some reason only known to Telkom. And to be honest that’s basically where I use most of my data anyway so I’m not getting as much joy from it as I had hoped. It seems that intentionally or unintentionally every telecommunications network in SA is out to get me…yes…you guessed it! I am still not at peace with Vodacom either. I will be investigating the training and maintenance needs of messenger doves in weeks to come. ;-)

Other news this week: I managed to see Freddy for a visit. Initially we were going to re-inact a pancake day that the people in the UK had on Tuesday which we only found about afterwards – but it didn’t work out that way exactly because Freddy also helped me restore some stuff on my PC which didn’t make it through the re-install after Trojan, and we never got round to the pancakes – although we did have some excellent coffee. Thanks Freddy!

Also I saw Louelle on Friday and again on Saturday because it was the food collection week for the Lions. Every month they collect non-persihables at the Pick ‘n Pay at Heathway Shopping centre for soup kitchens and impoverished families in the area. Louelle is such a ray of sunshine when it comes to this. She smiles and works the kids and it’s clear to see that people find it hard to resist her request. We collected an astonishing 4 trolleys between 8:00 and 13:00. I saw with my own eyes how a guy walked out with a bag containing a loaf of bread and a liter of milk while leaving us with half a trolley of canned goods. When you see genorousity like that how can you help but be positive?

I was also invited to a couple of braais over the weekend. Yesterday our family went over to our neighbours house and today I attended another one at Tanya’s house. It was all very nice but I think I should keep a low profile at places without pools until the end of the heat wave at least! Sitting outside in this blistering heat for 5 hours will take it right out of you!

Some sad news: an old friend Desire’s brother died in a car accident this week and the funeral will be held on Friday. It’s a terrible shame - and my thoughts and prayers are with her family in this time of need. He was such a friendly little guy with so much potential when I saw him. We met on a Voortrekker camp that I used to help organize (many moons ago), he was a junior (std.6) and it was his first Seekamp ever. Des was also one of the organisers and so her brother tended to tag along quite a bit. One day he injured his wrist with some careless horseplay on the beach and as luck would have it both his big sister and the lady in charge of first aid was out on overnight trips with other groups. First aid was my baby for the day and after doing a thorough examination on his hand I came to the conclusion that he was just craving a little attention. It was a sprain but not very serious in my opinion – not even any swelling and the injury seemed to flare up whenever he needed to do something or wanted to chat a bit. So I played a little trick on him. I bandaged his arm all the way to his shoulder and put it in a sling for him. And I told him that if it didn’t feel better soon we’d have to take him to hospital! He got such a fright that the arm was miraculously cured within the hour. We had some good giggles about that afterwards when he realized what I had done… he was a sweet kid and it’s a shame that his life was cut short so suddenly. I want to go to the funeral so I will have to figure out where Springs is before Friday. GPS, don’t fail me now…

That’s about it for this week – I hope you all will have a good week. Keep a lookout for that rain!

Quotes of the week...

2007-02-25T22:07:00.000+02:00

It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others – John Andrew Holmes (Quotationspage.com)

He who slings mud generally loses ground – Adlai E. Stevenson (Google quotes)

He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it - Douglas Adams :The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Quotationspage.com)

You can learn from anyone even your enemy – Ovid (Adam)

The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age - Lucille Ball (Erno)

Heat Wave...

2007-02-21T15:32:00.001+02:00

Heat wave…

This day is wind-still and feverish

Hedges full of brown beetles

Provide the shrill-screamy backtrack

To this hellish summer's day.

I pause and wipe my brow

Sweat trickles down my neck and breasts

Into my already soaked shirt

That clings to me like a lover.

Force another deep breath of scorched air

My footsteps soft on melted tar

Walking amongst the wavy heat ripples

Always walking-walking to where you are…

Infestations all over...

2007-02-18T22:53:00.001+02:00

What a crazy week!!

Firstly, my computer (momma’s little sweet laptop…*sniff*) got infected with some wicked Trojan. This is the first time EVER that I’ve had a computer virus…and it was very traumatic. When I became aware of it was when I tried to log onto IRC to chat with John on Valentine’s day, and it wouldn’t let me! I was directed to go to some bogus scanning site for a free scan and to get my PC cleaned up before trying again. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Well, out of desperation I did go there where I was scanned extensively for hours, only the site never ever come up with a diagnosis or a cure- just scanning forever. I did the next stupid thing by downloading probably close to 12 different scanning programs and trying them all. Even after I allegedly cleaned off 3 Trojans and a worm (according to free programs) I was still unable to get into IRC. So on Valentines Day I basically stayed up the night trying to get my Trojan destroyed with no joy, and no chat to John either. *sigh*

Two days I battled without any results, before calling in the big guns. My buddy-old-pal Tiaan...henceforth will be known far and wide as Tiaan-Trojan-Slayer entered the battle field and after installing a shiny new anti-virus called BitDefender on my Laptop which also did not defeat the beast he spent a whole day working on my problem and won the battle on the 17^th of February after four days of our combined efforts. I have dedicated the day to him and erected a commemorative plaque in his honour on our news group’s pages (Kwaaiplaas). Basically we strongly suspect some dodgy Microsoft updating let it in and it wormed into my registry nice and deep where we couldn’t find it. So we backed up documents, pics, e-mails and music and re-installed. It was a scary and horrific experience (the four days, not the cure) and not something that I wish to go through ever again.

So my advice to everyone out there is:

* Get decent anti-virus and malware protection

* Be vigilant about downloading anything (not everyone is your friend)

* Trust no one, and don’t open dodgy e-mails in funny formats even if they are from people you know

And if you’re an idiot and you do everything wrong hope that you have a super-cool-trojan-slaying friend like I do. J Thanks again Tiaan!

Here is a picture of the master at work on my poor little laptop…

As if that’s not bad enough even more pests have infiltrated my world. Due to our dogs’ feeder and therefore constant availability of food, we have developed a rat-problem at our house. (I know: the shock! The horror!) Actually I’m not really afraid of rodents (unlike spiders who are all out to get me), but I am getting nervous because they are starting to vastly outnumber us now.

And our little rat family (who are as big as small dogs due to the very nutritious food they enjoy here) have been blessed with a litter of baby rats. The grown ups up until now have had the decency and good sense to keep to the ceiling where they enjoy midnight romps and day-night-series soccer games, and occasionally send someone to the trap so that we don’t get discouraged and call an expert exterminator. The babies however have less sense and two have found their way into the house. One was running for its life away from Diablo when my dad unsuspectingly opened the back door at just the right moment to make it a viable escape route. It now lives in my brother’s old speaker box.

The other has been graciously brought to my room for inspection by my cat Tigger. It would have been gross but okay if she had brought it in dead or killed it once she showed it to me, but Tigger is not interested in anything except her Whiskas and only wants to roll on prey. She honestly doesn’t even use her claws…and that is how the second baby came to live behind my bookshelf with an enormous spider that I saw going in there a while ago and have been too terrified to find and destroy. I think if it does not eat the spider or the spider does not eat it, one or both of them will want to come out again at some point and that is why I now study and chat at my desk wearing my winter slippers (boot-like and fluffy with lots of protection from little scampering feet on my bare skin…urrrgh!). It’s a bit uncomfortable in the hot summer climate I’ll confess…but probably more comfortable that jumping into my ceiling fan head first – which is what I almost did when I first saw Tigger’s catch hot-footing it across my room for the safety of the bookshelf. Here is a picture of Tigger at the entrance of “behind my bookshelf” waiting for her toy to reappear.

Other news this past week, not related to pests: Bug-boy and Bugzilla have both disappeared…I suspect one disappeared into the other one. Vodacom, the bane of my existence, have informed me that I will be getting a R1600 credit on my next phone bill – we still have one outstanding issue between us, two if you also consider the mailing list they sold my details to. Louelle came to visit me and has offered me a commission for selling her paintings for her (I’m very excited about this). And a rabbit has taken the opportunity while the dogs are confined at the back for our swimming pool construction to move in under our deck – I have decided to call him Deckster for that very reason. He is fast but cheeky and I suspect that Diablo will probably attempt to eat him as soon as they get released to the front again…in two weeks at the most. Hopefully he will go back to where he came from before that happens?

I hope that you all will have an excellent week ahead… I am looking forward to it that’s for sure! Thank you for everyone who participated in last week’s poll…it looks like everyone agrees that the police (super-crime-fighters) are afraid that their trailer will get stolen if they don’t disable it.

Have a great week! Take it easy…

A fine selction of quotes...;-)

2007-02-18T22:52:00.000+02:00

Into each life some rain must fall - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Google Quotes)

There is a theory which states that if anybody ever discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened – Douglas Adams (Wikipedia Quotes)

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable - -Dwight D. Eisenhower (Quotationspage.com)

I will persist until I succeed. I was not delivered unto this world in defeat, not does failure course through my veins – Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves – Eric Hoffer (Adam)

An opinion poll and the weeks drama...

2007-02-11T15:52:00.002+02:00

Well this was quite a busy week – mostly busy with birthday parties for Freddy! Happy birthday Freddy and thanks for all the festivities I had a great time, sorry I couldn’t make the third and final? one that happened today…At the first party we had cocktails and fantastic Greek food at the restaurant next to Kitchen Bar in the Design Quarter followed by more mocktails (no alcohol cocktails that all oddly tend to have roses worked into them) at said Kitchen Bar. All very nice… and then last night more partying at the Grill Shop at Rock Cottage where the food was great, as was the company, but the service not exactly what we’ve come to expect from them and they basically booted us out fairly early. Under no circumstances have a cocktail there called an Indian Summer! It’s nasty and smells a bit like Acetone. However…if you do order it by accident because it looks yummy on the menu then just take three looooong sips and it starts tasting a lot better. ;-) Freddy I hope you had a good time – I know I did! And I had a good giggle at Freddy’s friend Angus who was entertaining us with tales of a group of people who have moved into tree overlooking his garden and how he plans to get them evicted or even the tree felled because they infringe on his privacy and cause a fire hazard when they make fires up there.

Okay, you must be wondering what poll I’m referring to? Well this week I joined my brother and his friends at the Barnyard Theatre for a fund raiser show and on our way there I saw this: (A police trailer with its wheel clamped)

So this is what I want to know…do you think there wheel is clamped because:

a) The police – the enforcers of law and order – parked in the wrong spot? Or...

b) The police – super crime fighters – are afraid that someone will steal there trailer if they don’t disable it?

Unfortunately I have not the faintest idea how to make a poll that you can vote on with the click of your mouse – so I’d really appreciate it if you could include your vote in your comment. Thanks! (You are of course also welcome to come up with other suggestions about why this happened).

Other than that there are major developments at our house since my parents are having a swimming pool installed at the moment. The whole place is full of earth and at the moment we have to keep the dogs at the back so that they don’t either disturb or attempt to assist the contractors digging. The contractors have of course also come with their own share of drama but in general they’re getting on with it. We had a slight hiccup on Monday because my dad asked me to open up for them when they come and to make sure that the gate stays open so that they can move the soil out to the sidewalk. So I did as instructed – however: They were due there at 8:30 and only rocked up at about 9:15, at which time they informed me that they needed to go and collect their tools first (who?! I ask you goes to a site without their tools?) And they would be back in 10 minutes. They said they were leaving one guy to guard the gate so I left it open and continued with my normal day-to-day activities. At 11:00 my brother came home and asked me if I was aware that there was no workers there and that the security gate was wide open. I told him that there should be at least one guy but we looked and couldn’t find him anywhere. The workers and their tools arrived back at about 13:15 at which time my brother gave them a lecture that I doubt they will ever be able to forget and subsequently found out that their car broke down and the guy who was left guarding the gate was interrogated by the police about what he was doing there and decided to make a run for it. Mmmm…you have to wonder about that?

In the meantime Nala had a very eventful week as well. She was taken for a shave because it’s soooo hot here at the moment. Poor baby! She looks a bit ridiculous but at least she’s cooler…here is a before and after shot for your entertainment.

We also had to take her to the vet because she’s been having problems with her one back leg and she picked a fight with Diablo which earned her a bite that needed stitching up. We’ve noticed that she doesn’t lift her back legs properly when she runs so she’s always bashing a foot against the steps and we just wanted it checked out. Once she was shaven however it became clear that there was something very wrong with her one leg since she never puts any weight on it. So it came about that our pooch had to stay at the vet’s for two nights and had some knee surgery this week to correct a birth defect which caused her knee to dislocate. The patient is already looking a lot better and steadier on her feet – but she has to stay indoors until the stitches come out in 10 days time which is causing Diablo a lot of heartache and Tigger a lot of frustration. Nala and Diablo are sweet at night though because they call to each other almost continuously. My brother slept on the floor next to her the first night to keep her company and last night she flatly refused to be go into the room we prepared for her and instead roamed around in the house, politely waking my mom up every time she felt like going outside.

Other than that I can just say that this has been an extremely hot week and talking with some friends we all agree that this is one of the hottest summers we’ve seen in Johannesburg. During the day it’s often up to 25 degrees INSIDE the house and at midnight you could easily have that exact same temperature outside. It’s a wind still and stifling kind of heat. I live under my ceiling fan or rushing from shade to shade. Wish we could have a nice big and serious thunder storm to cool everything down a bit. Funny to think that on the other side of the world John and Vera both played in the snow this week!

Good luck with the week ahead…sympathy to all the singles for Wednesday when no one can switch on the radio or the TV or go out in public without being bombarded by Valentine’s Day propaganda. And of course in the same breath – I wish all the couples Valentine’s day filled with love and laughter and a happy ever-after. I hope that will find inventive ways of showing the people that you care about exactly how much you appreciate them – I’ve been busy doing something special for John too but I can’t say too much now since it’s a big surprise and I don’t want to give it away!

Hope that this will be a great week for everyone!

Weekly Quotes!

2007-02-11T15:52:00.001+02:00

I’d take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day – Douglas Adams: The Salmon of Doubt (Thanks Wikipedia Quotes)

I wanna hang a map of the world inmy house. Then I’m gonna put pins into all the locations that I’ve traveled to. But first I’m gonna travel to the top two corners of the map so it won’t fall down – Mitch Hedberg (Thanks Quotationspage.com) – just kidding ;-)

Henceforth I will recognize and identify the mystery of moods in all mankind, and in me. >From this moment I am prepared to control whatever personality awakes in me each day. I will master my moods through positive action and when I master my moods I will control my destiny – Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it – Terry Pratchett (Thanks Wikipedia Quotes)

Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity – Albert Camus (Thanks Quotationspage.com)

Adventures of bug-boy and intro to hellopeter.com ...

2007-02-04T15:32:00.001+02:00

There is this brilliant website called Hellopeter.com where you can lodge complaints about service or even compliment someone if you feel that you got exceptionally good service from them. The owner of the site is Peter Cheales who wrote a book about service called either I was your customer or I used to be your customer…I forgot which. Anyway you get the idea. I know a while ago they tried to make it more international than South African but I’m not sure how successful that was – but it’s pretty good for SA. You have to register if you want to make comments but it is free. The companies who respond pay something for this feedback service I believe although it is entirely possible to make comments about companies even if they aren’t registered there. I like this because it’s nice to have a place to moan (it’s not just a female thing I assure you…many men also use this site) and also if you are considering moving to a new bank or taking out a contract for some service you can use this to see what some other customers experienced there before you jump from the pan into the fire, so to say.

This week I had the opportunity to complain about Vodacom …at length…Unfortunately I only get more or less 120 words to do it in so I had to trim down my scathing remark to about half its original size. The bones of it can be seen on the link below if you’re interested and if they actually take the time to respond their response should appear there too in a day or so. The original title also didn’t quite fit. It was meant to say “slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through Peanut Butter” and now it just says stampeding through p? Well close enough for me…

http://www.hellopeter.com/the_comment.asp?recid=60999

Other events this week – I saw Freddy during the week for a nice skinder (gossip). I missed that! Thanks Freddy. And on Friday I took Wanette out to dinner because I missed the big birthday bash and after that I went to the club with Simone’. It was so weird...I almost never go there and the one day that I do I run into so many friends. We saw Werner and his entourage...and Tammy and Ryan together with theirs too...it must have been the full moon that caused it? ;-)

And also I don’t mind sharing with you that a praying-mantis (Hottentotsgot in Afrikaans) has started hanging out in my one bonsai tree this week. It has been four days running now that it’s been there, and I am tickled pink because it’s supposed to be very lucky to have one around. (Guess who’s buying a lotto ticket? whooooohoooo!). My brother feels sad for the little fellow and told me not to get too attached because he thinks it’s male one and a female will surely be round any day now to chomp its head. (They are well known for the fact that the girl-mantis bites the boy-mantis’ head off during mating), and won’t you know it?! Today when I was watering my trees and herb garden there she was…the wanna-be-killer herself is approaching from the herb garden directly below where my gogga (bug) has been hanging out in the tree for this whole week. I managed to take some photos of both for you to see… You might wonder if I’m going to interfere, and save bug-boy’s life? And the answer is sadly “No”. If he wants to survive he’ll have to keep it in his pants or outsmart her like any other wild mantis. Good luck bug-boy! I hope to still see you sitting in my tree next week.

Saturday morning after a late night Friday I zipped through to Jacky’s place for an enormous cooked breakfast with her and some of her other pals. It looks like they want to do it once a month or so. I like the idea…and the breakfast was very tasty. Here’s a pic of Jacky getting ready to cook the bacon and scramble Ben’s eggs… (The recipe apparently originated from her boyfriend Ben…it’s not his actual eggs…hahahaha relax!)

Anyway, I hope that you all will have a great adventure filled week ahead! I will be spending my time mostly studying of course, and investigating the prospect of earning bucks by filling in web surveys or writing trashy novels for cash? Also after a chat to my cousin Melanie I am contemplating doing 5 sit-ups for every e-mail I send…I am going to have abs of steel that’s all I can say! Please spare a thought for the life of bug-boy too if you have some time…

Quotes for this week...

2007-02-04T12:12:00.000+02:00

Holding onto anger is like grasping onto a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else. You are the one who gets burned. – Gotama Buddha (Thanks Erno!)

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. – Napoleon Bonaparte (Thanks Adam!)

Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult. I will persist until I succeed. – Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. - Aristotle (Thanks Quotationspage.com!)

All Opinions are not equal. Some are a great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others – Douglas Adams: The Salmon of Doubt (Thanks Wikipedia Quotes!)

Wrapping Up January and this week...

2007-01-28T23:03:00.001+02:00

Wanette had her birthday this week. Whoohoo! Congratulations again buddee! And I popped over on Wednesday after gym (yes…I’m still going) to give her her present and to wish her well. I didn’t have to sing (poor Wanette’s ears) as I did it earlier on the phone. She was out with her parents earlier for dinner but look in her other birthday suit (white linen I think…hahahahahah!).

This week was a lot more easy-going and I have to say that I felt more and more subdued the closer we got to Friday and my grandfather’s funeral. The funeral was held in Thabazimbi on a lovely sunny (34’C) day. It was of course a very emotional day especially seeing my grandmother’s grief. It was a long and sad day. My mom went through on the Thursday already to help out and spend some time with my gran so she asked me and my brother to drive her car back for her on Friday (my mom hates driving herself anywhere!). These are some pictures of the beautiful sunset that we saw on our way back…there was a storm brewing and initially the clouds looked like big purple bruises before the sun set them alight with shades of pink and gold. It was a good end to the day I think.

Saturday I spent with my old boarding school roommate Tania (a.k.a. Lofty) and her husband Hennie at their house in Pretoria for a prawn cook-out and some much needed girly talk. We have all been so busy that I haven’t managed to see them since their wedding middle of last year. This is a picture of Tania and another of her friends cleaning the prawns (I was supplying the moral support and wine). During the course of the day some of the conversation led to Tania and Monica who are both trying to get pregnant…I don’t know if it’s just my age group or what but it’s a conversation that I seem to be listening to a lot these days no

matter where I go. It feels like half the people I know are trying to have babies at the moment and almost all of them are having difficulties it seems. I sometimes wonder if this is a problem in general or if I just have a skewed impression because I know so many people who are having problems conceiving at the moment? Don’t get me wrong – I can get as broody as the next girl, but at the moment I just know a lot more about myths, gyenies, hormone treatments and sperm counts than I actually ever wanted to know. I think the husband may have felt a bit over-exposed talking about this because they took a two hour impromptu road trip to go and look for a cat that’s been missing for almost two weeks already. It a sensitive situation…luckily we did talk about plenty of other things too and had loads of fun playing rummy cup and 30 seconds! The girls ruled…of course.

Monthly update on resolutions:

One… Laugh…Love…Live

Difficult to give specific examples on this one but I feel that I did manage to do this quite well this month.

Two…Walk as often as possible…look at the sky ofte

n…enjoy the simple things…plan less and experience more…breathe deeply

I have walked a lot in the last month but I feel that I can still bump that up a notch or two so it’s on my to-do-more-seriously list for February. I looked at the sky often (and took photos mostly – what can I say I think the sky is beautiful), I enjoyed the simple things…I planned almost nothing and experienced loooads and I breathed deeply. So except for the walking I think this one is also under control.

Three…Study hard…be passionate in my thirst for knowledge again.

Although I have made some progress here I also feel this one needs more attention in the next month

Four…Listen

My ears are practically burning from all the listening I’ve done – this one is well and truly checked for January.

Five…Do enough yoga to master the four-legged-table position.

Yes…uhm…well. I have done no yoga whatsoever I have to admit. I actually considered trying to catch up before compiling this summary but I figured you can’t rush these things and I would probably just end up hurting myself and ruling it out for February too that way. Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. On the to-do-more-seriously list too for this month.

Six…try new things…be unafraid

I’m trying to think if there was any occasions where I could live this one out and all I can come up with is that I was tricked into stating my resolutions in my broken (extremely broken…borderline sacrilege really) French on Les Malin, and instead of turning tail and chickening out I did it. Okay the group’s gone almost entirely silent so I may have shocked them all into silence with exactly how incomprehensible I was – but still I tried. Another occasion that comes to mind is when we were down at the coast when I went walking on my own despite numerous warnings about how dangerous it is. I feel it was a calculated risk? Nothing happened and I did try and avoid very isolated stretches on the beach and even though I never encountered anything more threatening that the tiniest line of bluebottles I felt a moment of pure panic just before I trotted out along the sea on m

y own…but I still did it. Yay! Here’s to not being afraid of your own shadow or crime statistics in SA. I should probably try and keep a more complete record of this one because I specifically remember turning down any new experiences so far? So far so good…

Seven…Host an awesome theme party…make time for old and new friends.

The first party of this is still to be done, but the second part is well and truly checked. For my next trick I will attempt to balance better between this resolution and number three.

Well, that’s my wrap up for this week and this month! I hope everyone is having as much fun with 2007 as I am? Have a great week!

And this weeks quotes are...

2007-01-28T23:03:00.000+02:00

It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis – Margaret Bonnano

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on – John F. Kennedy (thanks Adam!)

I will live this day as if it is my last. And what then shall I do? Forgetting about yesterday neither will I think of tomorrow. Why should I throw now after maybe? Can tomorrow’s sand flow through the glass before today’s? Will the sun rise twice this morning? Can I perform tomorrow’s deeds while still standing in today’s path? Can I place tomorrow’s gold in today’s purse? Can tomorrow’s death cast its shadow backward and darken today’s joy? Should I concern myself over events which may never come to pass? No! Tomorrow lies buried with yesterday and I will think of it no more. – Og Mandino (The greatest Salesman in the World)

Sometimes, the best answer is a more interesting question – Terry Pratchett

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it – James M. Barrie

Quotes...

2007-01-21T22:29:00.003+02:00

The worst sin - perhaps the only sin - passion can commit, is to be joyless (Thanks Erno – Kwaaiplaas)

Remember when life's path is steep to keep your mind even – Horace (Thanks Erno)

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so – Douglas Adams (Last Chance to See)

A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a lifetime’s experience – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything – Anatole France Thibault

One week in paradise...well, the south coast at least? ;-)

2007-01-21T22:29:00.002+02:00

As I told you last week, our family had a little brake away to the south coast (Uvongo) and we just arrived home today back from our welcome brake.

We had a great relaxing time…swimming and of course long walks on the beach…lots of family time…sleeping…playing cards and generally doing nothing.

It used to be that when you went down to the south coast that you got to see a hoard of
monkeys at least at some stage of your stay but this year I didn’t see any. Instead we were visited by a whole bunch of dassies who took a particular liking to the succulents growing in front of our flat and absolutely loved sunning themselves on the rocks just outside the gate on the path leading down to the beach.

The are
supposed to be fairly timid and skittish creatures but these ones have obviously been fed by some tourists in the past because they almost come when you call them and continuously try to sneak into the house. My dad eventually had to chase one out with a chair…to my mom they are just biggish rats, and will under no circumstances be allowed in the house!

We took a day to go and see the new(ish) aquarium at Durban called Ushaka Marine World. The whole thing is built to look like an enormous shipwreck and the tanks are set up so that you have excellent visibility of all the marine animals. I took more than a hundred photos but I’m sure you’ll swear at me if I had to put them all on here? So here are just a few of my favourites…

Other than that I also managed to drag the parents out to the beach one morning to see the sunrise with me. My plan was head down at about 5am and initially my mom said that she

wanted to come along, and then my dad also joined it but according to him the sun already starts rising at 4:30…so at 4:15 we set out for the rocks next to the jetty (only because we couldn’t get to the swim beach due to unforeseen – by us at least – high tide which had cut us off from it), and then sat round waiting for quite some time …until 5:18 to be exact for the actual sun to rise. It was still beautiful and well worth the walk and the early start. And once we saw it we calmly walked all the way back home and rewarded ourselves with a few more hours of sleep for our effort. Here’s a picture of the sunrise as seen at 5:18 on the rocks of Uvongo!

I have to admit that even after a fantastic week like this it’s great to be home. Tigger was waiting for me in anxiously and has not left my side for a second since we returned…poor baby.

Hope you all enjoy your week ahead – this week is the return of serious to my world, so next week’s update will not have nearly so many pictures I guarantee it!

Some sad news too...

2007-01-21T22:29:00.001+02:00

My grandmother’s husband passed away this week from a heart attack following treatment in a Pretoria hospital for cancer over the last few months.

Oom Jan was only a part of our family, he was always good to my grandmother and he was very much like a grandfather to me.

A good man – he will be missed a lot.

(A picture of Oom Jan and my Grandmother)

trouble posting...

2007-01-15T07:12:00.001+02:00

I am having a very had time posting and loading pictures…not sure if it’s on my side or Blogger’s. The weekly update will be late because of this. Sorry!

Quotes of the week...

2007-01-14T21:49:00.001+02:00

You must be the change you wish to see in the world – Mohandas Gandhi (thanks Adam!)

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes – Oscar Wilde (thanks Adam!)

He who praises everybody, praises nobody – Samuel Johnson (thanks Adam!)

What we learn to do, we learn by doing – Aristotle

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be – Douglas Adams (The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul)

Taking a break from doing nothing...

2007-01-14T21:49:00.000+02:00

I’ve been taking it fairly easy since Christmas truth be known…I mean I have all my study books, schedules and so on and I’ve even knocked out an assignment two months early – but no real pressure yet if you know what I mean? I’ve been so relaxed I haven’t even bothered taking down the tree yet…*sigh* but I’ll do it next week or so… I’ve mostly sepnt some quality time with my cat Tigger (see attached)…and online of course ;-).

Although I have not been a complete slouch…there are those new years resolutions to keep in mind you know? I have made a first appearance at the gym for 2007 with my friend Annelie – and just to prove that I was actually there I actually took a picture of it. (I was extremely pleased that my membership card still worked I’ll have you know!).

Also had a great day visiting with my friend Louelle and her pooches on Wednesday, where she introduced me to the slinky hose…I can’t put that picture up sorry…a promise is a promise! But here’s one of her and Castro (the new puppy…very sweet). Nikita was feeling a bit camera shy…so no pics of her this week.

On Thursday the heavens opened up over Johannesburg…and just for you guys who might think that all of Africa looks like a desert here is a picture of the street I live in during the rain…see all the trees, mmmm? Actually I’ve heard it said a couple of times that Johannesburg is supposed to be the biggest man made forest around? I thought it was a well established fact but John told me he had never heard that rumour so I thought it would be agood idea to get the word out…now you know? You can wow all your friends at dinner parties with this bit of useless trivia…I think it might be true too? I definitely heard it on the radio at least once?

On Friday Simone’ invited me to her work’s Christmas beach party - No! No! - Not an early start for 2007! Apparently they were simply too busy to have it last year so they decided to kick of this year with festivities instead.

Seems like a great plan to me, and how nice that they didn’t boot me out for not working there? This is actually her second office party that I attend, so maybe some people there think that I actually work there?

After the party I went to Tiaan and Marizca’s place for dinner. You guys rock! We had so much food it almost felt like Christmas again…wow! I really had a lot of fun guys, let’s do this more often? And your puppy is super-cute too…big black Labrador called Jessie that just wanted to nibble my feet and wrestle me for the best spot on the couch. She actually reminds me soo much of a black lab that I used to have called Pieter. I think me and Jessie just bonded straight away. I didn’t get a good pic of Jessie but here are some nice ones of Tiaan and Marizca…she’s cooking in this one and he’s sitting on a computer box fixing a computer! He’s not sitting on the floor cause they were recently burgled or anything (even though they were), but because at Tiaan and Marizca’s everything happens close to the ground…they are a down to earth couple you could say…;-) I like sitting on the floor so I absolutely love the way that everything is set up there. Thank you guys for welcoming me into your home and for being such great friends!

I had just gotten home from a nice relaxing and fun evening with my friends when I had to pack and get ready for our little impromptu family vacation. Well, truthfully – not that impromptu for the rest of the family, but I only let myself be convinced to go a few days ago so it was still pretty impromptu for me. Long roadtrip – see the picture! And eventually we arrived at the beautifull beach of Uvongo.

This is a picture of the lagoon and waaaaay in the corner you can make out the roaring waterfall…well look closely and you should be able to!

This is the view from our patio looking doen on the beach and sea…

This is a picture of my dad on the rocks when we took a stroll along the caost line today…

This is a pic of me and my baby brother on the beach this morning…

These is a pics of palm trees which just makes this feel so tropical… *sigh - bliss*

We’ll be here until next week Sunday so I should have even more pictures for you on next week’s update. I feel a little bit guilty for taking abreak from doing almost nothing. But I did bring my books along and if I can stay awake and off the beach for long enough I might actually open them and try my hand at another assignment while we’re here. I think it’s the fresh air and the sound of the waves breaking so close – but I am having a really hard time staying awake here…so relaxing…

I hope that you will all have a great week ahead – see you soon!

Brand new quotes for this week...

2007-01-07T22:22:00.002+02:00

It's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission – Brom: Eragon (Thanks Adam)

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail – Ralph Waldo Emerson (Thanks Adam!)

Vain attempts to imitate others no longer will I make. Instead I will place my uniqueness on display.. – Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

Nothing stands out so conspicuously, or remains so firmly fixed in the memory, as something which you blundered – Cicero (Jodi Picoult:Vanishing Acts)

All animals except man know that the ultimate of life is to enjoy it – Samuel Butler (Dolphin Encounters Info)

Easy does it...

2007-01-07T22:22:00.001+02:00

After the hectic socialising of the last few months I am actually a little relieved to say that this week has been very easy going and relaxed…That’s the nice way of saying I am a lazy cow who needs her butt kicked to get going!

New years: first off new years was really nice – but unlike the normal new years bash that I’ve been part of in the past. To give you an example: the new year’s before this one we spent at the club and I was silly enough to be one of the last people to try and get off the dance floor when midnight struck…every single person in the club had their own bottle of champagne and I was showered in it…it smelled horrible and my hair was instantly transformed into a giant candy floss like dread lock! This year I went to a combination house warming/ new year’s braai at Wanette’s new house. A very pretty place where I am sure she will be extremely happy…(and loads of parking – which is something I love). We braai-ed chicken and fish (pic included) and attempted to empty a huge crate of booze that they had collected during the course of the year in the form of exotic bite sized cocktails. Good company, good food, and at midnight a magnificent view of the entire area and all the illegal fireworks (probably some legitimate ones too). Since fireworks have been outlawed for people who are not qualified to use them they have become a lot harder to source and this year also saw the arrival of pretty red emergency flares (still very available). I actually preferred that…not so noisy and it bathed the world in a warm and soft red light for much longer than the normal showier stuff.

Also I have noticed this week that my garden is taking on a life of it’s own! I started out with 8 bonsai and a little corner herb garden…this is a picture of my corner now! I received quite a lot of plants as gifts and my mom has given me a whole trolley full of ferns to rescue too. I am going to have to relook my set-up to accommodate all the new comers soon. Still…it’s nice to be surrounded by green!

Other things that happened this week is that I went to go see Eragon with Freddy and Adam…the company was brilliant as always… the movie however was a complete let down. Very erratic camera and music work with a really weak plot. Don’t go there! If you feel that you just HAVE to see it, I recommend catching it on TV (the free variety if you can).

Over this weekend I also took it nice and easy. I went text book shopping with Freddy on Saturday and had a nice Sunday lunch at *Esmerelda* and Jacobus’ place today. I’ll leave you with a nice sunset picture that I took on my drive home from there today and wish you a nice second week for 2007 from sunny South Africa. (How are you doing on your resolutions?)

First quotes of the new year...

2006-12-31T14:45:00.001+02:00

Happiness, in truth, may not be the fruit plucked by my action yet without action all fruit will die on the vine. I will act now – Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

The past is a foreign country - LP Hartley

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.-Douglas Adams (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency)

Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart. – Confucius

He who has overcome his fears will truly be free. – Aristotle

New years resolutions...

2006-12-31T14:22:00.001+02:00

I know a lot of people hate making these but I really get a kick out of them…also I tie myself in knots trying to actually do it and have great fun along the way. Not sure if mine are the typical resolutions…if there is even something like that?

For 2007 I have decided that 7 will be a suitable amount to keep me busy and make it look serious at the same time…so here goes!

One…Laugh…Love…Live…

Two… Walk as much as possible…look at the sky often…enjoy the simple things…plan less and experience more…breathe deeply.

Three…Study hard…be passionate in my thirst for knowledge again.

Four…Listen.

Five…Do enough yoga to be able to do the dreaded Four-Legged-Table position without hurting myself or looking too ridiculous.

Six…Try new things…be unafraid.

Seven…Host an awesome theme party…make time for old and new friends.

If it’s not too embarrassing (and maybe even then) I will post a monthly progress report… Hope that you will all have a spectacular new years bash and I hope that the whole of 2007 will be filled with wonder and adventure for you…Happy new year!!!

Kick-As* quotes for this week...

2006-12-24T11:01:00.002+02:00

There are no facts, only interpretations – Friedrich Nietzche (Thanks Adam!)

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished – Francis Bacon (Thanks Adam!)

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations – Benjamin Disraeli (Thanks Adam!)

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen – John F. Kennedy (Thanks Adam!)

Never will I allow myself to become so important, so wise, so dignified, so powerful, that I forget how to laugh at myself and my world. In this matter I will always remain as a child, for only as a child am I given the ability to look up at others; and as long as I look up to another I will never grow too long for my cot. I will laugh at the world – Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

It was the week before Christmas...and in SA not a thing was quiet!

2006-12-24T11:01:00.001+02:00

Yes…this had been another crazy week! Of course…

To start off it was my brother’s birthday parties. We had a nice sit-down dinner with the family on Wednesday and a big bash (32 people on short notice) at the Keg on Thursday which was his actual birthday. Picture of both the birthday boy and the bash included here.

We have an arrangement that when it’s his birthday I am the sober designated driver and when it’s mine then he is. We’ve had this arrangement for a couple of years and I have to say it works really well…I think everyone who was there had a great time! Although instead of deteriorating into the normal kind of drinking game fiasco at some stage they started playing

Rock-Paper-Scissors (Ching-Chong-Cha!) and best out of 3 got to punch the loser on the chest or arm…being possibly the only sober person there I have to say the motivation for playing this kind of escaped me. But they all had fun, no one was seriously injured and my brother managed to sport some spectacular bruises on his shoulder and arm the next day.

Other than that I managed to visit Simone’ and the kids wich was fun! They are both so cute…I’d say little angels, but I see too much of their mom in them to make that mistake…hahaha! Simma good luck, those two are always going to be keeping you on your toes.

I am also extremely happy that this Christmas madness is almost at an end. And releived to report that I managed to stay out of any major stampede areas (malls) this week…except for the package wrapping that I had to do yesterday for the Lions Club, but it was not too bad since it was done in a fairly quiet centre and close to an escape route! I’m very happy that I don’t have to wrap today…seems a lot of shoppers leave it to the last possible minute. I had such a wide variety of stuff that I had to wrap yesterday…a gazzilion boxes of chocolate…a telescope (that was the most spectacular)…a poop scoop (that was the most bizarre – must be for a neighbour?)…watches…bubble baths ad infinitum…enormous remote control helicopters, planes, bikes, dinosaurs and and and! One the one hand I like that most of the really expensive gifts were for kids because this truly is a holiday for them…but on the other hand it makes me sad to see how big people go…where is the simple pleasure of spending time with loved ones and family and the notion that it’s the thought that counts? I understand that when you have kids you want whats best for them and to treat them at every opportunity (especially to whatever you maybe felt was missing in your childhood?), but I sometimes wonder if we as a society are not doing our babies a dis-service by numbing them to simple things…what exactly does it take to wow a kid these days? Where will it all end?!

Okay…that’s my soapbox moment for the week ;-)…I hope that everyone will be enjoying a blessed time with their families and loved ones over Christmas (or whatever festive season you happen to celebrate). I hope that if you have to travel that you get there and back safely…and that you still get thrilled by the little things that make life special…and I hope that in the next few days you manage to get at least a minute or two to think about the special year that’s almost behind us…what you have to be thankfull for and the challenges and adventures that might be coming your way in 2007…in other words, I hope you manage to make your new years resolutions while you’re not under the influence!

A very merry Christmas to all!

Summer Madness...

2006-12-17T21:59:00.002+02:00

Well! This has been one craaaaaazy week! Remember when I said how everyone just goes social over summer…where every day is a reason to celebrate and get in touch with friends (some who you didn’t manage to see the whole year long!). I don’t know how other people manage to fit it all in but in this last week I had to attend up to three different events a day…I am completely exhausted!!! Obviously I have more photos to show in a week like this – and I didn’t even take photos everywhere…By the way with 30’C plus weather here almost every day this week I have declared Frozen Margeritas THE drink of this season…so far I’ve had many – all good. The one venue did throw me off slightly by doing the rim in sugar instead of salt but it was still tasty and refreshing and they balanced it with extra Tequila so I let it slide…

I think I’ll start you off this week with a nice tranquil shot of a pretty sunset (sky’s on fire) that I saw this week driving between one event and the next one…Oh yes! I've also decided that I'm not going to say much more about the love in my life until I've manged to tell my family about him (It's not right that the whole world should know before I've managed to tell my family) but still John...wish you could have seen this sunset with me...;-)

Next is a photo of me and *Esmerelda* on our joint doctor visit…we basically dared each other to go for the dreaded gynecological visit and so we ended up going together! Actually I think it was such a clever idea that we’ve decided to make it an annual thing…the 13 th of December is going to our day for that from now on…and next year we’re going to see if we can get a bigger group going and turn it into a mob-thing. The new doctor we found is brilliant, but I’m not telling you his name because if word gets out how I might battle to get an appointment myself?! (No, okay I will tell upon individual request…but only because I know how traumatic this experience can be and I want to help).

I also managed to get together with my old school budd Louelle and her mother for afternoon ice tea and some skinder (Afrikaans word for gossip). She gave me a frangipani tree!!! It’s beautifull – I love it. It’s one of my favourite flowers anywhere and usually only grows in a little bit more tropical area…but Louelle has managed to devise a clever trick to help it grow here and I am so excited to have my own now that I have a chance to keep it alive!

I’ve seen a couple of movies with my friend Freddy too…here’s a shot of him at Mugg&Bean Coffe Shop that I had to sneak in because he’s so camera shy… We saw Open Season and The Holiday…both feel good movies which I enjoyed, but Freddy is trying to convince me that I need to see Charlotte (I thik that’s the name?) which is a movie about a spider?! He’s still got to sell this to me a bit more – I hate f-ing spiders!

Further more I also had the privelige of meeting “The Ben” this week. My friend Jacky booked Friday with me in August already to meet Ben who she met when she was working and living in London for two years…Ben is actually from Australia but is busy getting his British passport. What a funny guy! This man went on holiday on his own for two and a half months and just made friends wherever he went. He entertained us especially with his tales of spending three days in Cape Town never leaving his guest lodge’s bar (together with the other people in his tour of course) where they in created the ICK (International Council of Kukao!) and held the World Championships of Kukao! (which basically entails last man standing on a bar making crowing bird noises (Kukaaaaaaooooo!!!!) and flapping imaginary wings while drinking a newly devised shooter …you guessed it – a Kukao (Klipdrift and Kaluha). Ben won the first world cup and intends to start a website for the members…the next world cup will be held on the first full moon of December 2007 wherever Ben is. Funny guy!

Also it’s official – from the 16^th of December you will be taking your own life in your hands if you venture into a mall. Beware of the the Christmas Shopper Stampedes!!! I am thankfully done with my shopping and no mall will see me again until the 26^th…Good luck with your last minute scrambles if you haven’t managed to plan better. ;-)...

This weeks fine selection of quotes to keep you going...

2006-12-17T21:59:00.001+02:00

The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax – Albert Einstein (Thanks Adam!)

There is more to life than increasing its speed – Mohandas Gandi (Thanks Adam!)

We are made wise not by our past, but by the responsibility for our future – George Bernard (Thanks Adam!)

A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity – Proverbs 17:17

I am not on this earth by chance. I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply all my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy. – Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

Quotes of the week...

2006-12-10T22:35:00.003+02:00

Man knows so much and does so little – R. Buckminster Fuller (Thanks Adam!)

I do not seek. I find – Pablo Picasso (Thanks Adam!)

A man gazing on the stars is proverbially at the mercy of the puddles on the road – Alexander Smith (Men of Letters)

Time teaches all things to him who lives forever but I have not the luxury of eternity – Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

I do not mean to live in vain – Harriet Beecher Stowe

It's the season to be jolly?

2006-12-10T22:35:00.001+02:00

This week was a momentus occasion for our dog Diablo who finally after two years of trying has finally managed to catch a Hadidah (I could be off with the spelling here?). This big bird was stealing his food when he outran and caught it. He was so proud of his catch…and wouldn’t let us take it away until he had a chance to show my dad what a good hunter he was. Sorry for the squimish – but I think that’s kind of cute!

What another crazy week! It has just been one social event after another including my 10 aniversary of Voortrekkers yesterday. For those that don’t know Voortrekkers is very similar to the scouts only it’s a cultural movement for Afrikaans kids where they get to learn more about their culture, learn to respect and use their language, get in touch with nature all in a Christian context. It was great seeing everyone again! Hopefully we won’t let another 10 years go by before we catch up again?

Other than that I’ve been busy doing the dreaded Christmas shopping. I have only one or two items on the list left to get…and even though I told myself that this year I would keep it low key I have not managed it as well as I had planned…oh well, maybe next year? ;-)

I’ve been helping out the Lions too with the gift wrapping kiosk at the mall. (I knew all those years of wrapping would come in handy at some stage?). Other than this little bit of work I have been mostly filling up my days with seeing friends and daydreaming about the man in my life…what a sweetheart…*sigh*

I can’t believe how fast this year has zipped past…I need to start working on my new years resolutions and I haven’t even got the Christmas tree up yet!!! Hope you all have a great week…and that you manage not get trampled in a mall shopping stampede!

Quotes, quotes and more quotes!!!

2006-12-04T03:12:00.001+02:00

Definition “Love”: …Love is not a get-out-of-reality-free card but rather an emotional bond between two people who accept each other beyond the confinement of outdated roles. – Caroline Hurry (Handbook for the Huntress)

The enemy of art is the absence of limitations- Orson Welles (Thanks Adam!)

Wealth, my son, should never be your goal in life. Your words are elequent but they are mere words. True wealth is of the heart, not of the purse. – Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. – Proverbs 24:3-4

A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running – Groucho Marx (Thanks Adam!)

Once apon a time...

2006-12-03T23:27:00.001+02:00

Mmm… I guess we all want a fairy godmother to take a swipe at us with her magic wand and take us to the ball from time to time? This has been a week like that for me…I’ve had some of my highest highs and lowest lows in this one single week. It’s been a roller-coaster ride from ecstatic to miserable and everywhere in between. (Obviously everyone knows that almost the only thing that can take you on a spin like that is Love, Lust or a severe case of Infatuation – or/and the process of determining which of them it is ;-).

While you’re soaring on the wings of “In Love” you don’t think about a lot (because the air is a bit thinner up there I guess?), but when you’re wings get clipped or you fly into a tree there is always a lot of time to reflect on anything significant previously overlooked. And so when I hit bottom this week I did get a chance to do some serious thinking, which was needed… (it seems my OCD includes a urge to attach silver linings to everything?) and do you know what? I am even happy to be miserable…odd as that may sound… I feel alive!!!! The Pleasure and the Pain of this adventure is so intense it takes my breath away, but I’d pick this over the numbness and indifference any day of the week… (I’m soaring again if you didn’t pick up on that).

Better late than never? ...Best quotes of this past week...

2006-11-27T01:12:00.001+02:00

The supernatural is the natural not yet understood – Elbert Hubbard (Thanks Adam!)

Definition-Confidence: Boldness stemming from self-assurance. Being flase and submissive will only please a man who wants someone false and submissive. A huntress does not rely on others to provide her with a feeling of self-worth. – Caroline Hurry (Handbook for the Huntress)

The harder I work, the luckier I get – Samuel Goldwyn (Thanks Adam!)

I will greet this day with love in my heart. – Og mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the world)

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life – Mohammed Ali (Thanks Adam!)

My lilies...

2006-11-27T00:37:00.000+02:00

I know you're expecting the quotes of the week right about now...uhm...I'm running a little bit late with them...but don't worry - they are definitely on the way. i'm just putting the finishing touches on the list!

In the mean time let me share something else with you: my lillies that I planted in Sepetember have all started blooming madly this week. I am as thrilled as a new parent. Look at my babies...

Summer...at last you have arrived...

2006-11-27T00:18:00.000+02:00

In last week's post Gobody commented that he didn't know how a SA summer would be like. Well, I've been thinking how best to describe it and I keep coming up with silly descriptions like ...hot and humid...fun...alive...easy going looooong days of summer...I don't know. I think everyone just generally seem much happier in summer, must be the regular exposure to sun?

Well yesterday (Saturday) we opened summer in a big way at our house. My brother and our one of our friends Denise came up with the brilliant idea that we should have a pool party. So they invited all the hooligans over and it turned out to be quite an event. It feels like it's official now! Gobody...I don't know how to describe a SA summer to you (but I'm going to work on it) but for now what I can do is show you some pictures of our welcome summer pool party, and you should get a fair idea how much we enjoy this season around here. ;-)Here is a picture of my brother and Denise...the two main culprits (geniuses behind the event)

Even my parents got into the whole event...

Here's a nice shot of almost everyone in the "pool"...
This carried on until the sun went down...then we made a big fire and BBQ'ed loads of meat and partied until almost midnight! Doesn't that sound like fun?

This is basically what happens round here in summer - only the venue changes. We like getting social in exotic locations too. So you can basiaclly take all the main ingredients and stick it on a beach...in the bush...on a partyboat...in a club...next to a lake...at someone's house. It doesn't really matter. I guess summer is so well loved here because summer means good times with friends.

Quotes for this week...

2006-11-19T21:04:00.002+02:00

This week selection:

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination – John Lennon (Thanks Adam)

Mother nature is not sweet – John Shelby Spong (Thanks Adam )

Definition – Moderation: This is not a word in the huntress’ vocabulary. Moderation is for bores. – Caroline Hurry (Handbook for the Huntress)

Never will I be of concern that my goals are too high for is it not better to aim my spear at the moon and strike only an eagle that to aim my spear at the eagle and strike only a rock? – Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

Complacency is a far more dangerous attitude than outrage – Naomi Littlebear

Busy busy busy!

2006-11-19T21:04:00.001+02:00

This has been a crazy week. For one I finished my exams and now have a lot more time to contemplate my unemployment. Luckily I have found some very interesting ways to distract myself ;-)

I have “invested” in a new toy…meet my zippy new data card. It is the best thing to happen to my computer since virus pretection became available in free software too. Since I am going to be on the internet feeding my addiction I might as well be faster? Anyway, it’s bliss. I refuse to say anything negative about it.

Observe the next picture…this is what happens to you when you spend almost two days uninterrupted in IRC chat and MSN messenger. You get really really tired and forget how to talk coherently! I’ve had so much coffee in the last few days that my hands start shaking just at the mention of the word.

Other news this week – I’ve finally updated my links. Actually this development was inspired by Gobody’s blog (where I also have a link now J). Not everyone I connect with have blogs so you’ll notice that some are just bulletin boards in MySpace, but for the sake of completeness I added them too. Also note that there is a section on Me,Myself and I…this is a list of all my official sites but I use them all for different objectives. This is my one and only Blog, MySpace is my bulletin board and a few of my friends are there which helps me connect with them, and then LiveSpaces I’ve decided I’m going to use mostly as a photo album, so loads of albums to get onto that in the next few days.

I hope that you all will have an excellent week ahead full of surprise and adventure.

Why does it still feel like August to me?

2006-11-12T13:31:00.003+02:00

Geez but this year has whizzed past! I just realised today that it’s almost December – I should definitiely start panicking about Christmas and what-not. It’s been more than 2 months since I’ve listened or watched any news other than the opinions I encounter in news groups. *No news is good news, right?

This week I rediscovered IRC chat – and it’s still as addictive as it used to be, that’s for sure. I used up my monthly data in a week!(On text?!). *Bright side coming: Lucky thing too, since I would otherwise never have found out that I was being charged for double the data package I was actually being allocated…some sad story was told to the effect that my requested upgrade only went through in some of the systems and not the others. Yeah right! Just fix it or I might come rattle things personally to see where in the world it really got stuck. A system will only what the operators make it do. (#@! In,will give #@! Out, isn’t it?). *More Bright side coming: Buuuut, I finally got transferred to someone who knows the system, and who felt inclined to help me so it’s all sorted out now – and just so you know I’m not a complete cow, I did say some very nice things about him on Hellopeter.com and recommended that he should get a big fat bonus for being so clever. I once recommended a very good sales lady should be cloned and one put in every branch – but he wasn’t THAT good.

I wrote Civil Procedure (again) on Monday and I have a sneaky suspicion it won’t be the last time. That subject is fast becoming my unicorn. *See gone in 60 sconds – Eleanor. But thankfully I only have one exam left for this semester on Thursday – Advanced Family law. Let it be known that 6 in one semester is a foolish thing to take on, and no fun. I am sick and tired of exams for this year.

Not to worry: it’s not all work and no play. They had a belated Holloween party at the club this week and we all had to dress up as witches and wizards. I’ve included a few pics for you here. I like dress-up parties! ;-) Can’t wait to see what’s next. I’m thinking of maybe organising a Mad-Hatter’s (Long Island Ice) Tea Party – or maybe just some LazerQuest war games in camo. *Excuse me while I nurse my aching head and rethink this for a few minutes.

Hope you have an excellent week!

Quotes of the week

2006-11-12T13:31:00.002+02:00

Adam is working off his notice period (and seems to be busier than ever!) so this week I had to find some of my own material too… Enjoy!

Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one – Malcolm Forbes (Thanks Adam)

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point being a damn fool about it – W.C. Fields (Thanks Adam)

There are as many opinions as there are experts – Franklin D. Roosevelt (Thanks Adam)

Reasons to travel: Number 6 – I want to find myself: Mmmm. If you’re having problems discovering yourself in a place where you can actually read all the signs, what makes you think it’s going to be any easier where they’re all in a foreign language? – Peter Moore: No Sh*tting in the toilet (The travel guide for when you’ve really lost it)

Falling in love is like getting hit by a cattle truck. Either you go straight to heaven or you spend six months in traction sucking nourishment through a straw. – Caroline Hurry (Handbook for the Huntress)

The 115Kbps Connection

2006-11-12T13:31:00.001+02:00

Once again tonight

I glance at my connector cable

Coiled up like a snake

Ready to strike

It lures me

To a society of like minded

Intellectuals? Loners? Outcasts?

I call them on-line friends.

Like the rubber-hose tourniqette of TV junkies

I slip it on and fasten it tight

Cutting off my circulation with my mundane life.

A few breathless seconds

…alone…

Between this world and the next

Before the info-bubble pops up:

Connected

Soft sigh of relief

I just a need a little bit more…

Favourite quotes of the week...

2006-11-04T19:12:00.003+02:00

Okay, since I have now started mailing my posts in I have no excuse to be lazy anymore… Hope you find this week’s selection inspiring.

Take my love, take my land. Take me where I cannot stand.I don't care, I'm still free.You can't take the sky from me.--- "Firefly" theme.[Quoted off a thread on Rasfc]
Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the only one who asked why. (Bernard Baruch) [Thanks Adam]
We are retreating-we are advancing in another direction (Douglas McArthur) [Thanks Adam]
I have found power in the mysteries of thought (Euripides 438 B.C) [Thanks Adam]
Send the Universe mixed messages and it will support the message with the most power attached to it. If you focus on lack in your life, lack is what you will manifest. (Caroline Hurry) [Handbook for the Huntress]

This (and a bit of last) week in a nutshell...

2006-11-04T19:12:00.001+02:00

Well, it was a pretty uneventfull week. Compared to last week at least? I was still battling with Blogger to update at that time so I may have left out some details, so I better clue you in on those too.

Last week was not really a good week for people to know me I guess…

One of my buddies (Tanya) was involved in a smash and grab robbery (as the victim of course!) and even though she was not injured, she did suffer some emotional trauma. That makes me really mad! How dare these criminals carry on like this and make prisoners (of their own fear if nothing else) of people like that?! It’s probably better that nothing like this has ever happened to me – because I think I would most likely react so violently that I may end up endangering my own life or that of innocent people around me. I just skip scared and go for furious. *Note to self: re-look at that anger management thing maybe?

Then, after that another family friend was diagnosed with breast cancer. This illness is apparently more common than one would expect, last I heard if you are a woman you stand a 1 out of 10 chance of getting it? (Mmm, this is sales pitch data – so it could be ever so slightly inaccurate) Those odds suck if you ask me – especially since I am apparently in a high risk bracket (Don’t ask…I won’t ellaborate). Luckily it was an early detection and the cancer has not yet spread into the glands. They have already operated and successfully? removed all the cancer, but her doctor has recommended a full masectomy on both breasts and she has only a week or so to decide if she “wants” to do that. Apparently her chances for the cancer not to return is much better if there is nothing to return to? That is truly horrible! I’m not sure if I would be able to make a decision like that if I were in that possition. I hope it works out well for her whatever she decides…

Then, my friend Simone’ lost her husband Pieter in a very tragic bike accident last week. He was driving around a bend in the road when a taxi-bus popped out of a blind entrance and they collided, since there was no time for him to avoid it or stop – it was instant. He leaves behind two very young children too: Mishcke (4) and Juan-Antonio(2). pic of Pieter with his son

And of course my exam – all in one week!

That’s why I am really releived to say that this week was fairly uneventfull. But nonetheless, here are all the events of the week:

My mom went back to work on Wednesday after almost a month recuperating from her 3-in-1 operation.

We bought a new not-inflatable pool (the other one got slashed by Tigger in a survival attempt after she decided to drink water from it and fell in…the patches come off in the heat, so I constantly had to re-fix it!)

I wrote another exam on Thursday

I went bowling with Freddy and some of his friends (and I came second – whoo-hoo!)

Had a great seafood dinner with *Esmerelda* and Jacobus on Friday and saw a spectacular sunset of which I couldn’t get a decent photo taken (so you’ll just have to imagine it – it was a sky’s on fire type)

I’m exhausted! Wish I could sleep now – but I’m writing on Monday morning so no rest for the wicked (or even just for me). ;-)

The storm pic at last!

2006-10-31T23:36:00.000+02:00

Whoo-hoo! Pics are working for me again. :-)

Buggered Blogger

2006-10-29T02:37:00.000+02:00

I wrote a little piece about my blogger experience over the last few weeks, and how I felt when I couldn't get to my blog...and even though those days seem to over now, I would still like to post it now for entertainment value (a for the sake of completeness of history).
...
It seems like Blogger is down for some much needed maintenance, repairs or exorcism? Anyway, apologies for not being able to meet my usual Sunday deadline - hopefully when you read this it will be Monday and not next Sunday (Gmf! Obviously this was when I was having a naive moment).

Rant: I have been able to compose just fine, but as soon as I try to Save or Publish the post all I get is a Big White Screen. Ever heard of the dreaded Blue Screen of Death? (I have just recently been introduced to this technical term so I might be using it in the wrong context), anyway...I shall call this new adventure in the wonderfull world of Blogging the White Screen of Frustration. It has the super-power of rendering any victims instantly aggravated and unable to find suitable help files. That is an awesome power to harness - well done Blogger.com! ;-) Marvel should make you your own movie...

Now I will breathe out all this negativity and try to focus on good news that comes my way, so that I may come here to RE-F-ING type it out ONE WORD AT A TIME and be unable to use pictures (which are apparently worth a thousand words so that probably explains it?).

Breathe in....Breathe out...Okay, I feel a bit better now. I really would like to post again on how you fixed it all and turned it around, so please don't dissapoint me.

A very long update...

2006-10-29T02:19:00.000+02:00

This will be a very lenghty update since I now have TWO weeks worth of news to share with you.

I was going to upload a picture of the fantastic storm we had last week, but I still can't get images loading at the moment and I'm so happy about having text appear that I am willing to just give it a week or so before I start getting seriously annoyed by that.

Anyway, last week we had a great storm...40 mm in a few minutes in Johannesburg when the skies opened up. All the roads instantly turned into little fast-flowing rivers (I would have like to get a good photo of that but I needed both my hand to keep my boat - Toyota Tazz - floating in more or less my lane). * Note to self: get new wiper blades fitted ASAP!

Okay that was last week: this week Friday we had another very nice storm - 64 mm this time. :-)

Exam news: Last week and this week - both subjects feel okay-ish, but not as great as the first one. We'll have to wait and see. Next week will be another tough one so I will be very unavailable this next week. Nose in the books where it belongs...

Favourite quote of last week...

2006-10-29T02:09:00.000+02:00

Okay, I've been consistently putting up 5 quotes a week since I started this blog. But if you check out the comments on my first attemp at "One of my babies..." you'll see that I now have to retype EVERYTHING I want to post - so now we will change this feature to my favourite only (yes...because I am lazy and prone to typos - not preferable when quoting)

So here goes: favourite quote of last week (thanks Adam!)

Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news which obeys it's own special laws. (Douglas Adams)

Okay...we'll just try this again

2006-10-29T01:55:00.000+02:00

One of my babies becomes a song...

As you probably know by now I like to dabble with a bit of poetry now and then and I'm very excited to report that one of my babies will be coming out on a CD soon as a song! My cousing Melanie is busy with her recordings and she asked me on a previosu occasion if she could use this specific poem. There are still a few details to sort out, but if all goes well - My Blood Curse - will also be a gospel song by next year. (I've included it here in it's original form for your entertainment)

My Blood Curse

The sins of the fathers
are passed down the blood-line.
You may have left me this curse,
but I have made it all mine.

Depression, Addiction, Abuse,
Of my "gifts" these are just a few.
Madness, Anger and Violence,
Yes, those are within me too.

Today...I'm taking control
and braking the age-old spell.
I'm saying a prayer to set my soul free
My one-way ticket out of hell.

No more will this legacy plague me.
Behind me the pain and despair.
I'll never pass this on to one of my own
I'm the last of the blood-cursed heirs...

testing...

2006-10-29T01:38:00.000+02:00

If you can see this - please tell me...because then and only then will I not spit every time I here the word Beta (or Blogger).

One of my babies becomes a song…

2006-10-28T20:54:00.000+02:00

2006-10-15T23:57:00.000+02:00

Braai (BBQ) at Mount Olympus

Well…yesterday was the 2^nd Birthday bash of my news group Kwaaiplaas and as I mentioned we decided to have a Greek Mythology party this year. Incidentally next year apparently we’re doing dress up like your favourite (or your own) zodiac sign. Now I have loooooaaaaads of time to come up with a costume that will make me look like a lion. I like to plan these things, what can I say?

I have to say that everyone climbed into this year’s theme with gusto! We had Madusa (me), Poseidon (Wanette), Cupid (Annelie), Zeus (Tiaan), Aphrodite (Marizca), Hercules (Jaco), and even –believe it or not- the Greek Easter Bunny (Melanie) who at some stage in the proceedings declared herself renamed to Rings of Saturn due to a extraordinary amount of glowstick bangles that she festooned her wrists and ankles with.

I’ve included a few picks from the day – hope you get a kick out of it!

2006-10-15T23:52:00.000+02:00

This week’s favourite quotes…

This week we have a mixed bag. Mostly quotes by Adam (thanks again Adam!) and I’ve also thrown in one of my own. ;-)

You are remembered for the rules you break (Douglas MacArthur)
There are no original ideas. There are only origianl people (Barbara Grizzuti Harrison)
If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking (George S.Patton)
Wisdom outweighs any wealth (Sophocles)
Blood might be thicker than water, but not as thick as chocolate (Me) Context: The integrity and safety of my Belgian chocolate pusher (Vera) questioned and or threatened by a close relative (Melanie my cousin)!

2006-10-15T23:34:00.000+02:00

EVI101-3 The Law of Evidence

I wrote my first exam for the semester this week (One down five to go!) and I am happy to report that it went great. I am really glad that I have so much time and head-space to focus on my studies now. I even knew case names – a previously inknown phenomena for me! I will be very surprised if I don’t get a distinction for this one, and that makes me very very happy since I’ve tried completing this module on a previous occasion (or 2) with dire results. This was exactly the mental boost that I desperately needed…from here on I believe that things will only get better and better. Yay!

2006-10-08T16:54:00.000+02:00

Quotes of Note:

My friend Adam can always be trusted to provide me with something to mull over for the day. Every single day he sends a quote of the day as inspiration. Sometimes serious, sometimes funny – always appreciated. Here are my favourite quotes of the week, all of them provided by Adam (Thanks!).

Weather forecast for tonight: dark (George Carlin)
Confusion is always the most honest response (Marty Indik)
Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry (Bill Cosby)
About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends (Herbert Hoover)
Oh just bear with it… (Adam Martin) - Original Oprah quote that caused this one was ommitted.

2006-10-08T16:46:00.000+02:00

Pipe Cleaners save the day – an unlikely story of desperately needed support obtained from ex-smoking paraphernalia.

On the 14^th of October Kwaaiplaas (the news/chat group) is having it’s 2^nd Birthday party and the theme is supposed to be Greek Mythology. A certain wise-ass declared that she would be appearing as the one and only Madusa (you know the one with the full head of snakes…or having a very bad hair day?), and honestly I thought it would be really simple.

My plan was to strap some toy snakes to an alice-band and voila! Madusa as promised. But in not one single toy shop out of the 6 that I’ve visited have I been able to allocate a damn rubber snake that is suitable for this mission. Some of them are so big that if I had to strap only two onto my head I would also have to figure out what an Ancient Greek neck-brace looked like too, so as a plan B I decided to just add some coloured shiny ribbons and hope for the best. Unfortunately this did not even vaguely resemble snakes and I ended up looking more like the NixNax guy than Madusa.

Finally today I experienced a breakthrough! Yay! I was cleaning a corner of my room and discovered a bag full of old smoking stuff (4 pipes, 2 packets of pipe cleaners a big box of matches and about a kilo of flavoured tabacco). For in case you were wondering: I may have bordered on chain smoking but this was actually bought for a fundraising event at church – I’m just the custodian. Today is day 332 that I am clean of smoking, and still going strong. Anyway, back to Madusa… with the help of some pipe cleaners and red ribbon I now have a full head of snakes ready for next week. (Okay maybe half a head of snakes, but I ran out of pipe cleaners and frankly I think it will do).

See below – my snakes – expertly modeled by my lovely kettle together with a fetching black head scarf! I’ve grown quite attached to them already and can’t wait to show them off next week. ;-)

2006-10-08T16:19:00.000+02:00

Bonsai!

I just thought I’d post something on here about how nicely my little trees are doing now that I’ve made an outside haven for them. I don’t have to waffle on about this: the pictures speak for themselves… (I’ve included a before and after shot of the corner and of an individual tree as well, sorry it’s a lot of photos for one week but I really wanted to share this with you).

2006-10-04T01:52:00.000+02:00

Republish:
A job to die for…

Here is the open grave
of a woman whose filing
was always up to date,

whose children now
stand dry-eyed
and unattached
at her final resting place.

They never knew her anyway.
But at least her manager will miss her
timely reports and fondly remember her
stylish power point presentations?

2006-10-04T01:39:00.000+02:00

Republish: September sees its ass.

Well, this week has been chaos from start to finish! My mom started on her soft diet on Monday (from tomorrow she is on a completely liquid diet for three weeks…one week in preperation of her major surgery on the 10th, and another two weeks after that for the wounds to heal internally). After the liquid diet phase she’ll spend another 4 weeks on a soft diet and then she’ll have to relearn how to eat solid food after that. I’m still not completely comfortable with the idea of the stomach bypass that she’s having done, but I have to admit that so far her discipline on the diet is good to see. Obviously she is really serious about this.

Thursday was also a big day for me, since I got inducted into the Lions Club. I first got involved with the organisation through my buddy Louelle and all the great projects she told me about. Warm fuzzy feelings about trying to help other people (I better delete this post later before someone realizes that I have a soft side?). Annelie decided to come and have a look this month as well and we ended up missing most of the meeting because the three of us were giggeling and writing notes the whole time – still had loads of fun though. (See pic of Annelie & Louelle at the Lions meeting)

The weekend was action packed! On Friday I kicked it off with “buckets” of red wine kindly provided by Phillip and Ivy, then I attended a ballroom dancing social (even though I can’t ballroom dance…more red wine involved here), after which myself Annelie and her dance instructor known as Mr. Nel ended up running into my brother at Partyhouse. I only got home at 3:00AM and my dad must have known that we all felt very fragile since he (LOUDLY) sang us awake Saturday morning at 06:37. If he wasn’t blood family I might have killed him.

Today we travelled to the crazy town of Pretoria for my cousin Melanie’s birthday…I made brownies…And they came out perfectly?! @#. It was a fun day, thanks cuzz. And I finally met Mias’ son Nathan – what a cute friendly baby! (See Pic of Nathan and Melanie attached)

As far as my studies are concerned: I’ve managed to work my way through most of the Law of Evidence this week , so I’m feeling very positive about that. I have to finish that up tomorrow and then get stuck into Advanced Law of Succession next.

So nothing outrageous happened this week, but keep watching it can’t be far off…

2006-10-04T01:34:00.000+02:00

Republish: Huh…What happened?

A little bit of history is in order I guess? (Don’t panic – just a little bit). Until fairly recently I was a full-time employee (logistics manager for the factory) of Carrier SA whilst studying (also basically full-time) law through UNISA. In my spare time I also tried to save the world of course…For a couple of years it almost looked like I was going to make it (except for the saving the world bit), but in July this year I hit rock bottom. Burned out! Shame… Anyhoo, I got to a point where working and studying because mutually exclusive. So I had to choose: continue with the last 14 out of 40 subjects for my degree or carry on with my job.

And that is how I became a truly full-time student for the first time ever! (Talk about priorities). I am officially unemployed at the moment and remarkably calm about it. I figure I have a few (6 or 7) months worth of breathing space from my first cushion (the name I call my savings by: “here cushy-cussion!”) before I need to actively start panicking. Nonetheless I am tightening my belt a bit to keep with the times. For instance I only shop once a week now, and since I’ve limited that I only use a fraction of the petrol that I used to as well. See? It’s a win-win situation. No seriously – I’ve negotiated a very good deal at home in an effort to help. I rent a room from my parents and the new deal is that if I do the cooking I don’t have to pay rent. Since I’m here anyway (busy studying of course!) I might as well, and on the upside I now get to choose what I eat. Once a month I do a spreadsheet of my expenses for the food and get re-imbursed. How cool is that?!

Ryan and Tammy pointed out to me on Saturday that I am doing this totally backwards of course. Most people study, then work, then marry and live alone. Mine seems to be working exactly in the opposite direction… I hadn’t actually considered it from that angle to be honest, but I guess they’re spot-on. (This is what happens when you don’t like following the instructions, right?). I’m trying to figure out what’s supposed to come next in the sequence but currently a solid possibility still eludes me.

Well…there you are! Just a little bit of history from my side. So I guess what you might be expecting is a pretty boring blog by a burnt out full-time student/part-time cook but since things never tend to be that simple in my experience don’t be too startled if it turns out a bit more hair raising than that, okay? I hope to give you a once a week peak into my world from the mundane to the bizare, so let’s see how that goes…

First instalment due Sunday 1/10/2006. (I had this in on time by the way - but silly Beta blogger wouldn't show it)

2006-10-04T01:24:00.000+02:00

Republished post: Everything seems to be working except the damn headers! (I'm to tired to get annoyed about this now) This post is supposed to be called: And so it begins...

Well, I've decided to try my hand at this blogging business. Seems like everyone's got one - so I was starting to feel a little left out! Not sure when I'll manage to update this in between my studies, my cooking and gardening and keeping up with a gazzilion news groups so it might end up only happening once every week or so?Oh well, here goes!;-)

2006-10-03T23:43:00.000+02:00

Ek het my ander blog (stupidly) verander na 'n Beta version toe en nou is dit onmoontlik om enige ding op dit reg te kry! Ek kan nie prentjies laai nie, en my boodskappe kom net met die titel op.

So toe besluit ek om maar oor te begin en nooit weer 'n Beta version van enige iets te gebruik nie - DIT SUCK!!! Aan die postiewe kant het ek nou 'n nuwe browser...Firefox is baie vinniger as Internet Explorer.

Ek sal al my ander goed weer oor post hier, en nuwe links vir almal uitstuur. Jammer vir die verwarring.

123 Blog Myself

I've moved...

Something is broken...

Spending too much time indoors?

Ta-dah! More quotes...

Where there's smoke there's fire...right?

Flu...

Piece of cake...

Quotes...

Till death do us part?

So tired from sleeping...*yawn*...

Hands off the @#% cupcakes!

This week's quotes

Everything is going just swimmingly...

And more quotes! :-)

Gimme the good news...

Quotes of the week...

Heat Wave...

Infestations all over...

A fine selction of quotes...;-)

An opinion poll and the weeks drama...

Weekly Quotes!

Adventures of bug-boy and intro to hellopeter.com ...

Quotes for this week...

Wrapping Up January and this week...

And this weeks quotes are...

Quotes...

One week in paradise...well, the south coast at least? ;-)

Some sad news too...

trouble posting...

Quotes of the week...

Taking a break from doing nothing...

Brand new quotes for this week...

Easy does it...

First quotes of the new year...

New years resolutions...

Kick-As* quotes for this week...

It was the week before Christmas...and in SA not a thing was quiet!

Summer Madness...

This weeks fine selection of quotes to keep you going...

Quotes of the week...

It's the season to be jolly?

Quotes, quotes and more quotes!!!

Once apon a time...

Better late than never? ...Best quotes of this past week...

My lilies...

Summer...at last you have arrived...

Quotes for this week...

Busy busy busy!

Why does it still feel like August to me?

Quotes of the week

The 115Kbps Connection

Favourite quotes of the week...

This (and a bit of last) week in a nutshell...

The storm pic at last!

Buggered Blogger

A very long update...

Favourite quote of last week...

Okay...we'll just try this again

testing...

One of my babies becomes a song…

So tired from sleeping...yawn...