crackbook and no more ms nice person

Just to be clear, this is not The Deep and Meaningful One, I'll give you a heads up on that. No, this is The One About Facebook. Because it's a topic which invariably needs tackling in every dedicated web slave's life at some point or another.

So facebook. It starts off innocently enough, you hook up with some buddies, you insult each other playfully on your walls, you post some fun/nostalgic/embarrassing photos.

Then 'oh ja, remember her' sends you a friend request and you think it'll be fun to see what she's up to, so you accept it. And her brother's, when that invariably then comes through.

Then the whack one from Varsity who you always thought was way cool sends you a request and your early-20's slightly insecure ego proves to still be lurking in the back of your psyche and you accept and feel a little smug that you've clearly made the grade. Finally.

Then your long lost drinking pal contacts you from New Zealand where she's now a divorced mom of 3 and you obviously accept her although you've zilch in common now but for old time's sake right? Then her room-mate who you didn't really know but you spent a couple of drunken evenings together so what the hell... and you add her too.

And then you get that request from someone who you absolutely most definitely have no fucking clue who they are so you call up your buddy from high school (one of only 3 that you still have contact with, on facebook or otherwise) and it turns out she a) remembers him, b) reminds you about That Night and the fact that omg you should so remember him too and - horror of horrors - c) she's just accepted his friend request and now you'll look like a superior tart if you don't but you really don't feel like it, but, but, but.... and so the rot starts...

Next thing it's ex-boyfriends, ex-colleagues, and my personal worst, the entire rest of your high school class, all sending you messages and wanting to be friends, and by now the little contextual relevance you may have had has so fallen by the wayside and you just actually really don't want them in your life again. And the next thing you know you're angsting about 'how it will look' if you ignore so-and-so, and working out that refusing 'halitosis-from-highschool' will mean you can never again post on the wall of 'kinda cool from chemistry' in case halitosis sees it and remembers that you exist but didn't accept their friend request and yada yada yada.... 

And for a minute there you're tempted to pack the whole thing in, delete your profile and get the fuck out of Dodge.

But doggone you can't. 'Cos you're hooked. Because if you weren't there you'd feel like you were missing out. And because for every unwelcome friendship advance there's someone that you're loving being back in contact with, someone who you last spoke to when you were 11 but you totally got each other then and wow, you still do now. Someone whose kids you're watching grow up through their photos, whose wedding you managed to attend, albeit digitally, someone who reminds you of the person you once were, or the good times you once had, someone who makes you laugh each and every time you log on.

And you do, cheesy as it may sound, feel like you're in a community of sorts, a social environment which is always there, always available (when you have bandwidth that is). This was never more precious to me then in those first few months of mindfuck colic newborn baby bizarreness. I could crawl to my PC at 2 am, aching boobs, grainy eyes, surreal sense of time and place, log on and find a friend, have a laugh, have a moan, and feel like I was still part of The World.

So I'm not packing it in. Weighing up the pros and cons there's too many reasons not to. But what I am doing is becoming far more ruthless. Tonight I culled my friend list, I tossed the dead wood, I swept out the cobwebby corners. And I ceremoniously ignored the 4 pending friend requests I had from people who have no relevance to me. Because facebook is a new social order and the old rules need not apply. I would say hello to those 4 in the street 'cos I'm a well brought up gal, but I'm not going to befriend them out of a sense of social obligation.

This is crackbook y'all, it's a whole new world, and I don't have to be Ms Nice Person here. 

So there.

for art's sake

 Last night I started quite a deep and meaningful post, and was really enjoying getting a little, er, deep and meaningful, when we ran out of bandwidth and lost the internet! My god, what to do??

A short argument ensued about who'd been doing more downloading and chewing through our cap, then a mad rush to phone our service provider and order more, a temporary meltdown when we discovered their support line closes at 9pm (wtf??) and then we pulled ourselves together and got amazingly productive. Well, I did.

In the absence of the internet I;

1. Completed an album of photos from a friend's wedding

2. Made some more origami fish and strung them up in my 'studio'

3. Sorted and stored away my winter clothes (and then obviously today's been a little chilly and I had to pull out a cardi again. Obviously.)

4. Made a list of everyone I need to buy/find/make Xmas presents for, and

5. Sorted and resized a whack of photos which had just been dumped randomly onto my PC

In the process I found these, taken in and around our neighbourhood while out walking Frieda over the last few months. I love living in a suburb in which people paint on the walls.

 Milton Rd, Observatory Cape Town Oct 2008

 Gordon Rd, Observatory Aug 2008 (and in other places around Obs and the rest of town - it's a movement!)

 Lower Main Rd, Observatory Oct 2008 - I'm intrigued by this one. Who did it? What does it mean? Hmmmm....

And of course, one my personal favourites was this, but alas censorship prevails and it's been painted out. Spoil-sports.

Later we're off to the first Obs Night Market, hopefully there's some fun to be had, and then maybe even later, I'll get all deep and meaningful again...

must-have halloween mask for 2008!

http://www.forbes.com/static_html/halloween/2008/sarahpalin.html

Urgh, can't figure out how to show the whole image. Too tired to do it now, but love it too much to not share it. Follow the link for the whole mask. Who knew Forbes had a sense of humour?

a hint of things to come...

One of the things I've been enjoying about hanging out in playgrounds (odd, but I seem to have been doing quite a bit of that lately...), is listening in on the conversations between the kids. As an adult, I'm completely invisible to them and can sit quietly by and eavesdrop. (Ok, ok, it's one of my favourite things to do anyway, be the conversationalists 5 or 55, but with the 5 yr olds I don't even have to pretend to have lost my car keys, or be blind or any of my usual stunts.)

This morning Frieda and I visited Deer Park in the City Bowl - they've got such cool stuff - and I overheard this little gem, which gave me a heads up of what may be coming down the line. Of all the things I'd already thought of that Frieda may have to deal with in play-parks in the future, this one hadn't occurred to me yet...

Three 5/6/7/whatever yr old girls, clearly recently befriended (how refreshing to use that word in a non-facebook sense), around the swings; one girl says to the others: "Does your mother read to you from the bible every day?". Blank looks from the other two. One of them: "No, why would she?" (titter from me). First girl; "You must ask her to read you the bible every day so you can learn to love Jesus." Third girl, until now silent; "Let's go on the roundabout!" and runs off. Second one follows quickly, Bible Girl brings up the rear a little slower.

I glance over at Frieda, busy chasing pine cones (ja I know, they don't move, but she hadn't figured that out yet), and feel a little overwhelmed by all that she (and, by proxy, I) will encounter in the near future. Lord (if you are out there after all), give me strength and wisdom to guide her through this complex life. Oh, and a whole sackful for her father too please, 'cos he ain't getting away with leaving this stuff up to me!

Anyhoo, the park was lovely - life lessons aside -

this reminded me that somewhere in the shed I have a whole bag of bottle tops I collected while pregnant to make just such strings, I'll have to dig them out and give it a bash,

and this is just too clever.

randomness

So I'm muuuuuch better. (And starting my posts with 'so' again it seems.)

God it's amazing what getting it all out of your system does for you, the only thing better than a good moan is a good cry and having had both I'm back on form.

A quiet weekend. A spot of gardening, spot of baking - chocolate banana bread with almonds and white chocolate chips... yes I know I'm moaning about my weight but goddamn these bananas have got to be used, and I did a big forest walk today ok? Sheez...

Also a bit of cutting and sticking - a silly little cover for my recipe book...

Frieda & I walked on the promenade and she nearly got abducted by seagulls.... 

And someone parked this beauty in our road for the whole of Saturday;

Which reminded me of this beauty...

Oh, and that was a lovely little car too.

Actually I lie, that was a bitch of a little car who failed me repeatedly; threatened to kill me with noxious fumes, never started, very nearly took me off De Waal drive a number of times... but god she was cute with her chrome creamness, red leather interior and genuine 1969 loveliness. But by the time that young med student sucker took her off my hands, 2000 I think it was, I was more than happy to see her go, hadn't missed her for a second and hardly thought about her again, until yesterday...

ups & downs

Blah.

That pretty much sums up a lot of how I've been feeling the last week or so. A little grey around the edges, a little lack-lustre. A lot of blah.

But even consistent blah would be more manageable then this bizarre pseudo-manic-depressive, up and down, a constant oscillation from bling : ) to blah : |, with occasional brief plummets into : (. And I can't really trace its origins to any one thing, just seems to be an accumulative roller-coaster (no, roller-coaster is too exciting sounding, this doesn't even warrant that kind of association), maybe an accumulative goods lift of ups and downs which play out every day, every up a momentary breath of fresh air, every down crushingly boring and blah-inducing.

Ok there, I had a little pitiful roll in that pile of shit, now I'll break it down in an attempt to wrangle this blahness into something more controllable.

WORK

Up: 5 hours of stimulating & well-paid work a week, possible more full-time exciting project on the horizon.

Down: 5 hours (while I do love the work and am deeply grateful for it) is just not enough to really get excited about. Let alone get dressed for. And possible more full-time exciting project? Ja, I'm not falling for that one until I see an offer on the table.

Up: 3 possibles in 3 weeks is not bad going for a freelancer who took over a year out.

Down: 3 possibles. No definites.

PARENTING

(ok wait, lets start channeling the right energy here - yawn - and list the downs first, followed by the upbeat and energising ups. You can't say I'm not trying ok....)

Down: Toddlerdom. Seriously, new balls please! What is this ego-developing, personality asserting, will exerting bullshit? Why must something as pleasant and harmless as eating yoghurt for gods sake turn into the clash of the titans? I mean, obviously she gets it from her father right?

Ups: Soooooo many. The child says 'helicopter'. At 16 months! And many other words besides. She understands, she communicates, watching her powers of perception and deduction develop is totally exciting and stimulating, she fawns over me (what an ego rush) and is clearly never happier then when by my side.

Down: Or in my arms. Unless we're on a busy street or in a crowded shop. Then she refuses to be in my arms. But at home, when I might want to be deep-frying something or sharpening knives or... (you get the idea, something which absolutely requires two hands and is unquestionably not baby-friendly) noooo, then she simply must be hanging off me, else wrapped around my ankles in full melt-down.

Up: I love her.

ME

Down: I feel so unproductive! 

Up: Having a nanny 3 times a week has really enabled me to get stuff done. When I'm motivated to do it.

Down: I feel so unmotivated!

Up: The wonderful blogosphere and interweb in general has given me loads of inspiration and uplifted me in so many ways.

Down: I spend all my 'free' time on the internet getting inspired and then the nanny leaves and I'm wrangling a high-spirited toddler and feeling so unproductive, and pissed off that I spent so much time online.

Up: I've been making real progress on my own (mini) studio space and will be ready to reveal it soon... I don't really know what I'm going to be doing there but am following the 'if you build it, he (in this case my muse, hopefully in the guise of George Clooney NOT Kevin Costner) will come'. Oh, just re-read that.. wha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I gotta take all the laughs I get these days.

Down: Goddamn I'm still so fat and it's summer again.

Up: The little 'un thinks it's very entertaining when I exercycle. And if she insists on being in my arms while I do, think what that's doing to my pecs?!

LIFE in GENERAL

Down: It sucks.

Up: I have a wonderful husband and a bright child and my health and a loving family and lots of good friends.

Down: That's supposed to make everything else ok but it doesn't really all the time and so on top of everything else I have to feel guilty about that too.

Up: We just started watching Season 4 of The Wire and it kicks ass!

And that's my pity party done. The lights are going out, the bunting coming down, Leonard Cohen's off the stereo, and I'm going to bed. Tomorrow will dawn full of possibility and hope.

And it better fucking deliver.

lists of 5: 5 updates on stuff

1. This was a disappointment : (

I realised after about 50 pages, but I did still need to find out what happened, so I skip-read it in under an hour. Yada yada yada.

But I did discover this while looking for one of these. Two favourite novels, two very different stories, one iconic landmark.

2. This was fun : )

I've expanded my repertoire! And am playing with this Design*Sponge tutorial.

3. This is becoming overkill : |

No Mummy, not another one! (Pls excuse dork hair. She's only 16 months you know. Exactly. My baby... Sigh.)

4. This I couldn't photograph, her new piece I mean. But her gallery is so well worth a visit.

5. And pssst, I might have a job! Finally. Tho' obviously I'm not counting my chickens or anything. Or dreaming about spending my first pay cheque on this. Nothing like that of course.

Me say day!

Come Mr Tally Man, tally me banana

Day light come and me wan' go home.

It's 6 ft, 7ft, 8ft....

Bunch!

Day light come and me wan' go home

Sat, 12 Oct 2008

A beautiful...

Thurs, 16 Oct

 

...bunch a' ripe banana...

Day light come and me wan' go home

Sat, 19 Oct

forest path

I've been reading about a Week of Paths here & here, and like Julochka I couldn't focus on this for the whole week (I know, I know but I've had a sick kiddie ok, I can show you the x-ray of her ginormous adenoid if you don't believe me), but we did get out for a forest ramble this morning and I took these.

Something was up with the ISO setting on my camera, but I quite like the sparkly effect.

This is the wonderful Newlands forest, just a hop, skip and a jump from suburbia - you gotta love Cape Town!

The weird part is you can hop & skip through this long subway under the busy M3, thereby avoiding having to cross said busy highway by car and added bonus; unlike most subways in CT this one doesn't smell of urine!

Only thing about Newlands Forest... it's very well-used so there can be a bit of a dog poop issue. And y'all know how I feel about that!

faith47

Doing some errands this morning I discovered my favourite graffiti artist, Faith47, has been busy....

And then just around the corner I glimpsed her putting up a new piece. I was caught in traffic so couldn't stop for a work-in-progress shot, but I'll be back round there on the weekend to see what's up.

Literally, 'up'. That's like cool graf speak for doing a piece see.

lists of 5: 5 amusing things about the US elections (plus 1)

Admittedly from someone who's not actually an American, and it's always easier to laugh from the other side of the world, but it's great to see some Americans laughing too and arguably we will be affected by the outcome, even way down here on the southern-most tip of Africa.

Go Barack!

1. Sarah Palin

2. Palin Bingo

3. The Great Schlep (make sure you read the talking points)

4. Obama Mama's "if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy"

5. "Three words: Vice President Oprah." And other seriously funny Obama quotes. I have to slip in another one; "I don't want to be invited to the family hunting party." --on revelations that he and Dick Cheney are eighth cousins. Lol.

I have to amend. Seconds after posting, this arrived in my inbox. Seems there's some confusion as to whether it's a hoax or not, but either way, it's hilarious. Guess it's a list of 6 then!

with apologies to dr seuss, the neighbour, the husband and, I guess, the cat...

Twas the baby's naptime and all through the house

Not a creature was stirring

Not even a mouse...

Well, especially not the mouse. 'Cos it was very dead. On my kitchen floor.

And so I faced one of those moments I'm sure all parents encounter, when I had to suck it up, stare down my personal hang-ups, and be the grown up.

I, perpetual avoider and cringer of all things dead, had to remove this mouse all by myself.

I had to act fast. If I thought about it too long I'd be a goner (seriously people, I can't flush a goldfish down the loo) and not really wanting to leave home for the afternoon, I sprung into action.

Within a minute I;

Grabbed the dust-pan & brush (long handled praise the lord), scooped the mouse corpse (shudder) into the pan.

Opened the back door and faced dilemma number 2: where to put it so the cat wouldn't find it again and eviscerate it (much harder to clean up post-evisceration). Great word by the way.

Decided to chuck it over our neighbour's wall.

Ok, ok, so I need to pause to justify this one. a) she's a cow b) she never shares the lush avocados which grow on her tree in full view of our kitchen window c) she shouts at her grand-daughter and while I'm sure 8 yr olds can be trying they don't need to be shouted at quite like that d) when she sneezes it sounds like some-one's being eviscerated (oooo, second usage...), giving us heart failure every time and e) she doesn't share her avo's.

I examined my conscience, decided I was karmically ok with it all, and lobbed that dead mouse over her wall as hard as I could.

Except I didn't.

Get it over the wall that is.

Nooooo, karma (that whiley son of a gun) had other plans and clearly decided to settle mine right there and then. The mouse dropped down my side of the wall and disappeared into the tangled ivy growing upon it.

I think I mentioned the weather's warming up?

I looked at the tangled green leaves, packed up my dust-pan and brush, went inside and decided to Make It Husband's Problem when he got home.

Alas, after some half-hearted scratching around he's been unable to find the ex-mouse and all that remains (gnh gnh) is to wait for it to make its ghoulish presence known.

And judging by the temperature today, it won't be very long.

Euuwwww.

this makes me very happy

A pile of new books, patiently awaiting my indulgence.

Possible new friends, new adventures, new perspectives. Possible heart-break, possible nightmares... A new all-time, life-time favourite could be waiting for me in this batch, or I could be disappointed with all of them (though with a Paul Auster there I think this'll be unlikely). There are very few things on earth which fill me with delicious anticipation as much as a stack of new, unopened, as yet unread, books.

I have to credit my Mum twice over for my love of reading. Firstly I do believe it gets carried over in the genes, but secondly, to read to your children is one of the greatest gifts you can give them, and my Mum read to us every day from when we were babies.

She's a clever lady as I've mentioned before, she knew that nurturing our inner book worms had a long-term advantage for her too.

On Saturday mornings we'd go down to village, we'd run some errands, each be given 50 cents (later it got upped to a whole 1 rand!) to spend on sweets and then we'd make our weekly pilgrimage to the library. She'd gotten us so hooked on the printed word that we weren't terribly discerning, which was a good thing in a small, conservative, mainly-Afrikaans village library, and leaving there on a Saturday morning, with a new pile of books in my arms, I would feel exactly the same twitchy, anticipatory excitement which the above pictured pile gives me today.

Oh, and to get to the clever part, my 2 brothers and I would happily spend Saturday afternoons lying on our beds, eating our sweeties and reading quietly, while my Mum no doubt did exactly the same! I still remember those afternoons as some of my fondest childhood memories. 

And finally, contrary to the popular saying; always judge a book by its cover. This cover is so beautiful I'm going to be terribly unhappy if the book is shite. I'll let you know!

 

poor puddy-tat

As I may have mentioned, we actually have 2 cats. Fritta, the mad ginger perp, has already made a couple of appearances here, but for too long have I neglected to mention our other kitty; our first baby, she of the velvet paws, lover of cappuccino foam, bulimic half Siamese, neurotic devotee of all things human...

Khoki (Felt-Tip to non-South Africans)

Poor Khoki has never quite recovered from her demotion from adored and indulged fur-kid to adored and not-so-indulged-anymore number 1 pet. (It's ok, Fritta's well aware of the situation and totally fine with it. No really, she prefers the number 2 slot - less pressure). I think you can guess who usurped Khoks?

I think you can guess how Khoki feels about her?

The Tale of a Sad Kitty

Khoki, will you play with me?
Begone, demon spawn

 
Ok this is how the game works...
Seriously.

 
Khoki & I are going to build something!
Unless it's a shrine to my previous life I’m not playing.

 
You can have this yellow one.
No thank you.

 
AND this wooden stick!
No. Thank you.

 
Blah blah blah....
I wish I was dead.

 
Next it'll be the bonnet and the doll’s pram. Sigh.

ooo daniel, we love you!

Local trendspotting site Cherry Flava just posted this deliciousness last night. Mr Yummy, Daniel Craig (looking rough 'n ready with greying beard and arm-sling and still sooooo hot.. sizzle...), and what's that in his hand?

A beaded SA flag keyring no less.

Go Brand SA!

If you can't see it in this tiny pic, read all about it here. Thanks Cherry Flava!

girls are great

Once a month I go out to dinner with a bunch of girls. (Can I just say straight off that yes, they're all over 30, some over 40, but yes, I am going to call them girls. 'Cos they're mine, so I can. Ok?)

It's an odd grouping, gathered together by one of our number who's an immigrant from another town, and they're always better at making new friends then us complacent Capeys. We know each other through our husbands mainly, who've mostly worked together at various different companies. Some of us are part of a group who (pre-babies) used to 4x4 together regularly, some of us had never met before we started doing this 5 or 6 months ago.

Each month we meet at a different restaurant for a cheapish meal, a couple of bottles of wine and lots and lots of laughs. And slowly we've gotten more drawn into each other's lives, peeled back the layers of superficial acquaintance, delved beyond the daily mundanities, and become quite important to each other.

Last night our 10 broke down like this:

1 was absent due to a business trip to the Maldives

2 of us are work from home mums, trying to maintain the balance every day but for the most part loving it

3 are pregnant - one due in 3 weeks time, the other 2 due within days of each other in February

1 had gotten engaged since our last meeting and had a new sparkly and a new look in her eyes

1 is happily divorced, at ease and seems very in tune with herself and her current life

1 is single, with a rich and fulfilling career, life, spirituality and many beloved pets

1 is quiet, married, not particularly revealing but seems to enjoy sitting back and laughing along with us all

Most of us have some linking threads; husbands, children, hobbies, but I would still hazard a guess that if we were to lay our personalities bare as a group, we'd have more differences (life-styles, beliefs, political inclinations), than similarities. That on paper, it wouldn't seem as if we would particularly get along. That some recruiter, or market researcher, wouldn't think to group us together, wouldn't expect much coherence. But there is.

Throw a bunch of chicks together (ja, we're chicks now, that's how much I care about feminist sensibilities) and we'll always find something to talk about, that's no suprise. But what has suprised me is how quickly we've gotten beyond that. We don't just entertain each other, there's a fondness that's developed that is real and enduring, and very quickly these monthly gatherings have become anticipated and necessary, for us all.

I don't think I'll start seeing any of them more than I had before. I'm lucky enough to have great girl friends much closer to me and with whom I share far more, but I'm glad I've found my Dinner Club gals (oh lordy) and look forward to many more fun evenings with them.

so...

I think I need to pay attention to how often I start posts with... So....

So there.

santa shoebox project

So can you imagine the response when I said to husband last night;

'imagine you were an under-priviledged, black, 2 yr old girl; would you like to get this for christmas?'

Yup, I got The Look.

But then he admitted that yes, he thought he'd like it very much. Especially the puppy.

sprung?

It seems, only 36 days late, that spring may finally have sprung!

Today was a glorious 28+ degrees, still, clear and so very, very welcome... It brings to my mind this funny little poem my Mum always used to recite to us:

Spring has sprung,

The grass is riz,

I wonder where dem birdies is?

They say the bird is on the wing,

But that's absurd, the wing is on the bird.

I've been trying to trace the source of it, Wikipedia Answers have credited Ogden Nash, WH Auden and Spike Milligan (personally I suspect Spike), but seem to conclude that the author is indeed unknown.

However, today was definitely a day for this:

And some of this:

And some more of this with your mates, and some rogue guinea fowl:

We love Kirstenbosch Gardens and plan to spend a lot of time there this summer!

the most delicious thing about today

And this from a person who had strawberries for breakfast, apple strudel with her morning coffee, delicious smoked snoek pate for lunch and has a supper of roast chicken with chimichurri marinade planned....

This is the most delicious thing about today:

Long awaited photo of our good friends' new baby. Man those newborns are yummy.

Oh god, is that broodiness I smell....?

lists of 5: 5 things all about mememe

So there's these things that us bloggers (gnh gnh) do, they're called 'meme's' - and up 'til this very moment I thought they were just a blogger thing where you write about yourself and so it's called a 'me me' (get it?) and then I looked them up on Wikipedia and discovered they're actually all deep and meaningful - who knew?

Anyhoo, I've decided to do one here, (and besides, aren't all blogging things really about me me me anyway?) and in a minute you'll see why.

5 things meme:

1. What was I doing 5 years ago today?

Getting married! (See now why I chose this one?). Yup, 5 years ago today I married my high-school sweetheart... happy sigh... We'd been together for 12 years (yes, you read 12) and living together for 5 (yup, 5, seems a topical number) and decided, for no particular reason, to do this:

 

I'm so glad we did!

2. 5 things few people know about me:

• I have, very seriously, a phobia of toads. Yup, toads. In my case, it's probably the world's most easily explained phobia, which I'll leave for another posting, but it's a real problem and I don't take kindly to people laughing at it thank you very much.
• I have a completion problem. I have a string of incomplete courses behind me (Xhosa, Spanish, Sociology, Karate), I have a growing pile of incomplete projects, I often don't complete sentences. I once even admitted to this when asked the dreaded: 'What's your greatest weakness?' in a job interview - not a wise move!
• I have the bizarre gift of remembering extremely arb facts about arb people. This has occasionally served me very well, but most times just makes my husband roll his eyes when I say something like, 'that guy who parks his green van in the parking lot at the end of our road is the same guy who, with his wife, camped next to us at that isolated camping site that New Year's eve when I was pregnant and had a meltdown about how much our lives were about to change. You remember them, they also had that extremely annoying sausage dog and the matching his & hers hideous red Crocs, they were driving that van then. And it seems they actually live diagonally behind us and that's the same annoying dog which has been irritating us for years with it's unseen yapping behind the wall, how weird is that, and you know that baby we keep hearing who we think must only be a bit younger than ours? It's theirs! So they were probably also pregnant in that campsite on that NYE!'. By now husband is reeling at the arbness of it all and my ability to notice, and store, such arbness, but the scariest thing: the above really happened. I can't help it see.
• I'm very lazy. I am perfectly happy spending a whole day being bone idle in my pajamas reading a novel and eating toast. Perfectly and deliciously happy. Or I was last time I had the time to be lazy...
• I re-read beloved childhood books when I'm feeling sad or sick or just a little fragile. I've read the Little House series, Little Women and the Anne of Green Gables series more times than I can count. I love those girls so much that my Mum signed my 18th birthday card 'from Mum & Dad, Laura, Jo and Anne and all the other people who've watched you grow up'.

3. 5 things I would do if I became a billionaire:

• buy a massive piece of untamed wilderness in Africa, build my dream house and a number of other houses scattered about the property for my parents and visiting friends
• take all the trips I've ever dreamed of - motorbiking through Italy, 4x4-ing through South America, slow train across Asia
• finance and produce a bunch of gorgeous, gorgeous films
• become a benefactress and fund innovative and effective relief operations all over Africa
• find a cure for AIDS

4. 5 jobs I've had:

• waffle & sundae maker the summer after I completed high school, my then little brother would run to bury his face in my t-shirt every evening when I got home and declare that I smelt delicious
• wardrobe assistant in commercials assisting in dressing, amongst other characters, Tibetan monks, African dancers, people with giant bunny heads & hosts of Chinese school children
• conference coordinator on a conference during which - the hotel had a fire and all my delegates were evacuated, a delegate came down with meningitis and another miscarried, I lost, and found, 150 items of luggage within an hour, I exposed a meal ticket scam and persuaded the hotel to change a sit-down dinner for 600 to packed dinners for 600 to be ready in an hour (god I want to cry and then go to bed for a week just remembering this one)
• coordinating a promotional dinner where all the attendees got so coked up they left before dessert and myself and a colleague ate about 20 creme brulee each and nearly puked
• co-ordinating an international meeting on health where the host hotel was so ineffectual that I ended up throwing a box of garbage over the front reception desk in a fit of rage and, unbeknownst to me, in front of the attending World Health Organisation delegate. He applauded.

5. 5 of my favourite words:

• yummy
• ass
• zerbet
• lurid
• onomatopoeia

hearth & home

So, extremely boringly, fallback job option 2 hasn't worked out either. In a short week I went from zero to 2job-hero and back to zero, with a roller-coaster of emotion and angst and mental gymnastics in between. All good I 'spose, and all useful in working out what I want to, and can, do yada yada yada... 

I've very kindly been thrown some consultancy work by a friend which'll keep me out of mischief for the time being, but I'm aching to get my teeth into something and more importantly, earn some real money!

Not least of all to carry on doing this...

The fireplace in our lounge room. When it still belonged to the PREVIOUS OWNER. Can you handle? 30 years of accumulated knick-knacks, catholic kitsch, chinese shing-shong and general wtf-is-that-and-where-oh-where-did-they-buy-it??

This photo does touch a soft spot for me though. The old guy we bought the house from was facing the fact that he was too old to maintain the place by himself anymore. He was preparing to leave the home he'd lived in for 3 decades, where he'd raised his children and his wife had died. This stuff which we giggle over was all part of that life for him and I'm sure each item held some particular significance. Even that urn (?), jug (?), vase (?) in the foreground... really?

However, not long after we moved in this same corner looked like this;

and then like this;

and finally, and only about 2 years later (I feel this is a good time to tell you we were DOING ALL THE WORK OURSELVES!!!), like this:

This week we've been in our house for 5 years, we moved in the week before we got married, Oct 2003, and while we've done huge amounts of work on the place we still feel so far from even vaguely finished (does one ever though?). It's really good to look back at pics like this to see how far we've come, but oh lordy it would be good to earn some cash and get m'crackin' on the rest of it!

this morning

Looking for the photos I was planning to use for today's blog I found this one;

Taken a few years ago it was just named denial.jpg and very much put me in mind of how I felt this morning when I heard the first faint babbling of a certain young lady from the room next door...