here kitty

My completed cat collage. Done working from this photo. (Taken a year ago I see!)

I really should diversify beyond my pets at some point.

I'm enjoying collage so much - especially this kind of project, using cut pieces and putting them together to find the best way to show light and depth - it's like a puzzle of sorts.

I've started a facebook page to keep all my collaging news ... and I'm hard at work on my next piece already, something very different to this.

oops ...

We all know it's just plain mean to laugh at someone else's woes but ... sometimes they're just really funny.

Remember this?

Now check out this.

Firstly, this is not a residential building - that wouldn't really be funny at all - but the funny part was that I nearly saw this happening.
Earlier in the day I drove past to see a man with a chainsaw going at the base, while two guys hang on to ropes tied to the still-standing tree. Now palm trees are light, but not that light and as I whipped passed I noticed the angle of the tree/house/ropes and thought: 'Uh oh.'

Later that day we stopped to take this pic.

This next one isn't my picture, but that is the mouth of our lake, where it runs into the sea. The water levels for the whole estuary are controlled by opening and closing the mouth, and with big rain predicted for later this week the Council decided to open it ...

Again, as we say in SA, 'Ag shame.'

child's play

A little scene I discovered on the windowsill in the sun.

undeniably privileged

Albert, the 32 year old Malawian guy who cleans for us, has gone home for a couple of months.

He comes in every Monday to clean the house and do the ironing, and every second Thursday to do the garden, wash a car or some extra cleaning.
He has work for all the other days of the week with different families around here.

At the end of August he went home for the first time in 3 years. To repair the roof on his parents house. To set up an internet cafe in his tiny village to make some income for them. To see his kids. To get his passport renewed, and hopefully his visa.
It remains to be seen whether he gets back in through the border.

He's 32. He has 9 people who rely on his income. He hasn't seen his kids for 3 years.

I am undeniably privileged.

Since then I've been cleaning our house. It seemed to make sense while I've been between contracts, and feeling a little spare.
My Mum's lovely cleaner has been happy to help, but it seems a bit much to ask her to navigate a wild adolescent dog, and I've felt a bit faint at the thought of doing all the explaining of what goes where and how things work.
I've quite enjoyed having my space to myself too, and 'keeping house' for the family.

I've had mixed reactions to this - sage nods from those friends who've been 'doing' for themselves for years, aghast stares from those who couldn't imagine having that much free time, let alone choosing to spend it like that!

How undeniably privileged are we that this is even a talking point?

There's something comforting for me about housework. I don't love it, but I've been appreciating the chance to get to know our space so very well, to appreciate anew what someone else does for us (yes, for money, but still) on a regular basis.

I don't know if I'll be able to keep it up for another 6 weeks though ... especially as I've had more work confirmed today.

More work! A big conference early next year, more civil society activisty stuff. I am grateful for another chance to work on something that matters.

I am grateful that I have the flexibility to chose whether to clean my house myself, or not. I am grateful to have work coming in which stimulates and affirms me.

I am grateful and aware, that I am undeniably privileged.

list of 5: 5 things I'm really good at that no one will pay me for

1. Finding ridiculously small things in ludicrous places.
Two nights ago Husband, up a ladder, dropped a tiny screw into the rose bush. In the dark.
I found it within a minute.

2. Remembering the most inane detail about completely arbitrary and inconsequential crap.
A ridiculous example is buried deep in this post.
(Which, can I just say, I knew exactly where to find because I remembered  the year I originally posted it ... it's a gift right?)

3. Sticking my foot in my mouth.
Like this afternoon when I said (to a group of people I'd never met before) something about someone else I'd met clearly being a massive Christian and started loudly imitating an alarm siren going off (with hand gestures and everything), while the friend I was with used her baby as a shield to frantically gesture to me to SHUT UP THEY ARE ALL MASSIVE CHRISTIANS.
Ack.

4. Apparently, ruining people's fun.

As in, 'Get out of the ball pit NOW, we're going home.'
(Because Mummy just embarrassed herself socially.)

5. Taking dogs to the vet.
FIVE trips last month and tomorrow I take one back to get his stitches removed and the other to a canine orthopod to get checked out for possible leg surgery.

I'm sure this all adds up to a good resume for something right? Anyone?