joburg

I was in Johannesburg yesterday, just for the day.

A pre-event recce, venue walk-through, planning session, shake 'em up kind of day. I'm coordinating a big event there on the 1st.

I didn't take a single picture because I was moving too fast, and also because Braamfontein's not really the kind of place you take out your camera and linger.

But luckily others have, and I'm borrowing some of their pics here ....

The giant Eland we flashed past on our drive in from the station.

The achingly cool coffee stop where I picked up a delicious Flat White for FIVE RAND LESS than you'd ever buy one in Cape Town.

The colourful buildings I ran-walked past on my way back to the station in the late afternoon, a mix of adrenalin and unease fueling my suspicion that it was a little late to be out walking - the rainclouds looming along with my paranoia.

Other fun things which happened:
Telling someone over the phone to calm the fuck down, in full earshot of the whole office.
Accidentally exposing some massive internal incompetence.
Spilling hot chips down my cleavage in front of the ultra-Orthodox accountant.

I love visiting Joburg, I think I've said this before. And this short jam-packed visit to the inner-city was really inspiring and energising.

I'm back at my desk today. I should be exhausted from a busy day and a late night. But I think I brought some Jozi energy home with me. I feel okay, I feel motivated.
And this is a good thing, because there's fuck loads to do!

the best of times, the worst of times

It's a BIG month of affirmation and freedom for husband and I.

I'm working like a maniac and being appreciated and affirmed daily for the job(s!) I'm doing.

Husband is hooking new clients, building relationships and laying the foundation for a new future for his company.

I had that marvelous girls weekend ....

.... he's still recovering from a wild bachelor weekend ...


I had an exhilarating, exhausting, misty, death-defying, amazing walk up Table Mountain to celebrate a special friend's 40th yesterday ...

... and we've still got The Wedding to look forward to this Saturday. The best of times!

But at the same time ... Frieda's had her tonsils out and it's been a rough week for her the poor, stoic, darling.

The op was last Tuesday and she's still in so much pain ... hardly talking at all and writing the most heart-breakingly sweet notes.

Twelve words to tell me the puppy was looking at her yoghurt. The child clearly misses communicating.
She's missing school, and her friends, and jumping on the trampoline - but she's also been a total hero; colouring next to me while I work, playing games on the tablet, watching lots of crap, thinking, dreaming, cuddling with the cats. She's really handled it so well, but it's not been fun.
The worst of times.

It is weird that we should all be having these vastly different life experiences right now, but it's even weirder that we're able to - that the bonds of parent and child have stretched just that much that we can be experiencing different things, while still being so close together.

With babies and young kids when they're miserable, you're miserable. When they're not sleeping, you're not sleeping. The boundaries between your experience and theirs are virtually non-existent. Now slowly we're able to live our own lives, parallel but individual.

Interesting times.

the very best of friends (vol 4)

We've a best friend, someone we've loved dearly for years (he and husband have been friends since they were 7!).

This guy is special. He was one of these.
One highly eligible bachelor.

But only for another week or so.

There will be a wedding next weekend. One of those where we'll dance with the lightest of feet and the happiest of hearts.

A wedding for all the right reasons - for love, for friendship, for celebrating life - a wedding to bind two people together, and strengthen the ties which connect us all.

But first there was an idyllic beach weekend for the girls, and this weekend there's a river adventure for the boys, and then next weekend, next weekend we dance.

*First pic mine, rest by friends. Gotta love Instagram filters right?

halloween grinch

I just ... don't really like Halloween.

Most of my reasons place me firmly in the 'old fart' camp, but strangely I'm okay with that.

1. Really? Since when is Halloween a thing?
It wasn't when I was a kid, or even a young adult, or even a not-so-young adult, but gradually the long arm of consumerism has elevated 31 Oct up out of the calendar and into a place in which money must be spent and effort made and something celebrated.
Oh no wait, nothing gets celebrated, except by the manufacturers of candy and fake blood - they're having a lovely time.

2. The candy is gross.
I'm not a sugar nazi. I have a firm suspicion that my youngest (she of the remarkably sweet tooth of course) should probably not eat too much of it, I suspect it makes her bonkers, but I'm not proactive enough to try and ban it and I think I have a pretty standard policy on sugar consumption (ie not enough to ruin dinner and/or make you puke), but I don't like shit sweets.
And because everyone's compelled to buy so much of it to hand out on Halloween, there's usually a lot of shit, fake, disgusting plastic-masquerading-as-candy candy.

3. Scary is not cool.
We live in a country, nay a WORLD that is completely and utterly terrifying on a daily basis. Scary lost its cool in my book a long time ago. Round about when I become an old fart probably.
Ditto: wounds, blood, violent deaths, embracing the dark side, jokes about Ebola, weaponry of any kind.

4. Entitlement is unattractive.
Already our kids, all of our kids, even the really nice ones, are becoming painful about expecting Christmas presents, birthday parties, chocolate at Easter and cash from the Tooth Fairy. Now we're encouraging them to run around with buckets demanding sweets from people not even related to them or obliged to put out because of a complex social code of reciprocal present-giving.
Really?

5. It blows.
The wind that is. Late October in Cape Town is howling, throbbing, blasting South-Easter season. An invasive and spiteful wind that chills you to the bone, even when the sun shines, that blows grit into all your exposed orifices (and some that aren't), that ruins your hair and your picnic and your mood.
It always blows on Halloween. Really not a good time to be outside.

HOWEVER, the good news is: there is wine. Plenty of it.

And if you're lucky there are friends who aren't old farts and arrange fun and age-appropriate Halloween events in which you and your children can participate.
Friends who make snacks, and provide safe and welcoming environments out of the wind in which to eat those snacks, and drink that wine, while the sugar-fueled children run amok in the night.

My grinchiness abated .... did a slight encore to accompany my hangover the next morning, and then went back into hibernation until next year.

The Littlest Jaguar and SHOUTY MUM, appropriately wind-swept.