Ramsgate, Kwazulu Natal South Africa

Blue Monday

So yesterday the 17th of January 2011 was declared Blue Monday, I only heard that on the news this morning and truly it was for me anyway.

I headed to the dentist for my 9 a.m. appointment, luckily left home at 8 as I was stuck in traffic for 45 minutes, then when I got in they told me the suction machine was broken and if I wanted a proper check up and clean I could come back at 6 p.m. which I did, got there at 5:50 in fact only to be told that there are 2 emergencies and would have to wait, eventually got seen at 7:30 so by the time I got home, Emily was sleeping.  To top it I need a Root Canal and about 4 fillings ... luffely !

Em had a fall at school yesterday and long story short she was in trouble with dad and when she complained about a saw arm he dismissed it, however this morning it was still swollen so off to the clinic and x-rays and doctor she came out with a plaster cast and a broken radius.

Plus I had an absolutely cr@p day at work .... so I do believe in that one blue Monday a year and next year I am staying at home on that day!

Week 2, 2011

The only good thing about the weeks going quickly is knowing that our big trip is only 12 & 13 weeks away, in the meantime I went to the dentist on Monday and turns out I will probably have to have a root canal on a top molar which will cost 825 Euro, so this is going to be put away for another time.  I got plenty of anti biotics and pain killers which I only really needed for the first 2 days.

Oh yes, this week I had to do the late shift so was working 9 to 18:30 which I didn't mind because there were hardly any calls and on 2 occasions I was told to go home, which unlike when you are doing the 8 a.m. shift doesn't seem to happen.  So getting to aerobics on time on Wednesday was brilliant, because I had sent a complaint to the Gym about the instructors always being 15 minutes late and uninterested in giving the class, so I worked extra hard and used muscles I never knew I had especially those in the tummy area but Thursday and Friday I suffered ... oh the pain ... but well worth it.

I am hoping to now go back to my normal schedule of Aerobics on Mondays and Wednesdays and Gym on Wednesdays as well. Also the great thing about the gym is since it was bought over by Energie Gyms it has had a face lift, so clean and they have got a finger print scanner to let you in, which has gotten rid of all the riff raff.

Friday was a horrific day, clients with all kinds of obscure problems, I could not wait for the bell at 17:30 and I was out of there, 13 weeks on Friday and I would have been at my destination already!

Oh yes my friend Lisa got her new fancy car this week as well, Red Peugeot 206 with Black leather seats, makes me feel like I need a new car.  Hopefully she will be coming to show it off to us today, and I had better see if Joe & Carla are coming round for pancakes.

Later ... have an awesome next week all of you!!!!

Quote of the week:  "Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life."

- Bertolt Brecht

Christmas in July

The in-laws / grandparents arrived yesterday from Johannesburg and it felt like Christmas. I have never seen so many packets of Woollies Raisin chuckles in one place before, beside in the store, and D was chuffed to bits with a kilo of Rooibok bok and a kilo of Ostrich biltong, wow. I got my annual dose of South African magazines, The Fairlady, Getaway, Country Magazine, GeoAfrica and the cosmopolitan.


Emily got loads of Dresses and stickers from her fairy godmother and she sent us load of South African paraphernalia from the Soccer world cup, rainbow nation scarves – which we will proudly wear when we watch the Boks being annihilated by the Irish in November (as usual). Wow just so many things.

My sister sent some really cute stuff for Em and the sister-in-laws went overboard with the sweets and chocolates, peppermint crisps, and all kinds of things. Em got beautiful pyjamas and another beautiful dress from her cousin.

Just so many things to comprehend and take in, a beautful cookery book from Melinds by Evita Bezuidenhout.  And Gran knitted tons of dolls clothes for Em's baby born, that's when you realise how much we miss out on family by living 6000 miles away, although I must say that when we do have them visit we manage to spend loads of quality time together.  Must dash ... later.

Greystones

After Emily's exam we headed off to Greystones where we took a walk, and then had lunch at the "Beach House Pub", here are some photos.

Sorry Mam ...

For every little thing that I did or said wrong, for not listening to you when I know you knew best, I'm sorry. I always remember my friends mom asking me how she was getting on with her teenage girls (she had moved away from home), and I told her that they were giving her a really hard time, expecting her to be worried or offer some soundly advice and all she said was: "GOOD, now she can have some of her own medicine back!"

Wow, if this is what Em is like at 5, I don't want to be around when she is 15 - because I remember giving my mother a hard time when I was a teenager and it is all going to come back to me, but I don't remember giving her a hard time when I was 5, so why oh why am I having to deal with this. Is it our own fault! It really is hard being a mum, but I guess this is what life is all about and if she wasn't around life would be pretty boring ... or no wait it would be wonderful, we could travel, we could blah, blah, blah! *weep* *sigh*

So to my mother, who is hopefully up in heaven and not laughing at me, I am really sorry if I gave you such a hard time when I was growing up, if I promise to make it up to you one day do you think you could turn on a good button for Em or something please!

Daddy's Birthday

All daddy wanted for his birthday was a chocolate cake, so Em and mom hurried home and proceeded to bake in the gas oven for the first time ever, and guess what? After an almost flop, we turned up the gas and left it in for an extra five minutes and Whola, the best chocolate cake I have every baked in my life.

Emily decorated it and was so proud of it.

My Week ...

Well my broadband has become so slow that it is unbearable, especially when you are trying to do anything on the blog or of course catch up on news on facebook, so I do need to contact my ISP provider and either give them a boot or a kick up the ... old proverbial!

This week has flown once again, last Sunday we just had a pyjama / tracksuit day, did not budge out of the house, it was rather nice for a change.

Most of the week was just Work, home, sleep - however I did get an email from production company about a story they were doing for Discovery Channel on the Sinking of the Oceanos and Moss Hill, anyway he wanted to fly me over to the UK to do an interview with them for the story, and after a few emails backwards and forwards they would have wanted me to go immediately and just told them it was impossible, so within about 24 hours they had booked a flight over to Dublin and were coming to interview me on Sunday here, but I will get back to that story later.

Wednesday was college, then Thursday came and went and finally FRIDAY the start of the long bank holiday week-end, our last bank holiday until May next year! (That's besides Christmas, New Year, Paddy's day and Easter as those are public holidays). Em was also breaking up from school, and I had made an appointment at Revive, so sitting outside the school and Mandy gives me a call to find out if I want to pop over for a coffee and so Em can play with Aron. So grab Em off to revive, then to the creche to confirm her booking for next week (she is going to the creche for the week), then to the Spar and then off to Many, well it took us 45 minutes to travel about 3 miles, the traffic up to Dundrum was a nightmare and we found out later that it was because the new Hamleys store had opened the previous day. Anyway we finally got there and could only stay for an hour as my cousin Jannie was coming for Dinner, thank goodness I had made the lasagna the night before and just had to do salad and stuff.

We left there round five and thank goodness the traffic wasn't too bad from there to our place. Got home, got Em in the bath, made the salad, got Em out bathed and then wanted to turn the computer on to check my mail, D gets home and 15 minutes later the doorbell rings, it's my cousin and his early, mainly because he is flying back to SA in the morning on an early morning flight. It was great catching up with him, and because Em did not have ballet or Drama on the Saturday she got to stay up late.

Saturday we got to sleep in a little bit, however I had a hair appointment and was then meeting a friend for lunch. I hadn't seen her for ages so it was great catching up and before we knew it, it was four o'clock and the rain was coming down in torrents, so I got D to come and pick us up, then it was off home to get changed as we were going to Diep with the gang to celebrate Kelly's birthday. Funnily Kelly landed up next to me at the hairdresser so we ended up chatting for ages which was so nice, because I knew we probably would not get too much of a chance to chat later. So get dressed, get D to fetch the baby sitter, and off we go a little early mind you, but we had a bottle of wine before everyone arrived.

It's amazing how there are 5 couples and in actual fact it was Natalie that introduced us all to one another and we all tend to get on well, even the husbands - so Thank You Natalie, if it wasn't for you I would not have met such wonderful people. So there was Moi, Nat, Tracy, Mady, Kelly, D, Charl, David, Warren and Malcolm. We were seated about 9 and the whole evening seemed to go so quickly, the food was wonderful, the company was wonderful and the evening was really really good! It all ended too soon, Tracy, Warren and I spent a lot of time talking about growing up in the South and the conversation just tended to be around everything and I suppose the common element is us all being from South Africa. By the time we were leaving to go home all I could think about was the TV crew arriving at 10:00 in the morning, so we went off to get in the car and we were Clamped! Thank goodness they did not take long to arrive to unclamp us.

Sunday morning ... I am up at about 8 too nervous to eat breakfast and then down to the study to look for all my Oceanos paraphernalia, which luckily did not take me long to find. Then quick bath get dressed and wait, they got lost so ended up only arriving after 10:30. Eric & Chris, they transformed our lounge into a Studio in a very short time, D took Em off to the dump to take all the garden refuse and then to feed the ducks just so that she was out the way. And then the interview started, I must say that they are the nicest people I have met in a long time, besides the French guys who interviewed me, but they were equally as nice. They made me feel really at ease and the interview although it went on for over an hour did not feel like it.

They then did some shots of me in the kitchen paging through my scrap book, D and Em came home just as Eric & Chris had finished packing up, we all got in the car and went off to the Dockland to get something to eat, Eric treated us to lunch at Milano's. It worked out really well as Milano's which is an Italian restaurant really caters for the children, they had a children's section with a box of toys and all the kids just congregate round the box of toys, giving the adults a time to chat and not really have to worry about them. After lunch and a bottle of wine, we went out to the River and Chris did some more shots and then some of D, Em and I. We had a lovely afternoon and headed home, only got home at about 4:30 but it was really nice.

I was exhausted by last night and fell into bed at 9:30, only to wake up 3 times and then get out of bed at 6:30 this morning (on a bank holiday). Em and I are going shopping today so lets see how the day pans out, till later have a wonderful week!

It's all go, go, go ...

It seems that in the run up to Christmas, the weeks are just flying past, we have had something on every week-end for the last few week-ends and this week-end was no exception, except for today - a day to relax and do absolutely nothing, catch up on my blogging and then study!
The week started off pretty slow, I took the morning off on Tuesday as I had to go and sort stuff out at the bank so I could get paid, that took quicker than I expected, so I went off to Dundrum did a bit of browsing round the shops, the weather was absolutely awful. I then picked up Trish from her office and we went through to Coffee to Go for some lunch, then picked up Em and came home.

Wednesday was college but I ended up with a Migraine before I was supposed to leave so went to bed instead, so probably missed out on some crucial information, but I will go in early next week and see what I missed.

Thursday was swimming and then Em and I went off to Dundrum, home and I got ready for my dinner date with all my ex work buddies, we went to "The Winding Stair", which is just next to the woollen mills on the quays across from the Liffey. The food was wonderful, but I will not be going back, the service was rushed, rude and it was really expensive and to top it all at 8:30 the waitress brought our bags and coats to the table, even though we had not finished our drinks and said Thank you, have a nice evening, Goodbye! And gave us all dirty looks, what a RUDE cow! Hopefully Bob phoned and complained, a few people have already asked me how the restaurant was and there is nothing like word of mouth criticism.

Friday I had my presentation in front of the managers, I had never met most of the managers that came to the presentation so it was a bit never racking, however the presentation seem to go off well there were probably about 20 managers and then the HR team which was 5. The only thing was nobody really asked questions, the only questions I got was about the module I had never worked on before, so I guess I am going to have to educate myself on that one. So all dressed up to the nines high heel shoes, I had been standing since 9 o'clock, then I had to run a work shop with the HR team from 11 to 1. We over ran the 1 o'clock finish and still have loads of work to do, so I guess next week it is back to the drawing board.

I rushed out of the office to meet Emily's school mates mom as I was taking the kids to movies at Dundrum, it took a wee bit of time to get the car seat fitted, get them changed and then get them off to Dundrum, I still had to meet Mandy, Dana and Aron has they were all coming with to the movies as well but we managed to make it before the movie started. We saw Igor which has just been released and is all about a mad scientist. The movie finished at 4:30, I then rushed home to bath Em and change beds in her room and the spare room (long story). Start the washing get dinner on, Mandy and the kids arrived we sat chatting till about 7 and then still had everything to do. We managed to get everything done without a problem!





Saturday is another early day as D takes Em to Ballet and Drama, and Ballet was a bit of a Drama again, Emily not wanting to co-operate (it's the subborness from her father's side). In the meantime, I had to rush off to the post office in Edmondstown to collect a parcel, which is a whole nother story as well, off to the shops to get milk and veggies and then home, unpack and into town on the LUAS to meet K, D & E for lunch and then the Ballet as the Gaiety which was Swan Lake.

I parked the car near the Milltown LUAS station which is really good, because you only have to pay up till 1 and then it is free, can you believe I left the car unlocked! Anyway bumped into one of Em's old creche buddies and her parents, jumped on the LUAS and off into town, I had a bit of shopping to do before meeting them so managed to get that all done. Got myself a really nice pair of shoes from M&S, their shoes this season are really nice and so reasonably priced.

When I arrived at St. Stephens Green there was a huge crowd at the top of more than a hundred people and I got quite irritated because I had to fight my way through the crowd, but then I heard the buskers it was a group of them doing Irish dancing, playing the fiddle and OMW really really good. So I had to stop and listen for a while, I thought I would watch them when I came back from the shops but by then they had dispersed.

So we all met at the front of St. Stephens green shopping centre and then headed down to "Pasta Fresca" I think it was called, and had lunch, it was a nice treat. We finished at about 2:30 and headed off to the Gaiety, got our program and then in we went, we had a box which was really nice and the view was brilliant. The show was awesome and really worth the effort!

I had seen Swan Lake before when I was in standard 8 at the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg, in fact I think I saw it twice and we even went backstage and got autographs from the ballerinas, but I had forgotten the story, so K quickly refreshed my memory. Swan Lake is long and I think Em got a bit restless after a while, but all in all it was a wonderful day.

Now it is Sunday and time to breath again, except there is too much to do! Have a great week everyone! Next week-end is K's birthday at Diep which we are all looking forward too and then just another week for the BIG Halloween housewarming birthday bash!