Back to Life, Back to Reality ...

Well my world wind trip home to SA has come and gone, but I feel so inspired - when I left Ireland everything was doom and gloom a bit like SA becomes when people start talking about the crime.  But having spent so many wonderful days with my friends and family and especially my BFF I feel like I can go on again and I know that for all the grief some people give me, they can never take that away from me, never ever.  Spending time with my BFF was better than anything I could ever have done, and I realised that I don't need a million acquaintances because the friends that I make, are my true friends - it's funny how my mother always said to me that I knew how to choose my friends and I really do, because they are all still in my life and very dear and special to me.

The pain, hurt and backstabbing can all be put to bed now because I realise that those who caused it were never my friends and never important in my life - so farewell, off with their heads they are finally gone and forgotten!

Even though I was dreading going back to work on Tuesday, especially as I had only arrived home on Monday evening, it was actually wonderful - it was amazing the reaction I got from everyone in the office including my directors, wow I feel so lucky to be so well liked, but I guess you always get what you give out - you would have sworn I had been gone for months with the reception I got!

Okay so I guess you want to hear about the holiday, well it may have to wait till the week-end.

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

Blogs

One of my favourite blogs at the moment is the Jo'burg photo Blog, the old saying "A picture paints a thousand words" is so true in this case, the author of the blog hardly says anything, but he tries to put a photo of Jo'burg up every day and words are not necessary.  I often reminisce of the place if I have been there, or try and picture it in my minds eye when something has changed so much that it is unrecognisable - I spent 37 years living in my birth country and being brought up on the South side of Johannesburg, we spent a lot of time in Jo'burg city going to movies, discos, ice skating, Hillbrow - I knew Jo'burg by night, I worked there in the day ... but so much has changed and I am glad to see that things are starting to improve.

There is an ad on TV in Ireland that is shot in the middle of Jo'burg but for the life of me I can't think what ad it is now, but I always feel proud - that is where I worked I say to Emily when they show a shot of commissioner street.  Miss the old country.

Another interesting Jo'burg site is: http://www.gautengfilm.co.za/live/content.php?Item_ID=409

There's a hole in my ceiling dear Liza, dear Liza ...

Saturday just before D is about to leave for his AC/DC concert we notice water dripping in the dining room. The whole ceiling board has buckled and it looks like it is going to come down any minute, so D makes a tiny hole to release the water, I think we emptied about 2 bucket of water.

We can't really be sure where the water is coming from, so D goes off to his concert, Em has a bath, and as soon as she pulls out the plug and comes down stairs, the water is coming out of every concievable hole in the ceiling, at least now we know it is the bath.

So Sunday he is up there and takes the whole ceiling board down, the water has obviously been getting in for a while, because the ceiling board is like mush and mouldy as well. I call the plumber who promises to come the next day.
(Instead of ceiling up the ceiling, we could maybe hang ornaments from the beams!)

True to his word our plumber who now knows exactly where we live, this is his 3rd visit in about 2 months arrives on time. He tries to solve the leak but has to go further, he tells me what he is going to do and the next thing I just hear banging and clattering and electric saws. Well probably a good thing I did not go up while he was busy, because I probably would have freaked.
Anyway it turns out that the overflow pipe was never sealed properly, the people who sold us the house did a quick renovation job, new bathroom but never got it done properly. So he tells me it is now sealed properly but to leave it for a few days just to be sure to be sure!

We are thinking of adding a door here, maybe we could store our toilet paper under the bath or better still a house for the mouse!

Thanks for the offer of help Lisa & Len, you never know we may just take you up on it! The next project will be to seal all the holes in our house ... oh why oh why did we buy?

Book Cases

We moved into the house about 3 months ago now and still I had boxes to unpack but nowhere to put the stuff and you'd think that with all the cupboard space in our house there would be space. One thing that got to me as well was that all my books where tucked away on shelves in the cupboard and one thing I like is having books on display, for me - so I know where to find things and they are easily accessible.

For the last 6 months I have been scouting for book cases and could just not find anything that I liked anywhere, I even looked at web sites in the UK, but nada ... so just on the off chance I searched for a carpenter and found this website: http://www.pickapro.ie/carpenter/Carpentry+And+Maintenance/gallery/3/

Turned out the carpenter Steve lived just down the road, he came to get measurements for a quote round the 16th of September and on Saturday he fitted the book case. It needs a varnish, but I decided that my books were in more need of a home first, varnish can be done later. But I am so impressed and now my study / office, really does look like a study / office.