Our Accommodation

We decided to stay outside Jo'burg just so that we felt like we were having a holiday as well, luckily my BFF's sisters boyfriend has a place at Haarties that we could rent from him, it was absolutely stunning to wake up and see the beautiful Magaliesberg mountains every morning, and every morning it looked different.

The one thing I love was when it was pitch black at night looking up and seeing zillions of stars, something we don't see in Ireland.

Before I arrived

Well my darling hubby and daughter left for SA a week before me as you know, and it turned out that not long after they arrived, my child abandoned her only parent and went to stay with her cousins for a week.  Leaving hubby to enjoy a childless week of nothing but rest, relaxation and an abundance of animals that he could go and look at every day.  

How lucky was he to see such amazing animals and this are just a touch of all the photos he took, I will try and put a link to the photos up.

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.

the punjabi Royal Wedding

Off to Africa ...

Well after months of planning, D and Em left on Saturday for South Africa, they arrived up at Bakubung and surprised D's folks, they were supposed to surprise the whole family but only his youngest brother and family were there.  No sooner had they arrived and Em decided she wanted to go back to Jo'burg with her cousins, so has been living with them for a week.

I have had loads to do, but have been missing them terribly and finally I only have one day left at work and I will be on the plane to join them.  Can't wait, so if my posts are missing for a few weeks you know why, I will update you with our visit when I get back.

Rio ...

We went to see the most amazing kids movie today ... Rio and I have added this to my list of places to see before I die especially at Carnival time.

Ghetto Lovin' -- Summer Nights Grease Parody | Black Version

Awesome Birthday

Wow, I can't believe how many people sent me messages for my birthday, I guess Facebook is a great reminder, but even so it was so overwhelming getting so many messages from all my friends and family.   I had an awesome day too, which actually started on Thursday, I went for lunch with my "Girl" friends from work to Avoca, my favourite place, then Friday My bestest buddy send me a beautiful bouquet of flowers to the office, along with a happy Birthday Balloon, a bottle of Bubbly and a real card!

From Emily & D I got vouchers for my hair and a CD!

Saturday morning I took Emily to a "Brownies" meeting up the road and then went with a friend for breakfast, and after that my friend Carla laid on an awesome Birthday brunch for me at their house.  The weather was perfect, Blue Skies and sunshine.

Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Marvin Gaye, one of the greatest musicians born 2nd April 1939, would have been 72 today!

101 Life Quotes

1) And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. ~ Abraham Lincoln

2) Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. ~Albert Einstein

3) Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. ~John Lennon

4) Life is just a chance to grow a soul. ~Powell Davies

5) Expect nothing, live frugally on surprise. ~Alice Walker

6) Each person must live their life as a model for others. ~Rosa Parks

7) The most decisive actions of our life … are most often unconsidered actions. ~André Gide
8) I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it. ~Jack Handey

9) Life is a mixed blessing, which we vainly try to unmix. ~Mignon McLaughlin

10) Life is rather like a tin of sardines – we’re all of us looking for the key. ~Alan Bennett

11) For if there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life. ~Albert Camus

12) Life is just a series of trying to make up your mind. ~Timothy Fuller

13) There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. ~ Albert Einstein

14) Attack life, it’s going to kill you anyway. ~ Steven Coallier

15) Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out. ~Anton Chekhov

16) Life is a series of collisions with the future. ~José Ortega y Gasset

17) The only way to have a life is to commit to it like crazy. ~Angelina Jolie

18) Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. ~ Gandhiji

19) Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can. ~Danny Kaye

20) Life is just a mirror, and what you see out there, you must first see inside of you. ~Wally ‘Famous’ Amos

21)Life isn’t fair. It’s just fairer than death, that’s all. ~William Goldman

22) Life has taught us that love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

23)A life without cause is a life without effect. ~Barbarella

24) Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you’re alive, it isn’t. ~Richard Bach

25) Life’s not always fair. Sometimes you can get a splinter even sliding down a rainbow. ~Cherralea Morgen

26) We are born wet, naked, and hungry. Then things get worse. ~Author Unknown

27) The fear of life is the favorite disease of the 20th century. ~William Lyon Phelps

28) In the book of life, the answers aren’t in the back. ~Charlie Brown

29) The world is a grindstone and life is your nose. ~Fred Allen

30) Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up. ~Author Unknown

30) Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can. ~Danny Kaye

31) As we struggle to make sense of things, life looks on in repose. ~Author Unknown

32) I think I’ve discovered the secret of life – you just hang around until you get used to it. ~Charles Schulz

33) Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets. ~Arthur Miller

34) He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

35) Where there is love there is life. ~Indira Gandhi

36) Life is simple, its just not easy. ~Author Unknown

37)My life has a superb cast but I can’t figure out the plot. ~Ashleigh Brilliant

38) I say, if your knees aren’t green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life. ~Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes

39) You fall out of your mother’s womb, you crawl across open country under fire, and drop into your grave. ~Quentin Crisp

40) God pours life into death and death into life without a drop being spilled. ~Author Unknown

41) Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be. ~Grandma Moses

42) We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. ~Martin Luthor King, Jr.

43) To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funnybone. ~Reba McEntire

44) The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss. ~Thomas Carlyle

45) Life has meaning only if one barters it day by day for something other than itself. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

46) All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. ~Havelock Ellis

47)Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week. ~Joseph Addison

48) Life is not so bad if you have plenty of luck, a good physique, and not too much imagination. ~Christopher Isherwood

49) What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other? ~ George Eliot

50) The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it. ~Marcus Aurelius

51) Live dangerously and you live right. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

52) Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind. ~Henri Frederick Amiel

53) Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: “I am with you kid. Let’s go.” ~Maya Angelou

54) However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. ~Henry David Thoreau

55) To live remains an art which everyone must learn, and which no one can teach. ~Havelock Ellis

56) My grandfather always said that living is like licking honey off a thorn. ~Louis Adamic

57) People do not live nowadays – they get about ten percent out of life. ~Isadora Duncan

58) Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death
~James F. Bymes

59) Everything has been figured out, except how to live. Jean-Paul Sartre

60) If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you. ~A. A. Milne

61) Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life. ~Immanuel Kant

62) Living involves tearing up one rough draft after another. ~Author Unknown

63) If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.~ Isaac Asimov

64) The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children. ~Clarence S. Darrow

65) The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. ~Henry David Thoreau

66) I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it. ~Jack Handey

67) Reason and justice tell me there’s more love for humanity in electricity and steam than in chastity and vegetarianism. ~Anton Chekhov

68) Life is a long lesson in humility. ~James M. Barrie

69) In life, as in restaurants, we swallow a lot of indigestible stuff just because it comes with the dinner. ~Mignon McLaughlin

70) The greatest happiness of life it the conviction that we are loved, loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves. ~Victor Hugo

71) Life seems nothing more than a quick succession of busy nothings.” ~From the movie Mansfield Park

72) To live is like to love – all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it. ~Samuel Butler

73) Life is easier than you’d think; all that is necessary is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable. ~Kathleen Norris

74) When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained. ~Mark Twain

75) The purpose of life is a life of purpose. ~Robert Byrne

76) What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful. Dalai Lama

77) Life resembles a novel more often than novels resemble life. ~George Sand

78) A useless life is an early death. ~Goethe

79) Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament. ~George Santayana

80) Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live. ~Dorothy Thompson

81) Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once. ~Lillian Dickson

82) Life is a quest and love a quarrel ~Edna St. Vincent Millay:

83) There is no wealth but life. ~John Ruskin

84) Without discipline, there’s no life at all. ~Katharine Hepburn:

85) Life is a ticket to the greatest show on earth. ~Martin H. Fischer

86) Few of us write great novels; all of us live them. ~Mignon McLaughlin

87)Life’s like a novel with the end ripped out. ~Danny Orton and Blair Daly, “Stand”

88) If you stop struggling, then you stop life. ~Huey Newton

89) There are people who so arrange their lives that they feed themselves only on side dishes. ~José Ortega y Gasset

90) Life is the sum of all your choices. ~Albert Camus

91) For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life. ~William Blake

92) Life is the game that must be played. ~Edwin Arlington Robinson

93) The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. ~Henry David Thoreau

94) To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. ~Emily Dickinson

95) I have measured out my life with coffee spoons. ~T.S. Eliot

96) Life isn’t worth living unless you’re willing to take some big chances and go for broke.~ Eliot Wiggington

97) The purpose of life is a life of purpose. ~Robert Byrne

98) The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it. ~Pearl S. Buck:

99) We are always getting ready to live but never living. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

100) Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule. ~Samuel Butler

101) Everything has been figured out, except how to live. ~Jean-Paul Sartre

Enough is Enough

When is enough, enough and when do u just put up your hands and say no more..

FASCINATING AIDA - Cheap Flights

This is Brilliant and so True!

No Comment

I have been wondering why nobody has left any comments on my blog, because I really do like getting comments about my posts whether they are good or bad, and I just realised that for some reason I now have to go into the Post options and then tick the button "Allow Comments" which I never had to do before, I hope you all wanted to leave me a comment and if you did, I have put it back on the past posts so please feel free to go and leave as many comments as you like!

An Amazing Person

My friend Lisa introduced me to her neighbor a while ago, Emma - Emma gives Yoga lessons and she is such a lovely person, her daughter is similar in age to Emily and they hit it off, they had a few play dates and sleep overs.  I love listening to Emma's stories because she knows some famous Dublin people, so I was so saddened to hear that Emma had Breast Cancer, but she is one amazing lady and is so positive about it - here is video taken at her last Yoga class before she went into hospital for her op.

I will keep Emma in my thoughts and prayers as I hope you will after you watch this clip.  Thanks Lisa for sharing such a wonderful person with me.  The amount of courage she has is just phenomenal, and whenever I  am complaining about something please remind me of this.

Elizabeth Taylor

I was so saddened to hear about the Death of Elizabeth Taylor, I can't say she was my favorite actress but I think she epitomized woman's beauty.  Most woman from her era wanted to be like her, she was probably the Angelina Jolie of the early 1950's.  She seems to be the last of the era of the "Victorian type actress" who I would put in the same category as Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly, the actresses that my mother would follow in her days, which I think makes me realise that time has moved on and all those wonderfully talented Actors and Actresses from the 1950's and 60's will all soon be gone.  But their memory will live on forever.

Goodbye Elizabeth!

The Dublin Wheel

For some Reason when I post my photos it turns them back to their original position have no idea how to fix this.  Anyway if you tilt your head to the left you can see the wheel.

A view of the Aviva Stadium, which used to be Landsdown Road - Regular home of Irish Rugby!

View onto The Liffey - Main River from Dublin harbor.

Facebook have some really good deals, I had bought a family ticket for the Dublin Wheel in December and it was about to expire, luckily we had perfect weather and could use the ticket to it's full advantage.  It's not as impressive as the London Eye, but then Dublin is small but we could see as far out as Howth and Dun Loaghaire and up to the Dublin Mountains, so well worth the trip.

Recycling

 The motorbike that Gwen bought for Emily, finally found a very welcome home, On Saturday Xavier become the new proud owner of Emily's pride possession and he was so chuffed, he looked just like James Dean!

The St. Patrick's day parade

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Commuters set Gauteng train alight

Commuters set Gauteng train alight: "A Metrorail train, travelling between Johannesburg and Pretoria, has been set alight, allegedly by commuters caught without tickets."

M's Secret Pasta Sauce Recipe

1 onion, chopped

Pancetta or good quality smoked bacon chopped (amount depends on how much you like it)

2 cloves REAL garlic, crushed

1 tin good quality tomatoes

Tomato paste

beef stock

white wine (not essential)

Fresh Basil

Gently saute the onions without browning them.  This is important, do not tempted to rush this or you end up with crunchy white bits that taste like pineapple. 

When onions are nice and soft, turn up the heat and chuck in the bacon and garlic.  Stir around until the bacon is nicely cooked through. 

Add a splash of white wine (if you are using it) and allow it to cook to burn off the alcohol taste

Add the tomatoes and give it a good stir

Add a good splodge of tomato paste

Crumble half a beef stock cube in (or a whole one if you prefer more intense flavour)

Stir in a bit of the basil but save most for the end

Allow it to come to a quick bubble before turning right down to low. 

Leave it bubbling away for an hour or a bit longer, depending on your stove, stir occasionally.

You will know it's cooked when it starts to thicken.

Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary.  Stir in some freshly chopped basil.

Serve on pasta and spinkle with parmesan and fresh basil

Life

Wow, I think this year has already taught me many lessons:

1.    When you are low and you think things can't get any worse ... they can.
2.    Life is short
3.    Appreciate and cherish your friends and family as you never know how much time you will have with them
4.    Don't take anything for granted, it never turns out that way
5.    Life often throws lemons at us, just get out the bottle of tequila
6.    Don't put off today what you think you can do and say tomorrow, you may never get the opportunity
7.    Never say I love you or I am sorry unless you really mean it
8.    Treasure the special moments with friends and family
9.    Always remember where you came from
10.  People may be better off than you in life, but in Death we are all the same.

To all my friends and family I love you very much and especially to my D and Em, I will always love you!

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count.  It's the life in your years.  ~Abraham Lincoln



Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead.  ~Scottish Proverb


Many people die with their music still in them.  Why is this so?  Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live.  Before they know it, time runs out.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Matt Cardle - When We Collide on MUZU.

Seal - Kiss from a Rose

Off to a good start ...

Well the last two weeks have just been to arduous to even contemplate blogging about, so I won't but I must tell you the week has been off to a good start, I managed to stay off the dairy products - have cut down my intake of coffee to zero!  So not bad going, 6 liters of water and 9 cups of herbal tea in the last 3 days.   I would normally have 3 cappuccinos a day at work and have thus far had none, although I did almost crack on Monday afternoon and went to make myself a cappuccino but the machine was broken - so it wasn't meant to be.

Today I was moaning at one of my colleagues in the kitchen and the first thing she said was Rose, have a cup of coffee - I just laughed at her.  I can already feel the difference it is remarkable, and tomorrow I get my car back after a long 3 weeks, yippee which means I can go back to Gym on Monday, can't wait!

To get back to last week the week just seemed to go on forever and when you have seen your colleagues for 11 days in a row it feels like you never had a week-end, so Friday when Em woke up with a headache, tummy ache, nauseousness and a temperature, I decided to keep her home.  It was great to get the washing down and all the household chores, Lisa turned up for coffee and to show us her new car, very snazzy.  (Oh that must have been the last cup of coffee I had).

Saturday we were invited to our friends Joe & Carla for Dinner and Carla made the most wonderful Chicken Curry as always, (dit was so smaaklik) just wanted to lick your plate afterwards.  Sunday the weather was miserable so we all just hibernated.

This week-end I have booked to go and see Tangled with the kids (Em & Friend), having the old folks round for Yvonne's birthday on Sunday, so between kids and old folks it's a busy week-end.

New Years Resolutions

1. I am going to be more positive
2. I will be less fickle
3. My body is a temple and I will thus worship it
4. The aim of the game is to be healthy
5. I will be more tolerant toward Em and try and spend more time with her
6. I will acquire more knowledge
7. I am going to read more
8. I am going to enjoy life
9. I will try not to bitch and moan at all
10. I will remember there is no such word as "can't"

A New Year, a new dawn

Tomorrow sees the dawn of the Chinese New Year and considering my year has started off totally cr@p, I am starting my new year tomorrow as well.  I am making new years resolutions that I am going to stick by, as from tomorrow my body is a temple and nothing untoward shall pass through these lips.

Only good news is allowed to present itself to me, bad news must use the back door - don't even attempt to come anywhere near my front door.

2011 is the year of the Rabbit, and let's see what the Rabbit has in store for the Dragon this year:

How brilliant and asserting will be the triumph of the Dragon in 2011 year of the White Metal Rabbit! Happiness of this representative of zodiacal circle will consist of victories in professional activities, in business as well as the best possible relationships between him and his loved one. Lonely Dragon has all the chances to meet their fate and very soon seal a union with marriage vows - if of course he wants to get rid of his loneliness. The family of a Dragon will receive comfort and harmony of relationships, he will simply revel the love and passion. The only danger laying in wait for Dragon in the year of the White Metal Rabbit (Cat) is dizziness from success: Dragon may suffer from laudatory speeches and fanfare, and make many stupid things in a temper, that it will take the entire next year to mop such things out. In particular, this warning is especially concerns the young Dragon, and so that his head always returned to his seat, he needs someone more senior and experienced, who will oversee its actions. The Dragon is too hot, and this quality can bring him honor and glory if it is aimed in the right direction, or subverted into the deep it doesn't yield sound logic. 



2011 horoscope for Dragon of wood element
In early 2011 year of the White Rabbit, Dragon will be successful, as ever flashing their dignity to overcome any obstacles encountered in their path. But success will not last forever. In the middle of spring 2011, fate will test the strength of your optimism. Fortunately, your horoscope for 2011 year of the Rabbit promises that in late spring, your success will come back to you. However, this will depend more on how Dragons will behave in difficult times. 

January - The Last Post

Okay so I am doing a cheat here, backdating this post to the 31st of January, I don't know what happened but time just ran away from me and I have not been able to blog.   So my last post I told you about all my woes, well I still don't have my car back, but one of my colleagues at work has been fetching and dropping me ever since and he has been absolutely wonderful.

This morning I woke up over and hour late which meant that both D and Em were late and Em got to school an hour later than she should have.  It was my fault though, I was reading a book that Lisa bought me ages ago "Wild Irish Women" and really enjoying it, so it's Lisa's fault I couldn't put it down and overslept.  Then I had this really weird dream that I was in the Outback in Australia with my friend Colette and I was in a car trying to take photos out the window, while the car was driving really fast.  Weird.

So onto the week-end in Galway, we had loads of fun however I was exhausted by the time I got there even though I got to drive down in style in the Merc SLK, I was the first person who retired.  We only arrived down at about 8:45 as there was an accident on the M50 and basically got down checked in and then went off to dinner in the dining room.  After dinner which ended at about 11:30 we all went off to the pub in the hotel, there was this little old man playing country music to a handful of people, well I say he welcomed us as we started dancing and singing to his music.  And what is it with "Galway Girl" everybody has to either sing it or have it as their ring tone down there?

Saturday morning after a nice breakfast I took a walk with some of the girls along the promenade, then went back to the hotel for a cappuccino and get ready for my facial with Dianne.  After facial I headed into town, had to go get Em a present and of course Dianne gave me a shopping list of booze to buy.  Anyway got back to the hotel and Elaine came back (my room mate) we had a good old natter, then Dianne arrived and we laughed till we cried (can't remember if she was sober at all over the week-end), then we all got ready for dinner out on the town.

8 o'clock the taxi's arrived and we all went into town for dinner, after dinner off to a pub - the town area was very much like Temple bar in Dublin people spilling out onto the streets, it was just to busy for us so we headed back to the hotel and the residents lounge.  After one Baileys I think I head off to bed at about 2:30 a.m.

Breakfast at 9 and in the car with Dianne @ 11 to head back to Dublin, so all too soon the week-end was over.

ADELE - 'Make You Feel My Love'

Galway Girl - Mundy with Sharon Shannon (H.Q.)

GALWAY COUNTDOWN 4 DAYS 2 GO ...