Help me choose my tattoo!

So I've decided to follow Angel's advice and am rather having my tattoo done in English as I could never really tell what was being permanently etched onto my skin in a foreign script. After googling 'James' in Chinese lettering I found symbols completely different from the ones we saw at the tattoo parlour. Rather safe than sorry!

So I received an e-mail from SAMoms (a Yahoo group I am part of) which led me to this site which has endless fonts for tattoos. I have chosen three fonts which I like, but haven't settled on a particular one. Help me choose! The size varies in these pics, but the website allows you to enlarge the fonts as well. Drop me a comment and tell me which one you like!

1.
2.
3.

Although this is not a democracy, I'm sure I could be swayed by number of votes to get a certain one. So send your friends here to choose their favourite too and drop me a comment!

I've been booked off sick today. I was feeling terrible yesterday and made an appointment to see the doctor after work. I went to see a new doctor since my regular GP was away. He was SUCH a nice man. Very personable, polite and friendly. I might even go to him again. He says I am developing flu, but don't need to worry about menangitis or anything serious. He gave me some medicine for my symptoms, booked me off for today and sent me on my merry way. I feel a little worse today, but the medicine is helping. It always gets worse before it gets better hey. The doctor gave me something called Empacod, the pharmacist said 'This has Codeine in it, so it will make you feel lekker (nice)'. I usually take Adcodol so I'm familiar with Codeine and it's never really done anything for me, but these tablets have given me a *slight* buzz. Nice.

Tomorrow I have a hair appointment. I hope my hairdresser can even out the colour and give me a nice cut. I'm in the mood for a new style...but still don't want to lose my length. Will chat to her about some bangs or a fringe or something. I'm very nervous to get a fringe - it's really high maintenance to make sure it always looks good. I think I could handle bangs, you can always stick them behind your ears if they get in the way.

We have guests coming over for a braai (BBQ) tonight and Rudi has left the house in a glorious mess, so even though I'm sick I still have to clean. Ugh.

Now don't forget to comment and tell me which tattoo you like!

Good Weekend

Finally I have found some time to blog. The Company launched a new product on Friday and it is experiencing some teething problems to say the least. Of course I am working in the department that deals with the customer complaints for this specific product. I'm overjoyed. Not.

Other than that, life while not TTC (trying to conceive) is a happy time. I really feel much better and I find I am enjoying life much more without having to constrain myself all the time. Just going out and attending parties/braais (BBQ's), not stressing about drinking a glass of wine. It truly is great. Perhaps that is why my mood is beginning to improve. May I also just say...sexy time...WOW. I forgot what that was like. I forgot how much fun it can be! OK...I didn't *really* forget, it had just faded to the edges of my memory.

I went to go and see that girl...the one who gave birth on James' due date. Apparently she didn't realize. She is so nice and so sweet really. I feel bad for feeling resentful sometimes. Although, there are other aspects of her life that I am definitely not jealous of. Therein lies the balance I guess. I had to steel myself to go and see her and nearly started crying at some point during our conversation. She admits that having a newborn is extremely hard work, it all seems so overwhelming! I left her to go back to Sarah's housewarming to further drown my sorrows (a perk of being neither pregnant nor parent)

Speaking of which...what a P.A.R.T.Y! The housewarming was awesome! Despite the fact that I was surrounded by skinny girls the whole night (really, almost all of them looked the same!) I really had a good time. Nothing like a couple of bottles of red wine and some vodka shots to throw your inhibitions out the window. Shame, Rudi was shattered. At some point he went to go sleep in the car. Poowa bebe.

We had a Chief Apostle service on Sunday morning. Our Chief Apostle serves communion for the departed souls. As I've mentioned before, in our religion we believe there is grace for those who have gone before us. I prayed that James would partake of communion with the other souls. It was quite emotional for me. After the communion for the departed souls was served, a young girl sang a solo. The name of the hymn was 'I have a home'. It brought me to tears. I couldn't help feel like it was a message for me from James. A small something to make me feel better. I'm sure there were many other people that could relate and felt comforted by this.

Nellie will be giving birth next week Tuesday. Time has flown so quickly and she's nervous and excited. Nellie and I are both religious people. Sometimes we seem to have experiences of faith on behalf of each other. The opening hymn for our Chief Apostle service was 'Dare to be a Daniel' (obviously relating to the story of Daniel in the lion's den). Nellie is naming her son Daniel. The hymns for such a service are *very* carefully selected and it seemed so apt. She was touched when I conveyed this to her. She gets it.

All in all I had a good weekend. I am so glad that I didn't have to work with all the problems this new product has caused. Can't wait for the long weekend!

Relaxed

I had a relaxed weekend, besides the working part of course. I worked until almost 2PM on Saturday and almost 1pm on Sunday (from 8am). It's not as bad as having to work full day on a weekend, but apparently that might be in the cards...Usually when working a weekend I leave before my colleague does. I simply manage to work faster. We've just been told we have to leave at the same time and help the lagging colleague out if they're not done. I feel that's a tad unfair. Why should I do more work (we split the work evenly) than someone else just because I'm more efficient? *sigh* It seems to be a trend lately. Getting 'punished' for working hard. Or rather having to work harder because you work so hard (and so well) already.

We ended up not going to Fence's party on Saturday. Before you think I was the culprit, Rudi actually decided not to go. Fence was supposed to call him on Saturday and he never did. It's not the first time Fence has faded on him. Rudi invited him fishing last Saturday and he said he had to work, but they should definitely call him when they get back so he can join them for a braai. They tried calling him repeatedly and he never answered or bothered to return the call or send a message. Rudi is quite put off by this fickleness.

So apart from the braai on Friday night we had a relaxed two days at home. My media player is completely busted. I'm so annoyed. No picture comes up on the TV. Luckily the hard drive still picks up when plugged into the laptop, so I haven't lost any information. We checked the cables and the DVD player works with the same cable, so it must be something inside the media player itself. Rudi opened it up and had a look, there are no obvious blow outs, burns or circuits that look busted. Guess we'll have to take it in and have someone look at it. I just hope it doesn't cost the earth. I'm kind of broke right now. Doctor's bills are really killing me.

If anyone was wondering, we switched off for Earth Hour on Saturday night. I could see dark patches in the lights from our balcony. I only saw one house with it's lights on in our complex. I must say that I heard quite a few car alarms go off just after 20:30. They did not switch off the street lights in our complex though, so it was still quite well lit. I saw on the news last night that 400 Mega Watts of electricity were saved in South Africa during Earth Hour. That sounds like a lot and even though a lot of people were very negative about Earth Hour, I think it did well to raise awareness for global warming.

After relaxing the weekend I feel refreshed and ready for the week. I suppose I will start getting tired again around Wednesday. It's not easy working 12 consecutive days.

Sickness Is Me

My demise?


Phew. Not in the best of moods today. I feel so sick!

We went for the braai (BBQ) last night with the M&M's. I call them this because everyone in their household including their two sons have the letter 'M' as their first initial. They were very hospitable and were gracious hosts. They didn't even mind that I watched 7de Laan when we first walked into the door (they don't really watch the programme). Yes I know that's very anti-social and rude, but I never catch the omnibus on a Sunday and it was quite and interesting episode to boot!

I must say they really did spoil us. We had chips (crisps) and dip for snacks. Steak, chicken kebabs, sausage, potato salad and potato bake for the main. We left well fed and with a Tupperware container full of food.

I packed away almost a whole bottle of Amarula and regretted it almost immediately. Amarula is very rich and creamy and immediately after adding food to that rich and creamy mix in my stomach...I felt really ill. This morning the feeling lingers. I feel nauseous. That's about the crux of it. The nausea. I've taken tablets for nausea, but they don't seem to be helping.

Cherry on the cake? I'm working. Cherry on the cherry on the cake? We have a braai at Fence's place tonight. I am really not feeling up to it and now not for the reason you think. Previously I didn't want to go because I know I'll probably be bored to death and I'm working on tomorrow, but now I'm going to be sick *and* bored. Lovely. I suppose I could stay home, but I'll probably just lay awake the whole night wondering when Rudi is coming home. He's also not feeling well, but I don't think that will stop him from going.

I'm definitely not drinking tonight. Really.

Weekend Plans

So I figured out yesterday that two Grandpa powders will sort your cramps right out! I will now buy some when we go shopping. They work better than even my beloved Adcodols do.

I'm really proud of myself for my exercise efforts this week. In the last 6 days Rudi and I have gone for a walk 4 times. A proper walk mind you, not a stroll. I'm sure this will pay off. I've even ended my walks the last two times with a jog to the front door (a *very* small jog), just to step up the work out for those last few steps. I'm still struggling to eat 100% correctly, but I'm making a concerted effort to not pig out on junk food. I have also been doing well with drinking water. I only skipped one day as the water was off in our area and the toilets were not flushing at work. Ewww.

Tonight we are going to braai (BBQ) with the lady I mentioned that I met at the hospital when we went for James' last scan. She said "We should get together for a braai sometime" and I agreed. The next day I had an invitation for a braai tonight. Most people just say "We should get together sometime" and it never happens. We've also been instructed not to bring anything. Lovely.

Tomorrow night, unfortunately, we've been invited to a 'massive party' at Fence's house (technically it's Caregiver's parents house). Rudi wants to go. I told him we can go on condition we leave when I want to as I'm working this weekend (both Saturday and Sunday).

So I have quite a full weekend ahead and I'm not looking forward to most of it. I'm not too fussed though, because attending Fence's party on this working weekend will mean that I hopefully won't have to see him on my off weekends.

I can't even pee in cups

So in case you were wondering, Rudi did come home on time on Saturday. Only problem is he came with Lindor and family in tow. He did what men usually do. Told his friends he is game for a braai and then said 'I'll just check with the wife'. Doesn't leave me much choice does it? If I say no, I look like the bad guy. If I agree then everyone is happy but me. With much groaning I gave in. I knew he would not stop nagging until I said yes (he had already had enough beer to make him whiney). The condition was that he needed to clean up after they left.

The braai wasn't too bad. Lindor and Rudi were sufficiently drunk leaving Lindor's wife and I rolling our eyes and sighing at the idiotic conversations we were forced to listen to. Lindor was extremely unhappy that their fishing trip had yielded no fish. He is convinced Rudi jinxed him because he would not let him pee on his new Shimano reel. Wait. What?! Apparently it is tradition to initiate your new reel by peeing on it and if you don't (or someone doesn't) you will have bad luck fishing. Rudi says I may pee on his reel. He seems to forget that I'm a girl and I actually cannot aim when I pee. Um. I meant ewwww. Perhaps we can just tell Lindor that Rudi and I peed on the reel in some kinky way and he would no longer believe the reel is jinxed. Or we could pee on the reel.

I undressed, changed and dressed Lindor's six month old baby before she was put to bed. Sjoe. It's a lot harder than one would think. It didn't help that she was kicking as if her life depended on it! I think I need a lot more practice! I'm pretty sure it's something you get better at. Rudi also kept to his word and cleaned up on Sunday morning before I got home from church. Bless.

I think I'm feeling better this morning. I might just be imagining this slight nausea and random heartburn. Perhaps I'm just crazy. Still have to wait all the way to Saturday before anything is revealed. I spoke to Rudi about taking a blood test. He said he thinks we should wait till Saturday at least. If nothing happens on Saturday I'm going to go for a blood test on Monday. No doubt. Everyone keep your fingers crossed, OK?

Nellie is on maternity leave from today. Lucky cow! I'm going to miss talking to her. We're kind of cut off from each other right now as my phone bill is already sky high and she doesn't have funds to recharge either. We'll manage though. I think I'll type her a very long e-mail to keep her busy a bit later.

Oh. The finalists of the SA Blog Awards have been announced. Go vote here. Don't worry about looking for my blog amongst them, it's not there, but I would recommend you read some of the finalists as they definitely deserve their spots.

Weekend Update

On Friday Rudi spent most of the evening with Lindor and Fence finalising plans for Saturday's fishing trip. I saw him for the first time after 20:00 (despite him saying he would be home around 18:00). I decided to let it slide since I had busied myself washing all the pink spray out of my hair.




I participated in the CANSA Shavathon this year. I didn't have money this year, but Leebeesa didn't want her hair sprayed, but wanted to contribute, so she paid for me to have my hair sprayed. I got a lot of attention, I must say. Luckily this year the pink actually washed out of my hair. I washed it around 4 times and it all came out. Last year the purple stayed in my hair for quite some time.

Anyway...on Saturday we went on this fishing trip. Rudi was arguing with me over nonsense in the morning - almost as if he didn't want me to go, but I stuck to my guns and went anyway. It wasn't as unpleasant as I thought it would be. Fence and Caregiver pretended that nothing happened. Nobody mentioned the incident and I didn't bring it up either. It was very hot and eventually very windy. I spent most of the day with Caregiver in a tent on the beach. We read, had a nap and made some food for the guys. Not one fish was caught the entire day.

We then went for a braai at Lindor's house. That wasn't too bad either. We tried to play games, but Lindor kept changing the rules. Eventually Rudi and Fence wanted to go and buy another bottle of brandy and for Lindor's wife didn't want him to go with. Lindor went to bed while they were away. When they got back Lindor came back down, but was upset that he could not go with them to buy the bottle. I have a feeling there's more to it than that (perhaps he wanted to get something else as well, but lacked opportunity to leave)...I started feeling horrible and went to lie down on the couch. I passed out fell asleep and Rudi woke me up when it was time to leave. I felt awful. I felt nauseous, had heartburn and was still half asleep. So I survived Saturday.

Sunday we had a braai with the in-laws, which was uneventful as it normally is.

My ovulation microscope is confusing me! From around Thursday is started showing signs on ferning. That is supposed to be the transitional phase that leads up to ovulation. On Saturday my microscope showed NOTHING. We through it odd, so we took another sample and sure enough...it was like fern city. The entire lens was covered in ferns. It was all very exciting! So we started trying then. On Sunday - nothing. No ferns. Not one. I tested 4 times. This morning, no ferns. Nothing. My hopes of success are therefore not high for this month.

Next month we will try from the day the ferning starts to show until it disappears. As far as I understood the microscope should show transitional ferning, then full ferning and then back to transitional once ovulation tapers off.

Weird. At least it ferned though, which means I am ovulating. That is a good thing.

Randoms

Today I am wearing jeans that did not properly fit me before. They were too tight to sit down in, but today they are fairly comfortable. I would still like them to be a little less snug though. It's such a nice feeling being able to wear them again without worrying about being uncomfortable all day!

People have started noticing that I'm losing weight and it's great! I think I will be able to keep this up. I've been trying to approach it differently than I normally would. I'm trying not even to think about it as 'dieting' for 'weight loss'. I'm trying to think of it as a lifestyle change of which weight loss is a side effect (quite a pleasant one I might add).

I went for TWO walks last night. OK...so the second one was more like a leisurely stroll around our complex with Sarah, but it was better than sitting on the couch!

We had a really cool braai (BBQ) with all the old friends there last night. Last year this time we were all practically living on each other's doorsteps and seeing each other every single day and pretty much spending a lot of time together. The entire group has scattered though as Riaan moved to Pretoria and we moved out of the complex. Riaan was in Cape Town yesterday for one day only, so we decided to get everyone together for old time's sake. It was a lot of fun - just like we remembered it.

Speaking of which, Sarah and Brad are moving out on their own this weekend. I'm really happy for them. I know Sarah in particular has wanted this for a long time and she's very happy with the place they have found. Who knows...maybe this will lead to wedding bells for them? They protest when there is mention of this...but you never know!

I've managed to pay down a large amount on one of my credit cards (I only have two) this month and I'm feeling really good about that too. I'm going to try and purchase an ovulation microscope after work today. I really hope they have stock of the one I want.

Updates

So in case you were wondering...I did go and walk again last night :) We walked before we cooked supper so it was quite a bit warmer than when we walked after 19:00 on Tuesday. The heat aided in us working up quite a sweat. Still felt good! We took the same route as the last walk and it wasn't necessarily less strenious, but I didn't get a stitch this time so there is already improvement. On Saturday we are going through to Tableview to visit my great aunt and going for a walk on the beach afterwards, no matter how strong the wind is! (I've used that as an excuse not to walk on the beach before) The sand offers nice resistance and should make it a good workout. We've also started looking at taking other routes to keep it interesting. There are quite a few nice houses in our area so it will be nice to walk around and look at all of them.

The eating plan is still going well, although I'm curious to see how it will turn out on the weekend. I just know Rudi will fall off the wagon with the 'no drinking' part of it. In fact, he already has when he went to darts on Wednesday. He's already made plans to have a snoek (fish) braai (BBQ) with Crack Head tonight and told him to buy a six pack or a bottle of brandy. I told him he can really do whatever he likes as long as he doesn't expect to get the best results. He's never been on a diet or eating plan in his life before and I don't think he realizes just how difficult it can be sometimes. I hope he is inspired by my diligence and the results I hope to obtain. I suddenly can't wait to get onto the scale on Tuesday to see the fruits of my labour!

I was so busy at work yesterday I completely forgot to blog about the hilarious thing that happened at home on Wednesday! We were cooking supper and I needed to have a shower before going to church. After getting undressed Rudi decided to take advantage of my lack of clothing. One thing led to another and I guess we got a bit carried away...only to realize afterwards that we had burnt our food! Luckily the damage wasn't too bad and we managed to eat it. We're still having a good chuckle about it though.

I'm trying my best to just enjoy the sexy time Rudi and I are having together without thinking of babies or whether the time together will result in a pregnancy. It's craziness! I'm still charting my temperatures and monitoring how my body feels. We're still trying at the 'right' times, but I'm not going to stress about it too much. It will come. Eventually! (read: I hope it happens this month)

I'm looking forward to the weekend. Tonight I'm going to watch Bride Wards with Leebeesa. Just a diet coke this time, no popcorn. It's going to be fun! Let us hope the rest of the weekend doesn't turn out to be as disastrous as last weekend was.

Absenteeism

Howdy. I know I've been gone for a while, but I've been enjoying a little leave with Rudi. I'll be back to work and full time blogging on Wednesday.

While I'm uploading photos to Facebook I have a little time to recap on what's been happening lately. [Facebook is giving me the world's trouble. I'll post links once it allows me to upload]

Rudi and I have been enjoying some time together in the last few days of our leave. We've enjoyed sleeping late and spending quality time together. We had the family over for a braai (BBQ) on the 6th of January as it was my grandmother's birthday. My Evil Mother and Coke Head did not come. Interesting story. On Christmas Eve the entire family was here to celebrate, My Evil Mother and Coke Head included. Rudi had a few drinks and Coke Head joined him. Apparently Coke Head proceeded to go out drinking after everyone had left and only came home on Boxing Day (26 December), missing Christmas lunch with his new wife. This led to the decision that they would not join us again as 'Rudi is a bad influence' on My Evil Mother's husband...according to her. I missed the part where Rudi was pouring the alcohol down the throat of this grown man...or the missing two days...not sure what Rudi had to do with that since he was with me. Stupid woman.

The next day Angel, Glugster and Knucklehead came over for another braai. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun at a braai. I'm sure it had a lot to do with the company and the wine ;o) Rudi also gets on really well with Glugster and Angel and I never ran out of things to talk about. We really had an awesome evening.

On Friday we took a drive out to Franshoek and ended up having a lovely, relaxed lunch. On our way home we stopped off at Anura wine farm where we did some wine tasting. We left with one of the most expensive bottles of wine they had (Rudi's choice), wine glasses, biltong, Brie and some Camembert (the cheeses were going for R5.00 - I couldn't resist).

Yesterday we went up Table Mountain. I haven't been since I was 15 and really wanted to go up this year while we were on holiday. We had stunning weather. We went up quite late as we wanted to catch the special they're currently having. When we arrived it seemed like a lost cause. The queues were terribly long...we did end up waiting for about an hour, but the views were so spectacular and listening to the people around us made time fly. Going up with the cable car was not nearly as scary as I thought it would be, although I did shy away from the open parts of the cable car when the floor rotated me that way. I generally have a fear of heights, but seeing as how the cable car can carry over 5 tons, I felt safe. The drive up the mountain was a different story though. My fear of car accidents and heights combined always sends me into a panic on a mountain pass. We watched the sun set over the sea. It was beautiful. The views from up there are absolutely breathtaking.

Today I'm finally going for the back and neck massage that my landlady gave me as a gift, I decided to throw in a pedicure. There's no time like the present to spoil yourself :) Rudi will also be going for a back and neck massage. Tomorrow we will most likely just spend the day chilling together...perhaps even go out somewhere.

I'm not looking forward to going back to work, but I really enjoyed this leave and feel quite rested.

My grandfather has completed his last chemo session and is currently recovering from that. He should be fine in a week or so. He says he will not go through chemo again. He would rather let cancer take his life. Its heartbreaking for me, but I understand where he is coming from. Going through chemo is hell. I would not wish it upon anyone. I'm glad it is over for him. Finally. This milestone for him was often compared to the milestone I was reaching. James would have been born in about two months. Having to start all over sucks. It's that time of the month where I'm playing the waiting game and wondering anxiously whether our plan for conception has worked. My cycle is due to start on Wednesday. So the waiting begins...

Weekend

So I had a rough day on Friday. After receiving the photos at work I broke down and asked my supervisor if I could leave early. At the beginning of the week both he and my manager said it was OK if I needed time off and I really did on Friday, although it always seems dodgy on a Friday doesn't it?

I went to my grandfather's house and went to view the photos there. I agree with My Evil Mother and grandmother that it looks like it would have been a boy. I feel a certain peace about that, because I was unsure. My family and the doctors were giving me conflicting information and this confused me even more. For all I know girls look like that at some stage too (hence the doctor's hesitance to say), but to all of us it seems that the baby was a boy. He definitely had my nose and my mouth. He would have been a handsome fellow. I was very torn up after viewing the photos and had the support of my family.

Friday evening we picked up my cousin (she's visiting from London) and we had a very chilled out evening together. Yesterday when we took her back we ended up spending a lot of time with the family which was nice. We bought two pedestals from my cousin for our bedroom and her mother gave us a really nice painting which fits in perfectly with my bedroom's colour scheme. When we got home I was inspired to move the entire room around and once I've sanded down my dressing table and white washed it to match the pedestals our room is going to look really nice. I hope we get this done...you know how a person ends up procrastinating and never completing something like this. Our room looks much less empty and bare now. It kind of looked like any other room with a bed, but there was no character. It's developing that now and that makes me happy.

Today we have a family braai (BBQ). It's become tradition since my cousin has left for overseas for us to have one big get together while she is here so that the entire family gets to see her. I'm going to leave work now and we'll head over that way. I'm quite looking forward to it.

I'm having an OK day today. We'll take the baby pictures with as the family are curious to see. My Evil Mother has also requested to see them and I am torn. I want her to see them, he was after all her grandchild too, but I don't want her to have a copy of them. I'm afraid she might show them to other people - perhaps even claiming the baby was hers to get sympathy and attention. I know it's a horrible thought, but I would put nothing past her. Perhaps I should go and visit and take my laptop with to show her, then I wouldn't need to print them out or save them on an external device. I feel sorry for her in some capacity at the moment. She feels extremely left out of this huge event that has happened in my life, because I left her out. She was emotionally and financially unavailable to me when she was putting me through hell - now I'm going through hell again without her, because I have learnt I do not need her. I have enough other family to love and support me, although I don't know what I would have done without my grandparents. I want to buy them big Christmas presents this year, because they deserve it. Even if that means I'm broke until the end of January.

My grandfather popped on yesterday morning and saw my cousin for the first time. He told her that I've been so brave and that he is very proud of me. I wanted to cry. I am so proud of him for what he is going through with his treatment at the moment. Why do we not tell the people we love how we feel? Why didn't he say this to me? Why haven't I told him that I am proud of him? We tend to tell other people the good things about the people in our lives, despite them needing to hear it most.

I think everyone should make a concerted effort to tell their loved ones, friends and colleagues about the things they do right. I'm going to do try and do this while I am counting my blessings and not taking things for granted.

Bit of This and That

I receive this gift from The Original Gunslinger (and his lady sai I'm sure), for my chap (the baby) today:



Isn't it cute?! It's blue, but Eeyore has a pink rose in his mouth so I'm sure it could go either way :)

I'm back at work and as practically as soon as I walked in here I started feeling nauseous again. I'm starting to wonder if my body just doesn't like being at work. I think it's QUITE possible.

The house is pretty much sorted out. Just one room is still in chaos, but I'll sort that out soon.

I can't wait to get Amber out of the house...the litterbox (more specifically the smell of the litterbox) is driving me to vomit! I think we'll try and get her out today...or at least put the litterbox on the balcony.

We had our first braai (bbq) at our new place last night. It was cosy and really nice. I'm starting to <3 my new home!

It's weekend...and I want to sleep

I’m so looking forward to sleeping late tomorrow. I would stay in bed the whole day if my schedule allowed. Rudi organized a braai or something with the people that my grandparents stay with. Willie grows his own chillies and reckons he can eat the hottest food that he can make. Rudi, being from Durban (famous for it’s large Indian population and the curries they make) told him he could eat whatever he could dish. Willie just loves a challenge so he’s cooking up something extra hot for the men and his wife is making hamburgers or something for us. It sounds nice…I just hope I have an appetite and that I can eat.

The Baba Indaba is also happening this weekend. Rudi and I would like to check it out and look at all the nifty baby products so that we can have an idea of what’s available and how much these things cost. We are by no means under any kind of illusion that we’re going to get away cheaply. Babies cost mountains of money. Perhaps we’ll get lucky and they’ll hand out samples. I love free stuff!

A whole lot of people from work are going to Moyo this evening. Moyo is LOVELY and they have GREAT cocktails. One of my first entries on this blog had pictures of a trip to Moyo with Sarah and Brad. I don’t know if it would be a good idea to go. I could always drink virgin cocktails, but I seem to be coming down with a cold and the winter nip is still in the air.

I just want to snuggle up with my Stephen King book and read. I’m on the last book of the Dark Tower series. It’s been a long journey with the characters of this book and I’m kind of sad that it’s coming to an end. I am dying to know what happens though so I’m not going to stop reading for the sake of prolonging the inevitable.

I’m super tired today. I am longing for my bed and a nap. Some hot chocolate with marshmallows wouldn’t be turned down. What? A girl can dream!

Dance Like Nobody Is Watching!

No news on the suspicion yet...it might be up to a week before I'll know for sure. Don't worry, I'll splurge the news on my blog as soon as I know!

I had a chance encounter with an estate agent over the weekend. I e-mailed her our requirements this morning. I haven't heard back from her. I hope she doesn't ignore me because she sees me as 'that drunk chick at the bbq'. Hey! I didn't lug out the tequila. Ok, nobody poured it down my throat...but I haven't had as much fun in a long time. I danced like nobody was watching!

The occasion was the housewarming of my neighbour that hasn't actually moved yet. Weird, I know. I left a little earlier than Rudi did as I had to go to church on Sunday morning and Rudi was on one of his binges again. I was not impressed with Rudi at all as his drunk ass forgot some of our stuff there (camping chairs, etc.)

We went shopping for groceries on Saturday. We bought 1 trolley full of goods. Not luxuries like chips, sweets, chocolate and ice cream. Food and a few toiletries. We didn't even buy many cleaning products...the bill came to two and a half THOUSAND RAND! OH.MY.FURRY.HAT. I nearly fainted! We did manage to buy a lot of meat, but for pete's sake. Seriously? My budget is completely in it's glory thanks to that little shopping trip.

Jubba Redeemed?

The weekend wasn't too bad. I did work, but we had a cool braai with Boogaloo on Saturday. Boogaloo and Voldemort seem to be breaking up. Boogaloo will be moving out on his own on the 1st of July if things go according to plan. He is heart sore. I will be there for him every step of the way. He has supported me through so much pain and crap that I've had in my life. I couldn't do anything else.

Jubba just took me aside. He heard somewhere that he made me cry (refer to my previous entry about Jubba). I told him that he didn't make me cry, but that I was upset because I know that he is a real sweetheart, but he comes across as such an aggressive person it's hard for other people to see. I discussed some of the concerns of our team with him and I hope I cleared the air. He assured me that he was not dissatisfied with my work and advised me where I could improve - in a nice calm rational tone. It was rather refreshing. He really has a bad reputation and he knows he needs to work on it. I'll just have to learn to work around the aggression and not take it personally.

I'm really relieved that my working weekend is over.

Busy Saturday

It looks like I have been out voted on the hair issue. Every body has said that they prefer me with blonde hair. Who am I to argue with the masses? We live in a democracy, after all. It looks like I will remain blonde and keep on forking out hundreds of rands to remain that way.

It's completely overcast outside and a wonderful day to stay in bed and watch movies. We had an awesome braai (BBQ) with the neighbourhood last night and I actually managed to sleep till 7:50 this morning, which is a nice change. I stayed in bed till about 8:30 and then became industrious and decided to clean up and fix little things that have been nagging at me for a while.

Rudi asked me ages ago to burn a couple of movies on to DVD for a colleague of his and I've just never gotten around to it. We always remember to do it at the most awkward times. The first time I tried to burn it the burning failed for some reason, but I'm retrying it now with my fingers crossed.

I've also cleaned the kitchen (it looked like a bomb had hit it after the braai) and once again realized how grateful I am that I have a dishwasher. Rudi made us some breakfast and was nice enough to clean up his own mess :) Will wonders never cease?

Now I only have a few errands left to run...wrapping the mother's day gifts I bought yesterday, fixing the duvet (which seems to have been put in the duvet cover incorrectly) and putting the electric blanket on the bed. I also wanted to go to the mall to hand in my suede jacket for dry cleaning (which will cost R300!!), my jeans that were accidentally bleached for dyeing and my shoes to have the heels repaired.

Maybe I should stop buggering around and get busy!

What a Weekend

Happy Easter Everyone! I hope you guys all had a good long weekend.

I certainly had a good long weekend, but I'm not going to braai (BBQ) again for a long time. We had a braai on Friday, Saturday, Sunday AND Monday. I'm so sick of potato salad, toss salad and garlic bread it's not funny.

On one of the days we were chilling at the neighbour's (the days sort of flowed into each other to the extent that I'm not sure what we did on which day), we suddenly noticed a ball of black smoke rising from behind the wall of our complex. Being the curious creatures that we are, we hoofed it over to the wall (a mere 3 metres or so) where we saw the last thing we imagined - a burning car! A burning car on the road? Is that so strange you may ask...why...yes. It was quite strange since there was no crash, no explosion, no bang - no anything. The car was standing close to the curb as if it had pulled up there and spontaneously combusted into bright orange flames. Within about 5 minutes the entire car (an Opel Astra) had burnt out and we were treated to intermittent popping sounds as the tyres exploded one by one. Quite frightening since we all watch too much TV and were waiting for the petrol tank to blow. It didn't. I think one of the neighbours managed to get a photo - I'll ask him if he can send it to me.

Other than that we went to braai at Nic's house for the first time. He is lead singer of Feedback. Nic and his wife have an amazing house and beautiful pets. They have two Great Danes. One is an albino and is white with blue eyes. The other one looks a bit like a cow as he is white with black patches. They also have two cats - fluffy cute kitties that you want to hug! Both Rudi and I enjoyed it very much...although...Rudi was already drunk by the time he got there (that means it was Saturday because he went to play darts) and he ended up in the pool. It wasn't that hot, so we assume it was just driven by the drunkenness and craziness that accompanies that.

Brad and Sarah were away the whole weekend. They are actually still away - they went to Bloemfontein to visit Sarah's family. They are probably having loads of fun, but we miss them. There's a gap in the neighbourhood get togethers when they are not there. They'll be coming back on Wednesday...I can't wait to hear all the stories about what they got up to.

Is it wrong that I was just at home for 4 days and I can't wait to stay home again?

I finally bought a bee sting for my car. I've been meaning to do this forever, but kept putting it off. All in all it cost over R300 for the aerial and the installation, but it was worth it! I now have crystal clear radio reception and I can listen to people talk kak whenever I please.