I've gotta say 2010 has been pretty damn good to me so far. I'm convinced there is something to this whole positive attitude thing.
For example - what are the odds.... I mean WHAT ARE THE ODDS.... that the 4th love of my life (after The Mr. and Mick Jagger and Levon Helm), Tom Petty, has decided out of thin air to release a new album (due out on my birthday!) and schedule a summer tour for the same month I'm planning to be back in the USA!? And on top of that, to schedule his ONLY REMOTELY CLOSE-TO-MY-STOMPING GROUND date for my familial homeland (KC) within *1 day exactly* of when we had planned to be there en route to California??? Bust my britches. The Mr. has wanted to see him live for a long time too, and although it won't be my first time, having this be a possibility is in itself enough to make me want to live to July!! My brother better be prepared to babysit, that's all I'm sayin.
In other "My friends are the coolest EVER" news, I was blown away to get an email from The Other J's (aka S&M) this morning that included probably the best-yet bid at my job (of supreme holiday planner No. 1) for our upcoming trip to Aus, Part 1 (the east, better known as Sydney & Newcastle). It looks so fantastic I simply must re-print it here for posterity.
Now I just REALLY need to get LJJs Aussie visa taken care of. It's bugging me because I have to send her passport to freakin' PRETORIA since there's no consulate here, and after all we went through to get the damn thing, I'm having a hard time letting it go. But I better do it toot suite since it takes an average of 10 days to process now. I thought my own homeland was bad, but even the Aussies now are threatening to deny visas if you don't include things like "character references", bank account details, names and addresses of people you know there, etc etc etc. Luckily The Mr. and I come from countries where we can just slap in our names and passport details and they'll do it electronically, but the poor baby has to be vetted and authenticated right down to her bowels just to get in for a 2 week holiday. Good times, good times.
So it looks like it just so happens that the Snow Gods have dumped it big time on NYC, where my 'rents are forecasted to be flying into tonight, and out of tomorrow. ruh-roh. I can tell you one thing - if they get delayed by more than a day, that's gonna be pretty much a case of "longer trip than time spent at destination". My dad will be climbing. the. freakin. walls. **insert uncomfortable silence here**
Right, anyway, I've had a bad case of insomnia lately and I think it's about to be cured by the passing of summer into autumn. Hot damn! I just simply cannot wait. I even wore jeans today hoping that my auspicious dressing would move the season along a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a crisp glass of Chenin Blanc, a sweet White Muscadel over crushed ice, or a nice chilled Sauvignon Blanc on a hot afternoon in January, but enough is enough. Since it cosmically *IS* really all about wine, can I just say IT'S ABOUT TIME TO BRING BACK THE SHIRAZ, GOD!! CAN WE GET A MOVE ON, HERE? I've got a crock pot/slow cooker on my kitchen shelf, gathering dust already!
That brings me to my next goal in life which is to find the one place on earth where it is pretty even-keel autumnal conditions year round, or as close to year-round as possible. Then I will move there. I am so OVER summer right now. Bugs and flies and mosquitoes and sweating in your bed have their place in time and that, in my book, should not exceed 3 months. Hence the reason that I love my home state so much.... 4 perfect seasons and each one is over not a minute too soon.
And finally, I am fearing March (except for the tempering of the temperature) strictly for the fact that it means my pushups count will go to 30. I'm not afraid of the 40 x crunches, but the pushups? Ay, papi! My arms are currently quite bulge-imous (for a girl of my stature, anyway) at the moment and I'm rather happy with the results but I'm worried that if I don't continue on with my plan, I'll get the guilts and not only that but I'll go from all to nothing and can kiss my progress goodbye. But dang! 20 proper pushups is already hard! What the hell is 30 going to be like? I've been adding an extra 5 onto the count for the last 7 or so days, trying to make the transition a wee bit easier for myself next week. But as we like to say in the greater St Louis Metro Area, "I'm scurrred"!
For example - what are the odds.... I mean WHAT ARE THE ODDS.... that the 4th love of my life (after The Mr. and Mick Jagger and Levon Helm), Tom Petty, has decided out of thin air to release a new album (due out on my birthday!) and schedule a summer tour for the same month I'm planning to be back in the USA!? And on top of that, to schedule his ONLY REMOTELY CLOSE-TO-MY-STOMPING GROUND date for my familial homeland (KC) within *1 day exactly* of when we had planned to be there en route to California??? Bust my britches. The Mr. has wanted to see him live for a long time too, and although it won't be my first time, having this be a possibility is in itself enough to make me want to live to July!! My brother better be prepared to babysit, that's all I'm sayin.
In other "My friends are the coolest EVER" news, I was blown away to get an email from The Other J's (aka S&M) this morning that included probably the best-yet bid at my job (of supreme holiday planner No. 1) for our upcoming trip to Aus, Part 1 (the east, better known as Sydney & Newcastle). It looks so fantastic I simply must re-print it here for posterity.
- Monday, we meet you in Sydney hang out around the CBD, see the sights, hang around, etc, drive back to Newcastle for some takeaways for dinner (I am thinking Thai).
- Tuesday, go up to the valley to the wineries. Leave after a relaxed breakfast, hours drive or so, arrive for a morning coffee, taste some wines, have a picnic lunch on the hill at Audrey Wilkinsons, taste some more wines, have some cheese, drive home, have toasted sandwiches for dinner. Or better, a bbq.
- Wednesday, see how we are feeling, maybe drive up to Nelsons Bay (45 mins - 1hr drive) and go on a dolphin cruise, or just hang about and go to the beach and go the shops or something, go out for dinner.
- Thursday, play it by ear. Chill out, go for coffee by the beach, go for a swim, whatever, then....... you guys go to Darwin.
Now I just REALLY need to get LJJs Aussie visa taken care of. It's bugging me because I have to send her passport to freakin' PRETORIA since there's no consulate here, and after all we went through to get the damn thing, I'm having a hard time letting it go. But I better do it toot suite since it takes an average of 10 days to process now. I thought my own homeland was bad, but even the Aussies now are threatening to deny visas if you don't include things like "character references", bank account details, names and addresses of people you know there, etc etc etc. Luckily The Mr. and I come from countries where we can just slap in our names and passport details and they'll do it electronically, but the poor baby has to be vetted and authenticated right down to her bowels just to get in for a 2 week holiday. Good times, good times.
So it looks like it just so happens that the Snow Gods have dumped it big time on NYC, where my 'rents are forecasted to be flying into tonight, and out of tomorrow. ruh-roh. I can tell you one thing - if they get delayed by more than a day, that's gonna be pretty much a case of "longer trip than time spent at destination". My dad will be climbing. the. freakin. walls. **insert uncomfortable silence here**
Right, anyway, I've had a bad case of insomnia lately and I think it's about to be cured by the passing of summer into autumn. Hot damn! I just simply cannot wait. I even wore jeans today hoping that my auspicious dressing would move the season along a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a crisp glass of Chenin Blanc, a sweet White Muscadel over crushed ice, or a nice chilled Sauvignon Blanc on a hot afternoon in January, but enough is enough. Since it cosmically *IS* really all about wine, can I just say IT'S ABOUT TIME TO BRING BACK THE SHIRAZ, GOD!! CAN WE GET A MOVE ON, HERE? I've got a crock pot/slow cooker on my kitchen shelf, gathering dust already!
That brings me to my next goal in life which is to find the one place on earth where it is pretty even-keel autumnal conditions year round, or as close to year-round as possible. Then I will move there. I am so OVER summer right now. Bugs and flies and mosquitoes and sweating in your bed have their place in time and that, in my book, should not exceed 3 months. Hence the reason that I love my home state so much.... 4 perfect seasons and each one is over not a minute too soon.
And finally, I am fearing March (except for the tempering of the temperature) strictly for the fact that it means my pushups count will go to 30. I'm not afraid of the 40 x crunches, but the pushups? Ay, papi! My arms are currently quite bulge-imous (for a girl of my stature, anyway) at the moment and I'm rather happy with the results but I'm worried that if I don't continue on with my plan, I'll get the guilts and not only that but I'll go from all to nothing and can kiss my progress goodbye. But dang! 20 proper pushups is already hard! What the hell is 30 going to be like? I've been adding an extra 5 onto the count for the last 7 or so days, trying to make the transition a wee bit easier for myself next week. But as we like to say in the greater St Louis Metro Area, "I'm scurrred"!
It is I, the Grand Mattress! (And, What I REALLY meant was...)
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 24 February 2010 at 2/24/2010 10:45:00 am.
Well, the inevitable happened and lo and behold The Mr. and I have found ourselves on another committee!! Although this time I can live with the committee, being that there are no monthly meetings, no fund raisers, no PR events.... altogether a relatively obligation-free responsibility. While I feel honored to have been "elected" into what is apparently the bigwig position of the Hash, I'm just nervous that I will suck at it, and what were these people thinking?!?! Pete was soooooooo good as Grand Master.... he's funny, witty, can command respect, and is one of those outgoing types who makes people just WANT to do what he says. And at that hash that usually means sitting on a block of ice while you get serenaded with drinking songs due to some transgression or another that you've been found guilty of.... or hanging a big piece of rhino shit on a rope, around your neck for some other reason, etc. At any rate, here goes. I just need to learn to throw my voice because
The Mr., on the other hand, has a great job. He got elected Braumeister, and is now in charge of mixing the most horrific, nasty-tasting, nuclear-colored drinks he can dream up, for those guilty of their hash crimes. And he has to house the hash beer fridge for the duration of his tenure, and ensure that all hash beverages make it from point A to point B on time and in an icy cold manner.
Otherwise, the last couple weeks have been interesting, as it just so happened that I got in touch with more than one "long-losty" as seems to be happening more and more in the day and age of FB. Anyway, that was really great. Especially one in particular, someone who was my real BFF during one of the major parts of my most life-changing years. In the spirit of 2010, I'm not going to complain about it, but may I just say it is WORTH NOTING that I have had to have the same conversation at least 3 times during all these cyber reunions and that is: "but you SWORE that you were NEVER going to have KIDS!" Since the arrival of LJJ on the scene, I've had this conv. about a bizillion times now, and it just goes to show that what you SAY and what people HEAR can be completely confounded by the likes of one or two little words that can go either way.
Let's start with the facts:
1. I may not be a lot of things, but one thing I definitely AM, is a gal of the "never say never" mind. You tell me you'll "never" go back to smoking or that girl or that job or eating death by chocolate for breakfast, and I'll say "HEY watch it, stranger things have happened!" or "HEY never say never!" I know, because it's true!
2. I have said a lot of things in the anti-offspring department, absolutely. Yes. 100% correct. But ALWAYS in the back of my mind there was a door open somewhere, I just had to figure out down which corridor it was located. Therefore.... "never say never!"
So as I have recently found myself explaining (x 10), I would like to clear up the things that could easily have been interpreted as me saying something as CATAGORICAL and BLACK AND WHITE as "Me. Child. Never. Forever."
10 Things I probably said:
1. Kids? Not a fan. (as in.... "of other peoples!" or, "poorly behaved ones!")
2. Us? Kids? I don't see it happening any time soon (as in.... "soon could be anywhere between 2 days and 10 years")
3. Not really interested at the moment (as in, see above)
4. "Eeeewwww!!!" (as in, "eeewww! child birth!!!"... again, strictly related to child-getting methodology)
5. Not even on the radar right now (see No.s 2, 3)
6. Why don't you go and have yours first and then we'll see (as in.... I'm not in a hurry, k?)
7. My husband's & my outrageous, radical enviro-nazi, anti-populationist beliefs prevent us from breeding more humans for the earth to absorb when there's already clearly a population crisis stemming from 18 year old poverty stricken African mothers of 5 in this country to wealthy high-impact, high-CO2 footprint mormon families in Utah or Catholics in Ireland thumbing their noses at the concept of Replacement Rate, overall resulting in too many babies that already exist (as in.... I still don't believe in personally contributing to population issues).
8. Uhhhhh.... I dunno.... (as in.... "I. Don't. Know." but anything's possible!)
9. I've got dogs. Aren't my dogs GREAT???!!! (as in.... "not ready yet!!"... but still, anything's possible!!), and finally,
10. But I love The Mr. sooo much, I don't think I would want to share him with anyone else!! (absolutely, totally true! But not a categorical denial of 100% of any possibility for eternity!!)
And yes, there's probably a wealth of others - I'm sure I'll be reminded of 4,000 of them after writing this, but still.... I know in my own BRAIN that I never believed it would be smart to say "uh-uh, NEVER!", because hey, it was always a possibility. Hell, I'm the one who never wanted to put my old copy of "Goodnight Moon" in our family's numerous garage sales because I always wanted to hand it down! But ultimately The Mr. & I both just had to get to a point where we could figure out how and when we could both live with doing it. Sure I'm probably writing all this now because my BUDDIES out there try to make me feel guilty for alluding to one thing and doing another, especially b/c LJJ is such a cutie pants and they get a kick out of saying "now see, aren't you glad you CHANGED YOUR MIND??" but I still firmly believe it comes down to splitting hairs semantically. Because I know what was, and wasn't, actually on my/our life-and-family-planning agenda, regardless of what other people want to hear when I utter the nonsense that comes out of my mouth!!
Anyhoo, if nothing else the lesson learned from all this, here, is still that I stand by my conviction that it's silly to make black and white statements that use the word "never" in them, and I still maintain that I try not to do it! (see how I said that without using the words "I never do it"??) And! even when you are creative with your sematics (like I try to be!) to avoid making gross generalizations or statements of concrete... be careful because people still read into the words you say and will ride your ass about what they heard, for years to come! And in the Spirit of 2010 it's just unhealthy to use qualifiers in the negative anyway, so there!
In other Year of Positivity news, I'm hitting this whole "relationship building" with the parents thing head-on. I resolved to say at least 10 supportive and positive things about the Ma & Pa last night at the hash, to everyone who will be meeting them next week, in preparation for not falling into that whole "uhhhhnnnnn, my parents are coming.... uhhhnnnnnn.... they're gonna drive me nuts & they're so annnoooyyyying" trap that I have been really bad at propogating over the last, what, 16 years of my life??? So now, everyone at the hash is looking forward to meeting them and has given me all sorts of positive vibes about how we are going to have such a nice time, and how special it will be for them to meet their first grand-offspring, etc etc etc and I really believe that it is genuinely helping get me in the right head space for their impending arrival. The power of this whole verbalizing-the-right-things-and-they-will-come-true is truly impressive! I heartily recommend it!
The Mr., on the other hand, has a great job. He got elected Braumeister, and is now in charge of mixing the most horrific, nasty-tasting, nuclear-colored drinks he can dream up, for those guilty of their hash crimes. And he has to house the hash beer fridge for the duration of his tenure, and ensure that all hash beverages make it from point A to point B on time and in an icy cold manner.
Otherwise, the last couple weeks have been interesting, as it just so happened that I got in touch with more than one "long-losty" as seems to be happening more and more in the day and age of FB. Anyway, that was really great. Especially one in particular, someone who was my real BFF during one of the major parts of my most life-changing years. In the spirit of 2010, I'm not going to complain about it, but may I just say it is WORTH NOTING that I have had to have the same conversation at least 3 times during all these cyber reunions and that is: "but you SWORE that you were NEVER going to have KIDS!" Since the arrival of LJJ on the scene, I've had this conv. about a bizillion times now, and it just goes to show that what you SAY and what people HEAR can be completely confounded by the likes of one or two little words that can go either way.
Let's start with the facts:
1. I may not be a lot of things, but one thing I definitely AM, is a gal of the "never say never" mind. You tell me you'll "never" go back to smoking or that girl or that job or eating death by chocolate for breakfast, and I'll say "HEY watch it, stranger things have happened!" or "HEY never say never!" I know, because it's true!
2. I have said a lot of things in the anti-offspring department, absolutely. Yes. 100% correct. But ALWAYS in the back of my mind there was a door open somewhere, I just had to figure out down which corridor it was located. Therefore.... "never say never!"
So as I have recently found myself explaining (x 10), I would like to clear up the things that could easily have been interpreted as me saying something as CATAGORICAL and BLACK AND WHITE as "Me. Child. Never. Forever."
10 Things I probably said:
1. Kids? Not a fan. (as in.... "of other peoples!" or, "poorly behaved ones!")
2. Us? Kids? I don't see it happening any time soon (as in.... "soon could be anywhere between 2 days and 10 years")
3. Not really interested at the moment (as in, see above)
4. "Eeeewwww!!!" (as in, "eeewww! child birth!!!"... again, strictly related to child-getting methodology)
5. Not even on the radar right now (see No.s 2, 3)
6. Why don't you go and have yours first and then we'll see (as in.... I'm not in a hurry, k?)
7. My husband's & my outrageous, radical enviro-nazi, anti-populationist beliefs prevent us from breeding more humans for the earth to absorb when there's already clearly a population crisis stemming from 18 year old poverty stricken African mothers of 5 in this country to wealthy high-impact, high-CO2 footprint mormon families in Utah or Catholics in Ireland thumbing their noses at the concept of Replacement Rate, overall resulting in too many babies that already exist (as in.... I still don't believe in personally contributing to population issues).
8. Uhhhhh.... I dunno.... (as in.... "I. Don't. Know." but anything's possible!)
9. I've got dogs. Aren't my dogs GREAT???!!! (as in.... "not ready yet!!"... but still, anything's possible!!), and finally,
10. But I love The Mr. sooo much, I don't think I would want to share him with anyone else!! (absolutely, totally true! But not a categorical denial of 100% of any possibility for eternity!!)
And yes, there's probably a wealth of others - I'm sure I'll be reminded of 4,000 of them after writing this, but still.... I know in my own BRAIN that I never believed it would be smart to say "uh-uh, NEVER!", because hey, it was always a possibility. Hell, I'm the one who never wanted to put my old copy of "Goodnight Moon" in our family's numerous garage sales because I always wanted to hand it down! But ultimately The Mr. & I both just had to get to a point where we could figure out how and when we could both live with doing it. Sure I'm probably writing all this now because my BUDDIES out there try to make me feel guilty for alluding to one thing and doing another, especially b/c LJJ is such a cutie pants and they get a kick out of saying "now see, aren't you glad you CHANGED YOUR MIND??" but I still firmly believe it comes down to splitting hairs semantically. Because I know what was, and wasn't, actually on my/our life-and-family-planning agenda, regardless of what other people want to hear when I utter the nonsense that comes out of my mouth!!
Anyhoo, if nothing else the lesson learned from all this, here, is still that I stand by my conviction that it's silly to make black and white statements that use the word "never" in them, and I still maintain that I try not to do it! (see how I said that without using the words "I never do it"??) And! even when you are creative with your sematics (like I try to be!) to avoid making gross generalizations or statements of concrete... be careful because people still read into the words you say and will ride your ass about what they heard, for years to come! And in the Spirit of 2010 it's just unhealthy to use qualifiers in the negative anyway, so there!
In other Year of Positivity news, I'm hitting this whole "relationship building" with the parents thing head-on. I resolved to say at least 10 supportive and positive things about the Ma & Pa last night at the hash, to everyone who will be meeting them next week, in preparation for not falling into that whole "uhhhhnnnnn, my parents are coming.... uhhhnnnnnn.... they're gonna drive me nuts & they're so annnoooyyyying" trap that I have been really bad at propogating over the last, what, 16 years of my life??? So now, everyone at the hash is looking forward to meeting them and has given me all sorts of positive vibes about how we are going to have such a nice time, and how special it will be for them to meet their first grand-offspring, etc etc etc and I really believe that it is genuinely helping get me in the right head space for their impending arrival. The power of this whole verbalizing-the-right-things-and-they-will-come-true is truly impressive! I heartily recommend it!
Labels: HHH, The Kid Files, The spirit of 2010
There could be Mismanagement in my future
1 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 23 February 2010 at 2/23/2010 12:49:00 pm.
Well tonight is the Annual General Meeting and Piss-Up (AGMPU) for the hash and we have to elect new committee members, and I have this sneaking suspicion myself and The Mr. have already had our names put down on a list somewhere and vetted by the existing committee and we just don't know it yet. This space must be watched.
And in happy-dance news it's only 1 more month on the Animal Peeps committee for both of us as well! Woo hoo!!!
AND in even further happy news, my plans for our Aussie trip are going swimmingly, with lots of catching up and hanging out with all our besties in Aus on the agenda. Everyone is being so nice and offering us their (or their extended family's) porta-beds for The Kid, even a loaner car while we're in Melbourne, and even airport pickup/dropoff trips, etc. Gotta love having the best buddies ever!
This weekend was pretty ok - except my fever broke BIG TIME on friday night and even though I had (I thought) felt good enough to go to work that day, I got home at 6pm and collapsed on the couch and promptly started sweating buckets and burning up. It was insane. I even passed in and out of horribly deep sleeps over and over, each time waking up to sweat running down my face into my eyes and ears and mouth in some sort of a stupor. It was freaky! But I went to bed that night and slept the first good night I can remember since ??? (aside from in the swank hotel in CT) and it's been up and up since then. Except for the damn ankle issue. Seriously that shit better shape up FAST because next week is my rotation on running for the hash and that's when my Parents will be here and I wanted to be able to run WITH my dad when they come along and join us.
Saturday we had Robin over for a braai, and watched a bunch of the rugby games. Then we did manage to snag a copy of The Hangover and saw it on Saturday night which was pretty funny. I'm not gonna say it's Oscar-worthy, but it was a good movie. I'm glad I finally saw it. What I don't understand was how it managed to be so much of a RAGE when it came out. I mean isn't it kinda just your basic formulated bromance Vegas weekend story? But sort of told in reverse? Whatever, it was still good.
Ultimately it was just a lot of recouperating and resting.... with me trying to make some plans for the upcoming parental arrival (Sunday). Nothing too exciting.
I've gotta find someone for my pops to go birdwatching with once he gets here. I've also gotta plan some menus and stock the pantry with food. I've also gotta try and borrow a stroller from The Swedes since my mom is a walking maniac and has made many a mention of how nice it would be to take the youngling on many a stroller-walk. She knows we use a front-pack kinda contraption since I LOATHE the whole giant-4x4-shopping-cart-type-IT'S-ALL-ABOUT-ME-I'll-run-into-your-legs-and-clog-up-every-corridor-in-public things, but her back isn't great so I know she won't be tempted by that option. I just wonder if she'll be as enthusiastic when she sees the potholey,gravelly roads that make up our part of town!
The 'rents are bringing my fiddle with them when they come, so soon it will be back to dividing time between el banjo and la viola in my house. What to do, what to do. I'm going to have to come up with a strategy for dealing with Frau Meister.... she already called up one day last week (and got The Mr) asking would I be available in April to play the Dvorak at some festival (??) and luckily it happened to be the day that we are coming back from Aus, so he could conveniently say "no" for me. hee hee. But I know it's looming on the horizon. Like I've said many a time before, I really don't mind doing the odd piece here and working up a tune or two there with the geriatric ladies, but if I'm gonna get this whole "HOW MANY HOURS ARE YOU PRACTICING?" song & dance, I'm going to have to find a strategy & some guns to stick to. And honestly as soon as I get my viola I'm going to be more concerned with getting my fiddle chops back for THE ULTIMATE BASEMENT GARAGE JAM IN THE SKY that is in my future for when we get back home in July and I am reunited with my pals The Bullies.
Well, that's all I've got. blehhhhhhhhhhhhhh
And in happy-dance news it's only 1 more month on the Animal Peeps committee for both of us as well! Woo hoo!!!
AND in even further happy news, my plans for our Aussie trip are going swimmingly, with lots of catching up and hanging out with all our besties in Aus on the agenda. Everyone is being so nice and offering us their (or their extended family's) porta-beds for The Kid, even a loaner car while we're in Melbourne, and even airport pickup/dropoff trips, etc. Gotta love having the best buddies ever!
This weekend was pretty ok - except my fever broke BIG TIME on friday night and even though I had (I thought) felt good enough to go to work that day, I got home at 6pm and collapsed on the couch and promptly started sweating buckets and burning up. It was insane. I even passed in and out of horribly deep sleeps over and over, each time waking up to sweat running down my face into my eyes and ears and mouth in some sort of a stupor. It was freaky! But I went to bed that night and slept the first good night I can remember since ??? (aside from in the swank hotel in CT) and it's been up and up since then. Except for the damn ankle issue. Seriously that shit better shape up FAST because next week is my rotation on running for the hash and that's when my Parents will be here and I wanted to be able to run WITH my dad when they come along and join us.
Saturday we had Robin over for a braai, and watched a bunch of the rugby games. Then we did manage to snag a copy of The Hangover and saw it on Saturday night which was pretty funny. I'm not gonna say it's Oscar-worthy, but it was a good movie. I'm glad I finally saw it. What I don't understand was how it managed to be so much of a RAGE when it came out. I mean isn't it kinda just your basic formulated bromance Vegas weekend story? But sort of told in reverse? Whatever, it was still good.
Ultimately it was just a lot of recouperating and resting.... with me trying to make some plans for the upcoming parental arrival (Sunday). Nothing too exciting.
I've gotta find someone for my pops to go birdwatching with once he gets here. I've also gotta plan some menus and stock the pantry with food. I've also gotta try and borrow a stroller from The Swedes since my mom is a walking maniac and has made many a mention of how nice it would be to take the youngling on many a stroller-walk. She knows we use a front-pack kinda contraption since I LOATHE the whole giant-4x4-shopping-cart-type-IT'S-ALL-ABOUT-ME-I'll-run-into-your-legs-and-clog-up-every-corridor-in-public things, but her back isn't great so I know she won't be tempted by that option. I just wonder if she'll be as enthusiastic when she sees the potholey,gravelly roads that make up our part of town!
The 'rents are bringing my fiddle with them when they come, so soon it will be back to dividing time between el banjo and la viola in my house. What to do, what to do. I'm going to have to come up with a strategy for dealing with Frau Meister.... she already called up one day last week (and got The Mr) asking would I be available in April to play the Dvorak at some festival (??) and luckily it happened to be the day that we are coming back from Aus, so he could conveniently say "no" for me. hee hee. But I know it's looming on the horizon. Like I've said many a time before, I really don't mind doing the odd piece here and working up a tune or two there with the geriatric ladies, but if I'm gonna get this whole "HOW MANY HOURS ARE YOU PRACTICING?" song & dance, I'm going to have to find a strategy & some guns to stick to. And honestly as soon as I get my viola I'm going to be more concerned with getting my fiddle chops back for THE ULTIMATE BASEMENT GARAGE JAM IN THE SKY that is in my future for when we get back home in July and I am reunited with my pals The Bullies.
Well, that's all I've got. blehhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Can't believe I nearly forgot the Indians....
1 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 19 February 2010 at 2/19/2010 12:59:00 pm.
Oh Jeez, I just realized in my sick and injured haze (still under the weather, ankle feels like it's gonna kill me, and obviously my pushup regimen... or was it the weights at the gym... has yeilded me a really, really sore muscle in the armpit region... I didn't know there WERE muscles there) that I had completely forgotten to write about the very interesting and "unique" experience we had the night before we left for CT...
So anyway, because of this massive biofuels project that the company is working on right now (The Mr's main project) he is rubbing shoulders with the Indians in town due to their interest in the particular crop and its past success in India and what what what - long story short, one of the guys (Jai) on the consulting team that is working for us was here for the week from Dehli. Thursday he (Jai) got an invite from the BIG MAN IN TOWN (really - as in the richest, biggest house, connected family - guy in town) who is Indian, to bring the whole team over for dinner. At 9pm. On Thursday night. And he SPECIFICALLY insisted that I be there as well. Which meant LJJ had to come as well since there was no time to find someone to pawn her off on. Which is past her bedtime. But I was thinking oh well I'll just throw her in someone's bed at their house and she can sleep while we eat and whatever. That's what we always do when we go to people's houses for dinner or whatever lasts past 8:00. We asked Jai (the indian guy) if we needed to do anything/bring anything/wear anything and he was like "nah, nah, nah, it's just dinner, they're all nice people blah blah blah just bring yourselves & be there at 9".
WELL! Little did I know how this was about to go. So we pull up at this GIANT MANSION, through the DOUBLE security gates (seriously, it was like driving into a game park) and get escorted inside by some butler or something, through the marble foyer, and into this room where a bunch of suit-wearing Indian guys with jewels all over their hands are sitting, sipping scotch or Moet. Introductions are made, The Mr. and I feeling slightly FREAKED THE HELL OUT that we're standing amongst them not only wearing casual clothes, but also holding this chocolate baby in her wee cow jammies, holding her blanky and giving us all the "huh???" eye....
THEN it proceeded to get even more bizarre as the introductions were made (and yes all the gentlemen were very nice except for the leader of the main political party in the country who was kinda an ass but he was the only local guy so there ya go) and then our host says to me, " will show you to the ladies now"... and before I had time to do the WTF Dance, I was whisked away (not before ordering myself a lovely glass of champagne from Waiter, of course) and shown to "the ladies". And there I found myself in another giant room, down a corridor filled with giant marble statues of Ganesh and all his pals.... where huge leather sofas lined the walls and the biggest coffee table I have ever seen in my LIFE filled up the middle of the room. Totally horrible Feng Shui in terms of furniture placement but what can you do. Nice Indian ladies in their nice Indian gear were sitting primly and properly on the edges of the couches staring into the centre of the room and having the odd words of conversation with whomever was sitting right next to them (since obviously you don't want to yell ACROSS THE ROOM). But it was all very mono-syllabic. I gathered from the introductions that most of them were related and already knew each other anyway, so all eyes were on me. And the mysterious jammie-wearing chocolate baby in my hands, of course!
So anyway I'm like.... "shit. This is NOT the type of crowd you go 'hey can I just run off and find your bedroom and throw my kid into the bed so she can go nigh-nights and I can come back in here and drink bubbly with you gals?' " So I took a deep breath and just went along with the whole introduction song & dance (all the while thinking: "when the hell did this 'dinner for the consulting team' turn into some sort of "dignitary and influential people convention"... particularly after it was made clear during my introductions that none of these people had a CLUE about this whole biofuels project I kept mentioning (in defense of 'who I was' and what the hell it had to do with me and the reason I was here) Oh and the fact that not only was the leader of the political party there, but so was the freakin Ambassador of India!!! WTF!?) and eventually I found myself (and LJJ) swallowed up into an empty space on one of the enormous leather couches.... inconveniently placed about 100 meters away from the coffee table BTW, which makes putting your drink down elegantly, a living hell. Turns out the spot I chose to sit was right between the oldest Indian lady there who spoke only a little english - still no idea who she was or who she belonged to - and the ever so posh wife of the Ambassador. Crickets, man, crickets.
Thank GOD at some point Ambassador's wife got up (probably disgusted with me and my gob-smacked-induced lack of ability to make conversation) and swapped places with.... yes, this was SO obviously calculated through a very intricate series of glances and nods, right before my eyes.... a girl who turned out to be her daughter, and somewhat closer to my age. I later found out she was mid-20s. Unbeleeeeivably beautiful and obviously very refined. Anyway, she came over and in classic charm-school cultivated fashion, she began firing me with friendly get-to-know-ya type questions and a wave of politeness that kinda freaked me out but hey I'm not judging - good for her! She was nice and charming.
At this point LJJ is sitting on the floor playing with a Kleenex or something I managed to snag out of my purse (no one else had purses, BTW... wha??) and I'm just praying she doesn't realize it's an hour past her bedtime and start giving me grief about it. Well, luck was on my side because through about 45 minutes of idle conversation (and funnily enough, eventually Michelle one of our consultants finally arrived and obviously got the "whisked away from the guys" treatment - only she had been plopped as far away from me in the room as possible) the baby still hadn't exploded, and it was time that we were all escorted out onto the verandah for dinner. At that time I thought - quick, what am I gonna do with this baby because dinner will take hours I'm sure - so I put her down on the couch to go to sleep after everyone left the room (with the exception of the hovering butler who was probably suspicious of my movements - and why not.... don't they always say "never trust a girl in white capris and a checked shirt?") and tried to leave. But nooooo she wasn't having any of that.... the slippery leather couch was slanted at an angle and she was like, arms and legs flailing out of a crack that she'd already slipped down into between the cushions. So my game was up and I had to pick her back up and take her to dinner. AGHHHH
And to compound this, The Men still weren't out on the verandah yet, so I was not able to share this experience with The Mr., Rex, Robin, Jai, etc., and get some input and HELP. Well as soon as we all served ourselves from the buffet and got plates to the table (GORGEOUS Indian food BTW.... DECADENT) then The Men appeared out of nowhere and my eyes went as big as dinner plates as I shot The Mr. the "WTF have you gotten us into" look and charged at him with LJJ. I thrust her at him and said "your turn" and he was happy to share the burden since obviously he had sympathy for me and the youngling being whisked away and thrown into the "lady" end like that with no perspective. And while The Men (and LJJ) dined at a totally seperate table about 100 metres away from The Ladies, the kid behaved herself and sat on the floor under the table and played with a fork or something, I dont know, but some sort of late-night off-schedule adrenyline must've kicked in inside her, because she didn't have a meltdown or anything. THANK YOU GOD!! I looked over later in the meal and around dessert time, saw her being passed around like a rugby ball, amongst all the gold-wearing men and that made me feel a LITTLE better....
But still! Do you think this was a comfortable experience!??! OMG! We all (consultants) just felt totally out of place and totally freaked out by all the pomp and circumstance and weirdness of it all..... especially since it couldn't have been more clearly a case of "oops, got invited to the WRONG PARTY!!!" And Chatty Cathy was still talk-talk-talking away in my ear, filling me with information about all the exotic places her father's career has taken her in her life, what kind of lawyer she aspires to be, when she plans on getting married, etc etc etc. I just couldn't tune in. I was still weirded out by all of this. And this FOOD, which was like SO FREAKIN GOOD was just going in my mouth, down my throat, and landing in my tummy without so much as a connection with my brain. agh! It was just one of those situations that I would've TOTALLY eaten up if I wasn't just so bamboozled, ambushed, out of costume, and ON THE WRONG PLANET!!
Finally after a couple glasses of wine, I got a chance to chat with Michelle (in her hippy skirt and tank top) and that relaxed me a little (both of us trying to avoid the use of "WTF?!?!?" while being overheard) and seeing that there was no immediate baby meltdown on the horizon also helped. What didn't help was knowing we'd not packed for CT yet and had to wake up butt-early in the morning the next day for our flights. So eventually The Mr. and I were able to get "the signal" up in the air and finally be excused. We politely waited til at least 1/4 of the guests had left already.... surprise, surprise, Politician & Mrs Politician were the first to eat and run.... guess we weren't the only ones feeling out of place. And our excuse about having to get up early to make a flight in the morning didn't hurt either. Nevermind the fact it was nearly 11pm and this 10-month-old was still awake!
Whew! Well anyway, that was the jist of it - but I'll tell you what, we couldn't talk about ANYTHING else for at least the next 24 hours. It was just SO BIZARRE.
And now Chatty Cathy is emailing me wanting to be friends (well, she wants a volunteership with our company before she goes off to Law School in London, actually) so I guess we didn't THOROUGHLY embarass ourselves or anything but damn! That was one weird-ass-night. Imagine if I had brought Billy along, like I have been known to do to various unsuspecting "casual" dinner/braai engagements! HA!
So anyway, because of this massive biofuels project that the company is working on right now (The Mr's main project) he is rubbing shoulders with the Indians in town due to their interest in the particular crop and its past success in India and what what what - long story short, one of the guys (Jai) on the consulting team that is working for us was here for the week from Dehli. Thursday he (Jai) got an invite from the BIG MAN IN TOWN (really - as in the richest, biggest house, connected family - guy in town) who is Indian, to bring the whole team over for dinner. At 9pm. On Thursday night. And he SPECIFICALLY insisted that I be there as well. Which meant LJJ had to come as well since there was no time to find someone to pawn her off on. Which is past her bedtime. But I was thinking oh well I'll just throw her in someone's bed at their house and she can sleep while we eat and whatever. That's what we always do when we go to people's houses for dinner or whatever lasts past 8:00. We asked Jai (the indian guy) if we needed to do anything/bring anything/wear anything and he was like "nah, nah, nah, it's just dinner, they're all nice people blah blah blah just bring yourselves & be there at 9".
WELL! Little did I know how this was about to go. So we pull up at this GIANT MANSION, through the DOUBLE security gates (seriously, it was like driving into a game park) and get escorted inside by some butler or something, through the marble foyer, and into this room where a bunch of suit-wearing Indian guys with jewels all over their hands are sitting, sipping scotch or Moet. Introductions are made, The Mr. and I feeling slightly FREAKED THE HELL OUT that we're standing amongst them not only wearing casual clothes, but also holding this chocolate baby in her wee cow jammies, holding her blanky and giving us all the "huh???" eye....
THEN it proceeded to get even more bizarre as the introductions were made (and yes all the gentlemen were very nice except for the leader of the main political party in the country who was kinda an ass but he was the only local guy so there ya go) and then our host says to me, "
So anyway I'm like.... "shit. This is NOT the type of crowd you go 'hey can I just run off and find your bedroom and throw my kid into the bed so she can go nigh-nights and I can come back in here and drink bubbly with you gals?' " So I took a deep breath and just went along with the whole introduction song & dance (all the while thinking: "when the hell did this 'dinner for the consulting team' turn into some sort of "dignitary and influential people convention"... particularly after it was made clear during my introductions that none of these people had a CLUE about this whole biofuels project I kept mentioning (in defense of 'who I was' and what the hell it had to do with me and the reason I was here) Oh and the fact that not only was the leader of the political party there, but so was the freakin Ambassador of India!!! WTF!?) and eventually I found myself (and LJJ) swallowed up into an empty space on one of the enormous leather couches.... inconveniently placed about 100 meters away from the coffee table BTW, which makes putting your drink down elegantly, a living hell. Turns out the spot I chose to sit was right between the oldest Indian lady there who spoke only a little english - still no idea who she was or who she belonged to - and the ever so posh wife of the Ambassador. Crickets, man, crickets.
Thank GOD at some point Ambassador's wife got up (probably disgusted with me and my gob-smacked-induced lack of ability to make conversation) and swapped places with.... yes, this was SO obviously calculated through a very intricate series of glances and nods, right before my eyes.... a girl who turned out to be her daughter, and somewhat closer to my age. I later found out she was mid-20s. Unbeleeeeivably beautiful and obviously very refined. Anyway, she came over and in classic charm-school cultivated fashion, she began firing me with friendly get-to-know-ya type questions and a wave of politeness that kinda freaked me out but hey I'm not judging - good for her! She was nice and charming.
At this point LJJ is sitting on the floor playing with a Kleenex or something I managed to snag out of my purse (no one else had purses, BTW... wha??) and I'm just praying she doesn't realize it's an hour past her bedtime and start giving me grief about it. Well, luck was on my side because through about 45 minutes of idle conversation (and funnily enough, eventually Michelle one of our consultants finally arrived and obviously got the "whisked away from the guys" treatment - only she had been plopped as far away from me in the room as possible) the baby still hadn't exploded, and it was time that we were all escorted out onto the verandah for dinner. At that time I thought - quick, what am I gonna do with this baby because dinner will take hours I'm sure - so I put her down on the couch to go to sleep after everyone left the room (with the exception of the hovering butler who was probably suspicious of my movements - and why not.... don't they always say "never trust a girl in white capris and a checked shirt?") and tried to leave. But nooooo she wasn't having any of that.... the slippery leather couch was slanted at an angle and she was like, arms and legs flailing out of a crack that she'd already slipped down into between the cushions. So my game was up and I had to pick her back up and take her to dinner. AGHHHH
And to compound this, The Men still weren't out on the verandah yet, so I was not able to share this experience with The Mr., Rex, Robin, Jai, etc., and get some input and HELP. Well as soon as we all served ourselves from the buffet and got plates to the table (GORGEOUS Indian food BTW.... DECADENT) then The Men appeared out of nowhere and my eyes went as big as dinner plates as I shot The Mr. the "WTF have you gotten us into" look and charged at him with LJJ. I thrust her at him and said "your turn" and he was happy to share the burden since obviously he had sympathy for me and the youngling being whisked away and thrown into the "lady" end like that with no perspective. And while The Men (and LJJ) dined at a totally seperate table about 100 metres away from The Ladies, the kid behaved herself and sat on the floor under the table and played with a fork or something, I dont know, but some sort of late-night off-schedule adrenyline must've kicked in inside her, because she didn't have a meltdown or anything. THANK YOU GOD!! I looked over later in the meal and around dessert time, saw her being passed around like a rugby ball, amongst all the gold-wearing men and that made me feel a LITTLE better....
But still! Do you think this was a comfortable experience!??! OMG! We all (consultants) just felt totally out of place and totally freaked out by all the pomp and circumstance and weirdness of it all..... especially since it couldn't have been more clearly a case of "oops, got invited to the WRONG PARTY!!!" And Chatty Cathy was still talk-talk-talking away in my ear, filling me with information about all the exotic places her father's career has taken her in her life, what kind of lawyer she aspires to be, when she plans on getting married, etc etc etc. I just couldn't tune in. I was still weirded out by all of this. And this FOOD, which was like SO FREAKIN GOOD was just going in my mouth, down my throat, and landing in my tummy without so much as a connection with my brain. agh! It was just one of those situations that I would've TOTALLY eaten up if I wasn't just so bamboozled, ambushed, out of costume, and ON THE WRONG PLANET!!
Finally after a couple glasses of wine, I got a chance to chat with Michelle (in her hippy skirt and tank top) and that relaxed me a little (both of us trying to avoid the use of "WTF?!?!?" while being overheard) and seeing that there was no immediate baby meltdown on the horizon also helped. What didn't help was knowing we'd not packed for CT yet and had to wake up butt-early in the morning the next day for our flights. So eventually The Mr. and I were able to get "the signal" up in the air and finally be excused. We politely waited til at least 1/4 of the guests had left already.... surprise, surprise, Politician & Mrs Politician were the first to eat and run.... guess we weren't the only ones feeling out of place. And our excuse about having to get up early to make a flight in the morning didn't hurt either. Nevermind the fact it was nearly 11pm and this 10-month-old was still awake!
Whew! Well anyway, that was the jist of it - but I'll tell you what, we couldn't talk about ANYTHING else for at least the next 24 hours. It was just SO BIZARRE.
And now Chatty Cathy is emailing me wanting to be friends (well, she wants a volunteership with our company before she goes off to Law School in London, actually) so I guess we didn't THOROUGHLY embarass ourselves or anything but damn! That was one weird-ass-night. Imagine if I had brought Billy along, like I have been known to do to various unsuspecting "casual" dinner/braai engagements! HA!
Labels: goin out
Hooray for holidays!
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 16 February 2010 at 2/16/2010 12:19:00 pm.
Well I am back from the Cape.... sunburned, full, and sick. But was it SOOO worth it!!
First of all the 4 flights and 1 and a half days of travel were relatively painless, and other than just the sheer waste of time that it is to have to GET where you're GOING, not bad at all! The youngling was an angel baby the whole way. She charmed all the flight attendants with her smiles and high-fives, as well as her non-stop signlanguaging "please". We've created a monster there - please, please, please, please.... please, please, please, please.... all day long it's please, please, please... she's exploiting it now I think. Must come up with new strategy. But the main thing is that there was no screaming or crying on the plane, which is what had built up into my greatest fear over the last couple weeks. That's right, it used to be ME on board that plane having to gag myself from shouting out "HEY LADY, ARE YOU GONNA SHUT THAT KID UP OR AM I GONNA HAVE TO DO IT FOR YA!?!?!?" Anyway now I have total peace of mind for our big upcoming Australia trip and then the USA after that. Whew. I was especially worried that screwing her schedule up would lead to terror and strife, but promptly at 10:30am and 3pm regardless of where we were, she hit the sack for at least an hour either on our laps (on the plane) or in the sling (standing around the airport). Halle-freakin-luja!
The night we arrived it was pretty late, but since it stays light so long that far south, we still had time to walk down to the Waterfront and grab some delicious fishy stuff from the fish monger which we took back to our room and ate the hell out of. It was so great to be there, watch the sunset, see the seals flopping around in the water, hear the street musicians etc etc etc. Classic CT experience. Then the hotel - oh man - don't even get me started.... decadent threadcount sheets, dark-as-hell curtains that make you think it's midnight when it's really 8am.... gorgeous flat screen TV... room service.... THE SHOWER FROM HEAVEN... even if we had just stayed in that room for 3 days straight, I would've found nirvana.
The next day we slept in, ordered breakfast in bed, and then orchestrated a meet-up with Uncle A.... WHO, I might add, is in fantastic form these days - a far cry from his display at xmas. I think it has to do with being in lurrrv. His gf is a CT girl and so they were down there for the weekend. So while she was at a babyshower or something, us 3 and Lady JuJu took in another afternoon of sipping wine on the waterfront at a greek fisherman restaurant - and that's where I got burnt. Whoopsiedaisies.
When the GF was done with her social engagement she met us at the Belgain beer bar but we were all crispy fried toasted by that time (I"m talking about the sun, not the alcohol) so we opted for going back to our hotel, since it was just right there, and enjoyed a fan-freakin-tastic bottle of Pecan Stream Chenin Blanc, and let LJJ (it's about time I settled on a usable an acronym here) take a nap. This is now probably my ultimate wine of choice, officially. The GF is really nice - I really really like her. I really hope Uncle A doesn't make a ballsup of this one because I could totally hang out with her. And I think they could be quite suitable for one another. Also, she wasn't what I was picturing at all - which was far more of a dainty bimbo - but I'm not sure why, because I really knew very little about her. I guess it was just going by what I know he finds attractive in a pair of boobies...er, I mean a girl.
That night The Mr., LJJ & I took a walkabout in the highly child-unfriendly maniac-psycho clubbing district (we hadn't been there since like the year 2000 when we were but young party animals so we were interested in seeing if it was still the same) until we had had our fill of being harrassed by drunks and it was time for the wee one to go nightynights. While we could've easily sold her for a respectable price (kidding!!!), it was time to come back to the hotel to eat more room service (which was actually some of the best food we had all weekend, amazingly enough), wine, and watch movies. Caught "Number 23" with Jim Carrey, which I really liked, and I can't remember what else.
OH I might also add that while we were both extremely good this whole weekend, going to the hotel gym EACH DAY, the sheer amount of food we consumed resulted in me putting on 1kg which means I'm going to have to punish myself this week. Which will be hard because I also injured my ankle. WTF! Screwed!!
So sunday was V-day, so we organized the babysitter and made a booking at the cape malay place that The Mr. had been so dying to eat at, for dinner. But before that we met up with Uncle A. & the GF for brunch on the square and enjoyed a bottle of bubbly, said goodbye, came back and took a nap, and then relaxed some more before dinner. Which was fantastic! But sad all the same because it would be our last meal there before leaving the next day. :-(
So that's about it. It was great. We love CT - actually The Mr. was even throwing the idea around of doing a few years of consulting there before we eventually pack up and leave the dark continent someday. I would totally do it if the job was right. But then again so would everyone else. Everyone wants to live in CT. It's kinda like Missouri like that. HAHA!
I just wish I wasn't sick now. I cant hear, can't breathe, cant hardly see - my head is just FULL of pressure and even my ears haven't quite accepted the altitude yet. Hella annoying. But let's not dwell on that - it was all worth it!!!
First of all the 4 flights and 1 and a half days of travel were relatively painless, and other than just the sheer waste of time that it is to have to GET where you're GOING, not bad at all! The youngling was an angel baby the whole way. She charmed all the flight attendants with her smiles and high-fives, as well as her non-stop signlanguaging "please". We've created a monster there - please, please, please, please.... please, please, please, please.... all day long it's please, please, please... she's exploiting it now I think. Must come up with new strategy. But the main thing is that there was no screaming or crying on the plane, which is what had built up into my greatest fear over the last couple weeks. That's right, it used to be ME on board that plane having to gag myself from shouting out "HEY LADY, ARE YOU GONNA SHUT THAT KID UP OR AM I GONNA HAVE TO DO IT FOR YA!?!?!?" Anyway now I have total peace of mind for our big upcoming Australia trip and then the USA after that. Whew. I was especially worried that screwing her schedule up would lead to terror and strife, but promptly at 10:30am and 3pm regardless of where we were, she hit the sack for at least an hour either on our laps (on the plane) or in the sling (standing around the airport). Halle-freakin-luja!
The night we arrived it was pretty late, but since it stays light so long that far south, we still had time to walk down to the Waterfront and grab some delicious fishy stuff from the fish monger which we took back to our room and ate the hell out of. It was so great to be there, watch the sunset, see the seals flopping around in the water, hear the street musicians etc etc etc. Classic CT experience. Then the hotel - oh man - don't even get me started.... decadent threadcount sheets, dark-as-hell curtains that make you think it's midnight when it's really 8am.... gorgeous flat screen TV... room service.... THE SHOWER FROM HEAVEN... even if we had just stayed in that room for 3 days straight, I would've found nirvana.
The next day we slept in, ordered breakfast in bed, and then orchestrated a meet-up with Uncle A.... WHO, I might add, is in fantastic form these days - a far cry from his display at xmas. I think it has to do with being in lurrrv. His gf is a CT girl and so they were down there for the weekend. So while she was at a babyshower or something, us 3 and Lady JuJu took in another afternoon of sipping wine on the waterfront at a greek fisherman restaurant - and that's where I got burnt. Whoopsiedaisies.
When the GF was done with her social engagement she met us at the Belgain beer bar but we were all crispy fried toasted by that time (I"m talking about the sun, not the alcohol) so we opted for going back to our hotel, since it was just right there, and enjoyed a fan-freakin-tastic bottle of Pecan Stream Chenin Blanc, and let LJJ (it's about time I settled on a usable an acronym here) take a nap. This is now probably my ultimate wine of choice, officially. The GF is really nice - I really really like her. I really hope Uncle A doesn't make a ballsup of this one because I could totally hang out with her. And I think they could be quite suitable for one another. Also, she wasn't what I was picturing at all - which was far more of a dainty bimbo - but I'm not sure why, because I really knew very little about her. I guess it was just going by what I know he finds attractive in a pair of boobies...er, I mean a girl.
That night The Mr., LJJ & I took a walkabout in the highly child-unfriendly maniac-psycho clubbing district (we hadn't been there since like the year 2000 when we were but young party animals so we were interested in seeing if it was still the same) until we had had our fill of being harrassed by drunks and it was time for the wee one to go nightynights. While we could've easily sold her for a respectable price (kidding!!!), it was time to come back to the hotel to eat more room service (which was actually some of the best food we had all weekend, amazingly enough), wine, and watch movies. Caught "Number 23" with Jim Carrey, which I really liked, and I can't remember what else.
OH I might also add that while we were both extremely good this whole weekend, going to the hotel gym EACH DAY, the sheer amount of food we consumed resulted in me putting on 1kg which means I'm going to have to punish myself this week. Which will be hard because I also injured my ankle. WTF! Screwed!!
So sunday was V-day, so we organized the babysitter and made a booking at the cape malay place that The Mr. had been so dying to eat at, for dinner. But before that we met up with Uncle A. & the GF for brunch on the square and enjoyed a bottle of bubbly, said goodbye, came back and took a nap, and then relaxed some more before dinner. Which was fantastic! But sad all the same because it would be our last meal there before leaving the next day. :-(
So that's about it. It was great. We love CT - actually The Mr. was even throwing the idea around of doing a few years of consulting there before we eventually pack up and leave the dark continent someday. I would totally do it if the job was right. But then again so would everyone else. Everyone wants to live in CT. It's kinda like Missouri like that. HAHA!
I just wish I wasn't sick now. I cant hear, can't breathe, cant hardly see - my head is just FULL of pressure and even my ears haven't quite accepted the altitude yet. Hella annoying. But let's not dwell on that - it was all worth it!!!
Labels: trip planning
Oh my GRIEF. And stress before travelling.
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 11 February 2010 at 2/11/2010 12:47:00 pm.
Joy of owning a small business No. 436:
Finding PORN on the office printer and having to detective out WHOSE IT IS....
Luckily, after the obligatory group-beatdown, the culprit confessed. I will spare their image in the eyes of my 2 friends who read this, and keep their identity a secret but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PEOPLE.... COME ON!!!! GET IT TOGETHER!!!! IF YOUR MARRIAGE IS SUFFERING DUE TO LACK OF SEXUAL EXPERIENCE, DON'T DO YOUR DO-IT-YOURSELF RESEARCH ON YOUR OFFICE PC AND THEN CANCEL THE PRINTJOB HALFWAY THROUGH!!!
Luckily we're talking instructural manual-type-stuff here, and not.... but still.
So yes, the culprit confessed, The Mr. served up the confrontory talk with "this person", ending it on the "we're going to have to decide what we're going to do about this" note, mentioning that now his & my trip to Cape Town is probably going to have to be the venue for this debate on how to handle the situation (guilt!), and left it at that.
I will give my speech this afternoon or on Tuesday when I'm back in the office.
It will go something to the effect of:
"SINCE IT HAS BEEN MADE OBVIOUS TO THE DIRECTORS OF THIS COMPANY THAT REGARDLESS OF HOW MUCH WE *THOUGHT* WE COULD TRUST EVEN THE MOST TRUSTWORTHY EMPLOYEE OF THIS OFFICE, YOU PEOPLE STILL WANT TO BEHAVE LIKE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES..... WELL, IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT, THEN PREPARE TO BE TREATED LIKE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES FROM THIS POINT FORWARD."
"FROM NOW ON WE WILL CARRY OUT SPOT CHECKS ON INTERNET HISTORIES, EMAILS IN AND OUT, AS WELL AS DELETED MATERIALS. SHOULD WE FIND THAT HISTORIES HAVE BEEN CLEARED, RECYCLE BINS EMPTIED, OR OTHER COVERUP METHODS USED, WE WILL ASSUME YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE, AND WILL HANDLE YOUR ACTIONS ACCORDINGLY. MY CO-DIRECTOR AND I WILL BE INSTALLING PRINT COUNTERS ON ALL PRINTERS, AND CALL MONITORS ON THE TELEPHONE. YOU WILL BE CHARGED EVERY CENT OWED TO THIS COMPANY FOR EVERY LAST SHRED OF PAPER OR DROP OF INK USED FOR YOUR PERSONAL INTERESTS. AT PRESENT, I AM TEMPTED TO CHARGE EACH ONE OF YOU FOR AN EXTRA COLOUR INK CARTRIDGE FOR THE LASER JET PRINTER, SEEING AS IT HAS OBVIOUSLY BEEN MISUNDERSTOOD THAT OUR EQUIPMENT IS HERE FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE."
"ADDITIONALLY, SINCE YOU WANT TO BE TREATED LIKE GOVERNMENT WORKERS, IT IS OBVIOUS THAT MANAGEMENT MUST BE PRESENT AT ALL TIMES TO BABYSIT YOU DURING THE HOURS THAT YOU 'REQUIRE' TO STAY LATE OR START EARLY IN ORDER TO 'FINISH YOUR WORK'. BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY WE CAN NOT TRUST WHAT GOES ON HERE IN THIS OFFICE DURING THE TIMES THAT WE ARE NOT AROUND. THIS RESULTS IN AN EMBARGO ON ANY OVERTIME YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH, MEANING IF YOU DO NOT GET YOUR WORK DONE BETWEEN THE HOURS THAT YOU ARE SCHEDULED TO BE HERE, YOU ARE FROM THIS POINT FORWARD, IN DEBT TO THIS COMPANY AND WILL BE ASKED TO MAKE UP YOUR WORKING TIME AT THE DISGRESSION OF THE DIRECTORS, WHEN AND WHERE THEY INSTRUCT YOU TO DO SO. IT APPEARS THAT WE NOW MUST ALSO ALTER *OUR* SCHEDULES, TO ENSURE THAT ONE OF US IS HERE AT 7:30AM EVERY MORNING, TO BABYSIT YOU. THANKS. WE REALLY APPRECIATE THAT."
"I AM SO DISGUSTED WITH WHAT IS OBVIOUSLY GOING ON HERE IN MY (OUR) ABSENCE, THAT I AM TEMPTED TO PUNISH YOU ALL BY CANCELLING OUR CHRISTMAS DINNER IN MARCH. HOWEVER, I REALIZE THAT THE CULPRIT HAS APOLOGIZED TO THE REST OF YOU, AND AM SURE THAT I SHOULD REFRAIN FROM PUNISHING THE GROUP FURTHER, DUE TO THIS PERSON'S STUPIDITY. HOWEVER! LET ME REMIND YOU THAT THE FIRST PERSON WHO SO MUCH AS EVEN *THINKS* ABOUT MAKING ONE PERSONAL PHONE CALL, PRINTING OUT ONE SINGLE PHOTOGRAPH ON ANY PRINTER IN HERE, OR OPENING UP ONE SINGLE NON-WORK RELATED WEBSITE ON ONE OF THESE COMPUTERS, WILL FIND THEMSELVES NOT ONLY IN POSSESSION OF AN INVOICE ON BEHALF OF THIS COMPANY FOR RESOURCES SQUANDERED, BUT ALSO FOR TIME WASTED AS BILLABLE HOURS ON TOP OF THAT. A WRITTEN WARNING WILL ALSO BE INCLUDED. AS YOU KNOW, DUE TO LABOUR LAWS IN THIS COUNTRY, TERMINATION IS ACCEPTABLE AFTER 2 WRITTEN WARNINGS. WE WILL NOT HESITATE TO DO SO."
"SO IN CONCLUSION! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. WE ARE NOT MESSING AROUND ANYMORE. PREPARE TO EXPERIENCE A SHIFT IN ATTITUDE TOWARDS PERSONAL FREEDOMES AROUND THIS OFFICE, IN THE FUTURE. IF THIS UPSETS YOU, YOU ALL KNOW WHO TO THANK. THAT IS ALL. *GOOD DAY, SIRS!!*"
I think that pretty much sums it up.... We probably wouldn't be so furious if it hadn't happened the way it happened. How? Welllll.... The Mr. and R. (visiting biofuels expert consultant, working on The Mr.'s project that he is running) both sent print jobs to the color printer this morning. They were standing around said printer having a chat, when 10 pages of nekkit lovers start flowing out (again - picture kama sutra type stuff here... nothing twisted or XXX rated or anything)... LUCKILY, The Mr. catches the papers and R. doesn't see anything because he's *just* moved away from the machine. CAN YOU IMAGINE!??
As The Mr. explained to Culprit during their man-to-man about this, not only would this have embarassed us as a company in front of this highly respected visitor, who knows what kind of viruses he is bringing into our network, what kind of kiddie or animal or whatever type filth he could've clicked on that would've sent red flags up in Big Brother's House and sent the internet cops after us?? Not to mention that our internet service provider, who is a FRIEND OF OURS can monitor every page visited from their end??? WTF!??!
Anyway, it's been an interesting day so far.
Not to mention I'm supposed to be getting ready for our trip tomorrow morning!!!
But now, The Mr. tells me we all have to go over to this rich Indian guy's house for a big fat dinner tonight, because he's hosting The Mr.'s research team and everyone HAS to go. Including me & the JuJu Lady. And it STARTS at 8:30pm. GREAT. I've gotta get paperwork ready, I've gotta pack, I've gotta do a bunch of CRAP and now I've got no time to do it in!! AGH!
But I have to support The Mr. here. He has done a great job this week of hosting a conference/workshop, a bunch of visiting experts, and shuffling them all around, lecturing, demonstrating, presenting, writing, and just generally TCB for this huge project that he has landed us all by himself. He is a management machine this week. True, I haven't seen him at all this week because of it. True, it's so stressful he can't sleep at night. True, I ended up entertaining 5 visiting scientists from India & Swaziland on my verandah last night drinking my beer and eating my peanuts at 8pm because of it. And now, it looks like I've gotta mobilize our family for our trip all by myself between the hours of what, midnight and 2am this evening?? Because of a dinner?? But whatever. I can do it. I'm not a hundred years old or something. I'm just gonna need some luck and some super-organized lists.
In the meantime, I'm just looking forward to seeing the ocean out my hotel window while eating room service food in bed, sometime within the next 48 hours. ahhh bliss.
Finding PORN on the office printer and having to detective out WHOSE IT IS....
Luckily, after the obligatory group-beatdown, the culprit confessed. I will spare their image in the eyes of my 2 friends who read this, and keep their identity a secret but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PEOPLE.... COME ON!!!! GET IT TOGETHER!!!! IF YOUR MARRIAGE IS SUFFERING DUE TO LACK OF SEXUAL EXPERIENCE, DON'T DO YOUR DO-IT-YOURSELF RESEARCH ON YOUR OFFICE PC AND THEN CANCEL THE PRINTJOB HALFWAY THROUGH!!!
Luckily we're talking instructural manual-type-stuff here, and not.... but still.
So yes, the culprit confessed, The Mr. served up the confrontory talk with "this person", ending it on the "we're going to have to decide what we're going to do about this" note, mentioning that now his & my trip to Cape Town is probably going to have to be the venue for this debate on how to handle the situation (guilt!), and left it at that.
I will give my speech this afternoon or on Tuesday when I'm back in the office.
It will go something to the effect of:
"SINCE IT HAS BEEN MADE OBVIOUS TO THE DIRECTORS OF THIS COMPANY THAT REGARDLESS OF HOW MUCH WE *THOUGHT* WE COULD TRUST EVEN THE MOST TRUSTWORTHY EMPLOYEE OF THIS OFFICE, YOU PEOPLE STILL WANT TO BEHAVE LIKE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES..... WELL, IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT, THEN PREPARE TO BE TREATED LIKE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES FROM THIS POINT FORWARD."
"FROM NOW ON WE WILL CARRY OUT SPOT CHECKS ON INTERNET HISTORIES, EMAILS IN AND OUT, AS WELL AS DELETED MATERIALS. SHOULD WE FIND THAT HISTORIES HAVE BEEN CLEARED, RECYCLE BINS EMPTIED, OR OTHER COVERUP METHODS USED, WE WILL ASSUME YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE, AND WILL HANDLE YOUR ACTIONS ACCORDINGLY. MY CO-DIRECTOR AND I WILL BE INSTALLING PRINT COUNTERS ON ALL PRINTERS, AND CALL MONITORS ON THE TELEPHONE. YOU WILL BE CHARGED EVERY CENT OWED TO THIS COMPANY FOR EVERY LAST SHRED OF PAPER OR DROP OF INK USED FOR YOUR PERSONAL INTERESTS. AT PRESENT, I AM TEMPTED TO CHARGE EACH ONE OF YOU FOR AN EXTRA COLOUR INK CARTRIDGE FOR THE LASER JET PRINTER, SEEING AS IT HAS OBVIOUSLY BEEN MISUNDERSTOOD THAT OUR EQUIPMENT IS HERE FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE."
"ADDITIONALLY, SINCE YOU WANT TO BE TREATED LIKE GOVERNMENT WORKERS, IT IS OBVIOUS THAT MANAGEMENT MUST BE PRESENT AT ALL TIMES TO BABYSIT YOU DURING THE HOURS THAT YOU 'REQUIRE' TO STAY LATE OR START EARLY IN ORDER TO 'FINISH YOUR WORK'. BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY WE CAN NOT TRUST WHAT GOES ON HERE IN THIS OFFICE DURING THE TIMES THAT WE ARE NOT AROUND. THIS RESULTS IN AN EMBARGO ON ANY OVERTIME YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH, MEANING IF YOU DO NOT GET YOUR WORK DONE BETWEEN THE HOURS THAT YOU ARE SCHEDULED TO BE HERE, YOU ARE FROM THIS POINT FORWARD, IN DEBT TO THIS COMPANY AND WILL BE ASKED TO MAKE UP YOUR WORKING TIME AT THE DISGRESSION OF THE DIRECTORS, WHEN AND WHERE THEY INSTRUCT YOU TO DO SO. IT APPEARS THAT WE NOW MUST ALSO ALTER *OUR* SCHEDULES, TO ENSURE THAT ONE OF US IS HERE AT 7:30AM EVERY MORNING, TO BABYSIT YOU. THANKS. WE REALLY APPRECIATE THAT."
"I AM SO DISGUSTED WITH WHAT IS OBVIOUSLY GOING ON HERE IN MY (OUR) ABSENCE, THAT I AM TEMPTED TO PUNISH YOU ALL BY CANCELLING OUR CHRISTMAS DINNER IN MARCH. HOWEVER, I REALIZE THAT THE CULPRIT HAS APOLOGIZED TO THE REST OF YOU, AND AM SURE THAT I SHOULD REFRAIN FROM PUNISHING THE GROUP FURTHER, DUE TO THIS PERSON'S STUPIDITY. HOWEVER!
"SO IN CONCLUSION! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. WE ARE NOT MESSING AROUND ANYMORE. PREPARE TO EXPERIENCE A SHIFT IN ATTITUDE TOWARDS PERSONAL FREEDOMES AROUND THIS OFFICE, IN THE FUTURE. IF THIS UPSETS YOU, YOU ALL KNOW WHO TO THANK. THAT IS ALL. *GOOD DAY, SIRS!!*"
I think that pretty much sums it up.... We probably wouldn't be so furious if it hadn't happened the way it happened. How? Welllll.... The Mr. and R. (visiting biofuels expert consultant, working on The Mr.'s project that he is running) both sent print jobs to the color printer this morning. They were standing around said printer having a chat, when 10 pages of nekkit lovers start flowing out (again - picture kama sutra type stuff here... nothing twisted or XXX rated or anything)... LUCKILY, The Mr. catches the papers and R. doesn't see anything because he's *just* moved away from the machine. CAN YOU IMAGINE!??
As The Mr. explained to Culprit during their man-to-man about this, not only would this have embarassed us as a company in front of this highly respected visitor, who knows what kind of viruses he is bringing into our network, what kind of kiddie or animal or whatever type filth he could've clicked on that would've sent red flags up in Big Brother's House and sent the internet cops after us?? Not to mention that our internet service provider, who is a FRIEND OF OURS can monitor every page visited from their end??? WTF!??!
Anyway, it's been an interesting day so far.
Not to mention I'm supposed to be getting ready for our trip tomorrow morning!!!
But now, The Mr. tells me we all have to go over to this rich Indian guy's house for a big fat dinner tonight, because he's hosting The Mr.'s research team and everyone HAS to go. Including me & the JuJu Lady. And it STARTS at 8:30pm. GREAT. I've gotta get paperwork ready, I've gotta pack, I've gotta do a bunch of CRAP and now I've got no time to do it in!! AGH!
But I have to support The Mr. here. He has done a great job this week of hosting a conference/workshop, a bunch of visiting experts, and shuffling them all around, lecturing, demonstrating, presenting, writing, and just generally TCB for this huge project that he has landed us all by himself. He is a management machine this week. True, I haven't seen him at all this week because of it. True, it's so stressful he can't sleep at night. True, I ended up entertaining 5 visiting scientists from India & Swaziland on my verandah last night drinking my beer and eating my peanuts at 8pm because of it. And now, it looks like I've gotta mobilize our family for our trip all by myself between the hours of what, midnight and 2am this evening?? Because of a dinner?? But whatever. I can do it. I'm not a hundred years old or something. I'm just gonna need some luck and some super-organized lists.
In the meantime, I'm just looking forward to seeing the ocean out my hotel window while eating room service food in bed, sometime within the next 48 hours. ahhh bliss.
Labels: trip planning, work
...I totally forgot until opening up my emails today that TODAY is the first day of my new semester. DOH!!
In other news, did you know that a photo of a baby in the bathtub (no private parts exposed) violates the terms and conditions of the use of photobucket.com? Far out! So they delete it for you. Sweet of them, no???
:-o
Anyway.... this new coffee we bought "Jamaican blend" tastes like the way my granddaddy's house smelled. Like cigarettes and coffee. And dust. And old leather. And smoke-infused carpeting and wallpaper. And Wichita. And the '70s. If I'm lyin, I'm dyin. That is EXACTLY how this coffee tastes. It ain't bad though, I like it ok. Not as good as our usual choice "Weiner Mischung Blend", or as I like to call it "Weener Machine".
Where was I going with this?
This weekend was fine - relaxing to the point of near boredom but I think that's just in comparison with how over-the-top everything has been recently. Actually, now that I think about it, I personally didn't leave the plot for 2 days straight. Wow. But both of us were super busy doing our trip planning. It appears that although we still haven't received our confirmation email from the airline (which worries me because there could be a credit card issue there?), the Australia trip has been booked and finalized (WAHOO!!! Youse Aussie guys... we are coming for you!!! Sandra get those damned portuguese bakery breakfasty custardy pastry thingies ready!!)
AND I have selected the USA trip dates and put some serious elbow grease into finding THOSE flights... except they are worryingly VERY expensive. Why must americans all travel between June and July? Ugh!! Unfair. Totally unfair. And I think the World Cup (WHICH we got tickets to, BTW.... NL vs. Denmark yee haw) has sabotaged some of our dates for flights, price-wise too. However, I will perservere. The Mr. read recently that the oil prices have taken a dive and that it is likely that flight prices will come down, particularly once the World Cup starts and airlines realize that No, actually not EVERYONE on the PLANET is flying to/from South Africa and therefore they are actually NOT in a position to exploit outrageous airfares out of people crossing the dark continent.
So that one is still being researched. But at least dates have been decided, so we're nearly there!
Friday we watched "Passengers" starring Anne Hathaway. It's ehhhh okay ehhhh, reminds me a lot of the book I just finished reading: "Night Fall" by Nelson Demille. But it was filmed in Vancouver so that got me all excited about said North America trip, which we will be finishing there, to see Podgey & Rach & our fellow adopter buddies RH & The Abster of Namibia '09 fame. I also got to have a long overdue catchup with El Podgio as well as Brandon and those are the friday activities I live for. Drinking white wine while doing internet chat with my besties. ahhh weekend.
The weekend also saw more geetar lessons with The Mr., as well as banjo pickin as well as swimming pool time and me getting my ass sunburnt. That puts a whole new strain on my crunches routine (see previous blog) considering all the friction on the old tukkis which that particular exercise necessitates.
Here are 2 photos from my garden.
OH and apparently my kid is a miniature child. Soo & Mx brought over 4-month old baby M. on friday and OMG she's as big (bigger?) as The Joo? I am so bad - I have no idea how big a 10month old should be, but if this is the case (as is with our Ecologist's 4month old) then apparently it is possible that I may not end up being the shortest person in our family after all, 18 years from now. Oh well, the Dr.s say she is perfectly healthy so there is no worry. But there goes my idea of recycling all her baby clothes to the 2 babies that I know who are younger than her!! Eish! Micro-baby!!
In other news, did you know that a photo of a baby in the bathtub (no private parts exposed) violates the terms and conditions of the use of photobucket.com? Far out! So they delete it for you. Sweet of them, no???
:-o
Anyway.... this new coffee we bought "Jamaican blend" tastes like the way my granddaddy's house smelled. Like cigarettes and coffee. And dust. And old leather. And smoke-infused carpeting and wallpaper. And Wichita. And the '70s. If I'm lyin, I'm dyin. That is EXACTLY how this coffee tastes. It ain't bad though, I like it ok. Not as good as our usual choice "Weiner Mischung Blend", or as I like to call it "Weener Machine".
Where was I going with this?
This weekend was fine - relaxing to the point of near boredom but I think that's just in comparison with how over-the-top everything has been recently. Actually, now that I think about it, I personally didn't leave the plot for 2 days straight. Wow. But both of us were super busy doing our trip planning. It appears that although we still haven't received our confirmation email from the airline (which worries me because there could be a credit card issue there?), the Australia trip has been booked and finalized (WAHOO!!! Youse Aussie guys... we are coming for you!!! Sandra get those damned portuguese bakery breakfasty custardy pastry thingies ready!!)
AND I have selected the USA trip dates and put some serious elbow grease into finding THOSE flights... except they are worryingly VERY expensive. Why must americans all travel between June and July? Ugh!! Unfair. Totally unfair. And I think the World Cup (WHICH we got tickets to, BTW.... NL vs. Denmark yee haw) has sabotaged some of our dates for flights, price-wise too. However, I will perservere. The Mr. read recently that the oil prices have taken a dive and that it is likely that flight prices will come down, particularly once the World Cup starts and airlines realize that No, actually not EVERYONE on the PLANET is flying to/from South Africa and therefore they are actually NOT in a position to exploit outrageous airfares out of people crossing the dark continent.
So that one is still being researched. But at least dates have been decided, so we're nearly there!
Friday we watched "Passengers" starring Anne Hathaway. It's ehhhh okay ehhhh, reminds me a lot of the book I just finished reading: "Night Fall" by Nelson Demille. But it was filmed in Vancouver so that got me all excited about said North America trip, which we will be finishing there, to see Podgey & Rach & our fellow adopter buddies RH & The Abster of Namibia '09 fame. I also got to have a long overdue catchup with El Podgio as well as Brandon and those are the friday activities I live for. Drinking white wine while doing internet chat with my besties. ahhh weekend.
The weekend also saw more geetar lessons with The Mr., as well as banjo pickin as well as swimming pool time and me getting my ass sunburnt. That puts a whole new strain on my crunches routine (see previous blog) considering all the friction on the old tukkis which that particular exercise necessitates.
Here are 2 photos from my garden.
We had a bumper crop this year of these gorgeous little bell-shaped yellow cherry tomatoes. While meanwhile, I have gotten exactly 1 (one) "normal" tomato this whole year. What's up with that? I have kicked ass on the spinach and beets, and the onions are still in the ground so I don't know what's going on under there yet. What I *do* know is that the zucchinis were kind of a bust, giving me exactly enough to make 1 zucchini casserole (for xmas).... butternut has been a total failure, and wild cucumbers are in abundance but english cukes not so much.
OH and apparently my kid is a miniature child. Soo & Mx brought over 4-month old baby M. on friday and OMG she's as big (bigger?) as The Joo? I am so bad - I have no idea how big a 10month old should be, but if this is the case (as is with our Ecologist's 4month old) then apparently it is possible that I may not end up being the shortest person in our family after all, 18 years from now. Oh well, the Dr.s say she is perfectly healthy so there is no worry. But there goes my idea of recycling all her baby clothes to the 2 babies that I know who are younger than her!! Eish! Micro-baby!!
I would like to propose more hours, please (AGAIN)
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 05 February 2010 at 2/05/2010 10:31:00 am.
(hours in the day, that is)
How is it possible that when both me and The Mr. work until 6:30pm nearly every day, that we are supposed to be able to run this ship effectively???
Here is a sample schedule of what I'm up against (note: as we alternate days working from home, this is strictly for the one of us who's on office duty):
- 6:30pm - lock up, drive home
- 7:00pm - arrive home (if not required to stop by grocery store or other some such)
- 7 to 8 - help out spouse with baby dinner/adult dinner/bath/feed dogs/adult sanity check/relief baby duty, etc
- 8:00pm - throw baby in bed
- 8:10pm - eat dinner
- 8:30pm - finish dinner
< 1.5="" hour="" key="" magical="" period!!="" time="">
- 10:00pm- read
- 10:30pm - sleep or extra reading
- 11:00pm - sleep
OMG! It's like that key magical 1.5hr time period is all there is for either watching tv, communicating with friends online, taking a swim, or a shower, playing the banjo or viola, teaching the husband his gee-tar lesson, or tidying up or having a glass of wine with your dearly beloved or playing with the pups or making a phone call or reading the newspaper or whatever! And don't even get me started on if I am really going to be able to write my thesis this year...AGHH!
I refuse to deprive myself of the valuable nighttime sleep that enables me to get through my already hectic work day, so I'm not going to all of a sudden start screwing myself out of sleep & reading.... although I have acquired a guilty pleasure of watching syndicated episodes of "Medium" which is now on weeknights between 10-11, which has on occaision been known to nix my reading time in favor of mind-numbing television.
But ALL that stuff that happens between the crazy-ass hour of 7-8 is just out of control. I leave the office most days in a tizzy, only to come home to the even greater tizzy that is 7-8. eish.
However, I see where this is headed (the land of complaint and moaning) so I'm gonna stop right here and call for a re-focus on finding my 2010 hat!!
People are slipping, all around me! Seriously, what's up with that! Just because it's February and no longer "the new year", doesn't mean we get to go back to the same tired old negative jive. Suck it up and get it together, people! Focus! Is this 2010 or 200-Moan!!?? Positive shit, NOW! Move it!!
Cue Mitigation Mode:
Here is a Top 10 Most Excellent Things About My Daily Routine List:
10. I can go to the gym at lunch whenever I want
9. We always have good coffee in the office. DAMN good coffee.
8. I don't have a boss
7. I AM the boss
6. I like my co-workers & they like me
5. Four Words: Billy the Office Dog
4. The kiddo stays up til 8 so I get to see her
3. My husband typically has dinner nearly ready at night
2. The kiddo sleeps like a rock, 100% reliably, meaning so do I
1. There are WEEKENDS, EVERY WEEK, and they're never more than 5 days away!!!
Yeah just think of all those janitors out there, or even worse, the folks with jobs where they're away from home all the time or don't know if they'll even HAVE a job this time next week or next month or next year. Try maintaining stability and sanity with that kinda routine.
OK.... negativity crisis averted.
In other good fitness news I am consistantly maintaining 51kg in weight and up to 40 crunches and 20 pushups (proper ones) in my daily morning routine. I wanted to see how it would work so January was kind of a trial month.... every morning before coming downstairs I did 10 pushups and 30 crunches. With the goal of adding on an extra 10 (to each) per month. So near the end of January I added an extra 5 pushups, and the extra crunches were no problem because I'm pretty good at those from all that gymming... So this first week of February has been the new total, which I struggled a little with (the pushups not the situps) during the first few days but now it's all good. Albeit sore. But that's how I like it.
And I am pleasantly surprised with my abdominal definition - something I've been chasing for oh, about a hundred years now, but never managed to get. I realize now it's because I was never working my abs daily, and was only doing them at whatever interval I was going to the gym or yoga. Which can be sporadic and often as little as once a week, depending on my schedule. Once I started the 7 days a week thing it was just like - bang! results! AND it only takes 5 minutes or less. So regardless of my taking this many years to finaly delegate 5 minutes of my morning to this little experiment, I've settled in to it now and have come to the realization that it IS actually quite manageable despite my acute bad attitude toward mornings and everything they stand for. I am absolutely fascinated by the idea that by the end of the year, if I CAN actually keep adding an extra 10 per month.... I could be doing as many as what, 100+ pushups??? That would be one hell of an accomplishment for me, anyway. Especially since I'm not talking about the girly kind of pushups here. I believe yes, I would probably feel like quite the badass if I can get that one nailed.
How is it possible that when both me and The Mr. work until 6:30pm nearly every day, that we are supposed to be able to run this ship effectively???
Here is a sample schedule of what I'm up against (note: as we alternate days working from home, this is strictly for the one of us who's on office duty):
- 6:30pm - lock up, drive home
- 7:00pm - arrive home (if not required to stop by grocery store or other some such)
- 7 to 8 - help out spouse with baby dinner/adult dinner/bath/feed dogs/adult sanity check/relief baby duty, etc
- 8:00pm - throw baby in bed
- 8:10pm - eat dinner
- 8:30pm - finish dinner
< 1.5="" hour="" key="" magical="" period!!="" time="">
- 10:00pm- read
- 10:30pm - sleep or extra reading
- 11:00pm - sleep
OMG! It's like that key magical 1.5hr time period is all there is for either watching tv, communicating with friends online, taking a swim, or a shower, playing the banjo or viola, teaching the husband his gee-tar lesson, or tidying up or having a glass of wine with your dearly beloved or playing with the pups or making a phone call or reading the newspaper or whatever! And don't even get me started on if I am really going to be able to write my thesis this year...AGHH!
I refuse to deprive myself of the valuable nighttime sleep that enables me to get through my already hectic work day, so I'm not going to all of a sudden start screwing myself out of sleep & reading.... although I have acquired a guilty pleasure of watching syndicated episodes of "Medium" which is now on weeknights between 10-11, which has on occaision been known to nix my reading time in favor of mind-numbing television.
But ALL that stuff that happens between the crazy-ass hour of 7-8 is just out of control. I leave the office most days in a tizzy, only to come home to the even greater tizzy that is 7-8. eish.
However, I see where this is headed (the land of complaint and moaning) so I'm gonna stop right here and call for a re-focus on finding my 2010 hat!!
People are slipping, all around me! Seriously, what's up with that! Just because it's February and no longer "the new year", doesn't mean we get to go back to the same tired old negative jive. Suck it up and get it together, people! Focus! Is this 2010 or 200-Moan!!?? Positive shit, NOW! Move it!!
Cue Mitigation Mode:
Here is a Top 10 Most Excellent Things About My Daily Routine List:
10. I can go to the gym at lunch whenever I want
9. We always have good coffee in the office. DAMN good coffee.
8. I don't have a boss
7. I AM the boss
6. I like my co-workers & they like me
5. Four Words: Billy the Office Dog
4. The kiddo stays up til 8 so I get to see her
3. My husband typically has dinner nearly ready at night
2. The kiddo sleeps like a rock, 100% reliably, meaning so do I
1. There are WEEKENDS, EVERY WEEK, and they're never more than 5 days away!!!
Yeah just think of all those janitors out there, or even worse, the folks with jobs where they're away from home all the time or don't know if they'll even HAVE a job this time next week or next month or next year. Try maintaining stability and sanity with that kinda routine.
OK.... negativity crisis averted.
In other good fitness news I am consistantly maintaining 51kg in weight and up to 40 crunches and 20 pushups (proper ones) in my daily morning routine. I wanted to see how it would work so January was kind of a trial month.... every morning before coming downstairs I did 10 pushups and 30 crunches. With the goal of adding on an extra 10 (to each) per month. So near the end of January I added an extra 5 pushups, and the extra crunches were no problem because I'm pretty good at those from all that gymming... So this first week of February has been the new total, which I struggled a little with (the pushups not the situps) during the first few days but now it's all good. Albeit sore. But that's how I like it.
And I am pleasantly surprised with my abdominal definition - something I've been chasing for oh, about a hundred years now, but never managed to get. I realize now it's because I was never working my abs daily, and was only doing them at whatever interval I was going to the gym or yoga. Which can be sporadic and often as little as once a week, depending on my schedule. Once I started the 7 days a week thing it was just like - bang! results! AND it only takes 5 minutes or less. So regardless of my taking this many years to finaly delegate 5 minutes of my morning to this little experiment, I've settled in to it now and have come to the realization that it IS actually quite manageable despite my acute bad attitude toward mornings and everything they stand for. I am absolutely fascinated by the idea that by the end of the year, if I CAN actually keep adding an extra 10 per month.... I could be doing as many as what, 100+ pushups??? That would be one hell of an accomplishment for me, anyway. Especially since I'm not talking about the girly kind of pushups here. I believe yes, I would probably feel like quite the badass if I can get that one nailed.
Labels: The spirit of 2010, weight
9 days til Cape Town....
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 03 February 2010 at 2/03/2010 01:06:00 pm.
I am sooooo freakin excited about Valentine's weekend.... our first trip out of the country since July. I am busy (when I'm not busy being busy) trying to find el supremo luxury hotel in the right location with the right amenities (can someone say babysitting service?) and the right sheets. Then I need to make THE MASTER LIST of what we need to bring/do, since this will include bringing along the Youngling, and all of her affairs.
My main objectives are going to be:
eating seafood
eating fusion food
eating sushi
eating seafood
drinking champagne
running on the beach
sleeping
heaven.
So the weekend was fine. Nondescript, kind of. It's freakin HOT, I do know that. I'm actually kinda looking forward to winter, as bizarre as that may sound. I've been sleeping like CRAP lately and I'm sick of all these summer factors like "if you don't put the sun screen up in the car while you're in the shop, you'll die", or "water the garden twice or day or your spinach will die", and "don't even bother trying to cuddle your hubby lest you suffocate". Also I kind of miss red wine & red port. Copious amounts of white wines and white port have been great but I'm ready for crock pot dinners and fire in the fireplace, I think.
The 75th b-day party for Frau Meister was pretty decent. We got there and there were like 20 some odd people there (mainly her young students & their parents) and a makeshift "recital" ensued. Thank God she didn't make me play anything. And that would be just like her too - "Oh wayward one, please come up and play something you haven't practiced". There was punch. There was potluck. There was.... Paganini on videotape. We left before 8. Tony & his Mrs. were there so we talked to them for awhile. My heart goes out to FM - she is so frail. I know she has a health condition but I don't know what it is because I havent asked. But her violin looks bigger than she does... put it that way.
We also finally got around to watching "Angels and Deamons" this wknd. It made me realize how badly I kept up with 2009's movies. The Oscar season always reminds me of that. I don't recognize the names of half the movies that are out, out there at the moment. Uh-oh. I hate that. And it doesnt help that our video store SUCKS ASS... nothing current and everything semi-current is OUT. ALL THE TIME. But I will try. I'm chasing their ONE copy of "The Hangover" right now...
OMG I am a kitchen GENIUS. Yesterday I took 2 fillets of butterfish, & a few beetroots (fresh from my garden) and NO recipes... and orchestrated what could certainly be considered the dinner of the century. Pardon me while I write this down for posterity:
Butterfish in Muscadel sauce (by ME):
Make sauce first, as follows....
1. Sautee onions, a minced chilli pepper, & garlic in butter & oil
2. Reduce down a good cup or so of White Muscadel (white port)
3. Add 1/2 cup or so of brown sugar
4. Add herbs of choice (I used fresh basil, parsely, sage & mint)
5. Add sliced mushrooms
6. Add tomato-based something or other to taste (I used homemade salsa - no more than a 1/2 Cup - it's just to balance the sweetness with something acidic, and to turn the sauce reddish)
7. Keep reducing, let thicken as much as possible
8. When all is mixed & reduced, add a dollop of sour cream & about 1T of butter, and then the secret ingredient: a dash of maple syrup. Mix and set aside (keeping warm).
9. Pan-fry butterfish fillets in butter (with some oil to keep butter from burning) and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper.
10. Top fish with sauce & serve! YUMMMM- MEEE.
Now, for my new invention:
Beetroot salad with feta...
1. Boil, peel, & dice beetroot (I used about 4 small ones)
2. Sautee onions about 1/2way (not too soft) & mix in with beets
3. Toss all in some olive oil and the brine/juice from a jar of sweet & sour pickles
4. Add a complementary amount of roasted/salted cashews
5. Add a couple diced pickles (from out of the same jar you used the juice from)
6. Add some diced up pickled peppers (or pickled anything, really)
7. Garnish with fresh dill & coriander - or toss together
8. Lastly, throw in cubes of feta cheese but don't toss because it'll all go pink from the beets and it looks nicer when it's white.
If I had to do it over again (which I will) I'll probably find a nice green veg to throw in as well, for extra color. I'm thinking maybe just some plain old cold green peas would do.
I gotta get creative with these beets because they were the most plentiful item I got out of my garden this year and when I say plentiful I mean a shitload.
So now, back to planning for the big trip. Only 9 days left. Lots to do. For one, we are busy working on "how to sit still for a long time in one place" since the trip will include one flight from here to JNB, then another flight from JNB to CT. And back. All on little tiny planes with no baby beds. Good times! Good times! She is currently happy to oblige, today we managed a successful 45 minutes on her blanket & another 30 on her chair with her stuffed cow and a post-it note... but that was when she was fresh & rested and I gotta be figuring in that her schedule will be completely thrown off by spending oh, several hours in transit, without a venue for napping, I'm trying to cover all my bases. Thus we've also been rehearsing "how to fall asleep in the sling-thing instead of your bed @ naptime", because that's a practical thing that we can manage as carry on & in the airport, etc. It's been working well at home, but I gotta take this routine out in public this weekend to test it out in a foreign environment to see how it goes.... because I promise you, a baby without a nap is like, one mother of a liability!!!
My main objectives are going to be:
eating seafood
eating fusion food
eating sushi
eating seafood
drinking champagne
running on the beach
sleeping
heaven.
So the weekend was fine. Nondescript, kind of. It's freakin HOT, I do know that. I'm actually kinda looking forward to winter, as bizarre as that may sound. I've been sleeping like CRAP lately and I'm sick of all these summer factors like "if you don't put the sun screen up in the car while you're in the shop, you'll die", or "water the garden twice or day or your spinach will die", and "don't even bother trying to cuddle your hubby lest you suffocate". Also I kind of miss red wine & red port. Copious amounts of white wines and white port have been great but I'm ready for crock pot dinners and fire in the fireplace, I think.
The 75th b-day party for Frau Meister was pretty decent. We got there and there were like 20 some odd people there (mainly her young students & their parents) and a makeshift "recital" ensued. Thank God she didn't make me play anything. And that would be just like her too - "Oh wayward one, please come up and play something you haven't practiced". There was punch. There was potluck. There was.... Paganini on videotape. We left before 8. Tony & his Mrs. were there so we talked to them for awhile. My heart goes out to FM - she is so frail. I know she has a health condition but I don't know what it is because I havent asked. But her violin looks bigger than she does... put it that way.
We also finally got around to watching "Angels and Deamons" this wknd. It made me realize how badly I kept up with 2009's movies. The Oscar season always reminds me of that. I don't recognize the names of half the movies that are out, out there at the moment. Uh-oh. I hate that. And it doesnt help that our video store SUCKS ASS... nothing current and everything semi-current is OUT. ALL THE TIME. But I will try. I'm chasing their ONE copy of "The Hangover" right now...
OMG I am a kitchen GENIUS. Yesterday I took 2 fillets of butterfish, & a few beetroots (fresh from my garden) and NO recipes... and orchestrated what could certainly be considered the dinner of the century. Pardon me while I write this down for posterity:
Butterfish in Muscadel sauce (by ME):
Make sauce first, as follows....
1. Sautee onions, a minced chilli pepper, & garlic in butter & oil
2. Reduce down a good cup or so of White Muscadel (white port)
3. Add 1/2 cup or so of brown sugar
4. Add herbs of choice (I used fresh basil, parsely, sage & mint)
5. Add sliced mushrooms
6. Add tomato-based something or other to taste (I used homemade salsa - no more than a 1/2 Cup - it's just to balance the sweetness with something acidic, and to turn the sauce reddish)
7. Keep reducing, let thicken as much as possible
8. When all is mixed & reduced, add a dollop of sour cream & about 1T of butter, and then the secret ingredient: a dash of maple syrup. Mix and set aside (keeping warm).
9. Pan-fry butterfish fillets in butter (with some oil to keep butter from burning) and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper.
10. Top fish with sauce & serve! YUMMMM- MEEE.
Now, for my new invention:
Beetroot salad with feta...
1. Boil, peel, & dice beetroot (I used about 4 small ones)
2. Sautee onions about 1/2way (not too soft) & mix in with beets
3. Toss all in some olive oil and the brine/juice from a jar of sweet & sour pickles
4. Add a complementary amount of roasted/salted cashews
5. Add a couple diced pickles (from out of the same jar you used the juice from)
6. Add some diced up pickled peppers (or pickled anything, really)
7. Garnish with fresh dill & coriander - or toss together
8. Lastly, throw in cubes of feta cheese but don't toss because it'll all go pink from the beets and it looks nicer when it's white.
If I had to do it over again (which I will) I'll probably find a nice green veg to throw in as well, for extra color. I'm thinking maybe just some plain old cold green peas would do.
I gotta get creative with these beets because they were the most plentiful item I got out of my garden this year and when I say plentiful I mean a shitload.
So now, back to planning for the big trip. Only 9 days left. Lots to do. For one, we are busy working on "how to sit still for a long time in one place" since the trip will include one flight from here to JNB, then another flight from JNB to CT. And back. All on little tiny planes with no baby beds. Good times! Good times! She is currently happy to oblige, today we managed a successful 45 minutes on her blanket & another 30 on her chair with her stuffed cow and a post-it note... but that was when she was fresh & rested and I gotta be figuring in that her schedule will be completely thrown off by spending oh, several hours in transit, without a venue for napping, I'm trying to cover all my bases. Thus we've also been rehearsing "how to fall asleep in the sling-thing instead of your bed @ naptime", because that's a practical thing that we can manage as carry on & in the airport, etc. It's been working well at home, but I gotta take this routine out in public this weekend to test it out in a foreign environment to see how it goes.... because I promise you, a baby without a nap is like, one mother of a liability!!!
Labels: food, trip planning
