I received an email on Thursday last week titled Good News.
I immediately knew what it was. Oh and it was from my sister (5 years younger than I am).
Yes, she's pregnant - 7 weeks - and not really telling anybody except family until they've passed the 12-week mark. They've been trying for about 18 months to fall pregnant so it seems it runs in the family although my mother had no problem falling pregnant with the 3 of us.
A friend asked me how I felt when I heard and the truth is - I only felt pure joy. No jealousy - nothing. I must be maturing LOL. Seriously though - I am really really happy for my sister.
I even went out on Friday night to buy her a gift. I decided on a beautiful pregnancy journal by Tracey Clark. They only had a soiled one in the store and since it has a pale yellow cover I didn't want that one. Turns out that was the only one in the whole of South Africa. Can you believe it?! They went online for me and checked. The good thing was he found me the ISBN number so I'll order it online.
So how about that?!
Then, in other pregnancy news. I stumbled upon an infertility blog two weeks ago. I sent the link to my friend who went out immediately and bought So Close, Tertia Albertyn's book. She then emailed me because the book was so good, etc. and I had to drive over to her work to get it from her.
I read it on Saturday and it was SOOOO inspirational. Lots of parts were very, very sad - I cried like a baby - but it is very good. That woman has been through so much - 9 IVF treatments but at least she now has two gorgeous babies.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Monday, October 09, 2006
I have a confession to make
The other day I was driving to work, singing along and as I turned up the radio, I realized something…
I'm doing it again - singing along to mid-80s Kylie Minogue. I think it was Hand on your Heart. But they all sound the same from that era, don't they?
However, this is not the first time.
D & I were driving somewhere and that Kylie Minogue/ Jason Donovan song came on (the name escapes me for the moment - thank goodness). Anyway, I'm singing along and after a flawless first and second verse, D & I looked at each other in horror.
D: What on earth are you singing? M: I don't know. I didn't even know I knew the words
This must have been a carry over from my early teenaged years ('87???). Since then, I realized that I might as well accept it.
I have come to enjoy Wham (Wake me up before you go-go), Rick Astley (Never gonna give you up) and Kylie. Maybe this shaped me in a positive way - who knows?!
Now who remembers Bros? When will I, will I be famous?
Oh, that Kylie Minogue/ Jason Donovan song is Especially for you
I'm doing it again - singing along to mid-80s Kylie Minogue. I think it was Hand on your Heart. But they all sound the same from that era, don't they?
However, this is not the first time.
D & I were driving somewhere and that Kylie Minogue/ Jason Donovan song came on (the name escapes me for the moment - thank goodness). Anyway, I'm singing along and after a flawless first and second verse, D & I looked at each other in horror.
D: What on earth are you singing? M: I don't know. I didn't even know I knew the words
This must have been a carry over from my early teenaged years ('87???). Since then, I realized that I might as well accept it.
I have come to enjoy Wham (Wake me up before you go-go), Rick Astley (Never gonna give you up) and Kylie. Maybe this shaped me in a positive way - who knows?!
Now who remembers Bros? When will I, will I be famous?
Oh, that Kylie Minogue/ Jason Donovan song is Especially for you
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Terrible Thursday
I had a really terrible day on Thursday. Even though I lost another 0.2kg at Weigh-Less.
Someone unsubscribed from my mailing list. Not just anyone, mind you, but a really good customer. Because I'm in a service-based business, everything is about relationships so generally once people "get me and my work" they're keepers.
The unsubscribes used to bother me a lot at first. Then I realised that I am not for everyone and if people don't like the tone of my newsletters, blogs and so forth, then they won't relate to me and that's fine, 'cos they're probably not my ideal client.
Cool! And then this happened. And I had a feeling it was coming. So maybe knowing beforehand is what is bugging me because I feel like I should have done something.
It's like that feeling when you know you're going o break something, trip and fall, didn't save a document. You realise it just as it's happening but not in time to reverse it.
You see, this person is from my church and we do voluntary work there. I phoned her about something last week and got a really snotty tone. At first I put it down to the fact that she's in the middle of a move but this is the thing - she is just not the type who would ever respond like that. Anyway, we had our talk and I thought, just jump in. So I did.
I asked her what was wrong. Nothing, just busy. Okay... Carried on talking. Checked again before I said bye. No, definitely, there's nothing wrong.
Then this week she unsubscribes from my coaching blog. And the next day when my weekly edition goes out, unsubscribes from my mailing list.
I sent her an email and again she says nothing is wrong, I am fine with you. But clearly something is.
Tomorrow I'm going to corner her at church and confront her. I don't have problems confronting people generally but this one leaves me with such a weird feeling.
I'll have to check back and update this post when I've had The Talk with her. Can't wait! Anything is better than this Not Knowing business.
updated to add
i had the talk and of course, she denied that anything was wrong. So I've got to accept that but I definitely don't believe it.
Someone unsubscribed from my mailing list. Not just anyone, mind you, but a really good customer. Because I'm in a service-based business, everything is about relationships so generally once people "get me and my work" they're keepers.
The unsubscribes used to bother me a lot at first. Then I realised that I am not for everyone and if people don't like the tone of my newsletters, blogs and so forth, then they won't relate to me and that's fine, 'cos they're probably not my ideal client.
Cool! And then this happened. And I had a feeling it was coming. So maybe knowing beforehand is what is bugging me because I feel like I should have done something.
It's like that feeling when you know you're going o break something, trip and fall, didn't save a document. You realise it just as it's happening but not in time to reverse it.
You see, this person is from my church and we do voluntary work there. I phoned her about something last week and got a really snotty tone. At first I put it down to the fact that she's in the middle of a move but this is the thing - she is just not the type who would ever respond like that. Anyway, we had our talk and I thought, just jump in. So I did.
I asked her what was wrong. Nothing, just busy. Okay... Carried on talking. Checked again before I said bye. No, definitely, there's nothing wrong.
Then this week she unsubscribes from my coaching blog. And the next day when my weekly edition goes out, unsubscribes from my mailing list.
I sent her an email and again she says nothing is wrong, I am fine with you. But clearly something is.
Tomorrow I'm going to corner her at church and confront her. I don't have problems confronting people generally but this one leaves me with such a weird feeling.
I'll have to check back and update this post when I've had The Talk with her. Can't wait! Anything is better than this Not Knowing business.
updated to add
i had the talk and of course, she denied that anything was wrong. So I've got to accept that but I definitely don't believe it.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Turns out I'm not into phatic
phatic (FAT-ik)
Relating to a communication meant to generate an atmosphere of social relationship rather than to convey some information.
When you bump into your neighbor on your way out and say, "How are ya?" you're engaging in phatic communion. The idea is not to inquire your neighbor's state of affairs but simply to create a feeling of shared goodwill. Later, at work, when you discuss weather with someone at the water cooler, it's the same idea.
So that's what it is. And I'm the one who really answers and expects a proper answer too.
Now that I know the rules, I'll have to be more phatic!
Relating to a communication meant to generate an atmosphere of social relationship rather than to convey some information.
When you bump into your neighbor on your way out and say, "How are ya?" you're engaging in phatic communion. The idea is not to inquire your neighbor's state of affairs but simply to create a feeling of shared goodwill. Later, at work, when you discuss weather with someone at the water cooler, it's the same idea.
So that's what it is. And I'm the one who really answers and expects a proper answer too.
Now that I know the rules, I'll have to be more phatic!
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
I forgot about the car!!!
Oh.My.Word - glancing back over previous posts, I realise that I forgot to tell about my new car!
So I took my car to the dealer who was buying it from me on Thursday 21st. It was a very sad moment - I love that little red car (VW Citi Golf) - so I asked the guy to take a last picture of me in the car. To be honest, I think I was behaving strangely because he gave me a really weird look.
Anyway, they deposited the cheque early the next morning so all was fine on that front. I borrowed some money from the bank (as little as I could get away with because I hate, hate, hate debt) so had to wait for this money to be paid before I could collect the car.
The whole Friday I was on the phone to the bank about probably 10 times in total trying to get them to hurry up and pay (and isn't it strange that they promised that their money would be in first and they were last).
It was stress stress stress because I'd organised a lift to the dealer based on timelines promised and nothing was happening. Normally I would have been a lot more relaxed about it except that it was a long weekend and I wanted a car (I am fiercely independent and don't want to share D's car). Eventually I got on the phone yet again and explained to the nice people at the bank to please put me out of my misery if they were not going to come through in time because I am not going all the way through to collect my car and they turn me away because you haven't paid.
I don't know what did it but that girl got her act into gear. She phoned up managers all over the place and got them to email through a release on the car.
So I collected the dirtiest car in the world. At least it drove beautifully. And it still is.
So I took my car to the dealer who was buying it from me on Thursday 21st. It was a very sad moment - I love that little red car (VW Citi Golf) - so I asked the guy to take a last picture of me in the car. To be honest, I think I was behaving strangely because he gave me a really weird look.
Anyway, they deposited the cheque early the next morning so all was fine on that front. I borrowed some money from the bank (as little as I could get away with because I hate, hate, hate debt) so had to wait for this money to be paid before I could collect the car.
The whole Friday I was on the phone to the bank about probably 10 times in total trying to get them to hurry up and pay (and isn't it strange that they promised that their money would be in first and they were last).
It was stress stress stress because I'd organised a lift to the dealer based on timelines promised and nothing was happening. Normally I would have been a lot more relaxed about it except that it was a long weekend and I wanted a car (I am fiercely independent and don't want to share D's car). Eventually I got on the phone yet again and explained to the nice people at the bank to please put me out of my misery if they were not going to come through in time because I am not going all the way through to collect my car and they turn me away because you haven't paid.
I don't know what did it but that girl got her act into gear. She phoned up managers all over the place and got them to email through a release on the car.
So I collected the dirtiest car in the world. At least it drove beautifully. And it still is.
Is there ever a happy medium?
Okay, this is going to sound crazy but I asked my boss for more work. Actually I should say that I nagged him for months for more work.
I'm a relationship and operations manager in the New Business Dept of our company, so once the deal's signed, I take over and manage the account and also run the implementation process. This suits me down to the ground because I love it when there are millions of things going on all at the same time.
When we did psychometric tests, it showed that I have a high degree of accuracy while I am being highly flexible. In plain English this means that I can't concentrate on one task for more than an hour at a time LOL
My main client has been in kind of a maintenance state since about May-June so I've needed work.
The boss is a very bad delegator (excellent at letting me have my freedom and get on with things, in other words, come and go as I please and no checking up LOL) so you can see why it has taken months of nagging to get work.
And boy oh boy, now it's flooding in. He gave me two more accounts to work on (we call it campaigns) so I am swamped.
This is good for me because I like to be challenged but I can't help thinking about my holiday in a few week's time... my solution?
I started making a list to palm off some work to a colleague. No one can say I'm a bad delegator, now can they? The boss should take some lessons from me...
I'm a relationship and operations manager in the New Business Dept of our company, so once the deal's signed, I take over and manage the account and also run the implementation process. This suits me down to the ground because I love it when there are millions of things going on all at the same time.
When we did psychometric tests, it showed that I have a high degree of accuracy while I am being highly flexible. In plain English this means that I can't concentrate on one task for more than an hour at a time LOL
My main client has been in kind of a maintenance state since about May-June so I've needed work.
The boss is a very bad delegator (excellent at letting me have my freedom and get on with things, in other words, come and go as I please and no checking up LOL) so you can see why it has taken months of nagging to get work.
And boy oh boy, now it's flooding in. He gave me two more accounts to work on (we call it campaigns) so I am swamped.
This is good for me because I like to be challenged but I can't help thinking about my holiday in a few week's time... my solution?
I started making a list to palm off some work to a colleague. No one can say I'm a bad delegator, now can they? The boss should take some lessons from me...
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