This week's me time

I actually had a fantastic week of me time.

1. On Wednesday morning I checked my diary, saw that I only had my first meeting at 12 and decided to take some time off to go run some errands.

Well, in the space of 1 hour 15 minutes I attended to 5 errands in one shopping centre. Unheard of with kids in tow.

It was bliss.

Christmas music playing, beautiful decorations, not many people (!).

I only got to work at 10:50.

I got some books for Caren's kids that she wanted to get for her friend's kids. Well, I even had time to go browse around the bookstore and found similar.

I phoned Caren and she says, "why are you not at work?" or something similar.

But really, sometimes you just need a time-out for your sanity.

And of course when I got to the office I was super-productive so it didn't feel like I'd even had that time away.


2. Then, Hayley and I finally met up on Wednesday night and it was great.

I was late because the kids were a bit crazy. My fault, as I thought I could arrive at 6:10, quickly change into jeans and then rush out 10 minutes later.

No sirree.

They wanted to chat, hug, etc. which in the grand scheme of things is totally fine with me.

Hayley was very gracious when I eventually pitched.

You're all dying to know what I thought of her, right?

She was open, honest, positive, shared freely and of course, passionate about Jhb and South Africa, everything I imagined and then some.

I really enjoyed myself and we've decided we need to do this supper date thing more often. Hopefully next time she'll also eat (I was starving and tucked into my scrambled eggs - that Mugg and Bean makes DELICIOUS scrambled eggs)!

I also have a client near where she works so if things work out time-wise, we'll try to meet up in the CBD and walk somewhere. I can't wait!

3. Yesterday I took a half day (I know, you're wondering if I got any work done this week!) and went to get my hair re-Brazilianised.

The hairdresser and I hit it off and we chatted so much I stayed about 10 minutes longer showing her pictures of my kids, etc.

She said she'll do my hair again at the Groupon rate if I come back so I'm totally taking her up on that.

We finished very early - 1 hr 15 minutes - and so I decided to go back to the mall to finish up some shopping for a Christmas gift I have to buy. We each pick a name and buy that person a gift. I got the new boss!

I ran into TWO people I knew and was really glad my hair at least looked decent :)

4. But my main news is this - I bought a new camera! I walked in, spent about 5 minutes looking and handed over my (debit) card.

Somehow (and this annoys me) I felt I had to justify why I was making such a huge purchase so quickly and I muttered something to the guy about having previously done my research. Ugh!

By the way, I do realise I was emotionally spending (this was my first day in over 6 years of not reporting to my boss) but this is something on my list - I just got it a month earlier.

Oh, it's a Canon EOS1100D - twin lenses. Something like that. I've taken a few pics and love the feel of the camera in my hand but I know squat so I'm not getting good pics yet. I really need to read the manual.

5. I'd been waiting for 5 parcels in the mail - 4 purchases and 1 from Jess. One arrived yesterday, one arrived this morning and Jess's one arrived this afternoon. (Hopefully my moo stuff and my photo book will arrive early next week)

Of course I squealed.

I am overwhelmed by her generosity to me and the kids. The kids' things are in their rooms - Connor got a bow tie and Kendra got a headband. And she wrote me the loveliest card too :)

What a blessing you are, Jess!

 I honestly love everything - everything! - but I love this most of all. When I sent Jess a thank-you email, I told her I'd had something yellow on my "to buy" list for months and now I have it. Yellow just screams summer, doesn't it.

I already wore it tonight :)

Then I took it off with my rings...

and here's where I realise I've been reading Katelyn James too much. She always puts the wedding rings in unusual places :)

look - the background is suitably blurry and I haven't even read the manual yet.

So that's me - a very full week of me time and I am sufficiently recharged. We have nothing but church on for this weekend and I couldn't be more glad about that.


How was your me time this week?

PS all pics taken with the new camera