Stretching and doing new things

The last time we were in Ballito before this last holiday I kept thinking that I should do a photo walk outside the building on the actual road, not on the promenade.

And I kept forgetting.

But this last holiday it was actually on my list.

One day I asked the kids if they wanted to join me (they did) and I purposely took only the short lens (50 mm) because I remember flowers.

Well, it was just lovely and now it has to become a thing.

The pics in this post are also from this walk. Enjoy the rest of them!

don't you take a snack with you when you're going for a walk?! :)

The game was that they both had to be seated on these poles by the time a car passed us

AAAAHHHH - golden hour, just a hint of the sun starting to set

my favourite pic of Kendra for July!

Which is your favourite?
Do you like to do new things? (I generally don't but I force myself because I know I enjoy it once I'm doing it)

{Friendship Friday} The whatsapp culture

I sometimes don't know what I'm doing in this world where everyone wants things done instantly.

And yet I'm like that with work. Actually, that's not completely true. I do want done things there and then if they can be done there and then (setting up meetings, responding to quick emails, etc.). For other things I'm happy to wait for a reasonable turnaround time but I want it definitely done within that time, no comebacks two days before that you need additional info.

But with other life stuff and social media, I guess I see things like urgent (I'm driving to meet you and there's an accident on the highway so traffic's at a standstill) and important (I'm checking in with you to see how you're doing), and not urgent or important (participating in things that have really nothing to do with me...).

 

 A friend and I discussed this once when she apologised for not responding to a whatsapp of mine and I told her that unless something was urgent, I really didn't expect an urgent answer.

A now-friend (ex-client) has a message on his Whatsapp that says "I only check this once a day. If you need to get hold of me urgently, phone me" which I LOVE.

So I changed my message but I guess no-one reads it because....

A friend sent me a long story on Whatsapp last week about a job situation....important but not urgent. And I was at work so my thing is that my employer is paying me not to reply to all personal stuff, but to do my work.

I needed thinking time and quiet time to respond.

The following day I received a snarky message saying it would be nice to at least acknowledge her message.

I then said I haven't had time to respond, etc. and then I got one back saying I'm too cold.

That is true. I am very "cold" on phone messages and texting which is precisely why I hate responding to anything via my phone except urgent (see my definition above) messages. I hate typing on a device so I keep everything to a minimum.

Of course the message came in when I was busy with important work that had to get out that day so I really couldn't deal with all that then.

I sent a message back on the way home (D driving) apologising for the coldness and saying that's why I don't do this social media thing very well. And then she said but you're on FB.



For the love!

It was true. I had responded to a comment from my phone and did about two "likes".

Two things:

Now I get why some people don't get whatsapp... and I'm super conscious now of people "stalking" my FB activity.

Which I hate on every level.

Anyway.

I did properly look at the original message that night, answered everything thoughtfully and gave links, phone numbers of contacts, etc. and then I got just a "thank you", no emoji, nothing. So I think she was still ticked off at me. And then it was my turn to be a little agitated (just a little 2/10) because I had taken 10 - 15 minutes to look up stuff and message back, and maybe her thank you could have been a tad warmer.

Ai! This social media business. We humans are crazy, hey?



(I told another friend "I'm in trouble on the whatsapp because I'm too cold" and this 2nd friend said, "YOU ARE BAD ON WHATSAPP!" I don't take it personally. I KNOW! I'm bad with this stuff. My phone is only out to post to Instagram and answer those comments a bit. Oy!)



Anyway, all this business made me realise yet again that I really don't like to live in a social media world to conduct the business of real connection.

Whatsapp is for the birds!

Let's meet in real life, people, where I can stare into your eyes, read your body language,  touch you on your arm and meaningfully connect with you.

That said, if you get "cold" messages from me, just tell yourself, "she's busy, she's at work, this is not real life".

Okay?

Over and out.

How are you on the Whatsapp and other fast-moving social media?
How do you stay fully engaged in your real life with all these messages flying around? (serious question)



PS People at work have also said when I look for you on Whatsapp, it says x days since you were last seen. And that's because I generally only respond to conversations. I feel overwhelmed by all the back and forth.
PPS I'm so glad D and I "courted" in the pre-cell phone era. Imagine the fights! "But I saw you get the message - there were two ticks. Why are you taking so long to answer?!" 

August was mostly a good reading month

My theory is that I should be reading far more books than I currently do. And I would... if I stopped reading about other people's lives and went to bed about an hour earlier every night.

Nevertheless, just imagine how much less I'd read if I were on Facebook more. :)

This was a good month - I read 6 books, 2 of them non-fiction (my standing goal is 1 non-fiction a month)

From the right...

1. The life-changing magic of tidying up

It is indeed life-changing. I'm writing a series of posts on the Organising Queen blog. Have a read there.

2. My husband next door

This one wasn't my favourite Catherine Alliott - I enjoyed others of hers much more.

3. The Royal We

Oh my word, I was/ am so disappointed in this book. I wrote a ton in my Goodreads review but basically, this book could have been at least 100 pages shorter and then I think if you're a fan of royalty, you may have enjoyed it. 

I really didn't like any of the characters which, as I'm learning fast, is a big thing for me. If you can't make me care about who I'm reading about, what's the point?

4. Sowing the seeds of love

Oh MY! Now this one is a gem. I read it in less than a day. Lovely characters, interesting story, delightful.

And from the library, so FREE!

5. How am I smart?

This one is from my very own bookshelf - yay! At this rate, if I don't  #konmari them all, I'll be reading from my bookshelf til I'm about 50...

This is a great book about the 8 multiple intelligences, one of my little passions. There is a more serious book (very boring) which I read a good 10 - 12 years ago so this wasn't a complete aha, but if I'd never heard of these concepts, I'd give a solid 4 stars.

I'm waiting for D to read so we can analyse the kids and ourselves :)

6. All the single ladies

This one was better the more I got into it. My first book by the author and I will read more!

The gold stars this month go to 1 and 4 and the demerit definitely goes to 3.

Some interesting tidbits:

I made an abandoned shelf in Goodreads prompted by number 3 above that now has a grand total of two books on it (enough of bad books). I finished 3 but I wished all the way through that I was strong enough to abandon it.

And then after reading number 4, I thought, "THIS is what a book should be like. No more of this messing around" so I abandoned another library book I'd started and one on the ipad.

Do you find it easy to abandon books? I'm not talking about putting aside because you are not in the right frame of mind for it, but true "I really am not enjoying this book AT ALL and I kind-of want to stab myself in the eyes if I have to read any more of it..."

Let's do a quick life catch-up

Well, you all know about the travel last week but other than that, work was fairly productive.

I brought ALL the paper on my desk home one day last week, made a pile of paper for each client, and wrote a list in my notebook per client - what I had to do, chase up, etc.

It was a beautiful list and very, very useful the next day.

I've been ploughing through that list and it was mostly complete by Friday afternoon. YAY!

 

I honestly don't know where this month has gone. One minute it was my birthday and the next minute it's the end of the month.

I pulled out my goals list for the first time after typing it out around the 23rd, so it will be interesting to see what I actually got to do this month....

Still, better 30% done than nothing. And I'm sure I didn't do very badly, when all is said and done.

The kids are very glad they're back in shorts for school. 

I always get a little (okay, a lot) in love with them when the season changes. I love their cuddly little bodies in polar fleece when the cool weather first arrives, and right now, I'm besotted with their cute little legs in shorts :) 

Although... we're due for some nice, cold weather on Thursday and Friday, and I can't wait for a last little snap of cold. Will have to go for a photowalk :)

Speaking of which, I'm so over the work travel.

I've been driving to lots of meetings all over the place. And I only have two clients I enjoy driving to - one about 10 minutes from home (I detoured there on my way home on Friday afternoon) and one near my old work which is a lovely part of town so it's a very pleasant drive.

This week is going to be hectic - I have day-long client meetings on three days. One is 7km from the office but a crotchety old client :), one is in Pta (I'm thinking of getting a taxi from the Gautrain station instead of driving ...) and the other is in Vander.bijl or, as my GPS lady calls it, Va-reen-a-geeng (I selected an Australian accent for to spice up the directions).. take the R59 to Veree.niging. It's hilarious and at least makes me smile while all those trucks are whizzing by me :O

Don't you love these apple bags? I bought this bag of apples in Ballito.

I took pics because since when have we seen packaging like this, right? Delightful!

And that's it, folks.

What's been going on in your life for the last week?

How was your August?

PS I forgot to mention my beautiful yellow desk. What do you think?

Finding beauty

Look at this beautiful picture. My money shot :)

Rust, chipped paint, lovely texture, colours...

 

This, THIS, is what those earlier pics are of.

 

An old, smelly, not-very pretty at first sight toilet on a beach.

But how my mind works - I saw the rust (which is definitely one of my photo love languages) - moved a bit, and got a picture of the beauty!

Does this door below look different to you now?

Yummy, chipped paint!

I see the gorgeous texture :) :)

This has been a hard week for a lot of people - for me and a few others at work, I see on the social media too, a friend's grieving, and maybe you're also having a hard time.

But there's beauty in there somewhere.

Even if it's just that you're still standing.

Hope you see a sliver of beauty somewhere in your situation today!

And next time when you're having an awful time, think of this ugly toilet door and remember that lovely rust and texture above :)

There's something about God...

I usually only do online check-in if time is not on my side (early mornings).

Yesterday at work I did my online check-in for my flight this morning, and then I had a check in my spirit.

Hmm.

So later that day, exactly 24 hours before my return flight, I felt like I should do online check-in again.

It was weird but I obeyed because I've learned to trust rather than lean on my intellect.

I was a bit apprehensive about this trip because of the 75 km I had to drive AFTER my flight.

Flight left late so I was 30 minutes late (but I was not the main player and the work could continue - I was just making sure everyone played nicely).

Other than that, it was a wonderful drive.

The scenery in that part of the world is BEYOND gorgeous. My word, South Africa is beautiful.

I don't even have one photo because windy roads/ I was the driver/ I'm not taking chances with my life.

Right.



Finished the meeting, browsed a leather goods shop quickly (beautiful stuff - I was this close to undoing my Konmari work after smelling that beautiful leather) and then went back.

Apparently there are two airports and I just typed Nels.pruit Airport in the GPS. When I was close to my destination, I really needed to stop for (a very late) lunch when I started feeling there's something wrong, so instead I just grabbed my apple from the boot and carried on.

GOOD THING.

At the same time I say D had sent an SMS saying, "is everything ok?" I didn't respond because I can't type and drive and my battery was nearly dead.

Anyway, that first airport was the wrong destination.

I landed up who knows where, no-one knew what I was talking about so I carefully typed the full airport name from my e-ticket, and the GPS said.... 34 minutes to destination... on the other side of the city.... behind big, slow trucks.

I nearly had a fit right there in the car.



Won't bore you but suffice to say I screeched into the real airport 10 minutes before boarding and ran like ........ to the boarding gate.

Of course the flight back was again delayed by 20 minutes but you know they don't care if it's their fault.

If I'd not done online check-in, I'd be toast.... If I'd stopped for lunch like I intended, again, toast. I probably would still be in Nel.spruit because there's ONE flight out in the afternoon.

(that plane was so tiny.....)


So all this to say...

note to myself - PRAY, listen and OBEY.

And now I'm off to bed because this waking at 5 is for the birds, not for me :)

PS The last time we were in Hazy.view I was 6 weeks pregnant.

Can we talk about burgers?

I am not a burger type of person.

As in, a burger is probably the last thing I'd ever order. Wait no, a salad by itself is the last thing I'd ever order, with a burger coming in second last.

When I am not with D and the kids, then they go have burgers (that's how much I don't like burgers).


(although that place in Parkhurst does make fantastic burgers - Jeanette, help me?)

However...while we were in Ballito, I was suddenly quite taken with the idea of having a burger.

We were at the Milk Cafe and it was lunch time, and I didn't feel like my standard staple, a toasted cheese and tomato on brown bread.

I asked the waitress for the SMALLEST burger imaginable.

This is what I got.



Perfection.

I enjoyed that burger so much because it tasted home-made, the slab of meat wasn't too big and it felt manageable (not like a typical burger where I'm put off my food and I haven't even started eating). The roll was also nice and firm, not too white bready and soft (yuck!).

(when I shared this with two guys I work with, they both looked at me like I was crazy. I embrace the crazy...)

How do you feel about burgers on a scale of 1 - 10?

(I'm still a 2 on the scale, except this one was an 8 which is a lot for me!)

Next time we're going to talk about My Search for Thai Mussamen Curry.

5 things I want less of this year

You guys seem to really like these kinds of posts!

If you missed the 5 things I want more of post, here you go.

1. Stuff in my house

I'm busy doing Konmari on my house. OH, I am loving it. Go read the full story on my other blog.

At the moment, I have a couch in my study FULL of my clothes, my dining room table is full of stuff, and I have a huge bag of puzzles/ games and another of clothes for a children's home.

If this is something that interests you, keep following that blog - I have enough for about 8 posts but I need to cap it at 5.




2. Weight

Every year I put "lose weight" on my list and strangely it doesn't frustrate me...much. I know it's not a big deal because I am healthy and strong, and that's what matters, but it would be nice to hit my number. Which is far off the Weigh-less number, but there you go.

I'm also aware that if nothing else changes (fitness levels and eating habits), every decade adds an automatic 5 kg due to a slowing down of metabolism....



3. Mental weight

During the first half of this year, many things weighed very heavy on my heart. I've shared small snippets of some of them here on the blog, and others remain unshared (except I shared a few snippets with Pamela in PE - maybe these are things to talk to people face-to-face instead of through words?)

My word of the year is enough. I've put into place a lot of boundaries because I've had enough of many things.

It's not easy and some of this mental weight has hurt me in the short term (this is still the short term), but I need to respect myself more in some areas by just letting go.

One quick example - at work, I've been working like a slave because somehow that was always my way. But this is a different environment and it's not possible to turn around things in 24 hours all the time, so I'm re-training my clients to have more reasonable turnaround times.



4. Untried recipes on my Pinterest board

I know some just use it for fun but I still see my boards as a target :)

For fun, I want less of the unrealistic pinning and more taking action and trying. I love it when I try things and they stick, or I can toss the recipe.

I want to go through my recipe folders (flip files) and if it doesn't spark joy, out it goes.

On that note, I'm ready to finally concede - I can't make fudge! Not even with a candy thermometer. I'm willing to give it one more bash IF I can do the next batch with someone.

Any fudge-makers out there?



5. Physical books on my shelf

I read a ton - fiction from the library and I buy books for my Kindle when I go on holiday - and of course, non-fiction. My new favourite (FAVOURITE!) way of reading non-fiction is through Audible which means I have lots of books on my shelves not getting read.

I'm going to be going through my books in the next couple of months to see which don't spark joy but in any case, I want fewer physical books unread and more read.

On another note, I really need to learn to stop reading stuff that I hate.

Now, what do you want less of for the remaining 4.5 months of 2015?

PS These are photos from Ballito - the kind of photos I love to take. Do you have a favourite?

The last day of FIVE and a photowalk

"how old are you, Babies?"

Do you have a favourite?