The Script... is on my calendar..

Before the Worst...
There was a time, that we'd stay up all night
Best friends talking 'til the daylight
Took the joys alongside the pain
With not much to lose but so much to gain
Are hearing me? Cause I don't wanna miss,
That you would drift on memory bliss
It was Grafton Street on a rainy night
I was down on one knee and you where mine for life

We we're thinking we would never be apart
With your name tattooed across my heart
Who would have thought it would end up like this?
Where everything we talked about is gone
And the only chance we have of moving on

Was trying to take it back before it all went wrong

Before the worst, before we met
Before our hearts decide
It's time to love again
Before too late, before too long
Lets try to take it back
Before it all went wrong

The Script - Nothing

Today

Soup for the Soul

Hahahaha, please..! I can never get over how many of those 'self help' books my mom has in her bookcase.. actually you'll find some in the drawers, in a packet that she's most likely forgotten it's still in, they're above her headboard, there's most likely even a pocket version in her bag..! Either way, they're all the same, and they're all just pages and pages of crap. (Sorry mom!) When you purchase a 'soup for the soul' book, you have just given someone just like you, (who actually had the energy to sit down, get a publicist and a bunch of regurgitated notes on the stuff) R200 to tell you in black and white - "available now in hard cover!" - what you should do and what you shouldn't do in order to live a life that's fulfilling and brings about contentment within the workplace, with your loved ones and within yourself.. Erm... These authors are scam artists. They haven't figured out the 'secret to life' They're just good multitaskers and probably have the easiest life in the world. No one who has had enough passion on this topic can honestly have had the time to write a book on it. If they lived that difficult life whereby they needed to be told how to stick post it's up all over telling themselves how amazing and capable they are, because they're too run down and tired enough to not know this themselves... then how, on earth, did they find the time to write a book?! Ok, assuming they get it together and have figured out what worked, right? Coz they read it in a book when they needed all the help they could get. So, now my question is.. if you read it in a book and it worked.. Why then.......... write another??? Like I said regurgitating the same old crap with a different pretty colour and calling it something else, is plagiarism! I wish she had saved all her money and just come to me and I'd have printed a million pages off the net and bound it nicely for her, even with a little inscription saying 'Here's the help you need.. and I saved you some bucks so you can just skim over the money issue section' With love... hahaaha. 

So there's an entire range of 'Chicken soup for the Soul' books.. This author's making money if you're depressed, if you're a mom, if you're a dad, if you're a runner, if you have pets, if you're a twin... the list continues. Amazing with all the literature out there, that this is what we spend our money on reading. Other people telling us things we already know.. 

I say screw Chicken Soup for the soul.......... I want real soup...! Hot, feel-good soup with some crusty bread, now that's soup worth spending money on...... let's get more of that. 

My Heart's wall is down, now my wall needs a heart..

Back home and back to work. I haven't had much time to do anything........ including doing nothing... But all I do know is that my heart and mind are inspired to do something cool. I wasn't sure what it was but I do know what gets me excited even further than the thoughts, and that's being creative and working with photo's etc. Soooo I have this idea, well I've had it for a while - to have a photo wall.. as an art piece in the lounge like this:

But now I'm liking this as the back wall of my bed:

Idea is, I guess, to crop everything to the same size - polaroid style for print. So let's see, tonight I'll start getting the pics together. Nice idea to see happy times and memories before going to sleep at night... help's for a good one. A long Monday, but who would've thought it could be as good as it was. It isn't over, dancing soon.......... then warm vibes at home. We're in for a cold winter, but today was a little warmer than usual. Here's hoping there'll be more days like this in between to help us get through it......

Conference Stories..

I just got ready and all dressed etc so that I could go downstairs to get myself a hot, steamy coffee. I'm staying at the Road lodge in Durban and sadly, morning coffee needs (while half awake in pyjamas) aren't recognised by this Hotel. But for R7 you can go into the dining room among all the fresh and awake breakfast diners and get a take away. So I did that. I am back in bed, my coffee was hot and steamy - I burnt my tongue. Typical. But it was pretty amazing. Creamy....

So today is Day 1 of the Medical conference and since I'm in 'ey bru' town, and will most likely be speaking with a gazillion Indian Doctors today, I am concerned that I may well develop an accent by the end of the weekend. It's a scary thought, but possible. After setting up our table and just 'being' there to represent, we will pack up and theeeeen I am going to get a close up on the architecture of the Durban Stadium. It. is. quite. exceptional :) Vibes for later include eating at Gabby's (best prawns ever apparently) I say, take me there, and I'll tell you if I agree?! Possibly a movie - The Hangover II - one I can cross off my list. Almost time to go, and although I'm working on a Saturday, I had the first decent sleep last night that I've had in a while, so I can thank my lucky 'star' for that. All I want to do is be back home but tomorrow will be here before I know it...

Imbalance

There's irony in the fact that whilst my whole world is out of balance...... I am trying to find balance. On a bicycle. Yip, first night I went for an actual ride out on the road bike I have in my possession. It stares at me every time I walk through the front door. But without the energy, will, helmet or time, I have neglected it completely. Last night there were no excuses, well.... with 5 minutes of light left and still no helmet - I kinda did, but in my mind I decided that it needed to be done now or it was never going to happen. Well, it was super fast - I'd like to brag that it was just me, but no.. it really is just that different from any mountain bike riding I've ever done in my life. I was extremely unbalanced - hence the irony. Apparently that takes practice and will sort itself out upon more riding. Cool, noted. Overall, I was having the time of my life! I just wanted to keep going and going, for sure I wanted to ride in the middle of the road like I owned it, coz ideally I'd be moving around in space that was mine to move around in. The BMW X5 that passed me didn't agree with any of that. More efforts will need to be made there, but for a first time, the experience was what I was looking out for - whether it brought about enjoyment, or sweaty panics that lead to me (worst case) riding into a tree, (best case) hmmm this isn't really fun. There's a reason why when you're 5 years old everyone teaches you how to ride a bike.... coz it's fun! And coz it's cool. No one teaches you to run. Coz that's easy right? Well, easy I don't know, but at least I can do it in a straight line. :)

Oh, and my hospital visits quota has been reached for the next few years, so if you think I give any amount of a damn amount you.. please stay healthy and try not to hurt yourself. Thanks..

                     "If there's a better way to do something.... find it"

If only...

What colour is grey?

Often I try to tie up a colour with an object or emotion. Grey is so many things. It's the clouds that I have been staring at all morning when I couldn't get out of bed today (not feeling 100%), the clouds that don't want to go away for anything, which brings out quite a conflicting feeling toward them, because as much as I want the rain, all I wanna do is ride 'my' bike until I can't anymore. The weather won't allow for that. Grey is the area between black and white - literally and figuratively. In the literal sense it's quite a cool shade, it's probably one of my favourite colours to wear. I love wearing pinks, greys and browns. Grey is a cool colour. But in the figurative sense, grey is fuzzy, unknown and at times confusing to figure out. One that leaves a person guessing as to what it actually is. That is when grey becomes a little bleak. I have no real point to continue with, but I have hauled my odd-feeling self to work to attempt at seeing the blue in the sky, to develop some form of appetite, and trying to appreciate the colours that are less unknown in the world.. the ones that make you smile.

On a less strange note, I have a beautiful new boombox that I spent a lot of time on trying to get looking as perfect as it is meant to be... our dance class is close to completing our routine- very very awesome, and loving every moment of it still.... I leave for Durban on Friday until Sunday for a work function which I am pretty sure will be fun, Durban is awesome to visit.. But the rest of the week is bound to be pretty average, the only exciting or rather disturbing part is the odd dreams I keep having.. though at this point I don't know whether I'd like my dreams to be a reality or my reality to just be a dream...

Tomorrow Winter is upon us... it's already turned the kind of cold I had hoped it wouldn't..

                                        At the post office - Just got it!

                                            About to be cleaned...

                                          Clean and ready to BOOM :)

Today I have no words, only pictures

Comrades weekend!

Soooooo it's Friday, ridiculously cold, and I haven't even had coffee yet. That being said - Friday brings about somewhat of a high along with what caffeine might anyway, so all's good so far. Knowing that I have nothing to do when Friday arrives is the best feeling in the world I think, but one thing I have made sure to include in my reveling of nothingness... is to watch the Comrades on Sunday. I know someone that is doing it and personally I don't believe it is a goal that I would like to even attempt at setting. It seems ludicrous. Plain and simple. However, I think its really admirable and can't wait to see people falling over the finish line. Lost toenails, cramps, dehydration to the point of near death and all those wonderful things that almost don't make sense to go around bragging about having? Yip, Nutjobs.. the lot of them. Though I will be running this weekend, so I don't feel guilty watching... Last weekend was busy, fun and is still a lingering experience... So for the most part I'm just gonna kick back this weekend..... snoopy style.     
                                                            http://www.comrades.com/
                                             

Better late than never

Busyness with business this week has left me with no time to blog. It happens I guess. But all seems back to normal, whatever normal is. I always wondered who wrote this book on definitions when it came to things such as normal. What is normal? Something that people 'should' do, something that 'most' people do, something that involves plenty routine and zero spontaneity? If being normal is what most people are doing, then I'm ok with being weird. :) Do I hate conformity? somewhat.. Hate's a strong word. Better - I try to avoid it unless it makes sense to surrender to it. I would like to conform with the iPad trend though.....

So..... a few thoughts:  Does a queue take longer because you're in a hurry? Or is it just ironic? Do other cars drive slower when you're in a hurry? Or does it feel slower because you'd like to be going faster? All these things are mundane questions I guess. But it really freaks me out, because I honestly believe that things become slower and longer on the particular occassions I need to go faster and quicker. So... not a mind thing, definitely just kak luck - I feel. So Friday vibes tomorrow, and 2 movies NEED to be viewed, namely: Pirates 4 - I cannot wait to see it, dig the movies, dig Johnny Depp's vibe, so yeah popcorn stories need to happen. Secondly, the Hangover part 2, which is rumoured to be as good, possibly even better than the first? Excited for that.. :) At least I have my 3d glasses so I can experience the ridiculous amount of money I've just paid for the movie as opposed to just see it. I try to make my popcorn last longer in 3d movies... it's that bad. But then again, we try to make sense of all these things and always end up stumped. So I've given up and just going with the flow now.. it's happier and easier that way.

Hill Climb Vibes..

So day one of all the fun is coming to a close and soon the girls will be heading to the shop to get braai supplies whilst the boys sit outside and continue to sort out the car. Yes, in car world, there never seems to be a moment when there is nothing that needs to be done... to your car. Weather's been amazing, cars are exceptional and the vibe is insane...! Looking forward to everything the event will bring over the weekend.. nerves are on edge for the drivers, (after taking a drive to the top this morning) but I'm going to take comfort in the fact that they know what they're doing and that being able to gloat at the end is important, therefore having to make it to the end.. in one piece! Parade was rad - running red robots and actually watching traffic cops make way for us and frown at the people and 'regular' cars that were in the way. It was an experience to say the least. There'll be more crazy stuff to go down tomorrow I'm sure, and that's when it all starts really.......... Just a few pics from today:

'V' is for Vote not vomit...

Tuesday and Friday vibes rolled into one... Someone from the 'powers that be' thought it made sense to make voting day a public holiday. This is awesome considering the fact that most businesses would be chaotic if people were leaving work all over the show and not actually coming back in time, etc - with a good reason - queues. Which could be total crap, but yet, not something that any employer would question. So it's a holiday.... and apparently that means that everyone can now go out and get completely wasted, sleep really really late, and either 1) not wake up; 2) wake up really late and realise that the queues will be too long to go right now, and that you'll go at the last minute, and then at the last minute, realise that you've passed the last minute; 3) wake up, go down, feeling bad, and after standing in the queue for an hour, almost vomiting on your shoes and feeling ridiculously dehydrated, you decide that your one measly vote won't really make a difference and consequently head home; 4) You go down, and in your hungover state with your mind feeling all afuzz, you decide to vote for a different party coz it's funny.

All these scenario's are possible... hopefully not likely, but that's what can be expected of the majority of our 'voters'. Any excuse to party... are our lives really that mundane that with every possible opportunity to not work the following day, we choose to sleep it away? As though it never happened or came? Almost doesn't make sense does it? If you think about it. I'm just stoked that I get an entire day off to do whatever I feel like at the sacrifice of 1 hour in a queue. All I want to do at this stage is get in the black beast and head to Knysna... but patience has never been a familiar strength... But who really likes waiting? Really? Didn't think so.. :)

Oooooh and last thought, seeing as how the world is potentially coming to an end on Saturday:

Weekend life

Annoying:
Rolling up to a four-way stop at the exact same time as someone else
Even more Annoying:
The 'no you go', 'no you go', scenario that unfolds and lasts for about 5 minutes which leads to you both deciding to go at the same time and slam on breaks when you realise this.
Annoying:
Driving the wrong way down a one-way road
Even more Annoying:
Everyone screaming at you as though you had decided to commit suicide, and your choice of method was to drive the wrong way down a road and take a couple people with you.
Annoying:
Polite drivers at traffic circles
Even more Annoying:
Being behind the polite driver and almost rear-ending him because he decides to stop mid-circle to let someone else in at random

Apparently if you're a runner you have to use cool lingo, like 'PB' and 'sub 60' I personally don't see the point, unless I've been doing my best time every single time I run and I have become so tired of using the phrase 'personal best' and have now resorted to abbreviating the word. I guess now you also need to follow with the phrase 'I did a sub 60', coz just telling someone the time you did it in gets people looking all confused and trying to the then figure out how many minutes a km you actually ran, realising then that they aren't that great at maths, continuing to try and figure it out, until I yell, I did a sub 60 and everyone goes "Aaaaaah," And only then comes the 'Well done' I want a well done when I cross the finish line damnit! Boy competition has escalated.. But it's good and it's healthy, but often times, quite funny :) Well by now you might have guessed that I did my best time thus far for a 10km which was under an hour and it was a crazy route, so only better can come from this point on. We'll see. So this weekend was once again, really cool, aside from the entry to my post which you can tell were a few things that really peeved me whilst on the road. These things also occur on a more-often-than-not basis, so I needed to make mention of it.. Else I was going to develop proper road rage.. the vent releases all my driving frustrations, venting in general releases frustrations..!

All in all  it involved being surrounded by running, cycling, cars and good food, friends and more good times... It's what weekends really are all about.. Short week, the best weekend still to come... watch this space! KHC2011

Wednesday the 13th??

I  know it's going to be one of those days when it starts the way mine has. I'm not sure whether something as simple as a different set up in a morning routine can throw one off for the rest of the day, but now I'm starting to wonder if my maid coming in before I left this morning to get my washing is the cause of my 'ditziness' today. So it started with me getting in the car to leave for work realising that I haven't done my make-up.. odd, but not going back in, due to the fact that my second key broke in my door lock last night and now there is only hers (which she needs today). That was an annoyance on it's own last night, and so not worthwhile getting into. So, make-up in the car and drive to work. Well I made it! There's a positive, :) I decided for some reason, that this morning my cereal wouldn't pour through the slot its meant to and took the entire lid off. Um?? Anyway, I realised straight away that what I'd done had not made any actual sense and put it back on and poured my cereal......... into my coffee cup. Luckily I hadn't yet put anything in my cup but hadn't taken out the bowl. At this point, I realised that Friday the 13th had reached little me a few days early. It is 8:30am.. there's bound to me more bizarre things to happen, if they're noteworthy, they'll be noted. Until then, I'm playing it safe today, scatterbrain doesn't match my outfit - it needs to go. This is just cool, had to share:

Dancing tonight

The last 2 Monday's have been holidays and these are the days I usually have dance class, so I'm quite keen for tonight coz it feels like it's been forever. Monday's really do suck, so it's a cool way to end it.

Sunday Vibes

I had to wonder about some people's ideas when I was listening to the radio this morning. Some guy called in and said ' I just want to wish all the women out there who aren't getting wished that aren't mother's, a Happy Mother's day so they don't feel left out' I thought, um.. I am not a mother and most certainly do not feel left out.. I think I get how Mother's day works..and I'm ok with not being wished on this day. Seriously? Are there people out there who may feel left out? Anyway, you may notice I'm a lover of 'the harsh truth' which is so eloquently put across by some eecards. Anyway, another charmer for today:

So, imagine my excitement when I realise that yes, I do still know how to race on GT5.. (well when I'm not comparing myself to the boys' level of driving, but more so the actual capability of doing laps without completely destroying cars and losing money) Buying the game was easy and a no brainer, playing the game...  erm.. slightly more involved and at a level I don't recall being comfortable with. Then I play with an actual steering wheel and pedals and It was like being back on the bike, so to speak... So given the correct 'feel' of actually driving - I get it right - go figure. So now... I need one of these:

Oh! Saturday's run was cool, as was the rest of the weekend, nothing crazy to note, but getting my cinematic experience quota up, watched 'Fast5' and in an hour or so will be watching Thor - can't wait for that.. :)

 

Time to run

So I went down to register for the Spar Ladies Run taking place this Saturday. I have been doing a lot of running and it's going well, all leading up to the event in July - the Knysna Forest Marathon. Anyway, 4th year taking part in Spar Race, where every year you get a T-shirt and every year there a roughly 1000 smalls and 10000 larges. I have an issue with this. So all the 'size small' t-shirt people have to be given a large t-shirt because most people who run this race aren't regular runners. In fact they're probably the type of people, who after the race, go to Macdonalds over the road and order a 5 English breakfast muffins and a large coke, to... wait for it.. 'reward themselves'. So I'm stuck with a large, though I don't really run in T-shirts - well big baggy ones anyway, so I guess a sleep size top is more comfy in a large. So even though in a round about way I have ended up with something 'more useful' at that size, I still have an issue by principal.. Coz some people like to run in T-shirts, this gripe is for them. Oh we also got a goodie bag, which consisted of muesli, something else healthy and a pkt of Big Korn Bites (for the not-so-regular runners). Thaaaaaaanks Spar! Looking forward to the run nonetheless. It's a huge event, roads are already closed and I'm looking to better my time once again.. Here's hoping!

                                     

Peanuts peanuts

Apparently it's time to work

Feels like I've been on holiday forever! So much so, that I forgot the alarm code when I walked into the office this morning. Yip, not ideal.. and not what anyone feels like first thing back... on a Tuesday I might add. Another short week, routine is becoming problematic. :/ Some cool things that happened this weekend:

* Race day at Scribante, sooo many people, cool cars, perfect company and caramel pancakes!

* Rediscovering Guitar hero - this needs to be purchased, played, and perfected. 

* Bin Laden's officially dead.. apparently.. all I know is that the conspiracies are awesome to read - dig that stuff, and the jokes are already flowing. 

* My plant decided to fight death!

* Cleaned the Black Beast - that's my car's name. She feels new. Yay! Funny how that's all it took? Now it's shiny but needs new wheels. Watch this space!

* Cleaned out my cupboard - this was tough and a bigger task than I had anticipated. Why is it that when its comes to the actual 'chucking' part, you're always like 'I will wear this' (you haven't worn it in over a year - that pretty much covered all seasons - plus you're in a new one - get over it) So I eventually was quite satisfied with what I got rid of, however when it came to my jacket cupboard..... well I threw one out, only coz it was the same as one I had in another colour that I didn't wear anymore. Who throws away Jackets???

* Running lots, feeling good and I still have the best running shoes :)

Things to look forward to:

* Short week

* Spar Ladies race on saturday morning

* Knynsa Hill Climb, that's a big one! 

* Oh and I gotta bake 2 cakes just now. Not sure on my mood about that one...?

Well work to do, cakes to bake and daydreaming to control...