c'est la vie

I just watched a friend of mine bite right through the middle of a red chilli.  It made my entire day.  It started as a simple conversation.  I had been "sent" to go and procure the chillis for the stew, and when I came back he expressed doubt at what I had bought.  So to prove that these could be "used anyway", although not exactly what he wanted, he tore open the plastic, grabbed one and bit through.  The expression on his face and horror in his eyes told me immediately that I had actually bought exactly what he asked me to.  What followed was certainly very amusing to all of us who witnessed it.  A dishcloth to swab the mouth, liquid to swallow, eyes watering, coughing and then a bout of hiccups.  It made me think of an evening two years ago, before my hubby became a vegetarian.  I had made a pasta dish and I decided, before dishing up his portion, to spice it up for him.  Now not really ever cooking with chillis, my quantity perc...

"Great goals make you stretch.  They absolutely can take you well beyond anything you could possibly imagine!  The most important part of setting great goals is not the goals themselves, but the person you become in the stretch" - Fran Briggs  "Chance is always powerful.  Let your hook be always cast;  in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish" - Ovid  My career choice of the past 3 years has not been an easy one.  Fundraising.  The art of asking people for money for something you believe in passionately.  The ability to hear 100 no's for every yes you get.  The knowledge that you can work for weeks on piles of appeals and re-tell your story to a myriad of people without finding a "fish".  It is probably all at once the most interesting and diverse but most soul destroying choice of work. Most NPO's currently find themselves in very challenging times.  The National Lottery Board is still trying to catch ...

So you know in the movies or the Lux advert when the woman has that deep oval bathtub, foam for days and little candles everywhere?  And she lies back, relaxed, blowing the foam into the air and thinking about her day?  Don't believe everything you see in movies and adverts.   Jess left at least 2 dozen of those tealights around our deep oval bathtub.  When she had the candlelit foam bath the night before, she raved about it.  Enter me.  I ran the tub full, foam for days, lit all 2 dozen candles.  The scene was set.  I made a kickass cappuccino, got my book, told everyone not to call me, and descended on the tub.  I say descended because the lady in the advert is about a size 8.  I am not.  It was going well for the first 5 minutes.  Ensconced under the foam I decided to put only my hands out to hold my book.  Roadblock number one.  The tealights did not produce enough light for reading.  Cancel that idea...

🍫🍬🍭 So it has been a very nice Easter.  We usually spend a large portion of Holy Week at the parish, and this year was no different .... Except ...... It somehow was a completely overwhelming and emotional experience all the way through.  A wonderful Paschal Meal with more than 100 parishioners in the church hall on Wednesday evening.  On Thursday evening it was the Mass of the Lord's Last Supper and the Washing of the Feet.  It was a very deeply touching Mass in which our priest humbled himself as he re-enacted the actual way in which the feet of the disciples were washed.  We followed it up with 3 hours of silent Adoration.  Good Friday the Tenenbrae service was a meditative chanting hour and by the time we got to the Good Friday Service at 3pm (CBC) I was experiencing a deep emotion like never before.  As I watched my daughter read and my son read the part of Jesus in the Passion play, I was really feeling the agony of that day in a very real way...

So the taller child is leaving for his overseas sports tour in 12 days.  Excitement is now moving towards fever pitch level.  I am green.  With jealousy.  A flight to Dublin via Dubai, touring through Ireland whilst playing hockey.  Then off to London sightseeing with Madam Tussauds, West End Theatre, London Eye etc all on the cards and in addition Nic is spending his well saved money to use for tours to the soccer stadiums of Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.  Also the Beatles Museum.  And pens for his mom. Next he moves on to Manchester where he is for quite a few days whilst playing soccer.  Soccer.  That 5 letter word that rules his life.    The exchange rate is brutal.  It is hard for any teenager to understand that when you sweat and save R3000 you in actual fact have a couple of hundred pounds if you are lucky.  But save he did, and he is going to be glad of that now.  I have been away from him for 15 days be...

School camps.  I remember them well.  Today they are called camps or tours.  In my day it was Veldskool.  If you look up that word in a dictionary it says "a week long trip during which you are treated like crap by camp facilitators with overblown egos whose sole purpose is to humiliate you". Nic just returned from a fabulous 4 days away ...... 1 day spent on the waterslides at Aventura Warmbaths .... hard to tell who had more fun ..... Nic & Dev or the 2 male teachers.  All reports I have is that the 4 of them REALLY got value for money as they outslid, outraced and out foofie-slid each other.  ZE and BdT ... well done on a great bonding day!!  Next they flurried off to Cullinan or thereabouts for 3 days of team building .... but the nice type ....... spirit building, not destroying.  My kids have also seen the entire Pilgrims Rest, God's Window, Valley of a Thousand Hills area.  On a school tour.  Touring, learning, seeing, exp...

So yesterday my entire day (in fact month) was made by one simple thank you gesture made by one small group of people for something I had done.  The gesture was completely surprising and very generous and was quite successful in giving my bronchitis chest a well needed little jump! Today I returned to the Homes for the first time in 9 days, clutching a Fournos bakery box (yes sacrilege I know since my daughter is a chef), bearing chocolate brownie biscuit cookie things for my colleagues ...... it was met with the normal resounding cheer that NPO staff give when anything arrives to boost their daily intake of not very exciting Ricoffy.  It was nice coming back.  Even to those who did not notice I was gone (says she whilst coughing up more phlegm).   I miss my boss.  A lot.  She is visiting her family in Australia.  Every alternate year or so when she goes, it becomes a long month and a bit without her.  She knows me, she knows my job, she knows...