c'est la vie

hope  trust faith have faith and trust that there is always hope

Today we spent the late afternoon and evening at the ChristKindlMarkt held at the German School in Pretoria.   It was lovely because the food was cheap, wholesome and perfect for dinner and the hall was full of little stands selling mostly things that make traditional German Christmas - little wooden tree ornaments, hand made lanterns, Stollen, Adventskranz , candles, marzipan, Christmas incense cones to burn and much more.  You did not have to spend money to go there and enjoy it, it was just as much fun seeing the lovely things and ideas.  Most of all, especially with tomorrow being the 1st Sunday of Advent, I got the feeling for the first time, that Christmas is coming.  I smelt it in the incense in the market, in the beautiful big pine tree with lights.  However the greatest thing about the evening was the beautiful choir accompanied by an orchestra.  I was not able to catch where they were from, but they were not youngsters and it was magnific...

And so today exams ended, and thereby the long child's gr 10 year.  Only one day left next week for the Liturgy for end of year and then he is home ..... for a lovely long break.  It is much needed and I intend to see that he enjoys every minute of it.  He has worked.  Late nights almost every school night and during exams he was joined by the hip to his books.  I am proud of him.  This year has not been easy for us and he soldiered on - head up, chin up in his quiet gentlemanly way.  The fact that his sister, aka chefgirl,  will be home for 5 days next month is a great source of joy for him.  He is, besides his dad, the funniest person I know.  He has this off the cuff, laissez-faire way of remarking on things, a dry as Savannah sense of humour and is so astute it always amuses me.  We spend a lot of time laughing ... in the car to school and back, at home and when we go places.  He often sleeps in the morning on the way to ...

So today my dad is turning 78.  What an awesome big number.  So many fun memories ... so many lekker places we have gone on holiday, so many special weekends together.  We have had meals together in so many places, seen so many shows together .... remember the Follies?  And the Angus Steer? And football at Callies - cheering me at Pilditch as I finished the ten gazillion km race ... about 2 days after I started running it ..... all those galas you supported .... the fantastic cappuccinos that you churn out on your machine when we visit, the drawer that has a neverending supply of biltong and Lays.  The dried peaches that I like only when they are rock hard, the lebkuchen when Christmas arrives, the hunting for Easter eggs in the garden ... even though we are all grown up now.   Each year we try see who can find the most bizarre hiding place.  Always listening to Silent Night before we open our gifts on Christmas Eve. ...

So last week was a big week of firsts.   First time I dyed candles with paint and oven baking to make Advent candles.  First time I made Christmas wreaths (see my previous blog) and first time I did something I thought I would never do ... make Eisbein and my last first (get it?) ran a little teeny food stall at our Church Patronal Feast Day.  The money it made was not mind blowing in the big picture. But I made money, I was able to add to the fundraising of the day and that is all that matters.  Every drop helps fill a bucket.  What a lot of firsts I had!  Despite the fact that my dad was born in Germany, we make very few traditional German dishes from scratch.  He came to SA when he went to High School so to date the best place for Eisbein when I was growing up was at the German Club in town.  And now it is at a restaurant in the East of Pretoria.   The most silly of all .... I have never eaten an Eisbein until I tasted a piece of t...

So to work out my frustrations I decided to turn to creativity.  It was either that or boxing but my son's punching bag and I had a small incident when it swung back towards me recently. Having decided 2 weeks ago that I want to do some different holders and candles for Advent this year, as well as try my hand at Advent wreath making, I knuckled down yesterday, bought a bounty of items for my moment of inspiration, checked Pinterest for exactly how to bake the paint and set out.  I wanted to make enough to stock and sell in the Repository at the Parish.  Now for those for whom Advent is starting on 29 November, you know that you have 3 purple and 1 pink candle and these get lit starting with 1 candle and working up to all 4 candles over a four week period leading up to Christmas.  Some people have just the candles, others have the wreath as well.  I grew up in a home where we had the Christmas Krantz every year.  So armed with glue spray, glitter, d...

This week has been trying, to say the least.  I have behind me a very busy last week at work, 3 nights of terrible nightmares ... covering all kinds of bizarre things, they have haunted me right until I wake up.  I dragged myself through today with a searing headache that gripped me the minute I opened my eyes this morning.  Add a pounding heart from the headache meds and my day was anything but fun.   I drove home in absolute turmoil today.  Anger and frustration. Tiredness.  Anxiety.  It has me in it's grip.  I do not have to wonder if this is it, I absolutely know - anxiety brings the headaches, but a sure sign is the nightmares - I have walked this road before.  Is it not amazing how our bodies react - the renowned fight or flight reaction.  How we allow the things in our lives, often not from our own doing, but many that we do by choice, to grip us and throttle us physically.  It becomes a rolling ball of stress, pres...

Every time my world gets very full, I think about the things that make it so. When my world gets overfilled with things that I can handle, and make me happy, then all goes well, I deal with the tiredness and everything that comes with it.  However when it gets full of just STUFF, then I become run down and even more tired ---- like dragging a chain behind me.  My dad's favourite question to me is "when are you going to slow down girl?" - "you do not rest enough and sleep" - probably because every time I go to their house I visit and then end the visit with a hour long sleep on the couch, irrespective of the day or time.   I have this thing - I don't do half measures.  In anything.  If I work for you - I am all in.  I give my everything.  Throw myself in heart and soul.  When I am with my friends - I am all in.  All the laughter, joking, friendships.  Heart and Soul. Especially with my bestie.  At home - double heart and soul - i...

Been thinking about the heat a lot (how can you not) and also been thinking about the rain we are praying for - which will bring much needed relief for our country and our crops and also a small reprieve from this murderous heat everywhere.  Chatting to a friend with Nic this morning and commenting on how awesome this overcast sky is today, it suddenly reminded me of something - how we often in life want the opposite of what we have, and then when we get that - we long for the very thing we had in the first place.  I know someone, lets call her X.  She was married for 20 years, to what appeared on the surface to be a great guy (who knows what goes on in other people's marriages).  Then along came person B - charming her and eventually this lead to an affair.  So she had what she wanted - she was bored of her mundane, every day the same life with her husband and longed for adventure and excitement.  And then?  She realised one day that she missed th...

My greatest wishes for myself:  That I can find my car key every day That I can find my house key every day That I can find my remote every day That I can work out why I never ever look for my work keys and then apply it to the above 3 points That I remember to take my tablets every day That I discover that I do not have to carry everything I own in my boot That I can just once go into a secure parking alone and not have to pay the Lost Card Fee when I leave.   That I charge my phone when it gets to 10%.  Which is 3 x day.  That I can find my car key when I leave work every day.  And not have to put it in my boss' fridge so that I know where it is That I understand that the orange fuel light on my vehicle means the fuel is about to end.  It is not a suggestion.  That I can find my house key every day (yes I repeated it, it is unbelievable) That I can drink less Coke (please do not lecture me - I get it) That I understand that making ti...

Did You Know:  The average lead pencil can write 50 000 words before it becomes too stumpy. You breathe on average about 5 million times a year.  For me it must be 6 million if I add in the eye rolling and sighing my one friend says I do. Months that begin on a Sunday always have a Friday 13th in them.  "Almost" is the longest word in the English dictionary with all the letters in alphabetical order. A silkworm consumes about 86 000 times it's weight in 56 days.  Hold back on fat jokes please. 11 % of the world population is left handed.  Rubber bands stretch further and last longer if refrigerated.  You also then know where they are ... like my car keys (yes I put them in the fridge at work). A snail can sleep for 3 years.  I am clearly a member of the snail family. All the continent's names end with the same letter that they start with.  A goldfish has a memory span of 3 seconds.  I have some friends like that as well....