Challenge

I saw this Challenge on Donna’s Blog and thought it would be great fun to try and do some of the things on this list.  So here is how it works:

It’s a challenge where you have a list of things to do in 30 days.  You don’t have to do them all, but see how many you can do.  So, I have 30 days, until April 3rd to do as many of these things as possible

1. Throw a dinner party
2. Send a surprise, I think you’re fabulous card to someone
3. Unplug for a whole day
4. Get a massage
5. Flirt with a stranger *brief eye contact, smile and look away*
6. Go for a stroll after dinner
7. Have champagne for no reason other than to celebrate life
8. Set a timer, say a gratitude on the hour
9. Remove 5 things from your environment that doesn’t make you feel beautiful
10. Do something complete out of character
11. Invite someone you want to get to know for lunch
12. Kiss someone
13. Read a poem to someone you love
14. Watch a foreign film
15. Throw a slumber party
16. Send your worst enemy flowers anonymously
17. Donate $10 to charity
18. Put something beautiful on a blank wall you see everyday
19. Spend an afternoon reading
20. Have a luncheon-midday cloth napkins & wine included
21. Spend an afternoon taking care of those pesky life admin issued and then treat yourself to a delicious coffee or tea
22. Donate 5 items out of your closet that don’t make you feel stunningly beautiful
23. Buy an utterly frivolous piece of lingerie
24. Get rid of 5 items in your home that don’t bring you pleasure
25. Hold a baby
26. Read a biography of your favorite screen star or the bravest most badass chick
27. Write down your wildest dreams
28. Create an occasion to wear your most outrageous shoes (maybe throw in a wig too)
29. Make lemonade
30. Jump into a body of water
31. Give someone a hug- let them let go first
32. Research something that sparks your curiosity.  If you are still curious after 15 minutes delve deeper
33. Forgive yourself
34. Forgive someone else
35. Spend an hour in silent reflection
36. Select something in your house and organize it.
37. Upgrade your sleepwear for a night- or go Marilyn Style
38. Pretend for a day you are as amazing as you want to be.
39. Do one thing you are sad isn’t on this list
40. Go to a play ground, swing on the swing set.

Welcome to 2012

I love quiet new year celebrations and this year I went away for the weekend with my BFF, her husband and some of their friends. It was so nice to break away and I seriously wished we could have spend some more days there. I love the quiet and really should go away more often.

I also really love Jan 1st. For me it’s such a none day. It’s the day you recover from the celebrations from the previous year and the day before the real new year starts.

I am making 2012 a year for myself and it will be a year of new beginnings. I’m looking forward to a good year and really hope its filled with rainbows. I can definitely use some rainbows.

And I want it painted black

I finally painted my old, white bookcase black, and it is looking great!  I have wanted to make it black for a few years now, but have never gotten around to it until now.  All I need to do still is to find a nice stencil so that I can do silver patterns down the sides.  I think I want to get a thin, leafy vine kind of thing, but I haven’t really started looking at the stencil designs yet.

One thing I have learned from painting the bookcase is that it is never a good idea to paint stuff inside the house, because no matter how much you keep the fan on, the paint smell lingers for days!  Another thing is that it is just not a good idea to paint anything when you have a ToyPom;  The hair is literally EVERYHWERE and she insists on sitting right by the wet paint as I am working.

I have also come up with a new system of organizing my books on the shelves, and only when I was about three quarters of the way done, did I remember that I have bought myself quite a few books for christmas and will have to re-organize all the books again, once I’ve unwrapped all my presents tomorrow.  Also, if only I can figure out how to stop singing Rolling Stones’ Paint it Black, my life will be complete.

Reverb11 Day 10 – Beauty

Beauty – Describe a moment of beauty that you witnessed this year.

I recently had my little ToyPom shaved for the first time in her 10year existence.  We are having what feels like one of the hottest summers so far and she was really suffering, so I decided to take her to the doggy parlour.  She came out looking like a little lamb, but even more beautiful than my little puppy’s new look, was the change in her personality.  She is loving the short hair and is strutting her stuff, being all cute and playful around the house.  She is being too beautiful for words.

Before:

After:

Reverb11 Day 8 – Joy

Joy – Take us back to a moment this year when you experienced pure,  unadulterated joy.

This was not a year for unadulterated joy.  The closest I’ve come to joy is the utter relief I experienced when I found out that I am being moved from my branch in hell, to working with my BFF again.  That was the first glimmer of hope that I might just make it through the darkness.

I cannot even begin to describe how magnificent that feeling of relief was, but I am dead sure that if I was still working in hell, I would’ve killed myself by now. So I guess, that moment saved my life, and even though it wasn’t exactly joy, it was still an important moment for 2011.

Reverb11 Day 6 – Laughter

What made you laugh this year? 

Since the other 2 girls went on maternity leave in September, The BFF and I have been working together, just the 2 of us.  Almost every single day has been filled with laughter.  We get each other and we are both a tad twisted, especially in our sense of humour.  It has been so much fun working with her again, and I will miss our time together when my contract comes to an end.  She’s definitely one of a kind, and has the ability to laugh, and make me laugh, at just about anything, even when she is laughing at me when I get angry at clients or suppliers.   I’m actually amazed at how much we laugh considering how unhappy both of us are at this company.  It just shows you can make it through everything with your best friend by your side.

Why the swear jar was a bad idea

A couple of weeks back, this bright spark decided that our swearing at work was getting out of hand, and decided to pitch the idea of a swear jar to the BFF colleague. It was immediately accepted as a great idea and the very next day, we had banned the 4 worst and most used swear words, and decided a fine of R1 will be levied for saying one of the banned words.

By the end of the first day we had R23 in the jar (between the 2 of us!). Now 7 weeks later, we have decided there’s enough money in there (over R300) to buy a coffee maker for the office and we can now swear to our heart’s content.
The only problem is that now we are swearing worse then ever, and I am using words that I’ve never used before, with my favourite saying now being Mother Fucker (yes, capitals are necessary). This little experiment was not just costly, but also had the completely opposite effect that I wished. At least it did make for some seriously funny moments in the office where you suddenly realised halfway through a swear word that you need to change it into something else.

Neigbour altercations

Today I had a little altercation with the neighbours. I came home from the shops and naturally opened the remote controlled gate and drove into my parking. When I climbed out the car, the neighbour dude shouted out his window for me to come to the gate. So I walked up to the gate where he, and about 5 of his friends, started telling me I have to pay for the damage done to his friend’s car by opening my gate.

Get this: I can’t open my gate when the neighbour’s gate is open because it runs on the same track! Seriously?! Where I come from whether I open or close my automatic gate has no influence whatsoever on my neighbours gate. Plus, I would think that seeing that the gates happen to share the same track, my landlord should’ve imparted this very dodgy and useful information before I decided to move here.

I refused to be responsible for the damage to this guy’s car and after being yelled at by all of them I eventually just walked away and the neighbour dude shouted after me that he will call the landlord. I hope he does, because this is bullshit. Where have you ever heard of 2 separated houses using the same track for their automatic gates!

Great way to start a 12 month lease! I made it through 2 years at my previous place without speaking to any neighbours and here I am in a fight within the first week of living here. God help me, I hope this is the last time I have to see or speak to them.

A truce of sorts

It seems like my furry little critters have come to some kind of agreement in the new place. The cat is now allowed to sleep on the bed with me and the puppy.

They still keep to their respective sides; Thumpy to my left and the cat to my right, but at least my puppy stopped chasing the cat out of the bedroom every time she sees him.

I also find it comforting having my four legged children with me in the new bedroom. Not that they can do much in the form of protection, but its just nice to not be totally alone. I don’t know how people can live without pets, they bring so much colour to my life.

Horrible clients; we have them

I’m a corporate travel consultant and I absolutely hate my job, but some days are just worse than others.  Today was actually a good day for me work wise;   my clients were busy, but not too hectic and everything was running smoothly, that is until my colleague went out for lunch.  Her corporate clients are the absolute worst clients ever and I really do not like assisting them when she’s not here.

She left just after 1pm, which is a normal time to take lunch you would think, but not 5 minutes after she left, 1 of her clients called and asked for her.  When the receptionist said she is out on lunch, he went off at her and honest to god told her “that is unacceptable!”  Seriously!  This is the type of people we have to deal with on a daily basis, even though this client (and all his colleagues at the same company) is the most horrid of them all.

His crisis: His SA passport is full and he is travelling to Kenya on Monday, and needs to know if he needs a visa on his European passport.  His ticket was issued last week, but he waits for Friday afternoon, and after the Embassy is closed, to decide to check on his passport / visa problem.

While I am trying to sort all this out, and am frantically trying to call around to get the correct information because heaven forbid something goes wrong with his trip, another guy from the same company calls.  His crisis:  He is going to be very late and possibly miss his flight and the next flight is only 3 ½ hours later and he can’t sit around at the airport that long.  What does he want from me, you might wonder, he wants me to call the airline and tell them to wait for him, he is 10 minutes away.

I really have no words to explain the arrogance and ignorance of some clients! And the funny thing about the travel industry is that even though you think you have heard the most outrageous request ever, something will come along that is even more ridiculous as the requests that came before it!