The lounge

What a difference without that hideous 60s fireplace and curvy walls!

Out with the old

Its been about a month since we finished with Phase 1 renovation, about time I load some pics. The lounge has turned out beautifully. Its spacious and I could lick the floor it looks so delicious! The shelves in the passage are fun with the stripes. It makes quite an impact when you walk in from the front door. A little whimsical but even my mum likes it!

Of course now that this round is just finished, I've seen new ideas in mags and online. James is delicately trying to ignore suggestions to repaint... thank goodness one of us knows when to stop!

A new face

The builders are now part of the furniture. They have settled in nicely, and even have their own layer of dust that I don't seem to clean! I have been dying to show some before and after pictures of the renovations that have been underway. And actually, of the 7 rooms that have been done, I can only show one picture so far.

This is the new bathroom for the other bedrooms. I think the picture says it all! Unfortunately, what the picture doesnt convey, is the fact that we had water bursting out of the wall, several leaks discovered after the plaster had been applied, a geyser that had to be replaced and the fact that on the otherside of the wall that you can see, it is lying like an open chest cavity waiting to dry out.

Nonetheless, its lovely and bright and the shower is incredible!

Sense of purpose

I was so excited this evening to see I have my very second follower. My heart sank to the depths of my handbag, when I realised I had somehow added myself as a follower. I could philosophically conjure a reason that "subconsciously" I believe I should really pay attention to myself more. Having just re-read that sentence, thats probably not a bad thing to do.

Those of you who have read my blog more than once, perhaps my other (actually only) follower, will have noticed that I have remodelled my page. I suspect it will morph quite a lot more over time, as I like to change things up a bit from time to time. This includes and is not limited to my sunglasses, haircuts and liptstick colour.

I baked a cake today. I baked one yesterday too. These cakes are a milestone in my recovery. Not eating them per se', but the actual activity of making them and more importantly icing them. You see, I have recently started a cake-icing course with my cousin. For the mum's out there, this may seem like quite a logical thing. However, when I mentioned this fact to a colleague, she looked at me blankly and remarked "wow, that sounds so normal. Where on earth do you find the time to do that with all our work?". And the simple answer is: with great difficulty. First class I was over 30 minutes late. The second class I clean forgot to bring icing to ice the cake. Thank goodness my cousin had agreed to make the cakes for the class, otherwise the second class would have been a significant challenging. Tomorrow evening is my third class. I have agreed to make the cakes for my cousin and I, while she is going to bring the icing. I trust tomorrow's class is going to be more successful. Now just to focus on leaving the office at a reasonable time to fight my way through traffic to my normal hobby!

How do I fit it all in?

I've been flicking through a few blogs this evening and have noticed that there are a number of folk out there debating their urge, or more accurately their lack of urge to get back into doing some regular exercise. I couldn't help but think that there is something serendipitous about the fact I have every excuse running through my mind as to why my gym membership expired last year and that 3 months later I have yet to sort that out. I have however, managed to recover my bicycle from my parent's storeroom (which has been waiting for me to move in to my new house). Yet that is also now propped up nicely at the back of my garage behind all my other furniture, all waiting to be reallocated in my house when the builders are finished. Notice how I have avoided saying anything about trying to make a promise to myself to exercise again...and yet I know I need to otherwise I'm going to have to resort to upgrading the wardrobe to a size larger!

Builders. We have had them buzzing around for the last 6 weeks. There is dust everywhere. There are boxes piled high everywhere and of course there are disasters everyday that have to be redone, touched up or cause all sorts of other things to be replastered, reattached, resurfaced (including our sense of humour and patience)! This has been the ultimate test on our relationship. We feel like we're in the departure lounge waiting for our flight to be announced so that we can start just participating in life again! Hopefully this weekend we can move our furniture back into the house and I can finally finish the "before and after" photo montage I have been building. Oh and of course release the bicycle from its shadows and try my luck at some exercise. (Note the clever layering of plausible circumstances as to why I can't be possibly exercising yet)

Added to my list of worries at the moment is work. Of course I am completely unique in that way. The nature of the work I do always involved long hours, weekends, nights and high pressure. Since James has been around in the last year, I do manage to get home at a reasonable hour each day (at least while the sun is still up). The work life balance has certainly improved. Although the content of my work has not become any less stressful. This weighs on my mind a lot at the moment. Having moved into our new (and very big) house and garden has come with its own set of to-do lists. I feel the pressure to be the perfect girlfriend, homeowner, gardener (I must caution you here, the use of the word gardener is rather strong. I have only just learnt how to water my plants and not very well at that!) as well as cope with the stresses at work. Dont forget gym!

Where do I fit this all in? I do less project work now... but feel just as stressed! Some virtual hugs would be nice round about now. In fact, I'm going to get a real one from James!

Two years ago, my best friend and I whizzed around Spain with our cameras at the ready. I took this in Barcelona at the bullfighting ring. My friend being an opinionated vegetarian didn't feel it (bullfighting) was right, so whilst she was looking at another building down the road I ventured into the stadium (how can one go all the way to Spain and not see a bull fighting ring?!). It turns out I had the entire place to myself, apart from a guy sweeping the bleachers. I could smell the bulls in the pen (which was quite exhilerating knowing there was a beast somewhere nearby who could probably rip me apart... I quickly looked down to see what I was wearing and was instantly relieved to see I was wearing white and blue. No sign of red anywhere! Whew!). This is a stairwell leading up to the bleachers where all the spectators watch the fight. Ladies with a handkerchief in hand (although probably not these days) and men with a cigar in hand (they probably still do this). What struck me was the calmness of this scene knowing its context. I must have taken over 2000 pictures that short holiday and this has to be the best one of the lot.

Have a seat, talk to me

I came across these chairs at a monastery in Palma, Majorcca a few years ago. I was struck by how the arrangements conveyed different human interactions - the intimate relationship, the solitary one and the one excluded from the group. These scenes prompted a project of finding interesting chairs on my holiday!

Edge of the earth

Do yourself a favour one day. Travel to Cape Town, and head down to Cape Point, which is where you will find the southern most tip of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. Standing at the Point one can't help but be in awe of the fact that two massive oceans collide at this place (Atlantic and the Indian). The wind in your face and hair a mere hint of the forces colliding below.

In touch with my inner grrrr...

Living in Africa has its advantages. Apart from 365 days of weather from the best beach holidays you've ever had, postcard scenery, a smile on every face you encounter... we are a few minutes drive from an experience with the big 5 animals. Friends and I are regular visitors to a little spot in the countryside where you can spend the day pawing lion and tiger cubs. Not much beats an experience of roughing and tumbling with a lion teenage cub. Getting up close and very personal with these animals truly puts things into stark perspective. That report, traffic jam or deadline are really not important in the bigger scheme of things!
These are some pics from one of our weekends at the lion and tiger sanctuary, just outside Johannesburg.

We're busy with renovations of our new house at the moment. We started about 2 weeks after we moved in, so we have been surrounded by dust and boxes for almost a month now. Fortunately I am spared of the banging during the day. I'm torn between the need to make changes to the house (its starting to look like its been sponsored by Dulux paints) and the craving to just plop on the couch and channel surf in the evenings. Looking for inspirational advice to hold out a week or two more!

I took this picture of James and Jemma on new years day. We were on the shore of Loch Ness, Scotland on one of the last few days of our holiday. I was so proud of myself when I saw the picture downloaded, to see that it wasn't blurred like most of my shots on my new camera. Apart from the fact it looks like its from a calendar that one gets from the local bank, I love how it completely captured the moment of a father sharing an experience with his daughter.

360 degrees back to base

I had an enlightening moment yesterday. I attended a leadership development workshop designed to make me a better leader... which in itself is great... but my eureka moment was more personal.

We had an exercise to draw a picture of ourselves in the form of a pyramid which had to use symbols to describe 3 aspects. The first being the individual - but had to describe what makes me, the path I have led since I was 18, depict those that had inspired me and those symbols which represent success for me. Whilst there were other parts we had to describe (ie. our role at work, and the emergent reality of the dynamics between role vs the individual), what struck me was how I had transformed over the last 14 years, and yet my goals have not changed.

When I left school I had an idealised view of how my life would pan out. University, secure job, the dream husband, marriage and of course a few kids before 30. By no means unique to me. And as uniquely as everyone else (!) life had other plans for me.

I grew up a virtually only child. My brothers are much older than I am, and were in university by the time I had my first day at school. My father passed away in that same year (I was 6 at the time). On the face of it, I would hold this responsible for making me the independent woman I am today, although now that I'm a little wiser, I probably would have been just as independent had I had the traditional nuclear cocoon.

I collected a few certificates at university and found myself in a serious job which effectively became my life for the next 10 years. The job was rewarding, the home life boring (read this as: I was single) and the ladder exhilerating! 3 burnouts later, I realised that although my "happy ever after" had not arrived, I needed to change some priorities.

In my diagram I drew the following symbols which showed significant events:
The earth with an aeroplane. Yip, I put myself on a plane and went travelling.
The triangle of principle: body, mind and soul
A paintbrush - I started drawing and painting again, years after highschool

I would say that these were turning points in me finding a new balance. And at the time, I was in "google" mode, always searching for answers, a new way of living, new priorities and a new style of clothing. And now 10 years of that, what has spat out is me with exactly the same goal (ie. definition of success) of a family, a home and a partner for life. And yet, I am a completely different person!

It makes me wonder whether had I settled down and had kids so many years ago, whether I would be as fulfilled as I am now having had a wide range of experiences, a successful career (which is really just a means to an end (it pays for the dream house)) and learned patience from having to just wait for the right moment to meet someone.

I like the fact that my ideals have not changed, although I have focused the majority of the past years to working hard. I like that, actually, my centre is solid and I can now appreciate how my experience has made that core all the more sincere and resolute.