A new me

As a young girl I had long blond hair.  Something possessed me around 28 years ago to
cut my hair.  When I say cut – I mean
extremely short, and I have had very short hair ever since.  It has always been easy to manage – wash and
leave – no fussing or hassling in the mornings. 

About a year ago, I went through a “What If” stage
again.  What if I grew my hair for
example.   I have been here before I must
add – I start growing my hair and it gets to a certain stage and it irritates
the hell out of me and I then have it all cut off again.  But this time I promised myself I would not
cut it again and would stick with it.  I
am not the nubile young woman I used to be – I am now more refined and, what is
the word… oh yes,  Voluptuous!  So I thought having my hair longer may soften
my face up a bit and give me a new look. 
Not sure how long to grow it but I promised myself I would grow it to a
suitable length and I would know when the length was right.

So here I am almost a year later – my hair is still on the short side but
my fringe now comes to my nose, the rest all comes down to my neck – I have had
it trimmed and tidied up a few times.  It
has been a hard year though.  Washing my
hair every morning and then spending ages blow drying it and making it look
like something (this is not my forte – there are 2 things I cannot do – the
first is ironing and the second is hair – I can do anything else but not this). 

For some unknown reason, I now have extremely curly hair
(not like the dead straight hair I had when I was a kid).  So if I don’t spend hours blow-drying it, I
look like a maltese poodle.  So I made the decision to have my hair
straightened.

I did some research and I booked an appointment with my
hairdresser (Peter) last week Wednesday. 
We had a discussion about straightening my hair and he touched up my
hi-lites.   I could only have the straightening
treatment done a week later – and so here we are!

I had a hair appointment at 8am this morning.  The treatment was applied, my hair
straightened, my hair washed, conditioned etc etc and here I am with straight
hair once again.  My fringe is hanging in
my face and driving me nuts but perhaps that is just the way it was blow-dryed
by Peter.  I will see what happens
tomorrow morning – hopefully I will get out of bed and look like a real person
instead of a monster, and hopefully I will wash my hair, dry it only and it
will look lovely!

A new me

As a young girl I had long blond hair.  Something possessed me around 28 years ago to
cut my hair.  When I say cut – I mean
extremely short, and I have had very short hair ever since.  It has always been easy to manage – wash and
leave – no fussing or hassling in the mornings. 

About a year ago, I went through a “What If” stage
again.  What if I grew my hair for
example.   I have been here before I must
add – I start growing my hair and it gets to a certain stage and it irritates
the hell out of me and I then have it all cut off again.  But this time I promised myself I would not
cut it again and would stick with it.  I
am not the nubile young woman I used to be – I am now more refined and, what is
the word… oh yes,  Voluptuous!  So I thought having my hair longer may soften
my face up a bit and give me a new look. 
Not sure how long to grow it but I promised myself I would grow it to a
suitable length and I would know when the length was right.

So here I am almost a year later – my hair is still on the short side but
my fringe now comes to my nose, the rest all comes down to my neck – I have had
it trimmed and tidied up a few times.  It
has been a hard year though.  Washing my
hair every morning and then spending ages blow drying it and making it look
like something (this is not my forte – there are 2 things I cannot do – the
first is ironing and the second is hair – I can do anything else but not this). 

For some unknown reason, I now have extremely curly hair
(not like the dead straight hair I had when I was a kid).  So if I don’t spend hours blow-drying it, I
look like a maltese poodle.  So I made the decision to have my hair
straightened.

I did some research and I booked an appointment with my
hairdresser (Peter) last week Wednesday. 
We had a discussion about straightening my hair and he touched up my
hi-lites.   I could only have the straightening
treatment done a week later – and so here we are!

I had a hair appointment at 8am this morning.  The treatment was applied, my hair
straightened, my hair washed, conditioned etc etc and here I am with straight
hair once again.  My fringe is hanging in
my face and driving me nuts but perhaps that is just the way it was blow-dryed
by Peter.  I will see what happens
tomorrow morning – hopefully I will get out of bed and look like a real person
instead of a monster, and hopefully I will wash my hair, dry it only and it
will look lovely!

Spoilt Rotten

Just had another present – Hubby bought me “Cherries” from Thomas Sabo.  The Cherries represent my blog. 

To quote the following website: http://www.wolfbros.co.za/our-jewellery/thomas-sabo-jewellery – “THOMAS SABO has helped the ancient tradition of the charm bracelet make a huge comeback. As a lucky charm, souvenir, attractive accessory and a particularly wonderful gift idea, the charms enchant all wearers in their own special way. Charms are personal altars to secret passions and obsessions. Romance and infatuations, happiness and success, moments and insights – the charms lend shape to the story of your life.”  I thought this was a wonderful description of what Charms represent.

I am so excited and cannot wait to wear it!

Click here to view more about the Thomas Sabo collection of Charms.

Click here to view my last post – ‘Twas the week before Christmas

It’s beginning to feel like Christmas

So we have finally wound down after our last event.  Kids are now on holiday and I suppose you
could say that we are officially on leave as well – although we will be
available for any calls or requests from clients anyway.  We never really switch off totally from work
and we are not going away and will be staying in Johannesburg. 

As the last few months have been good to us – business has
finally picked up – we have a few jobs / events  already for next year, so we splashed out and bought
ourselves a 59” Samsung Plasma TV. 

It was delivered day before yesterday and Son no 1 has spent
the last 2 days here setting it all up. (and No – it is not as simple as
unplugging our old 46” and plugging in the new 59”!) 

First we had to take it out of the box – it is huge so we
had to move furniture around.  Then we
had to figure out how to put the stand on. 
Then we moved the old 46” out of the way and placed the new 59” onto our
Media unit.  As the screen is so much
wider and sits in a corner – the cables were not long enough to reach to any of
the equipment in the unit below and new cables were put in. 

Right – so now we have it in the right place.  Still cannot use it as we have a home
automation system and it now has to be reprogrammed with the new 59” – this is
where we need Son no 1 – so we waited for him to finish work and bribed him and
his wife with a decent curry for dinner. 
Son no 1 is a serious IT boffin and he got it all working in no time at
all. 

We now had to decide what to do with the old 46”.  We agreed that it should go into the TV Room –
we have an existing 42” plasma screen in this room.  The set up in this room does not involve
reprogramming the home automation system but we have all our other media equipment
here – HDPVR Decoder , Duel View Decoder, X-Box, AppleTV, WII, DVD, routers and
of course a Yamaha Processor and amplifier which it all links into. 

We had taken the processor in for repair a week earlier –
one of the channels was not working correctly. 
So this had to be re-installed. 

Son no 1 spent the day here yesterday sorting out this room –
it was agreed that it could do with a clean so he took all the equipment and
cabling out.  Quit a big job as it is all
built into a unit.  The unit was cleaned,
new cabling installed and labelled and then finally all the equipment was
re-installed. 

All works perfectly – so a very big THANK YOU to Son no 1 –
I love you dearly!

Whilst Son no 1 was doing all of the above, the Christmas
tree has gone up, new ornaments bought and the tree adorned and I have finally
found some time to wrap presents.  

So it is slowly beginning to feel like Christmas! 

Got nothing planned for the next week besides sitting on the
couch watching our new 59” TV. 

It’s beginning to feel like Christmas

So we have finally wound down after our last event.  Kids are now on holiday and I suppose you
could say that we are officially on leave as well – although we will be
available for any calls or requests from clients anyway.  We never really switch off totally from work
and we are not going away and will be staying in Johannesburg. 

As the last few months have been good to us – business has
finally picked up – we have a few jobs / events  already for next year, so we splashed out and bought
ourselves a 59” Samsung Plasma TV. 

It was delivered day before yesterday and Son no 1 has spent
the last 2 days here setting it all up. (and No – it is not as simple as
unplugging our old 46” and plugging in the new 59”!) 

First we had to take it out of the box – it is huge so we
had to move furniture around.  Then we
had to figure out how to put the stand on. 
Then we moved the old 46” out of the way and placed the new 59” onto our
Media unit.  As the screen is so much
wider and sits in a corner – the cables were not long enough to reach to any of
the equipment in the unit below and new cables were put in. 

Right – so now we have it in the right place.  Still cannot use it as we have a home
automation system and it now has to be reprogrammed with the new 59” – this is
where we need Son no 1 – so we waited for him to finish work and bribed him and
his wife with a decent curry for dinner. 
Son no 1 is a serious IT boffin and he got it all working in no time at
all. 

We now had to decide what to do with the old 46”.  We agreed that it should go into the TV Room –
we have an existing 42” plasma screen in this room.  The set up in this room does not involve
reprogramming the home automation system but we have all our other media equipment
here – HDPVR Decoder , Duel View Decoder, X-Box, AppleTV, WII, DVD, routers and
of course a Yamaha Processor and amplifier which it all links into. 

We had taken the processor in for repair a week earlier –
one of the channels was not working correctly. 
So this had to be re-installed. 

Son no 1 spent the day here yesterday sorting out this room –
it was agreed that it could do with a clean so he took all the equipment and
cabling out.  Quit a big job as it is all
built into a unit.  The unit was cleaned,
new cabling installed and labelled and then finally all the equipment was
re-installed. 

All works perfectly – so a very big THANK YOU to Son no 1 –
I love you dearly!

Whilst Son no 1 was doing all of the above, the Christmas
tree has gone up, new ornaments bought and the tree adorned and I have finally
found some time to wrap presents.  

So it is slowly beginning to feel like Christmas! 

Got nothing planned for the next week besides sitting on the
couch watching our new 59” TV. 

Flame of Democracy

Under strict instructions from Son no 2 to do a post today so have forced myself to sit down and write.

Been another busy week – such a huge relief to be busy though so won’t complain.  Was rather worried a few months ago when there was no work in sight.

I don’t usually like to comment on political matters but the leading political party in South Africa, the ANC, really surprised me today by suspending Julius Malema.  Political parties are like banks – they are all as bad / good as each other.  There has been so much controversy over Julius Malema lately and I must admit I think they have done the right thing.  The ANC has also shown that they can take control when necessary – so bonus points to them this time!

We are busy looking at installing a beam of light in one of the towers at Constitution Hill which is now home to our Constitutional Court.  Have a look at the following site for more information about our Constitutional Court : http://www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/site/thecourt/thebuilding.htm

This light will shine into the sky at night and represents the Flame of Democracy.  In fact there will be an actual flame burning 24 hours a day in the tower itself and the light will shine at night. The 10^th of December marks the 15^th anniversary of the signing of our constitution by our first president, Mr Nelson Mandela. 

We tested one of the lights on Tuesday evening and took some photographs.  There will be 30 of these lights installed at the top of the tower to the left of the picture.  These lights will be switched on at an event on the 10^th December 2011.

We had my brother and his family over for a traditional South African braai on Saturday.  Although my brother and I see each other a few times a month, we so seldom get to socialise together with our respective families.  It was so nice to see our kids all getting along so well.  We each have 4 children and the only one missing was son no 2 who of course is based in Dubai.

Son no 3 is now writing exams so I find myself doing so much more driving.  School run at 7am, then at 10.30am and then again at 3pm.  You won’t believe how much it interferes with my working hours.  Most of my work is done in the mornings in peace and quiet and of course that time is now interrupted by having to drop everything and do a school run in the middle of the morning.  Anyway – only 2 weeks of it left.

Joburg weather has been magnificent recently with temperatures of around 30 – 33 degrees.  Get to have a swim late afternoon with the kids – pool temp now at 32 degrees.  Feels like bath water – absolutely perfect!

S.M.A.O.

For those of you who don’t know what S.M.A.O. stands for – it stands for Sweating My Ass Off.  Which is all I’ve done for the last 2 weeks (Although I must admit the last 2 days have been cooler).  Now hubby has this big grin on his face and insists I am in the early stages of “The Change”. Well…..

To those of you who had the same thought!  I’m not and I am far too young!

But seriously – it has been very hot in Joburg – and not the usual dry heat that we are accustomed to. Don’t get me wrong – I love the heat, but less humidity would be great.  I hate the cold so I am very grateful summer is here once again.  I also hate the rain.  I don’t mind a little rain – but the last few summers in Joburg have been very wet.  We spent most of the last Christmas holiday season indoors because it rained so much.

Summer also brings out the best in us – I love watching the kids playing in the pool and running around outside.  We try to all have a swim late afternoon everyday once the phone stops ringing and I feel I have done a days’ work.  My garden looks wonderful.  The cats are lolling in the grass, our dog is howling at the Ha-de-dah’s and he even occasionally lowers himself to get up and chase them.

Life is just wonderful!

S.M.A.O.

For those of you who don’t know what S.M.A.O. stands for – it stands for Sweating My Ass Off.  Which is all I’ve done for the last 2 weeks (Although I must admit the last 2 days have been cooler).  Now hubby has this big grin on his face and insists I am in the early stages of “The Change”. Well…..

To those of you who had the same thought!  I’m not and I am far too young!

But seriously – it has been very hot in Joburg – and not the usual dry heat that we are accustomed to. Don’t get me wrong – I love the heat, but less humidity would be great.  I hate the cold so I am very grateful summer is here once again.  I also hate the rain.  I don’t mind a little rain – but the last few summers in Joburg have been very wet.  We spent most of the last Christmas holiday season indoors because it rained so much.

Summer also brings out the best in us – I love watching the kids playing in the pool and running around outside.  We try to all have a swim late afternoon everyday once the phone stops ringing and I feel I have done a days’ work.  My garden looks wonderful.  The cats are lolling in the grass, our dog is howling at the Ha-de-dah’s and he even occasionally lowers himself to get up and chase them.

Life is just wonderful!

Odds and ends

Last 2 weeks has had me busy with odds and ends.  Have had no time to think about blogging or anything else for that matter.  So I have forced myself to put a few words down tonight. 

I had the opportunity of going to my sons annual school “NICHT” event, held at one of the private schools in Joburg last week.  No offence to the school itself, but it was one of the worst shows I have ever been to.  It was supposed to be a “laser” show.  Not sure if you can call a laser just arbitrarily being waved around a “Show”.  Laser shows work best when the patterns or images are reflected or bounced off of a surface or smoke is used to enhance the beams – there was not any particular surface which the lasers were aimed at.  If the beams hit the trees or roofs of the surrounding buildings, it was pure coincidence.  Regardless of the Laser show itself, I think all parents and students had a pleasant evening (even though it was quite cold).  It was well attended and well organised. 

Son no 3 had today off from school – not sure why – Jewish holiday or something like that.  Anyway he and a few others from his class had to prep for a drama practical – they are writing scripts and filming etc.  So I got suckered into playing Mom’s Taxi – started off with dropping him off at school for 9.30am – they had to film a short scene there which would take around 30 minutes.  I anticipated it taking a little longer so went shopping until I received the obligatory SMS informing me they were finished – got the SMS 2 hours later.  I then had to cart the 7 of them to one of the students homes for the rest of the filming session and of course had to collect some of them later and drop them off at their homes.  My son clearly forgot I work for a living!

Bought 3 dresses whilst shopping – was looking for a LBD for an event later this month.  Ended up taking all 3 as I could not make my mind up (Guess the 2 hours were not a total waste of time).  Tried them all on for hubby and he likes all 3 – so not sure which one I will wear.  May have to have a dress up session with my daughter-in-law and see what she thinks.

Otherwise I am looking forward to the weekend and putting my feet up – and perhaps even an afternoon sleep on Saturday!

Odds and ends

Last 2 weeks has had me busy with odds and ends.  Have had no time to think about blogging or anything else for that matter.  So I have forced myself to put a few words down tonight. 

I had the opportunity of going to my sons annual school “NICHT” event, held at one of the private schools in Joburg last week.  No offence to the school itself, but it was one of the worst shows I have ever been to.  It was supposed to be a “laser” show.  Not sure if you can call a laser just arbitrarily being waved around a “Show”.  Laser shows work best when the patterns or images are reflected or bounced off of a surface or smoke is used to enhance the beams – there was not any particular surface which the lasers were aimed at.  If the beams hit the trees or roofs of the surrounding buildings, it was pure coincidence.  Regardless of the Laser show itself, I think all parents and students had a pleasant evening (even though it was quite cold).  It was well attended and well organised. 

Son no 3 had today off from school – not sure why – Jewish holiday or something like that.  Anyway he and a few others from his class had to prep for a drama practical – they are writing scripts and filming etc.  So I got suckered into playing Mom’s Taxi – started off with dropping him off at school for 9.30am – they had to film a short scene there which would take around 30 minutes.  I anticipated it taking a little longer so went shopping until I received the obligatory SMS informing me they were finished – got the SMS 2 hours later.  I then had to cart the 7 of them to one of the students homes for the rest of the filming session and of course had to collect some of them later and drop them off at their homes.  My son clearly forgot I work for a living!

Bought 3 dresses whilst shopping – was looking for a LBD for an event later this month.  Ended up taking all 3 as I could not make my mind up (Guess the 2 hours were not a total waste of time).  Tried them all on for hubby and he likes all 3 – so not sure which one I will wear.  May have to have a dress up session with my daughter-in-law and see what she thinks.

Otherwise I am looking forward to the weekend and putting my feet up – and perhaps even an afternoon sleep on Saturday!