Tanya's Blog

when you neglect your blog – you end up with loads of spam and in an effort to get rid of it – you go on a massive deleting spree – which in turn means you inadvertently delete legitimate comments. My apologies. (erm Viv this is mainly directed at you – hubby’s deleted comments I can get away with by smiling sweetly and offering him a beer)

ETA (edited to add – for the uninitiated) – took me well over half an hour to delete all the spam…. we may be embracing the electronic age – but the spammers are embracing it more. Bloody gits.

A little while ago I was awoken early one morning by the sound of a cockerel crowing and not just one random cock-a-doodle-doo – but about an hour’s worth of doo’s. Naturally later when it was officially time to wake up I asked Wouter if he’d heard the rooster.  He just looked at me as if I was off my rocker and went back to sleep.

When I related the story to the rest of the family at a big gathering I was greeted with derision, taunting and several not so surreptitious pity glances from family members to Wouter.. you know the type ‘oh you poor thing, how do you cope being married to a nut job?’.

Well…. for all you doubting thomases out there….. TAKE THAT!

And on a somewhat similiar note – what is the weirdest creature you have had to avoid whilst driving down a road?  For me, it was a crab – I kid you not… there he was scuttling sideways across the road in the middle of Sun Valley, looking as happy as a clam.

We have these very fancy lifts at work… you punch a number in… it tells you which lift to get into and voila it takes you to your floor – well that’s the way it’s supposed to work.

This morning – punch in my floor number, go to designated lift, get in…. doors close, lift starts going up….slight shuddering and then nothing.

Me – *push intercom button* Hello

Intercom – Hello?

Me – The lift is stuck

Intercom – What?

Me – The lift is stuck

Intercom – Push the number for your floor

Me – There are no buttons

Intercom – No buttons?

Me – No buttons

Intercom – No buttons on the right hand side

Me – *slightly exasperated tone* No buttons on the right hand side

Intercom – What floor are you on

Me – Screen says M floor

Intercom – I will call the people to come fix it – they should be here in ten to fifteen minutes

Me – Ok

{some time passes}

Intercom – Hello

Me – Hello

Intercom – You still there?

Me – Yes, can’t exactly go anywhere

Intercom – The people are coming to get you out

Me – Thanks

{some time passes}

Intercom – [different voice] Hello, you still there?

Me – Yes

Intercom – the people are here – you will be out soon

{some times passes}

Intercom – [different voice again] Hello, you still there?

Me – Yup

Intercom – You’re not on the M floor

Me – Oh

Intercom – the people will find you

Me – Oh good

{some times passes}

*lift light goes out for a second and then the lift voice says “please stay clear of the closing doors”*

Me – I’d love to stay clear of opening doors… [sarcasm is lost on lifts]

{some time passes}

Intercom – Hello, you ok

Me – Yup

Intercom – people will get you out soon

{some times passes}

Lift starts making the appropriate noises and I end up back on the ground floor.

I’m starting to ask…. Why Me?

I had just written a lovely long post – informative, witty – little snippets of information and then the pc hung…. and naturally I hadn’t saved any of it. I couldn’t be bothered to try and re-create it… blame a very late night on Tuesday (Masters of the Rock concert… Wouter has a lovely post about it) suffice to say – I knew approximately 5 of the songs througout the entire show…. found it very odd watching ‘ou toppies’ rock on stage with more energy in their one finger than I have in my entire body and thankfully the seats I chose… were in the one place where the noise level wasn’t ear shattering.  I am however still recovering from getting home after one in the morning on a week night.

The rest of the post was devoted to my trip to Jhb where I met the other half of my team (work team that is) and spent the weekend with my brother and his 3 year old son. It was great – even if I did have to listen to Barney and the Tellytubbies being quite sickenly cheerful. I have no idea what it is about that purple dinosaur that enthrals kids so much – my two were just the same at that age…. truth be told I thought I’d escaped that particular torture when my two grew up a bit – I was wrong.

The rest of this post I’m going to devote to pictures taken over the weekend – I’m particular proud of my Kingfisher shot – he’s such a pretty boy.

Hey Dude, where’s my lunch?

I survived my first day at my new company. I came home brain dead (shut up Wouter), exhausted and completely incapable of stringing a coherent sentence together – but I had a blast.  Haven’t a clue who all the people were I was introduced to – then again I left the High Court after sixteen years wondering who some of the people were at my farewell, a fact which didn’t stop them from telling me how much they’re going to miss me or how I’d enriched their lives – meanwhile I’m thinking… wth are you??? (People get a little odd at farewells) As a complete aside… according to everyone at the court – the whole place is going to fall apart the instant I step out the door….. if ever I’m on a low, all I have to do is read their parting words – I’m surprised I wasn’t paid a whole heap more thinking about it – ‘cos according to them, I’m second only to a celestial being.

I’m also in IT heaven now – you should see my pc screen at work… oh my word… saw that and instantly fell in love. It’s ginormous.

However before I completely transfer my allegiance to my new library – indulge me a moment whilst I say goodbye to my old home.

 

And yes, apart from my very first day on the job – this is the neatest my desk ever was.

It really is a beautiful library and I am going to miss it tremendously – but not enough to give up the ginormous pc screen :-)

Well let me assure you it isn’t traffic. Admittedly this was traffic from Hell…. the type of traffic where you sit and sit and sit, not moving an inch for what seems like ages and just when you think all hope of ever moving has gone…. you sit some more.  This was our situation yesterday driving back from Oudtshoorn – having enjoyed ourselves at the KKNK (more on that later). Suddenly it was All My Fault we were stuck in Worcester not moving a millimeter (let alone an inch). Gmf* Suffice to say my constant nagging to take over the driving paid off – and after awhile… somewhere between Villiersdorp and Franschoek – I had a moderately happy hubby again. (All my fault… se moer)** It may have been a round about way of getting back home but at least it was free flowing all the way.

As for the festival – the few shows we went to see were great. (Again…. all my fault we couldn’t see more – ties in with the having to return home on an Easter weekend – you see…. silly me went and found herself a new job, and as is custom in ANY company – one is not allowed to take leave in one’s final month of work. The fact that the new job will bring much joy, a higher salary and a new lease on life – was apparently not taken into account when we were trapped in Worcester trying to find a way out of the mess. Not to repeat myself…. but GMF!!!)  So, it took us nearly 7 hours to get home and Wouter nigh broke his back sitting in one position the whole way – there were silver linings along the way. We had a lovely lunch at Clarke of the Karoo in Barrydale, I got to read my book and we got to see some fantastic scenery all the way home – especially on the detour we took in order to get home.

But back to the festival…. things were quite a bit different this time. I don’t claim to be an expert on the festival – I’ve only been to around four or five but even I could sense things were different. They’d re-arranged the entire layout of the show and now instead of being able to browse the various stalls at will – one needs to pay an entrance fee of R40. Ok, so the entrance fee does include whatever musical performances are being held at the stage within the cordoned off area,  but if you’re not a Kurt Darren/Theuns Jordaan type fan…. you’re stuffed. There also seems to be fewer people going – I remarked on this last year as well – which is understandable really. It’s expensive, you have the shows at R80-R100 a time, there’s the accommodation, food, entrance fees etc. Still every time we go we enjoy ourselves and I’m sure we’ll be going again – preferably when I haven’t decided to re-invent my career. :-)

*For the uninitiated…. Gmf does not mean something rude with the last word ending in ..ck – it is an expression of disgust…when spoken out loud it has a very satisfying sound. Try it, I’m sure you’ll be using it constantly in next to no time.

**[Afrikaans festivals have a tendency to rub off on one’s vocabulary].

competitive kids, even if they’re only competing with themselves. Tamsyn got her school report today – she phoned me completely bummed out by her grades – figures she’s let herself down ‘cos they’re not that good.

Go figure. :-)