Brain dump

Joe calls these posts updates, I prefer to call them downloads as it helps to silence the noise in my head. So here is a list of things I have come to realise, know and accept in the last week:

• I love birthdays. I want one every week. Not only do they make you feel exceptionally loved, you also get loads of presents!
  
• I don't like curry. Never have, never will.
• I want to live in Franschoek. Every time I drive into the Franschoek valley, everything looks and feels right. I like the town, the scenery, the people, the location and the overall sense of community.
  
• I both love and hate airports. The joy of collecting someone you haven't seen for a very long time is incredible. The sadness of saying goodbye however, especially to those I love with all my heart, kills me.
• I really, really love my family. They may drive me nuts at times, but they are who they are and I am learning to accept that.
  
• You don't have to 'click' with everybody.
  
• Saying sorry and moving on is under rated. It's really great to have an old friend back in my life.
• Realising that some people just can't be 'saved' despite many years of wishful thinking, is a hard pill to swallow.
• Cape Town on a crisp winters day is undeniably the most beautiful city in the world.
• I work with the most amazing bunch of people that anyone could ask for.
• I like my life and the best part of all is that Parri makes it complete.

27 and beyond

I've got pre-birthday blues. Bottom line: I DON'T WANT TO GET OLDER! Next thing you know I'm 30 with two kids and a spreading waist, butt and thigh line. (Sorry to all of you who have reached and exceeded 30, I mean no offence, I'm just having a moment.)

When I was in Std6, the matrics looked like middle aged women. At 18, all I wanted to be was 21. At 25 I had a quarter life crises and now....well now I'm just depressed.

There is so much I want to achieve/do before I am 30:

• I want to live in both Turkey and Tuscany for at least 6 months a pop.
• I want to attend a TED talk.
• I want to learn to snow board and I want to have the opportunity to practice till I rock at it.
  
• I would like to do a refresher course in French. (Will come in handy when I live in Tuscany and want to nip across to France for some croissants.)
  
• I want to learn to speak conversational Xhosa. It is shocking that I struggle to greet my neighbour in her mother tongue.
  
• I want to take up sculpting again and I would also like to be able to paint something that I would actually consider hanging in my house.
  
• I want to apply the Pareto principle to everything I do.
• I want to play more golf, take up mountain biking and be more fit over all. (i.e. I want to look like Giselle Bunchen)
  
• I want to spend more time with family and friends.
• I would like to do a cooking course and while I am at it, learn more about wine. The former in an attempt to avoid poisoning my future kids, the latter because I too want to smell banana, vanilla, wet dog and burnt almonds when drinking wine and impress my friends while doing it.
  
• I would love to do a flip over the Cape Peninsula in a helicopter. And not just a 15 minute flip, a loooong one that feels like it lasts for hours.
• I want to fly first class and in a lear jet.
  
• Believe it or not, I want to meet Oprah.

I'm sure there are a ton of things that I just don't have the head-space to think of right now, so I will have to add to the list as I go along.

Here's to my last night of being 26... *sniff*

Random thoughts on a Sunday morning

It's 10:00 am on Sunday morning and I am thanking Parri's foresight for coming back to Cape Town last night. If it wasn't for my genius husband we would have been awoken in Stellenbosch by my baby brother and Joe's kid tearing down the house. (My baby brother is turning 4 in Oct. He is still in the noisy, inconsiderate stage.)

My oldest brother and Joe are best mates and last night we all went out for dinner to the Fishmonger (the best restaurant in Stellies) to celebrate Anton's visit from the UK. Jacques, my middle bother arrives on Thursday (also from the UK), and we will most likely land up at the Fishmonger again, considering my dad's a stickler for "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Having all my brothers in SA at the same time is a novelty, hence I'm hosting my bday party a week early to commemorate the occasion.

Birthdays are one of my all time favourite things and if I am really honest about it, it's the presents and surprises that tickle me pink. The best part is, I am easily pleased. For example, I like taking out the post because 1. you never know what you are going to get (SURPRISE!) and 2. each item of post be it a magazine, Christmas/bday card or even junk mail is like a mini present. Even though I don't always find the time to take the post out myself, the people around me know never to open any of it, especially the magazines. (I have a thing for crispy pages too.)

I was never the popular kid in school and in fact birthday parties were fairly low on my agenda. Now that I am older, I have always been too afraid to invite everyone I know for fear that the whole thing would flop. I'm into risk management you see and have always been under the impression that if you throw all the people I know into one room, no one would know what to say to one another. I have been testing the water though, starting with my wedding in 2005 - which thankfully was a huge success - and my party at Asoka last year which was great fun.

So this year I am going all out. I feel semi confident doing it because during my 27th year I realised two very fundamental things namely, that the people I surround myself with also appreciate diversity and - perhaps the biggest break through of all - that I like myself.

So if you are planning on coming, albeit only for the booze, don't forget to bring presents.

Life in general

I am not a geek, nor am I a blogger. I have no intent on writing every day nor am I under any false illusions that tons of people are going to read this. (In fact I prefer it that way.)

This blog has no vision, direction or purpose. It hasn't even been built on Wordpress and is sure as hell won't have all the required bells and whistles that the bloggerati have come to expect. It just is.

It's my attempt to create normality and structure in my life. A fun, mind blowing, interesting and colourful life filled with incredible people and bizarre and everyday occurrences.

This blog, is my life in general. A space to mind fart. A space to be.