Adventuring we will go...

I'm off to Johannesburg tomorrow. Here's hoping I don't get lost in that dismal city. Catching the Gautrain to Sandton. Wish me luck!

One for the Office Book...

This is all second hand, so I'm giving you what I remember of my conversation with Katia this afternoon...

Siya decides he's going to drink the left over juice in the fridge, however, it's so old and so fermented that the bottle is ready to explode it's so gassed up.

Katia: Siya, you can't drink that, you'll die!

Siya: What? No, it's fine.

Katia: Siya, you can't drink that, it will make you very sick. Throw it away!

Siya: No, that's a waste. I will be fine.

Katia: Siya, take this bottle upstairs to Ashley and see what she has to say about you drinking it.

Siya: No, no it's ok. You can throw it away.

Katia: *throws bottle of fermented juice away*

...

I laughed... loudly.

This has been...

... an exceedingly difficult day.

No; work is fine. It's got to do with my cousin and boyfriend who are both, it would seem, determined to stress me into an early grave.

Anyways, Gina, (my boss's wife) brought their baby in to the office today. Sienna is just the most angelic little thing.



Nick and Sienna. Sienna has the most enormous blue eyes.



Time for a proper catch-up

Yes in-dee-dee...
I was having a read through my blog today and there are HUGE gaps missing, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to have a bit of a life catch-up.

Work:
Work is going well. I went on a Social Networking conference a couple of weeks back, which I really enjoyed. It was hosted by Mark Sham. Interesting guy… dynamic, funny, intelligent… I’m definitely up for another of his conferences if he makes his way to Durban again. He’s given me a new outlook on social media in general; particularly Twitter and Facebook. I’m going to use those two, combined with a blog to change the way we communicate with our clients and prospective clients. I’m hoping that by opening a two-way communication channel we’ll begin to drive traffic to our website and at the same time show people (prospective clients) the value in the products and services that we offer.

Today I spent my day putting together a specification document for a timekeeping application. I’m tired of Excel and fighting with adding up my time. It’s painfully time consuming and dismally boring. I’ve actually given up with the whole timekeeping thing until I can find a better, more intelligent solution. Tomorrow I’ll finish up the spec and send it off to Darren for a quote.

Barry (my IT guy) and I have reached a weird plain of friendship; although, he is the worst hugger I have ever come across and I have zero desire to ever touch the man again. I always smile when I open my Outlook and there is a completely random, non-work related email in there from him. They are usually strange and entertaining and have a way of making me laugh in that kind of cynical “Oh Baz, what have you done now” kind of way. He is Annie’s kryptonite. The other day he was working out if the iPad was 11 inches, using his penis as a guide. All I heard coming from Annie was “I’m sorry; I so did not need to see that in my lifetime.” I giggled… a lot. Obviously his penis was inside his pants, but the motion of hand to iPad, then to crotch, back to iPad was a little much for our country girl. The two of them provide hours of entertainment for our little office.

Maryla is on leave at the moment. The very lucky bean is frolicking around Paris and Euro Disney with her son, Janek. I have to say that I am horribly jealous.

Hobbies:
Ok, enough about work…
My hobbies were starting to get the better of me, so I’ve decided to can a couple and focus on the ones that are important to me. I’m still beading and mosaicing, but not often. I started belly dancing and lasted two classes. It’s really… REALLY not for me. Flamenco yes, belly dancing no.

I’m enjoying Flamenco again. It’s school holidays now which means that there aren’t any classes and won’t be again until the 20th of July. Gosh, a whole month without class. Seems a little strange, but it will probably do me some good to chillax.

Poi is going well still, although I seem to have come to a bit of a grinding halt in terms of progression. I’ve learned a good few moves, but am struggling to find someone to help me move gracefully when spinning… Actually, part of the reason that I took up belly dancing was because the teacher said that she could teach Robyn and I to flow… meh, it didn’t work out. Martin has been an amazing help, but I’m stuck at the moment and am getting frustrated with it as a result. I am spinning fire these days, fairly comfortably. I also have the most awesome sets of flowlights. The colours are pretty… Mom bought me a set of limited edition watermelon-coloured flowlights, but I am only getting those for Christmas.


From left to right - Water; Earth; Spirit

Work-type Hobbies:
Yeah, I know… I always have these.
I’ve been helping friends get their websites sorted and as a result have been neglecting my own. I will, hopefully by the end of the year, have sorted out my own website. Although, to be honest, the website isn’t going to make me any money so it really is going to be an added expense a month for pure indulgence, so I do have to think about whether or not I really want to be putting it up.

Martin’s website was the first of the two projects that I have been working on.
I’m completely stoked with the way that it has come out, although I’m not totally stoked with the copy… but that’s not up to me. I sorted out the design; he can sort out what he wants to tell people and how he’s going to get the message across. Have a look at his website and let me know what you think.

The other website, which is a monster of a project is a re-design of Fire and Lights; Robyn’s performer portal. The poor chicken really needed some help with this one. I get the concept of what she’s trying to achieve, and it’s a phenomenally good one, but the execution of it leaves much to be desired. I don’t blame her though; she’s not a designer and she’s not a developer. She has to try getting her concept across as much as possible and hoping that the professionals that are building the site for her understand her and translate her thoughts into something amazing. They didn’t and as a result her portal is boring, full of bugs and difficult to use. I’ve give the design and the home page a complete overhaul. Check it out :)


Fire and Lights home new page

I’ve also given a couple of the other pages on the site a bit of a rethink and have come up with, what I think is, a good base to start with. Hopefully her developers will be able to expand on that… Hopefully. I’ve also started a blog for Fire and Lights. If I can just get Robyn to sort out the first post I’ll be able to get it going. It is her blog in the end, so I want her to have the first say in it.

Once Fire and Lights is up and running we’re going to sort out the Beads and Beyond website. Then she should be pretty much sorted and it will be just a case of updating them.

Personal Stuff:
Life has been strange in this regard… strange, but really good. Wayne and I seem to really gel. At first I wasn’t sure, but the more time I spend with him, the more I enjoy spending time with him and the more I want to spend time with him.

Ok, here’s the story of how we met… or at least, my version of what I can remember. You know I’m useless with details, so bear with me.

Mom had started mentioning about this guy at her office called Wayne. She would say “He’s a sweet boy… Odd… But sweet.” She told me that he loves to swim in the sea, plays violin and makes music. Kind of odd for someone who works in Fixed Assets at Toyota, but anyways… she did say he was “an odd boy.” Anyways, the “odd boy” turned out to be a 31 year old man who sent me a friend request on Facebook one fateful day. Now bear in mind that I knew of Wayne, but neither he nor I had ever laid eyes on the other, let alone said a word to each other, so needless to say I was curious as to why I was getting a friend request from someone who really didn’t know me from a bar of soap. I called mom… She said, in only the way mom can, “Buggie, I was telling Wayne that I need a son-in-law.” At this point I cringed and with long teeth accepted the friend request. Mom was right, he is odd, but in a really great way. He’s different from the other men I’ve had in my life in that he is genuinely loving, endlessly patient and puts up with me and all of my shit. In my defence, I did tell him that I was a difficult person… stubborn, set in my ways, uncomfortable in my own skin sometimes… all of which he has completely taken in his stride. He’s amazing. He wanted to go out right off the mark, but I was like “no” … I’ve been down that road too many times, but two months down the line I got an sms to say (again short version) that he wanted to know where he stood in my life and that I kinda needed to start making some decisions about us. I told him that I would take him seriously and go out with him, but at the same time he needed to take me seriously and make a rather huge life decision. I told him that I was tired of playing relationship games and that he had to make the decision there and then to marry me within two years or he must go away. At this point I can hear you going WTF Ash??? Don’t worry I was as surprised as you are now when he said yes that is his intention. Two days away from our one monthaversary he said to me “Do you realise that I’m completely and madly in love with you?” My heart felt like it had come home. Look, it may be famous last words as we all know that I am dismally useless at relationships, but I think (I even kinda know) that this is my guy for now and for the rest of time, and that fills me with a warm and fuzzy happiness.

Ok, moving on…
I’ve been reading this web-comic called the Seraph Inn. It’s really sweet. The story can get a little lost at times, but in general it’s sweet. Martin introduced me to it. That bean is a wealth of strange internet stuff… at the ripe old age of 24.

And dear heavens we’re on page 3 of the word document, so I guess it’s time to end this one off. Mark needs to update his blog so I think I’m going to go poke him into doing just that.

Have a great evening
x

The weekend thus far

It’s been a relatively relaxing one so far. Yesterday I made corn fritters which came out quite nice. You can pick up the recipe for them here, at my Taste Magazine blog.

Mom and I went to the shops in the morning. We bought wool, and a few other bits and pieces. I’m starting the diet of doom again because I’ve picked up 4 kilos and I’m starting to feel it in my clothes. I still have those 15 kilos to lose, so I guess now is as good a time as any to get rid of them.

I haven’t really made any further progress on my online shop, because I need to meet with Pat first to discuss the product catalogue, and how it will all work. Once I’ve got a better understanding of that, I’ll continue with the design. In the meantime I’m making pieces of jewellery and pricing them.

In other arts and crafts news, I’m working on the mosaic snail, who thanks to Jay, I’m calling Juju. He’s coming along nicely, but I’m going to need to get another pack of the one set of tiles. I can see that I’m going to run out.

I also started my 44 Liqueur yesterday. I think it’s going to be fantastic when it’s done, but we shall wait and see. Getting the coffee beans into the orange is more difficult than it looks! But it was quite quick to put together once I got into the swing of it. I’m going to make some surprise muffins today for lunch, I think.

I have so much work to do, at work that I may go in a little later to try and get through some of my admin. Big things are happening at work that I can’t talk about at this point, but they’re all good.

Anyways, that’s me for now. Have a great Sunday and a great week!

Furbie was having a snooze on the carpet

Casper strikes again

I am convinced that my office is haunted! There have been times when I’ve been working late, by myself, and have either heard or felt something that I could find no explanation for.

I can tell that you think I’m crazy. I’m telling you, our office is haunted! Let me explain why I believe this to be so…

Months ago, Pam and I were standing talking in the kitchen. I think we were in the process of making coffee. Now, in the kitchen we had one of those stands that hold the knives and forks. It’s the kind that the knives and forks hang off of. Anyways, we were talking and all the windows and the back door into the kitchen were shut. There wasn’t a breath of air in the place… Not one ounce of wind. As we were talking the knives and forks on the rack suddenly started moving, like someone had run their hand along them. We both looked at them swinging, looked back at each other, finished making our coffee and proceeded to exit the kitchen in a rather swift, yet organised fashion.

Prior to that, I ended up working late one evening and could hear someone picking up papers, shuffling them and putting them down again. I knew that I was the only one in the office and all the lights upstairs were off, so I knew it wasn’t someone working. Anyways, I could still hear the picking up of papers, shuffling and putting them down, so I go up and walked to the bottom of the stairs. All the windows upstairs were closed because the bosses had left, so I called up the stairs “hello.” No reply came back at me. I checked the alarm by the door as it tells you which zones are active because there is someone in them, and the only zone that it picked up was the zone that I was in. At this point I turned my pc off, picked up my bag and left.

Last night I was alone, yet again, and I felt a strange pressure against my left foot. I looked under my desk and discovered… nothing. Why the ghost decided he wanted to push against my foot is beyond me. Perhaps he has a foot fetish?

There have been other incidents where other people in the office have heard the shuffling and Pam has also heard the door open and close, so I know it’s not my imagination playing tricks on me.

Oh Goodness Fluff...

... this has been one long and challenging day. Work (the work that I’m supposed to be doing, the mountains of it that I’m working through at the moment) is fine. It’s the IT issues that we’re experiencing at the moment which are the problem. In fact, they’re not even the problem, it’s the people in the office who get involved in them, who have no clue as to what is already happening, and in the process cause more problems, that are the problem. I have spent my last hour and a half sorting out their fuck-up. It pisses me off because I already have so much work to get through without having to pick up after them.

I can’t wait for Friday... I’m taking a day’s leave.

How are you doing? Is work keeping you busy? How’s Mr R? Did he enjoy his birthday dinner? Where did you end up going?

I’ve got dancing tonight, but I hope that I’m going to manage to get through the traffic. Last week was a nightmare and the week before that was worse! They’re basically digging up Durban. I very much doubt that there is a road between here and the Karoo that they’re not digging up.

Anyways, I best get going... I’m sorry, I just needed to vent a little.
Have an awesome day!

xxx

Fluffy my fluff :)

Oh Fluffy my Fluffy... what a frustrating day.
I've moved myself away from my desk because I'm on wireless at my desk and through a series of (unfortunate) events, which are too long and frustrating to explain, the wireless isn't working properly. So now I'm just outside of my office virtually in front of the toilet because there is a network cable that connects directly to the ADSL there. The positive is that I have decent net access, but the negative is the noise which I find incredibly distracting. Even though we're upstairs, the noise from downstairs in the studio travels up the stairs right to me. I am now drowning my brain cells in music.

But anyways, let me not complain about one week of difficulties.

5 Days later...

I never got to finish my initial post, so I’m carrying on from here...
Tonight is dancing class, so I’ve got a bit of time before I have to get ready and head to that. There is so much that I want to tell you.

I’ll start with Emma. You know my friend Emma? Her dad has been diagnosed with terminal melanoma and the doctors reckon that with chemo he should have a month to live. He’s been fighting cancer for the past 15 years and has been in remission 3 times, but this time its back with a vengeance. Her parents have sold their house and are moving in with her and Darryl, but it’s still so sad. She’s putting on such a brave face, because that is just the way she is, but her heart must be breaking inside. I want to hug her and tell her that it’s actually ok for her not to be a soldier and ok for her not to be everyone’s rock.

On the home front mom is doing ok. The medication that she’s on (so very many pills) seems to be helping and she’s looking a lot better than she was. I told you that she has high cholesterol, has high blood pressure and that she’s highly anaemic didn’t I? Well, she’s got several pills for everything, that she has to take regularly, but at least she’s doing much better.

Grandpa sold his Pajero and bought a 1998 Toyota Camry. Ya, I don’t know why either...
I don’t know the whole story, but I think he might end up in some local movie. Basically, about two weeks ago... just after the highland gathering, so that was about two weeks ago, he and my uncle Alan went to Gateway to... I actually don’t know what they did there, but I think it had something to do with being extras in a movie. Anyways, they called grandpa back and apparently want him to be part of whatever it is that they’re doing. It could be a movie, it could be a tv advert, I really don’t know... When I get more information I’ll let you know. Mom called me today to tell me, but she was giggling so hard on the phone that I could barely understand her. She thinks it’s a riot.

Jayson has decided that he’s coming to visit, so we’re going to go away for a weekend to the Midlands. Ya, I’m still figuring this one out hey... He’s really sweet, awesome, funny, intelligent and wonderful, but it doesn’t change the fact that he lives in JHB... JHB. Apart from the fact that it's so far away, it's JHB. If it were CT or even the Eastern Cape I'd be ok with the idea, but JHB. Oh Fluffy.

Work is insanely busy at the moment. I’ve got 3 big projects on the go and I’m not sure whether I’m Arthur or Martha at the moment, but I’m enjoying it all at least. I have two really good bosses, which in this day and age is rare. I’m still not quite sure how I lucked out with this job... although, that said, remember my first week when I wanted to run away? I’m glad I stuck it out... Was the best decision I’ve made in two years.

Well, I suppose I better get going. I need to change and sort some stuff out before heading to dancing.
You are looking beautiful by the way. Your FB profile picture is exquisite. I miss you so much...

Love you lots my beautiful friend.
xxx

Tuesday Ramblings...

I don’t know about you, but this has been a loooong week, and it’s only Tuesday! Ok, well... the weekend was nice. Saturday was the Feria as you know, and the weekend was nice although we didn’t do very much. On Sunday I took mom and grandpa to Illovo Nursery for tea and scones. Well, grandpa had a choc-fudge sundae and mom and I had scones. After tea we went shopping at PnP in Winkle. We bought a pack of oxtail, which I put on to cook when we got home. Actually, I was plagued by the most epic headache all of Sunday, so I took meds, put the meat on and then slept for two hours until 5. Then got up, added carrots and chunks of baby marrow and went back to bed for another hour until dinner was ready. The oxtail stew was awesome though. It’s not often that I cook something as epically delicious as that these days.

This week has been completely batty. I’m trying to get 20 things done, but only seem to be getting around 85% of them done. I think I’m just trying to do too many things at once and so am accomplishing nothing... I need to make a list and get through it one item at a time.

I’ve completely lost the ability to function in the evenings. I get home, have dinner and end up mindlessly hacking away at monsters in FF XII whilst smsing Jayson. I wish he lived closer to me. He’s just such a nice guy, and he’s my age... AND I told him that if he wants to be a bachelor for the rest of his life he must go away and leave me alone, because I’m tired of going out with men who have no interest in sticking around for the marriage part. To my complete surprise, he’s stuck around... Granted, it is easier to stick around because he’s a million miles away (ok, small exaggeration), but still... he stuck around. I’ll keep you updated as we go along.

Work is crazy, as always... but I’m still enjoying it, even though I’m struggling to get through the things that I need to on a day to day basis. Two of the girls in my office have resigned. One is going overseas and I’m not sure what the other one is going to do, but this means that life could get even busier for me. I don’t know yet though, and am not going to worry about it until it happens.

I have to have a bit of a moan about the traffic in the mornings though... It’s getting worse by the day! The other day it literally took me an hour and a half to get to work! From TOTI! For crying in a bucket... I’ve given up going via Spaghetti Junction and am now heading to Springfield park and coming up the back way. It just seemed to work out easier this morning and I managed to get to work on time.

That’s all I have time for right now I’m afraid.
I did find this article on BizCommunity... It made me giggle. It’s horribly wrong to giggle, but still... it is a funny typo.

x

F.R.I.D.A.Y... !!! :-)

Well, this long week is finally over. I wish I could show you what I’m working on, but it’s all behind subscriber logins, so I can’t. Today I had a complete brain fart moment and deleted an entire section’s worth of pages from our company website. Fortunately it was a new section that I had just created and was working on, but unfortunately I ended up losing most of the work that I had already done. There is no [CTRL]+Z when working with this kind of CMS. I could kick myself, and even my frantic call to Darren proved fruitless. He said that he could put back content on a page, but not an entire page... He did, however, manage to re-create my page structure... so at least that was one lot of work that I didn’t have to re-create. Still, I was a complete chop for deleting the pages. I just wasn’t thinking.

I have a new favourite quote... It’s from SPUD: Learning to Fly. I’ll hunt it down and post it.

Otherwise, this has just been one heck of a long week. My sinuses are causing headaches and making me feel miserable, but I’m plodding on.

Fluffy my friend, I miss you...