So I’ve been thinking.

You may have noticed that the posts are slowly fading out over here. After starting my new job things have been a bit hectic. This here enforced sabbatical has been much needed and it pushed what’s been on the back of my mind to the fore: What do I really want from my blog?

via

When I started it was just a practice run, and I’ve really enjoyed it, but I need to start focusing this thing a bit more and I’m FINALLYgetting a clearer picture of what it is that I want. I’m going to the bushveld (oooh!) for a week – I leave in a few days – and while I’m there I’m planning on straightening myself out on the blogging front. This will be done without any internet access or phone signal. I might call it:

“The Irony of Silence“

Nice ring to it, eh? I’ll keep you posted on the results.  (Haha – posted, get it? … Indulge my inner-dork.)

What I’ve been doing while neglecting you:

– Cooking dinner for friends.

– The Knead breakfast special: Between 7-8am every morning you can grab brekkie for R15 at Knead (Wembley Square). The brioche french toast is worth the early morning!

– Saturday afternoon shopping trips. I went with a friend I’d never gone shopping with before and it was a good giggle.

– Celebrating my sister’s 21st with a Mexican feast!

– Celebrating the end of my friends’ exams. At a dodgy bar. And then again over a not-so-dodgy dinner. (They’re med-students so it’s a big deal, double celebrations were in order.)

– Learning Spanish.

– Taco night!

– Getting to know my new colleagues over some beverages…

– Getting used to doing my own laundry again for the first time in nearly 2 years. Who, me? Spoilt?

– Not going to gym enough! Blogging wasn’t the only thing that suffered…

And generally settling into new routines and work-vibes. (It’s going really well!)

To wrap up: IT’S CHOCOLATE SEASON. Get involved.

Sometimes even your best defences don’t work.

I wrote those wise words on a post-it (or apparently we’re supposed to call them sticky notes now?) a while ago. It was an epiphany born in a moment of brilliance and meant for a blog article.

That’s it.  I can’t remember what the post was supposed to be about, but take those words to heart kids.

They were important enough for me to save the post-it for more than two months.

The Speaker of Truth and Wisdom has spoken.

Things I love (and the Awkward!)

This wrapping paper

– My new job!

– My new house! (It’s a temporary abode only, but still.)

– The Monday half-price pizza special at Rafikis (which is now conveniently located pretty much on my doorstep). Best. Deal. EVER.

– Wembley Virgin Active – the consultants are like, best friends y’all. Jokes. But seriously; Candace, Cassie and Ayanda make those 20mins on the stepper that much easier!

– Making the most of the last days of summer! Went to the last Kirstenbosch Summer Concert (aKing – they rocked the socks off me) and had a dinner-in-the garden at the house my Rockstar friend is housesitting. It’s bee-yoo-tiful… Sigh.

– Looking forward to a holiday! Only 16 more days!  Details will be disclosed in due course. Ahem.

– Learning Spanish. I never have time to practice so I pretty much suck, but it’s still fun.

– Getting the table with the swings at Bombay Bicycle.

– Being able to pop home for a cup of tea after work before going out for the evening. No more N1 traffic for me folks.

– Sunday morning breakfast and a walk on the promenade with my sister.

– Having ordered my perfume! I became addicted to Abercrombie‘s no. 8 during my stint in New York and so, for the past few years, I’ve been badgering anyone who goes there to get me another bottle. I should get it in June… Call it premature excitement.

Awkward moment of the week

Forgetting to pack my make-up bag to gym this morning, meaning having to walk around without mascara the entire day. My eye lashes are blonde and when I don’t wear mascara a a) look like I’ve been crying and b) you struggle to find my eyes on my face, they look so tiny and pale.  This, of course, would be the moment for:

Colleague: Come on, we need you to come and do a cameo in a company video!

Me: … … Fuck Murphy and his law…

Playing catch-up

I don’t really want to blog about the new job/living situations just quite yet (feels like I still need to wrap my head around it), but the one thing I have realised is that starting work an hour earlier is really cutting back on my morning web time. I used to start my day with a good 20-30 minutes with a cup of green tea, some of the morning’s news updates, a few inspirational blog posts and a daily horoscope or two. (Yes, the latter is my secret indulgence and mercury retrograde was totally to blame for my PC crash last week. Completely.)

I’ve decided to do a mini catch-up session tonight – the benefits of doing it after 10am is that I get to have a cookie with my tea. A ginger one. Found these share-ables along the way:

Cute hey? Found here.

Who loves Pesto Princess?! The story behind the pesto fairy.

This is hysterical! Someone sent it around the office today and I was the crazy giggling girl in the corner. Received a few odd stares, oh well!

PS. The good news is that they’ve asked me to temporarily manage the company blog as I used to run my previous company’s US and South African blogs. So at least I’m still doing something blog-related on a daily basis. This makes me happy.

Sleepy Sunday

If you’ve been following my tweets you’ll know I started a new job on Friday. It’s been intense – new job, new house (temporarily, only staying here for 3 or 4 months). Amidst everything else sleep has been lacking, and even on the evenings I have time to get in those 8 hours I’m too excited and worked up to do anything other than toss around! Green tea helps. (As do warm baths.)

Found via.

Anyway, the first day was both nerve-wrecking and exciting, as new jobs are; and of course most of last week was spent contemplating endings and beginnings. Interestin’ stuff, that. I have no epiphany’s worth sharing yet, other than the fact that we all seem to have patterns we insist on repeating. I suppose the idea is that every time you get a do-over you also have a chance to improve on how you did it the last time. Inevitably this leads to “growth”.

Can you tell that I’m sleep deprived on a Sunday evening and not being very articulate? Let’s call it a night and hopefully I’ll have something more fun to share tomorrow…

Much sleepy love all, here’s hoping it’s only the brightest-of-blue Mondays!