We were away this weekend, for a little bonding time and a well deserved break. It seems recovering from a major illness is exhausting for the patient as well as his family.
We are very lucky that we we love our own company and don't need crowds of people for entertainment. I chose a little farm in the Magaliesburg, about 80km north west of Johannesburg. You don't get much more remote - the little house clung to the side of the mountain and the view was spectacular. We were very cosy in the house and had everything we needed. The owner was kind and concerned and her dogs visited, making the place untidy and homely and safe.
We just needed to get away from the usual obligations of the weekends, which entail riding lessons, visits to my parents and my beloveds work commitments. Yes, he works weekends, which can sometimes cut into our "together" time. The other bits of the weekend are consumed with sport on the television, so a place with poor reception was lovely!
We were lazy and we laughed alot. We also prepared sumptious meals, a holiday that was made to order for our family. We drove around the little village on Saturday - just to go out - and returned to read our books and wander in the veld!
It was good to do nothing and not be driven by a schedule, I wish we could do it more often, but that what makes it so special, because it doesn't happen that often.
We returned yesterday refreshed and ready for the week, my baby left on a school tour this morning and won't be back till Wednesday. Whatever will we talk about tonight...?
Monday, September 26, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
The fine line...
There is always a fine line between being the good guy and the bad guy. I seem to spend my life vacillating between the good and the ugly. At home with my beloved, I adore him, spoil him, coddle him and nag him to death because he thinks we have an army of tidy up fairies who clean house for us!
My daughter, the same, she is spoilt and cherished and we laugh and giggle and cook and have great fun together but she can't pack a kit bag to contain everything she needs for her activity!! I could do my mind and find myself chasing her round the house threatening to beat her within an inch of her life!
And then work, I want to be every body's buddy, I want to be a nice boss, but the fun is only on while they get their way. The moment I put my foot down and ask for a days work or a budget to be met I am .... the bad guy!
I have grown to live with this, and at the end of the day, I think it evens out. We all like to be liked but this is not the way of the world. We all need to play the "heavy" to get our chores done. We need to teach our kids this, that we can't all be the good guy all the time, making uneasy and difficult decisions is what our top entrepreneurs do to become successful. In fact it's a life skill, they should teach it at school.
It seems that the good and the bad will always be bedfellows, it's the balance that takes skill...
My daughter, the same, she is spoilt and cherished and we laugh and giggle and cook and have great fun together but she can't pack a kit bag to contain everything she needs for her activity!! I could do my mind and find myself chasing her round the house threatening to beat her within an inch of her life!
And then work, I want to be every body's buddy, I want to be a nice boss, but the fun is only on while they get their way. The moment I put my foot down and ask for a days work or a budget to be met I am .... the bad guy!
I have grown to live with this, and at the end of the day, I think it evens out. We all like to be liked but this is not the way of the world. We all need to play the "heavy" to get our chores done. We need to teach our kids this, that we can't all be the good guy all the time, making uneasy and difficult decisions is what our top entrepreneurs do to become successful. In fact it's a life skill, they should teach it at school.
It seems that the good and the bad will always be bedfellows, it's the balance that takes skill...
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
This is me...
This is new to me. I love words and have always loved to write. I am a classic lurker and have read the blogs of others for years. Now I have decided that after a health scare my beloved endured a few months ago I need an outlet.
I make no promises to have the most exciting blog, but it will be real... I don't have many children, I have a single child, she is the love of my life and my double, but more of that later. I am married to a wonderfully patient man who tries my patience endlessly, but whom I love with every fibre of my body.
I don't have an exotic career, I am a training material development manager. Fancy wording for a proof reader / problem solver for a team of gifted technical writers. Writers are fab people, if a little highly strung, so sometimes need nurturing and mothering and someone to run interference for them so that they can get on and do what they do best.
I don't live in an exciting place unless you count the suburbs of Johannesburg, racey. Africa is cool, and hot and violent and full of human kindness. I am a child of Africa and always will be. I am about to lose my sister to England, she will be immigrating at the end of next month, and we are sad and happy and nervous for her, all at the same time. I don't think I could think of doing that, my husband, certainly not, but we are all different.
I hope to share my daily thoughts, and work thinks out, so this will be a journey of sorts.
I now need to dash, as I still need to swing past stables (did I mention we own a horsemad 10 year old and a suitably mad horse?) make dinner, check homework and have some conversation with my beloved.
See you here soon.
I make no promises to have the most exciting blog, but it will be real... I don't have many children, I have a single child, she is the love of my life and my double, but more of that later. I am married to a wonderfully patient man who tries my patience endlessly, but whom I love with every fibre of my body.
I don't have an exotic career, I am a training material development manager. Fancy wording for a proof reader / problem solver for a team of gifted technical writers. Writers are fab people, if a little highly strung, so sometimes need nurturing and mothering and someone to run interference for them so that they can get on and do what they do best.
I don't live in an exciting place unless you count the suburbs of Johannesburg, racey. Africa is cool, and hot and violent and full of human kindness. I am a child of Africa and always will be. I am about to lose my sister to England, she will be immigrating at the end of next month, and we are sad and happy and nervous for her, all at the same time. I don't think I could think of doing that, my husband, certainly not, but we are all different.
I hope to share my daily thoughts, and work thinks out, so this will be a journey of sorts.
I now need to dash, as I still need to swing past stables (did I mention we own a horsemad 10 year old and a suitably mad horse?) make dinner, check homework and have some conversation with my beloved.
See you here soon.
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