La La Land

All is well in la la utero land. I had another scan today, and this time there was no mistaking it was definitely a boy! For some reason the last week before my next scan I start to worry that something is wrong, but then I get there, see that little heart beating like harley davidson and I'm fine for the next three weeks! We're going for another big 3 d scan on the 18th of April, and should be able to be doubley sure that there are no abnormalities etc. There's been nothing to suggest anything untoward, but they always make absolutely sure. I am looking forward to the big scan, as then there is sound that one can hear the heart beat etc. Oooh, exciting stuff!! I feel the need to go shopping for baby clothes!!

Woo hoo!!

I just got so excited this morning. I got an email from Crop in Style to say that my tote order already shipped with Fedex International on 23 March - which means 1 week down only 3 or so to go until it gets here!! My credit card reflected the amount today, and I'm just so happy I could do a little victory dance right now. By having ordered this from the States I have saved myself R600!! (at today's ROE that's about US $95, CA $117, EUR 74!!! - how nice am I to think of all my readers). How have I saved this much? Shops here, charge around R1500.00 (US$237.00 - highway robbery.) Although I've only ever seen them order the CIS XXL or EK Success Scutto etc, not the awesome CIS Navigator! Including shipping (to my DOOR), I only paid R912.00 which was at the time of purchase US $139.95. Retail therapy really does work! I am also seriously looking forward to the launch of Creative Memories on the 5th of April. I know that their style of scrapbooking is quite simplified in comparison to more mainstream scrapping, but what I'm really interested in is their equipment more than their style. From what I hear, it's really good quality. Plus I think adopting a more simplified scrapbooking style in order to teach people new to scrapping is a perfect way to get someone started - and end up buying supplies off you. I know that if I didn't have confidence in my creative ability having studied art and design for a year at university, that I personally would have been too scared to start scrapbooking because of the creative level out there. This way I get to share my hobby with people who've never scrapped before, and be able to make a little cash out of it as well. I'm hoping that during the 6 months that I'm on maternity leave - I'm going to have enough time to at least get started on a more creative career. Of course I'll be wildly successful and not have to return to the travel industry. :) Fingers crossed.

Loooong Weekend

We have another long weekend ahead of us, so no work tommorrow or Monday. BONUS! Unfortunately it also (for poor underprivileged 'no net at home' sad asses like me) means no blogging until Tuesday. So please all have fabulous weekends yourselves and come and say hello again on Tuesday. If I can't handle the boredom of the length of this weekend I might make a trip to the hubby's office to blog and blog walk a bit. Ciao for now!

Never mind the bravery of the cat - how well trained are those dogs!!!!!!! This reminds me of how well Roxy and Navarre are doing. They are playing well together now, he is so cute with her, he can fit her whole head in his mouth and yet he doesn't touch her at all when he 'pretend' bites her. He just ends up covering her in slobber, which she totally loves. Then she'll get up and yap at him like she's yelling "come on big boy is that the best you can do" and then she'll take a flying leap at his face and try and 'bite' him back. It's so heart warming. Roxy has already (at only 8 weeks old!) learned how to 'sit' and 'stay' and 'leave'. Whenever she wants something she now makes a point of sitting down to ask for it. "hey let me on the bed, look I'm sitting down to ask!". 

Splurge, Spend, Debt WHO CARES???!!!

I finally did it. I surfed to my favorite scrapwebsite, hauled out my credit card and bought the tote of my dreams. Including shipping it came to less than 75% of the price had I bought it at a local store. Plus I got to pick the colour that I wanted, and not some horrific pink that some dumb buyer decided would be popular for the South African market. Just because we're chicks, and we scrap, don't assume that we like pink. Because we might...but don't assume. So now I sit back in with bated breath and in much anticpation for my beloved scrapbooking tote to be lovingly packaged by some kind American person, and put on a plane to cross the Atlantic and hopefully not get pillaged by some corrupt postal worker. 4-6 weeks for delivery. I wonder if I can wait that long!!!!!! I'll keep you all posted and definitely take a picture of it when it gets here, I think the most fun I'm going to have is to fill it with all my scrapping supplies. Sigh....talk about retail therapy...

If ever there was a reason to live in the US or Canada, then this must be it. When you can order stuff on line, i.e. like all the stuff pictured here, for only $150, then for crying in a bucket it's totally worth going through the emigration process!!

Ok so you're probably all dying to hear how this weekend was...well in a nutshell, it was FABULOUS. I loved the goodie bags, which were awesome, and the American trainers were nothing short of absolutely bloody FANTASTIC! I enjoyed all of them, but mostly Rhonda Solomon - she was so sweet, and humorous I didn't stop laughing or at least smiling for the 2 hours that her class lasted.

Michele and I had a fab time ordering room service. The only meals we didn't eat in the room was lunch, but breakfast and dinner we had in our jammies in the room. The classes kept us so busy, and got us so exhausted, that we didn't even have time to crop in the evenings - it was more like 'stagger' back to the room with all the new products we'd just been given and only have enough strength to dial 5 to order cheeseburgers for dinner!

What an amazing thing to meet a blogger you've never seen. As I drove up to the gas station (ok petrol station, let's be South African here)where we'd arranged to meet, I knew immediately who she was. How interesting to actually 'talk' to that person, actually in person, and have a conversation like you've known each other for years. There we were chatting about other bloggers and referring to them by their blog names, i.e. "hey do you know Coffeesoup Michele?" or in Wind Spirit's cas "do you read Joe Cools' blog?" Be sure to read MIchele from www.windspirit.co.za's latest post because it's a scoop of note!!!

Anyway, let me get back to the mountains of quotes that I have waiting for me....speak to you tommorrow!! 

SDU here we come!

I am so psyched for tonight and the rest of the weekend!!!! I am meeting up with Michele aroun 16h30 - it's going to be hilarious since we've not met before. E.g. "um, hi, are you MIchele?" hee hee. Anyway back to this fabulous picture above. Can you believe that this woman who has this fabulous scrap room, her husband did a refurb for her and surprised her with this fabulous makeover!!! WOW! I should email this to my hubby and see what happens (!) Back to tonight...since I'm going to be in a hotel from tonight, I'm not sure how easy it will be to access the internet, although I am sure that they have some sort of business centre, so I'll try and blog from there. Maybe I can persuade the goddess to do a blogswopping post? I.e. I'll hijack her blog and she can hijack mine for a post tonight...Let's see what happens!!!

It never ceases to amaze me how many puppy toys there are on the market! Roxy and Navarre have their fair share, and it's SO cute to see their personal preferences. I haven't managed to get them to play together yet, but there is definitely a warming up of the cold war. Roxy does her best to look super cute and wagging tail and desperate to get his attention, and I don't think that he has quite figured out that she is also a dog yet, because she's too small. I also think that his heart is still sore from missing Digby, as he was there from the moment Navarre came home as a puppy. But I definitely sense a cheering up on his part, and I'm sure it won't belong before him and Roxy are enjoying the beach together and playing catch. 

New Beginnings

New Beginnings So much can change in a weekend. Our lives have been utterly changed in the last few days.

• I don't dare give a heartfelt account of what's going on without breaking down into gut wrenching sobs.
• Digby (my little white doggy) came down with a light case of tick bite fever (billiary) on Wednesday.
• He was taken to the vet and treated immediately and showed remarkable recovery Wednesday and Thursday.
• Thursday night he didn't look 100%, he was bit lethargic which is quite normal for billiary recovery.
• Friday morning he was really bad so we took him back to the vet again where they put him on a drip, and kept him for observation.
• I am so thankful that I made such a huge fuss of him that day before I left for work (and hubby took him to the vet) because it would be the last time that I ever saw him.
• He suffered a seizure and slipped into a coma, and died a few hours later.
• He turned 3 years old last December, still a baby. Our baby. Our little watchdog, that kept his 70kg brother Navarre in check!
• After spending much of Friday and Saturday crying at home, the hubby and I had to look past our own grief to see to Navarre, who was already showing signs of pining for Digby. Not wanting to lose him to a broken heart, we quickly made the decision to get him a friend asap.
• He had the whole of Friday, Saturday and Sunday to grieve and Sunday night we came home with Roxy. A beautiful female labrador pup only 7 weeks old. As soon as she saw him she fell in love and rushed over and the two of them 'licked lips'.
• He's still very sensitive and will growl at her if she does something he doesn't like, but I'm sure that he will heal in time and the two of them will become fantastic buddies.
• As for the hubby and I, we're still pretty raw about losing Diggles. The Digmeister, Mr Digglesworth, Mr Plod. NOTHING will ever replace the gaping hole he has left in our hearts. I only hope that the pain will give way to fond memory. I have to stop posting now, too close to tears.

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Guess what y'all - IT"S FRIDAY!!!!

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. Guess what y'all - IT"S FRIDAY!!!! We actually made it to the end of the week. I can barely keep my eyes open, but hell I'm here. Next week this time, myself and the goddess over at Windspirit will be enjoying some well earned scrapping time at our scrapbooking weekend out in Somerset West. Egads! I never quite realised just how excited I am that it is all happening so soon!! I must organise my scrapabilia into some sort of order before going. We are going from Thursday night for the crop sessions, make n takes and basically to stand around talking to other scrapcrazy women about nothing but scrapping. We stay over on Thursday night (when Michele has promised to entertain me with her snoring repetoire). Friday we have scrap classes all day. Friday night is more entertainment, and then Saturday is more scrapclasses. We adjourn on Saturday night, when I drag myself the 100km home to make it to a barbeque in Simons Town with hubby, with hopefully loads of completed scrapped pages and lots of new goodies in tow. Aaaah, I really feel like I can put my feet up this weekend and start to look forward to next weekend... have a great one people and I'll see you all Monday!

I am sunny and happy again. I still think that my industry sucks as do certain people. But I won't let it get me down!

The bizarre thing that happened is approximately 2 hours after my rant on my blog, I get a call from someone. THis person represents a company that recruits people to work from home selling scrapbooking products. They are having a launch in April, to which I've been invited, and to which I in turn invited LIfe love and Everything Else, as well as the goddess over at Wind Spirit. At the very least I am going to check it out. The idea excites me, even if I only start out by getting my own supplies at cost, and selling to a few family and friends. It will be a nice way to earn some extra cash whilst on maternity leave. If it takes off then I won't have to go back into travel. I will keep y'all posted and let you know how it goes!! 

I'm Done

• I'm done with dealing with other peoples s*h*i*t
• I'm done fixing other people's c*r*a*p.
• I'm sick and tired of grown men who act like 3 year olds. (not my hubby, but a client)
• I'm done with clients who think that and airline's seat design which doesn't suit them is the travel agents' fault.
• I'm done with assholes who think the world owes them a living.
• I'm done with people who treat you like s*h*i*t, then when they realise that they owe their flash new job overseas to your husband, then suddenly the do an about face and start sucking up.
• I'm sick to death of consulates who delay visa applications on purpose.
• I hate the fact that the Dutch consulate won't reinstate my dad's dutch citizenship (now that they've changed their laws to allow it - and meaning that I can't get my dutch passport).
• I wish that I'd stayed in bed today instead of coming to work.
• I wish I was on maternity leave already.
• I wish that I could find a fabulously stimulating and well paying job that allows me to work from home when I'm finished my maternity leave.

Anybody out there listening????? Can someone please re align my planets!!???? Please!!???

This is the beach a few miles from my house. Behind where this picture was taken are a few square kilometres of wetland with reeds etc (y'know real Moses country...reeds, bullrushes etc). Anyway, my house borders onto this wetland area, and is absolutely teeming with the most amazing birdlife. Last night, or I should say yesterday evening we sat on our porch (him with a glass of wine, me with my lime and soda) and watched something of a spectacle. We'd had some very light rain earlier that day, and since it's been so dry for the last few weeks, it was just enough moisture to activate thousands of mosquitoes.

We didn't get bitten once...why? Because thousands upon thousands of birds where flocking and swooping and turning and swirling catching every possible bug they could see. It was AMAZING, we could literally see the mosquitoes take off zud around for a few seconds before one of these awesome birds would zoom in and nail it. Given that it was a spectacular sunset as well as a backdrop made it even more of a spectacle. I hope it happens again tonight! 

Looking at this picture today, is giving me strength. I am so tired it's just ridiculous. The bizarre thing is that it is not a pregnancy related tiredness. I am just really having trouble sleeping in the same bed as the hubby at the moment. Perhaps it's because I'm sleeping lighter at the moment (and only able to get comfy in certain positions), that every small movement or sound he makes gets me wide awake. I am going to bed around 9pm every night, falling asleep, waking up around 12 midnight, and only falling asleep around 4am again. I know that towards the end of pregnancy is supposed to be a problem with sleeping (to get you used to after the kid has arrived) but for crying in a bucket, I am only 15 weeks!!! 

I know that this is probably in extremely poor taste, and well, even an English prince (insert Scottish/Welsh/Northen Ireland nationalist oppressor), is entitled to some happiness...but you have to admit that there is some serious humour here!! 

Baby all well

I went for my third scan today. The babykins is growing fast, and good. Thankfully everything looks perfect, and there are no worries of any kind. I have also only gained 1kg which my doc said was excellent given that I am already almost at 15 weeks. (I didn't mention to her that I was very surprised, considering that I have eaten nothing but fast food junk for lunch for the last 3 weeks). I found out something really interesting about my doc today as well! She is actually a Canadian citizen! She was born there, her family is originally from SA, and she went back after graduating, and was a practicing GP out in Saskatchewan (a favorite destination for South African doctors) for 8 whole years. When she'd finished specialising as an obeegeewhyenn (sound out the phonics folks) she came back here. She seems so young to have a) studied so much, and b) have spent so much time abroad. She said that although she really misses the mountains and the snow, and all the good nature stuff about Canada, she missed the 'vibe' of Cape Town, and came back. But she said she'd always consider Canada her second home. I thought that was cool, as I miss the same stuff about Canada (although I was never privileged enough to have spent 8 yrs there). I will attempt to scan my latest scan, which when the doc handed me the picture she said, 'here's your picture of E.T.' Thankfully I have a sense of humour. I will post it as soon as I can. I keep wanting to end my posts with a salutation like, kind regards, or worse, your's sincerely ...but it's not email...I have to remind myself that.

Bad Day

Hi everyone, I've had a really crappy day. Let's just say, that sometimes it really sucks to be South African...why? Because you need visas for every friggin country you visit (ok not the UK), why? Because when you're a travel agent and your client is leaving from a city on the other side of the country on Friday, the Austrian embassy decide to hold back your clients visa, for no apparent reason (other than to make you sweat), until the day before he is supposed to leave, leaving you with less than 12 hours to courier it to the other side of the country and hope it get's there in tact. I am really, really, really, really pissed off right now. But the hubby is back from his 3 day business trip today, I'm sure he'll be able to help me destress, we can at least do the hokey pokey (rumpy pumpy version) when I get home this afternoon.....aaaahhhh.

What kind of Scrapbook Paper are you...?

You are CHATTERBOX paper!You enjoy being a social butterfly and tend sometimes to think of scrapbooking more as a social event! When at a crop you might find yourself talking more than scrapping! But that's okay, when you do do a page it is bright and sunny just like your personality! Which Scrapbooking Paper Collection Are You? brought to you by

Great Start

This morning as I drove over the mountain, as I do everyday on my way to work, it was particularly spectacular. So spectacular that I'd love to show you a picure, but fuggin 'hello' isn't working AGAIN. The reason it was so spectacular, is because just as I reached the top, and got the gorgeous view over the other side, the clouds were brushing the top of the mountain where I was, and then plunging down the side that I was driving down. What made it even more exciting, is that the recent mountain fire has left the mountainside extremely bare, with no vegetation, only rocks and sand. With the early morning light glowing red through this cloud created mist, it was exactly like being in a sandstorm on Mars...or at least what being in a sand storm on Mars should feel like. Oh hell it was exactly like Total Recall once they've activated the alien core and the planet is busy creating itself an atmostphere.