I seem to have the floor.

I keep checking and a lot of bloggers whose musings I follow seem to be in Winter hibernation at the moment while I have an urge to write. I guess this means I'm not a bear after all!

I have propped the curtain open so that I can glance to my left as I type and see clear across the tops of the trees in the valley below my house to the sea on the horizon. The weather is still overcast but not raining and it has cleared enough for the view to be visible. I very seldom go to the beach and have not swum in the ocean for a long time but I love being able to see it from my house. I live at the coast. Its great.

I had a very positive meeting with a consultant at a recruitment agency in Westville. I drove to Westville VERY slowly as I don't like the rattle coming from my front wheel. (Dael checked it and seems to think it is the cv joint again!). The consultant and I sat in their meeting room and had a very pleasant chat about all my work experience and skills. She seemed impressed with the 'top notch' companies I have worked for. She introduced me to her colleagues so they could fit my face to my name and cv. She is keeping me in mind for temp work and then I did my tests. These don't really phase me any more. I don't take them too seriously. For my Word test I got 88%, my Excel test where I ran out of time as I have to think and fiddle with Excel I got 70% and my typing test I got 99%. I've done typing from my school days and I was in the last grade bar one that was taught touch typing. We used typewriters in those day. Not so long ago so don't start counting my grey hairs.

And then I helped the environment...

Knowing I was coming down to Westville and would be opposite The Pavilion shopping centre in Westville I had loaded my glass bottles and food cans in my boot. I had two heavy black bags of bottles and one black bag filled with cans. The centre has a recycling depot run by a private contractor right in the bottom car park and I was thrilled to make a deposit with them. Fortunately my plastic and paper is picked up by Mondi whose truck comes along behind the Municipal refuse truck every week and picks up the orange bag of recycling which is left on the verge with the refuse. If only they would pick up the glass and metal too but I suppose doing good can't be too easy otherwise there wouldn't be any merit in it.

I was rewarded for my recycling. I went into the centre and Checkers Hyper was having their market day and I managed to pick up a few items on a one day special. I came back to Pinetown and then visited my mom. I didn't want to come home as I had to pick up Dael from work. He went to work today but didn't want to ride the bike with his leg still being very sore. He reckons its getting worse not better. I might need to get him through to a doctor for an xray or something but right now I'm just observing it. If it doesn't come right in a few days I'll make a decision what to do.

Signing off to go and make supper. Its pork sausages tonight since I let them defrost. :)

Eyes Wide Shut!

Dael didn't make it to work again today. He was dressed and almost ready to go when he walked into the kitchen. All of a sudden he was doubled over clutching his leg. He felt as if his knee had 'gone backwards'. He limped out of the kitchen, making for the couch. After an examination by Dr Mom and a massage with Deep Heat also by the resident doctor (mom), it was decided that Dael's personal assistant (mom) would phone Dael's work and explain to the first person answering the phone that Dael would not make it in today as he could hardly walk. His line of work requires him to be on his feet and walking up and down the workshop all day so the 'doctor' had decided that this would not be a good idea.

Anyway, a bit later on, in conversation with big sister Robynne on Facebook, she commented that Dael was always breaking this or twisting that and it was because he didn't eat his vegetables. She felt that he should go on a course of vitamins to replace whatever vitamins and minerals and other good stuff he is missing out on by not eating veggies. Well, I feel that this issue is not just as simply solved as that but there is probably some truth to her 'diagnosis'.

My mind then wandered on to how as humans we very seldom make all the right decision with regard to what we are eating or putting into our bodies (or not putting in) by whatever means. Whatever problem or issue is proven to be caused by whatever we are doing or not doing will always happen to someone else, not ourselves.

Robynne eats all her veggies but buys fast food and takeaways probably more than once a week. She also smokes and has since she was a teenager. Okay she wants to stop but the thought of all the poisons which are proven to be in cigarettes has not been sufficient incentive for her to stop smoking yet. Drugs, alcohol, pornography, cigarettes, fast food, whatever it is that we love to partake in, as humans we never consider that it will affect us personally...

Until It Does!

As a mom, I know what I would want for my children but as I am going through the teenage years with my third child, I am realistic about what I can expect to achieve by 'requesting' or demanding my kids eat their veggies or stop smoking. I wait for the right moment and drop a comment. But it is up to each of my children and to myself and to every human being to stop pointing a finger at another person for what they are doing and to be aware of the destructive nature of their own and individual unhealthy indulgences and to be realistic about what that indulgence is doing to harm their life. I doubt that if you look at a dangerous habit eyes wide open and fully aware of its ability to cause your death that you would continue to do it?

Or maybe I'm wrong...

Job hunting sux!

Oh my gosh. What a pile of cr*ppy jobs there are available in KZN. So low paid. Robynne says she doesn't know how anyone survives in this province. Well, I wouldn't be able to and I'm starting to think I won't find something here before my funds run out.

So I have been applying for positions in Gauteng in the Northern Suburbs side where Robynne lives. Her roommate is moving out so that wouldn't be a problem but I would still keep my house here in KZN.

This is rather stressful for me because I'm a big nester by nature and I've been roosting here for 6 years now. I don't like moving and neither will my kitties but its do or die at this stage.

Another thing is I won't have my own vehicle to start with when I go to Gauteng. But I have to do it. I can't afford to go under. I have such a lot of experience and skills to offer that its an insult to have to apply for jobs for about R7-8k (or less!) a month which is what is on offer locally here. And nothing directly on my doorstep. And they expect the earth for the miniscule money they are offering. Senior skills for junior money...

I am so ticked off. No wonder I'm getting a headache every day! I am so tired of sitting at home now. I feel like my brain is turning to mush. HELP!

PS A note to my friends. If you have any connections with personnel agencies, please drop me a line and I will get my CV through to you. I have always been employed via agencies and not through answering ads.

New Official Driver on the road!

Yes, Dael passed his driver's test yesterday afternoon. I am so proud - and so relieved!

He went for lessons on Wednesday and Thursday of last week and on Monday. Then yesterday, he was being picked up by Lisa of the driving school at 1pm for a double lesson before his test at 3pm. I thought it would be nice for him to come home and change and relax a bit before the afternoon's activities rather than going straight from work straight to his lesson and test. So he went on his bike and was going to ask to go off at 12pm to come home. He had originally wanted to take the whole day off so he could focus on the test but I persuaded him to go in to work as the test was in the afternoon.

Well, by 12.15pm when he wasn't home yet, I phoned him. After a long while he picked up and rather frustratedly told me that he had a job to finish and would be home as soon as he could. By quarter to one he still wasn't home and I phoned his work to be told that he had just left. I was worried as I knew that he would be rushing home now on his bike. A few minutes later I heard him screaming up the drive on his bike and I unlocked the back door. He stormed in, hot and extremely angry and threw his keys down on the counter, causing the cats to scatter. I immediately went into soothing mommy mode and sent him off to shower, preparing him a cup of coffee in the meantime. I made him some sandwiches but he couldn't eat. One good thing was that the driving school was a bit late so he had time to calm down a bit. He was very disappointed with his work though as his test has been booked since before he started working there. They knew the importance of the day but they still gave him work to do in the hot sun and also a last minute job that HAD to be done before he left. The one boss was even asking him if he was going to come back after he had finished. Fat chance!

He asked me if I was going to come to the testing ground and I was in two minds whether to go or not but I eventually decided to go over as Dael like my support. I was driving into the testing grounds as he was driving out with the examiner. He gave me a sideways glance as he drove out, looking very tense. I missed his parking but apparently that went quite smoothly and he hadn't had to repeat any of the manoeuvres. He returned and both he and the examiner got out the car. He followed the examiner into an office with a very serious expression on his face. He soon returned and a big smile broke across his face because the paper had a small cross in the block that said Passed! So well done my son. That's two out of three children that have passed both their learners and drivers tests first time!