Grrr - No more internet after today!

And just when I've got into the swing of blogging more frequently!

Yesterday, the manager at my previous employers, who I have been dealing with phoned me to say that he has resigned and would also be leaving the company and since he is under the impression that there is not much more to be done by me with the various leftover work issues which I have still been dealing with, he was going to advise the IT department to collect the computer and internet and phone.

Today, the IT department phones me to arrange to come through and collect said equipment!

So I will be kind of out of contact unless I make an effort to go through to an internet cafe and go online that way. So frustrating!

Also no way of being in contact with prospective employers other than by phone but nothing to be done. I will just have to grin and bear it.

If you don't hear from me too often you will know its not because I'm avoiding you but because I have been cut off from my internet lifeline.

Speak to you all soon.

Momcat xxxx

Sixth Sense fully operational.

This morning, Dael was still tired on waking and dawdled getting ready for work. As he was sitting on his motorbike, he checked his petrol which was very low and said to me that he didn't even feel like going to work. I eventually said "Come On Dael" and he galvanized himself into action. Soon after he left though I started feeling a sense of foreboding, that maybe I should have left him to make his own decision about going or staying. He wasn't on mxit for me to ask if everything was okay and that he had got to work fine. I restrained myself from phoning him during the morning while he was working but I had the feeling that I had to get in touch with him.

So at 1.15pm when I knew he would be at lunch, I phoned. He was walking back from the shop where he had gone to buy lunch but he said it was okay to talk. He was fine but by the way there had been a fire in the workshop that morning.

A vehicle that the team had been working on had caught fire while they were running it to test the engine. Something to do with petrol that had spilled or leaked in the boot and an electrical wire that caused a spark and whoosh a big flame had gone up. Apparently all the other workers had rushed out of the way, not knowing what to do. There are apparently fire extinguishers but they didn't know how to use them. Dael grabbed an extinguisher and began to use it to put out the fire, not missing a beat. Then the spraypainter grabbed another extinguisher and also joined in and they put out the flames, averting a disaster.

Dael says he breathed in some of the white powder from the extinguisher and this was causing a burning sensation in the back of his throat. I just hope there are no side effects from this. I was very proud of him for reacting to decisively and bravely. I said to him that now he knows that he will react well in an emergency. He showed leadership qualities. I hope his employers are grateful that a disaster was averted by Dael. I have watched so many programs on tv recently which show how fast a fire can spread, especially where there are a lot of flammable substances, literally within minutes or seconds.

Never disregard your sixth sense or any feeling that you have to contact someone and speak to them.

My two cents worth on......

Hoarding.... As in collecting items which other people might view as useless or junk but which you regard as useful and necessary and can't bear to part with.

I have been watching a tv programme on satellite tv which is on every day and find it absolutely amazing and surreal how people get trapped in this cycle of collecting material items and burying themselves in these items. Even the messiest and untidiest of us would feel a lot better about our homes and our lives after watching a few of these episodes.

However, each and every one of us has a couple of boxes of clutter and disorganisation which we don't need and can't get rid of. This is a common human condition which some people have taken to the extreme, almost associating inanimate objects with human status.

I am prepared to admit that I have a little bit of the hoarder which wars with the organiser in me that has no problem throwing things away. I will hold onto items in the hope that they will be used and eventually will get the heck in with keeping that particular item or a lot of items and chuck, chuck, chuck. I usually take advantage of the chucking mood and clean out a few different areas. I am sometimes sorry afterwards but once it is fait accompli there's no bringing an item back.

Okay so here are my collecting areas. I have a LARGE box of baby clothes including receiving blankets (which are like gold to me). These are being kept for my grandchildren. I will not give those away. Then there are Brad's last toys before he stopped playing with them. I cant just give them away because they are still good and there are still children in the family. My linen cupboard. I have a lot of little cloths and items which my mother has thrown out. I have been keeping these for a long time in case they become useful. Ditto my crockery cupboard. Ditto my clothes cupboard. I had quite a bit of paper stationery, book covers and the like, before my cat took the decision out of my hands and pee'd on everything, necessitating the big chuck out of that. Now by no means do I have anything like the problem you would see on the programme Hoarders but We All Do It. I think if we are honest with ourselves, we are afraid that once we thin out everything we don't use we will be afraid at how little of our many items we actually use regularly!

Just remember, material clutter makes our minds cluttered and the new years resolution of many of us is to thin out our collected clutter. And maybe our lives will be able to function in a more organised and calm manner too.

So be honest, what have you been collecting or holding on to for many years that is of no use to you and not used by you at all. You just feel that it is or could be useful in the future.

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. :)