10 days straight...

I have been working - without a break - for 10 days straight.

*Phew*
*Yawn*
*Sigh*

Just thought I should tell you that, just incase this Blog entry gets a little lack luster... dont blame me, blame the need in todays society to try and make a little extra cash to get my ends meeting...makes me think of such a true little saying:

"There always seems to be more month left at the end of the money"

Dont think theres anyone out there who will disagree!

Well, you know the blog entry a few posts back about me eating the terrible thing called salad - "arghhh" so I could resemble the model in the picture by the 24th April? Well, that date has come and gone, and although I didnt get to looking like blondie in the pic, I was proud of my efforts. The reason for the crash-test-diet was that I had to work at a Bass Fishing Competition at a Dam for last Thursday till Monday this week. I had to wear an outfit for the prizegiving that I had to look "acceptable" in...hence the dieting.
I have put some pics below so you can see where I spent 5 days.....
Working......
And sleeping in a tent.....
That was invaded by small flying insects on Thursday night.....
And ants on Friday night.....
And wind on Saturday night......
And rain on Sunday night......

Enough said.

Then, I had to go to my normal job the very next day and Im here again today. (Oh, someone asked what I do...Im the Personal Assistant (PA) to the Sales and Marketing Director of Waltons Stationery - the biggest stationery company in SA.)

Ok, back to why I am sooo tired.

Well, at the dam we had to be up at 7am and got to bed after 12pm.

We had to carry fridges...yes....fridges.
And 40 bench and table sets
And about 80 crates of drinks
And too many bags of ice to count
And serve about 700 people

Im going to stop there as just writing about it is making my shoulders ache.

Heres the pics...

The Inanda Dam with the mountains in the background, taken from where my tent was set up.

There were 3 Zebras on the property that kinda wandered around the dam and the tents...very cool, even if you live in Africa!

Now for the good news of this Blog, this is only going to be a 2 day week - of which I am already on the second day.

Monday - Freedom day public holiday

Tuesday - Work day

Wednesday - Work day - (I am here in my week)

Thursday - Public holiday

Friday - Public holiday

I would not have been able to cope if I still had to work Thurs and Fri

****thank heavens****

Have to go do the monthly grocery shopping tomorrow-its like the nursery rhyme where Old Mother Hubbard when to the cupboard and the cupboard was bare..(and the fridge!)..

And clean the flat - its feeling very ignored since I have been away for so long.

But, this can all wait until I have slept till at LEAST 10am...mmmm...cant wait!.

Chell

What a morning...

I had to really try this morning to keep my peace and positivity. I was so tired that everything seemed to be getting to me...
I really wish that everyday was like yesterday!
I only got home close to midnight from the work function and eventually got all tucked into bed at about 12.20am...when I was trying to fall asleep I actually couldnt believe that I had to be up in 4hrs40mins - it seemed so unfair!
But, I did it (and am proud to say, still had my quiet time) and thought that I would just slug through the day.
When I got there at 7am, we were told that there was going to be load shedding at 8-10am! Then, the network ect only comes on at about 11.30am!
I was so upset because if we had known that we were going to be sitting in the dark for 2hrs, unable to do a single thing, then I would have asked me boss if I could get some extra sleep and come in when the electricity is back on.
Nevermind.
Well, its on now, obviously since I am writing this Blog, but still no network...

Let me tell you about last night, maybe that will make me feel a little better! :-)

The show was amazing and our customers really had a good time. I have put a pic of Barry - the lead guitarist and singer below...

He was really awesome! I must admit when he walked out in black leather pants and a glitterey shirt, I thought to myself "Oops, maybe we picked the wrong show" But he was amazing and kept us conpletely entertained from 8.30pm till after 11... and as for the food...mmmm...my diet went right out the back window when it came out!

Just realised that I didnt put up any pics or news from my weekend...

On Sat night we had a "Girls Night Out" with the ladies from our Young Adults home group. We went to a place called Moyo at the Ushaka Undersea World complex. I have never been in such awe of a place in my life before!

I kept wishing I was a tourist so that I could appreciate the "africaness" even more! They had Zulu dancers and guys that came around to your table and sang! It was truely amazing and such a treat!

This is Charlotte and I posing for the pic!

And these are all the ladies...they even come around and offer to paint a little flower on your face! So unique!

I recommend that you visit this place if you are planning a trip to South Africa and want to experience a REAL African restuarant!

Well, we have just been told that the network is back up, so this is me for now...

Chell

xxx

Bible Study

Last night I went to our home group Bible study and all I can say is awesome.
We truely do serve a God who loves us more than we can even begin to understand or comprehend.
I have a confession to make.
I have not been praying and have my quiet times with God as much as a Christian should. There never seems to be enough time or there is always something else that needs to be done.
At last nights home group we watched a DVD on prayer. I couldnt believe that something that had been filmed some 14 years ago in the States could speak directly into my life at this very moment.
It was truly amazing.
I realised last night that there is nothing more inportant than spending real quality time with your saviour.

The washing can wait
The dishes can wait
Dinner can wait
The programme that just came on and looks super interesting can wait

Last night God prompted me to share something very personal about my family and I and although it happened a couple of months ago, I felt he wanted me to tell the group, which I did ( I have learnt the hard way that when he speaks to you, just listen, dont argue!)
It turns out that there was a woman sitting next to me that is going through the EXACT same thing that I shared about and was feeling very down about it. After the group time ended, she hugged me for a long time and shared her story with me. We have known each other for a few years, but only in the last few weeks become friends and I truely feel that God only wanted us to get close now.
I am constantly in awe of the God we serve and his perfect timing!
So, this morning I was up at 5am to have my God time and I can promise you, it was worth more than the extra half hour sleep! Nothing got me down after that.
Not the fact that it was cold and I had to shower and wash my hair...
Not the fact that I forgot to put on my rings and earrings and I have a smart work function tonight...
Not the fact that I was at work at 7.15am this morning and my swipe card for some reason wouldnt let me in the building and I had to wait in the cold with arms full of stuff...
Not the fact that I got here at 7.15am, have to travel to Pinetown at 16.00pm for a function thats only going to end at 22.30pm, meaning I will only get home after 23.00pm...
Not the crazy people in the traffic this morning that cut us off and jumped the queue...
Not the lady at work that looks as though she is sucking on lemons everyday...

Nothing...
Nothing...
Nothing...

The peace that you get from spending just 15 mins with God in the morning is enough to help you through the whole day...
I dont understand why I havent been doing this in the past.

God gives you so much more than you give him...

Have a day filled to the brim with blessings and just take a moment to thank the Lord that you had a bed to get out of - even though you didnt want to!

Love Chell
xxx

The Art of the South African Braai...

As promised (Aubrey..) here is the step by step way to prepare a truely South African Braai! :)

1st. Find a braai area...this could be a smart built in one or just some bricks packed in a square with a grid on the top if you want to be really bush-like and rough it...

2nd. Put in some charcoal and if you want to be a smarty-pants, some firelighters aswell.

3rd. Build a fire under the grid - careful not to get burnt now see... note, before putting petrol or something similar on the coals to speed up the burning process, be fully prepared to leave with less eyebrows than you started with

..just a little tip...

4th. Spice meat as desired, I recommend the first bottle, the orange one...yum yum...

5th. Put meat on the grid..or between the grid if you are using one of those. Note: Only put meat on when fire has died down a little, you must be able to hold your hand over the top of the braai for at least 10 seconds before it starts to hurt. :) No matter how hungry you are, dont put meat on before this time unless you want to be eating burnt offerings on top of having no eyebrows...got eat some salad in the meantime.

6th.While waiting for the meat to cook we South Africans normally sit around and chat or if its a day time braai and you live in Durban where the suns always shining, you can have a swim!

7th. Enjoy!

If any non-South Africans do give this a try, please send me some pics and I will be sure to put them up on my Blog!

Happy Braai-ing!!

Stolen from "Help a need a user names" Blog :)

This is stolen from another Blog, who stole it from someone else's :-) I did change the page no though to make it a little bit original...Have fun...

You're not bored. Nope. It's just that you haven't thought of this to do yet:

1. Pick up the nearest book with at least 46 pages
2. Turn to page 46
3. Find the 6th sentence
4. Post the 6th sentence on your blog
5. Tag 6 people (I'm going to ignore this rule, haha!)

"So, we were delighted at Wildside to discover Bhejane Adventures, at R6500 per person (plus your fuel and drinks) for an 11-day safari on a trans Botswana trip, it makes this beautiful country an affordable possibilty."

That comes out of a travel magazine that I found in my cupboard from a client,"Wildside" And for my American readers, thats the same as $823.83 if you want to take the holiday :)

Just incase you were wondering, Im feeling alot better than yesterday :-)

Oh, I found 2 pic's from Botswana just incase you were also having a wonder what it looks like...arent I sweet?

And no, I havent been there...its called Google...what would the modern woman do without it?







I just had an idea...when I was overseas I got alot of crazy (well, I thought they were crazy) questions about living in Africa...do you have any?

Wacky Wednesday

I couldnt think of a better title for todays Blog as when we got to work Loadshedding hit us from 8am-10am so we sat around in the dark..yeah..note the sarcasm.
But, it gets better, Eskom ( South Africa's electricity provider ) has decided that they need to put the price of electricity up by a whopping 56%!! Can you imagine, I havent had electricity at home and at work for this whole week so far and now they are putting the price up? Im not normally a negative person, but this country is going downhill, and fast.
While our President is sitting on his ass in New York at some conference where he is going to repeat that "There is no problem in Zimbabwe" Now Im sure even my friends from other parts of the world have heard whats going on there.
I rest my case.

Ok, thats enough venting for today...must think positively, must think positively...

I missed Greys Anatomy last night because of loadshedding...ok, now thats my last vent... :)

I have been thinking alot lately about what I am doing with my life and where I am going. For those who dont know, my parents immigrated to New Zealand 3 years ago because of the sorry state of this country, and I decided to stay behind because Ryan was busy studying and I was going to wait for him. So, its been 3 years now and I havent studied because of reasons beyond my control. But lately I have been very down as I feel like everything is slipping away and the rest of the world is going on without me. Its an awful feeling.
So, I have decided to go to New Zealand next year to start my studies, even if Ryan cant come. Its such a hard decision to make and I still dont know whether or not its the right thing to do, but I do know that I cant live with feeling like I am losing grip on reality and the rest of the world.
I have always needed to have goals and achievements to keep moving forward, Im not the type of person who can just cruise through life, I need to know where I am going and I need to use the full potential that God gave me to fulfill my dreams/needs/goals. I cant explain it, but I feel like I am going to waste? It probably sounds crazy to others, but its driving me mad.
Plus, I havent spoken to my family in over a month and my mom is sick and my sister is starting High School and my other sister is in the process of getting a job as a flight attendant and my little brother is only 4 and growing up so fast. I feel so out of it and disconnected from my family. And we are a very close family, my mom is my best friend, so its so hard.

Ok, I was supposed to have stopped venting, but I needed to get that out.

Cant say I feel any better though, so I am going to go and find something work related to do to try and get my mind of all this.

Later...

Monday is the day...Promise!

From Monday I will be eating this...

And not this...

So I can look like this...

But this date...

24 April 2008

Wish me all the luck...

Friday again...

I cant believe that its Friday again! Phew, where did this week go?

I can probably answer that...I spent the first 3 days of this week in bed with the bad flu that I Blogged about last Friday. I can safely say that I have never had such bad flu before. To prove this to you, I will mention the following...

...I had to get an injection in my bum...

Point proven.

I am still not feeling too great, but I will live, Im sure you have all breathed a huge *sigh* of relief hey? :-) I mean c'mon, what would your day be like without reading my Blog? :-)

Now, for some up to date news...

Ryan decided last night that he was going to be the most amazingly wonderful person (as he always is) and when we got home and I expected him to go to gym and then go to study, he said to me that he was taking me to dinner at John Dory's Fish & Grill restuarant in the Pav. It was such a lovely surprise and it was so lovely to spend some time together, we really needed it...some special "us" time. Everyone needs it!

We were supposed to be going to a braai and jacuzzi tonight at our friends place, but its been moved to tomorrow, so now we need to find something else to do tonight...any ideas?

Ryan is taking his brother to a car show tomorrow...Im not too interested in cars, so Im glad he has a brother to do these type of things with! But even if he didnt, I would go with him, Im cool like that...

Loadshedding (see meaning of this undesirable word in previous Blog entry) reared its ugly head this morning. I woke up just before the alarm was supposed to go off thinking that its mighty quiet in here - (I thought this because normally the fan makes enough noise to con you into thinking its going to detach itself from the roof and land on your head while you slumber blissfully unaware)... and then I realised with a slow horror that there was no electricity. This means no coffee, no hot shower, no lights, no hairdryer...you get the picture. It did come on at 6.30, which left me with a half an hour to fit all the above in! Needless to say I got out of bed late, because at 5.30am nobody wants to fiddle around in the dark tripping over whatever I decided could stay strewn across the floor last night...when this includes the likes of shoes, clothing and prehaps even a hairbrush, it could make for a dangerous morning!

On the way to work this morning we only got taken out by a taxi, while the driver decided that he would much rather sms/text someone on his phone instead of drive! It was not a nice experience for so early in the morning. For my overseas friends reading this, see below for a cartoon version of the typical South African taxi and driver. No cute little "yellow cabs" like you see in the movies. SA taxi's create a whole new meaning...

Im at work now with so much work to do, so I had better get going and do some real work!

x

Being sick on a Friday...

I am sick and today is Friday (hence the title for this Blog)

Isnt that just totally awful? I mean, being sick is bad enough, but having the flu (and possibly tonsil trouble) over the weekend is just cruel! No being able to get off work with a doctors note, no being over the worst by the weekend so you can still enjoy it...nothing.
Sometimes I think I have the worst luck.
Really.

Its been a quiet day so far, which I am eternally grateful for. I think this is because my boss has been out and about for most of the day, and as his PA that means I can on with my normal office work, which has been sorely neglected this past week because I have been piled with other work.

As I said in my last post, I was supposed to be working tomorrow in Hillcrest, but had to cancel this morning because I dont even know why Im at work today, I feel so ill, let alone try and go to work on a Saturday.

I have a question that I hope someone from Med-Lemon is reading...when you need to take medication, you feel sick enough, so, my question is :

"Why make the medication that you have to drink taste worse than you feel???"

Arghhh, I had the pleasure of having to drink a hot Med Lemon, Mint flavour last night and I almost just decided to stay sick, thats how bad it tasted! What is wrong with the makers of these as well as cough mixture? I would like to see the creators of these sit and drink the concoctions....

In South Africa at the moment, and in particular, KZN, we are running out of electricity. Yes, my American friends that read this post, you did read correctly. We do not have enough electricity to support everyone. So, our ingenius electricity provider, Eskom, has come up with this idea...loadshedding.

Basically, this means that during certain times in the day and at night, they cut your power on purpose for between 2 and 3hrs. You can imagine the drama that this causes...the reason I mention it is because its starting to get colder now, and while in summer, I really didnt mind having a cold shower (because the power is off the geyser cant work) but, I cannot come to terms with having a cold one in winter!
**Arghhh**
I shudder at the thought...

Oh yes, I almost forgot to tell you...there was a guy that committed suicide on the Bluff where I live yesterday afternoon. He did it by the beach and so alot of people found out about it.
It made me so sad to think about it, that life can be so bad for someone that they think they have no way out?

How does that happen?

Who cares for those people who feel like they have nobody?

I know the answer to that, but its so sad that so many people dont. I wish I could stand on a rooftop somewhere and shout : "JESUS LOVES YOU!!" and just make everyone listen. But, Im only me and although I try my best, I cant reach everyone with the word of God. I try though and Im sure He sees that...
I really just would like to go home and curl up with a hot water bottle and sleep...but I still have 3hrs of work left, so I just have to stick it out I suppose.

Oh, some good news, I have my first order for making an entire scrapbook! I am doing it for a mother to give to her daughter as a 21st birthday present! Im super excited, but also nervous! I hope it comes out the way that she expects it to!

Well, I will go for now...probably chat again later to try and pass the time...
x

Thursday afternoons...

Dont you just love Thursday afternoons? They kinda laze by and when they are almost done - as mine just about it - you feel all warm and bubbly inside because when you wake up it will be Friday! Meaning the last day of work for the week....hold that thought....I am not able to feel all those fuzzy happy feelings about Friday as I have to travel up to Hillcrest this morning to do a Promotion to try and get some extra cash as its only the start of the month and lo and behold, I have none!

How does that happen do you ask?

Q : Do I spend too much on clothes?
A : Yes

Q : Do I just swipe the debit card without taking a moment to think about whether I really need that shirt/shorts/grocery item ect ect?
A : Yes

Ok, you kinda get the idea now...

I will NOT purchase ANY item of clothing for the ENTIRE month of April.
I will NOT go out to eat (unless my honey pie boyfriend offers to pay) :-)
I will NOT buy anything from the Avon and Honey brochures when they come around at work

Ok...thats about all the "I will nots" that I can deal with right now...

I have decided though to start a little entraupeneer..entrupe.....entrepeneur....oh gosh, never mind, I am going to start making money doing something else!! :-)

I am going to make scrapbooks for people, they will give me all their photos and I will do the whole thing for them at a price per page or something along those lines...Hope it goes well!

Well, I am off to go home now..have a good Thursday night!

Mwah!
Rochelle x

My weekend...

Well, I had a busy weekend compared to normally...

On Friday night Ryan took me to the movies and we saw Jumper - not really a very girly girl movie, but I agreed cos the lead actor, Hayden Christianson is too good looking! :-)

After that we went for a drink at Harlequins on the Bluff and then it was off to bed to be up early the next morning to go for a horse ride with my friend, Frann in Summerveld.

This is Audit Trail, or better known as Fat Boy that I rode - he is so gorgeous hey?

Well, after the amazing ride, we went for breakfast/lunch at Riders Rest...the most amazing little tea garden! Its just too divine for words and if you are ever in the area, check it out! I recommend the home made pie, gravy, chips and salad! Mmmm...I am going to take Ryan there sometime.

When I got home I had a little sleep and then watched the rugby - Super 14, Sharks vs Reds...obviously my Durban Sharks won! It was a good game. Then we were off to the friends 21st party...it was the most fun that I have had in a very long time! You can see us in the pic below...

We really had an awesome time and came dressed in the same colours! :-)

On Sunday I slept till the afternoon! hee hee, thats actually embarrasing, I shouldnt be putting it on the internet! I only got home at about 2am, and I did have a very busy day!

On Sunday afternoon we just lazed around and got take aways and a movie at night. Now, there is a story behind the takeaway - awhile ago we went to the KFC on the Bluff and received the most terrible service and wrong order, so I complained and on Friday night we got a call from the manageress saying that we could come and get a free meal! hee hee...

Tonight I was supposed to have gone to gym, but have been invited by our church home group to an all you can eat ribs evening! Mmmmm...cant wait! One thing that can definitely wait till tomorrow though is gym! :-)

Till later

Roch x