The funny side of politics

Our intranet page scrolls the latest news headlines in the sidebar.
Two of today's headlines (in this order) were...

"OBAMA BEGINS FIRST DAY AS US PRESIDENT"

"KENNEDY RECOVERING AFTER SEIZURE"

Am I the only one who finds this incredibly funny?


On the same topic, actually, though on a slightly less humorous note, I overheard a conversation between two colleagues this morning that sum it all up perfectly:

Pleb 1 (voice dripping with sarcasm): "So did anyone watch the 'coronation' on TV yesterday?"
Pleb 2: "Ah c'mon, dude, give Obama a bit of a break, willya? Even I, the hardened cynic, want to believe in this guy. The world needs a bit of hope, man."

'Nuff said, I reckon.

ask a stupid question...

I went for a short walk in my lunch hour today, and was stopped in the street by a couple of people from a local radio station. They were asking people if they thought it was possible for women to balance a career and family.
Oh the pressure! I was like a deer caught in headlights. Say something intelligent, woman!!!
I'm sure they picked me because I looked like a professional woman, (not THAT sort of profession!) attired as I was in my black wool coat and matching hat - the only other people on the street were men and a shabby-looking bag-lady so I guess I was the obvious choice given the question. I managed to come up with something that sounded reasonably intelligent, and then the guy stuck a microphone under my nose and asked if I would mind repeating what I had just said.
How the hell should I remember what I had just said???! The trouble is I don't really have an opinion on the subject so it was really hard to try and recreate the bullshit I had just finished burbling. Urgh, I felt like I was brain-dead.

In hindsight, what I should have said was this:
Of course it's possible - millions of women the world over do it every day. We kind of have to, if we want to have a house, and food on the table. But it's not ideal, at least for most. I think it's a case of priorities. Some women are committed to serious careers - and in that case I would guess that their family life would suffer, at some point, especially if they work long hours on a regular basis. Sure you can hire a nanny or whatever but you would end up spending time at work that otherwise would be spent with your family.
On the other side there are women who work only because they have to, and all their energy is focussed on their family. Those women are unlikely to be high-powered corporate types because given the choice they would sacrifice work to be with their family instead.

But anyway, I think it's a tired and irrelevant question.
Perhaps a better one would have been something along the lines of, "How difficult is it for a woman to have both a career and a family, and still maintain her sanity and identity?"
I'm sure they'd end up with much more interesting answers.

I don't know if they did but it sounds like something 'They' would say

They say a bit of hard work never killed anyone.
While I'm sure some of the poor souls buried in the Great Wall of China might disagree, I suppose it's hard to argue when one is encased in that much concrete.
The point is, though, that it hasn't killed me yet - too much hard work, that is, not the Great Wall of China. I haven't been to see it yet, come to think of it I must remember to put that on my List of Things to Do before I Die... which hopefully won't be from too much hard work.

What my recent bout of long working hours has done, apart from score me a bunch of overtime pay*, is kill my creativity - or at least force it into hibernation. So in the absence of creative writing, I would like to share my opinion on the current state of the world.

(I hope the world is ready for this!)

Here's the thing: I would like to send everyone a copy of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. And I don't mean the book written by Douglas Adams, brilliant though it was. No, I'm talking about the actual guide - the one that has the words "DON'T PANIC" on the front in big flashing letters.
Because here are the facts as I see them:
Yes, share prices are down... now I know that this was all started off by some people making bad decisions and losing actual money but let's face it, the more people panic, the worse the situation is going to get. Surely people realise that some point things have to stablilise? We need the banks, and the banks need each other, and the banks need us, so the sooner everyone just stops panicking the sooner the sky will stop falling on our heads and yes, children, things will begin to climb back up again. It's the nature of the beast. We (meaning the population of the world) need to remember that the stock markets are NOT a living organism with a mind of it's own. The source of it all is people. So if the people stop to take a breath and look beyond their noses, things will start to get better again.

I overheard someone say that they have lost a bunch of money in shares. Bullshit. I know for a fact that this person has owned these shares for a few years now. These particular shares are now worth around about what they were bought for all those years ago. So unless the share prices continue to drop and this person then decides to sell them (which would be really dumb, in my opinion), they have lost nothing. They still have the shares. The market will stabilise. The share price will climb again and then they will be back to having made some money.

See how simple it is?

So let us all do us all a favour:

DON'T PANIC!!!

Spread the word. The sooner the better.


~T

* What, you think I do it for the love of the job??!

then and now

I couldn't decide what to wear last night, but in the end it didn't really matter. The evening wasn't about me, or us - it was about our kids.
Last night our little girl graduated from high school.

Not so much a little girl anymore, eh?! The trouble is, she's quite short (sorry, Sweetie, but you are!) so she still feels like a little girl when she's mooching around the house. But last night she was all dressed up and made up and suddenly she and her friends all looked like adults.

It was weird how many memories the ceremony brought back. The youngsters were so boisterous, full of heckling and clapping and wolf-whistles, and generally being rowdy 18-year-olds.
You remember being there, don't you? I know I do; like it was yesterday.

There were some lovely moments: one of the girls read a poem she wrote about this time in their lives - talented young lady, I have to say. There was a 'ceremony of light' where some lovely things were said.
And then there was the headmaster's address... the man had lots to say, I gotta tellya. Some of it was pretty insightful but I couldn't help wondering if he couldn't have said some of it during the 6 years the kids were in his school, instead of saving it until then. The audience got awfully fidgety towards the end; the kids had their certificates and they wanted to go party!

And, of course, there was the "I know you don't think so now but one day you'll back on your school days and wish you were back there, because they are the best time of your life" speech.
We all heard it.
Some of us believed it.
I didn't.
If attendance at my Valedictory Service hadn't been mandatory, I wouldn't even have gone, and when it was finished I walked out with a huge grin on my face because I was done with school.
I said then that I would never miss school, that I would never wish I was back there.
It turns out I was right.
So kids, don't believe everything your headmaster says.

Now my days at College, well that's a different story entirely...!

all work and no play...

Life is all about priorities, don't you think? Well, that's not all that it's about, obviously, but it sort of is because it's the thing that sorts out all the other stuff that life is about.
It's also about balance. We all need balance in our lives. Balance between work and play; between making money and spending it; between looking after others and looking after ourselves.

For a very long time I have felt that my life lacked balance. I never seemed to have enough time or energy left over for myself after doing all the stuff that I felt I should be doing. It may be that I have a rather over-developed sense of duty.

Lately, though, something seems to have twigged in my brain. I've always said that I can't do everything - and it's true. But whereas before I saw it as a personal shortcoming, I have now finally learned to accept that this is true not just of me, but of everyone, which means I am no longer trying so hard to do everything.
Talk about an epiphany!
I don't even want to think about how much energy I have wasted on stressing about not getting everything done.

This is not to say I've thrown my hands up in defeat. Not at all. I have been working seriously long, hard hours the last few weeks (months? dunno - not counting).
But to balance that out, I have also done some serious amounts of NOTHING, and it's been so good for me.
It does, unfortunately, have the side-effect of making me a tad boring. When one does nothing, there is very little to tell people.

"So what have you been up to lately, Terri?"
"Er, nothing much. You know, working, eating, sleeping..."

Not a great conversation-maker.

Well boo hoo. After working as hard as I have been, I deserve to take a nap on a Saturday afternoon. And a Sunday afternoon. And on Saturday and Sunday mornings, if I feel that way inclined.
Knowing that I deserve this rest, that it gives balance to my life, makes it a lot easier to enjoy the time spent doing nothing without stressing about what I should be doing instead.

The best part is, it turns out the rest of the family are perfectly capable of housework, and of feeding themselves and each other and, most importantly, me :-)
All it took was for me to tell them, "Hey guys, I'm working my ass off and I'm exhausted - I need a little help here."
And I got it.
Fancy that.

So I'm still working hard, but I'm resting hard too.
And in working hard, I'm earning a fair bit of extra money in Overtime. To balance that out, I booked a week away on a Greek island for Hubby and I next month. I made it, I can spend it. See how simple it is?

All that's left now is to figure out where to prioritise some regular blog-time and I'll be set!
I miss you guys.

far, far away

Come August this year we will have been living in Ireland six years. That's an awfully long time to be away from home, no matter what your nationality. The thing is, there is a whole nation of people like Hubby and I - hundreds of thousands of South Africans scattered around the world. Ireland, the UK, US, mainland Europe, Oz and New Zealand, Canada... it doesn't matter where you go in the world - chances are there are south African expats living there now.

Any takers on finding an idyllic island somewhere and starting a New-New South Africa?
I'd suggest we take over Ireland but it's far too cold and wet here. We Saffas don't know what to do with so much rain.

There's only one flaw in my suggestion above. Wherever it is, it wouldn't be home.
So, the simple answer to that is: Go Home. The media reckons SA wants us back. They need the skills, apparently. So why not just go home?

Well, a couple of reasons, really, the first of which is that home is not what it was when we left. Things have changed so much, we don't know what to expect.
The second seems to contradict the first: The reasons we left in the first place are still valid.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Or so we think. You see, the truth is that after 6 years away, I no longer know what it's like to live in South Africa. My beliefs are based on memories of hot summer days, sunny skies and weekends spent with good friends and of a sense of belonging. On the other hand I also remember being constantly aware of keeping doors locked, windows shut and my wits about me and even carrying a pistol for self-defence just in case... and then of course there were the financial strains...
Added to my own memories are what I read in the newspapers. If I went solely on what they say I would ship all my family and friends out of there faster than you can say "How much is a 'plane ticket from Jo'burg to Dublin?".
But surely if things were that bad, the rest of the people would have left already?
The problem is I just don't know anymore what life as a South African living in South Africa is like.

So here's a question for all you South Africans still living there:

What's it like to live there now?
I am so homesick these days I'd happily drop everything here and go back tomorrow (apart from a couple of technical details we won't go into right now).
If I did that, what would I be going home to?

Long comments are appreciated. And tell your friends - the more opinions, the better.

~T

music, movies and kisses

I feel like I owe you a decent post after yesterday's pathetic attempt. So today I'm going to talk about... I dunno, just stuff, I guess.

We rented a couple of DVD's on saturday night for the first time since we moved into the new house. Mostly 'cos we have the full Sky TV package so we've sort of made do with what's been on. But that's beside the point.
The second one we watched was 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley'. It looked like a good movie but I must admit I gave up after half an hour and went to bed. It was a little too aggressive and raw for my mood. Hubby seemed to enjoy it, though. Am I turning into a wuss?
Tough sh*t if I am; I just wanted to hold onto the mood that the first movie put me into. 'Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest'... now THAT's what I'm talking about!
I love fantasy movies and I loved the first one and I have to say this was one sequel that was easily as enjoyable as the first movie was. Plus, we got to see Johnny Depp kiss the girl.
Not to be disloyal to George Clooney who is still top of my list of sexiest (fantasy) men alive but if there was a best (fantasy) kisser award I think Johnny Depp should get it.

From movies to music (I've been storing this stuff up for a while)...
I recently purchased some new additions to my CD collection. Two in particular stand out.
I finally gave in and bought that James Blunt album that half the world was raving about and the other half was dissing. I figured there were one or two songs of his I'd heard that I liked, and it's always good to have a mellow CD around for background music. This seemed like a better option than Westlife since my stepdaughter has threatened to disown me if I get a Westlife CD, hehe!.
The verdict? Well I have to say I'm with the second half of the world. There are a couple of good songs but I actually can't force myself to listen to the second half of the CD anymore. I always listen to an album all the way through a couple of times when it's new so I can give it a chance but this one - Oy! It's not that it's really bad... it's just really overrated, as far as I'm concerned.

The second one is a different story altogether: The Snow Patrol album (I can't remember the title but it's the latest anyway) is one that grows on me a little more every time I hear it on my MP3 player. It may not be the most uplifting album but the music is lyrical and has substance. What I look for in music is its ability to envelop my entire being so that I don't just hear it, I feel it.

Snow Patrol: 1
James Blunt: 0

But that's just my opinion.