If I were an animal/insect, I’d be…

WritersBootcamp challenge day 17 topic: If I were an animal/insect, I'd be....

I want to say something powerful like a lion the king of the jungle or maybe a tiger, equally as majestic . I thought of something graceful like a white stallion or even a beautiful peacock with feathers full of glorious colour. (I would have to be a male) but deep down I am a person and what I most want is what everyone in this life wants... to be loved, unconditionally.To feel useful and to feel appreciated. With this in mind I decided the animal I would most like to be is a dog. With attributes similar to the ones I like to think I have and so a dog seemed the best fit.

They are loyal, to the point of their detriment sometimes. They are intelligent and can be taught. They are cute and come in all shapes and breeds. They are a source of comfort for their human counterparts. They are useful, for a blind man, his guide dog is invaluable. 

They bring a lot of joy to families and can be a little boy's best friend. They can bring warmth and comfort to a homeless person who has nothing but his faithful companion, his dog. They are cute when they are puppies and can evoke emotion in our hearts. 

Of course just like people, there are those who are outcast, forgotten and live in shelters. Then there are the strays that live on the street just waiting for a kind family to rescue them and give them a home. 

Hopefully if I was a dog, I would be a cute little Dachshund living in a happy home with a family who takes me for walks, loves me unconditionally and enjoys my company.

The world is wrong about....

Day 16 of WritersBootcamp challenge topic: The world is wrong about.....

Gina Lollobrigida then and now 

Religion, politics, social justice….the list goes on and on but for the sake of this blog post I am going to focus on one thing: looks with regards to aging.

How does one age gracefully?  Society does not allow for that, when a famous actress is looking a little older the headline will read (insert famous actress name here) is looking haggard. Perhaps she is on drugs? Maybe her marriage is in trouble.

In a climate where youth and beauty seem exclusively linked there is no place for growing old. Actors, models and singers get younger and younger each year. There is so much pressure on our youth today and yet we forget that our elders really do have a wealth of knowledge to share. Age comes with a price, sure you get maturity and experience but you also become the thing that you fear the most, Forgotten.

I worked as a front line receptionist in a retirement complex for 6 months back in 1990. The thing I most remember about my time there, was how lonely the occupants were. The highlight of their day was when the postman had been, they would emerge out of their apartments to inspect their post boxes just in case there was any correspondence from family namely their children. Visits from their children were rare and I felt quite sad for them. This was not a home, it was a retirement complex, they were free to come and go as they please. There was a frail care section for those who were ill or nearing the end of their life, hardly anyone returned from there.

I do remember one or two of the residents who were still quite full of life, one such person was  Mrs Taylor. She was 72 years old but had the spirit of a lively 50 year old. Her granddaughter was a model and came to fetch her every Sunday for an outing. During that year the Chipindales came to Cape Town and Mrs Taylor’s granddaughter took her to see them. I saw a sparkle in her the night they left for their outing and when she returned it was as if she was injected with a fresh sense of life.

The thing we forget when we focus on youth and beauty is that age is inevitable, every one of us (unless we pass away before then) will get old. All the anti-wrinkle creams in the world can’t stop it, they can slow down the process but in the end we all get old.

Invisible

Day 15 WritersBootcamp "Free topic (write about whatever you want)"

Tammy Adams was excited, her 20 year high school reunion was in half an hour and she had the perfect dress. Yes she had been waiting for this moment ever since the invitation arrived a year ago. They say that the best revenge is success and boy was she ever the poster child for it. Her days at Camden High were anything but pleasant and she was ready to show them all just how far she had come.

Her husband Roy was unfortunately away on business, but that didn’t stop her, armed with her cell phone full of family pictures she was going to show those mean girls just what a modern woman looks like.

Her story was one of hard work that finally paid off, her business had grown in just under 10 years and she was now the proud owner of the most successful talent agency in the country. In high school she was the awkward, freckle faced teenager  no one wanted hang out with but not now, oh no, now everyone wanted to be her friend. People she hardly knew came out of the woodwork to comment on knowing her in high school after she appeared on the cover of Women in business magazine. She had it all, the big house, the fancy car a wonderful husband and two adorable children. She was pumped and ready to go.

She couldn’t find the keys to her Porsche cayenne, “Dammit I’m going to be late” she thought to herself. She decided to take Roy’s car instead. As she pulled up to the glitzy Sheraton hotel, her heart started pounding. “Breathe” she whispered to herself “You can do this”.

“Maureen, how are you” greeted Edith Venter, the organiser of the event. Tammy was about to correct her when she was ushered off into the grand ballroom. She looked around for familiar faces, but everyone seemed to look away. “Must make eye contact with someone” she told herself. “I am no longer the shy introverted wallflower everyone knew back then”. She walked around the room, it was beautiful. The tables were decorated with white linen and lavender overlays. Balloons hung overhead in perfect sequence of purple and white. She glanced over to the left corner of the hall; the band was playing what sounded like a mix of 80’s songs with a modern interpretation.

She surveyed the scene once more but still no one made eye contact. “I need a drink” she thought as she veered closer towards the bar area. She sat down and ordered a double Vodka lime and soda. Next to her she could hear two people talking about some horrible car accident that had happened this morning, she leaned in so she could hear more.  “Such a shame isn’t it, the poor family what a waste of life”. Said a skinny man with a slight Irish accent. “I knew her, you know. That Tammy girl. Her and her husband Roy just celebrated their 12^th wedding anniversary and I hear she was planning on attending the reunion tonight.”

“Yeah I read the entire family was wiped out on the way to the airport, speed kills you know I wish people would realise that” interjected the bartender.

Tammy sat upright and looked over to the mirror behind the bar, there was no reflection.

My Parents

WritersBootcamp challenge topic for day 14: My parents.....

Wow talk about opening a can of worms! I don't know where to start with this one. My parents...well it's quite complicated you see, do I mention the young couple who during a balmy spring evening in 1971 went to a party, got drunk and conceived me? Do I mention my grandparents who were my first reference of parents and raised me for the first 8 years of my life? Do I mention my step parents who are now married to my biological parents and who have played a role in my life? My ex husband's parents who were closer to me than any blood related family for the duration of my marriage?

So you see my dilemma? OK so first off my mom....She was a wild teenager who fell pregnant and had me but was still not quite ready for the responsibility of being a parent. My maternal grandparents or Ma and Oupa as I called them were my first reference to what a parent is. I have many fond memories of growing up with my uncles and aunts as siblings. Fighting with my younger cousins for the right to lick the bowl after Ma had baked and walks up the mountain with my Oupa. My morals and manners stem from these two  wonderful people. My Oupa got Alzheimer's towards the end and passed away in 2010. My Ma is still well with all her faculties intact and celebrated her 80th birthday in May this year.

my mom and I 

My mom was always on the look out for that ever elusive Mr right and when she finally nabbed him I moved in with her and my new step dad and for the first time in my 8 years I called me her mom. Prior to that she had not wanted me to let any possible suitors know that she had a daughter for fear of chasing them away. So I called her by her first name. We had a glorious 5 years together as a family unit, during that time my brother was born and so we were like a proper family. That was until I became a horrible spoiled rotten teenager. I gave my mom a hard time and we fought right up until I fell pregnant and got married at 16. Of course I never really appreciated my mom until I was the one fighting with my own teenage daughter and hearing my moms words coming out of my mouth. Then I realised that all those years ago when I hated her and thought she was just trying to spoil my fun, she was just being a parent. I do have some fond memories of that time in between when my mom had long hair and I used to brush her hair at night, and my step dad who cared so much for me that he wanted to adopt me legally but Karen the bratty preteen didn't want to change her surname. My mom and I have a better relationship now, we don't see all that much of each other but we chat on the phone regularly. I have huge respect for my step dad, my mom was as wild as they come and he tamed her, she is a different person today. This soft spoken English man who's skin was sensitive to our harsh African sun and was as timid as they come managed to tame the wild beast that was my mom.

Then there is my biological dad...I don't have much to say about him except that he was always there in the back of my mind. I knew who he was, his name, his family but I was never part of it and nor was he ever part of mine. We had an encounter once when I was 10 years old but it didn't go well and so it came to be that my idea of a dad was just some random guy who's name I knew. He was the one who helped my mom to have me, I knew that without him I would not exist but I didn't know him as my father.  I rekindled our relationship in 2010 by contacting him. He explained to me then that he was always unsure if he was in fact my dad after all my mom had many 'boyfriends' back then and he just wasn't sure. Did I mention my mom was wild? Anyway we did a DNA test in July 2010 and the results came back 99.9% positive. Ha science you gotta wonder about that 1% right! Apparently nothing is 100% (or so I was told) So now he is in my life again. We will never be close like a father and daughter should be, too much time has passed for that and we have all got our own lives to live. I see him occasionally and his wife is lovely.

So that is the story of my complicated parental unit which is more like a group of separate units really. (well the short version anyway)

Dialogue

Day 13 of the WritersBootcamp challenge and the topic is: Dialogue....

According to the online Oxford dictionary dialogue is: A conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play or film. Or a discussion between two or more people or groups, especially one directed towards exploration of a particular subject or resolution of a problem. 

These are all great and I am the type of person who loves nothing more than a scintillating conversation with friends but for me the best type of dialogue is the silent one you have with your partner. You know when you can sit beside each other and just know what the other is thinking. Or when you are able to finish each other's thoughts and sentences. Those special moments together when verbal dialogue isn't necessary.

You can tell by his body language what kind of mood he is in or when you just know that tonight its on like a scone, just by his smile, a look or simple body language.

Those are special moments, with a whole lot of inner dialogue that only you two 'get' and you can have a meaningful conversation without saying anything at all.

What makes me laugh more than anything else is...

Day 12 of WritersBootamp, topic: What makes me laugh more than anything else is....

This was an easy one for me as I work with children, they are life's little jesters. I could write a book just based on the things I have heard preschool kids say. They have no off button and speak uncensored about whatever pops into their little heads. They keep me entertained day in and day out and there is never a dull moment in my classroom. So to answer this question in one word; What makes me laugh more than anything else is: children.

But this got me thinking, besides my teaching job, outside of school, where else do I find laughter?

My fiance has quite a wicked sense of humour, its one of the things that drew me to him and he makes me laugh on a regular basis. I think it is very important in a relationship, to make your partner laugh and to 'get' one another's humour.

My taste in comedy and sitcoms has changed over the years and as I grow older I realise that the new type of slapstick comedy that is quite prevalent these days is not for me. I hear many of my friends raving about, Big bang theory and modern family to name a few, but whenever I try watching these programmes I don't really have the same reaction. I may find one or two things mildly amusing but nothing that makes me belly laugh. You know, when you laugh so hard you literally have a tummy ache.

Maybe I'm just getting old but the only television sitcom that ever did that (and still does to this day) is the TV series Friends. Now there is a sitcom that I can honestly say makes me LOL (laugh out loud) literally.

1 Food and 1 drink for the rest of my life @WritersBootcmp

Day 11 WritersBootcamp challenge Topic: 1 Food and 1 drink for the rest of my life....

Hmmmm this is not a topic I have a lot of experience in as I am not the chef in our household. I hate cooking and really could not be bothered if I had a toasted cheese sandwich for supper, but here goes....

Also I couldn't pick just one!

Food:

Things I can cook really well: Nachos, macaroni and cheese, roast chicken and veggies.

Things I don't like to eat: Liver, kidneys, sushi, oysters and lasagne. (my foodie friends have just unfollowed me on twitter).

Things I do love:

Pecan nut pie....preferably warm with cream. Yummy!!!

All kinds of deserts and tarts.

Mutton curry

Stew

Drink:

When I am really thirsty: Water, always

To celebrate, have a party or just go out and have fun: Champagne and cocktails

To numb the hurt or when I have had a bad day: Wine