I want to go home!

Is it nearly home time yet?  I have been so busy at work lately but today, not so much and boy is the day dragging.

It does not help that I left a very cute and cuddly girl at home.  Normally she prefers to be down and crawling around, but this morning she just wanted to be cuddled.  Very hard to leave her!  Roll on 4:30!

This does not look like a baby magazine.......

oh oh! That’s not good.

Ok – not a good start to the day!

I parked my car outside work this morning and reached under my seat for my shoes…. and reached and reached and then panicked!!!  Yip, I had forgotten to bring shoes to work.

Crap! 

Decisions??? Do I phone up and say I am going to be late, well later than I already was or do I try and sneak in with nobody noticing and hide in my office till lunch time…….

Let’s just say that I am not good about sneaking – busted!!!  I think they are all still laughing.

A Portfolio Lifestyle

Last night on Carte Blanche they had a story on “A Portfolio Lifestyle”!  That really appeals to me!  These people don’t have a job, they do numerous things that bring in an income, do good in the community and are active.  I like that.

The thing was that most of their activities basically revolved around one central theme.  So for instance the person was an actor, they acted, danced, taught dance, did voice-overs and such like.  They made their passion work for them and did not rely on a 9 – 5 job.

I do, do quite a bit already, but now I need to start doing things that bring in an income.  However, I suppose there is also the possibly that you could be spreading yourself too thin and by not concentrating on one specific thing you run the risk of not doing it to the best of your ability. But I get BORED very easily so this might just be the thing for me?

So, what would my central theme be – what is my passion?  I guess if I knew that then I would already be doing it, because it sure as hell isn’t funeral insurance!!!

And I can’t even blame porridge brain any more.

URGH!!! I am having a blonde moment at work and it is driving me insane! 

The IT guy at work set up a new email account for me and I can’t remember the username.  I can remember the password, I wrote that down incase I forgot it, but username…. NOPE. 

I am a Dunce!

There are only so many variations I can try and I think I have exhausted them.  Infact I think it might have already blocked me.  I had to phone the IT guy to ask him. And he can’t remember either…. Oops.  He is going to have to come in and have a look on the system and unblock it if it is blocked.  Yes, and to make matters worse we use an external IT company so it is not as if he can just wonder on down the passage….

EDITED TO ADD: I was being even more stupid than I thought!!!!  I had the right username, but I was forgetting to press shift to get to the # sign so was using 3 instead.  URGH!!!! DOFF.

Gautrain! Awesome

I was in Jo’burg on business yesterday, it was fun.  I got to catch the Gautrain from the airport and back!  Boy was I impressed.  It was clean, fast and efficient.  It was worth flying up there just to catch the train.  

My only problem….  the escalators at the Sandton station!  Holy cow they have dug a deep hole in the ground.  The platform of the station is a long way from the surface and while catching the esculators up you get quite a good idea of how deep.  You can see all the way down.  Not good when you have a slight fear of heights.  I was beginning to get rather stressed near the top.  On the way back I thought I would be smart and catch the lift…. That was fine until we started to descend and I realised the doors were glass…. Yikes, I had my eyes shut the whole way down. 

Please excuse quality of these photos.  I took them from my phone.

Gautrain

Gautrain - interior

Getting my own back….

Is it wrong to take a perverse pleasure in doing something that you know somebody else is going to hate???? 

The company I work for is growing quickly and they now need to put more controls and procedures in place.  That has been left to me.  Thankfully I love rules and regulations.  I like procedures and things must be done right.  For example, I have never had a parking ticket, I would just NEVER park somewhere where I am not supposed to and I get stressed when I see people doing it.  If there is a sign that says to stand behind the line then I will stand behind the line.  I know that not all people are like that, in fact, I know that people like that are few and far between.  

So you can imagine that when I was asked to draw up checklists, put procedures in place and set up controls I was a happy girl. Especially when I realised that the person who will be most affected by my controls is the person who will resist them

the most. And this person is also the one that said something that I had not comeback to a few weeks ago. So a perverse pleasure….. I had no comeback to his rudeness a few weeks ago, but now….hee hee hee!  Every little checkbox I create on my lists brings smile to my face.

I should have said…..

You know when somebody says something and the more you think about it the more it bugs you!!! Well I have that problem at the moment. 

Yesterday somebody said something to me and I was a bit annoyed at the time but said nothing.  As time has gone on I keep thinking of replies I should have said and it is bugging the $%$@# out of me!  

There is nothing I can do about it, and even if I found the right reply I would not say it.  Too late and no point!  So I suppose the only thing to do is get over it.  Hmph!!!! Sometimes you just want to be pissed off for a while. 

In a more positive light – I have one VERY happy husband!!!!  He has managed to secure World Cup Final tickets for himself and a friend.  He has been to every game in PE and has been trying from the very first release of tickets to get final tickets.  Finally he has managed.

Just call me Pammy

There are some things I never thought I would do – and getting my boobs out at work was one of those things…I mean, not even in my younger, get drunk at office party days did I do that. In fact I did not get them out in public EVER!  Not even on topless beaches.  I am a very conservative girl as far as that goes. 

So, I swore I would NOT be one of those woman that breastfed in public.  I was not sure what I would do if my child was hungry but whipping them out was not on the agenda.  I stated this loudly… and frequently.  I think that was the first on my list of “things I said I would never do before I had kids” to bite the dust! 

Well, back to getting my baps out at work – I am going to try and continue breastfeeding Baby OL exclusively until she is 6 months old. And that means that I need to express at work.  Hummm awkward!  Luckily our business has two floor, but only one of those is occupied so I can go to the second floor and sit in an empty office – or as I have been doing this week – in the board room.  It just feels WEIRD sitting in the boardroom boobs out and all.  But, I have turned one of the chairs to face the window, open the blinds and sit in the sun, quite pleasant actually.  Thankfully there are no tall buildings in the vicinity or somebody in one of the adjacent offices might get quite an eyeful.  Actually our IT guy nearly got an eyeful yesterday.  He walked into the boardroom.  Yikes, luckily I put a chair in front of the door and was facing the window.  He was still rather embarrassed.  I now put a Do NOT ENTER sign on the door.

Checkered past…

Charisa wrote about her first summer job and it got me thinking about jobs I have done. And there are LOTS!!!!  

I applied for my first permanent job in 2000 at the grand old age of 28. What can I say I am a late starter?  Prior to that I did temp jobs, which I LOVED!  Unfortunately it is not something that you can continue doing indefinitely. 

Some of the jobs I have done were pretty – hmmm….interesting.  A lot of them I would never want to repeat, however the do make for the best memories and stories. 

So here goes (and I am sure I will forget some).  EDITED TO ADD – this got a bit long, so I have cut out some of the more conventional jobs. 

1. Waitressing – at quite a few different places with varying results.  At the first place I lasted 1 ½ days at another I lasted nearly 3 years.  In 1994 I vowed I would never waitress again and I have not.  My first tip ever was R5.00 a lot to me at the time, especially considering I had spilt an entire bottle of red wine over the woman who happened to be wearing a white summer dress.  I thought I would be fired. (Plettenberg Bay, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town)
2. Packing CD’s – the result of vowing never to waitress again.  Not easy finding work in London if you are unqualified and won’t work in a restaurant.
3. Sticker Remover…  Don’t ask. (London)
4. Credit Card Counter……  It was boring and tedious but the most exciting part was that I got to use a computer with Excel so was able to add that to my CV. I must have been quite good at counting as they offered me a full time job.  I left. (Edinburgh)
5. Pharmacist assistant at a hospital; first for out-patients – I hated it and after the 2^nd day I told them I was leaving, so they moved me to in-patients.  I had to go into operating rooms and count supplies.  URGH!  I could never be a doctor or nurse or anything in the medical profession. (London)
6. Receptionist – at a drug centre.  To close to medical stuff so I left.  After that I had 2 more criteria for jobs I would NEVER do!  (London) 

After that I had 2 more criteria to add to jobs I would NEVER do!  Nothing medical, no reception work and no waitressing!!  I was getting fussy. 

1. Envelope stuffer (yes, that was the actual job title that was on my pay slip).  Yip, very fussy. (London)  Then I got promoted to..
2. Financial advisor….????  Who knows…I must have shown some promise in stuffing those envelopes.  I remained “Financial Advisor for 10 months.  Actually until they offered me a full time position and I freaked and left. (This was a trend).  (London)
3. Garlic picker – this has to be one of the WORST jobs in the world, it is back breaking and you stink of garlic.  I did it for 2 days the first I got sunburnt so I covered myself in sunscreen for the 2^nd day.  It rained and the mud stuck to my sunscreen and it ran into my eyes.  NOT FUN (New Zealand)
4. Peach picker, slightly better than garlic, but only slightly. Who knew you could be allergic to the fuzz on peaches.  (New Zealand)
5. Apple packer – better than picking peaches but not by much. After a couple of weeks I decided to quit!  I walked over to the manager to tell him but before I could say anything he asked if I could type – YES!!!!  I got moved to Apple Control.  FUN!!  I stayed a few months.   When I asked him later why he chose me he said I had the longest legs and the shortest shorts.  Woo hoo!  Glad I bought those shorts (New Zealand) 

I have also worked as a cleaner (Sweden), a Guest House manager (South Africa), a Buyer (also SA) and as an event planner (SA).  Now I work in insurance – go figure!!! 

Talk about having a checkered career – it was fun (at times) and at least I can look back now and laugh.

Out of Office!

I’m on leave from 4:30pm today!  

Today is my last day at work for this year!  It means that it is also my last day of blogging.  I will be taking a holiday (enforced).  I don’t have internet at home, so will only update when I get back to work on the 4^th January. 

So – I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Hope you all get to spend it with your families and loved ones and that this time is safe and restful. 

I can’t wait for the break.  Just to spend time at home, try and resurrect my garden and just potter around.  Although resurrecting anything with water restrictions is a bit difficult and probably explains why it looks the way it does! 

Merry Christmas – will miss you all!

And just before I go – my baby is due in 2 months today!!