The Real Jenty

Why do people have to be so spiteful?

I got an email from an old friend this morning to tell me that one of our shared Facebook friends is having a problem.  Her ex-husband has got hold of her Facebook password and cellphone and is sending random messages to her friends.

This is the second time this has happened to a friend of mine!

I have a few things to say about this…

1.  WTF are you thinking when you do a stupid thing like that?

2.  WTF do you think you’re actually achieving?

3.  You do realise that that instead of getting the support that you’re clearly craving, that you’re alienating yourself entirely.

4.  The person you want to hurt by doing this is ending up being the hero.

What an idiot!

Start acting like a man and get on with your life, like she clearly is!

You would think that after eating quite a few of Angel‘s red cupcakes on Friday and yesterday, that I would have had enough.
But nooo, today Bananaramagirl and Snowgoose had cupcakes for us to eat for the photoshoot… and they were divine.  These ones were chocolate with butter icing and the most gorgeous crowns and gold T’s decorated them.
In fact,  I’m yearning for more.  They would go down so well tonight, while I’m editing… and we don’t even have a chocolate in the house!

Oh woe is me (

When Exmi asked me a few months ago to participate in a new secret blogging project, just for girls, I was intrigued, and of course I said YES!

How could I not?  It sounded like such a cool idea… a bunch of girl bloggers from all walks of life, at varying degrees of technical proficiency… all reviewing the latest and greatest gadgets from a chicks point of view.  Brilliant plan!! Plus the fact that I like them all, and we get together every so often to talk about the gadgets and have wine… like a book club just better!!

Anyhoo, Girl Guides is finally live… in a beta version…

Check it out, and let us know if there are any issues with it

Oooh and also read my review of the Macbook Pro… which is why I bought it in the end

I can’t wait to play with my next gadget actually!

Snippet of a conversation this afternoon, in the car, while we were discussing what to buy for supper

Me:  Pork is made from pigs

Bradley:  also bacon!

Bradley:  And Connor, chicken is made from REAL chickens

Connor: No, no, no, chicken comes from REAL shops

I couldn’t help laughing!

I’m about to go shopping, I need a bit of a break, and I had the following thoughts…

I need to go shopping to get new printer cartridges.  This is a necessity.

I would like to look for new shoes while I’m there, because I need new shoes of course, what girl doesn’t?  I have no qualms buying shoes, but will try and not walk into Aldo’s or Nine West, because I can’t justify their prices.

I’m currently earring-less, because I realised this morning that for some reason, I only put the one on… the other one is now in my car.  Weird.  Second time this week that I’ve done that.  I would like to buy another pair of nice earrings because mine are a little old and sad. But again, I wonder about whether I should spend that money.

I’ve finished a bottle of perfume.  I would like to get another bottle, yet I wonder about the waste of money.

However, get me wandering onto a camera site like Orms or SACamera or a new site to me CameraQuip, and I have no qualms about spend x times the amounts mentioned above on a new lens, and I immediately start scheming about how to justify the cost of buying a Canon 5D Mark II.

Or, take me into a kids clothing store, and I have no issues with filling bags with clothes and shoes for the boys.

Another example, is this morning, when I was trying to work out whether I should buy a new car, just because my back gets sore in my Jazz! And you know how I am about new cars!

Is it just me?  Maybe it’s the fact that the things I ponder about are for me personally.  I immediately think it’s a waste of money, and can think of hordes of other things to buy instead.

Oh hell, enough of this thinking, I’m going spending!

We’ve had a few good months with Connor, but we’re back on antibiotics

I thought he was fine until yesterday.  The head teacher at his school phoned me to collect him because he had a fever.  I took him home, gave him mootie and the fever disappeared.  It reappeared in the evening… and was ongoing through the night… alternating between temperature below 35deg and then going to 38.

It’s been fun… I had about 3 hours sleep last night I think.

He’s got sinu-bronchitis again.  I’m glad it’s not pneumonia, which was my fear.

I’m grumpy… and sore.  I’m also not a happy camper… my back is still sore.  It’s not my kidneys acccording to the doctor, he thinks I’ve hurt a nerve in my lower back.  So I went for x-rays today, and I get the full report tomorrow.  Until then I have cataflam, and I’ve been told not to sit too long in the same position… PMSL… you tell that to the traffic!! My back is in agony by the time I get to work in the mornings, and today the pain only dissipated at about lunch time.

I’m grumpy and need sleep.  Editing will have to wait until tomorrow night.

1.  There are some very clever people in Africa.  Entrepreneurs who are making a difference, and not just for themselves.  Tech4Africa was inspirational!

2.  My back-up system at home with my external hard drives don’t like the Mac… I have to reformat them to get them to work properly and that means erasing all the data.  Not good!

3.  I love taking photos at Batmitzvahs and Barmitvahs… I just love all the tradition, and all the fabulous dancing.  Every time I go to one I learn something new.

4.  Connor needs a new summer wardrobe and quickly… the weather is warming up rather fast and all his stuff is too small.

5.  Bought the boys 4 pairs of new shoes last week from Woolies… 2 of which are already broken! Useless!! And I don’t have time to sort it out!

6.  I need to make a plan to spend more time with my boys… Bradley was heartbroken because I didn’t watch him run on Thursday.

7.  I lost an earring at some stage this week… I have no idea how long I walked around with one earring for it could have been a few days!! Yes, I’m lazy that way.

8.  My car is so filthy that I can’t see out the windows, but I don’t have time to get it washed.

9.  I’m getting random shooting pains in my kidney area… especially when I’m driving in peak hour traffic… I need to get to the doctor I think… or spend less time in traffic.

10.  The huskies have chewed Beauty’s mobile.  It’s in pieces.  They grabbed it out of her bag while it was ringing, and she found Kimo choking on the ringing object :/  I need to replace it tomorrow.

I’ve spent the last 2 days in the most awesome conference where a lot was spoken about knowing your client/user and designing solutions for them. Now I did know a lot about it, but it’s been drummed into my head again by various speakers.

Then I get home, and get immediately irritated when I see my mail that arrived today. Every single thing I receive in the mail box is a waste of time and effort.  And the one thing that irritated me the most was the letter from Wesbank, that I didn’t even open, where the envelope promised some cash if I opened it.

In fact, from research, people will only open mails and emails etc, if they’re at the point of needing it based on what’s on the envelope.  And in those 5 seconds, not that week…. your chances of anyone opening it are so very slim.

I mean truly!! How much wasted money do they spend on mail drops like that? Surely they don’t get the return.   It’s definitely not customised for me.  They need to think about something else.  I don’t even open it.  It goes straight into the paper recycling bag.  Along with the Spar specials and the other spam.  It’s all spam!

In fact, that brings me to my next point.  There’s a lot of legislation about sending spam emails… I can opt out of any electronic spam… but HTF do you opt out of this crap?!  I’m not even a client of Wesbank’s!

Bradley has finally learnt how to tie his own shoelaces.  This particular journey has been a long and painful one for all of us… he just didn’t get it!  We eventually gave it a rest for a few months, and then last week I decided to try and show him again… within 5 minutes he did it like a pro!!

First my theory… it matters not how much you push your kids to do something.  It won’t work.  They will only be able to do it when they are ready.  He just wasn’t ready before.  The fact that he was supposed to know how to tie his laces before he got to Grade 1 is besides the point, he was unable to get it right.  Now his fingers allow him to do it. It’s like crawling… you cannot force a baby to crawl until they’re ready… it just won’t happen!

Second the results of this feat… he has gained independance of sorts.

Seriously, it’s true.  Now he wants to do sport at school again.  He’s wanting to play soccer and hockey… and the reason… he can tie his laces himself without asking anyone for help!!

It’s been a big thing in his life.  The ONLY reason he told me that he didn’t want to stay at aftercare and do sport in the afternoons was because of the laces issue.

This tiny tiny step has meant an immense change in his life and I’m so so very happy that he’s finally got it.

I asked Bradley to take a few photos of me… and the dogs decided that it was play time… it’s utter chaos at home!!  I think the photos are pretty awesome actually, considering Bradley is 7 years old.  I’ve done no cropping to these photos, just used a preset to pop the colours.