The Real Jenty

There are a few questions I haven’t answered yet, so here goes…

Angel asked: Before you started taking pictures, did you have a hobby of some kind?

I did fabric painting (I’ll post a few photos of what my work) and decoupage and cycling… I’ve cycled the Argus twice, and the third year we were going to do it, I broke my arm by falling off my bike… and then I fell pregnant so that was the end of that.

Angel asked: How do you manage to fit in parenting, work, and your photography sideline?

With difficulty, but I seem to be managing, only just, for now.  I’m not getting enough sleep though.  And I’d like to fit in some exercise as well, but there are just not enough hours in the day. I’m actually considering getting an admin person or someone to help with editing for a few hours a week

Laura asked:  WHEN are you going to stop doing what you dont want to and start doing what makes you happy? (workwise)

Funny thing is, I like what I do during the day, so it’s not that easy   I like the people I work with, I’m learning LOADS, and my thoughts are valued (this point is the biggest point of all).  I’d like to at some stage reduce my hours at my day job, but that won’t happen this year, because I’m working on a monsterous project or two.  I’ll explain a bit about what I do in another post tomorrow.

Cat asked:  1.   What dress did you wear to the launch and show it?

I’ll take a pic the next time I wear it, but it’s a satin dress/tunic and flowered leggings

2. Are the puppies being good and did you train them?
No to both, they desperately need training.  Kimo is worse than Kitara, and still takes stuff from the house to chew… he still loves clothes and toys of any shape or form.  One of my summer tops has a new hole in it thanks to him, and I’ve only worn it twice!

3. Is Lance happy in the new job?

No, he was very very unhappy, so much so that he has yet another job and started yesterday.  Hopefully this one is better.

I got 3 questions posed about treats etc, and thought I’d answer in one post

Sharon asked: What makes you happy? Something that puts that silly grin on your face and you cannot wipe it off because it has made you happy from deep within your soul?

When someone loves something I’ve done.  Like this morning, when Beauty got her prints, and she had tears in her eyes and told me “that you know just how to shape me, and I’m not fat. I was thinking about why I bother dressing up when I come to work in the morning, but you’ve made me see myself differently”
That made me cry, and smile all the way to work this morning.

Tara asked: I dare you to share 3 guilty pleasures. Like, that chocolate you buy at the shops and then scoff before getting home (not that I do that. Much.)

1. Putting on the TV for the kids, so I can read some blogs
2. Plant shopping at Lifestyle cos it’s just so nice, and I should rather spend the money on the kids. I haven’t had much time to do that recently.
3. Buying new lingerie every few months… I just love it.
Seriously, if I buy myself a chocolate to have on the way home from the shops, I’ve normally bought some for the kids and Lance too.

Laura asked:  What is your favourite sweet?

Definitely chocolate, as long as it’s not Beacon.  I hate Beacon.  My favourite chocolates are Crunchies, and Cote d’Or Noir chocolate.  I love a good dark chocolate.  Or Caramello Bears, now those are also yummy!

Laura also asked: If you had just R150 to spend on YOU – what would you spend it on?

Only R150? That’s tricky. Probably a pedicure, summer is coming.

It’s been a rough few weeks with huge deadlines at work, and far too many photos to edit at night.

I’ll get to your questions tomorrow night, but tonight is about regrouping. In fact the whole of today was.

I spent the morning with Madelein at Body Sense Day Spa.

Love that place!! We had an hour long hot stone massage (which was to die for) and a Guinot facial… and ended the morning with a glass of amarula and a chocolate

If you plan on going there, look at their specials first… make so much more sense than their full price individual treatments… we went on a package called “Woman’s wellness” which was a package for Woman’s day.

It was just perfect… and I just have to do it more often.  In fact, we’re planning our next trip already

Ask me something… anything?

I’ve hit a blogging slump, I can’t think of anything to write that you might want to know… so I thought I’d open the floor to you all

Ask me a question in the comments, and I’ll answer over the next few days.

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 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.

I needed another haircut today.  Yesterday I decided that I needed a new stylist too.

The last hairdresser I went to was ok.  OK, she was pretty good.  When I started going to her in January this year, she was based in a funky hair salon in Greenside where you got cappuccinos.  It wasn’t the busiest hair salon in the world though and the salon actually shut down and she had to move.  So the last time I went, she was based at her old salon… a place in Robindale… 2 things have made me look for another stylist

1.  The cut wasn’t as funky as I would’ve liked, and my hair looked crap quite quickly.

2.  The stylist next to her was knitting, and the certificates on the wall were from the early 80′s.  Seriously, there was nothing up to date in the place.  There were adverts for perms!  And those drying machine things on the wall.

I’m probably a snob, I’m quite happy if you tell me that in the comments but hey, to me, having a haircut is not only about the cut.  It’s about whether I feel comfortable in the place.  Whether the salon resonates with me.  That place didn’t.  I also wouldn’t refer her to anyone because she’s there. 

So, I decided to not find out how much it would cost at Jeauval in Clearwater, and I went there today. And OMG it was expensive… but I like the results.

Now that place resonated with me.  They served cappuccinos again ooh and there was wine on their drinks list!! And they asked me 3 times if I wanted some cake. And the hairstylists looked good.  Plus, the stylist I went to understood when I said spunky.  In fact, I felt comfortable enough to say yes to everything she suggested and left it completely up to her

LOL, not that Lance likes my new do he doesn’t like the hot pink streaks (it was supposed to be red but she decided after the processing that it was too dark).

Anyhoo, the moral of the story… ambience and experience in all things matters… not just your talent.  To me anyway.

Oh and if you’re wondering who took the photo? It was Bradley   he’s getting quite good.  He used my camera and the 50mm lens.

Still not a normal day, because I’m not working from the normal office, but I thought I’d do this every day this week.

5:45am – get up.  Get dogs fed.  Make Bradley’s lunch.  Make tea.

6am – wake up Bradley and take tea upstairs.  Catch up with twitter and FB via phone.

6:30am – Bradley is dressed and I help him with shoes.  Connor needs convincing about school and getting dressed. Lance leaves for work.

6:40am – get kids breakfast.  Shower and get dressed

7:20am – find my facilitation tool kit and picnic chair

7:30am – leave home to take kids to school.

8:10am – get home.  Have breakfast.  Open laptop to look for address for todays work session. Answer some emails.  Catch up on twitter and Facebook.

8:40am – leave home to go to shops for goodies to eat and Prestik (it was missing from my toolkit)

9:10am – hit the traffic… and oh my word it was insane!!While I’m in the car, try and organise Lance to find out about transport for the kids for next week.

10am – get to Johannesburg CBD

1pm – hear protest in streets. Go up to roof to take a few photos.

6pm – leave Johannesburg CBD.  Damn Garmin GPS takes me on dodgy roads out of Johannesburg… very dodgy roads… and it was too dark for me to try and figure out another route home.

6:45pm – get home to find dogs fed, and Lance getting food from MacD’s (I did buy food for him to cook but he didn’t want to).  Open Macbook and download photos from today.

7:15pm – they finally get home, and we can eat.

7:30pm – start editing photos from today.

7:45pm – kids bath time

8:30pm – kids bed time

8:45pm – blog today’s photos, and catch up on a few blogs.

10pm – start editing sessions… I’m now way behind… it’s going to be a long night.