The Real Jenty

I’m not sure if I mentioned it here, but I resigned about 6 weeks ago. I’m moving to another company within the same group.

It’s a BIG change… yet still in the same building and it’ll mean working with people I kinda know already.  So it was very weird to say goodbye to everyone today, knowing that I’ll probably bump into them on Monday.  I even had to hand in my laptop, clear out my emails and data folders; just as if I was leaving the group.

It’s a BIG change… I’ve been working in Stockbroking for 10 years.  It’s a change of industry.

It’s a BIG change… My new role is kinda airy fairy right now and I’ll have to mould it into what I want it to be… it’s all about Web 2.0 and Social Media;  working from IT, but closely with Marketing to build their social media skills.  So it’s exciting!  I’ve been building up to this for a while with the experience I’ve had in the last 18 months.

It was sad to say goodbye.  I’ve worked with one of my staff members for 10 years on and off.  It was very strange knowing that we’ll probably never work together again.

Anyhoo, what better way to start a new decade than with a new career

We went to visit Lance’s mom in Parys on Sunday, and for some reason Bradley asked me whether she worked at all. I replied no, she just stays at home.

So then he carried on talking… “so you work, and Daddy works, and Papa works, and Lainey works and granny works”
Me “No, Granny doesn’t work either”
Bradley replies “Oh yes she does, she does Pilates and Yoga!!”

So there you go Mom, all your exercise is work

* Papa = my dad
**Lainey = my sister
***Granny = my mom

I have tomorrow left.  That’s all.  I go back to work on Tuesday.

Talk about hitting the ground running after the holiday… I had the kids hair cut today, then went shopping for some replacement Gormitis (I’m Bradley’s hero again), and then had a newborn shoot.

And tomorrow I have a newborn shoot, then I’m taking Bradley ice-skating for the first time with a school friend, and then I’m going to try and fit in a haircut and colour for myself.

And then if I have time to breathe, I’m 3 shoots behind with editing!!

I’m already exhausted thinking about it all!

I’m not in a good space at the moment.

Connor’s tantrums are getting me down.  I can’t handle them, and I think they’re only getting worse because I’m spending less time at home.

No matter what I do, I can’t seem to get out of the house before 7:30am. I get up at 5:30 for crying out aloud!!  This morning I actually nearly left Connor at home because he wouldn’t get dressed – he only got dressed when I walked out the house and packed the car   He’s driving me NUTS!

And don’t dare say I must get up earlier… I’m only getting to sleep after 11pm because of my photo editing at the moment.  Partly because flucking stupid PS won’t convert my photos from RAW to JPG at 300 dpi no matter what I do, so I’ve had to redo ALL the photos I’ve taken lately!!!  It’s converting them at 240dpi which isn’t high enough for printing and enlarging.

And this office astounds me!! I can’t believe the clock watching that happens in that corner of the office… it happens nowhere else in the building.  It’s seriously frowned upon to leave before 5pm (apart from the select few who seem to be able to pick and choose when they want to be in the office without any problem).  As a result… I’m only getting home close to 7pm!!  And then I have to cook and get the kids to bed!

It’s MAD! I’m not actually sure how much more of this I can handle.  I love what I do, but this traffic and time crap is seriously not worth it at the moment.

There’s only a few more days left of my leave, and I’m really not looking forward to going back to work next week.

Even though, I feel like I’ve done nothing much other than clean the house and swim with the kids, I’ve really enjoyed being at home. And this is HUGE for me. I’m normally chomping at the bit by now and needing to escape the kids.

I still have so much to do this week… go shopping with Elaine (hopefully tomorrow)… go plant shopping (highly unlikely now)… organise a beauty salon session (hopefully on Friday)… filing (ja right, it’s soooo hot upstairs during the day not sure if this will get done)… some other paperwork (I’d better get cracking on it)… and I’m sure there was more stuff.

I’ve had an expensive week so far though. Why is that you only realise that you need a new vacuum cleaner and mops when the maid goes on leave? Huh? That was Sunday’s expense.
Then I had to get Bradley’s stationery and school uniform… holy moly that was expensive – R960 for 4 golf t-shirts, 4 shorts, a jersey and a hat! Oh well, it had to be done… I still have to get his tracksuits though. Thankfully I got the shoes, socks and windbreaker at Woolies before Christmas.

As for New Years Eve tomorrow, we’re having friends over for a braai (BBQ). It’ll be very quiet, but nice because it’ll be the last New Year’s we spend with them, they’re emigrating to New Zealand next year.

It’s late, and I’m still not in bed!  I still haven’t even unpacked my suitcase… yet I’m blogging… go figure! It’s been a VERY exhausting day/weekend (I’ve put some photos on my photoblog)

Here are a few reasons why I should have gone to bed earlier…

1.  Woke up at sparrows fart at the hotel.  We left before breakfast because I needed to get home to get Connor to the doctor (yes, our GP works on Sundays thank God).

2.  It was misty the ENTIRE way home!! What an exhausting 3 hour drive!  Especially after only having 5 hours sleep, and being woken up at 4am by a drunken prank phone call!

3.  Connor has got borderline bronchitis, an eye infection and bad sinus infection.  So now he’s on AB’s. Every single time I’ve gone away on an offsite, one of the kids gets VERY sick and I have to rush home!

4.  Connor has not left me alone the whole afternoon.  He spent 2 hours of it just crying and clinging to me.

5.  There was NO food in the house when I got home, so I dashed to the shops to get lunch after we got home from the doctor.

… and now Connor’s woken up again… so much for me unpacking! If he’s like this in the morning, I’m not going to work.

…I’m on a company off-site (I’ve scheduled this post ).  We’re staying at an estate close to Dullstroom, called Kloppenheim (go to the site after you’ve finished reading the rest of my ramble… I’m seriously hoping that it’s as nice as it looks on the website).

When this post is published, I will probably just have finished co-facilitating a strategy feedback session with 70 odd people, and looking forward to our teambuilding session which is based on the TV program CSI.   That should be cool, I’ll write about that next week sometime.

I’m also probably frustrated as hell because according to the weather reports, it looks like it’s gonna be cold there, and my plan was to take plenty of beautiful photos for my next camera club meeting.

In fact, I’ve planned this so badly, that I’m going to have to stop at the shops on the way out of Sandton to buy a warm jacket!  I forgot to pack one!  But I did remember my tripod and camera of course!

So anyhoo, enjoy your weekend with your family, I’m missing mine terribly!  Chat tomorrow when I get back home.

I’ve spent most of the last 2 weeks on Microsoft CRM courses, so I’m frantically trying to catch up with some real work… the kind I get paid for.

But the universe seems to be conspiring against me… it’s just not happening the way I’ve planned. Take today as a prime example…

Plan: Get out of the house by 8am in order to get to a nursery school to scope check it out for Connor for next year. Then get to work by 9am, because I needed to be in a long scoping session by 10am.

Reality: I have no idea why I expect the traffic to play along with me today.  I got to work at 9:30am!  And then it took 40 minutes to get my laptop to decide to work! Luckily I had told people that I was probably going to be late this morning.

Plan: Work until 4:30.

Reality: Get frantic phones call from Beauty at 12:30.  Bradley is in tears, his ear is sore.  Now Bradley has been at home this week because he’s sick, but until today he wasn’t sick enough to go to the doctor.  Told her to give him Lotem, and see how he goes.

Then I phoned my mom at 1:30 to find out how he was doing (she picked the boys up from my house at 1pm).  He was sleeping, but still in pain.  I decided that he needed to see the doctor, so phoned  and made an appointment for 5pm.  But also decided that even though Connor is also sick, that he wasn’t sick enough to also see the doc.

Left work at 3:15pm. So much for my plans.  Phoned Lance to organise him to get food, because I thought it was going to be a long wait.

Anyhoo, turns out Bradley has an ear infection in his one ear.  He also has a sinus infection and an eye infection! Not only that, but the doctor pulled out a BALL OF WAX that was in his other ear!! Holy crap! You should have seen the size of it.  I thought stories about wax balls were jokes!! Well, they’re not!

And then it gets better… I get back to the car with the kids… and Connor walks into the car door! So he now has a bump on his head.

Then we get home, and Lance gives the kids some chips to eat while they wait for us to get organised and sort supper out.  We hear this strange sound and weird cry, and we both come running from opposite sides of the house.  Connor CHOKED on his chips!! He was already  blue in the face by the time we got there.  Bradley is sitting obliviously watching TV!  It took us a while (we both tried) to get the chip dislodged and get him breathing again. IT WAS FRIGHTENING!

Needless to say, he didn’t want to eat.  His coughing is now worse than it was earlier on today.  And I actually think he has a sore throat.  And he’s fiddling with his ears. Ho hum!  I suppose he should have seen the doctor after all.

Oooh and then, I almost forgot… I decided to bath the kids in our bathroom upstairs tonight.  I get Connor’s clothes off and he runs around like a mad thing like normal.  I follow him out of the bathroom to take his clothes to the washing basket only to see him leap, literally leap, out of the bedroom door and jump up and down on the landing! OMG! He’s got a death wish, I swear.  The landing at the top of the stairs where he was jumping is about 1 square metre.

Nice day hey?  How was yours?

Oooh and, if you’re American, I hope you voted!

I have no idea why I insist on opening my work email from home!! Oh yes, tonight it was because I’d seen an email from a friend just before I shut down but it was too late to open it. Ho hum! It could really have waited until morning.

And the result of doing the unthinkable…. I’m frustrated and irritated!!   AAARRRGH