Keep Calm and Enjoy the Weekend

I can't believe it's Friday already (but thank GOODNESS it is!) This week has been exhaustingly busy - between Year End Functions, Training and Induction days - I'm all forced-socialised out and physically drained! Nothing that an evening on the couch can't fix, because tomorrow it's off to the Franschoek Bubbly Festival we go.

With only 3 weekends left until we head back home to the Oos Kaap for the annual pilgrimage required by our families, I'm keen to seize all the luxuries that living as a refugee in the Mother City brings... wine farms, gift fairs, shopping malls with more than 10 stores, mountain walks, amazing restuarants (with good service!!) and reasonably priced sushi!

Happy Friday and enjoy the weekend!

Keep Calm when Remembering Rhodes

#rhodesmemories was recently trending on twitter much to the dismay of other univerisities alumni who replied on twitter asking where all their memories were?! As I read through the hundreds of tweets, I had mixed emotions remembering the the days that Wordsworth would decribe by his famous phrase "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times."



Many of us took years to part with our overalls



I sometimes get asked by the students I meet if I could rewind the clock and go back, would I or is the working world better? Its a tough one for me to answer. So many of my greatest friendships grew during these crazy 4 years - through thick and thin we supported each other through break ups, let downs, tragedies, growing up and finding ourselves. Without some of the tougher times, prehaps these bonds would have been less durable, and so if that's what I can take from them, I do it gladly.



Boatraces...enough said

Some of the funnier tweets recalled how every year, we as Rhodents celebrate like we've won trivar (invarsity games against NMMU previously know as Trivar because of the now nonexistant participation of UFH) although we never do.  Other stories told of Smuts House, a guys res, and their firedrills where often there were more females than males present! Many retweeted that prospective parents, after reading all the trending tweets, were intercepting their childs RU acceptance letters and burning them...I'm not sure that I blame them.

At the end of the day, be it the best of times or the worst of times, they were times that defined me - definate us as friends. I look back now and write it all off to growing up, learning about life, making memories that will never be forgotten and having (now) hillarious stories to tell of how it all went wrong along the way. Here's to keeping calm when remembering Rhodes!

Happy Friday

It's been a SUPER busy social week and I cannot wait for a night where I can put on my PJ's and laze on the couch watching Suits (I've FINALLY gotten into it!) But alas, this will not happen tonight as we are off to SNOBS night at Bombay Bicycle Club (#cantwait!)

The SNOBS dinner club is something I've "plus-oned" into and so I can't tell you much about the origins, the purpose (other than getting together once a month and drinking copious amounts of wine and eating great food) or anything else deep and meaningful. What I can tell you is that the group comprises of some of my man's coolest, funkiest, funniest friends and once I put aside the best behaviour I display when meeting a bunch of strangers for the first time and let my hair down, I was immediately accepted as one of the SNOBS.

But before I head out tonight, I have to get through one more work lunch at Avontuur in Stellenbosch. I could think of worse things to be doing on a Friday afternoon :-) HAPPY FRIDAY!

Keep Calm and Have a Ladies Night Out




At this stage in life, ladies nights are few and far between and have taken on a far more mature format to those crazy girls-nights-out of days gone by. This weekend the girls and I left the guys (and in some cases, kids) at home and met for dinner at The Foodbarn Deli and Tapas. While it's wasn't my first trip to the Deli for Tapas, I loved tasting the new menu items and once again was pleasantly suprised when the bill arrived at how affordable the really great meal (and wine) was.



Picture from Foodbarn
website



Beside the great food and drink, I was reminded of how special time with the ladies is and how important it is to prioritise these nights. Who best that to discuss your blonde moments, work frustrations, future plans, overseas holidays, kids allergies etc etc etc with!

So as the year draws to a close and our social calendars fill to the brim, I'm going to try as far as possible to keep a spot or two open for the various special ladies in my life. A couple of other great venues and events to bear in mind when planning the next Ladies Nights are:

- Rick's Cafe which is always good for a quick drink and snack after work before heading home
- The Bombay Bicycle Club where we are having our SNOBS dinner club on Friday (I can't wait! Great food, Great vibe, Great Decor)
- The Harfield Village Carnival is happying on Saturday and is apparently amazing
- Something I'm definitely not going to miss this year is The Franschhoek Magic of Bubble Festival
- French Toast is another spot high on my priority list to visit

So many places...so little time!

Keep Calm and Pass the Exam

A few days ago I was on the UNISA website, searching for a course to challenge, motivate and stimulate my rusty old brain. I had decided that studying something would be the answer to the rut that I've found myself in career-wise, a stepping stone towards the long-term goal I've set myself of working in a relatively unrelated field and doing something as far away from the corporate world as possible.

And then this morning I went to wish the candidates writing their final CA exam luck and saw their drawn faces, nervous smiles and tense expressions and all of a sudden, the idea of studying further seemed FAR less appealing! After a minimum of 7 years of studying, the fate of these candidates will be decided today - will they have a CA(SA) designation behind their names in a years time or not?

I remember my final exam in the Rhodes sports centre like it was yesterday. The nervousness of knowing that if it didn't go well your plans for the future would be delayed by a year and while returning for a 5th year as a Rhodent would not have been the worst thing to happen, the idea of spending any more time in the sleepy town (with no Woolies Food store or decent clothing shops) was at that stage less than ideal!

The jury is out for now on my further studies, but I'm thinking of all those who are now 45 minutes into their papers in that cold UCT sports centre and wishing them the best of luck. While there is always next year, no one wants the pain of repeating all the hours of study put into preparing for this big exam - so here's hoping that the guys can keep calm today and pass the exam!

Keep Calm and Drink Coffee

Of the many things I love about my apartment, the fact that's it positioned between a girls school (#morningtraffic) and the SAPS are not some of them. Initially the thought of screaming 10111 (in a local accent) whenever I needed assistance in the crime department was appealing. Not so much at the moment, after 4 days straight of being rudely awoken at 5.30am by a pig hooting and "bee-barping" the sirens for about 15 mins to gain access to the copshop.

Can the police not afford an intercom system or is this arse just too lazy to leave the comfort of his car seat?! Perhaps the coppers responsible for letting him in are sleeping on the job? Not unlikely. It seems my neighbourhood isn't taking too well to the disturbance either - the one upside to this all is laughing my sleepy self silly at all the vulgar comments screamed his way by the irate residents of the 'berg out of their bedroom windows. Should this carry on for a few more days, I too will swallow my pride, move the curtains aside and carry on like a scorned fish wife! In the meanwhile, I'm keeping calm and having an extra coffee each day.  

Keep Calm and Overcome the Sunday Night Blues

I live for Friday evenings through to Sunday afternoons at the moment. And while Monday's are by no means my favourite days of the week, at least they aren't as bad as Sunday nights. Prehaps it's the anticipation of the week ahead being worse than the last, or knowing that while I've got sunkissed skin from the weekend, I'll soon be stuck back in an office while the sun and fresh air taunts me from outside.

More likely, I think that the Sunday Night Blues that developed in my boarding school years have never quite left me. Anyone who had to make the long drive back into town after an amazing time at home - eating good food, sleeping in your own room, catching up with family and friends - will know what I'm talking about! My brother used to call it the "dirty laundry feeling", knowing that once you were back in hostel, back to reality, you'd have to change all your linen (a true feat for a 9 year old kid - duvet covers proved an enormous challenge for those tiny arms) and sift through that smelly laundry from the past week to tick it off on the laundry list!

And then there was Chapel...the 3rd compulsory service of the week...in our formal wear. Getting those blackmail stockings on over sunburned legs, still hot from the summer temperatures and sticky with chlorine, was never pleasant. My grandfather used to say that he went to Church enough during his boarding school years to never have to go again (this didn't go down well with my Gran!) While I might not agree fully with Grandpa, I'll avoid the Sunday night service at all costs.

Other depressing things to avoid doing on a Sunday evening definately include watching Carte Blanche (the music alone is enough to make you want to slit your wrists), eating any form of pie (King Pies in particular were always on the menu at school on Sunday nights) and wearing anything other than your PJ's from early afternoon onwards.

Now that the Sunday blues are over for this week, I'm off to conquer Monday morning...