Hearing loss and living life
Things that’s not work
It is March and I finally finished a doodle challenge that was set for January, which I had a head start on in December 2021… Yes, better late than never I guess. But, I persevered, and I am quite pleased with the outcome.
I completed my first FYIC challenge in 2021 (here are some of the sketches).
Continue reading “Fragment of your imagination tangle challenge, 2022”
I have been neglecting this little corner of mine for various, boring reasons that I am not going to get into, because they are going to sound like excuses. Today will be my second day back at work this year. The home office has migrated back to the Publishing offices as I have struggled off late to keep work away from home.
So this post should be the motivational beginning of the year post that have been flooding my inbox and social media. Truth be told, I am not feeling it. I am not a huge fan of the festive season. It creates expectation and gatherings… so many gatherings… and at the end of the day, we tend to miss the whole point. We also overindulge and pick fights with the family (in no particular order).
A beautiful friend of mine chooses a word at the beginning of every year. I am not really into new year’s resolutions (as I tend to disappoint myself), but I like the idea of having a theme of sorts. Something that reminds you of who you are and where you are going. Something that can pull you back towards yourself and keep you focussed.
Continue reading “New year socks”
A few weeks ago one of our service providers invited me and the Engineer to a dinner and wine tasting hosted at a beautiful boutique hotel very close by. Yes, please! As it happens at the end of the year, however, the Engineer was summoned to another province at a moment’s notice leaving me by my lonesome as a single parent to the lilliputians for a few days. He was however kind enough to organise that his parents do grandparent duty for one evening, leaving me to still attend the event. I did however not feel like going solo. I tried a few colleagues but they could not make it, and then I decided that the person who loves wine even more than me, is my dad. So with one phone call, I had a date.
Continue reading “Date night with Dad”
These rambles may have revealed a number of things about me, mostly that I am anxious and that I tend to overthink. Especially if I find myself with idle time… or if someone does not answer my text. Especially ones that are direct questions. I ALWAYS assume that that person is angry with me. And I can ALWAYS think up something that I have done to deserve this passive-aggressive behaviour.
Turns out, however, people are busy, people have lives and the whole world does not revolve around me. Also, some people don’t read and I really do ask a lot of questions. The Engineer has recently requested that I only send one question at a time.
Continue reading “The overthinker and the silence”
A little more than two years ago we did some home renovations and extensions. The architect that was commissioned for the job came for the initial meeting to hear about our dreams and our budget. I later however realised that this was a spying session, because the first renders that came back were filled with wineracks and bookshelves. He had summed me up nicely. I was in love with his plan. I am easy that way.
Long story short, we ended up with a beautiful foyer and for almost two years I have been confused about what should go there.
Eventually I decided on interesting doors. I got this idea from a restaurant in Cape Town that has a huge artwork with different doors. I started my search on the various image banks and collected my own. These were then all printed on small A5 canvases. I also like the symbolism associated with doors:
The Engineer left me to my own devices in figuring out how these should go up. I had a plan, but I have to see things before I can commit. I commenced with A5 sheets and masking tape, to try and visualize the whole thing.
The doors went up, and in my opinion looked gorgeous. Little did I know…
So lesson 1: mounting tape works fine but not if it is in your entryway and you see it from the side if you walk in.
Lesson 2: canvas borders should be black
Lesson 3: A level is your friend. The Afrikaans word is “waterpas”, isn’t it beautiful?
Lesson 4: sometimes there is a reason why you marry the engineer in the first place
So two months after this whole project, we realised that there is some water damage. In comes the insurance assessor and a team of builders and down goes my doors again.
After a few days of chaos and waiting for things to dry, the doors can go up again, but the engineer offers to do it this time. Where I did things with masking tape and paper, he sits down at his computer and writes 39 lines of code. On the screen is a render of my piano, the light switch and my 18 images… and he is moving things closer and further apart by the click of a button. So yes, you can be annoyed and grateful at the same time.
This time the canvasses went up with nails, so that they could be flush against the wall. I also painted the canvas borders black.
Perhaps the lesson here, is that you have to get it completely wrong the first time, to get it perfect the second time around. Or maybe, that we should all just play to our strengths and admit that we have weaknesses.