Such is life….

This is me, Buddess, just to confirm that I am still alive and kicking.  I have not been deported or abducted by aliens (yet).  I have been living!!!  I was filled with fears a year ago and here I am.  Still going incredibly strong and getting busier by the day.  Sleep is  a luxury and I can’t remember when last I was able to pop in at the local to play a couple of games of pool.  My life consists of work and home at the moment and I am happy with that.  I know that one day I will be able to sit back and relax and say “I did it”.  That day hasn’t arrived yet.  The downside is that I have not been able to blog as much as I would like.  I feel so guilty right now because I have things to do, but that can wait.  I owe it to myself and my blogfriends to just let the word spread that Buddess is still around.  Some of you might have spotted me on your sites at the odd occasion, but as for what is currently happening in Blogland, I can only guess. 

I did open a Facebook account for myself(feel like a blog traitor) but I am not sure if I am a big fan.  I get inundated with “will you kiss me” or “you are so hot” notifications that it has spoilt the fun for me. 

My children are growing up and keeping my little spare time occupied.  I try to spend as much time with them as possible and have been struggling the last two months to keep my work away from home, but I have not been too successful in that department.  I don’t want to miss a single moment that I could spend with them.  It is awful when their dad tells me “you should have seen what J did this morning”.  I have had to set up an office at home also and that has helped a hell of a lot, but now I need to deal with keeping little fingers off the computer etc etc.  At least I am there with them and they are so understanding.  My baby turns 3 later this month and her brother will be 4 next month. 

My older daughter has also moved back in with me and I am so happy for that.  She is going on 15 and I think she needs her mother now.  Maybe she will get me to do some shopping again for a change.  She is a big shopper and ready to spend someone else’s money at the drop of a hat!!!  Typical teenager.

There goes to phone again……I’ll be back!!!

It is that time of year again. Unfortunately it came way too quickly for me and caught me off guard. I have not made any preparations and it is going to be a quiet one this year. No big family gathering and the gifts will be small and only for the children. I can kick myself for not planning in advance like I normally do. I must admit that this has not been a normal year for me in any way. Life has changed and I didn’t change with it. Trying to do 10 things at the same time used to be easy, but that was before. What do I mean by that?? I don’t know myself anymore. I have decided to take the next couple of days off to sort myself out. I recently moved from the townhouse to a house again and I haven’t found my feet in the new home yet. I feel like part of me is hanging in limbo somewhere and I happen to touch it every now and then but I just can’t seem to manage to grab it and hold onto it.

Here’s hoping you all have a wonderful Christmas. My Christmas is going to be filled with Christmas carols and family time. I am glad I don’t have thousands to spend this Christmas because I think I need to celebrate the real meaning behind it for a change.

                                          

Just two words….

GO BOKKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bad news….

As a parent of teenage kids, it has become part of life to sleep with one eye open and an ear waiting for the dreaded phone to ring with bad news.   During the past few months we have had a few of these phone calls, but so far, it wasn’t one of our children that got hurt.  You fall back into bed thanking God that your children are safe.  You say a prayer for the parents sitting next to a hospital bed or worse yet, planning a funeral.

Well, during the early ours of Sunday morning, it was in fact our turn.  Mr B’s son, the infamous sixteen year old(now seventeen) that I have often written about in the past, was involved in a horrific motorbike accident.  We are still trying to determine exactly what happened and why he was on a motorbike at 4h00 in the morning??? What we have been able to piece together is that he received a phone call from a distraught female friend asking for help.  He was spending the night with a lifelong mate and this mate gave him his motorbike keys and watched him ride off.  We also know that it was a hit and run because the driver of the vehicle that knocked him off the road failed to stop at the scene and is now the most wanted person in Port Elizabeth.  Fortunately, there was an eye witness who stopped and called an ambulance.

Needless to say, some damage was done and the seventeen year old is now the proud bearer of a broken collar bone, severely bruised and cut body and missing 3 fingers on his left hand.  His feet and legs are a disaster because he was wearing a pair of shorts and trainers at the time of the accident.

As a parent you sit and think what went wrong.  What was he doing on the motorbike after being told time and again that he is not allowed to ride.  Two weeks ago, the kids all stood at the grave of one of their friends who was killed by a drunk driver.  This old man didn’t even know that he caused an accident.  He couldn’t understand why his car wouldn’t move forward and didn’t realise that he was parked on top of a motorbike. The boy(also 17) died on impact and his parents saw his lifeless body lying uncovered in the road.   

This is becoming a weekly occurance.  The kids spend more time at hospital visiting accident victim friends than they are spending time on things that kids should be doing. 

I think it is high time that something has to be done.  Most of these kids ride without licenses or the permission of their parents.  Even though they are surrounded by proof of everything that can go wrong, they still do it.  They jokingly say that they are going to form a band called The Disabled because the one friend is blind in his one eye, the other is covered in burn marks and now the seventeen year old only has 7 fingers. 

When I was growing up, I would never even consider doing something my parents wouldn’t approve of.  We had discipline at school and at home.  We had respect and treated our elders with respect.  Sadly, this is all missing for today’s children.  Schools are limited in what discipline may be applied and it is very difficult to discipline your children at home.  If you try to discipline your kids at home they simply tell you that they have rights and that you must not dare take their rights away from them.  They threaten you with cops and welfare and all those other organizations looking after childrens rights.

What is the sollution?? Who is responsible for cleaning up the mess?? The schools blame the parents, the parents blame the school and the government is blameless because they took the rights of the schools and the parents away???

Where do we go from here?? Maybe reinstating curfews isn’t such a bad idea.  But then again, when will our cops be able to concentrate on serious crime if they have to look out for juvenile delinquents??? As parents, we have the responsibility of raising our children to become responsible, fully functional members of society.  We are in fact busy raising the future leaders, bank managers, policemen, teachers, doctors etc etc.  I just seem to think that the generation that they form part of are going to fail miserably.  They are not equiped to handle what will be thrown at them.  They can’t even pass high school anymore. Why is nobody doing anything to help them.  Why is there not one person in our government that is trying to solve this very very big issue?

We need an Errin Brokovitch desperately.

Wild hogs…………

Ok, so it was weekend and I felt lazy.  All I wanted to do was relax.  What better way than watching an entertaining movie.  I’ve seen the trailer for Wild Hogs.  I even happened to watch the episode that Oprah featured the movie and made a mental note of “I must see this movie”.  After all, John Travolta is part of the cast and that gives me enough reason to want to see the movie.  Off I go to the video store and was pretty upset when I had to book the movie because they didn’t have any copies left.  I waited a week with bated breath and couldn’t wait to finally get my hands on the dvd.  Man oh man oh man.  If you haven’t seen it yet(sorry, I am normally the last one to get to see the good ones) do yourself a favour and get it!!!!! It is not the best movie you will ever see, but it sure is one of the funniest.  I think what makes the movie work for me is the combination of cast members. Tim Allen and Martin Lawrence are known for their comic antics.  They are at their best in this movie.  William H Macy has donned the hat of comedian absolutely perfectly.  In my eyes, he is the star of this movie.  Add John Travolta looking super sexy as a hard core biker and you have a winning recipe.  Big thumbs up to everyone who was involved with the making of this movie. 

I loved it.  I can’t remember when last I laughed as much as I did while watching this movie. 

Addictions??

I feel drained and exhausted.  My brain has stopped functioning and I simply just can’t concentrate on anything at the moment.  All work and no play is making Buddess very miserable.  So, I am officially taking a time out and doing what I enjoy most….blogging!!!

I think I am officially addicted to blogging.  I have had several addictions in my life and of all of them, I think this one is not so bad.  Compared to a food addiction, weight loss addiction, alcohol and sex addictions(no details will be made available, so don’t even ask), I am confident in saying that this one is probably fairly “safe”.  Apart from the fact that it does consume quite a bit of time it doesn’t have too many disadvantages.  I have often had days where I thought and felt like just crawling into a dark corner somewhere and pray that the world will just leave me in peace, but then I sit down in front of my laptop.  My fingers just automatically start typing away and I find all the therapy my mind needs. I get so involved in all the stories I read that I laugh or cry and sometimes scream “NO!!!” at some entries that I have come across that I am soon revived and ready to face another day. 

I must also admit that I watched the movie World Trade Center on Wednesday evening and it reminded me of the 2996 Project of last year. It also made me think of the person that I remembered and the fact that according to the info I got off the web, he was directly below the point of impact of the first plane.  My heart goes out to every single person who was affected by those acts of hatred.

All in all, what I am trying to get to is that I simply can’t do without my blogging.  I have to do it every day and that simply boils down to an addiction.  I don’t see it as a bad thing.  I have it under control and I am not going to stop!!!  If it wasn’t for my complete and utter self control, I would probably spend all day on the net, but doing that won’t feed my children will it?  So, I declare that I am a blog-addict but not an out of control blog-addict. No, let me rephrase that by saying that I am proudly an in control blog-addict. 

You all go and have a wonderful weekend and be sure to write all about it because come Monday, I will be checking to see what you got up to.

Beauty around us

About time that I update my blog don’t you think???  I apologize to all those out there who regularly read my blog and had to look at “Thank you for the music” for something like forever!!!!

Life is good and I have realized lately how much beauty we have around us.  I am also so happy that I indulged myself and purchase a digital camera last year.  What am I on about?? Last week, I saw the most beautiful sunset and I happened to have my camera with me.  There was no time to change any settings, so this is the result of simply pushing the shutter.

                                 

I turned around and this is what I saw next: Candyfloss in the sky…

                                  

As you can see, storm clouds were gathering and I managed to catch the light of the setting sun as it hit the clouds.

                                         

I was humbled by the beauty that surrounds us all the time and I realized that I need to look out the window every now and then. 

                                            

                                     

                                               

Thank you for the music

As I mentioned in my previous post, Terri and her hubby have arrived in town and I met up with them last Tuesday evening.  What a wonderful time we had???!!!  Apart from seeing them again, I also happened to see other friends that I haven’t seen in years.  After all the normal hugs and kisses and tearful reunions, we drank up enough courage to hit the stage and sing karaoke.  Now, I am not a singer, but I am also up for a challenge.  It took us close to an hour to decide what we want to sing.  It was decided on Thank you for the music because we all felt it would be pretty safe.  Did we do well???  Oooooohhh I don’t know, but we most definitely had lots of fun.  I am even going to post some pictures of our effort and you be the judge.

       

Just before I finish, here is a pic of two very very happy friends…..

                                      

So, Terri and Dave, thank you for the music on Tuesday evening.  We will have to do this again for sure…. but this time the guys must also sing!!!

How about it Katt??? Would you like to join us in our next appearance!! We can call ourselves Terriland Kattbox Oodlers!!!!

Time waits for no man (or woman)

It has been a while since I have last posted something. This only proves that I have been very busy with work and that is a good thing. Too much free time means that I am not working hard enough. I am glad that I have been so busy because I am now seeing results as that is what keeps a business in the black. As for other matters recently discussed on my blog, I am happy to report that relationship wise things are going very well. Life on the home front is absolutely heaven.  We have settled in nicely in our new small home.  I have even done some gardening and that is something I haven’t done in a l-o-n-g time. 

Life has settled into a very comfortable pattern of getting up for work, going to work and seeing lots of clients, doing demos, quotes, etc and going to the pub(with Mr B), playing a couple of games of pool, going home, preparing supper, having supper, have a bath with the little ones, relaxing in front of the telly and finally going to bed.  Does it sound boring at all??  It shouldn’t because there are loads of little juicy things that happens inbetween and I obviously can’t tell you about those. 

 What I can tell you is that our fellow blogger, Celeste, has given birth to her long awaited little boy and I paid her a visit over the weekend.  He is a beautiful little thing.  It felt so nice holding him close to my heart.  He looks more like his mommy at the moment but I am sure that he is still going to morph a few times.  I love how babies change and develop!!

Another good thing is that fellow bloggers Terri and Bosbefok have come to town for a visit and I am hoping that I will see them soon.  Well, they actually came all the way from Ireland to holiday in sunny South Africa.  It might be cold at the moment, but it sure still is a beautiful sunny day today.

I am feeling happy today.  I feel like I have completed another full circle in my circle of life.  Life is good!!

Drooling over Johnny

That is exactly what I found myself doing last night.  Good old M-net(pay channel in SA) broadcast Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead man’s Chest last night.  I have seen it before on DVD, but I just couldn’t resist watching it again.  I simply loved it.  My two little ones were spellbound.  They couldn’t take their eyes off the screen and they loved the “undead monkey” and the talking parrot.  I simply just loved Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.  What a nice way to relax on a Sunday evening?  Of course this was followed by a nice long relaxing bubble bath.  Did I dream of Captain Jack?  Well of course I did………

                                                        

(picture thanks to www.mnet.co.za)