Saturday, May 10, 2014
Friday, May 9, 2014
Cheers to blowing out those candles
Tomorrow I turn 40. Gulp.
I'm sure I've used Nina's Simone's words before, but tonight they seem to be itching to be said again;
"it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me, and I'm feelin' good".
I head to London in the morning to spend the weekend with friends. A bit of city living coupled with hard laughing and wild eating is good nourishment for the soul.
At this moment in time there's no need to reflect on the decade past or the decade ahead, for it is what it is. A head spin. And here's the proof - taken yesterday after a day of hard playing.
Wherever you are in the world please have yourself a birthday wish on one of my m-a-n-y candles, there are plenty of those flaming torches to go around!
I'm sure I've used Nina's Simone's words before, but tonight they seem to be itching to be said again;
"it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me, and I'm feelin' good".
I head to London in the morning to spend the weekend with friends. A bit of city living coupled with hard laughing and wild eating is good nourishment for the soul.
At this moment in time there's no need to reflect on the decade past or the decade ahead, for it is what it is. A head spin. And here's the proof - taken yesterday after a day of hard playing.
Wherever you are in the world please have yourself a birthday wish on one of my m-a-n-y candles, there are plenty of those flaming torches to go around!
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Treading the tightrope
This week we roll into week 26 of a pregnancy that's seen me forget half the time that I am pregnant.
The times when I remember are when I drag out some ensemble of clothes only to be rudely reminded that nothing really fits comfortably (if at all) anymore. Case in point; my jeans are regularly sinking their denim waistband into the flesh beneath my rounding tummy. It has started to hurt, as in swinging pendulum hurt, running after Leo on his scooter as he heads towards the road at 65mph whilst giving me the nod, 'just you try and catch me lady'. And now in the early hours when I wake to feel the twists and turns of a growing baby flicking the wall of my warm stomach it takes me hours to fall back to sleep.
Alternatively the times when I'm distracted have been fast and furious and for that I'm grateful - in a head-full-of-buzzing-bees grateful. There's nothing better than a hectic work diversion, or a 3 year old falling down for weeks at a time with a foul cold coupled with croup to keep your bleary mind focused. Chris is back in Uganda and we've been upping the tempo for putting into place the process of interviewing for another lodge management couple. The couple we took on in November split up 3 months into the job, but tried to persuade us they could make it work. We weren't convinced and were proved right last month when the she of the couple took to sleeping in a tent in the campsite. Always a great look for your international client base.
So now we're back to juggling a hundred balls in the humid (him) cold (me) air in the hope that the future management couple of brilliance are out there, SOMEWHERE. We advertised recently across several websites and during the last 2 weeks received applications that have been wild and wonderful and wacky and weird. Frankly it absolutely amazes me that most people don't seem bothered enough anymore to read the job spec and happily snap off an email for a job in an industry where;
a) they've never had any management experience
b) list Happy Chinese Shopper in Croydon as their hosting experience
c) have never travelled outside of Europe
d) list their habits as:- "eco-friendly, tidy (my husband is really very cleanly), not demanding, non-conflicting, fair and very polite. ..Too many pluses for just 2 people! :)) ...."
e) or alternatively; "we are naturalists who like to forage for berries at the weekends in the woods"
f) seem adverse to spell check
g) appear confused as to where Africa is
h) attach a photo of him in lycra cycling attire and her looking through a magnifying glass at a series of letters
But it's stopped me thinking too much of the other stuff.
It's stopped me thinking of how at this point in my pregnancy with Ella I was about to loose her. At 25 weeks and 6 days she was born into this world no longer breathing. With Leo I smashed physically through that window of dates and hopefully right now this warship is moving through the choppy waters with week 30 held high in her sights. High enough for it to be within my grasp but low enough for me to keep us from tipping. That's the tightrope I walk.
The times when I remember are when I drag out some ensemble of clothes only to be rudely reminded that nothing really fits comfortably (if at all) anymore. Case in point; my jeans are regularly sinking their denim waistband into the flesh beneath my rounding tummy. It has started to hurt, as in swinging pendulum hurt, running after Leo on his scooter as he heads towards the road at 65mph whilst giving me the nod, 'just you try and catch me lady'. And now in the early hours when I wake to feel the twists and turns of a growing baby flicking the wall of my warm stomach it takes me hours to fall back to sleep.
Alternatively the times when I'm distracted have been fast and furious and for that I'm grateful - in a head-full-of-buzzing-bees grateful. There's nothing better than a hectic work diversion, or a 3 year old falling down for weeks at a time with a foul cold coupled with croup to keep your bleary mind focused. Chris is back in Uganda and we've been upping the tempo for putting into place the process of interviewing for another lodge management couple. The couple we took on in November split up 3 months into the job, but tried to persuade us they could make it work. We weren't convinced and were proved right last month when the she of the couple took to sleeping in a tent in the campsite. Always a great look for your international client base.
So now we're back to juggling a hundred balls in the humid (him) cold (me) air in the hope that the future management couple of brilliance are out there, SOMEWHERE. We advertised recently across several websites and during the last 2 weeks received applications that have been wild and wonderful and wacky and weird. Frankly it absolutely amazes me that most people don't seem bothered enough anymore to read the job spec and happily snap off an email for a job in an industry where;
a) they've never had any management experience
b) list Happy Chinese Shopper in Croydon as their hosting experience
c) have never travelled outside of Europe
d) list their habits as:- "eco-friendly, tidy (my husband is really very cleanly), not demanding, non-conflicting, fair and very polite. ..Too many pluses for just 2 people! :)) ...."
e) or alternatively; "we are naturalists who like to forage for berries at the weekends in the woods"
f) seem adverse to spell check
g) appear confused as to where Africa is
h) attach a photo of him in lycra cycling attire and her looking through a magnifying glass at a series of letters
But it's stopped me thinking too much of the other stuff.
It's stopped me thinking of how at this point in my pregnancy with Ella I was about to loose her. At 25 weeks and 6 days she was born into this world no longer breathing. With Leo I smashed physically through that window of dates and hopefully right now this warship is moving through the choppy waters with week 30 held high in her sights. High enough for it to be within my grasp but low enough for me to keep us from tipping. That's the tightrope I walk.
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