Princess

I must confess that if anyone else tells me that someone is a ‘real princess’ I think I will bop them on the nose – the teller, not the ‘princess’. This is one title I can't stand.

And why I ask myself, do I get so antsy about the ‘princess’ comments? Well, after a lot of soul searching I think it is because it implies that I need to tread carefully in the presence of a princess - in case I upset the ‘princess’ or say something that might set her off on a little tantrum or something, treat her differently to the way I treat others.

Why should I pussy foot around someone because she has been labelled a ‘princess’? I find this unacceptable especially as she has, usually, acquired this label because she is self-centred, arrogant, obnoxious, expects people to run around her and is generally quite a precious little soul who behaves badly. By labeling people, we are actually condoning this behavior.

I thought though, that seeing that Princess Anne is in SA at the moment, I would mention a cool princess thing I saw her do. A few years ago I was in London at the time of the Trooping the Colour for the Queen’s birthday. It was pouring with rain that day, almost monsoon like rain coming down. The parade ground was at least ankle deep in water and every time the guards did a foot stomp they created mini fountains. The Queen was sitting on a little dais which had a canopy so she was ok. The rest of the family were in their regimental uniforms on horseback behind her. So there was Phillip, the 3 princes and Princess Anne getting well and truly soaked and they were solidly rained on for about 2 hours (I was watching on TV). None of them flinched – they kept

poker faced, there was no fidgeting or wiping nose and eyes…they just sucked it up – even the horses hardly moved. She may have told her Mum afterwards that that was the last time she did something like that; but during the long hours in the rain you would have thought she (and the rest) were having a nice jolly time. This picture of the Princess shows the hat she was wearing - part of the uniform. It certainly didn't provide much shelter!

Perhaps our little home grown princesses could take a leaf from her book!

Fabulous customer service and great products

Crocs:

A couple of years ago I bought a pair of Croc slip slops and I just love them. They are comfortable; I can walk to shops in them, slop through puddles with no fear of spoiling them and do some gardening and hose them down if they are covered in mud.

A month or so ago I was doing some gardening; it started to rain so I left the slops on the front step – they were filthy – and promptly forgot all about them till the next evening when I got back from work. I kicked off my work shoes and tried to slip into the Crocs but my feet wouldn't fit in them….NO WAYS! Either my feet had suddenly grown a lot or slops shrunk. Yip, they shrunk.

I felt a bit miffed so I went onto the Croc website to get the ‘complaint’ contact info and then thought I would check the technical spec for Crocs and, lo and behold, it said (to paraphrase) ‘if you leave your Crocs in extreme heat they will shrink’….Extreme heat – Johannesburg? But they did warn me, albeit on the website. So I wrote to them anyway to tell them how accurate their information was – how true it is and that now I have fairy sized slip slops.

Within 24 hours I had a reply from the manager saying it must have been a really hot day and how they would love to replace them for me – free of charge…. I am now the proud owner of a brand new pair of Croc sandals…lovely!

Fortune Cookies:

Lisa put on a Metrogaine event last week. She always likes to do something special for her events – so for this one she decided to hand out fortune cookies to the participants.

She tracked down a guy who makes fortune cookies for a local Japanese restaurant. Within minutes he h

ad emailed her the prices for plain and chocolate covered ones. He told her she could choose her own fortunes – gave her an Excel template to type up the fortunes and said as soon as she sent this through plus the money she would get her cookies.

On a Thursday morning she sent through the order for 300 chocolate dipped cookies, her list of fortunes and the proof of payment. That same afternoon there was a buzz at the gate and there was the driver with 2 large boxes of cookies! Isn’t that amazing.

Needless to say we ate a few just to check that Lisa’s fortunes were there…yes they were and at the Metrogaine last week everyone enjoyed them…and the fortunes!

Creativity and other things

My mind has been heavy and I realised a month or so ago that this was because I am not making anything. I am not creating. I make gaiters and design patterns; and we are looking designs for sports clothes and day wear. But this doesn't quite make my creative bits twitch. My fingers have been twitching to get stuck into some ceramic work – but so far zilch has happened. Why? Probably because I have been tied up with other stuff. And probably because I needed to get my confidence back, my fingers in the clay and to ‘just do it’! It has been about 5 years after all….

So….last weekend I went to a ceramic workshop at the Pretoria Tech, given by ceramicist Cathy Brennon – whom I had met the previous weekend in Underberg . She lives and works there; she has a studio and gallery and makes amazing things. She mentioned the workshop to me and on my return to Johannesburg I signed up.

The workshop was really beneficial from the point that I re-learnt some things I had forgotten and learnt some really nice new things. Cathy is a great teacher and she explains her techniques well and is not shy about passing on and sharing some of her trade secrets – which is great! A really interesting part was listening to the questions from the other students (who were quite a formidable bunch of potters) and hearing the answers – either from Cathy or others in the group. But the really interesting and most beneficial thing was listening to Cathy talking about her experiences. She took a huge leap about 8 years ago to become a full time artist ie. gave up the day job. (And her husband Lawrence chucked in his day job at the same time and became a full time professional photographer – specializing in landscapes, mountains etc!) I think I should have said gi-normous leap!

Back to Cathy – In addition to talking about the journey to become a full time artist, and the journey since that decision, Cathy spoke about following your dream and doing what, deep down, makes you happy. She doesn't make it sound like a Hollywood movie – she tells quite a ‘sober’ story which makes her tale all that more inspiring – she is realistic about the difficulties of being a full time artist; and realistic about her successes (which are many). Most importantly, she really knows her stuff – she went back to university, she has attended many workshops and set about learning as much as possible – and she is still learning. I believe we all walked away with a lot more than we went in with. And she hands out really good advice which in itself is motivating.

Her words though, that stay with me relates to learning: Keep learning new things, perfect techniques, keep trying, practice, practice – and still you are going to have some dismal failures. Learn from them and keep trying. Improve your knowledge base all the time – how you do things, why you do them. Do the things you want to do; try new things; don’t work at the same old thing. Don’t work in isolation: you learn from others – mix with people who you can learn from. Get inspired and motivated from others.

But the most important thing Cathy said that really stuck was: 'Don’t make yourself unteachable.' And how easy is this to do? Well, we all kinda think we know ‘it’. We often feel a bit embarrassed about showing that we don’t actually know something, or are fearful that our ignorance will be seen by others; or worse still - go to a class and pretend we know ‘it’ all, making it very difficult to be taught. Sometimes our laziness or dare I say it, our arrogance precludes us from learning.

‘Don’t make yourself unteachable’ reminded me of an article I read about the selection process for the Bolshoi Ballet. A selector said (and I paraphrase) ‘we don’t always select the best dancers; we select the ones who can be taught.’

So get out there, learn, create and have a great deal of fun! And me? Yes, well: the little studio is cleaned, I have 2 bags of fresh clay and I have been practicing techniques learnt at Cathy’s workshop. Some of the things are going in the bin but I do have a couple of pieces worth saving! At the mo I have ideas popping into my head all the time...I am trying to write them in my little black book before they disappear! What a lovely feeling.

Its good to be back and I am having a lot of fun and enjoying the creative process – tremendously!

I have attached an article about Cathy which will appear in the Garden & Home on 12 may. Her Dream Boxes are fabulous – everyone should have one. They are beautiful.

Being Mindful

The other day I wrote a blog about being mindful. But it turned into a rant about how rude the cashiers are in supermarket; how you could be invisible because there certainly isn’t any eye contact and they continue with their conversations with the packers. And guess what? This is turning into another rant – definitely not what I had in mind for today.

What I do have in mind though, is about being focused; giving whoever or whatever your full and undivided attention.

And then, ‘voila’. This great quote popped up in my facebook page and it was titled Mindful Monday (author unknown)

“One of the ways in which you can take the stars from your eyes and really see another person is to simply listen to them, to give them the gift of your full, undivided attention without judgment or agenda. Don't think about how you might be able to help them or what you're going to say when they stop talking. Be receptive but not passive. Actively listen without being aware of being a listener."

Choo

On the subject of pretty things:

I subscribe to the Jimmy Choo newsletter – have done for about 2 years now. I get it about every 2 weeks and salivate and lust over the magnificent shoes and bags…. Before you ask why on earth I get this newsletter – I am going to tell you why.

During the early days of the TV series Sex and the City I was fascinated by SJP’s shoe fetish….I watched in awe as she tottered about on high, high heels with nothing more than a tiny little strap over the toes holding the shoes in place. How could she do this?

So, some years ago when I was in Harrods in London I nipped into the shoe department and tried on the shoes…. particularly Manalo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo. Some of them I could only look at on my feet (they were way too high to even attempt a step) and others I walked around in.

What is so special about these shoes that firstly cost a small fortune and secondly, I think, are coveted by so many, many women?

Well, they are like jewels – they are beautiful. They smell nice. They are made from exquisite fabric and leather. There is no tacky glue holding the glitzy bits on. The stitching is even and there are no loose ends. The strappy bits for ankles and toes are all in the right places…perfectly positioned so they don’t cut into your toes. The shape – the sole bit – fits your foot as if made for it…..it is in proportion so even with very high heels, your foot fits and you don’t end up with your whole foot wanting to slip into the toe bit and you clinging on for dear life with your toes. The shoes just fit....and look so, so good.

These shoes are magnificent! Jimmy and Manalo deserve every bit of their success.

The photo is from the Jimmy Choo website...one of his beautiful shoes.

Making things pretty

We have an elderly handy man who works at Bassline 2 or 3 days a week. There is lots to do – an old building needs lots of work done… electrical, plumbing, painting etc – he is worth his weight in gold and has saved us a small fortune.

But: he has absolutely no aesthetic sense whatsoever. He does things that drive me crazy.

For example: we use a deep red paint for some of the feature walls inside and outside the venues. He ran out of the paint and decided to mix his own red paint and went around blobbing this obviously different colour red on all that places that needed a touch up….so I told him (through gritted teeth) I thought the walls and pillars needed to repainted completely and he must get the proper colour from the hardware store…which he did and finished the job in double quick time. But he only painted up to about 2 metres and was quite happy to tell me that was ok and anyway he couldn’t do anymore because the paint had run out and people don't look up ... duh??? Scream!

Then we had to extend the bar counters – so good old Neil knocked something up out of wood, slapped on a coat of varnish (nothing matched the original bar!) and that was that. When I thanked him but suggested he paint the counters to match the rest he was horrified…

Him: This is good wood, lovely stuff....

Me: Nope, it's just pine and it doesn’t match the rest of the bar.

Him: It will be ruined if I paint it.

Me (now getting annoyed): It won’t be ruined – these things look like large coffins – please paint them to match the rest of the bar.

Him: No, I won’t ruin the wood.

Me, quite (well, very) loudly: Just make the bloody things look pretty for goodness sake.

To this day he can’t understand why I want something to look pretty…..whenever I ask him to make something I have to tell him over and over that it must look pretty…please, please! I can just imagine what he would say if I asked him to use the fabulous flower nails…

January Scribbles

11 in the Morning

A few months before I went off to do the Camino, Lisa gave me one of those fancy sports watches that are indestructible.

Part of the wrist band is of titanium and super doopa extra strength rubber, the face is shatterproof glass and it is so waterproof that I can dive to depths of 100m if I like. It also has nice date functions, multiple alarm settings and I can time my laps (what!!!). If I was crushed in a rock fall at least the watch would survive. I was very grateful for the watch and very pleased to see that Lisa had set it for me…it reflected the correct date, day and time.

Then of course, I started to fiddle…..you need to be a brain surgeon to work these things but I very smartly set the alarm to buzz at 11.00am and do you think I could work out how to ‘unset’ it…no, no,no. I knew the look on Lisa’s face would be too much to bear (you know how kids give you that look?) so I decided to live with it..

When I was on the Camino my 11 o’clock alarm was great. It was either time to move it along a bit, slow down or take a break – depended on where I was on the route. People walking with me also tuned into it and would comment when the alarm went off that we had better move it. One guy even set his alarm at 11h00. 11h00 is a nice mid-morning marker.

The alarm is still set and I run my days by it now. I mostly try to work my days along the lines of ‘eating the frog’ first thing in the morning – this gets all the mundane, grotty, boring jobs out the way, usually, hopefully; and then I have the time to provide a bit of real value to the job, usually, hopefully!

BTW there is a great little comedy piece on TED Talks by Rives called 4am. Link is here:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/rives_on_4_a_m.html

The Rhino Story

I am as appalled as the next person with the wholesale slaughter of our rhinos. In the last couple of weeks there have been outpourings of condemnation of the killings; the statistics for last year topped at way over 400 rhinos killed and at the beginning of the year, another 8 (and since then quite a few more) were found dead and de-horned in the Kruger Park; and if I am not mistaken, all in the same spot.

Apart from my feelings being rattled for these poor creatures, my feelings for what is being done about it are being rattled even more. I, like many others, click on the like button when something appears on facebook about this; I have signed petitions and shaken my head in horror and shame that us humans can be so stupid as to think that taking a bit or rhino horn will make big fat willies or cure cancer and AIDS.

But, and here’s the thing, we all say something must be done and I agree wholeheartedly. I, like many, many others, have contributed to various organisations that are flying the ‘Save the Rhino’ banner. And this is where I suddenly have a problem. Every uncle and his brother (maybe a slight exaggeration) and corporate and smaller companies have set up funds and NPO’s, NGO’s, to fight the scourge that is rhino poaching. And they are collecting money left right and centre for night vision goggles, WMD for fighting poachers, vehicles for tracking poachers and training course for trackers to track poachers; and it is possibly quite a s*&t load of money to fight this battle. There are billboards showing blood-soaked rhinos, there are bumper stickers, there are adverts on radio and TV advertising the campaigns to fight rhino poaching. Companies proudly say they have a Save the Rhino fund and Rx of your purchase goes towards this. Better yet: the SA Parks Board trotted out a figure of R400 million the other week that they reckon will be needed to fight the battle in Kruger…where does this figure come from? What is the plan? How did they get to this amount of money or was it just a big fat thumb suck?

Well, with tears in my eyes let’s face it: With all this support the situation is getting worse, by the week. More rhinos killed last year than ever before and 8, yes 8, in one week in one of our National Parks…good grief. So what the heck is actually happening with all these organisations and money and contributions, petitions and ‘like clicks’. And here’s another thing: Another of our most profitable natural resources (ito tourism, Big 5 etc) is being plundered by foreigners – because the big market place for this resource is outside of SA– sort of similar to the rape and plunder of our mineral resources by foreign powers in days gone by….

Moving on: Does anyone know how many organisations are out there fighting for the rhinos? Does anyone know how much money (or goods – vehicles, night goggles etc) has been raised by all these organisations? Does anyone actually know what they have done with it – I mean apart from a big advertising spend to tell everyone that they support the Rhino cause, the printing of bumper stickers and paying marketing and advertising agencies to come up with fancy logo’s and tag lines?

Is what they are doing effective……well, go figure! I certainly don’t think so – and certainly not based on last year’s results and the appalling slaughter that took place this week. Nope….whatever is happening is not doing a hell of a lot of good. It is extremely noble that people set up these things – we all feel passionate about this and are grateful that some good souls out there actually do something – but what are they doing?

We need a consolidated plan…everyone together …. with the various parks boards, private game parks, interested parties, trainee tracker schools, NPO’s, NGO’s etc etc . We need a person to take charge…just one person to take charge if this for the entire country; to put a crew together, consolidate all the efforts and come up with a proper plan, like a military campaign would be done…and then they must go for it – then I don’t mind handing over my money.