I hate chit chat. Possibly with an unreasonable passion. And of course this makes me feel like I am a bad person, but I can’t help it. It’s boring! I get that it has its place in real life society. I do. It’s polite to ask your father-in-law how he is. It’s an awkward silence filler to complain/rave about the weather.

Social media and technology have taken this pet hate of mine to a whole new level.

Let me be brutally honest here. This is what happens when most people contact me, ESPECIALLY if it is via Whatsapp/FB chat/sms.

You: Hi

(I roll my eyes and swear, but I am usually polite so I answer)

Me: Hi

You: How are you (or worse: HRU)

Me: I’m fine. How are you?

You: Good

(I don’t respond)

You: What you up to?

Me: I’m talking to you.

You: Lol! No man!

*tearourhairgocrazy*

SERIOUSLY! Now how much time has passed? For what? To say hi how are you and what are you doing? You are not interested in how I am or what I am doing. You are: BORED. And you are stealing MY time because you have nothing else to do.

Now this thing is this: I don’t mind if you come to me because you need to talk. But talk. PLEASE for the love of god. Come to me and say “Hey I know I haven’t spoken to you ever but xyz and abc”. Get to the point. Immediately. I do not find it rude for you to say: Hey Nades I need your help/can I ask you something/do you have so-and-so’s contact details for me/I think your friend blah-blah is adorable can you set us up.

Is it just me who feels this way? I really am starting to wonder if I am not simply becoming cantankerous in my advanced age…

I think there was a point to this post but I can no longer remember what it was…

So I’ve started putting together a bucket list and I imagine I will be adding to it periodically. Do you have a bucket list? What is on it? I’m considering adding things that I have already done to my list… You know… So I can feel like I am getting somewhere… Or at least I can feel like I have gotten somewhere in the past. Is that cheating?

I know there is supposed to be something profound to say here…I just can’t figure out what it is. I kind of keep waiting for crisis to strike. You know…surely I should be taking stock and figuring out where I’ve gone wrong so far and all that. But I kind of do that all the time. Milestones need not apply.

So what now?

Well…I’m not sure. I still don’t feel much older than 18.  The fact that I have a kid and have been married twice already seems rather insane. I have finished and published my first book but I have still never owned a car. I have been overseas a couple of times but my bucket list destinations have not yet been conquered.

Perhaps THAT is what I need to do. I should make a Bucket List. Because everyone is doing? Well, no, not because of that. Because it’s a good idea. And because the only goal I set for “before I turn 30″ was the only one I achieved.

So perhaps there is a little bit of magic to  be found in making these kinds of decisions. People keep telling us that there is something special about writing stuff down.

And I am, after all, a writer. Writing a Bucket List should be a breeze.

Here’s to the next ten years. May there be way less heartbreak than the last ten, and a lot more soul food. Every end brings with it a new beginning. I’m not sure if it’s age or luck…but I’m feeling pretty good about this one…

So this one time I wrote this book about a bunch of people and it was really fun doing it so I’d really like to write another one sometime.

So a little while ago I entered a Valentine’s Day competition and then completely forgot about it…until Monday when I got a message telling me that I had won a Valentine’s Dinner and a night in the honeymoon suite at The Kelway Hotel…

So yesterday was filled with heart shaped choccies and and googly goofiness. Kind of silly of course but it was a happy day. It’s  crazy what a night away from home does for your soul. Ty and I took a walk along the beachfront with some ice cream. We took a long bath and dressed up and ate wonderful food and got to spend the night in the coziest room.

It was delightful! Definitely the best Valentine’s Day ever.  (more…)

So I realize that single people have the monopoly on hating this day. I get it. All that Bridget Jones-type angst about being alone on a day full of hearts and kisses? How loathsome  and pathetic, right? Um…no…

I am one of those people who is actually happier single. I really am. And this is perhaps not a nice thing to say – I do love my fiance with all of me and have no intention of leaving him – but I just do single better! I am GOOD at single. I do love ol’ Bridget (when her character is not being butchered by Renee Zellwhatsit) and she always makes me smile – but really? There is no stress in being single for me. None. But relationships? Mothing fucking god I swear relationships were created and then doubly blessed by Satan himself! And relationships are what make Valentine’s Day so bloody awful! (more…)

Hello Friends!!

I hope you are all settling comfortably into the new year.

After a rollercoaster of a year in 2011 my goals for 2012 are two-fold.

1.) Get married
2.) Finish my second novel

Now since very little help can be offered to anyone suffering from editors block, I was hoping that a few of you might be willing to help me out with the first one.

Ty and I have been engaged for a year and a half now. Initially we had planned to get married last year but finances would just not allow for it. And, let’s face it, I was in writer’s la-la-land. Wedding planning does not happen when your brain has turned inside out from insanely attempting to “give this writer’s thing a go”.

Anyway, we are not planning on having a huge wedding or anything like that, but we would like to be able to take a little bit of a honeymoon when we finally do get around to tying the knot. And that is where you come in. (more…)

I almost started writing this post last night but then felt that perhaps I should wait until the conclusion of the story before setting off on a tangent.

Right now I am on the floor of my bedroom lying on a deflating blow-up mattress while I write this. It’s not the most comfortable seat in the house, but it’s ok because I am not upset anymore. The tears I shed this morning have dried up and I’m happy with today’s progress. (more…)

So it seems that I am starting the new year on a sour note. Perhaps this should bother me since, like everyone else, I too have been looking forward to 2012. I do however feel that far too few of us actually stand up for ourselves when it comes to the things that bother us and I figure that if I have to be a victim of circumstance I am most certainly not going to suffer in silence.
It’s hard to know where to even start with a complaint such as the one I would like to put forward. I keep thinking that I should just leave it alone and “get over it” because that’s just the way it is, but I do also feel that apathy could play quite a huge part in the downfall of this country. And so I feel I should speak up.
My problem is this: Recently I bought a bed from the Greenacres, Port Elizabeth branch of Joshua Doore. After searching for beds on the internet for a bit and being rather appalled at the seven to seventeen grand pricetags on the brand that I wanted I had sort of put the thought aside for a while, but an impromptu visit to Joshua Doore one morning changed my mind. They had a bed for four thousand rand, and it was exactly what I wanted. Feeling rather desperate to change beds (the one I had was hurting my back) I decided that I should just get the thing on terms and pay it off as quickly as possible. I figured once the holiday season was over it wouldn’t be such a big deal. (more…)

So I’ve been a bad blogger lately. Actually…I’ve been a bad everything lately. These jolly books of mine arrived on my doorstep and I feel like since then I have been in a bit of a coma. I still have a ton of thank you posts to write. Hopefully they will still happen!

Would you believe that one week spent in Molteno and I feel like somehow I am a new person? It’s crazy how little switches in your mind work that way. How can I possibly describe how special that place is. It’s a week later now and I still feel smiley and refreshed.

First of all, my darling friend Meggin insisted on throwing me a book launch. I did nothing! I simply arrived like the queen, signed some books and ate a bunch of snacks made by some of the church ladies. Madness! It was so wonderful. And it was so nice to have so much support from the people in the town I grew up in. (more…)