This is not a blog about parrots or work

It has been six weeks since my last blog post.  Not because I haven't had anything to write, but because I have had a lot to write but an online blog didn't seem like the appropriate place.

Firstly, this is not going to become a blog about parrots.  But my cutie pie African Grey parrot has stolen my heart, as well as most of my free time.  Most of the cute and funny and absurd things going on in my life revolve around Jack, and like I said .... I do not want to turn this into a blog about my pet.  I am still working out how I can balance having a pet and a life, but for right now Captain Jack Sparrow is pretty much one of my only sources of joy.

Now that I have already brought him up, I suppose I feel obligated to give a quick update on his progress:

He is now 4 months old, and wow ... he has grown up so much in the 2 months that we have had in.  He is now officially weaned off porridge and eats pellets and fruit and vegetables.  He doesn't like bathing too much, so we are still working on that.  He is over his cuddly stage, but we discovered that he will sit quietly for ages and let you rub his head and beak.  He really seems to like that.  He has gotten over his shyness, and if he is left along for longer than 1 or 2 minutes, will follow you around the house to see where you are. His flying is doing well, but he doesn't seem to realise that he can fly up from the ground.  All off his flying is as a result of jumping off from a height (usually his open cage).  Still no talking, we will probably have to wait at least 2 more months before he will start saying words and even longer for him to be able to use them in context.  But his monkey impression is really doing well.

Okay, now that my "Jack talk" is out the way, I can come back to why I haven't written in a while.

The second reason that I have not written in a while, is that the last 2 months have been extremely challenging weeks at work. This is not a blog about my job (although I'll admit a lot of my funny stories in the past have come from things that happened at work).  Which reminds me of something: If you are trying to argue a point, always make sure that use correct grammar and spelling. Because your use of an incorrect word will seriously undermine what you are trying to say.  Case in point: a client who writes "don't insult my intelligents".  Yeah, if you wanted me to take you seriously, you probably should have spelled intelligence right.

And the third reason why I have not written in a while is that I am a person who likes to focus on the good and funny things that happen every day. At the end of the day, no matter what happened, I am usually able to take a step back and find the one really good or hilariously funny thing that happened and make that my focus.  Over the last few weeks, I've had a lot of sad news, a lot of bad news, and I've been really down.  And when I am down, inspiration to write is hard to find.

Well, before this post gets too depressing, let me end of by saying that no matter how much life has been getting me down lately, I remain in hope that every cloud has its silver lining, and every storm is followed by a rainbow.

Captain Jack Sparrow

Yes, its been a while since I have written a post. But I have a good reason. 3 weeks ago, I got this little guy and he has been keeping me and Anton super busy.

Jacks first day.

His favourite toy becomes the chopsticks

Looking back, its amazing how much he has grown up in the last 3 weeks.  He is getting more confident everyday with his climbing, has just learnt that he can fly (he still has many crashes but he is getting there) and I am sure that any day now he will finally realise that apples are food, not toys (I'll be glad when we don't have to spoon feed him porridge anymore).

Because he is a Congo African Grey, he will only start talking when he is about a year old, although he may say his first word around 6 months.  In the last week or so, he has started making the cutest noises though, like R2D2 imitating a monkey imitating a frog.  Sometimes it sounds like he is just about ready to start talking any day now, but I know he probably still very far away from that.

Jack learns how to hold something with his foot for a better grip. 

Jack has mixed feelings about the parrot in the mirror. Sometimes he likes to cuddle, sometimes he tries to bite. We'll see where the relationship goes.

Helping to choose a movie to watch

African Grey's need a lot of time out of the cage everyday - around 2 - 3 hours.  Being that Anton and I work full time, from the moment I get home until Jack goes to sleep, Jack gets his "out of cage time".  That also means that we spend our whole evenings hovering over him, making sure he stays away from wires and other dangerous goods. Parrots poop every 20 - 30 minutes, which means we have to clean up after him all the time (if we're vigilant we will notice his "poop dance" and get him to the newspaper first).  And now that he has learnt to fly, we can't even leave him unsupervised on his perch like we used to cos he will jump off and get himself into mischief.

No Jack, buttons aren't toys...

No Jack, knobs aren't toys...

Jack learns how to climb. On everything.

They also have sensitive respiratory systems.  Which means that we have had to replace all our household cleaners with bio-friendly cleaners.  I suppose this is a good change to make, but why does everything eco-friendly have to be so expensive?  

And did I mention how much extra dust we have now?  Hence we also bought an air purifier and I have to dust every second day. 

Jack discovers the craze of taking selfies.

   

But despite all the extra work and all the attention he needs, ultimately he is so rewarding.  Its amazing watching him grow and figure things out, seeing how confident he is becoming.

An unexpected visit from Mr Krab

So, I'm home alone on a Saturday afternoon having just made a spectacular batch of apple fritters, when I hear a scratching noise.  Thinking that something fell, I ignored it the first time. And the second time. But after a while I realised something was not right.

Someone lurking in my house? I was about to find out. Armed with the fork I was using to eat my fritters, I went out to investigate. The scratching noise was coming from behind the lounge door.  I quickly looked behind it, not sure what I was expecting to find. A crab was the last thing I would have thought. But that is what it was.

Not the best photo - this one was taken on my phone. But here he is lurking in the corner.

After a panicked phonecall to my boyfriend and some moral support from my friends who I immediately messaged, I armed myself with a wooden spoon, an oven mitt and a tuppaware. The phrase "its more scared of you than you are of it"* came to mind as he put up its pincers in a defensive pose and tried to scurry away. But I got him into the tuppaware. I'm not going to lie though, I screamed like a little girl more than once.

Check out that defensive pose.

So after deciding he was too small to turn into a meal**, I threw him over the fence hoping he would be happier near the river and leave me alone .

Gosh ... my nerves were shot after that.  I decided to calm myself and paint my nails.  So, here I am sitting on the couch with my nails drying and messaging my brother the whole crazy story. When suddenly I hear a noise against the tin I keep my nail polish in. "Haha ...", I think to myself, "Now, I'm totally paranoid". Only I look down and the crab is looking up at me. 

Yes. I did scream like a little girl again.

I mean, what the heck. I can understand it accidentally crawling into my house once. But twice? That's some crazy crab.

So, I load Mr Krab*** back into the tuppaware. But suddenly my fear took a hold of me and I just kind of stared at him for the longest time wondering what I was going to do now.  And let me just say that crabs do make a noise. A kind of freaky clicking sound.

Mr Krab giving me the evil eye

Check out those pincers.

So this time I decided I am throwing him straight into the river. Only when I got to the fence, I realised that even on my best day, I would not be brave enough or precise enough to manage to throw him high enough to clear the barb wire and land in the river.  Plan B, I managed to drop him over the wall into the field.  I ran inside and closed all the doors.  He is not getting in here a third time.

The moral of the story is that even with all my manic screaming, my neighbours were not concerned enough to see if I was okay.

Well, I am definitely not getting any sleep tonight.  I can still hear the clicking noise he was making replaying in my mind.

A quick internet search leads me to believe that Mr Krab is a Brown Freshwater Crab.  I found a story of a woman who found one in her swimming pool after very heavy rains, even though she lives a kilometer from a river and behind a wall.  These little things are tricky fellows.

Is it just me, or does he look a bit cute in this picture.

* I don't think that's necessarily true. I was pretty scared. And screamed like a little girl. And hyperventilated a little bit.

**Don't worry, I wasn't really contemplating eating it.  I could never eat anything that looked up at me with those big eyes.

***Naming the crab is my brothers birthday present (its his birthday today). You're welcome Stewart, I know its the best birthday present ever.

Surviving Winter, Enjoying Spring

Winter seems finally on its way out and Spring seems to have arrived.  This winter has been long and cold and wet, the worst winter that I can remember. But I say that every year. So either winter is getting worse every year or I just have a terrible memory.

Winter 2013 was made bearable by some of my favourite winter things:

1: My Travel Mug and Jennifer Mug: they keep my tea warmer for longer, and my travel mug has been especially useful in keeping my hands warm in the morning on the way to work. Although I guess gloves would have had the same effect.

2. My hand painted gumboots (painted by yours truly and seen here in my garden which is severely overgrown after all the rain this winter). Although they are NOT warm, I always get to work with dry feet and I am pretty sure the worst thing in the world is having wet socks the whole day.  I wouldn't know, cos my boots always keep me dry.  I do have to carry a change of shoes for the office though, which can be a bit annoying, but its a small price to pay.

3. My Bio-Fuel fireplace.  Okay, its looks a bit unruly here, but there is nothing like a little fireplace to make you feel instantly warm and cosy.

And Spring brings some of nature's own awesomess:

This cute little duck family I have been watching grow - this photo was taken a few weeks ago and I am pleased to report that all 6 ducklings survived the winter rains and are growing up so fast.

Spring also brings with it flowers that come up in the most unexpected places sometimes. Although this also brings with it hay fever and sinus problems for me, seeing this jasmine flower on the barb wire fence at the end of my garden has really filled me with hope.

Fun Facts About Wednesdays

Wednesdays suck as far as days of the week go (If you need to see why again, you can view the reasons I listed here).

But as I was listening to the radio today, I heard that statistically fewer accidents happen on Wednesdays than any other day of the week. So if you are going to be alive at the end of the day, its more likely to happen on a Wednesday.

Wednesday is associated with the colour green apparently. Not sure who decides which colours belong with which days of the week, but green is a nice neutral colour, its kind of calming.  According to research I did on the internet*, the colour green is favoured by well-balanced people. However this same article also says that Green is associated with Fridays. Confused much?  Also green is associated with jealousy so not sure what that does to the well-balanced theory.

Apparently, women look their worst every Wednesday at 15h30. This is because (a) Wednesdays are the  most stressful days of the week, and by Wednesday afternoon energy levels plummet.  And (b) its because people drink more on Sundays and this takes about 72 hours to work through your system plus people sleep worse on Mondays and this affects you on a Wednesday. Its all very serious and scientific.  You can read the article here because I know I did a bad job of summarising the facts: http://seriousfacts.com/women-look-their-oldest-every-wednesday-at-330pm/.  

Wednesdays are the best day of the week to ask for a raise at work.  Or any other favour I guess.  According to more research I did on the internet, in a survey of 1,500 bosses, most revealed they were more receptive to requests a Wednesday. On Mondays they are too busy preparing for the week ahead and by Thursday and Friday they are thinking about the weekend.**

Um ... bad news though, same article says that most car accidents happen on a Wednesday.  So maybe not such a good day for staying alive?  

As per the childhood rhyme we all know and love, Wednesday's child is full of woe***.

Wednesday is spelled kind of weird though: "Wed-nes-day", and I hate it when words have silent letters.  Like, what is the point. Actually, I've written Wednesday so many times in this post that I'm beginning to doubt its spelling.  Or that its a real word.  But I digress ... Wednesday comes from the Old English word “wodnesdaeg.” or "Woden's day". Some sources link Woden to Odin, but actually Woden was either an Anglo-Saxon god, or an important king.  I'm not sure which and I can't be bothered to fact check that.

Wednesday is associated with the planet Mercury. You can see this association in a number of the Romance languages such as Spanish (Miercoles) and French (Mercredi).

And in other languages ...

The German name for the day, Mittwoch, literally translates to “mid-week,”
In Portugeuse it’s called Quarta-fiera, or “fourth day.” (I guess their week starts on Sunday)

In Scandinavian countries in "Onsday" which means "Odin's day" which puts a spin on the whole Odin/Woden debate.

And last but not least ... Wednesday is known as the hump day, cos once its done you are over the "hump" of the week.  Ofcourse, this can only be celebrated once the day is over.  Which it is now.

And that is all.

*Gotta love Google.  I don't know how I did research projects when I was in school without the internet or Google.

**I have to remember this next time I want to bombard my boss. Or when I need to borrow money from someone.  I got my facts here, so don't blame me if it doesn't work out for you.

*** Apparently this is where Wednesday Adams (from Adams family) got her name.

Things I do to myself that annoy me

So, I've been thinking a lot this week about things that annoy me ... and the more I thought about it, the longer the list was getting.  So, instead of focusing on how annoying people are, I thought instead about the things on my list that were self inflicted.  My thinking is that maybe if I can work on these things, then there will be fewer things in the world than annoy me.

What are self-inflicted annoyances?  Well, I don't mean that I will be avoiding annoying people or annoying situations (like work or the train*), but more like I will stop doing the things that I do that annoy myself.

I have 3 to start, which seems like a good number to work on for now:

1. I will stop walking into everything and tripping over everything. Because gosh its annoying to hurt myself on a daily basis by walking into my desk at work. And its super annoying that I constantly have fresh bruises from walking into every possible obstacle.  And I am tired of tripping over my boots constantly**.
So number one on my list is to stop being so clumsy all the time.

2. I will stop missing the train by 30 seconds every day.  Every morning as I walk to the station, and just as i get to the top of the road I watch the train ride into the station.  Too far away for me to make a run for it.  And its just so annoying, if I had left home 2 or 3 minutes earlier ... sigh. The thing is, that it happens to me almost every day.
So number two on my list is to time my mornings better.

3. I will stop procrastinating on my drawing/painting/crafts.  I have a file of ideas, a number of unfinished sketches and about 5 empty canvases.  And why? Because if I have free time in the evening and on weekends, I spend it (a) in front of the tv knitting, (b) playing computer games or (c) doing chores.   Yes, its important to do chores, and there is nothing wrong with playing games and watching a little TV.  But I need to stop putting off being bring productive.  Either that or I need to stop buying art and craft supplies.
So number three on my list is to dedicate a few nights a week to "art time", and finally get some projects going.

Yes, I do have lots of other things that annoy (a) me and (b) other people.... like, I am terrible at keeping in contact and I never call when I say I will.  I swear a little more than I like, and I am not terribly tidy***.   But hey, at least its a start.

So tomorrow, I will sit down and make a schedule for getting up in the morning and organise my evenings.  My goal for tonight is not to walk into the coffee table again.

*Aaaargghhhh ... cos the train was delayed SO many times last week, but as its my mode of transportation to work, I can't really avoid it.  Although if I did I would be avoiding two annoyances at once... hmmmm...
** And its not like I have my boots out in the middle of the room.  They are in a corner in my "boot spot". I really have to go out of my way to walk near enough to them to trip over them.  That's what makes it so annoying.
*** Yeah, that's an understatement... I know.

Random Facts

Every day my twitter feed updates me with random and often useless facts. Here are some things I have learned over the past couple of weeks:

Buzz Aldrin's mother's maiden name was "Moon".

Humpback whales have best friends

All cattle and deer sleep with their heads pointing north

There is a dinosaur named after Harry Potter

Death Star from Star Wars would cost about $852,000,000,000,000,000 if humans try to build it in real world.

A condom can be used to carry 1 litre of water.

The International Space Station is the most expensive object ever constructed, costing about $150 billion USD.

Over 98 % of Norway's electricity comes from renewable energy

Pumpkin is not a vegetable, scientifically it is a berry.

I don't know what I'll ever do with this information. I'm not even sure that most of it is interesting.  Except for the fact about the Death Star.  I think that the US should stop spending money on the International Space Station and start plans for a Death Star.

How I forgot to iron a shirt

Okay so here is the story ...

A few years ago I used to wear a uniform to work. At the time, I didn't have a washing machine.  So everyday I would handwash my shirts. And as of that wasn't a pain enough, I would also have to iron them. But I got pretty used to the routine and I could iron a shirt within 5 minutes. I'm guessing. I never actually times myself, but it seemed fast.

But I stopped working in the hotel industry almost 3 years ago, and I haven't had to iron a shirt since.  My boyfriend wears shirts to work, but the hotel where he worked at offered an unheard of service to their staff where they would wash and iron their shirts.  Maybe it was only because he was management. Either way, the iron hasn't been used much in a while.

He started a new job though, so there is no more laundry service and the iron looks like it is about to get used again.  The other day he was on his way home from work and he called me to ask if I could iron the white shirt on the washing line.

So .... I go to the washing line and there are 2 white shirts and I think to myself, "heck, I'll iron them both and save him the trouble ... won't that be nice of me".

20 minutes later I am still ironing the first shirt when he walks in the door.  Now, it didn't take me 20 minutes because I am overly perfectionist or anything.  I just honestly have forgotten how to iron.  I iron creases in, then I had to iron them out again. The sleeves were a nightmare. Gosh.  He was going to be lucky just to have the one shirt done.

And then he says to me, "Thanks .... but that's the wrong shirt".

Sigh ... apparently he has a shirts which are "just for work" and shirts which are "not for work".  How was I supposed to know.  Shame, he did look a bit sheepish when he told me. Especially when I probably gave him an extremely pained expression back.

Tomorrow is Monday and the shirts are washed and on the line, so there will be more ironing later.  I wonder how we will decide how to split up the housework later. I hope I don't pull ironing duty.

Road Trip Day 6 and 7: Kimberley and The Drive Home

After our relaxing weekend in Kruger, we were up early on Monday morning (4am - ouch) so that we could take our long drive to Kimberley. It was a chilly and misty morning, but the afternoon was long and hot and the road was flat with the most boring scenery.

We spent the night at a friends house, and had a good braai with some fun conversation.  And we had the best night sleep of our entire road trip.

The next day we headed to The Big Hole at Kimberley.  What an awesome place.  They have set up the street to look how it did at the height of the diamond rush.  They also have set up a 'mine experience' so mimic how it is in the mines - along with random explosions.  Really enjoyed our stop there.

Then we hit the road again ... we were due to spend the night at Beaufort West, the halfway point between Kimberley and Cape Town.  But just as we were about to hit Beaufort West we decided to drive straight home instead ... although we had a good trip and saw some awesome places, we were starting to miss home a bit.

All in all, it was an awesome experience.

Road Trip Day 5: Exploring Graskop

After another leisurely morning, I had an awesome massage at the African Day Spa at the hotel - overlooking the national park.  Then we headed out to Graskop to see God's Window and Lisbon Falls.