Chasing Noodles

Well,then I'm half way there. I have a very lovely little library, there are bird books,dictionaries, Spanish books, a Gandhi biography , Body for Life, some novels from book club, art books, photography books, an Argentina lonely planet, Roald Dahl , James Dean , Zulu/Xhosa books, some travel journals and a signed Edition of The Elephant Whisperer , to mention a few. It has always been my dream to have a room dedicated to books one day and I want my kids to be surrounded by books from the day they are born. The room needs to smell like books and have one of those fancy library ladders that you push and swing on from one side to the next.  Now, the garden part. Sigh. Just when I thought the orchid was my biggest task! There is a little spot outside our place that I recently had cleared with the intention of making it look pretty. That's as far as I got. Twinkle Toes has given me the amazing idea of creating a zen garden there, which I LOVE. Less plants, more stones and sa

A man who has at length found something to do will not need to get a new suit to do it in; for him the old will do, that has lain dusty in the garret for an indeterminate period. This is quoted from Henry David Thoreau, a Transcendentalist who was part of a movement in the 1830's and 40's. They believed in an inherent goodness in both man and nature and that any institutions or societies corrupted the purity of an individual. That is probably the most basic explanation ever given and it involves so much more than that, but it is the just of it. Very interesting. Anyway, back to the rule. As soon as you are required to change for something, you should first question if that is what you are willing to become. You shouldn't have to change for anyone, be it clothing or who you are. You need to decide what you are going to stand for and then stick to it. But if you need a new pair of stilleto's, by all means, go and get yourself a pair, or two. That won't hurt

Have you watched Julie and Julia ? After that movie, I even considered cooking for a while, but that quickly wore off. Julia Child, well the way they portray her in the movie is so completely fun and someone I would love to have had as a friend. I can totally picture her saying this. As I am sure you have picked up from my blog, I am not a fan of the word diet, although I am permantently starting some new "healthy eating" regime.  Tonight we went out for one of the most delicious meals I have had in a very long time. It was complete overindulgence and I feel like I could die from over eating, but what an amazing night. We laughed till we cried, shared wine, told stories and just embraced the evening with both arms. Now if any of us had been on a diet, it really would not have been the same. It was an evening of indulgence and it was incredible. can't wait to do it again. Diet-shmiet I say! Thank you Original, Karmen and Punk Rocker. :)

I don't want to eat tomatoes. I don't want to feel broken hearted. I don't want to cut my hair. I don't want to miss opportunities. I don't want to have TimTams alone on the balcony. I don't want to stop painting and I really don't want listen to my head anymore.   How do I know all this? Because I have experienced it and from there made a decision that I didn't like it, moving me closer to what I do like. I now know that I like creamy tomato soup, I like me best with long hair instead of short, I love sharing TimTams on the balcony. I want to paint, often. I will hear my head out, but will go with what my heart says.  Most importantly, I will take each and every opportunity. This way, I keep learning what I do and don't want!

hahaha    (very typical laughter, it's usually triple 'ha', not double) hehehe  (sound a bit more 'polite' than hahaha) ha… ha… ha…  (sarcastic) hihihi  (gigling) ahahaha  (got popular after a TV series character who used to laugh this way) ehehehe  (same as hehehe) eki eki  (used in comics, especially as the oldie way laughter) keh keh/kah kah  (sneaky-ish lughter) muhaha  (evil laughter) nihaha  (evil laughter) jajajajajaja (laugh in Spanish) haha (any plain laughter) hehe (more hissing) hihi (giggling) hoho (Santa Claus style) höhö (ironic) moahaha (the evil one) eheh (embarrassed)

I'm using this rule today. I don't feel like getting out of bed. So I'm not gonna. It's cold outside, I'm feeling a little fragile and my feet hurt from all the dancing last night. I think that's reason enough to stay in bed. Oh, and I have a TV in my room now. Sorted. Now I just need a cup of tea.  If you do something when you don't really feel like doing it, you going to do it half heartily. So it's best, if you can, to delay it until you are in the mood for it.  

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Noun 1. green fingers  - a special ability to make plants grow green thumb metier ,  speciality ,  speciality ,  forte ,  strong point ,  strong suit ,  long suit ,  strength  - an asset of special worth or utility; "cooking is his forte" Day 1 For as long as I can remember I have been completely useless at gardening, I think it was mainly because I had zero interest in it. There were always plants in the house and our gardens while growing up were spectacular, but how they managed to stay alive and grow was never of any interest to me. Then I moved out the house while studying and bought my first plant. It lasted a month or so before it died. After that, in a moment of madness, my roommates and I decided we needed fish. Mine was the first to die, he lasted a day before my roommates fish ate both of ours, only to die himself two days later. So from then I promised myself I was in no place to look after anything in the plant or fish kingdom.  Six years ago I m

First of all, YAY for reaching rule 100 without quitting. This is a big deal! Only 518 more to go, yikes. Thank you to all of you that take the time to read Suze, I know I can talk a lot of rubbish sometimes, but I hope you get a laugh or two out of it.  Okay, back to the rules!  Judge Randolph : *Consider yourself in Contempt!*  Kaffee : *Colonel Jessep, did you order the Code Red?*  Judge Randolph : You *don't* have to answer that question!  Col. Jessep : I'll answer the question!  [ to Kaffee ]  Col. Jessep : You want answers?  Kaffee : I think I'm entitled to.  Col. Jessep : *You want answers?*  Kaffee : *I want the truth!*  Col. Jessep : * You can't handle the truth !*  [ pauses ]  Ah yes, we all know it well. "A Few Good Men" , when Jack Nicholson sets it straight with ol' Tom. We all held our breath as he paused before delivering one of his best performances yet. But yes, that is how life is, sometimes the truth sucks and it

Charles Darwin said in his opinion all  species  of life have descended over time from  common ancestors ,   and that this  branching pattern  of  evolution  resulted from a process that he called  natural selection . Galileo said the Earth moves from the evidence of the tides. These are just two well known individuals who both had ideas that were unheard of in their times.  Galileo studied the universe by looking through his telescope, then realized that the Earth revolves around the sun. This was opposite of what the Catholic Church had been teaching, so he was punished for treason and was to be confined to his home. The Church didn't admit that they were wrong until many, many years after Galileo passed away. Although his ideas differed from everyone else's, he kept his foot down because he knew he was right. To this day, you ask anyone who Galileo or Charles Darwin is and they will know. Yes their ideas were eccentric, but imagine they never went through with it,

You are the hole in my head You are the space in my bed You are the silence in between What I thought and what I said You are the night time fear You are the morning when it's clear When it's over, you will start You're my head, you're my heart

... It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things." Now this is a rule I can relate to. I am best when not thinking, ask any of my friends, haha. Being spontaneous is one of my things. Sometimes it can get me into a lot of trouble, but most of the time it's the best thing ever. I have friends that cannot understand how I do it or why I do it, but when I tell them the stories afterwards, they wish they had done it too. As soon as you start thinking about it, you start analyzing things. If i did that, what would happen? If I didn't, what then? Then you start to doubt yourself and you end up just wasting your time and having no fun in the end. As an artist, thinking is possibly the worst thing you can do while trying to be creative. Being creative comes from deep within, and by thinking you shut all that out and then you might as well just draw a stick figure.  Try it today. Just don't

996km's, twelve and half hours in the car, Cape Town - Knysna/ Knysna - Cape Town, four road blocks and about twenty four traps, eight road work stop and go's, one hour long stop to clear an accident, two tanks of petrol, three coffee's and one gigantic play, 5.9 billion thoughts of which about seven were actually useful, one meeting and at least ninety two different species of bugs on my bumper.  Exhausted... Sleep... Now...

It really is that simple. It's a conscious choice. Be involved in the parade where you risk getting sun burnt, rained on, knocked off the float or having a wardrobe malfunction, or you could just watch the parade go by right in front of you and when you look again, you still in the same place.  Sure, by joining the parade the risk of something going wrong is so much higher, but it's so much more exciting. So you have to weigh it up. Do you want to be safe in your little section on the side of the road, or do you want to get involved and have some fun, and maybe fall down, but then learn how to get back up onto your feet again?  There is nothing wrong with you if you choose to watch, but if I can ask you, just once, to grab a costume and a some feathers and give the parade a bash. If you hate it, I promise I will still wave to you from the float as we go by next time because I will know that you at least tried. ;)

This comes from a photographer named Henri Cartier - Bresson and if you need a different explanation of this, he puts it even more beautifully:  "It is the events happening around us that create the rhythm of an image and that the photographer has to work in harmony with that rhythm to be able to capture the moment when the form fits the subject matter." I have to tell you, for a very long time now I have wanted to become the "best" photographer in the world and to hear a quote like this just makes me smile from ear to ear. When I'm taking photo's it's like I go into a whole new world where everything is beautiful through the lens and nothing can upset me. Getting that perfect photo is like winning the lottery , the non-corrupt version of course. It's a feeling in the pit of your stomach that nothing else can compare to.  Sorry, got carried away there. Life and photography are really quite similar. There is normally a split second that y

... and questioning what seem to be the absurd beliefs of another group is a good way of recognizing the potential absurdity of many of one's beliefs. Suze Original and I have this thing we do. You know when you talking and you mess up, like, stumble on a word, or when you get something stuck in your throat and you make a funny noise, you normally try cover it up and the other person would normally pretend they didn't hear it. We call each other out on it and if someone did that to you, you would die of embarrassment but we both end up killing ourselves laughing. Being able to laugh at yourself is awesome and being able to laugh at someone without them getting all up in your face can show a great amount of character from them.  The other day a documentary caught my attention called "Oh my God" by Peter Rodger .  "Oh My God" asks people from all walks of life, from celebrities, to the religious, to atheists and the common Man - the question - "

I wasn't quite sure how to go about this rule without upsetting someone so instead, I decided to check out who wrote it. This quote comes from a man named Billy Wilder, who originally wanted to become a lawyer (luckily not with commandments like these, haha) but instead took up a job at a local newspaper which then lead to him becoming an incredibly famous Hollywood screen writer.  The film names mentioned are completely foreign to me, except for "The seven year itch" but I am sure if I ask my mom she will know exactly what they talking about. What really got my attention though was his trade marks in each movie. This is the kind of guy I would have loved to meet. I mean, someone that writes screenplays called "Ball of fire" with a  Sexy, wisecracking nightclub singer Sugarpuss O'Shea who is a hot tomato who needs to be kept on ice, or "Some like it Hot" with  Sugar Kane Kowalczyk (Marilyn Manroe) how can he not have been fun. Each movie kep

First things first, happy Worker's Day everyone. Hope you all had a restful day and enjoyed the day off. I just found out the origin of Worker's Day, very hectic actually. You should go have a read if you don't already know the story here ...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers'_Day Today also marked one year since a very heart breaking event in my life. Sometimes life can be pretty unfair, but after a while you realise there was a reason life did that. And you learn from it. You learn things about yourself, about others, and sometimes it even makes you begin to learn the meaning of being humbled. At the time, I was sad, angry at myself, angry at them, and completely despondent.  Today, one year later, I climbed a mountain, but it was much more than that for me. It was climbing out of my slump, out of my silly routine and up to a new place. As I stood on the top of Lion's Head today, a massive rush of relief came over me. As unfit as I was, I ma