Message Sessions III

Dear Department of Home Affairs

You better send me my new ID soon. The fact that you misprinted my ID and never let me know about it doesn’t put you in my good books… not to mention the inconvenience of having to fill in the forms again and getting that annoying black ink all over my fingers for prints. You better not mess up again, or there’ll be hell to pay. Why can’t you just get your sh*t together?!

Fed up,

A hard-working tax payer (likely helping to pay your salary!)

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Dear movie people who determined the release dates of films

I read THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy at the beginning of last year and have been eagerly anticipating the release of the first film since then. However, for some or other reason, it only starts showing in South Africa on the 13^th of April!! Now I have to try and avoid reading people’s tweets, reviews, memes et cetera for the next two and a half weeks. I don’t know why the release dates for films as greatly anticipated as this one need to differ from country to country (read: for us not living in the US), but just know that you have really ticked me off. And then you wonder why so many people download pirated versions of films…

Disdainfully,

An annoyed filmgoer

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Dear writers of dystopian novels

I love you. There’s no better way of putting it.

Warm regards,

An avid reader

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Dear work/job

Thanks for not accumulating while I was away for the last week and a half. It’s nice to think that all the e-mails I came back to this morning were only general updates/admin and the like. Now if only we could arrange for a salary increase with the new contract I received this morning… I don’t particularly want to be jobless from the 1^st of April, but I also feel all the hard work I put in is worth more than I’m getting. Don’t worry – I’m sure we’ll work something out. I think I’ll go crazy if I have to sit at home, unemployed, with nothing to do with my time… unless I start a little home bakery… or the whole book review blog idea picks up.

Gratefully,

Obsessive-compulsive workaholic

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Dear Significant Other

Thanks for the few ‘lunch dates’ while I was on leave, for helping me download books to read, for making me laugh when I felt bored/depressed/listless, for watching CONAN THE ADVENTURER with me (and enjoying it!)… and for just being you. Oh, and for reinstalling/fixing my laptop – you always know best *haha*

Oodles of love,

Me xxx

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Dear Mr Awesplendmarkable

Thank you sooo much for sending me your latest novel a while ago – I read it in a day and LOVED it (I’ve told you that already but it’s worth repeating). If I were a publisher, I’d definitely snatch you up! Thanks also for being such a great friend and for letting me be one of the first people to immerse myself in (and comment on) your works of fiction. It’s much more fun than schools publishing. You ROCK!!

Signed

Your biggest fan…

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Dear life

Get yourself on track. I know I’ve been joking about having a mid-twenties crisis, what with the boredom and listlessness I endured while on leave, but that was probably to be expected after working hard for an extended period of time and then finding myself with no obligations and nothing to do. Let’s think about what we want to achieve in the year to come and take better care of ourselves (i.e. let the exercise regime & development of new interests begin!)

Tough love,

Yourself

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Dear narcissistic people

You may think you’re amazing now; you may get away with being rude and obnoxious all the time, throw tantrums to get want you want, and only contact others when you want something… This, however, will not always be the case. Just know: your day will come. That whole “do unto others” saying has been around for ages, and it holds a lot of truth. I am not someone who gets angry often, but I am really close to giving one or two people a piece of my mind. Your distorted view on the world (and everyone who isn’t as marvellous as you believe yourself to be) is going to come back to punch you hard in the face someday…

Definitely not sincerely yours,

Unimpressed & edgy

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Dear coffee

Stop smelling so good. I just might give up all restraint and fall back into your aromatic (proverbial) arms… which, after 27 java-free months, likely wouldn’t be the best idea.

Tempted,

An ex-coffee drinker

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Dear daily headaches

Stop torturing me! You just seem to be getting increasingly worse, and I deal with it, but we both know this isn’t normal.

Quit it,

Un-amused

Putting the happy in my day

It’s heeeeeere!!

After months of anxious waiting, it has finally arrived: the latest Stephen King novel hits shelves today!

Since I find myself not situated in the US or UK, I’ve readied myself for the fact that I shall have to wait at least a day or two (or ten, with my luck) before I can lay my hands on one of these glorious tomes… but still, the excitement is there

Stephen King is always my pick-me-up. I have my Significant Other (aka The Husband), who is the light of my life, the wind in my sails, the blood and oxygen that keeps my heart pumping, and all those lovely clichés (all of which I truly mean! *love you Sweetheart*), but luckily he knows my devotion to the works of my favourite author as one of his ‘Dear Readers’.

As ‘fate’ would have it, I even wrote a blog post about this last year… almost a full year to the date, if you can believe that! At the time I had been feeling ‘off’ (check), suffering from my usual bout of bad headaches (check) and feeling nauseous/ light-headed/ dizzy/ listless (that is affirmative). Once again the famed Master Writer has come along to save the day – to make me forget about how icky I feel and helping me to escape into the wonderful world of words, what-if wishes and well-plotted suspense. At that occasion FULL DARK, NO STARS had just been released… and, now that I think of it, it was most likely also released on the 8^th of November or thereabouts, since I had to wait just over a week before it was in stores here.

Next year March/ April (in time for my birthday, hurray!) we have THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE to look forward to for all you DARK TOWER fans, and closer to the end of the year – probably in November, if you ask me, why not stick with the trend? – we can expect DR SLEEP (the much anticipated follow-up to THE SHINING!) Oh mortality, how fleeting you are, that you already make me wish that death never goes a-knocking on Master King’s door…

Okay, weird little sort-of worshipping rant aside, the latest novel is called 11/22/63 and takes a look at the Kennedy assassination. It’s another wonderful ‘what if’: what if you could go back in time and stop those three shots from ringing out, stop death and confusion and all that was still to come, putting the world onto an alternate course of history? Well, fellow readers, we shall see…

Now if only I could get my Significant Other to phone the bookstore and find out when they’re expecting the much anticipated novels *hint-hint, grovel, blatant plea, sad kitty eyes*

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UPDATE: How wonderful is my older sister Libby? After reading my blog entry, she phoned the book store and enquired as to when they expect to have the book in stock, to which they answered Friday. Thank you sooo much, sis! xxx

Kicking the habit (and taking up new ones)

So yesterday (last night, actually) was interesting.

I had a particularly nasty headache. All I wanted to do was get home ASAP after work (check) and have a lie down (that’s a negative) before driving to a restaurant in Blouberg for a friend’s birthday.

Once we arrived there, my Significant Other insisted that we should each have a cocktail. I managed to make it through two-thirds of my pineapple & blueberry daiquiri before we went home (almost three hours with one drink/ beverage).

The only thing the girls seemed to be able to talk about, was gym (the closest I get to this is doing 15 minutes on our elliptical trainer every night) and dieting (said person already being thin and taking headache medication that has weight loss as a side effect)…

…so I ended up ordering a salad (lettuce, red cabbage, a few green beens and slivers of baby marrow & cucumber, about 2 or 3 halved cocktail tomatoes, and a minimal amount of chicken strips)…

…and exercising for 10 minutes when I got home.

I exercise my BRAIN by reading a lot - does that count?!

To top things off, when we parked the car in the garage, my Significant Other leaned over, kissed me (as is tradition), and told me that he wanted to tell me something upstairs. Fair enough – I though he was just going to be all cutesy and say that he loves me. But no: when we were in the apartment, he started this odd little speech about how’s he’s been thinking about something over the last few days and that he’s made a decision, et cetera – enough to make my heart start pounding with anxiety and to feel a heavy weight dropping in my stomach (ah, nausea, you sure have great timing).

And what did he end up telling me?

That he only had one cigarette left (he took it out of the packet and showed me)… and that, after that, he was going to quit smoking!!!

Apparently I didn’t look/ seem as overjoyed as I was ‘supposed’ to. I don’t have a problem with him smoking. I am glad that he made this decision for himself and will thus support him, but if he starts smoking again, so what? It won’t be the end of the world. (Though it’ll be tough when we go visit his parentals, because pretty much his entire family smokes.)

Since he’s decided to kick the habit, I think it’ll be a good idea for him (or us, actually) to start taking up a few new ones. For one thing, he can start using the elliptical trainer again. We could even get weights, and/ or do those exercises his physiotherapist gave him long ago (which he thinks is boring… so I’ll have to work out a rewards system *laugh*) It’s also a good thing that summer is coming, because that means more fruit and salads

I’m just hoping that this ‘new’ lifestyle will include plenty of sleep!!

Have a great Friday/ Fried-day, everyone.