Things that made me happy this week

Happy Fried-day, blog readers!

It’s cold and rainy over here, so I’m obviously over the proverbial moon about it. No need to match my mood to the glum weather – especially now that the weekend is but a few hours away… and my first wedding anniversary just around the corner… *eek*

There have been a lot of developments during the last week: finding out that the books I worked on have been provisionally approved, dealing with (big) changes to said books, working with a difficult person who sort of thinks I’m her slave, doing freelance work, finding out the time of my interview next week… in a word: LIFE.

But besides all that, there were a few things that truly made me happy/smile, and I thought that I’d share them with you via photos. The smallest things can make you happy (a smile, a mug of tea, a fluffy cat) – it’s just how you decide to view life & the situations you find yourself in.

Okay, enough of waxing sentimental. Here are (a few of) the things that made me happy this last week:

A book on origami my mum bought me

Taking this photo of Smudgy at the perfect moment – it looks like she’s laughing!

Buying myself a copy of the new Stephen King novel

Raindrops on the sunroof as we drove to work yesterday

A lot of attention/affection from Smudgy. Here she’s keeping me from my freelance work

The prospect of baking more yummy goodies – glad I bought this magazine 🙂

Addy’s Rock of Ages 21st

Morning blog readers!

And how are we all this morning? Hmmm??

I have a substantial headache, but other than that, I suppose I cannot complain. Tomorrow is a public holiday here in South Africa, as is next Tuesday (we’re probably one of the countries with the most public holidays – it’s ridiculous). So, if you take into account that I’ve put in leave for Monday, I’ll be having a 5-day weekend! 😀

I’ve taken on some freelance work and will be working over the long weekend, but (1) at least it’ll help me in the experience department, and (2) it’s extra money in my pocket, which is always nice.

We had my sister’s 21st birthday party last Saturday. Theme: Rock of Ages. Dress code: 50s to 80s attire. With that taken into account, I thought it only fitting to bake some rainbow cupcakes for the 60s/70s. I nearly ‘lost it’ when the birthday cake came out too moist (hate hate hate our oven!), and it made crumbs that got stuck in the icing, and I couldn’t get it to look a bit more professional… yet, overall, I think it turned out pretty well. I’ll share some photos below:

Addy's 21st birthday cake! I even made the 'd' in her name look like a musical note

Here's the origami piano I made 🙂

Thought the edible guitars would add a nice rockin' touch. Note: they're store-bought

Detail on cake: hearts & black 'beading'

Cupcake toppers...

...plus rainbow cupcakes...

...equals pretty (awesome) treats!!!

Some of the (80s) decorations in the hall

Feelin' the 50s/60s vibe with this sweet ride

For the birthday girl, who's a music student

This was placed in the foyer

And finally, here she is: the birthday girl! ❤

I’m freeeeeeee

Blog readers!

I’ve missed yooouuu!!!

This whole year has been crazy-busy for me. I’ve been working a lot of overtime, weekends ceased to exist for a period of what seemed like endless time, many a disappointment and frustration abounded, and yet I am still here – happy that it’s nearly over… if only for a while.

To ‘celebrate’ the fact that the last three of the books I was working on were burnt on disc at 21:30 last Friday (talk about a long day at the office… and great hunger on my part, with no food or monies), I spent the weekend reading… Oh, and dealing with a HUGE headache that bordered on the verges of migraine land. Monday evening, my amazing friend Mr Awesplendmarkable – thus named because he’s awesome, splendid & remarkable – sent me his latest novel 🙂 To make it more exciting (I was already in great anticipation about it), he made Smudgy & myself joint-dedicatees, along with one of his other friends and her kitty companion. If that isn’t cool, then I don’t know what is!! [I was able to finish the book in a day, even with sleeping and going to work and all the little things that go with it.]

Last night I was baking up a storm because I was commissioned to do so. Since I’m the office ‘bakester’ (or should that be bake-STAR, amirite??), I was the obvious choice for providing goodies for one of our colleagues’ last day in office before she moves on to better, brighter things. I was never told what to bake, and ‘cake’ is open to interpretation… so I baked chocolate cake, cheesecake, cupcakes plus some carrot muffins and cookies. I left work angry – so much so that I started crying when I got into the car – so baking was therapeutic.

Probably because I was very seriously contemplating whether I could get away with inflicting irreversible, epicly-proportioned harm on certain individuals.

But that’s all right. It’s over now. I’m free. Today is my last day in office, then I’ll be on leave until (and including) the 26th. The next almost-two-full-weeks is going to be great. Sleeping, reading… reading… more reading… I think you get what I’m driving at 🙂 And even if I get bored, I’d much rather be bored at home than bored or super-busy at work. [Repeat after me: “I need a vacation!”]

Now I just have to hope that the Department of Basic Education approves these books. Otherwise I don’t want this job anymore. To quote someone or other: “F*ck this shit!”