Wednesday, January 30, 2008

A tasty morsel

Everywhere you go, people are talking to each other. People are standing kicking the ground, picking bits off bark of a tree and talking into their cell phones. You catch snippets of half conversations. The clips make no sense, are usually dull and wash over you without leaving a trace.
But today I caught a tantalising sentence by accident.
I was walking along at my usual purposeful stride and passed a couple strolling in the opposite direction. They had their sunglasses on, they were in their mid forties and looked to be enjoying their holiday in my city.
She said, "The problem is she has too many boyfriends..." and I was passed them.
I kept walking but the remark rolled around my head.
"The problem is she has too many boyfriends." So she hasn't had too many boyfriends, (whoever she is), but she has too many right now.
How many is too many or is it that she has more than one and that is too many?
Is her problem she can't juggle the time commitments or are her problems on a bigger scale?
Is it a problem in a good way, with her only problem being she has too many boyfriends because she is good-looking, effervescent and rich? Or is it a problem in a bad way, that her too many boyfriends are ruining her life?
Sometimes I want to talk to strangers - just to sort out what is going on.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Changing lives

When I was pregnant, several people I respected said to me; "The best thing I ever did in my life was have kids". I found it hard to get my head around this comment. I thought of the child as an independent person who would do their own thing. I had hopes and dreams of what I wanted to achieve in my life and as such, didn't think the very best thing would be having the child.
What about those career highs?
What about those amazing travel stories?
While wanting to have children at some time in my life, I found it a hard choice to make. I felt that it would mean putting on hold what I could do. I would not be able to achieve things anymore as I would need to look after this helpless baby. I thought I would be signing out of making any sort of meaningful contribution to society for a bit.
I always felt that I needed to do something that would make a lasting change in society. I hadn't achieved it quite yet but now it would have to wait until after my baby had grown up enough not to need so much from me.
How wrong I was.
I am amazed at how much an under three year old can offer to others. She has talked to people, I haven't been brave enough to reach out to. She is a carefree, happy child who does as she pleases and in doing so pleases many people.
No one in thirty-four years after meeting me for a mere few minutes, has said, "I'm so glad I met you today". She can motivate a room of people to become involved and to enjoy it. She can turn heavy hearts to smiles - at least for a short while.
And amazingly it was because of her, I was inspired to cause a wee change in my part of the world. A small footnote in the local history.
She is no angel.
But I am almost at the stage of saying "The best thing I ever did in my life is have kids."
They maybe small, but they can work wonders.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Fruit Salad Hair

Washing my hair at the moment is a strange thing.
The shampoo smells of strawberries and the conditioner of peach.
Why do my hair products smell like fruit?
Why does my shower smell like someone is concocting a fruit salad in it?
My hair appears to be no different for the fruity injection. I keep expecting my hair to be all sticky.
Why did someone think I would like washing my hair in strawberries and peaches?
I now feel I have had enough fruit by breakfast and reach for the honey.

5 Favourite Sights Seen

  • 1996 Watching tropical lightning turn night to day, outside a little wooden church in a small village in Sabah.
  • 2004 Flying down the Rainbow Valley at 8000ft in a cessna on a clear blue day.
  • 2003 Seeing and hearing Michael Schmacher rolling out of the pit garage in his Ferrari in Hungary.
  • 2009 Chancing upon 100 or more dolphins just off the Kaikoura Coast swimming around, jumping out of the water, doing somersaults and generally having fun.
  • 2006 Finding a pool at the bottom of a waterfall in the bush at Kaikoura that was full of playing baby seals.