I thought I was over it

The hijacking that is. It's been 18 months and you'd think I wouldn't be having issues. But I am. I went to the local mall yesterday morning, just an average grocery run, nothing special. I parked, went in and paid for everything I wanted. When I came out to the car, I hesitated. Right next to my car was a ute with 3 young black men sitting in the open back. It took me probably all of 5 minutes to unload the cart and get into the car, all while my heart was beating up in my throat. I kept expecting them to jump out and do something, anything. Instead, they sat there talking quietly to each other while I had a mini breakdown. I felt ill when I got home.

The Tooth Mouse is revealed

C is very clever. I should have known sooner rather than later that one day she'd find out that Himself and I are the Tooth Mouse.

This morning started out pretty much like any other. She got out of bed, came to greet me and made herself some cereal. Then she asked if she could watch a bit of tv. I told her that while it was still too early (it was 7am) if she did her chores for the morning then she could. I made up a list for her and didn't think anything of it. Until that is, she came to me and asked me to write one specific word, a word that completely and utterly unmasked my alter ego.

See, sometime last year during a particularly viscious thunder and rain storm, one of her teeth came out. She put it in her shoe with a piece of cheese and went to sleep. At 5am the next morning, Himself and I woke as usual and realised that we'd forgotten to take the tooth and cheese the night before. As neither one of us had any loose change, I wrote her a note saying that due to the amount of rain, the Tooth Mouse had been unable to collect her tooth and signed it from The Tooth Mouse. She was very upset that her tooth was still in her shoe when she woke and that afternoon after school when I gave her the note she felt a bit better. That night, as soon as she was deeply enough asleep, Himself and I took the tooth and cheese and left her a bit more than we usually do. She was happy and we forgot all about it.

Until today. After I wrote the word she requested, she hauled out that note that the Tooth Mouse had left her and accused me in no uncertain terms of being the Tooth Mouse because the word on the note and the word I had written looked exactly alike. I burst out laughing. I couldn't help myself. I should have denied it all but she caught me totally unawares.

And clever little girl that she is, she said, no demanded, that the next time a tooth comes loose, we will be paying her. The Tooth Mouse might not exist but the money sure does.

Boy George can be an inspiration

Someone asked me a few days ago if I have ever considered writing about our past. I haven't. I don't think I have the eloquence and writing skills to do our country's past justice.

The best I can do is to be a witness to what has passed, what we are living in and what is to come. To raise J&C with the expectation that no matter what a person looks like on the outside, it is the inside that matters. Prejudice belongs in the trashcan with all the other rubbish out there.

The past week and this week there has been much discussion about being gay. The school play is running right now and as with any boy, wearing makeup is not something they would ever do willingly. Lipstick and blush is for girls not boys. Of course this hasn't meant that there hasn't been any teasing. Teasing and 10 year old boys go hand in hand, especially when makeup is involved. J came home last week a bit upset because some of the other boys called him a girl, sissy and said he was gay for not being bothered with wearing makeup. Until I showed him pictures of men wearing makeup. Who knew Boy George would be inspirational in that department? We spoke at length about why any man would want to wear makeup, have their nails done, get their hairy backs waxed...generally manscape. He understands it a bit better now, that just because you do all those girly things doesn't make you an aberration to be feared and generally made fun of. It doesn't mean that you are gay, it doesn't mean that you are. All it means is that you are a human being. Inside and out. And that being gay is perfectly ok with me. It's the love you have inside to give someone else that matters.

Conan : a review (aka Mommy's Cartoons)

So I gave in to my carnal desire and went to see Conan 3D this morning. I first saw the Arnold movie way back in the 80s. Meh. This one......OH ALL THAT IS HOLY! DROOL. Jason Momoa looks good in leather. Very good. So extremely fine. le sigh.

Oh you want to know about the movie? Well let's see....crap. I don't remember much after he came on screen. I mean really? You want me to remember a plot line and a story after seeing all of this? :





Way way WAY much better than the original. The story differs significantly from the 80s version and IMNSVHO is much better. Ok so seriously, the acting will never win any Oscars but who cares? For 2 hours this morning I enjoyed myself. Very much.

/did I mention I was alone in the cinema? :D

Gym agony and ecstacy

I went to Curves today for the first time in 6 months. Yes, I know. I've wasted almost R1000 the last 6 months. I've been a lazy sod, not going to deny that. It felt good. First, because while I am going to probably be a bit sore and stiff later today my body feels good. Second, when they weighed me in February I weighed 89kg. This morning I weigh 84. That's not bad considering I've stuffed my face countless times with really bad food, I've not been eating as well as I should and it's been so cold this winter I've guzzled my way through a swimming pool of tea.

Scout's honour and all that, I will be back there on Friday. And Monday, and Wednesday and Friday...you get the picture.

Snow paralyses South Africa

Yup. We've been snowed in in some parts. That's how cold this bloody winter has been. Roads between Durban (busiest port) and Joburg (filthy dirty busy freaking city) have been hit by so much snow that motorists were stuck on the road and had to be dug out.

http://lifeissavage.com/snow-in-south-africa-makes-prime-time-news-in-canada-they-laugh-video/

I'm a geek girl

and proud of it. Loud and proud. By geek girl I mean that I go for the traditional boy fantasy stories, those dark and epic sword and dragon tales written mainly by men for the geek in all of us.

I blame it all on an overactive imagination and the librarian at the local library who let me read Tolkien when I was 8 or 9. I've been reading fantasy with a bit of sci-fi thrown in for light relief for 32 years now. It started with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and most recently Terry Pratchett, Chrisopher Paolini. And recently, George RR Martin.

I purchased the first two novels in Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series about 2 months ago. I must state here right now that I have not read them yet (it's a problem when you have such a vast choice of reading material when you purchase a Kindle!). I don't know when I will get round to reading them but I have been following the ongoing saga of Game of Thrones, an HBO series which started this week in the US and based on his books.

I have heard via the grapevine that there is a lot of graphic violence and sex. I don't mind graphic violence and sex in fantasy books. I prefer it to the schlock sometimes held up in highest regard where there are airy fairy storylines of the St George and his Dragon type, where the good boy soldier slays a dragon to protect his fair maiden. WTF is up with that particular storyline? Medieval times right here on planet earth was never all of that! It was a violent time, where people died in the most inventive and violent fashion. Rape and pillage was the order of the day.

While reading some book blogs, I came across the link for this woman's review of the show. I read it twice and then flung the mouse from me in disgust. Geek girls who like epic sweeping violently graphic high fantasy apparently are few and far between. She must think we all grew up playing house with our Ken and Barbie doll collections. (Hurk. I would never be caught dead owning a Barbie!)

To quote from her review : The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.

Wow. How insulting, to just dismiss the fact that there are many more women out there who are just like me. Who adore high fantasy ala Dungeons & Dragons. Who prefer "boy fiction". I think someone has been spending too much time in lala land herself, where shows like Sex and the City reigns supreme. I will be waiting with breath held to see when DSTV decides it is a worthy show. We have True Blood already so I am sure this one will soon be bought for my viewing pleasure. I look forward to the day that my "boy fiction" will finally make it to the little screen.