A little something about change

In the last 6 months my life has gone from looking something like this:

to something that roughly resembles this:

In essence it’s the same picture…indicating that it’s still me (thank goodness) and certain key areas are still the same..i.e. it still involves a lot of water..but the picture is brighter and completely different.

When I decided to write this post I decided to make a list of all the things that have changed:
– I passed my masters degree and was no longer a student
– I quit my job (without having a new job lined up)
– I found a new job, a dream job really
– I became self-employed and started working as a consultant…good bye monthly salary, but hello being my own boss, determining my own hours
– I moved my blog to my own domain (yay me)
– I kicked off my new job by spending the first two months in a different country
– I took the leap and cut certain people out of my life. This one was pretty hard. But at some point you have to realise that certain people are bad for you.
You have to get to a point where you decide it’s NOT ok to be emotionally abused, insulted and unappreciated.
– I became more forgiving of the people around me
– I joined a gym AND I’m actually gyming regularly
– I finally gave up on my bohemian way of living and exchanged my bean bags for the most beautiful couches (How very grown up of me)

Point is, I’ve decided that this is my year. I’m taking leaps of faith, making changes and doing all kinds of things. Yes, the new picture of me is different from the one I had before, but in truth it’s still exactly the same, the elements are just meshed together differently. And to celebrate all of this I decided my little blog deserved an overhaul too. And while I adored its previous look, and while the blog will always consist of mostly letters..it was time for a change:)

Let me know what you think, but know that I for one really love the new look…it’s so very..well…ME:)

Oh…and a HUGE thank you to my much-loved and adored boy best friend who helped a lot with this…actually to be honest he did most of the work. Thanx you:)

Dear people of Namibia

So I recently returned home after spending 7 weeks in your gorgeous country for business. I was super excited at the beginning of this trip as it symbolised many things. It was the start of my new career, and signified giant changes in my life. My life was literally turned upside down and inside out and just to make sure I realised that I had made big changes, I jetted off to your beautiful country for my first contract.

In general I was treated well. The people were friendly, I remembered this from my previous visits also. And apart from a few hiccups along the way (this included a cold, 3 spider bites, being bitten by a mole cricket, my car being egged while I was driving and a bruised elbow) my stay was genuinely awesome:)

I was astounded at the volume of rain your country received in the time that I was there. I think out of the 7 weeks I was there, you might have had 5 days with no rain…other than that it rained at least once a day, EVERY day and some days it just rained the whole day. I went in search of the desert on numerous occasions, but all I could find were foliage covered dunes….it looked nothing like the desert I remembered. In a normal year Windhoek would receive roughly around 300mm of rain annually. You guys have had over a 1000mm of rain in 3 months! and it hasn’t stopped raining just yet. While all the rain means your country is even more spectacular than usual, your infrastructure was not designed for this much water. EVERYTHING has started falling apart. Your roads are pothole riddled and even worse than the roads in Jozi, and in some places the roads have completely collapsed. Windhoek also has a number of rivers crossing roads, but since you hardly ever have a lot of water there are no bridges, the roads just run through the dry river beds. These rivers have been flooding, which made driving to work every morning a rather stressful experience on some days.

I stayed in beautiful guesthouses, made wonderful new friends, discovered incredible talent music wise at the most obscure places, discovered awesome little spicy cherry shots, could snack on delightful german delicacies, came to the conclusion that I really love my new job and managed to head off an investigation that will make the individual under investigation have an accident in his pants.

Thank you for a wonderful 7 weeks. I look forward to returning to your country in a couple of weeks’ time to conclude the investigation. I’ve included a couple of pics for you to view at your pleasure:)

Love

Ruby
xxxx

Spicy cherry shots!!! — Spicy cherry shots...yumminess!

: These two guys were awesome….really enjoyed their performance

Luigi and the fish — One of the interesting restaurants/pubs i got to go to

One of the roads the completely collapsed

flooded — Flooded road...this is actually one of the main roads

flood — this pic was taken from the drive way of my guesthouse...that's supposed to be a road

eeek — One of the many spiders that haunted me while i was there...can anybody say heartattack????

Another piece of musical talent I discovered....

My dearest Mommy person

Happy birthday!!!! I hope that you had the most amazing day, that dad spoiled you rotten and that the year ahead will be filled with blessings and love and laughter and much happiness.

Every day that I look at my life and the part you had played in it I have to smile and I realise how incredibly grateful I am, and how lucky I am to have been blessed with a mother like you. I thank God everyday for the treasure I hold in my heart. I have 2 amazing parents who not only love me very much, but who love each other. Who after 35 years of marriage are still as in love as they were in the days of their courting.

Thank you for everything that you have done for me, for what you continue doing and for the part you’ve played in making me the person I am today. The confidence, love, enthusiasm and encouragement the two of you give me all the time is more than any child could ask for. And I wish I could express just how much this means to me.

You are one of the most amazing women I know. You are full of love, passionate, caring, humble, soft, hard-working and a fighter for what’s right and just. Harsh words and anger rarely touches that beautiful face that I love so much. Your passion for God and for what you believe in shines through in everything you do, and when I hear other people talk of you I am proud to call you my mother. I have so much respect for who and what you are, and it is with love, gratitude, pride and happiness that I think of you.

You’re my mother, my friend, my confidant, my mentor and, as far as a human can be, half of the rock in my life (Dad being the other half of course). Thank you for being the best mommy person in the whole wide world, for always being there, for loving us exactly as we are and encouraging us to be even better.

Happy birthday mommy. Love and miss you so very much!

Love
Ruby
xxxxx

Celebrating my new job with the Mommy person — Celebrating the new job with the Mommy person

Dear Monday

When you decide to give someone a hard time you don’t hold back at all. You just go out there and give it your worst. Sadly today, I was your victim.

I haven’t had a blue monday in quite a long time. In fact, life has been pretty sweet of late. I’m excited about work, excited about life and even Mondays have seemed like good, brightly coloured days. Then of course today came along and shattered that illusion..mondays are designed to be blue. At least that’s how I feel at this moment in time.

The day started out well. I was able to laze around in bed until quarter to 8. At this point I jumped out of bed, made the bed, took a shower, got dressed and packed the last few remaining items for my trip. Off to Namibia for another 2 weeks. At this point still all excited and happy about life in general. As per usual I phoned the taxi service an hour before I needed them to pick me up. I was expecting them at 9am, but the driver was 10minutes early. Not a trainsmash, they’ve done this before and if they were in the wrong they quite happily agree to wait free of charge until the predetermined time. Still smiling at this point.

Now, the security and access control at my complex work as follows. A visitor will press the intercom button at the gate. They have to give their name and the unit they want to visit to the security guard. He then phones the resident on their cellphone to inform them of the visitor and if you are happy to let the person in you need to press a number on your keypad to let them in. It’s a good system and mostly it works. (At this point I’d like to point out that this is the 3rd time in 6 weeks I’m making use of the same taxi service to pick me up from the complex. Every single time they have been allowed into the complex to come pick me up). This morning the guard phoned me and told me that the driver arrived. When I attempted to open the gate via my cellphone the guard informed me, very rudely, that the taxi driver would not be permitted to enter the complex. WHATTTT??? Not to worry..I remained calm and explained to the guard that there is no way I can walk the several hundred meters from my unit to the gate with my big suitcase, my laptop bag and my handbag all in tow. If I had wanted to do that I wouldn’t have called a personalised taxi service. While I was explaining this to him he proceeded to slam the phone down in my ear. That moment right there….that set the tone for the whole day. I grabbed my access card and took the walk to the gate and insisted on talking to the guard in person. He shouted, he was rude and generally difficult. I proceeded to tell him that I WILL let the taxi in and I WILL report him to the body corporate…..I wish i could tell you he handled this well….but I can’t. He ended up screaming at me:/ Not cool at all…my blood was absolutely boiling.

Now don’t get me wrong. If it is against complex rules…fine. But in that case, why have all the previous taxis been allowed to come in?? Why was it necessary for him to put the phone down in my ear? What gave him the right to shout at me? And who gave him the right to be that rude to me?? Seriously!

The flight to Windhoek was rather uneventful and pleasant…but that’s where it ended. The moment we stepped off the plane and into passport control we could all see that there would be hell to pay. I was 3rd in the row for foreign passports and I waited 20mins before I got to the front. Even the Namibian citizens were given a hard time. Questions, making them fill in more forms, rude remarks, threatening to send them back to SA, confiscating passports….it was insane. As I stepped up to the front I suddenly realised that I didn’t have a printed copy of my work visa. PROBLEM! I decided not to panic. Every other time I’ve come in I didn’t have it. I simply filled in business and explained that I was actually working for an SA company and I was here for meetings and to hand over a report(which is true…I’m being paid by an SA company). She would have NONE of it. She was screaming and shouting at me within seconds. Threatening to send me back, telling me that nobody can come into the country for business without a work visa. It was at this point where I really wanted to point to all the business men behind me in the line and ask…..’so are you telling all these people that they can not come into your country for their various meetings today cause they don’t have work visas??’

After much shouting from her side and much calm from mine I explained to her that I do have a visa and I could show her the scanned document on my iPad, but I don’t have a printed copy. But if there is any way for me to print it I would gladly print it out for her. This set her off on another screaming match. After another couple of minutes she rudely told me to go to information to find out if they can print it for me. Bear in mind…I have to go out into the actual airport…actual namibia…past passport control and all the various security points. She then shouted after me that I dare not leave the airport without my passport and I dare not collect my baggage. After more than an hour and R350 later I finally managed to get a printed version of my visa. I then had to go through the tedious process of trying to convince security that I needed to go back through security to get to passport control so i can get my passport back and collect my baggage. Another 20mins later and I finally delivered the visa to the incredibly rude staff member.

I figured this would be the end of it. Not so I’m afraid. She launched another line of rude comments my way and then proceeded to tell me that she couldn’t read it and will therefore NOT be stamping my passport and she’ll be sending me back to SA. This is where I finally lost it. I grabbed my passport and the visa out of her hand and handed it to one of the other immigration officers and asked her if she could read it. Which she could. She stamped my passport and told the other woman she was being unnecessarily difficult. I proceeded to give the rude woman a piece of my mind. Seriously…i don’t have a problem with her doing her job. That’s what she’s paid for. But to stand there and shout at me, be difficult, incredibly rude and generally (excuse my french) act like a bitch and abuse her power and expect me to just take it and bite my tongue because she can cause a lot of problems for me…THAT is unacceptable. I was furious. I very rarely get angry, and even when I do my temper is rather laughable. I just don’t do angry. But today I was truly furious, seething, angry beyond belief because of people abusing their positions and being rude.

And while I realise Namibia isn’t exactly a million miles away it is still a foreign country. This is my job, my livelihood. I was only able to leave the airport 2 hours after actually landing because some woman was on a power trip. It was incredibly stressful and upsetting to say the least. Then of course there is this OTHER situation. Something going on that I can’t talk about. About being disappointed in people you look up to. About the crap that’s about to hit the fan in a big way and not knowing how it’s going to affect you. So between the rude security guard, the rude, powertripping passport control lady and this other situation I’m a wreck this evening. I’m stressed beyond belief, and while a good night’s sleep won’t do much for the ‘other’ situation it sure as hell will make me feel better about the rest of today.

So dear dear monday…please, I’d like to never ever ever repeat this day again…do we have an understanding?

Regards

Ruby
xxxx

Dear insert name of guesthouse here

So I’ve been making use of your establishment for a total of 16 nights now. The place is absolutely lovely. It is so lovely with the little (read not so little in the current flood situation) river running just below, the splash pool and the general calm and tranquility that seem to be the atmosphere you try to create.

In the time that I have been here I’ve only come across 2 things worthy of complaint. Firstly, and I do understand that this is a bed and breakfast you run here, but surely it’s my choice if I want to partake in the breakfast? Last week I was simply just running late every morning and couldn’t afford to go and have a sit down breakfast. The two weekends that i spend here I try and relax as much as possible, considering that the job is highly stressful and that I’m not at home and in a super relaxed environment. I was amazed to find out that you only serve your breakfast between 7 and 9 in the morning. While 9am is perfectly fine for a weekday if you are in town for business…..there is no way that I’m going to drag myself out of bed and get myself presentable to face a whole bunch of people for breakfast before 9 on a saturday/sunday morning if I didn’t wake up early to begin with. In my opinion this is my choice and I’m free to do so…I am after all paying the full amount regardless of whether I’m making use of your breakfast facilities or not. I do NOT think it is on that your manager approaches me over the weekend to inform me that she considers it rude of me NOT to attend breakfast. WHAT THE HELL??

Secondly….I love the fact that your staff comes in every morning around 11 to clean my room and make sure everything is super clean and tidy when I get home after work. It’s nice to walk into a fresh smelling room with clean towels and sheets every day. And until today I would not have complained about this. But today I got back and the door to my room was wide open. Not just unlocked, oh no, WIDE OPEN. It had been wide open since 11 this morning when you guys finished cleaning it. Leaving all my personal belongings open for all and sunder who have to walk past my room to get to theirs to investigate. While I’m extremely grateful that nothing was taken I would just like to inform you that this is not on.

Yes, crime statistics in Namibia are much lower than what they are in SA. But you know what? It doesn’t matter. It’s a matter of principle. You don’t just leave my things that I have entrusted into your care open for the whole world to look at. You had no right. And I’m sure your response would be…it was a mistake, we’re very sorry. But you know what…if you want to run this kind of establishment you can not afford to make these types of mistakes. It is completely and utterly unacceptable. I think my annoyance became even greater when I was unable to locate your manager to complain about this. According to you guys there is a manager on site 24 hours a day…yet, although I looked everywhere and I rang the bell I could not locate this so-called manager.

Please, you really need to sort this stuff out. Other than that you run a really awesome little guesthouse. But I’m not exactly happy at the moment.

Regards

Ruby

The view from my own personal little patio at the guesthouse

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Category: Life