Simple Things

Okay so I didn't really intend for it to be as quiet a week as it has been ... but trust me, I'll be making up for it next week, in spades!

This week was quiet tho. First week back at Boot Camp. I'm pretty much exhausted. The weather in Joburg has warranted hibernation. So my evenings have pretty much all been spent at home, having dinner with The Trucker and just generally relaxing. Not even that much TV or Series watching, actually ... I'm running low ;)

Some interesting thing that did happen tho, I went to a talk by a friend of mine, @tfrayne who is now an Eco-Auditor. Now if you don't know what an Eco-Auditor is (like me before her talk), it means she is now qualified to come to people's homes and do an inspection on your energy consumption and the like and give you tips and pointers and advise you how you could improve. This is particularly handy in this day and age, even if you're not particularly "green", simply because our Electricity bills are likely to increase exponentially in the next few years (16% a year for the next 5 years to be exact). I, for one, am not at all thrilled by this realisation. So anything, particularly the simple, low effort things that don't cost me, I can do to alleviate that expense and get into good habits before I'm paying a fortune, I reckon is a good thing.

She's almost qualified to offer the same services to businesses too. I would highly recommend getting her to come round to your house or to get her in to do a talk at your offices. This information is too valuable right now to miss out. So yes, this week I've started to do a few things differently and this weekend I'll be going out in search of a geyser insulator and timer switch.

We were supposed to go and watch one on The Trucker's friends Roller Derby practice on Tuesday evening (so I skipped SCM), but a storm came down and the practice venue lost power so that idea got postponed. I am fascinated by Roller Derby, ever since I watched Whip It. But I'll admit I'm too terrified of the hurt to try it myself. Apparently there'll be a proper "show" sometime in Feb. I'm super keen for that :)

What else? Oh yes, I got my kitchen plans, I tweaked them, I got the quote ... and now I'm crying. It's 40K. A bit steep, to be fair. But hey, I keep reminding myself, it's only the first quote I've got. At least I've got the design/layout pretty spot on with what I want. We're still gonna go check out the show room and chat about the expense and changes tomorrow morning tho. I also made a list of everything I want to do around the house ... and then I cried some more.

I won't lie considering all these things and spending this money terrifies me in this economic climate ... How does one ever decide to go ahead and spend that kind of money. Weirdly, if it were on a 3 week holiday, I wouldn't be batting an eyelid. Go figure :P

Oh yes, and in other exciting news, on Monday I heard that I'm being sent to Cape Town next week *surprise* for The Bookmark Awards. Super excited about that, what a novelty: getting all dressed up, going to an awards ceremony and being put up in a hotel :) The down side is I could've stayed in Cape Town for the weekend, but I already booked and arranged for a group of us girls to go to Dirty Dancing next Friday night. And I've been looking forward to that for ages.

But the up side is I'm flying down a day early and spending Wednesday night with the fandamily :) I'm not too fussed since I'll be there 2 weeks later again for The Peeb's 30th.

So, it's been a quiet, but pretty awesome week, in fact the next 8 days promise to be great fun and crazy busy :) So here's to being grateful for this quiet week beforehand!