Thursday, August 24, 2006
He taketh away and he giveth
I know I know, I have it the wrong way round. But I just have to make the point that even though my father successfully ensured that all the avocado in the house was his, he also shared with me something that has affected who I am and the choices I make. I am not talking here about the usual dad stuff; groundings, school grades, shoelaces. I am talking about elemental stuff, things that will never change no matter how old I am, things I have no choice about. I am talking about Tracy Chapman and Eric Clapton.
"We improve ourselves by victories over ourself. There must be contests, and you must win." Edward Gibbon
I have done it. I have kicked caffiene. I have not had coffee in a week, I have only had one and half cups of tea today, and I am awake, alert and ready to analyse my budget! To the D's of the world... it is possible! Let's see how I am faring at 3pm though. That is the true test, when I still have another hour at the office, I have done all the interesting things for the day, sleep was and is a long way away and lunch is using all the brain power left in my body. THEN we'll see.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
How things change
When I was a child, the smell of cheese made me feel sick. I could not understand how people could eat cheddar and enjoy it, let alone blue cheese! I vaguely recall that I had a gouda and peanut butter sandwich, which, I think is to blame for the aversion. What I don't recall is at what point things changed. I luuurve cheese. I eat it on everything, every day. It's the sole reason I have put on so many pounds. And just when I thought I had reached the peak of my cheese-eating, we are offered the delight, the joy, the rapture of Cambozola.
Right now I am eating a large bowl of oatmeal. It's deliscious. It has nuts and craisins and honey. Back in the day, I went to a playschool during school vacation while my parents were working. The first order of the day at the school was to get a good healthy bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. The problem was this: the oatmeal had been sitting on the stove-top since about 5am. It was congealed, it tasted slightly of the burned bottom of the pot and there were no nuts, craisins or honey. Needless to say, it took a long time to eat that bowl every morning, and it took a long time before I realised that it was not oatmeal's fault that it was so unpalatable.
Also when I was a child I had an aversion to Avocado's. Why would I deprive myself of this delectable delight? Well, actually, it was my Father who deprived me. He should have had sons, a whole bevvy of them. Instead he had daughters, so while he did scale down his teasing, tomfoolery and pranks, he still scarred me for a long time. I was 11, that awkward phase of becoming aware of your body and realising it has betrayed you before you have even hit puberty. Puppy fat abounds, hormones rage. My mother was in the bath, my father making a sandwich. he got that gleam in his eye as he took the pip out of the avocado, the gleam that says; "Run, Forest, Run!" I, not being named Forest, did not run.
My Father tenderly placed the pip in my shorts, while I kicked and screamed. Then dragged me into the bathroom where he announced to my semi-submerged Mother that I had Pood my pants. It is quite remarkable how similar an avo pip is to poop in your pants. Needless to say she was shocked and appalled. Not because her husband had played a cruel joke, but because her 11 year old daughter had lost bowel control in such a spectacular fashion.
It was another 10 years before I ate my first avo. I had been living out from under his roof for four years at that point, and felt safe enough to be within spitting distance of an avo pip. I have now been living on my own for 11 years, and am even speaking to him again. I also ADORE avocado.
Right now I am eating a large bowl of oatmeal. It's deliscious. It has nuts and craisins and honey. Back in the day, I went to a playschool during school vacation while my parents were working. The first order of the day at the school was to get a good healthy bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. The problem was this: the oatmeal had been sitting on the stove-top since about 5am. It was congealed, it tasted slightly of the burned bottom of the pot and there were no nuts, craisins or honey. Needless to say, it took a long time to eat that bowl every morning, and it took a long time before I realised that it was not oatmeal's fault that it was so unpalatable.
Also when I was a child I had an aversion to Avocado's. Why would I deprive myself of this delectable delight? Well, actually, it was my Father who deprived me. He should have had sons, a whole bevvy of them. Instead he had daughters, so while he did scale down his teasing, tomfoolery and pranks, he still scarred me for a long time. I was 11, that awkward phase of becoming aware of your body and realising it has betrayed you before you have even hit puberty. Puppy fat abounds, hormones rage. My mother was in the bath, my father making a sandwich. he got that gleam in his eye as he took the pip out of the avocado, the gleam that says; "Run, Forest, Run!" I, not being named Forest, did not run.
My Father tenderly placed the pip in my shorts, while I kicked and screamed. Then dragged me into the bathroom where he announced to my semi-submerged Mother that I had Pood my pants. It is quite remarkable how similar an avo pip is to poop in your pants. Needless to say she was shocked and appalled. Not because her husband had played a cruel joke, but because her 11 year old daughter had lost bowel control in such a spectacular fashion.
It was another 10 years before I ate my first avo. I had been living out from under his roof for four years at that point, and felt safe enough to be within spitting distance of an avo pip. I have now been living on my own for 11 years, and am even speaking to him again. I also ADORE avocado.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
small surprises
I love it when life gives you little happy surprises. Like when someone at the office has made five roses tea, in a tea pot, with a tea cosy. Or when your loved one calls on their way home, and is much closer to home that you thought they would be. Or when your cat suddenly remembers a game you haven't played with him in three years. Or when the bus arrives as you do. My life is suddenly filled with these kinds of things and perhaps I just was not in the right frame of mind to recieve them, but now that I am aware, I hope they happen all the time!
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens excursion
There is a Kenilworth in Cape Town too. I don't recall that they have any gardens though, and even less likely - aquatic gardens. We managed to get all the house-mates dressed, fed and sunblocked in an hour and bundled into the car to drive up to NE DC. Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens is apparently the best thing to do in August in DC. This is quite a claim as there really are MANY things to do in DC, in any month. The gardens completely met my expectations! Mostly because I have never seen plants such as these!
August is when the lotuses bloom. I always imagined that Lotuses were like lillies, floating peacfully on the surface, reflecting their colours off the mirror of the water. These lotuses however were astonishingly different. Their leaves are huge, like elephant ears, as one of the house-mates commented, waxy and rough to the touch. The flowers are Giants as big as my head when they are open fully, and the buds are like massive artichokes, but beautifully pink and red. The leaves, flowers and buds are all appended on the end of a long, rubbery and solid stem, which brings them up out of the water, high up above the heads of visitors to the gardens.
The most remarkable feature for me were the seed pods. I had seen them in specialty shops that sell incense and potpourri, but never known what they were. They grow up out of the center of the flower, starting as an emerald green and then drying out to dirty brown. At first glance it looks like an old-fashioned shower head, with the seeds sticking out of many little holes. The holes slowly expand as the pod dries and shrivels and that allows the seeds to drop out, falling 5 feet into the water below.
Kenilworth in DC has certainly given me an experience that Kenilworth in Cape Town never did. Although I hear they have some protected marshlands in the center of the race track. I doubt that you would see people wondering around there with their mouths in a constant 'O' of wonder at the spectacular behemoths nodding above them.
**Forthcoming attraction: photo's
August is when the lotuses bloom. I always imagined that Lotuses were like lillies, floating peacfully on the surface, reflecting their colours off the mirror of the water. These lotuses however were astonishingly different. Their leaves are huge, like elephant ears, as one of the house-mates commented, waxy and rough to the touch. The flowers are Giants as big as my head when they are open fully, and the buds are like massive artichokes, but beautifully pink and red. The leaves, flowers and buds are all appended on the end of a long, rubbery and solid stem, which brings them up out of the water, high up above the heads of visitors to the gardens.
The most remarkable feature for me were the seed pods. I had seen them in specialty shops that sell incense and potpourri, but never known what they were. They grow up out of the center of the flower, starting as an emerald green and then drying out to dirty brown. At first glance it looks like an old-fashioned shower head, with the seeds sticking out of many little holes. The holes slowly expand as the pod dries and shrivels and that allows the seeds to drop out, falling 5 feet into the water below.
Kenilworth in DC has certainly given me an experience that Kenilworth in Cape Town never did. Although I hear they have some protected marshlands in the center of the race track. I doubt that you would see people wondering around there with their mouths in a constant 'O' of wonder at the spectacular behemoths nodding above them.
**Forthcoming attraction: photo's
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Substitute
Tea is not that bad really... you just have to drink it two hours before you would have had your cuppa coffee to get the same eyelids peeled back feeling at the right time. Also, drink two or three cups instead of one. And then pee all morning long.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)