victoire

i win!

2011-11-26T22:37:00.001+02:00

i have been following tanya kovarsky's blog for a while now... at first because there was a competition i wanted to win and the conditions were that you subscribe to her blog via email. quite quickly, however, i was hooked - looking forward to reading the next letter to her young son.
well anyway, i've been entering the "wins" on her site regularly, and regularly am disappointed. i even vowed that i would no longer enter these competitions to avoid the disappointment! silly me... i couldn't help myself, though when tanya posted another competition, this time to win sunscreen. not just any sunscreen, but pure & protect kids, which is made with aqueous cream as a base. the competition was posted on arnan's 10 month "birthday", so i guess i felt a little more compelled to enter.
the winners were announced that sunday, and what would you know, i was one of the winners! i'm still waiting for my prize, but then again i haven't checked my postbox in a week or two. i can't wait to try out the new sunscreen on arnan (and myself)!

the "c" word

2011-03-26T10:11:00.003+02:00

it's the word starting and ending in a "c", the word most new parents learn to dread... colic. and it moved in to our home at three weeks, just as nico went back to work. suddenly not only did i have to figure out how to look after a newborn by myself, newly recovered from a complicated labour, but my angel child would unexpectedly start screaming in pain without warning.

the early days are the worst. your child is screaming - not crying - in pain, with tears running down his face. babies don't get tears until much later. you have no idea what to do, no knowledge on what to do with babies in general (no your head does not miraculously fill with the required knowledge at birth) let alone in emergency situations like these. guilt and worry overcome you... what to do?

i can honestly say that i have tried just about everything short of just leaving our baby to cry in his cot. thankfully there are things that help, if even momentarily, and they probably go against everything you vowed you would never do with your child.

the chiro. our first stop was the chiropractor, even before our babe got colic, but we went again afterwards. i can't say whether it helped or not. we got some good advice from the second chiro - did you know that gas is a byproduct of milk digestion in breastfed babies? at least we can say we tried it.
"bouncing" our baby on an exercise ball. yes, rocking and jiggling him will work while he is still tiny, but there comes a time when everything you do unaided is just not enough. and when he is screaming in your ringing ear, writhing in pain, you do just that - bounce with him. it soothes him almost immediately, which means that you are calm enough to deal with the presenting problem.
leg maneuvers. these include bicycling his legs and holding them in to his stomach to aid in moving the farts along and out. also effective whilst bouncing on the ball (see above) or singing a silly song, "i like to push it, push it (x2); push it to the left and push it to the right...".
baby massage. i read various internet articles on baby massage, we attended a four week baby massage course and the chiro gave us some massage and exercise tips. using a pure cold pressed oil with some dill essential oil in it one may be able to aid in the relief from stuck farts. massaging the "bubbles" (they feel like bubble wrap in his soles) out of our baby's feet seems to calm him whilst helping in getting the farts out at times. massaging in a circular clockwise direction on the tummy is supposed to help but i have found that this is too sensitive a place to go for our little guy. then there's the "i love you" drawing on his tummy, supposed to make him poop but doesn't seem to have the desired effect. what i do sometimes though is just lightly rub the oil over his tummy. i reckon the dill oil helps and is absorbed through the skin.
lotions and potions. telament gripe water, telament colic drops, bennets colic mixture, mag phos (tissue salts no 8), magen, iberogast... i don't like to admit it, but i do get desperate when the wails start flying in. and everyone has a potion to cure colic. some are more effective than others. i found telament colic drops only work to get the burps out, our problem is with the farts. bennets colic mixture contains too much alcohol. iberogast seemed to work in the beginning but eventually seemed to increase the "bubbles" in our babe's tummy. mag phos helps against cramping but increases flatulence, which doesn't help as our guy seems to have pain when they exit too. right now natura's magen is all that i am giving him, added to a teaspoon of boiling water to evaporate the alcohol. it has an ingredient that is supposed to absorb the winds in the intestines and works within 15 minutes or less.
the pacifier. yes we went there, after vowing our child was not going to use one. what were we thinking? we found that although he refused to take it ordinarily, it would help to get him quietly into the car seat on outings... at times. someone would have to travel at the back with him to keep it in though. and then he suffered an episode of epic proportions at church two weeks ago, a sign of things to come. suddenly nothing worked. after troubleshooting every possible solution i stumbled onto the pacifier. it sounds logical, but because he had refused to take it before i never really considered it. that pacifier is never far away now. any sign of discontent and it's shoved into his mouth. i think i've gone over to the other extreme, overusing the thing, but it works and i will find a balance as soon as i've overcome the trauma of the past two weeks :)

our chiro says that the colic is due to an immature digestive system and that he should grow out of it between 12 and 14 weeks. there is hope.

count down

2011-01-01T19:44:00.007+02:00

we have entered the final countdown... to our baby boy's arrival!

time has really flown by, it was only yesterday that we found out that we were expecting, that i was so proud of how big my bump was and then it got bigger... and bigger... my bump is so large now that it really could win against the watermelons in a fresh produce competition!

i am so excited - not only about our baby's arrival but about the actual act of birthing him. i know, it sounds crazy but it's true. i have always wanted a natural birth, completely natural with no meds. yes, no pain medication. just natural pain management and everything happening as it was designed to.

we were really lucky in discovering genesis clinic, a natural birthing centre or active birth unit. the funny thing is that nico had discovered genesis way before we even started thinking of having babies - i saved the link on delicious in the beginning of july 2009 and i am quite sure that nico had found the site before that. then we completely forgot about the whole thing by the time we were actually pregnant. thankfully we were reminded about it by my sister, who's friend was going to birth there. i remember driving around the suburbs with my sister in a bid to get my little nephew to fall asleep - all whilst chatting about pregnancy and babies.

being at a place that you're comfortable with is so important for labour. i love the atmosphere at genesis. i love the beautiful treed suburb. i'm looking forward to birthing in an environment where natural birth is accepted as the norm and where i'll have freedom to move about and birth the way it feels most natural to me.

there is so much excitement, and yet we are so relaxed. baby's room is ready, the bags have been packed and have been in the car since thursday. things are progressing well between baby and i. his head has been down and engaged nicely, i have been dilating with practice runs of contractions for a week now. we are actually totally prepared, even bored with nothing to do after months of shopping and trying to get everything done in time.

and now it's only a matter of time...

32 weeks

2010-11-11T13:32:00.001+02:00

we saw our midwife phindi today... always exciting to get an update on our little guy! he's growing nicely, and is measuring slightly bigger than his age. it's the first time he's not spot on growth with weeks! he's been head down for some time, and today we found out that his head is engaged. apparently a good thing & nothing to worry about in terms of premature labour.

i am so proud of our little man! he's really done well throughout the pregnancy, and somehow seems to know exactly what to do.

such exciting times ahead of us!

managing...

2010-04-11T20:01:00.005+02:00

would you believe that i have found something else to take up even more of my time? yes, that's right... i am studying again. that after i vowed never ever to do anything that smelt like studying when i completed my honours!
i have registered for an IT project management course through the university of johannesburg. i am hoping that this will assist me in my current role through providing a formal methodology to managing my rather informal initiatives. "initiative" is the name given to projects run outside of the project management way of working, managed and worked on solely by a business analyst or set of them. which means that i often perform the role of both project manager and business analyst on my proje... erm... initiatives.
project management is a life skill that may be applied in absolutely any situation, something i believe will never be outdated. that's my story and i'm sticking to it.
i do have times of doubt and regret. especially as i spend long weekends, public holidays, weekends, and all my spare time in front of my textbooks and case study homework. urgh. all i hold on to is that this will benefit me not only in the future but soon. very soon...

we've come a long way, baby

2010-04-06T16:24:00.005+02:00

cellphones have changed the way we interact with each other and the world around us. we can no longer imagine the days when we weren't in constant contact and communication. when the only way of speaking to someone telephonically was to wait for them to get home or to the office... my, how will we be communicating in 5 or 10 year's time?

Via: Cell Phones

i'm not ignoring you

2010-01-29T07:11:00.000+02:00

and it's not that i don't have anything to blog about... it's just finding the time to put thought to screen inbetween the 50 million other things i want / have to do. in actual fact i have tons of draft posts patiently waiting for completion.

postured whilst driving to work...

helpful hints to beat the freeze

2009-07-17T07:39:00.003+02:00

it's friday. it's july. it's freezing cold here in joburg! and i have been hectically busy, so much so that i haven't even been formulating any draft blog posts since my last post...

if you, like me, are trying to find ways to survive the winter chills you may enjoy and appreciate georgina guedes' article on "10 ways to beat the freeze" over at news24.

some of my favourite tips are:

earn a hot bath
warm your fingers, do a good deed
expand your mind
wear your woolies

but to be honest, they're all so good it's difficult to choose!

economics

2009-05-23T16:26:00.006+02:00

it seems everyone is tightening their belts in some way or other these days. some companies find innovative ways of cutting down on expenses whilst keeping on their staff, others are forced to lay-off employees to survive...

i have been contracting / consulting my whole career. the risk has never really bothered me, i have always believed that God does and always will provide for me. and He always has. so, when i was faced with the opportunity to interview for a permanent position at the company that i had been consulting at since july 2008, in the beginning of the year i decided to see where it led. turns out it eventually led to me being offered a permanent position, who knew... since consulting jobs seem to be few and far between, i actually like working at the company, and it's in God's plan for me, i said "yes!" (after much internal debate, prayer, and discussions with friends and family). my first day as a permanent employee was 1 May, worker's day (a public holiday) ironically enough. to be honest though, nothing much has changed. i'm still working on the same project, the work pressures and stresses are the same, hours are longer than they should be now and again, but at least i don't have the added pressure of having to find another contract. and i really do enjoy my job.

a few eggs may have been sacrificed, but i believe that the benefits outweigh the shortcomings in the long run...

uninspired or simply realistic?

2009-01-30T19:48:00.001+02:00

a question, or set of related questions, has been niggling at me for a while...

is there a point to blogging? what value does it add? who cares?

in the little spare time i have for the online world, and one of my favourite pastimes, i am debilitated by these questions.

i have so many ideas for blog articles and yet they get stuck in the execution. no pressure either... the average blogger is supposed to churn out at least one post a week. i'm just happy to think about being able to blog once a week, and then fall exhausted on the couch or bed to spend the rest of the evening in a vegetative state.

whatever it is i'm hoping it's not going to last long... in the meantime - what do you care about?

christmas 2008

2008-12-26T17:41:00.001+02:00

this year has been amazing, hectic, life-changing, whirlwind crazy, upside-down, and incredibly blessed. i can't believe 2008 is almost over.

nico & i boldly went where we had never been before... we hosted our first christmas lunch this year. rather exciting, but a lot of hard work even though we only had 4 guests! the menu was made up of a few of our favourite dishes and, to our surprise, all the items worked out very well together.

the decorating also came together nicely, i chose a blue and white theme to go with our new patio chair cushions, which gave a fresh and cool twist to the traditional theming. although i was really tempted to go all out with the decorations (think fairy lights, candles, and other frills galore) i managed to control my imagination to our newly-wed budget. along with a neutral tablecloth and bright place mats we had fresh basil plants on the tables, which are renowned for deterring flies, or so they say... it didn't seem to do anything for those pesky pests buzzing around our tables though.

nico even designed a beautiful menu for this special occasion on my new macbook. we decided on a bible verse (Isaiah 42:6,9,10) for the inside facing page of the menu, what was wonderful is that this fitted in with the word my father shared with us later.

whilst it was lovely to spend the day with family, and they are set on making a tradition of having christmas at our place, i will be happy to share the duties from now on with the knowledge of all it takes to make a success of one of the biggest days of the year... after all, the day is about celebrating the coming of our saviour jesus with loved ones.

proudly south african

2008-11-06T18:01:00.000+02:00

YOU ARE PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN WHEN:

You call a bathing suit a 'swimming costume'.

You call a traffic light a 'robot'.

You call an elevator a 'lift'.

You call a car's hood a 'bonnet'.

You call a car's trunk a 'boot'.

You call a pickup truck a 'bakkie'.

You call a Barbeque a 'Braai'.

The employees dance in front of the building to show how unhappy they are.

SABC TV advertises and shows highlights of the program you just finished watching.

You get cold easily. Anything below 16 degrees Celsius is Arctic weather.

You know what Rooibos Tea is, even if you've never had any.

You can sing your national anthem in four languages, and you have no idea what it means in any of them.

You know someone who knows someone who has met Nelson Mandela.

You go to braais regularly, where you eat boerewors and swim, sometimes simultaneously.

You produce a R100 note instead of your driver's licence when stopped by a traffic officer.

You can do your monthly shopping on the pavement.

You have to hire a security guard whenever you park your car.

When you are a victim of crime and say: 'At least I'm still alive'.

You know a taxi can move twice its certified number of people in one trip.

You travel 100's of kilometres to see snow.

You know the rules of Rugby better than any referee.

To get free electricity you have to pay a connection fee of R750.

More people vote in a local reality TV show than in a local election.

People have the most wonderful names: Christmas, Goodwill, Goodman, Pretty, Wednesday, Blessing, Brilliant, Gift, Precious, Innocence, Given, Patience, Portion, Coronation.

'Now now' or 'just now' can mean anything from a minute to a month.

You continue to wait after a traffic light has turned to green to make way for taxis travelling in the opposite direction.

Travelling at 120 km/h you're the slowest vehicle on the highway/freeway.

You're genuinely and pleasantly surprised whenever you find your car parked where you left it.

A bullet train is being introduced, but we can't fix potholes.

The last time you visited the coast you paid more in speeding fines and toll fees than you did for the entire holiday.

You paint your car's registration on the roof.

You have to take your own linen with you if you are admitted to a government hospital.

You have to prove that you don't need a loan to get one.

Prisoners go on strike.

You don't stop at a red traffic light in case somebody hijacks your car.

You consider it a good month if you only get mugged once.

Ruwandan refugees start leaving the country because the crime rate is too high.

You consider a high crime rate as normal.

You actually get these jokes (but they ARE true!) and pass them on to other friends from SA.

VIVA!!!!!

a lack of moblogging tools

2008-11-05T17:54:00.001+02:00

oh would it, could it, be more difficult to blog "remotely"?! all i wish for is a simple tool to post a few thoughts from my htc tytn whilst on the go. this post is being typed into opera mini - at least it allows a web frontend to blogger, but no cutting or pasting. moblog has only published one of my posts so far, but otherwise gives me "an error has occurred". it even completely lost one of my posts, never to be seen again. cellspin & picoblogger i've downloaded but they require web setup with sites not designed for mobile use - what else was i going to do? wait till i was close to a computer so i could create an account from my pc so i can use my phone to blog? it makes no sense! oh i dream for the day when i can run windows live writer from my windows mobile 6 phone...

say aaaahhhh...

2008-11-02T18:57:00.000+02:00

october has been a marathon medical month for me. it began with my first ever stay over in hospital and first experience of general anaesthesia, and ended with my first dental op under general anaesthesia. boy am i glad for medical aid.

while going under is quite intense it's a million times better than being present for your own dental op. believe me i've had to try banish the memories of a number of apisectomies, extractions, bone implants all under local, all whilst i was fully aware of the surgeon's every movement around my mouth.

of course this time was different. i had my wonderful and caring husband by my side most of the time. i was administered both general & local anaesthesia injections which lead to strange & disturbing dreams. the oxygen smelt of coconut. i woke up very groggy wanting only to go back to sleep, away from the bright lights, the feeling of complete dejection and aloneness, and the terrible pain in my throat from the intubation. thankfully i didn't spend too much time in the recovery room & was returned to my ward. my sweetheart was there to comfort my tears, give me cold juice for the throat & feed me. small things make a big difference.

i'm almost back to normal again with the swelling in my face concentrated on my top lip. i also have to get used to the plate & denture they fitted while i was under. while it covers the gaping hole in my front teeth (for which i am grateful) it also causes me to lisp and sound a lot like sean connery. when this is all over in a year or so i may giggle about it... up till then i'm going to concentrate on surviving the days of small embarrassments and mountains which would normally be molehills...

moblogging

2008-10-30T15:25:00.001+02:00

i'm trying the whole moblogging thing in an effort to post more frequently than in the past year or so. the theory is that i'll find the time to blog whilst on the go. i did qualify it as a theory... ;)

corporate value proposition

2008-10-18T12:19:00.000+02:00

i found an interesting article on corporate value proposition whilst researching for work - how to write a strong value proposition.

this also ties into one's personal value proposition or, as some like to call it, your elevator speech. i have always struggled with this in describing what i do... even more so in trying to describe what it is i want to do / be. perhaps it's because i haven't completely figured it out yet. more likely is that it's not a traditional role and there isn't really anyone out there i could refer to for a frame of reference.

the closest i have ever come is to say that i want to be a chief happiness officer. but what is a chief happiness officer? how do i become one? it's the transitioning from what i do now to what i want to do that baffles and scares me slightly.

another blog that runs in the same vein is personality not included (if you can ignore the "shameless" promotion of the book of the same name).

a point to ponder in pondering the question "what am i doing with my life?"

hospital

2008-10-03T14:09:00.000+02:00

it's a stunning day and i'm looking out onto a little bit of paradise. my first stint in hospital is not so bad at all. i'm here for a small procedure related to the recurring kidney infections i've had over the past few months. it all seems to have gone well. the anaesthesia was an interesting experience - one minute you're staring at the ceiling breathing in oxygen the next they're waking you up & telling you it's all over. there were some strange dreams of a boy in a garden inbetween. i'm happy not to be bed bound although walking around with a drip & other tubing is proving to be awkward, in all aspects. :) had a very "mr bean" moment this morning - managed to take my top off for bathing but when it came to getting it back on again i became so entangled with the drip cords i had to call in the nurse to assist.

small victories and things to remain amused by...

Technorati Tags: hospital,garden city,victoire,mr bean,mr bean moment

air head

2008-10-01T19:00:00.001+02:00

i am smitten - i have come face to face with a macbook air. the styling is gorgeous. it's tiny and feather light.

however there are some things holding me back... no cd / dvd drive being one of them. no network port another. so i guess not.

engadget gives a good review.

windows live writer revisited

2008-09-29T17:30:00.002+02:00

so it turned out i was being uber-silly... the proxy default was still activated on internet explorer (something i have to use for work), hence windows live writer was not able to connect to the internet....

uh... duh...

well hello there stranger...

2008-09-25T18:00:00.001+02:00

i love virgin money's marketing material. it's always innovative, fun, spunky, and well designed.

i received my new virgin card from them today - an order they automatically generated upon seeing that the expiry date was rapidly approaching. too bad they didn't check whether any of my details had changed. i now have a sparkly new card in my maiden name.

anyhoo...

one is likely to receive some form of marketing material when receiving a package from virgin. i received a clever paper fortune cookie...

the message inside reads:

you will meet a good-looking stranger.

kinda apt considering i'm attending the 27dinner tonight (on the 25th it's just wrong...), where i met my good-looking and oh-so-handsome stranger over a year and a half ago at the very first 27dinner...

who knows what will happen next... things could only get stranger ;)

frustrated with windows live writer

2008-09-16T18:30:00.003+02:00

argh! windows live writer won't set up any of my blogger blogs... and i don't know why. all i know is that it gives me the following in an error box:

An error occurred while trying to connect to your weblog:
Unable to connect to the remote server
You must correct this error before proceeding.

there is nothing wrong with the connection as far as i can see. i've searched the web, no similar error anywhere.

basically what has happened is i'm accessing windows live writer (wlw) via a new user account on my machine, so it's asking me to register all my blogs from scratch, as if it's a new installation. i thought there may be something wrong with the current installation, so i downloaded and installed the new 2008 version. still the same error...

whilst searching for help, i came upon this useful blog - whateverblog. - written by a guy on the wlw development team. there's also the wlw blog.

help, anyone?

those hairy bikers...

2008-09-14T18:09:00.004+02:00

ok well, perhaps the royal enfield doesn't evoke images of hairy bikers. not even really scary bikers. and that is probably a good thing. a good thing because on saturday i decided (it may not have been a very carefully calculated decision, more like a whim) to suggest to darling dearest that we go check out the new royal enfield shop in the leaping frog shopping centre in fourways. he's been giving the enfield the side-glance ever since he happened upon the shop in 44 stanley. and it's not a bad bike, as far as bikes go... especially on the appearance side, with it's classic old-style good looks.

but it's still a motorbike. and i can't say that i'm a big advocate of my one and only being involved with anything to do with something so dangerous. no matter how many benefits are listed.

as for the new store, it's cool in its simplicity. i liked the design elements, the play on colour between the store and the adjacent bulleteers bar. nice concept. i hope that they will get much attention and traffic in this little centre... as for joining the bulleteers, well we'll see...

of blogs and new bloggers

2008-09-12T18:11:00.007+02:00

a colleague is "starting a blog". how is he starting his blog? by writing his articles up in a ms word document, printing them out, and circulating them around the office. his rationale is that he wants to start the blog up with a whole lot of articles behind its belt.

sure thing. i can understand that.

i can't understand the whole printing and circulating thing though.

if you're not ready to subject the 'web to your articles yet (and keep in mind no one knows what your url is, so you're pretty much just shouting out to the void), then why oh why would you subject people who can't get away in time to them?
printing? at least email it - you are looking to appeal to an e-savvy audience, no?

all in all though, some interesting thoughts have been produced, and will no-doubt arise to some interesting debate. now just to wait for the electronic version...

time for a meme

2008-08-19T21:29:00.004+02:00

this is for you, hon...

1. The 'V", 2. Italian food in Chiang Mai, Decor4, 3. Pretoria, 4. Green on Green, 5. Eagle, 6. Ginger Ale @ Northstar, 7. Idyllic, 8. Spring Trifle, 9. The Freedom (to Be), 10. Wedding - Post Ceremony, 11. I'm a Special PERSON ..!, 12. Tight Like a Tiger

Type your answer to the questions into flickr search
-Using only the first page, pick an image
-Copy and paste each of the urls in the Mosaic Maker

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3.What high school did you go to?
4.What is your favorite color?
5.Who is your celebrity crush?
6.What is your favorite drink?
7.What is your dream vacation?
8.What is your favorite dessert?
9.What do you want to do when you grow up?
10.Who/ what do you love most in life?
11.Choose one word that describes you?
12.What is your Flickr name?

the same... only slightly different

2008-06-30T19:22:00.000+02:00

my life has changed significantly recently, and yet has remained the same. this echoes the antithesis that has always intrigued me... the rhetorical contrast of change remaining the same.

i've pondered moving to a different blogspot address for some time, but didn't really get around to putting this into action... after all the site has been a part of my (online) identity for so long. well a change in surname, and thereby a change in my (self-) identity, seems a perfect opportunity... and voilà: I present my new personal blog.

the same victoire... only slightly different.