Share Your World — Week 15

Regarding your fridge, is it organized or a mess inside?
It has been cleared out, so it is semi-organized. We have yoghurt (natural, no-sugar), some cheese, milk, watermelon, salad, tomatoes, feta, and aubergines as part of the current inventory. Um, let me go check:
Who am I kidding, it’s a mess! I missed the fish oil tablets, and cream because my husband is only drinking coffee with cream of late (long story). And dubious cauliflower, not sure how fresh it is. I’m not the world’s greatest housekeeper, that’s for sure. I’d rather spend my time writing. On a positive note though, I do have my dream pantry after a good friend of mine organised it for me. And it’s been organised for two weeks already.

Have you ever been a participant in a parade? What did you do?
I’ve wracked my brain, but can’t recall the last time I was in a parade (sorry!)

How do you stand out from the crowd?
I don’t. I fly low. At a school club meeting the other day (meeting for school moms), I must have been the only one who didn’t say a word. The others must have wondered if I understand English. I do 🙂

How many bones, if any, have you broken?
I broke my collarbone when I was five, and jumped off the bed. My mother was out and we had a babysitter looking after us. It was really painful. I also had dental surgery a few years back. It involved breaking my jaw. That was really painful too.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
Can I pass on these questions for a while please? I’m not in a good frame of mind even through all the encouragement. I really appreciate all the kind words and wishes sent my way. But I do not want to be parting from my blog and writing. I have only lately (as in the past few months) realised how much I’ve always written (acknowledging that it was writing albeit not poetry). To prove the point, here are a few letters I found sorting out cupboards. They were written to my grandmother from when I learnt to write from age 7 all through school. My grandmother kept them, and they were returned to me when she passed.

FullSizeRender 9

Thank you for reading, and thank you for all your well wishes and kindness!

Share Your World – 2015 Week #15

Share Your World—Week 14

What type of music relaxes you the most or do you prefer silence?I love singing to music on the radio. But cannot sing. So pity my husband, it hurts his ears!

Show us a two of your favorites photographs? Explain why they are your favorite. If you are not a photographer, think of a two favorite scenes in your life and tell us about them.

This is my favourite photo that I have taken. I love how the flower is bursting out of its pod.

FullSizeRender 126

I found this photo the other day repacking cupboards. It was my mother playing with her baby (me). It seemed such a tender moment.

FullSizeRender 128

What is your favorite tradition? (family tradition, church tradition, whatever)
We have a lunch on Easter Day and on Christmas or Boxing Day with friends of mine from South Africa. I have known them since 1993. They are like our “Sydney” family, and our children are like cousins I guess.

If you could go back and talk to yourself at age 18 what advice would you give yourself? Or if you are younger than 25 what words of wisdom would you like to tell yourself at age 50?
Relax, it will all be fine 🙂

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
Last week I watched “12 Years a Slave”. It really stayed with me. I don’t know if I’m grateful for watching it, but am glad I did. I am looking forward to Pilates on Thursday, and being on holiday. My time at home is nearly running out.

Thank you for reading 🙂

Share Your World – 2015 Week #14

Share Your World

What was your favorite subject in school?
Mathematics

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away” (George Carlin). When have you had such a moment?
When I woke up on my wedding day and my first thought was, it’s my wedding day! So far I’ve only had one. Wedding Day that is.


What’s your choice: jigsaw, crossword, or numeric puzzles?

Jigsaw


If you found an obviously abandoned car with $50,000 in the back seat, what would you do?

Assume drug dealing and disappear fast.
Without the cash!


Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I got refunded for an aborted publishing attempt, and the money is back in the bank. I am now on Plan D.

Also managed to finish a book on South Africa’s top serial killer sleuth.

Looking forward to Pilates on Thursday.

Thank you for reading!

Here is the book I read (first one this year). Piet Byleveld is famous in South Africa for the many crimes he has solved:

image

Share Your World – 2015 Week #13

Share Your World – Week 12

When was the last time you sat on a park or garden bench for more than ten minutes?

Last week my friend and I sat on this bench and had coffee. It is in the park right outside my house. There is a corner shop and bakery right next to it.

FullSizeRender-5

Would you ever be interested in observing a surgery or do you turn away when the nurse brings out the needle?

Easy answer, turn away, I could never be a doctor. I ran out the house and far away when I heard my sister started choking on a fruit pip when I was 12. She eventually passed out, and my mother yanked her up, dislodging the pip.

Where’s your favorite place to take out-of-town guests?

Sydney city

If you had an unlimited shopping spree at only one store, which one would you choose? Why?
Probably Apple store for iPhone6 and gadgets

What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

For some reason this feels really difficult to answer this week, because I suddenly started feeling sad. I’m grateful for my family, and looking forward to finishing a book I am reading. South Africa’s top Serial Killer Sleuth Piet Byleveldt. It is not light reading, but I am strangely enjoying it *best book I’ve read in ages*

Thank you for reading!

Share Your World – 2015 Week #12

Share Your World – Week 11

List 2 things you have to be happy about?
I can touch type. Touch-typing makes me really happy. Especially when I type poetry.

I am on still on sabbatical.

Do you prefer ketchup or mustard or mayonnaise?
Ketchup, except where I come from (southern hemisphere lovin’ gal), we call it “Tomato Sauce”.

If you were to paint a picture of your childhood, what colors would you use?
Blue. Because I always wore blue, and my sister wore red matching outfits when we were growing up. And I had blue eyes, the only one out of a brown-eyed family. For some reason (which I only realized once I had a daughter myself), is that my mother never dressed me in hand-me-downs. My sister and I were always dressed in matching outfits of different colours. I would love to speak to my mother about it now, but it never occurred to me while she was alive.

Do you prefer a bath or shower?
Bath at night, shower in the morning.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up
Last week I got lost in the bush and found my way home. That is always good.
I’m looking forward to a cricket match in the Cricket World Cup tomorrow night right here in Sydney—South Africa vs Sri Lanka. And guess what? I have tickets! (And for those of you who watch baseball, I ain’t never seen a game of baseball, except those shown in Hollywood movies!)

Pop trivia: the South African flag (land of my birth) is sixth from the right in the image below, and the Australian flag (adopted home) is fifth from the left.

Thank you for reading!

illustration of Flags of participating countries of cricket 2015

Share Your World – 2015 Week #11

Share Your World – Week 10

When you lose electricity in a storm, do you light the candles or turn on the flashlight? How many of each do you own?
I light all the candles I can find. I love candles. My son will fetch a flashlight. I don’t own any flashlights. But my children and husband own a few between them.

You are given $5,000 and the chance to exchange it for one of two envelopes. One envelope contains $50,000 and one contains $500. Do you make the trade? Why or why not?
At the moment I am not working. So could use $5000 more than $500, so would probably say thank you for the $5000. When I am working and have cash to spare, I would risk the $5000 for $50000. And would then book a family holiday to the US 🙂

What’s your first memory?
Playing with my sister, and my dad returning (or leaving) for an army camp.

What do you do if you can’t sleep at night? Do you count sheep, toss and turn, or get up and try to do something?
This happens every night if I go to bed before 11:30pm. I wake up between 2 and 3am and make tea. I read the Daily Prompt and then sleep on it till the morning.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful that my BFF and I found our way out the bush this morning (I call it a forest, but apparently it is called the bush). I have shared a photo from this morning. We can walk there from my home. We got lost and took three hours to get back. Exercise done!

I am looking forward to practicing pilates in the coming week. Very (very) glad for extra time on my hands.

Thank you for reading!

And for all your wonderful encouragement 🙂

FullSizeRender-4

Share Your World – 2015 Week #10

Share Your World

Share Your World – 2015 Week #9

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

I would be forty. Just the right amount of life experience, and still a few years to enjoy *hopefully*.

As an aside, I am currently forty, and my mother passed away at forty-four. So if I match my mother’s lifespan, I currently have approximately four years left.

Are you left or right handed?
Right handed and have always been that way 🙂


If you HAD to change your name, what would you change it to?

Juanita Linda
Which is a combination of my husband’s name (starts with J), my daughter (starts with Ju), and my own :). Linda as a second name, which is a combination of my mother’s name and my son’s name (which starts with Li).

As an aside, I LOVE patterns in names. My mind is always trying to find patterns in names. And as another aside, my name contains the grouping VON in it, and my husband’s name ends in VON, how weird is that? 🙂


Where do you hide junk when people come over?

In the study cupboard which is on my to-do list for today to sort out. I’m blogging instead.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful for a golden key gifted to me from my 1984 teacher. Am looking forward to getting my book back from the publisher. It seems my manuscript is in the queue, and I am exercising patience.

THANK YOU for reading 🙂

Share Your World: Writers Write

Jasmine vintage flower

Favorite Blog Post:

My favorite post would be my first prose that I wrote. I posted to my FB account, along with others that I wrote after, and a friend encouraged me to start a blog.

https://movingtowardsthelight.com/2013/10/13/celebration-of-spring/

It was only after I posted this post to my newly born blog, I came to realize how much I hated re-reading it.

I decided to focus on poetry. But after being overwhelmed at a One-Day Poetry Workshop at the University of Sydney – 2014, I decided to stop writing (because I don’t know how to write). I resumed in September last year when a series of events upset the heart of me. Therapy is too expensive.

And after all, writers write.

Most enjoyable way to spend $500

Boutique shopping

Because shoppers shop (only sometimes) (when we are working, and have money to shop)

Answer to the meaning of life
Why are we born?
To be manifested into the physical realm to create lives for eternity

Where do I eat breakfast
Table in my kitchen

What am I grateful for from last week, and what am I looking forward to next week?
Receiving my book design (!!!!!!!!!!), looking forward to high tea with my teacher and friend from 1984. But not looking forward to saying goodbye.

THANK YOU for reading 🙂

Share Your World – 2015 Week #8