Share Your World—Week 14

April 8, 2015April 8, 2015Vonita 6 Comments

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.

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

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

Happy Easter!

April 5, 2015Vonita 22 Comments

Wishing all those who celebrate
A blessed and happy Easter

Self-publishing

March 26, 2015Vonita 39 Comments

Hi,

Has anyone self-published, and willing to share stories with me? Have you used Xlibris / Author Solutions / Lulu etc. Interested to hear about others experiences. Either email or comment below please! Would love to hear your feedback.

Thank you!

Theme From Mahogany

March 24, 2015Vonita 7 Comments

We used to sing this in my last year of school. I didn’t know where I was going to. It resonated so deeply with me. I was eighteen and would think to myself, I would like to be married and have children one day. And my favorite subject is math. What can one do with that?

I used to write abstract writings in my journal (but not poetry, I had No Idea why Sylvia Plath would write what she wrote, and had no desire to analyse it). I still have those writings of mine. But apart from that, I had no idea where I was going to.

I still love this song. I cannot hear it and not be taken back to my school hall and being eighteen 🙂

My Goldilocks Moment!

March 22, 2015March 22, 2015 19 Comments

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Hello, Goldilocks!.”

After my mother passed away, and my first love (from university) and I were both working, he started looking at rings. We were both 23, and I was not ready to get married. I was not ready to live with him either, because culturally I had always been taught that it was expected of me to stay at home until I got married.

So I ended the relationship, and endured three years of dating. This was like embarking on a Goldilocks adventure. One soul whom I was very fond of, went out on his birthday (with me by his side) and got so drunk I had to help carry him home. I hardly drink, and have never been drunk. I have seen too much of drunk reactions for it to ever be fun for me. Next!

Another invited himself to my home, and on the first date (date meaning he invited himself over for coffee at my apartment), looked around to see if my home was good enough for him to spend the night (because by this time I lived alone). For some reason, I don’t think so! Next.

Another enjoyed trips to undesirable areas to buy crack cocaine. With me in his car. And then promptly used it with his friend he picked up along the side of the road somewhere. Next.

And so it continued!

Until finally, I had endured enough. If this is what my life is going to entail, then I’d rather be alone. I might go crazy in the process, but I am a bit crazy anyway, so no news there.

And then one day I met my husband. He had replaced me in a six-month break away from my existing job. He was 30, and a bachelor and doing his best to stay that way. Ha! Thirteen years, two minions, and a new country later!

And that is my Goldilocks moment 🙂

Sydney

March 19, 2015March 19, 2015 12 Comments

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “We Built This City.”

Sydney is a safe country, I would say relatively to anywhere in the world, and especially compared to my home. That is the biggest aspect most South Africans would agree on when arriving in Australia. It feels so safe! No looking over your shoulder at all times, and fearing for your life, because today might be the day you might be carjacked and raped and murdered (no joke).

There are no hawkers on the street. It took a while to get used to not seeing hawkers selling their wares at every intersection.

There are many beautiful advantages living in Sydney. There are plenty of parks. We can walk to about four or five different parks from where we live. In Johannesburg there were NO parks nearby to where we lived. There were only restaurants that may have a kids play area. But then you would have to eat something.

And it was and still is a big novelty to park my car on the street to catch the city bus. My car was stolen on a suburban Johannesburg street in 2000. I had left it to visit someone for an hour. In that time my car was gone. Now I leave it for the whole day on a suburban street and it is still there when I return.

We are able to walk to our children’s school. It is about a seven minute walk. I love being able to walk to the school. Except this year my son has started to leave earlier and walk by himself. It saddens me when I think of my children slipping out my fingers. My son’s goal is to be taller than his mother. He measures himself against me every day, hoping that this might be the day he might be taller than me. He reaches to about my eyes now. No, my boy, you still have a while to grow!

If I had to change anything about Sydney I would change house prices. Property in Sydney is exorbitantly high.

And I would add more public transport. Standing on a bus to the city and back is never any fun. But great that there is a bus to catch.

Sydney is a great place to live. I feel safe, and very privileged that my family and I can live here.

Share Your World – Week 11

March 17, 2015March 17, 2015Vonita 8 Comments

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!

❤

Share Your World – 2015 Week #11

The Daily Prompt Alternative – First Job

March 12, 2015March 12, 2015Vonita 2 Comments

What impact did your first job have on you?
I started my first job on the 2 January 1996. I was placed in a business team, which was not the correct team for my skills. I had completed a technical degree, and would have been better placed in a technical position. My mother passed away suddenly in the April of that year. I decided to leave at the end of July, and joined a small software team as a developer coding in C.

What made the best job you’ve ever had better than the others?
Having a four-day job is wonderful. Apart from that, the team I joined after leaving IBM was really great. Good friends and work. It wasn’t to last though, the division was closed a year and a half later and we were all made redundant.

Did you have a job fall short of your expectations (or, how did you fall short of your employer’s expectations?)
Between March 2000 and September 2000 I joined a startup with colleagues from the company mentioned above. It was a disaster. Very stressful and working around the clock. I eventually left and went back to my job I left before joining the startup. Thank you to my manager who offered my role back to me. As an aside, I currently work for the same company now except in different countries. My husband (whom I hadn’t met as yet) had replaced me in the six months I was away, and I met him on my return 🙂

Thank you for reading!

Daily Prompt Alternative