Busy week-end

Our week-end was pretty packed with activity and socialising.

I popped into the OM pub on Friday afternoon/evening to see and have a drink with some of my old colleagues. It was nice to see them, although some of the die hards weren't there as they were at the other office that day. *pity*

Richard and I then went off to Grand West for dinner and to see Stuart Taylor's new comedy show 'To Bellville and Beyond'. He's the guy from going nowhere slowly, I had won the tickets. It was quite fun. The show wasn't brilliant on the whole, but there were some very funny bits. We mingled a bit with Stuart after the show, but didn't have too much to do with him, as he was with his wife, and we didn;t want to fawn over him...

Bright and early on Saturday I was off shopping, and to get Griffin's haircut. At 3.5 he has only ever had me hacking his hair, and I thought it was time for it to be done properly. I tried 4 places before I found somewhere that could fit him in and wasn't going to charge R60! - so far
the judgement has been that my cuts were just as good (some say better)! ;)

Then after purchasing half of Pick 'n Pay Hypermarket, I dashed home to get Griff ready for a party, which I sent him to with Richard. Quinn and I then cut ivy, and got various other things ready and went off to their school to help set-up for the international food fair. We then went home to change and collect Griffin and Richard, before heading back to the school at 4pm, all dressed in togas and the closest approximation to 'Greek' we could come up with. Except for Griffin who was a cow boy (his class was doing a wild west theme). He had a cow boy hat, bandanna, sheriff's badge, pistol and jeans.

I was immediately on duty at Quinn's classes' Greek 'taverna', making and serving chicken pita, frapp/e/s and other Greek delights.Once I was realised from that duty I had to gallop over to Griffin's class where I had to sell sweets, cake, chips and pop-corn, and of course every second person wanted coffee or hot chocolate, which I had to make! Half the parents on this roster didn't turn up, so instead of the 20-minute session I volunteered for I had to stay for most of an hour. *humpf*

The school looked great though and the parents, teachers and children had gone to a lot of time & trouble to make the event very impressive and enjoyable. We'd invited a few sets of friends, all of whom were impressed both with the school and the details that went into the event. There were Morrocan, Indian, Chinese, greek, and wild west/American themes.

After swapping one of my kids (Quinn) for one of my friend Beryl's kids (Maxine), we decided to leave. One the way out another friend invited us to go back to her place for a drink, with the rest of the gang she had left there. So off we went. The kids got straight into playing. Maxine
being the only girl there, as ALL our other friend have boys, had 6 boys (and all the mom and dads) giving her a lot of attention. By 22:00 I though it was probably time to get Maxine home to bed, so we started packing up.

Sunday morning saw us getting up and after being able to dress Maxine and brush and do her hair (fun!), we headed for the gym, where I was meeting Beryl, and where the kids would be exchanged back. After gym, steam baths, and protracted cups of coffee at the coffee shop, we parted ways with our own children and headed home.I had to start working on my charity auction item (I have been invited to a charity dinner where an item you have made will get auctioned, being not very artistic I opted for something more in the crafts category) I decided on making fragrant bath salts and lotions etc and preparing a 'pamper box'. It's proved fairly expensive in the end, with all the ribbon, containers, and candles I bought, but It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. In fact Richard asked if he should buy it back for me! ;)

That was followed by a walk around the neighbourhood so that Quinn could ride his new bike.
I then had to make a salad for the dinner we were going to. We then went to Beryl's house for dinner which was a feast! (they made 3 chickens and a leg of lamb! for 7 adults and 4 children).
After dinner we set-up to play 30-seconds, which is fun, but can cause a bit of tension if you get too competitive. 5 minutes into the game I flailed my arms in protest and knocked a glass of red wine all over the game and everybody else. I still feel bad about that, even thought we
managed to clean everything up quite well, so only the game instructions are badly stained. *blushe* I also managed to rub wine INTO someone's jersey while trying to dab a small spot out... I was really quite useless at the time...

Anyway the game was fun, and after a break for dessert, the men's team and beaten us hands down, even with me trying to encourage the ladies to pay attention and SPEED up etc! *sulk* As we all got ready to leave we found that the lady whose jersey I smeared the wine on's car had been stolen. She's had awful luck for the last while and she couldn't decide whether to be pleased or upset - she drove one of those cars that you *HOPE* will get stole...

So that was our week-end!

Canonical Employee's first day..

This is what it is like starting with canonical, except you don;t even see anoyone on the first day - it's all over irc!

getting settled in...

I have started my new job and am just busy getting connected up and figuring out what is going on.

I have been spending a solid hour+ each way to and from work each day. This morning I drove the plain normal way and it took half the time - so much for my clever routes! *hahaha*

My friend pointed out though that it's school holidays, so I can expect it to get much worse from next week... I have been working from before 8 to 4:30pm.

Now it turns out that I have to deal mostly with a guy in LA, who works exactly inverse times to mine, so I may need to adjust my working hours quite substantially... and spend evenings working, hopefully from home...

I am thinking of doing 9:00-15:30 here, and then 20:30 - 22:30 at home, that way I can spend the mornings before school and afternoons with the kids, and still go to gym etc.., and then put in some hours after the kids go to bed. Hopefully that will be allowed.

It will be an adjustment though.
_____

This first week has actually been hard, as on Thursday Richard found out that he had to spend this week in Uganda! Luckily Tiny has been able to help me out with coming in early and staying late, and in the evenings I have just been cuddling with the boys, and then going to bed quite early just after they do, so it's actually worked out fine.

The boys are well, and Griffin in particular has been very sweet and helpful this week - he can sometimes be quite difficult and otherwise.

p.s. I got a welcome e-mail from Mark Shuttleworth last night ;)