Forgetting 2012 (well, most of it anyhow…)

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Bo

I’m very happy to be saying goodbye to 2012. If I look back, it wasn’t a pleasant year for me. Yes, there were happy moments scattered through the months here and there, but generally, it was a year I’d much rather leave behind. I’m moving on from…

A heart breaking decision to drop out of running my 4th Two Oceans half marathon. I might have been physically ready, but the mental war that rages in my head and self-doubt overwhelmed me and I caved.
My health plagued me more than ever. Three major enteropathic arthritis flare-ups this year meant days off work because I was left immobilized and unable to even dress myself.
It was a year I learnt the hard lesson that someone’s personal baggage and hurt can spill over into work and damage my reputation. You become known by the company you keep.
It was a year where I struggled to lose weight. Eating salads and avoiding the Friday take-out gang at work was not enough. The scale would not drop affecting my moods most days and leaving me feeling pretty miserable.
It was a year I started stressing about getting old. A 20 year school reunion, monthly visits to the hairdresser to cover my greys and my folks moving into a retirement village sounded like alarm bells going off.
It was a year where being Proudly South African was incredibly tough to be. To stand tall among family and friends who have legitimate reasons to hate this country brought me down too many times and I kept quiet instead of defending what I loved and all that is good about this place.
Getting caught up and swept away in the politics swirling around me in the office was a challenge. I knew the issues were not about me or even my colleagues, but the leadership made it very hard to ignore.

I’m unsure how I feel about next year. I suspect another difficult year is ahead so I’d much rather adopt the “wait and see” approach than be all über positive now. I’m crossing my fingers that it’s an exciting year. I expect many challenges and will seek out as many opportunities as I can.

New beginnings

While writing this post, I did come across a tweet from @LeeAnnMayimele. She tweeted, “Today I am grateful for every challenge 2012 threw at me.” I like her attitude and I guess in a way, I agree with her.

Christmas in our home #pics

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Bo

With just 12 more sleeps until Christmas, isn’t the build-up to the day just great! I hope everyone who reads this is enjoying it as much as I am! I’ve really gotten in the mood this year with a couple of trimmings scattered around the house.

(ps: if you happen to receive my blog via email, please go online to check out my site. You might catch a glimpse of snow falling…) Coffee table

My high school reunion: Stepping back 20 years

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Bo

I have always found it odd when people talk about their high school reunions. The discussion is usually about how they are dreading it and how much they hated people they went to school with. So when I got the invite to my 20 year reunion, I wasn’t too sure what to think. Was it really that bad as everyone made out to be?

It’s not like I hated school. I didn’t have any bad experiences. I was well-liked by my teachers. I guess the thing that stood out for me the most was my friends. They’re the ones that made those years so fantastic and memorable.

The experiences with them was what played a part in how I viewed life when I left school 20 years ago and how I learnt to value friendship, trust and loyalty.

So I went. Nervous as hell (especially since KK was away and I went alone). It was like stepping back in time… I could not stop smiling.

My bestie from school (and who still is) put together a slide show of everyone: what we all looked like in 1992, what we looked like now, what we were up to…

It was so cool. How weird to see that friends from school were now parents with kids and full time jobs and responsibilities!

I imagined that we would all be sitting around quizzing each other about our present day lives but it was not to be. All we could talk about were memories from school. Stories of rebellion, our favourite and worst teachers, whether or not our headmaster was still alive. It was awesome to laugh and remember back.

No one really cared who was a big shot director now. No one even bothered to ask where I worked. It wasn’t even about who had put on weight, who had gone bald and who had/had not aged well. When we looked at each other’s faces, we saw the 18 year olds we knew from 1992.

I am so glad I went. It’s the latest I got home from a party in a long time and was on a high for so long. A part of me is happy to have seen all those faces and friends, but a part of me is sad that time is flying by so quickly. So much has happened during those 20 years. Ups and downs. We are sadly not the young, innocent, carefree youth we were then.

But for one evening, we most definitely were!

Running through my weeks…

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Bo

1. Christmas trimmings put up by team of girls I sit next to at work. 2. The choice of mayo at Woolies! 3. Cherries – My new favourite snack. 4. Breakfast at Junipa’s. 5. The calmness in the library at Melrose Arch. 6. Annie napping in front of TV. 7. Our Christmas tree is up! 8. Trimmings around the house. 9. Lunch with a bunch of girlfriends.