What’s the point of a formal lounge anyhow?

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Bo

One of my favourite rooms in my house is my formal lounge. It’s a beautiful room where the afternoon sun steams in and makes the wall colour change from shades of cream to light stone. It has one of the best quality leather lounge suites (which we spent a small fortune on) with a stunning Nguni skin on the floor and doors which open out onto the pool area.

Fabulous paintings by South African artists hang on the wall and on the main wall, a collage of family photographs is spread out. There are some really special ones too, including my grandparents wedding photograph of them in their Salvation Army uniforms (I kid you not!). There’s even one of my granny’s standard 3 school photo. My head floods with special memories when I stare at all those photographs.

The sad irony is that it’s the one room that I never use. In fact, in the last 8 years of living in our house, not once have we made use of this lounge. Never! It’s crazy!

We built our house off-plan and at that stage, majority of our friends were in the same life stage and doing the same thing. Building or renovating their houses. We all made sure we included a formal lounge. In fact, paging through copies of décor magazines, it just seemed like the “right thing” to have.

Years down the line, I am not sure that I understand the need for a formal lounge.

We rarely get visitors and even the ones that do come around I’ve always considered never “that important” that they need to be entertained in such a formal room. In fact, if our families do visit, they would never be “allowed” to use the lounge because they are not “important enough”. (and no, it’s got nothing to do with the fact that they do not use coasters)

What the hell does it all really mean? It hurts me to realize that one of the best rooms in my house, I don’t even share with the most important and special people in my life? That is wrong. Surely that’s not the way I should be treating my friends and loved ones? Isn’t everyone that comes to visit worth only the best I can give them? Would I not want to make everyone that comes to visit feel as important as possible?

So my formal lounge gathers dust. My maid religiously cleans it every week. And I have the sneaky suspicion that Annie and Emma (my dogs) sleep on the Nguni in the sun during the day. Buggers!

What a waste…

I think on Sunday, I will go read my book in the formal lounge. I’ll kick off my shoes, put my feet up and take my afternoon nap in the sun, surrounded by all those wonderful photographs. Sounds like a plan!

And the next time we have visitors, even if it is family *gasp*, that’s where we’ll be sitting! For a few minutes anyhow…

Two little girls in the bath

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Bo

My dogs are typical spoilt brats!

They live indoors, sleep on the couch, watch TV and get pork strips from Woolies as snacks before bedtime every night. I always say that when they look in the mirror, they see two little girl faces, not dogs.

They visit the dog salon every month. Washed, trimmed, nails cut, the works. It’s only in emergencies that I bath them myself. Last night was one such emergency.

My neighbour is painting his house. Every evening the painters rinse their paint brushes and tools at the garden tap in the corner of his garden. It just so happens that the washed off paint ran into our garden and the flower bed near to where the rotten tree stood.

With Annie & Emma playing in the garden, their little paws and in between their toes, became caked with paint.

I was so worried about the toxicity of the paint, I decided to bath them. Yes, in the nippy evening with the wind blowing. (hey, don’t judge me! At the time, it seemed like a good idea.)

Usually, when they see me preparing their bath, they go into a terrified state.They don’t run away but instead hang around my legs as if begging me to change my mind. The preparation sometimes takes longer than the bath. Hairdryer, towels, shampoo, brushes, treats. The build-up must be pure torture for them!

I usually start with Annie (my first-born as Queen, my maid, calls her). She’s the more hyper one so it’s best to get her bathed as quickly as possible. Poor Emma sits at my feet and occasionally leans over the bath to check up on Annie.

Sometime during the bath, I decided that this would make for a great blog post and so tried to take some pics with my Blackberry.

Not the cleverest idea and not the easiest of tasks. There I am hovering treats above my head, singing songs, whistling. All I got were dirty looks as they stood there shivering. (Please don’t report me to the SPCA).

Luckily my dogs are not good escape artists and stand patiently in the bath. They don’t mind the hairdryer afterwards while I brush knots out their hair. I think it’s because they know, the best part is yet to come – a full body massage. They love it!

Most of the paint washed off, but at least, for now, they smell clean and fresh and have soft fur, just like two little girls (and not dogs)!

My dogs are like little humans …

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Bo

My dogs, in some funny way, remind me of humans…

They each have very different personalities and as much as I love them both equally, I do recognise a constant struggle as they fight for a bigger share of my attention.

Annie (my 1st born as my maid, Queen, puts it) is the smaller of the two. Skinny, light, but very highly-strung. Emma, the younger, is over-weight, laid-back and carefree. Emma does have the cuter face with big bold eyes and like her mom (me) is always smiling. Yet, behind that cuteness lies a very dark streak.

You see, deceptively, Emma uses her size and weight to her advantage and constantly pushes little Annie around. If Annie jumps up on my legs to give me a love, Emma will too and I see her taking baby steps side-ways to slowly edge Annie out of the way. It’s difficult to reprimand Emma and so instead, I give them both a kiss and a love back.

I guess in a way, I’m doing Annie a disfavour. She never causes a scene but gracefully slinks away.

So too in life, there are those that willingly take advantage of the weak and gentle-natured people and those that humbly accept defeat.

I don’t love Emma any less. But when I got home from work tonight, I did give Annie an extra loving hug and kiss, just so she knows… (behind Emma’s back, of course).