It’s been a good few old minutes since my last blog; my apologies for that and I apologise for possibly not living up to any expectations in that regard. Talking of expectations I am busy with a blog post on that very topic; its heavy going so its taking me longer than I anticipated but I will get it done as I need to get it out of my system penning down (or rather typing) my thoughts, views and experiences.
Its been a busy month with the usual rinse, repeat, spin cycle of life with family, work, home and dealing with life on life’s terms.
I enjoyed a rare afternoon off on Thursday, 3 August as my boss told me to take the afternoon off as he was in Cape Town and I had done so much overtime; so after my chiro appointment with Marco for my persistent shoulder injury and problems, I went to 7 Sins where Sisi washed and blowdried my hair which was much needed pampering for me! I then met up with a friend whom I have met through the recovery support groups and we enjoyed coffee and great conversations at Woolies Cafe at Cresta; she wanted a copy of my book so it was great opportunity to give her book and have a great chat. Connections like this are so important and the opportunity to be able to feel you can share and be met with empathy, undersanding and support with zero judgment and/or criticism.
Sunday, 6 August Tristan and I were invited to a monthly bookclub event organised by the Kerrin Few of “Girls Got Wine” – quite the irony talking about addiction and rehab at an event where the wine was freely flowing. It was a beautiful Sunday and Kerrin had set up tables and chairs, balloons and banners under a stretch marquee in the grounds of the Syringa Café. There was a great turn-out of approximately 24 people or so including my long-time and loyal friend, Ros and Maxi whom I have not seen for far too many years – once upon a century, Ros, Maxi and I all worked at Webber Wentzel (my first job in Jo’burg 22 years ago).
It was a great event; and we fielded a number of questions afterwards which mainly Tristan answered with great aplomb and confidence. There were some sales of copies of my book and I met the editor of an online magazine who expressed her interest in interviewing me sometime so in terms of spreading awareness regarding the disease of addiction, and that there should be neither shame nor any stigma, this was an amazing event as is each and every opportunity to do just that.
Tristan brought along mugs from his Exploited range
www.exploited.co.za
IG: exploited_clothing
Tristan is wearing one of the t-shirts from his Exploited range of merchandise
A great event complete with incredible people, amazing networking opportunities, reconnections and delicious lunch. Thank you so much to Johan, Tristan and Skye, Morgan and Alyssa for their consistent love and support.
Saturday, 12 August Johan and I met up with Maure for brunch at Riverside Cafe in Bryanston which was awesome. We have not seen her for far too long and it was so special to see her and catch up; from there Johan and I travelled to Rivonia to the offices of DotDot.direct, an e-commerce business which has "My Son Went to Rehab, I went to Rome - A Journey of Hope" on its website. They were celebrating their first business birthday and all the vendors were invited to a networking event. You also had to book time to be interviewed and photographed to create content for social media marketing. There were drinks and snacks and it was a very convivial event. It was great to meet Vimal, the CEO, Kevin the Chief Operations Exec and many others. I was interviewed, photographed and videoed reading the first page of the book by their social media guru before it was Vimal's turn to interview both Johan and me - he concentrated on asking us questions about Rome and then it was one-on-one again with me. We wait (me with bated breath) for the photographs and videos to be produce and created. It was an incredible opportunity and hopefully in the near future they will be featuring Exploited on the website too. Watch this space!
It was wonderful to be united as a family for Sunday lunch at the Fisherman's Kitchen in Bryanston last Sunday; and great that my Mom felt strong enough to attend. She had missed the bookclub event due to the severity of pain caused by her arthritis. Spring is definitely on the horizon as the days are getting warmer and last Sunday was no exception; it was warm enough to sit outside at the restaurant and enjoy our time together over delicious fish lunch options. Dressing that morning I had not thought about lunch and the restaurant etc; Morgan was the sharp one to point out my tshirt with tiny little ships wheels on them (which are also called Helms of course!) - it was not deliberate on my part at all!
The highlight of the last week was the geyser bursting! Thank goodness I was in the garden having a stretch of my legs, a little bit of vitamin D and throwing the ball for Cinnamon and Elmo. A loud dripping noise finally got my attention, the dripping was from the geyser overflow pipe so we quickly shut off the geyser and phoned our landlord. The plumber could only come the next door to replace the geyser and thankfully there is a heatpump so an alternative source of hot water. I managed to escape the plumbing invasion and disruption as I went to the office but the plumber had to return on Friday as by Thursday evening we still had zero hot water from the geyser (once the heat pump was off). Frikkie The Plumber had forgotten to turn the isolator from off to on - as Zen says, he had "one job"!! We are grateful that we have an amazing landlord who is so quick to have all maintenance issues resolved and it was not our headache and/or responsibility to resolve and by Friday evening we had hot water gushing from the taps. There are some water stains on the ceiling which Nigel will come and paint over in due course (Nigel being our obliging landlord).
I started attending a 12 week series with Co-Anon UK about the Twelve Traditions, Steps and Concepts and the first one on Wednesday, 16 August was really enlightening and so interesting. It is so incredible that there is the opportunity to be able to join this type of event online - a positive consequence of the global Covid-19 pandemic, bringing about ways to bring people closer and have virtual meetings etc. As I type that I am now wondering about this coming Wednesday and whether loadshedding will negatively impact my participation - here's hoping it will not!
Saturday, 19 August was Johan's second debut on stage for "A Night of Magic" at the Pierneef Theatre in Pretoria. Initially there were going to be 2 shows - a matinee at 3pm and an evening performance at 7pm but lack of ticket sales meant the evening show was cancelled. The Pierneef Theatre is a small theatre which we think could comfortably seat about 60 people; there were approximately 35 people in the audience for yesterday's show and Trevor aka Wolflock, the "main magician" had agreed with the theatre that a group from the children's home in Pretoria could attend. Tristan and Skye were sadly not able to join us and Alyssa was the family chauffeur driving my Mom, Morgan, Saziso and me to Pretoria and back. It was very supportive of Vimal (from DotDot,Direct) to attend along with his 2 lovely children and one of Johan's colleagues attended with his girlfriend. There were 3 magicians - Johan, Wolflock and Scuzzy - and they all did brilliantly. It was a great event and, I for one, did not realise how quickly the time went. As a family we are all so very proud of Johan, his incredible magical tricks and artistry; and for developing a presence in the South African world of magic - I keep telling him next stop is performing in all the numerous piazzas all over Italy!
After the performance Vimal asked Morgan to take a photo of Johan, him and his children
There are some other exciting possibilities in terms of sales and exposure of my debut book, I will reveal all as and when more progress is made in that respect.
In conclusion, today the UK Lionesses lost the soccer world cup to Spain - a remarkable achievement for both countries; South Africa beat Wales in Wales yesterday afternoon and in Maui the death toll from the devastating fires has now reached 114; such a dreadful devastating tragedy. Hurricane Hilary brings heavy rains and strong winds to Southern California and in Canada, in British Columbia and the North Western Territories thousands of residents have had to evacuate their homes and flee due to new wildfires. I am so glad that my education and my upbringing by my Science-believing and teaching Dad, taught me to (a) not be disparaging and disbelieving about climate change and global warming, (b) to be a critical thinker and (c) to not blindly believe and swallow the "cool-aid" of anyone, not taking on board the beliefs and utterances of any person, not being their parrot but instead researching credible resources and ensuring that the opinions you form are in line with your beliefs, ethics, morals and principles; to be tolerant, respecting race, religion, creeds and sexual orientations.
Out and about, recommendations and referrals
Synergy Holistix - http://synergyholistix.com/
Riverside Cafe - https://www.riversidecaffe.co.za/
DotDot.Direct - https://dotdot.direct/
Fisherman's Kitchen - http://fishermanskitchen.co.za/
Perfect Cup - http://perfectcup.co.za/
Pierneef Theatre - https://pierneefteater.com/
What have I been reading/are reading?
"Apples never fall" by Liane Moriarty - it is good but I did skip whole chunks and still kept up the story; very formulaic and I love the tv series of her books "Big Little Lies" and "9 Perfect Strangers" so think I should stick to watching the tv dramatisation of her books as the pace is far quicker on screen than in her books
What have I been watching on the small screen?
My usual staple of "bubblegum" tv including The Great British Sewing Bee
Sweet Magnolias (season 3) on Netflix
Painkiller on Netflix - this is an excellent yet harrowing very telling account of the opiod epidemic (though it can be argued it is a pandemic as addiction to opiods is global not just peculiar to the USA) and the Sackler family who through their company Purdue Pharmaceuticals created OxyContin which is estimated to have caused the deaths of approximately 300 000 people in the USA
"Opioid-involved overdose deaths rose from 21,089 in 2010 to 47,600 in 2017 and remained steady through 2019. This was followed by a significant increase in 2020 with 68,630 reported deaths and again in 2021 with 80,411 reported overdose deaths. "
https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates#:~:text=Opioid%2Dinvolved%20overdose%20deaths%20rose,with%2080%2C411%20reported%20overdose%20deaths
"Dopesick" is based on the non-fiction book, Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted Americans by Beth Macy. (Another excellent resource is "Empire of Pain": The Secret History of the Sackler Family" by Patrick Radden Keefe - I have listened to this on Audible as the actual book is a hefty tome). "Dopiesick" is brilliant and so harrowing, Michael Keeton is outstanding in his role as a doctor who reluctantly starts prescribing OxyContin and then becomes addicted to the pain medication himself - when I watched it I had to fast forward parts as I could not cope with some of the images. "Painkiller" is the dramatisation of true facts and tragic tales; each episode is introduced by a parent grieving for a child whose died as a result of their Opiod addiction. It is very masterfully filmed and produced. Matthew Broderick is excellent in his role portraying Richard Sackler and Uzo Aduba is equally magnificent in her role as the determined federal investigator. It is really worth watching. (https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/uzo-aduba-painkiller-interview)
What have I been listening to?
Podcasts:
Something was Wrong
True Crime Daily
The Trial of Lucy Letby ( she was found guilty in the UK but was not in court to hear the verdict face the families of the babies she murdered let alone the jury etc; she was in the building in the cell after refusing to appear in court and apparently she is refusing to be present in court for her sentencing; I think this should not be an option - it should be compulsory to be present in court for the verdict and sentencing. The police are now investigating each and every baby she came into contact with from the inception of her nursing career in case she fatally injured other babies or harmed them in any way; its estimated that they will be investigating about 4000 babies)
The Girlfriends
Even the Rich
The Damage Report
The Daily
Queen of the Con Season - The Unreal Housewife
Audible:
"The Power of Vulnerability" by Brene Brown
With blessings love and light till next time!
