Living life on life’s terms!
This blog is later than I wanted; apologies but living life on life’s terms and coping with my lower back going into spasm are my excuses for yet another hiccup and obstacle in posting my blog posts more regularly.
Safety helmets on, buckle up, strap up if you are in for a long, rather bumpy and tumultuous read and yes I love a flare for the dramatic and exaggeration; its in my DNA!
Since last posting, in South Africa we have gone from autumn to spring; the UK are experiencing the highest temperatures, a wonderful Indian Summer (and while the UK were experiencing heatwave temperatures my brother Nick and, his wife, Pat, (who live in the UK) were holidaying in Portugal; the Rugby World Cup started, there have been hurricanes and a devastating and tragic earthquake in Morocco, another earth tremor in Jo’burg, flash flooding tragically annihilating over 11500 people in Libya and to wish my lovely Jewish friends, a year overflowing with abundant good health, prosperity, friendship, love and light – L’Shana Tova.
And on the topic of new year and time marching on ….
I was raised to have opinions, to be tolerant, respectful and open-minded particularly when it comes to matter regarding diversity, fairness, equality and justice. I am a proud that I do not blindly follow people who are “controversial for click bait purposes” and parrot whatever they proclaim on their podcasts/you tube, etc platforms (I had such a big laugh a few days ago a a clip of a Fox programme where live on tv one of the commentators boldly calls out another for hypocrisy because she is spewing venom about vaccinations, but she is vaccinated – said double-standard commentator was rendered speechless! Hypocrisy at its best!) Don’t comment to me about “blithering Joe Biden” when you have never heard him give a speech – rather google Joe Biden’s speeches (for example) and listen to him; never once has he blithered or stuttered in the speeches, I have made the time to find and listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdzGHBUEMY8, or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfdC5Pn5kCY .
I don’t engage when it is clear that someone has drunk the koolaid of someone who is controversial simply for monetary gain …. *Steve Bannon* … cough …. *Ben Shapiro* ….. after all they make me so nauseous, I am render speechless because of the physical symptoms their names induce. Absolute disgrace (to name only 2) of far too many of the human race; and my Dad (who while being very tolerant ran out of tolerance when it came to fools) would have been apoplectic about.
Soapbox Rant 1:
In South Africa it’s the 9th consecutive month of enduring loadshedding. And at the risk of enduring more criticism for supposed negativity about loadshedding (and the resultant traffic light outages and traffic) and potholes, that it is really easy to criticise me for stating the reality of life of loadshedding – for example, navigating the loadshedding schedule so if you need to be at a destination at a specific time, you will be able to arrive at the right time etc – from your comforting privileged position of having alternative energy sources albeit it an inverter, a generator, a solar system. At home we have emergency lights and a battery back-up system to ensure our home Wi-Fi is sustained for 3 hours during loadshedding – a necessity with me still working remotely most of the time and Johan working from home every second week. It is also deplorable that we continue to live in this state because of greed, corruption and thievery; and to know that the status quo is likely never to change.
Soapbox Rant 2:
The American actor, Danny Masterson has been finally found guilty of drugging and raping 2 women; and sentenced to 30 years in jail. The Cult of Scientology tried to silence the victims which was to be expected as its part of their playbook of threats, stalking, and other forms of attempts of coercive control. I was so outraged when I read that fellow actors, Ashton Kutchner and Mila Kunis wrote letters attempting to persuade the judge to pronounce a lighter prison sentence for Masterson. These two supposedly advocates against human trafficking – what hypocrisy!! . They have now released a pathetic attempt at an apology which smacks of “sorry not sorry”. And does Mila Kunis have no respect for other females and concept of standing up for those females who were drugged and raped by Masterson? They wrote the letters after Masterson was found guilty so they have no defence of that they wrote the letters thinking he was innocent. Kutchner has now been distanced from working with the group advocating against human trafficking.
Soapbox Rant 3
I have been listening to a new podcast, The Coco Berthmann story which makes compelling listening. Coco Berthmann (not her baptized name) is yet another con-artist supreme who found notoriety as an advocate against child trafficking because she was “trafficked”. She was interviewed on numerous podcasts, etc but it was all lies – made up stories in her (clearly) over active imagination. But she does not stop there – the next con is that she fakes cancer (yes another one and boy, does the faking cancer story really make my blood pressure rise since my Dad lost his life to cancer, as did my cousin’s husband last year and a friend and colleague passed away as a result of her cancer a few months ago, to name but a few – we all sadly live in a time where we all know someone who has cancer, has survived cancer, lost their lives to cancer).
Sadly, the internet and social media make it so easier for con artists, conspiracy theories, purveyors of racial and religious hatred, to spread their lies, hatred, scams and the list is unfortunately way too long.
The most famous predecessor of the infamous 419 fraud scam is a swindling scheme called, “The Spanish Prisoner”, which started way back in the 19th century. So, scams have been around for a very long time but obviously not as prolific as they are now. The Spanish Prisoner scam was devised by a con artist, who was allegedly a war prisoner in Spain, who would send a letter to a potential victim asking for help to retrieve the prisoner’s vast riches hidden in their home country. In return, a share of their wealth is offered if the victim agrees to send some money, upfront, for the prisoner’s bail money and/or to pay bribes to the prison guards and the rest, as the cliché goes, is history!
And now I am climbing off my soapbox ….
Life, family, work highlights and lowlights:
We bid arrivederci, au revoir and adieu to Skye on Sunday, 3 September 2023 when she flew to the UK where she will begin her studies for her Masters in Psychology next month.
Morgan kindly hosted us all at his home on Sunday, 27 August 2023, and cooked us the most delicious lunch of mushroom risotto (cooking it without wine since we had 5 people at the lunch who do not drink alcohol) and I provided a variety of mini cheesecakes for dessert. We had a fabulous time despite our emotions at Skye's pending departure.
Skye and Tristan had an amazing little breakaway in Magaliesburg; real quality time which was awesome and I was so appreciative of Skye making time for her and I to have one-on-one time together too.
It was an emotional time for all the family with Skye leaving, Titan having to undergo emergency major surgery and having to spend 2 nights at the veterinary hospital. Thankfully he is well on the road to recovery despite sporting his cone and in the next week will have his stitches removed as well as the cone; and hopefully receive the green light in terms of his recuperation and recovery.
This was taken at 7 Sins on Sunday, 10 September when I was there having my colour freshened up!
The medical interventions are not only for Titan but I took my Mom to a new GP 10 days ago and that started a run of visits to medical specialists, with more this next week. The upshot is that (pending the cardiologist appointment on Tuesday) my Mom will undergo surgery on 27 September to have her a right hip replacement as currently there is no cartilage between the hip bone and joint; she is in a lot of pain and there is not much quality of life, as you can imagine. It has been, and still is, quite stressful but the medical aid have authorised the surgery and we have to have faith that all will be well.
Work is very stressful and I worked a lot last weekend and this weekend not only because of the amount of work and managing expectations, but also because of time away from work but because of ensuring Mom gets to her various medical appointments.
My lower back went into spasm 2 weekends ago and I finally had a session with my chiro on Friday not only for my lower back but for my shoulder; so I have been feeling very fragile and tender so we have had a relatively quiet weekend (apart from ensuring I got some groceries for my Mom and taking them to her); and today my lower back is a lot better and I managed to water the garden with ease. It is so lovely watching my garden come to live with spring - from the yesterday, today and tomorrow to my pretty yellow rambling rose and the coral tree with its orange flowers.
Johan has a magic performance coming up this Saturday, for Cocaine Anonymous for their convention which Tristan is very involved in organising. He did not perform magic but performed incredible cooking and braaing skills for me at a Co-Anon event we had on 3 September to welcome spring, and give an introduction to new comers to Co-Anon. I had the idea to hold such an event and we had 2 very powerful speakers who shared their stories of addiction and recovery; and we had a phenomenal turnout - Johan braaied boerewors for boerewors rolls and it was an incredible event. I am still blown away at the number of people who attended and what a powerful event it was; and Johan was thanked by everyone for doing the braaing so clearly he has magic skills in that regard too! I am so grateful (as always) for his constant support and always showing up to help no matter the occasion, event, time, etc.
Amongst everything else going on, it was "Secretaries Day" or "Business Professional Services' Day" and at the office (and I went into the office on the day) we all got a free hot drink of our choice at the coffee kiosk (after signing for it); I was gifted beautiful flowers and chocolates by dear Carly who had been in our team but was rotated to another team because she is a second year candidate attorney, chocolates and nuts from Shrivar and Rethabile, two of our awesome associates in "Team Dinnie" and chocolate from Sarah-Lee one of our candidate attorneys. Lovely spoils and greatly appreciated by me.
And now can we talk about these little cars which are part of the e-hailing Bolt service - and once you have seen one on the road, you immediately see about 5 more in quick succession!
Its a Baja Qute 'car' which is actually legally classified as a compact quadricycle.
What have I been listening to?
Podcasts:
Something was Wrong
What came next
True Crime Daily
The Trial of Lucy Letby
The Girlfriends
Even the Rich
The Damage Report
The Daily
Over my Dead Body
Dear Alana
The Coco Berthmann Story
Exposed - Cover up at Columbia University
Newscast
What I am reading?
"The Summer House Party" by Caro Fraser
"Left Bank" by Kate Muir
Audible:
"The Power of Vulnerability" by Brene Brown - finished it and all I can say is WOW WOW WOW; compelling, informative, educational
by Rosie McLeady
"A Rosie Life in Italy 2"
With blessings love and light till next time!
What have I been watching?
My usual bubblegum shows so I can decompress and not think; and just be entertained
"The Killing Kind" - a gripping British thriller
Bake Off the Professionals
And yes we watched the first Springboks match of the Rugby World Cup Tournament 2023 against Scotland last Sunday
Out and about:
Hennies Sports Bar, Ferndale, Randburg
Sandton Clinic (https://www.mediclinic.co.za/en/sandton/home.html)
Health with Heart, 3 Merchant Place, Fredman Drive, Sandton (https://healthwithheart.co.za/)
North Garden (Fairland, Randburg) for delicious sushi and chinese food
Del Forno, Fairland (coffee post dinner at North Garden with Zen)
Dr Marco Maruggi, chiropractor at Synergy Holistix http://synergyholistix.com/
7 Sins https://7sins.co.za/
Streatery at Lifestyle Centre (https://www.streatery.co.za/) - Friday nights you get 2 cocktails for the price of one; brilliant way to end a very stressful week and catch up with Lindy and celebrate (belatedly) her birthday.
My book sales continue - sometimes at a gallop sometimes at a crawl; and the podcast I was interviewed for will most likely be aired in November so watch this space! And if you don't subscribe to my blog site please do and follow me on IG at Barbs_QueenB AND Barbara_Steyn_Author
Hope it won't take forever for the next blog post but life on life's terms and we try to live just for today, one day at a time.
Blessings, love and light
