raindrops keep falling through my roof…

when i stepped out of my bedroom this morning, into the passage, my left foot got wet. it also almost slid out under me on the smooth off-white tiles, but my dry right foot assisted in my catching my balance again. you see, it’s been raining a lot in the last 24 hours. august is normally the wettest and coldest month in cape town, and while it hasn’t been too bad this year – madam weather is putting in a good effort in the last days of the month to keep her annual august average up.

 

as i sit writing this it is bucketing – and i mean b u c k e t i n g – down outside. it is also moments after i have managed to poke another hole in the ceiling of my study. i say “another” because there has been a hole in the ceiling above my loo for, oh – about 11 months now. the latter was due to a bucket falling through it when the new roof was put on the back portion of the house just after i moved in. the new poked hole is as a result of me exploring why part of the ceiling is sinking and cracking. i don’t know why – it doesn’t seem wet. but at least now i have justification to purchase a whole huge piece of ceiling board – as i can use for it at least 2 rooms.

 

my house is an old lady – somewhere between 50 and 70 years old. so she is not entirely water-tight. in the past year i have discovered about 4 spots where it leaks, but each one has only delivered a wet patch or an ominous “tick.      .tick.         .tick.” sound against the ceiling boards once or twice. not enough to strip the roof and make major repairs. it depends on where the wind is coming from i suppose.

 

i love the rain though – making this weekend all the more wonderful. we have another gaymes day tomorrow, and then sunday i intend to spend as much time as possible under a blanket reading or watching a dvd…

 

i’ve just come back from a reunion we had this evening of the cast of barefoot in the park. we all got together and brought snacks and watched the dvd of one of the shows. i can’t believe it’s only been 2 weeks since the end of the run – it feels like a month and a half to me. maybe because i have done so much since then – and caught up with friends. it was super to see everyone again and to have a good laugh at ourselves on the screen.

 

work was interesting today – but mainly for 2 non-work reasons:

firstly, in our management meeting i realized how much i am not a corporate animal. i understand the need for budgets and forward planning and all that. i understand we cannot just get an unlimited number of staff to assist with the bookings. but when i get told that head office “doesn’t care” about the how busy the local staff might be, it turns my stomach. when i need to justify why i do need that extra staff member, because my team is tired of constantly living on the edge, just just surviving the workload – while we speak of high profits on the other side, i begin to wonder where our values lie. we are going through a slump – and not a small one at that – but we cannot afford to ever lose the human aspect of a business.

 

or do i have it all wrong?

 

we also had month-end drinks, where a core group of us, as usual, stayed late to catch up and chat. and this chatting, as usual, ended up with sex talk of some sort or another. (no, not my doing!). it’s sad to see with the growth in the company how this core group has shrunk – because a lot of the original “characters” in the company have moved on, and the newbies are so much… calmer, less fun, etc. a big pity. i had to leave when it became even more interesting, but rest assured that we all learnt a couple of new things from the world of sex tonight – some of which i wish i didn’t know existed!

 

 

what bugged me today: rain on my back when i open & close my driveway gate (but the automation of it next week should prevent that.)

 

what i learnt today: that the price of petrol is going to go down by about 70c a litre next week wednesday!

 

what i am grateful for: the sound of rain on a tin roof

so that’s what a good day feels like!

on reflection, i actually had a good day today. if it sounds like i am surprised, i am. the week had all the indications that it was going to be a shocker, and in many ways it was.

today was not though.

why?

maybe it was because i realised when a relatively good bad was about to become bad. i was totally conscious of the moment, and can still feel it if i think about it. let me describe the moment for you.

i had one of my star employees have her last day with us today – lots of last minute things for her to do and hand over.

my new 2 newest employees are both off sick at the moment.

all of this leaves me with quite a lot to do – my work, their work, and a couple of other people’s work – mainly because i still can’t say no sometimes.

so when i received 3 e-mails at the same time, all with a bright red ! in front of them, from the same person with “help help help” in the subject line, i began to feel it.

when the realisation that the plan i had for the day to get through all my stuff had just gone out the window, that’s when it happened.

my body temperature instantly rose what felt like 5 degrees centigrade. i needed to remove my jersey jut to be able to think clearly.

then i took a breath. walked to the kitchen and made a cup of coffee. came back and re-prioritised.

now, this may sound like an overreaction to a mere 3 e-mails, but of course it is only a snapshot of what was on my desk at the time. an aside to all the questions being asked of me by co-workers. all the solutions being required of me by my team.

but i am proud of how i handled it. that i didn’t flip out or lose control of my day. it helped that at about that time i realised it was thursday today and not only tuesday.

i got most things done, and will deal with the rest (and some surprised, no doubt) tomorrow.

but i was aware, and that’s important.

as for the rehearsal we had tonight – i see that we have a show in the making!

some of you may know that i’ve been on stage a few times, so when  i was asked if i could be production secretary and stage manager for this show, my initial reaction was that i actually wanted to be on stage – none of this backstage business.

but then i thought about it and accepted that yes this is a good idea if i might want to direct one day. 2 friend this year have now planted the “direct something someday” seed. it’s not a seed that’s had any water or fertilizer in the past.

and i am really enjoying it! it’s hard work, takes up a lot of time, and is certainly more enjoyable after a good day than after a rotten day. and tonight i remembered to step back mentally and see us all working towards making barefoot in the park a reality

what bugged me today: my boss’s reaction to my employee’s decision to leave. but that’s his choice, and he must live with it.

what i learnt today: that while in most fizzy drinks like coke and fanta the gaseous bubbles are white or clear, in the  bright orange, sugar-infested “pine whizz” pineapple flavoured liquid we drank today, the bubbles are the same bright orange as the drink. i’ve never seen that before an it’s freaky man!

what i am grateful for: seeing the benefits in myself of having invested in visiting a therapist the last few months – boy has it made a difference!