life ain’t so bad

it’s strange that  i am finally enjoying work again. maybe because i have planning to do – for my new position. for handing over to my successor. for delegating tasks now that i won’t be able to do them anymore.

 

i find myself doing things i should have done ages ago… and am now forced to. but i am happy. organizing things, getting order into things. even if i am so very very busy i sometimes forget to look up and smile.

 

while i write here, in between waiting while my slowish internet connection brings up pages i need, i am actually completing my tax return.

i must say that south africa has got it right – made tax returns so simple that if you are able to use the internet, it doesn’t have to take more than an hour. even only a few minutes. i think it will take me about 20 minutes in total. max.

 

people get so worked up about tax. it’s this big demon. they try to avoid it at all costs.

personally, i don’t mind paying tax. especially now that it is so easy.

 

and this despite being someone with personal experience of having to pay out tax on money i never received. we can never avoid tax. we can prepare and then minimize what we pay, but we’ll never get away from it totally.

 

and we shouldn’t.

 

how else are we going to keep making the big differences we need in our awesome country?

hey, hey, it’s friday!

yep, it’s friday, the sun has come out (but it’s still damn cold thanks to the snow in the air…) and it’s weekend.

i’m not letting a growing sore throat dampen my weekend – and i actually had a good day today – lvoely, hey?

what bugged me today: agh, nothing really

what i learnt today: that resignations make the rest of the staff nervous. very very nervous.

what i am grateful for: musical assistance from friends for my party

i haven’t been this happy in ages

i can’t remember when last i felt as happy as i do tonight. honestly. despite a very challenging afternoon at work, which would normally have left me in a foul mood, i have ended the evening feeling the happiest i can remember in a very long time.

most of it is to do with the wonderful cast and fellow crew-members of the play that had its opening tonight. and what a success it was. we were well supported, the audience loved it, the director was happy, the inevitable glitches were smoothed over so no-one was any the wiser. (and my snow was smooth and avalanche-free).

i’m not sure whether finally being off the anti-depressants after 2 years is contributing to this sense of happiness that is feeling so fresh and new. or whether it is the realization that so many weeks of hard work from all the team on the play has finally come together so well. there were days where i wasn’t sure we would have a play. there were days that i wished i was on the stage instead of behind it. or maybe it is because i learnt something new, and enjoyed it more than i realized.

the last hour at work was spent trying to get a colleague in spain to understand my english, to change the flight tickets of clients on their way to the airport, for whom we hadn’t received flight details. at the same time, booking day excursions for another set of slightly indecisive clients. while also trying to get information to a guide for his meet & greet on sunday for which he claimed to have no info. and who kept wanting me call him back in a few minutes. and not forgetting the guide of the first clients mentioned above who is basically a child – he can’t think for himself much – trying to get the new flight details to him at places he doesn’t wait at long enough to receive a fax… oh, and to explain a 2-rooms-are-needed-for-5-people-not-only-one booking to a hotel who has received this booking months ago…

but none of that dampens my good spirits. this feels way too good to give up so soon 

what bugged me today: guides that don’t listen or think
what i learnt today: that there are people that love me

what i am grateful for: the cast and crew of barefoot in the park – and the super night they pulled off together!