when i got into my car at lunch time, there was this empty void where he had been before. i’m not sure that life has meaning anymore. i don’t know how to move on without him…
i talk of course about boxer-puppy, who i delivered to his new momma today. it was fun, but all a little easier than i thought. no drama.
i arrived at friend c’s house to collect boxer-puppy, who at 6 weeks was strutting fairly confidently through the house. like he’d been there more than the 15 hours he had. chewing on this and that, and kinda owning the place.
once in my car, and on the move, that change completely though. he became a shivering, gibbering wreck. a real puppy-on-the-move. he crawled from the passenger footwell onto my lap, where i held him, spoke to him, stroked him and generally tried to calm him. these were the moments when he surreptitiously crawled into my heart… shame, he was quite distressed. and my not being able to find the delivery address immediately probably didn’t help. although i doubt he realised that was the reason for the delay.
on arrival at said address, the receptionist saw me, uttered “ag moeder” at the cute puppy and called for ms b whom i had asked for. she appeared, i asked if she was ms b, and then handed her the basket with boxer-puppy. she asked whether it was for her, and i mentioned it was a gift from a friend who wishes to remain anonymous. she asked what she should do with it. but by the time i could say, ”well, i guess you have a puppy now” she was already holding him in her arms and goo-goo-ga-ga’ing over him. she was clearly happy. and after staying just as long as is acceptable for a courier, i left. they did ask where i was from (“a courier company”) but i never got to use my stage-name or the fake name of the courier company i invented. but it does seem to have been a success.
except for the emptiness he has left in my car… i shall always remember you boxer-puppy…
the rest of the day should have left me in a foul mood, but somehow it didn’t. i’m disappointed; just mildly surprised. i spent the bulk of the day trying to find spanish-speaking tour guides based in johannesburg – one for clients arriving tomorrow, one for arrivals in 5 days, and one for a half day tour in 6 days. some spaniards do book last minute. but this is ridiculous. i made a plan for the one starting tomorrow, but i don’t have a plan for the in-5-days-one yet… watch this space….
and our final audience-free dress rehearsal actually went quite well. an especially good performance was given by our director, who fractured her arm this afternoon, continued building the set – single-handedly, as she aptly joked J – and only went to the hospital after the end of rehearsal at 11pm. the cast gave a really good performance tonight, partially “for her” as they said.
what bugged me today: not being able to secure a spanish-speaking guide despite calling about two dozen…
what i learnt today: how to make it snow on stage (brilliant!)
what i am grateful for: ice cream. and it’s warming qualities
