Last weekend flew by with me hardly noticing, and I theorized that it may have been because I spent almost all weekend lying on my bed reading what ended up being two and a half books. This weekend is fast escaping me for the opposite reason!

Friday night I attended a hen’s party, with an interesting twist. We were split up into teams and each team cooked a different part of the meal we then ate together. It was a get way for guests to get to know each other before the wedding that takes place tomorrow afternoon. It will be my second wedding for the weekend …

This morning we attended the wedding two friends from our church. The groom is professional tenor, so we knew there would be quite a bit of singing. There were around 120 people in a church hall with great acoustics, a proper organ, and a choir, so the hymns really did sound good, especially the African language song that a top notch South African conductor tutored us whities on before the ceremony started.

We leave home in half an hour for a birthday celebration for my oldest friend, we met in primary school, and with the other wedding tomorrow morning, I’m going to be all partied out and wanting a weekend by tomorrow afternoon!

But it’s all good stuff, so I’m not complaining.

One of the things I appreciate about the company that I work for is that they have an active Social Responsibility program. It’s all about investing in our nation, giving something back and helping people develop sustainable incomes. And the PR doesn’t hurt. It’s the first company that I have worked for that encourages its staff as much to get involved in these activities.

Once a year we hold an event called Festive Tree. This year we took around 500 kids from poor areas, many of them affected by HIV/AIDS, out for a day of fun and learning, and gave them some useful gifts like school shoes and stationary. While the kids were off having fun (hosted by members of staff that volunteered to help) some of the other staff, including myself, went to their community centre and put some DIY efforts into the centre.

This year our DIY team visited an Educational Foundation east of Mamelodi called Berakah. They are involved in a number of projects including HIV/AIDS and Orphan Care, Preschool supervision and education through a crèche and after school care centre programs. This link will take you to the location of our efforts on the weekend.

Spouses and anyone else you can rope in to help are more than welcome, and Hunny & I along with 20 or so other people arrived at Berakah at 7:30 AM. We quickly set about doing what we could to patch the place up. Our efforts included planting trees and shrubs, tightening the ties that hold up the marquee that serves as their main hall, patching the concrete floor in the hall, painting several outbuildings and putting us shelves, floor mats, storage containers and packing the many donated toys for the crèche. Most of the equipment used and donated to the centre was sponsored by contacts, friends and family of the staff, or the staff themselves.

I arrived at least a little hungover from too much wine drinking the night before, but I had worked out my hangover by 10:00 AM. By about 2:30 PM when we left most of us were totally exhausted, but feeling great. It’s a little self-righteous, but it felt really good to be doing something for someone else who really needs it. I am still glowing today.

If your company offers you an opportunity like this to get involved in your community and give something back, and you haven’t helped out yet, I strongly recommend it. You’ll be helping yourself as equally as much.

Some pics taken on the day can be found here.

Shew! What a busy weekend!

The greenie & I went for our first run together in over 6 months on Saturday morning. To be quite honest I was more than mildly surprised that I remember how to ride, the sequences of the gear changes, braking with front & rear brakes, and pulling away without stalling, you know, that kinda thing. When I was learning to ride I stalled at least once every time I tried to pull away. Most frustrating, and the more frustrated I got the more I stalled. Saturday I was fine, maybe it’s just a false sense of security, but I didn’t stall once! It was a short but great ride, great because the bike really is running better than ever, and short because I had to hurry home to go to…

The massage course I told you about. Sports massage. It was run by the lady I normally go to when I need pummeling back into shape, and it was a very informative and practical course. By the end of Sunday we had been taught how to give a full body massage in an hour. It’s actually a pretty difficult thing to fit into one hour, doesn’t leave you too much time to work on problem areas. We paired up and practiced our techniques on our partner. I can truly say that by Sunday afternoon I was all massaged out. I think students get a little over-zealous when they find a knotted muscle. After a practice leg massage, full leg massage, practice back massage, and full body massage I felt quite pummeled. It was a lot of fun though, and the time flew by so quickly.

I’ve tried a little practicing on my Hunny, he’s not an easy candidate, his muscles are quite a bit thicker than your average bloke, but he says I’m not doing too bad

With two days of course, and an assortment of other activities it hardly felt like I’ve had a weekend at all, but that’s okay, there is always the next one. Oh no wait, that one is fully booked also. *sigh*

How do you eat an elephant?

- One bite at a time.

An update on the Greenie’s story. On Monday Hunny fetched a new set of (second hand) carburetors. Tuesday we took the bike back to Danie at Randburg motorcycles. Wednesday we waited. Thursday mid-morning Randburg motorcycles phoned us up to say the bike is ready for collection. We dropped everything and went to fetch! Amazing! I think I have a crush on Danie …

Hunny rode the bike home, and says it’s better then when we bought it.  I’m a lot closer to excited now Just the new exhaust left to fit and we are done.

Only thing now is that I’m on course all weekend … *sob*

From 9AM to 4PM each day this weekend I’m going on a sports massage course. I have a secret desire to be a physiotherapist; for the moment this is as close as I can get to that. I’m very excited!

The course has an interesting set of requirements, amoung them:
Short fingernails
Shorts that are loose enough to be pulled up (we’ll be practicing techniques on eachother)
A bikini top or tank top that can be easily removed (for same reason as above)

Hunny’s quite excited about this too, he has volunteered to be my number one guinea pig. I’m not so sure about that. The guy is pretty huge, it’s like massaging two people…

One thing I’m worried about: my hands and wrists are going to get incredibly tired. My usual day job that has them typing is no preparation for deep tissue massage.

It may not be true for everyone that the best things in life are free, but I can think of a sensations that never fail to make me happy to my core, and I thought I’d share them with you.
In no particular order:

1. 10 extra minutes under a warm duvet on a cold rainy day
2. A long hug from my Hunny on a stressful day
3. Smooth legs between fresh sheets
4. Warm puppies and milky puppy breath
5. Being able to calm my horse when he’s really freaked out
6. The open road, in a car or on a bike, stretching out in front of me
 Much cheaper than retail therapy, and they can’t make you feel fat