my rock

-rock-

My dear

your birthday nears

thoughts drift to you

remembered.

-Grief-

once held

in stagnant arms

enfolded life in limbo

waiting

-life-

slowly rises

with drifting skies

to patch a path

renewal

-tomorrow-

silver linings

bright coloured mittens

a few favourite things

hope

~

"Let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing"

quote from "The Prophet" by Khalil Gibran

Wednesday shall break in a scant few minutes. I must hasten to bed, but offer up a cinquain poem of hope.

Something I cling to, crave and try to hold in my heart

with memories

Happy OneShot Wednesday.

The Reunion

Heaven Lodge welcomed us back, but our stop the second time was brief. This was just a layover now to regroup before our next leg of the journey. I gladly succumbed to a hot shower to wash away the sweat from our trek through the wilds of Chimanimani National Park. The scalding water could not wash away the memories I held of star-filled nights unblighted by city’s illuminations though. We re-fuelled our bodies and the van, then pointed Arnie North towards Harare and hopefully our lost companion.

With no communication, we had no way of knowing if Brett would be in Harare or not, so we made haste to get there as quickly as we could. Our haste was well met by giant bear-hugs from dear Brettski alive and well to greet us. He told us of his adventures in agony on the bus ride South, the flight to Johannesburg and straight to hospital, and x-rays that suggested that he had probably already passed the stones by the time he arrived. He was smiling and fine, and had been in Harare for 2-3 nights already by the time we got there, we discovered with glee.

We were joyous in our reunion and decided to celebrate. We played tourists and went curio shopping at a local open-air artisan market, where I bought soap stone carvings, a sarong, a crocheted vest and t-shirts for family back home. We splashed out by dressing up for a decadent meal out to Rani’s, an Indian restaurant, where we allowed ourselves to be catered to our every whim. It was fun pretending to be sophisticated, when we normally lived out of a backpack stuffed with six pairs of underwear, two t-shirts, three tank tops, one sweater, one pair of jeans, two long-sleeved shirts, three pairs of shorts, a sarong (newly purchased!), a dress, a skirt, a pair of pajamas and one towel (or something like that). Miki and I even put on makeup for the occasion! We held our forks daintily and discussed the state of the world, glorying in this break from our reality. I followed this up with much deserved phone call home to share my recent travel stories with my family and hear tell all the news from that part of the world. On a roll, I called my family in Cape Town to check in with them as well and see if there was any news from there. I was delighted to hear that I had received some letters and they would be forwarded along to me en route. With my ear aching, but my heart warm, I called it a night. The city had been good to me and friendly Harare was okay in my books.

The Name of the Game is Pumpkins

Gaze upon

flower fair

Soon a pumpkin

full of flair

Grow &

flourish in Autumn light

Only to turn

 to spectre of fright

Halloween

Demands it be

who’s to fault

but you & me

^^^^^

With so many out and about in the pumpkin patch this weekend, I thought I would join in the fun. My jack 'o lanterns are from days gone by, but we have been growing lovely decorative squashes in the driveway (self-seeded again) that shall be carved up in a few weeks time. Happy Sunday 160 hosted by Monkey Man!

The Toy Shoppe

**DISCLAIMER: THIS POST IS INTENDED FOR ADULT EYES TODAY. ;-)
Mama went shopping and had fun without the kids today

The rain did slant across my door.
I could not stand it any more.
The babysitter, she arrived post haste
with clock a'ticking time was not to waste.

A gaggle of girls and one wayward guy
thought they'd join me to get an eye.
Tickets free in my hot little hand
soon enough in front of trade show I did stand.

Enter slowly, the hall was dim
lights were flashing by a girl standing slim
With a mike to hawk her colourful wares
My smile grew wide with no modest cares.

Bending, spinning, buzzing, hot
I liked the look of these toys a lot.
But just arrived I needed more
I had to see what else was in store.

Here was silicone. There was glass.
Oh my I thought, does that go in your ass?
Slip and slide and watch the show.
Now I can glean where the butterfly does go.

I could spend all day watching a dance,
but for one eye that kept at my watch with a glance.
So hot and bothered, I collected new toys
that would have to make do without any of my own boys.

and now you know my secret bare
for yes I am one who just might stare
at all those toys made just for me
to put a smile on my imagery

Too much I fear I have said today
I hope you don't turn in disgust away,
but a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do
and I think in my place you would do it too!

Red Shoes

My friend Nancy and I showing off our Red shoes

Some of you may have noticed that I was away yesterday. I apologize, but I had good reason to not pop in here to visit. After dropping my kiddies off in the AM, I ran like mad the rest of the day. "Why?" you ask. Well, I was getting ready to strut my stuff on the runway for the Hope's Garden Celebrate Every Body Fashion Show 2010 – A Red Shoe Event.

The activities started last Friday when I went to a little boutique by the name of Elizabeth Noel to get fitted for a few dresses. I was to dress in casual wear and formal wear and when the prospective models entered the store, we were told to browse around. This is not a store I can say I have shopped in, as the prices were a mite high for me, but there was some pretty stuff. I don't tend to need a lot of formal wear in my wardrobe, so was a bit gob-smacked as to what to wear, but the ladies that worked there got us all fitted and accessorized. The photos are not great, due to lighting, but these were the outfits I got to sashay down the runway in.

Casual Wear

Formal Wear

On Wednesday, I dumped my kids at Nancy's house so that I could go to the dress rehearsal. I walked into the building and my heart started to pound. I have never done any modeling before and for some strange reason, was shocked that the runway was right in the middle of the room with all the tables surrounding it. I was going to have to walk down that narrow strip with lights blazing and all the eyes in the room trained on me. Oh LORD!!! The thought of it made me start to sweat and all the chairs were empty. We got a spiel about how the night would run, were shown the dressing rooms, then gathered into our store groupings for a practice walk down the runway. The children went first and all looked like pros (except my girlfriend from bookclub's daughter who walked zombie-like shuffling to the end). My group was next up and I scrambled up onto stage to stare down the length of the runway. It seemed to stretch forever out into the audience. Our music cued and off the girls went one by one, till I was floating down my first ever catwalk with a  frozen smile plastered to my nervous face. One more lady followed me, then we all swished down the runway once more for our phantom audience to admire. I stepped down off the runway and breathed. There was no turning back now. I could do this. The rest of the models got their turns to practice their moves on the runway and then we headed back out into the evening. We would reconvene the next day for the actual show.

The next day dawned bright and sunny in my world. I kissed my girls goodbye, reminded them that D would be picking them up that evening and made them promise to be good for the babysitter. I would not see them again that day. I snatched a quick coffee, then made my way to the hair studio to get my locks styled. This was the fun part! I arrived at the DeVoG Academy hair salon at 11AM and was shown to the back where a stylist-in-training awaited. Yes, the reason why all the female models could get their hair styled was because a school had offered to do it. All good, I thought. I viewed the rows of gleaming curling irons and hair spray and forced a smile for my friendly, but nervous stylist. I explained that I would be sporting casual wear, as well as formal wear, but more importantly that my hair was fine and thin, and would not hold a style for any length of time without some artificial support. Product was necessary. Hairspray would have to take center stage with me.  An hour later, I had more curls on my head than I had seen since the bad poodle perm way back in primary school. This time it looked cute though. My eyes sparkled as I tossed my bouncy curls this way and that in the mirror. No time to dally now though. A list of errands was on the roster before I could get to the hall for the show.

I could drag this out some more, but I will cut to the chase now. I arrived at the hall and greeted K from book club and her daughter. After consulting with 8-year-old H on which nylons went better with my casual dress, I started to slowly prep for the show. We were fed sandwiches and fruit, but K slipped me a plastic glass with ice and scotch in it to settle the nerves that threatened to fray. Bless you, my dear! It must have helped, as I soon found me dressed and forcing myself to take deep breaths in a dark hallway. I inched forward behind the other women in my group, until the stage hand said "go!" and it was my turn. Around a curtain and the lights exploded in my eyes. I posed, smiled and strutted down the catwalk to "Tonight's Gonna be a Good Night" by the Black Eyed Peas.



And you know what? It was! I strutted, smiled, posed, turned and most importantly did not fall down and hurt myself, the dress or any poor saps in the audience. The intermission saw a bottle of wine circulate in our back dressing room which I got a nip of, although I didn't necessarily need the liquid encouragement any more. Nylons were stripped off, to give full accent to the red shoes I sported against the black of my dress. The second set, I smiled in the hallway waiting for my turn. I was shocked to hear the announcer introduce me (horrible pronouncement of my name, but no matter) and comment on my red shoes. I hadn't even heard a thing first round! I smiled for the photographer and discretely waved at friends in the audience, before getting another quick tour around the runway as a group. We exited out the other side of the stage (where I almost fell down the stairs this time! Caught by all the men waiting to go on next. oops!). After everyone completed their sets, we got one more last wander down the catwalk, before calling it a night. I can now add model to my list of  accomplishments.

And the crazy thing is, I liked it...