Monday 30 July 2007

It can be very windy up there on the moral high ground

As my friend Diana would say.

And I have been reminded of this a couple of times in the last month. I have had to eat my hat (no, wrong expression), eat my shorts (still wrong – when is that simpson’s movie out by the way?), eat my WORDS!!!!

A few months ago I helped my friend Lucy pack up her house (actually I don’t think I helped much) and I remember the word “hoarder” emanating from me a few times (as I smugly mentioned how the room I was living in was VERY small and that I didn’t own very much – belongings, you know, are SO overrated).

So, I moved house this last weekend. I don’t want to talk about it too much (it is cited as the third most stressful thing you can do in your life – after losing a loved one and getting divorced). But while my darling friend Lucy (along with Rosahn and Stuart) helped me on Sunday – I felt rather humble as we made our umpteenth trip down the stairs, with the 4000th box. She is very kind and didn’t rub it in.

The other fact to which I feel rather sheepish is - I joined Facebook (this is where I need a little yellow emoticon face blushing). After months of slandering, insulting, criticising, judging……curiosity killed the cat. Those of you who are regular readers may remember my pompous, maligning facebook post.

“My name is Hazel xxxxxxxx (blog anonymity – identity theft etc etc) and I am a facebooker. I have been a facebooker for 34 days. And that is all I have to say about that.”

Anyway, a few thoughts from the last week:

Things I have done for the first time:
Hired a van.
Gone to collect my van and found that the previous hirers are $%*@ers and they haven’t returned my van and so have made do with a car after a one and a half hour wait.
Driven a car through central London (am quite proud of this one – the most spectacular moment was driving round and round and round Vauxhall junction trying to work out how to get into the drop off car hire place that I could see very clearly – anyone who knows Vauxhall junction will appreciate this).
Been quite relieved that I was driving a car and not a van through central London.

Things that I haven’t done that I want to:
Try some British wine (there’s a story but I am too tired to explain right now).

Things that I thought I thought that have now been confirmed and I know I think for sure:
A friend who helps you move house, is a TRUE friend!!! I love you Lucy, Rosahn and Stuart!!!
I hate packing.
I hate unpacking.
It’s very windy up there on the moral highground.

A post describing my new hood to follow.

Monday 9 July 2007

Advertisers are people too

So, a couple of friends of mine visited Botswana a couple of months ago, and on the flight from Joburg to Maun, they found the following advert in the in-flight magazine. It is an advert for Musica – a music shop in South Africa, and it was encouraging tourists to buy some South African music. I thought it was worth sharing with my readers.



(Musica generally does good adverts – a few years ago, one of their tv ads featured my friend Natalie’s bare bum in the shower – filmed through the opaque glass)