Feeling miserable and sick so this is about all I'm capable of tonight.
Hope you have all had a good Boxing Day / Holiday with your family and/or friends.
Night all
Feeling miserable and sick so this is about all I'm capable of tonight. Hope you have all had a good Boxing Day / Holiday with your family and/or friends. Night all
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What a beautifully unconventional day. I couldn't have asked for anything better if I had actually planned it this way. I've been dreading Christmas Day. Really for various reasons it simply isn't a good time of year for me. Last year this time I was really dealing with the most horrendous situation and that has been in the back of my mind as well in the run up to today. Luckily the other people affected seem to have been able to put it behind them for which I am thankful so it wasn't something I needed to deal with on top of everything else. Last night after the boys went to bed I quickly set the table for this morning. One less chore to do and the boys had something to wake up to. Neither of them are into Christmas either but I did want some kind of festive cheer for our breakfast. The one real concession I made to decorations was to put out their Santa plates. I made those about 11 years ago for the boys to put out biscuits and milk for Santa. They loved them. Will be the one item I always keep for the holidays. Thankfully being teenagers I wasn't woken up at the crack of dawn and managed to relax until about 7.30am when the dog wanted out... Once everybody had showered at 9am we gathered in the kitchen to make breakfast. Now we are not a breakfast family. Both my boys and I are happy tea / coffee drinkers with our first meal around 10am so breakfast is a fair novelty. Everyone chipped in. Nathan making the toast, mom getting the eggs cracked for the scrambled eggs. I added to that mushrooms in garlic, cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon and grilled tomatoes. To drink champagne and orange juice. Kyle added his usual drama that we have without fail on any celebratory event... so in between I had blood pressure climbing... and silently just kept reminding myself that by 11am the kids would be out of here.... Breakfast done the boys opened their small gifts. The rest is all online electronic things they wanted but limited this year instead of just being a free for all spending spree. The clean up started and my mom and I sat relaxing. But of course I can never have no drama. The dogs started barking hysterically. That can't be ignored, something isn't right bark. Temperatures already sky high we shot out thinking maybe they had cornered a snake... however it wasn't a snake... it turned out to be a freshwater turtle, which I initially thought was a tortoise. You don't expect to find a turtle in the middle of your garden. I think it got washed out of wherever it was living in the severe storm we had 2 days ago. Said turtle has been taken off to a suitable dam where he/she shall hopefully live a long happy life.
Packed the kids and turtle off with their dad and by 1pm I was lights out for my afternoon nap. Once I surfaced at around 5pm I spent the afternoon measuring the levels in the pool so I could add the necessary chemicals (yes I'm learning a helluva lot these days!!). Cleaned the pool. And yip Eskom struck... had to have some load shedding on Christmas Day so I spent the last hour or so of daylight watching the storm clouds building in the distance while enjoying the cool breeze on the deck and enjoying the peace. No sooner had I made a comment about the peace and my Daschund Spud decided to go for a swim in the pool... same pool in the same place for 5 years... you would think he could run past in a straight line... nope... Anyway after cleaning him up I've ended off my day listening to some Pink while nibbling on pate and cheese & biscuits washed down with a glass of champagne. All in all a wonderfully unconventional and enjoyable day. Just what I needed to restore my inner peace. No need to meet preconceived ideals and expectations. No pressure to produce a lavish meal. No clean up in temperatures over 40 degrees. No whining bored children. I go to bed on this Christmas Night a content woman able to say for once it was a good Christmas! John Lennon died 34 years ago... and nothing has changed. Over the years I've heard the song and never thought much of it ... was listening to Celine Dion's version tonight and decided to look it up. Please DO NOT watch the video if you cannot tolerate the harsh reality of the world we live in. So yes it is Christmas.... But for many people the world over, celebrating Christmas or not, it is another day caught up in the nightmare of wars that aren't even of their making. It is the making of a few old men/women (I won't discriminate here) sitting around a table deciding they want things to operate a certain way... regardless of the toll it takes on humanity. What is the bet those people will be safely at home tonight on Christmas Eve with their families and massive Christmas trees and loads of presents under the trees, a big feast planned for tomorrow... not a care in the world... Yes I know I'm cynical but really I've never been a Christmas type of person. And I'm past making excuses for it. Really I could pull the blankets over my head and resurface in a couple of days. I think what gets me is the complete hypocrisy of the whole thing. Let's be Merry and filled with Joy and Peace.... while half of the world is at war... I know it is about family and putting aside grudges - yes that is all good. But if in 34 years since John Lennon has released the song the world has got worse, not better, I can't see how we can close our eyes to what goes on around us. When will the citizens of the world stand up and say enough? For how long will the whims of a few control the destinies of humanity? I also know I'm talking to myself for now but that's ok. A dialogue has to start somewhere in order to spark change. I may not be able to do much but I can speak to my children. Change their perspective of the world. They will be the next generation of decision makes. Lets hope their children or grandchildrens Christmas may be peaceful at last.... Footnote about the music video and if you don't want to be upset please don't watch it.... A music video for "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" appeared on The John Lennon Video Collection, released on VHS in 1993, corresponding to the 1989 reissue of The John Lennon Collection. It consisted of images from Lennon and Ono's 1969 "War is Over!" billboard campaign and candid photographs of the couple and their son Sean from the late 1970s, interspersed with a boys' choral ensemble singing along with the original Harlem Community Choir vocals. The video was recut, and the song itself remastered, for the 2003 DVD Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon. The 2003 video is composed of documentary footage, mostly depicting children, from the Vietnam War, in addition to recent scenes from various conflicts in the Horn of Africa, the Bosnian War, the 11 September 2001 attack on New York City, and the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.[citation needed] "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" (Happy Xmas Kyoko Happy Xmas Julian) So this is Xmas And what have you done Another year over And a new one just begun And so this is Xmas I hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young A very Merry Xmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear And so this is Xmas (war is over) For weak and for strong (if you want it) For rich and the poor ones (war is over) The world is so wrong (if you want it) And so happy Xmas (war is over) For black and for white (if you want it) For yellow and red ones (war is over) Let's stop all the fight (now) A very Merry Xmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear And so this is Xmas (war is over) And what have we done (if you want it) Another year over (war is over) A new one just begun (if you want it) And so happy Xmas (war is over) We hope you have fun (if you want it) The near and the dear one (war is over) The old and the young (now) A very Merry Xmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear War is over, if you want it War is over now Happy Xmas There was no dramatic reason in my decision to become an organ donor. It is simply in my opinion the right thing to do. For a long time it has been on my to do list (that blasted list that never seems to end or get done!). My life has never been touched by organ donation. I've never (to my knowledge) lost a relative to an illness that needed a lifesaving transplant. I've always believed that we should do as much good as we can in this world. Our last possible gift we could ever give would be the gift of life to somebody else. Nobody deserves to die. You could save someone's mother or child. The breadwinner of a family or the next Nobel Peace Winner. But in reality it doesn't matter who the recipient is - what matters is that there is an organ for them to receive. I've just received all my paperwork and stickers. Time to put everything in place, inform my loved ones and doctor of my decision and ensure that in the event of a fatal accident my final gift will be life giving. But why raise this topic now? Well is Christmas time and in South Africa that means a notoriously high death toll on our roads. Sadly despite yearly calls for safer driver and supposed tougher actions by the officials the number of people who lose their lives never really seems to drop. The stats according to news24.com for the last few years are as follows : According to the transport department and RTMC, the preliminary road deaths for previous years were: - December 2007: 1 142 people killed (the final figure was 1 535); - December 2008: 937 people; - December 2009: 1 050 people; - December 2010: 1 358 people; - December 2011: 1 232 people; and - December 2012: 1 279 people. The figures for all the years except 2010 were for the month of December. The 2010 figure included deaths up to and including 4 January. The final death toll figures for the Decembers since 2007 had been higher than the preliminary figure. These were NOT FINAL figures. Seriously people I don't know why you can't all drive like normal law-abiding citizens... this is not the fault of the government or traffic officials... it is the people behind the wheels. YOU!!! Slow down. Buckle up. Stay off your cellphone. Keep a safe distance. I digress - this is not about fatalities on our roads. While the loss of a loved one, at any time but particularly at this time of year, is horrific and there is a lot of emotions and grief to deal with if the decision has been taken by the victim earlier and all the correct documentation is in place then the burden would not be on the family to make the call on whether or not donate organs. They do need to give their consent but it is easier to give consent when you know what the wishes of your loved one are than when trying to make that decision on top of the trauma of a sudden loss. I know for a lot of people the thought of removal of organs or tissues is a sensitive topic. There are religious issues as well. But your body is just the shell that houses your organs and keep you going while you are alive. Once you are dead your soul moves on. Whether buried or cremated what good are those organs wasted? I don't expect you to be in agreement. However please just think about it. Remember it could be your loved one in need of that organ one day... I know death is not a topic people like to talk about but it is reality. Like they always say we are only guaranteed 2 things in this life, death and taxes. If you want your life to count for something then why not have your death count for something to. |
Love Always
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April 2020
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