Natasha's Showground

I've been meaning to copy and paste this blog for the longest time and only managed to do so now, so if it's old news, too bad for  you! hahaha!

So, the train of change and challenge has picked me up, and part of me wants to just yell for the gaartjie to get me off, and the other part of me is the excited speed freak anticipating what the next station’s challenge will bring.

It all started last year August when I was approached to apply for the position of Human Capital Consultant for the Garden Route Catchment. Garden Route? George? Are you freakin kiddin me???? I’m not gonna go to a boendoes Catchment, no thanks!!! The ad is placed and I don’t apply. Then September arrives, the ad’s been closed long time and I’m approached again. Being enticed with the joys of the job. “It’s the best Catchment” they say, “the people are great” they say, “the landscape is the best” they say, blah, blah blah is all I hear. Then I get asked “just to send my CV”, next thing I know I’m called in for an interview in George. Like the good interview candidate, I do my research on the job, the area, the people, the demographics, the economy, the branches etc. FNB flies me up to George for the interview. Then the waiting comes. Our usual recruitment policy states that we inform the unsuccessful candidate within 24hours and the successful candidate within 48hours. One month passes and I hear through the grapevine that the other candidate already got her decline letter. What? She got her letter? What happens to me now? Another month passes and I’m told to meet with the Provincial Executive – wait for it – TOMORROW!! A Saturday morning on top of it. We meet, we chat, then he says “I’m comfortable” – what the flippin fiddlesticks does that mean? He steps outside the boardroom with the Provincial HR Manager and asks me to wait. The HR dude comes back, shakes my hand and says the job is mine. *Insert heaven music here*

Finally, after 8 permanent years (11 incl temp), 6 promotions, I’m a Manager for First National Bank!!!!! Whooohoooo!!! I’m the official Human Capital Consultant for the Garden Route Catchment caretaking 13 branches. Shew, do I have a job in store for me….! I’m super excited, super nervous, super happy, super sad and super anxious all at the same time. On the one hand, I’m one step closer to my career goals (watch this space for my transition to CEO of Strategic HR neh…hehe), and on the other, I leave behind a life I know so well, my family, my friends, my home, my comfort zone. But like I always say, change can only happen when you’re uncomfortable.

So, I’m changing jobs, moving to George and turning 30 all at the same time. I’m in a complete flat spin. Three major life-changing events all happening at once. How do I prioritise? I can’t actually. They’re all kinda inter-connected. I’m moving to George because I’m changing jobs and I happen to celebrate a birthday all in the middle. My birthday party kinda took a bit of a back seat because finding a place, organising my move, finding time to drive down to George to meet with estate agents, training my assistant, advertising for my replacement all while still operating business as usual at work AND still go on training approx 3days per week, really took its toll on my stress levels. Moving towns is no small thing hey. And doing it through your company is 10 times worse. You need authorisation and approval for everything and everything has a budget, so that needs to be kept under control as well. Find a place with a rental limit of Rxx.xx, find 3 quotes from removal companies not exceeding Rxx.xx, send through your own transfer forms to payroll, cos that’s what you did before the promotion, find time to pack, find time to spend with your family before you leave, find time to find a dress, find time to call party organisers, find time, find time, find time…….jassis, I swear, nothing builds character more than being a headless chicken.

Ok. I’m getting tired now, in-between all these events, the time to sleep is a necessity, cos I discovered that a 4hour drive to George ain’t that bad if you got at least 8 or 9 hours sleep the night before. I just drove to Town this morning, which took an hour and a half in traffic and I’m completely and utterly exhausted. That’s a Cape Town thing I’m sure as hell not gonna miss.

Anyhoo, I went on training today and when we left, the facilitator left us with this last message which I’m going to share with you if you feel that you are at a cross roads in your life regarding your career goals, your personal life, anything where you’re not sure whether the place you are at is your destiny in life cos you feel that there’s nothing else out there for you…..

Imagine one of the biggest libraries in the world. Its area is the size of 11 rugby fields and extends to 7 floors up. I am walking with you as we go up to the 7^th floor. We walk through the 7^th isle and each isle has about 11 rows. I pass you a ladder to climb up to the 7^th row of the 7^th isle. Now what do you think is all around you? (No, this is not a trick question.) Books!!! You have books to your left, books to your right, books above you, books below you. You pick out one book, open it up to wherever the pages land. There are words words words all over. Words on the left page, words on the right page. You look at one sentence, in that sentence find a word with the letter –i- in it. Now what do you find at the top of that letter –i-? A dot, right? Now, the company that you work for right now, is just the dot to your world of possibilities that is the rest of the library. I dunno bout you, but I thought that that was some pretty thought provoking and powerful stuff. I learnt tons more, which I’ll share with you on another blog, this one is waaaayyyy too long as it is.

No tips today I'm afraid, I'm just copying and pasting for now.

Have a brilliant day!

Later!

Smooches!

Ok, so I’ve managed to find the time to blog today, mostly cos I’m bored out of my skull yet again. The work is there, but the body don’t wanna!

Yes, it is the 19^th November 2007, that means that yesterday was the 18^th November – the “wuda been” day. Yes, you know what it wuda been hey! One year later! And I’m still standing, yeah yeah yeah!

This past weekend was cool. Had our farewell party for our CEO of Branch Banking, Zweli at @mosphere. I had a ball of a time. Then again, I always enjoy myself at FNB functions. As most people who know me, know that I have great pride in the company that I work for. Granted that things may not always be honky dory, I still have that feeling of pride. The same can be said for most things in life actually. Things may not always go your way, but it may not necessarily change the way you feel about something, someone etc.

Saturday I spent vrekking the day away. Besides getting my laundry done, I stayed in my pj’s the whole flippin day, it was awesome!!!

Sunday was the sausage braai at Natalie’s. Tania suggested the braai in order to cheers the “18^th November” kinda! It’s been a year and yet we should still cheers the day, just because. Way in the bottom of my being, I did feel a bit down, but more to the top of me, I was happy. Happy to be with my friends, happy to have partied with my friends, happy to have spent time with my family, just generally a feeling of happiness and contentment.

I managed to watch The Secret on Saturday as well and I realised that I had been living my life according to the secret for as long as I can remember. Always striving to have that “attitude of gratitude”, being positive and trying to bring in positivity into your life, by exuding a positive attitude towards others. It gets tough yes, especially when you deal with difficult people that try to infect your happiness, but the challenge is trying to overcome that by not letting them take your power. Basically, the Secret states that you attract everything that has come into your life and looking back, I realised just how true that is. If you keep thinking that you’re never going to get out of debt, you won’t. If you keep thinking that you won’t find the love of your life, you won’t. Your thoughts play a huge part in your reality. So, right now, my thoughts are “I’m going to own an Eos, I’m going to own an Eos, I’m going to own an Eos!!!”

Well, my intention was not to have a lengthy blog, but that always seems to happen when my fingers do the talking! So I’d better end off here now. I’ll attempt another one sometime soon. Ok? Cool!!

My tip for the day:

To remove a bleach smell from hands (and that slimy feeling) pour a little vinegar or lemon juice over your hands then rinse. (bleach is alkaline, vinegar and lemon are acid, so they cancel each other out and balance the pH of your skin.) 

Lots of love and happiness to you all!!

Later!

Smooches!!

Yes, yes it’s been forever since my last update, but alas, Facebook has hit us like a tornado and swept everyone into its twirly thingies. So we’ve been sending each other Booze Mail, updating our moods, spanking each other, hugging each other, sending each other flowers, drinks, sweets, pastries etc. Basically keeping in touch with people we hadn’t seen or spoken to in years. It’s tons of fun, but of course having fun in the workplace is a big no no, so needless to say many of us have been blocked from Facebook, forcing me to connect with my cellphone’s USB cable and sitting with a phone bill of over R1000. The true signs of a Facebook addict. But Facebook I must! *sigh*

Well, I’m not really sure where to start, so I’ll start anywhere. A lot has happened over the past few months. I’ve met new people, gone to different places, spent time with family, spent time alone and some time with my friends. I’m sure that many of the people in my life may have felt a tad neglected by me, but to be honest, I’ve felt neglected by them as well. The bottom line is that I live far – 50km from my loved ones. I make the effort to visit them as often as I can, but sometimes I actually feel that I’m the only one making the effort, so I’ve held back on most visitations to the south. The result of this is that now my nephew, Aiden is upset with me cos he doesn’t see me as often anymore. When I go to the south, he’s either with his father or he and Karen go out. Then also when I’m in the south, I’m usually there cos I have a party to go to or something, so when I do spend time at home, I’m sleeping and catching up on rest from the parties I’ve been to. Which I can say has been unfair on my part. And mother dear’s not too impressed with that fact. Why bother to come to the south at all then she says. But I’ve actually started to enjoy spending time in my own home, cos that’s what it’s become – home! It’s not just my flat where I happen to live, it’s “my home” now. My space, my place. Strand is now my home, not Retreat. Retreat is where I sleep over in the south, I mean the fact that when I’m there I have to sleep in a sleeping bag is evidence enough that that is no longer my home. It’s my family’s home. That’s probably why I actually can’t wait to get back home after my south visits. I get to sleep in my own bed, watch any channel I want on my own tv, eat my own food, shower in my own shower, bath in my own bath and best of all – THE GEYSERS ALWAYS ON!!! Funny how we forget to appreciate the little things in life.

That brings me to my next paragraph. Have you ever really thanked the powers that be for the things you have, the privileges you have, the people in your life, the things they do for you? I try as often as I can, I try to express my gratitude for everything I have, because I had to learn the hard way of just how easy it is to have it all taken away – without warning, just poof, and it’s gone. One week you’re on top of the moon, making plans, picturing your future, then the next week it’s all gone and you feel empty at the loss. Then a year later, you get flashbacks of it all and it’s like that loss has been pounced on you all over again. I guess nobody will truly ever understand unless they’ve been through the same situation and everyone thinks that their situation is unique, so that makes things ten times more difficult to overcome. The sad part is that the more you invested your time and effort in something, the greater the loss feels. But that’s not gonna stop me from keeping on investing my time, my energy and my love in people. Just sometimes, not everyone really knows how much of myself I invest in them or in others, so when I lose them, nobody really understands my loss unless they walk in my shoes. I lost a good friend a while back, but nobody really truly understood what that loss meant to me. When we became friends again, I still don’t think that people really understood what that friendship and the loss of that friendship meant to me. So when I get glimpses of that possibly happening again, and I express that I wouldn’t want a rerun, I sometimes get the feeling that I’m not being taken seriously or that my feelings aren’t that serious. Then that sometimes makes me wonder how much of myself am I investing in people and how much are they investing in me in return? You can only give so much of yourself and not have it reciprocated for so long before you second guess whether it’s all worth it in the first place. And you can only be turned down so many times before you start second guessing your own self worth. OK, this is turning out to be rather depressing – next paragraph please.

Work wise, I think I’m gonna save for another blog entry cos I think that’ll be one that’s gonna need its own space. A lot happening on the work front too, but that’ll come next time.

Anyway, continue to live and love generously and you’ll receive the same tenfold. Spend some time saying thank you. Be grateful and thankful for the little things. Give thanks for your car, your house, your food, your abilities, your job, your family, your friends, your health etc. I mean have you ever really thought about what a privilege it is to be a passenger in a car if you’ve been a driver for most of your adult life? You get to watch the scenery, the people, the sky, the birds, etc while the driver has to worry about both of your safety, the road, reckless drivers, rain, wind, hail, sunlight etc. One day I’ll get to be the passenger – one day! Right now, I’m just thankful to own a relatively new car, having the ability to drive it and having a stable job that pays for the petrol and servicing.

Ok,I think that this blog has been long enough now. Have to save something for later again. Until next time I’ll end off with some words of wisdom:

He who knows much about others may be learned, but he who understands himself is more intelligent. He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still -Lao-Tsu. Tao Teh King

Take time to learn and understand yourself better. And my final word is:

Prevent gooey film on ice cream by laying a piece of waxed paper directly over the ice cream before resealing the carton.

Later

Smooches!