so life around here has slowed to something a little more manageable, and yet i’ve not gotten round to updating any the more frequently.

so, here goes:

• the bf survived his emergency surgery ordeal with a more than 30cm incision. all in all pretty scary, but his determination and resilience won out and he was home within a week. he even asked them to stop giving him morphine in the hospital, because it was making him “stupid”. it meant an insane amount of pain till they found a replacement pain-killer, but he did it. he’s been driving and back at week since about 10 days after surgery. “my hero”! 🙂
• timing is everything… the day after he got home from the hospital, i had to leave town for  a week. someone i’d met at a boutique show organized for me to be part of NAMPO – an annual agricultural show which i’d never heard of before, but which is huge. and also takes place in the heart of binnelanders (i still haven’t gotten used to called it binneland sub judice) fandom. i’ve never had as many people want autographs or posed for as many cell-phone pictures. without the fans though, the show is nothing, so i hope i did it with good grace. the week  was damned hard work let me tell you. i’d been told that we’d be staying on a wildfarm. i wasn’t told that the wildfarm was 2hrs drive away from NAMPO PARK!!! OMG! it meant getting up at an average of 5a.m. every morning, driving for 2 hrs, setting up, doing an hour long fashion show every morning, then manning the booth where the dresses were being sold. fortunately ricci, who used to play my daughter on tv, was along to assist. without her, i don’t know how i would’ve coped! at the end of an interminable day during which it was an interesting quest to find something to eat which hadn’t formerly stood around on all-fours, we would finally make our way at dusk for the 2hr trek back to the wildfarm. we would leave before light and get back way after dark. at least one morning we left just as dawn was breaking and the sight of the many animals along the gravel road was amazing. i remember tweeting something about heavy traffic – a herd of wildebeest crossing the road. 🙂
• 2 days in a row during nampo week, we had interesting travel experiences. while on the previously mentioned gravel road we suddenly heard a deafening explosion. everyone was in a daze and it took a moment to realize that a stone had flown up and activated the side airbag. the smell of gunpowder hung in the air as we gingerly recomposed ourselves. next day we came upon a car on the side of the road, the front end crumpled in upon itself. turned out a truck had lost one of it’s tyres and at 6a.m. had managed to almost take out a family of 5 in the only other vehicle on the road. fortunately the adults and 2 kids were fine, just in a state of intense shock. we stuck around for about an hr making sure that help arrived, seeing that i am not a doctor, i only play one on tv.
• at the studio i fortunately have not had much of a storyline, which is great because i’ve been able to deal with sass designs stuff, but it’s also weird. give me 10 scenes and i’ll be word-perfect. give me 2 lines and i won’t even remember my name. i proved that to myself last week. not fun. the whole soap-acting thing is really like a muscle which needs to be exercised. use it or lose it. oh well. that’s the way story arcs go – my 7-7 , m-f will come soon enough and then i’ll be complaining about that! 😉
• i’m trying to get a little more publicity for the clothing line – right now i’ve got some stock, but very little in the business bank account, so i need to generate sales. am doing a photo-shoot/ interview for tydskrif rapport on thursday for  some much needed publicity, even though i feel like a house once again. i watched a bit of the comrades and  i swear, if there weren’t thousands of people doing it, i’d say it was impossible. it did get me thinking about getting off the couch again and revisiting those 10k races i did a few years ago.
• did you guys catch the rugby? we had some friends over and had a grand ole time. probably part of why i feel like a house yet again! 😉 there were some rabid supporters of both the teams, but i’m glad to say, i was supporting the south african team – and they won! 😉

ok, so that’s all for now folks. i’m sure that’s but an iota of what’s been up lately, but it’ll have to do for now. hope your lives are interesting  – and not in the chinese curse sense.  if i don’t see you through the week, i’ll see you through the window! *

*i typed  the phrase and then wondered where the hell it originated. of course i googled, abut i’m still no wiser. something about a show called gregory’s girl…springbok radio, taxi? do *you* have any idea?