I find that the nearer we get to the end of the year, the faster things seem to roll past us. Even the weather is not feeling like December. Normally at this time of year it is very hot with very little rain but we have had all sorts of nonsense.
Last Sunday we had our ladies social group’s year end party. We all met at Tamlyn’s house and it was a gorgeous day. She had lots of cute little headbands so we all wore one.
We all brought various food items and snacks and we ended up with a feast!
It was a warm day so we sat outside which worked well as we needed multiple tables to hold all the platters.
After we finished eating we went inside to open presents. We played the White Elephant Game where everyone brings a gift, you put them all in the centre and you draw numbers to see what order each person can choose a gift. The person after you can choose to ‘steal’ a gift from someone else who has opened theirs or choose one from the pile of unopened gifts. We only had one person opt to steal, most people seemed pretty happy with their gifts.
I had popped into The Collective in Hout Bay and picked up this cute little hand painted ceramic glass dish. They have so many unique and interesting gifts! As it is all done by artists it is not the usual tat you see for the tourists.
We also played Cards Against Humanity. We had such a laugh my face was aching. There were so many things which no one understood and terms no one had heard which of course caused a great deal of hilarity once we did understand.
We had such fun, it is so nice to be with other women who accept me as I am – loud, chatty, opinionated and sometimes naughty. I left feeling very appreciative for the women in my life.
The painters were here all week carrying on with the prep work. It is going to be so gorgeous when finished and I cannot wait!
There was a fire on the mountain just behind us on Thursday and they had 2 of the choppers up collecting water in their helibuckets from the nearby dam and then dousing the fire. They flew directly above our house and I could feel the sprinkles of water coming down onto my head. They managed to knock it out quite quickly.
The groomer also came on Thursday and Finn is now sporting a festive red scarf and smells divine. I am sure it will not last for long!
Especially as the heavens opened on Friday and it poured with rain! This was good news for the fire but bad news for me as I had an appointment for my annual Gyne check up all the way in the northern suburbs that morning. I was in a state of major anxiety about it as it involves a lot of traffic and several motorway changes and I can not see very well at the best of times, but add in torrential rain and I was considering booking an uber but I knew that driving with a stranger would make it worse. Eventually Norm cleared his calendar and took me. Luckily I arrived just in time as traffic was a nightmare. I was given the all clear until next year.
The new neurodivergence info I want to share with you this week is ‘Pruning’. And no shrubbery will be harmed, it is not that kind of pruning.
One of the key processes that occur in developing brains is pruning which is the foundation of the brain developing more mature processes. As the brain develops, it prunes the connections between neurons at the synapses. By pruning the connectivity it doesn’t need, the brain becomes more efficient. This process does not occur with neurodivergent brains.
Many people would assume that more connection is better. While stronger wiring is good in electronics, the brain relies on just the right amount of connection. Too much connectivity leads to atypical function. Why does it matter if there are extra neural connections between the movement, learning and reward centers of the brain and the centers that regulate attention and behavior?
Those parts of the brain are where learning, movement and reward are centered. The extra neural connections ran to the frontal cortex of the brain, where the brain regulates attention and undesirable behaviors. Decreased pruning resulting in increased connectivity between various areas of the brain has also been found in the neurodevelopmental disorder of autism.
The other rabbit hole I went down is that often late diagnosed autistic women may be mistakenly misdiagnosed as having NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) due to the similarities between the two. Nicole has explained in the text below the reel why people with autism may get misdiagnosed. I found this so interesting!
Last week I talked about energy and ‘loosh’ and how we can create positive or negative loosh. I have had a few people ask me how I manifest so easily. It is a bit of living in a dream world for me, almost dissociating into an alternate reality. I can actually visualise another dimension, where the things I am trying to manifest are already true. I can picture the things I want to happen, whether it is new windows in my house or a leopard when I am on a safari. Manifesting for me starts with the intention. I define my intentions, I voice them out loud, I write them down and then I create a vision board of Intentions for the year and that becomes a ‘living document’. I maintain that Intentions story board. For example, once the windows were replaced in the house, I replaced that image on my vision board with a new manifestation and created an updated version of the document.
Others have asked me how I keep focused on the positive and not descend into worry and negative thoughts as I tend towards obsessive thoughts. It is simple to think happy thoughts when happy, the challenge comes when things are not going well. It takes determination to imagine things differently than how they actually are, not that it’s hard to do, but it can seem so futile and ineffective that most won’t ever bother. I bother. If I find myself drifting into a persistent negative thought pattern then I make a point of shifting it. I may physically shake, I like to do the loose arm flop around to dispel the energy, or dance. Dancing is a great way for me to expend energy and redirect my focus as I love music and it moves me emotionally. I listen to a lot of music. In fact, just at home I listened to 11,830 minutes of music.
How can I be so specific? This week Spotify published their 2024 Wrapped. It is no surprise to me that Orville Peck was my absolute fave artist and that his song “The Hurting Kind” was the number 1 track. What were yours?
The film I am reviewing this week is “The Substance”.
I chose it because it stars Demi Moore and I have always been a fan. I never look up anything about a movie as I do not want any clues or hints and want the story to unfold completely in the film. That was a mistake this time as I am not a fan of horror or gore and this film contained so much of both that I actually felt nauseous by the end. Why did I watch it to the end you may ask? I am unable to not finish a film usually, I always want to know the ending. In this case the end was the most horrific of most of the scenes.
I think that Demi did a brilliant job with what she had to work with and I think she looks amazing in this film and every aspect of her naked body is shown, over and over.
But the real star of the film was Margaret Qualley‘s bottom. She has an exceptional bottom and when they panned to the other end of her I kept looking at her face and feeling it was so familiar. I then realised she is so like her mother and the familiar mouth was her mom’s (I was obsessed with Andie in the 70s). Margaret is the daughter of Andie MacDowell and Paul Qualley, both who are former models so it is easy to understand why she is so captivating. Margaret was trained in ballet so that explains the exceptional bottom. I give the film 3 Kitten Stars and Maggie’s bottom 5 Kitten Stars.
This morning I was up and out early as I had an appointment for a facial. When I arrived home I had a gift box from my consulting house. I gave Norm the snacks as I do not eat raisins. But I will have the sparkling grape juice. It is the thought that counts I guess! Better than a kick up the arse as they say.
I am going over to Caitlin’s this afternoon and we are taking little Bree for a walk. I have not seen her in a week or so because of the painters leaving here so late during the week and Caitlin was busy last weekend. Lily and Amelia arrive down next week for 9 days and I am so excited to see them. Hopefully it stays warm and we can swim because Millie is a real water baby. She said her first word this week ‘Bubbles’ which was so adorable.
I hope you all have a fabulous week going forward. Until Next Time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxox
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