I read that “Eleven minutes a day of deep, conscious breathing can get you high, humbled, and halfway to a mystical experience” and who doesn’t want that? It grabbed my attention and the rest of the post was pretty humorous. Cutting down the jokes to just the list of items, he gave us some good ones. Check his original post for the details.
- Conscious Breathwork
- Meditation
- Fasting
- Heart Coherence
- Ecstatic Movement
- Face Your Shadows
- Connect with Nature
- Speak Your Truth
- Treat Everything as Sacred
- Listen to Your Soul
- Ecstatic Expression
- Laugh Like a Fucking Lunatic
All of these things are individually pretty vital for survival but put all together apparently it can rattle your world. I do a lot of these. Probably my least successful is ‘face your shadows’ as I am the Queen of Avoidance. I sort of do intermittent fasting a lot of mornings inadvertently. I have coffee which kills my appetite and my ADHD distracts me enough that I forget to eat until afternoon. Generally my laugh sounds a bit loud and rude so that is probably well covered. I like to think I treat everything as sacred, but no one is perfect.
This week Norm brought home a box of mini Krispy Kremes because he knows I am an addict. For Americans who are saying ‘so what‘ this is a huge thing to have these available in South Africa! For me as a southern girl, Krispy Kremes were part of my childhood as that is where they originated and they are still very scarce in distribution compared to some brands. The donuts in SA do not have the right texture I am sad to say. They were slightly less airy than the American version. The chocolate was perfect but the pink one’s icing tasted terribly artificial.
Last Saturday it poured with rain all day long. It was even thundering and lightening at one point. Poppy is the strangest Pomeranian. Poms are usually not fans of water and can be trained with a water gun, but not Poppy. She loves rain, loves puddles, loves the drains brimming full of mountain water that flows out of the back walls, she pretty much loves any form of water. She lies in the rain and chews her bones.
The sun finally came out on Monday and has stayed out all week. It was so lovely to have the sun on our faces and for it not to be so darned cold.
On Monday Chichi came to work and I gave her the box of clothes I had put together when I cleared out my winter clothes. My daughters had taken what they wanted, so I offered the rest to Chichi to see if they fit. She got 4 pair of jeans, several comfy pants, several sweaters, a cardigan and lots of tops. She was ecstatic. Everything looked so nice on her! She said it was like getting her whole wardrobe replaced all at once. She had clothes suitable for any occasions. It made me and her both happy!
On Tuesday I took a little break to sit in the sun and have a coffee by the pool and I spotted a sunbird flitting around my little birdcage. I think he could see the reflection of the metal sunbird hanging down and it confused him. He kept flying into the cage & hitting the bird! He also landed on the hook holding the cage and all around. It was going on before I started filming.
On Wednesday my friend Tam came for dinner. This dress also arrived on Wednesday. I had been coveting it for a long time, but the original cost was insane. It went on sale at 50% off and a friend nudged me and convinced me to order it. I bought it quite big as I cannot bear anything to cling to me. It is a bit exposed in the chest, I shall have to see if my seamstress friend Pearl can work her magic on it and take a little stitch to contain the girls and make it a bit more age appropriate. My daughters asked what occasion did I buy it for and I said I do not need one, I might wear it to sit in my fairy garden and drink tea with my lizards!
Speaking of my lizards, I spotted them a few times this week and it made me so happy.
Thursday was a bit chaotic and it never really slowed until this evening. The mobile dog groomer came for the pups on Thursday afternoon which is chaos in and of itself. Poppy went insane after they finished with her.
She remained clean and fluffy for about a day. Refer below for more information lol.
I finally chose a place to order my topsoil, Nowel Landscaping. Norm decided to clear the front area of stones for the guys to have a space to drop the earth. That meant multiple trips to the tip which causes great distress to Finn that dad is off on an adventure without him so there was all of that drama. They delivered 4 cubic meters in one load on Thursday afternoon and another 4 in a second load early that evening. So there was all of THAT drama.
I shot a video of the area before we started.
Here you will see where Kim got to about midday. He was off having his lunch and I grabbed some pics.
You will also see why the dogs were filthy 24 hours after grooming. My filming attracted Finn’s interest and then a chase ensued until Daddy came to the window to shout at us all.
Despite having our regular gardener here on Tuesday, we had the new gardener Kim come in on Friday and again this morning once we found out the dirt was being delivered so quickly. Kim had to take out every plant that was already there and replant them all as well as haul all of that earth and distribute it so nicely. This is the final product. He did a brilliant job. I just gave him the tools, showed him which other plants I wanted to move to this area and off he went! He works quickly and efficiently.
If you are local to Hout Bay and need someone for your garden, Kim has some days available, just contact me for his details. He is Malawian, a great guy with a family to support, a hard worker, a kind man and he knows his stuff. You can see for yourself what an amazing job Kim did.
After Kim had left I had lots of things I wanted to do and got busy. I went around the garden and snipped clippings and dug up plants that were in need of moving.
I had 5 new planters to fill. I did not make them as crowded as the last lot because those are already overflowing, I gave them space to grow.
Norm climbed into the fairy garden to distribute them for me. He also drilled a drainage hole in them all so these do not get flooded in the next rain.
I had a realisation this week, I need to widen my circle. I met a group of women through a women’s monthly event, but that event no longer meets up. Some of us formed a sort of sub-group but I am pretty much on the outside periphery of that group as I do not really get invited to go anywhere other than the monthly meetings and I see them posting other outings together. I need to find a regular women’s group where I vibe energetically with the attendees. Women closer to my age, say 50 and up. I want one that is not exercise based, just discussion based & even that does not need to be a formal topic focused on each month. A bit of meditation, even mild breath work I can cope with, even drumming on occasion! That sort of vibe. I am sending that message out to the universe to bring this group to me. I want it to be Hout Bay based in case I am having a high anxiety day, Norm can drive me.
I know I am a lot of work. I am loud and dramatic, maudlin and melancholy, a person of vast extremes, sometimes within the same interaction. That is me, take it or leave it. I am pretty happy living my life, just sometimes it would be nice to have a female friend at a similar stage in their life, who enjoys the same things I do, to hang out and talk about the universe, or to meet for a coffee on the weekends, or wander about a market or a museum with. Or to be part of a group who do girls’ trips. I love a good girls’ trip just do not make me sleep on the ground in a tent or in a room with anyone else because I both fart and snore loudly. I am too old for either of those inconveniences and I do not need to pretend I am young and end up crippled from sleeping on a rock.
Not that I do not enjoy hanging out with Norm, we have a lot of fun and laugh a lot. We are aligned mentally and intellectually and can talk about anything. We talk about politics a lot. I never thought I would say that my husband and I talk about politics.
I certainly never have to question how much Norm loves me. When we found out the earth was being delivered so quickly, he cleared an area in front for them to dump it. He removed the stones and bark and the things that we would not want in the new bed. This is only 4 cubes, they delivered 8 in total. It was beautiful healthy looking earth.
It was hard work and he was sore and exhausted. Then today when I complained about the water not draining out of my pots he reminded me there were no drainage holes and he climbed into the fairy garden dragging his drill to get to all 6 of them and drill a hole in them.
I am a lucky woman.
I discovered a series I had not even heard of this week and I binged it all in last weekend. I absolutely loved it. It is “Drag Brunch Saved My Life” which is hosted by the 2020 winner of Canada’s Drag Race, Queen Priyanka.
It is as if the shows We’re Here and Queer Eye had a baby show. Priyanka and her fellow hosts go to restaurants that are struggling and they host a drag brunch. They audition and hire local performers and choose 3 of them to perform as well as a Host. To award them a spot as a performer after the auditions they receive a golden spatula. Mitchell, the chef comes up with 2 different food items to enhance and the other host Crystal presents 2 different themes. The staff of the restaurant have to then decide which theme and which food item they want to focus on for the brunch. The team then decorate and help them plan for an efficient brunch and then it all goes off smoothly. The decor for the brunch is all reusable and they have done it once and can repeat it on their own hopefully. It brought me to tears once or twice and made me laugh a lot. I give it 4 Kitten Stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Priyanka is a smart cookie but it looks like she has spent a great deal of her earnings on adjustments to her already beautiful face and now looks like Brooke Lynn Hytes dipped in sparkly milk chocolate. Or maybe she and Brooke Lynn have the same make-up artist and neither of them had any surgery? (*Cough Kylie’s lips*) I am not being rude, she is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, but she is different and I am not sure how much of the change is surgical and how much is something less permanent.
My Mom gets to leave assisted living on the 23rd this month, please send healing energy for her to get strong enough to look after herself when she gets home. Caitlin, Bree and I fly to George on the weekend of the 4th of July for Amelia’s second birthday.
I hope you all have had a great week and that your weekend is fabulous. We have a 3 day weekend in South Africa. Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxox
Kitten in the City 
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