Results are in!

I've been really quiet lately!

I've started a new job in September, after which I wrote exams in October and November, shortly after which we relocated to a new house.. at night after work, after which it was financial year end and I had been working almost 18 hour days for a week.

But... it's all behind me now and it is with GREAT joy that I can announce that in the midst of going through probably one of the most stressfull times of my life, I have received 3 distinctions out of the 4 subjects I wrote.

Maybe dreaming of moving to New Zealand was inspiration enough for good marks!

I remember sitting in front of masses of books and wondering how I'll make it, and ALL I kept thinking of was how this piece of paper was going to get us to where we want to go.

So happy it's year end, the wind down has started and everything feels much slower.

I've gone to the bookshop and gotten 5 books... all non-finance related and romance filled for my reading pleasure and stocked our fridge with a turkey which will feature soon enough.

Christmas is around the corner!

x

Grey skirt

It's finally starting to become spring.  Here, there's blossoms on the rows of plum trees in the borchard I drive past on my way to work.

I love this outfit Jessica Biel is wearing.  I think I might just copy this skirt in a nice wool mix, t-shirt kind of material.

PS: I'm so glad these two seems to have gotten back together!

Tired much?

More of my latest style crush - the dress

Found all of these on Style.com, Talbots NY.

I feel like going shopping!

Work life

Well, it's official.  I need to look for a new job.

Thursday morning my boss came to talk to me and told me that realistically, I need to find a new job.

Which I knew a very long time ago.

Since returning from London, where I had a fabulous job with one of the biggest firms in the world, working in Export Finance, I have struggled to find an appropriate job back in South Africa.

It's just not the same, and living in wine country, really makes it impossible to even consider having corporate dreams.  Here, people drink wine, eat cheese, enjoy life and take really slow paces.

Well, I'm not quite there yet.  I wouldn't call myself a super successful and driven person, but somewhere in between, I definitely want more for myself than just getting by.

So, having this opportunity where I am actually forced to go out and find a new job, really has pushed me to find something good.

I have been looking for weeks without finding anything on the internet, and suddenly, after going to three agencies, I now have three possible interviews.  All amazing corporate type of jobs.

Yesterday, someone phoned my boss for a reference, and she gave a star review of me.

Hopefully, next week this time, I'd be well on my way to working in Corporate Finance again!

1950's Dress

This weekend, She's out of my league was on TV, a 2010 movie, which I guess didn't really ruffle too many feathers.  It's just a nice laugh, boy meets girl type of movie... not too intelligent and the plot was visible from Mars.

But I fell in love with the dresses the lead character wore.  Real 1950's revamped dresses, and I realised, as I am now firmly in my thirties and things are not as slight as they used to be, that the style of those dresses were extremely forgiving to one's curvacious flaws.

Either way, I've always been a lover of old things... I think it connects me to my gran.  She taught me how to sew, and a while ago, I picked up an old pattern.  But, like most of my projects, still lies unfinished in the closet.

Louis vuitton

Mad Men

And with Louis Vuitton and Mad Men bringing the 50's back, I might even be able to pull it off.

Suddenly, I'm over finding a house...

I had an epiphany on Friday.  I'm psychologically over looking for a house.  I'm done being pressured by parents into buying a house simply because it's a good investment.

Sure, it is an investment, and sure, if we don't buy right this minute, we might never be able to afford a house in the Western Cape (since it's practically becoming impossible to find a place less than a good R1.8 million).

Things at my work have been strained.  I think my New York boss, who's come and bought a wine farm in Stellenbosch has woken up to the realities of farming in this little politically strained country of ours.

At first, it was all wonderful and moonshine and roses, and now, she's hating everything.  With passion.

So, I'm not sure if I have a job any more and the Western Cape isn't exactly known for their high pay scales, nor the frequency with which jobs appear on the Gumtree.

Therefore, I have decided on Friday that until I know that I have a job, we can't possibly look at buying property.

When we went away to Hermanus, my husband's dad told us he'd borrow us some money.  But I've been feeling strange about that all the time.  We can borrow enough to buy a house, it's just that just because you can borrow enough money doesn't mean you can pay it back monthly.  We are sceptics by nature, me and my hub.  He too doesn't want to accept parental support.  We need to do this on our own, or not at all.

I just feel that they want us to buy a house so that we could leave this nonsense of going overseas business behind us, make babies and settle down.  His parents were vehemently against us going back overseas.  

Unfortunately, I am more scared of settling down before seeing the world than seeing a snake lurch his body in full blown attack mode.  Yes, at 31 years of age I am still plagued by wanderlust.

So, this dream I have that just doesn't want to quit about immigration has flared up when faced with pressure.

Auckland skyline, via the wonderful Auckland Daily Photo

I just want to have this sky line as my own too. I want to make NZ my home.  I know it won't be easy, but aren't the best things in life really difficult when you go through them?

Please Lord, You can make this happen?

Blog of Note - Delight By Design

So, bored at work (maybe I shouldn't say that out loud...) but found myself looking at who's blog's the Blog of Note of the day.

Turns out it's a wonderful one -  Delight by Design, and within the first scroll I can see that this one I'm going to follow.

Lovely interior shots.  Exactly the style I'd want our unborn house to look like.  (We are still searching... and had a couple of fighty moments there.  All's good again.  We do this all the time!)

Any way... here's some of the wonderful stuff I liked so much!

The Weepies - My new love

Oh my word, I watched Morning Glory this weekend on DVD.  Loved it!

But, as I always tend to find my future love affairs with music, there was a song that lingered on in my head way after the movie has finished.

I googled the sound track and had to find this tune - Same Changes - YouTube video.

There's something that's to be said when you fall in love with a song.

I've downloaded two albums - Be my Thrill (2010) and Say I am you (2006).

Ah, I'm a folk music lover... can't even put it in words.

House hunting

Last night pre-dinner, we quickly went for a viewing in Zevenwacht.  The place was perfectly in our price range... but it was so horrible that we nearly drove away without going in.

It's newly built, and yet the paint is coming off in bubbles.  Cheap if you ask me.

It was not what I wanted to see after being all depressed yesterday about not being able to go overseas like we've planned.  It was just all too much and I had a good cry after my first glass of red wine.  Yes, in the restaurant.  Why make it less dramatic?

Either way, this morning I avoided the internet browsing on property to buy.  But then, curiosity killed the cat and by 11 am I felt I had a long enough hiatus from the property websites.

I searched again, and found a really cute little place.  Tiny, and slightly ugly at this moment in time.  No garage either, but with plans that's drawn up to build one.

We are going to look at it tomorrow morning.  I'm kind of excited about this one.  Sink roof where you can hear the rain falling, it's got a fire place and it's not too bad.  Definitely needs a face lift, but it's actually exactly what we've been looking for!

It's kitchen is ugly as, but I've been having renovation dreams of late, and it might just cure my wanderlust.

The best thing about this house is that it's about a R100,000 cheaper than we bargained for... which means - renovation budget!

Since none of the South African houses has any sort of heating system in, I would spend a big chunk on insulation.  I've decided that right now, whilst typing with frozen fingers.  I know we don't get freezing temperatures here, but seriously, cold is cold when you live in a freezing house!  I want a warm and cozy place.

These kitchens are all via 16 House.

Love them wooden floors and work benches!  

Can't wait for our little journey... might not be an overseas one, but a personal investment one.

Finding it hard to concentrate today

I'm blue today.  Somehow, it doesn't even matter because someone I know just found out she's got cancer.

I'm blue because we are saying good bye to J's cousin tonight and they are getting on a plane tomorrow night, and we aren't.

We are staying in SA, trying to find a house on a budget... in the most expensive province we have.  So, we get crappy and kind of ugly.  Which isn't exciting in this frame of mind I'm in.

Plus, estate agents think you are cheap when you try to milk a house that's worth a million for only 700k.

Any way... I've been browsing New Zealand websites today.  I find it so depressing that we can't go!

Why can't this dream leave me alone?  Why can't I just settle down like a normal person, have babies and be content in my small little bookkeeping job?

Will we not have what we pray so very hard for?  Or will we find peace.

I really feel like another adventure.  I know we are buying a house, but I know my family in law will flip out if we pack up and head across the waters again.  They think I'm a loose canon.  Maybe I am.

Either way, I just wanted to vent.

I dream of Wellington

I know we are looking at buying a house in SA... but I can't shake this dream I have.

J's cousin and his wife lives in Auckland and they are visiting here.  I just miss living overseas.  Can't get over it.  I just listen to their life and I just wish it was us too.

I'm jealous, I know it's bad to say it out loud, but I'm so desperate to get back there too.

My cousin and his wife (who've both got British passports), are heading back to London in a couple of days.

I just can't understand how I could be praying for something so hard and it just doesn't want to happen for us.

Either way, when I find myself dreaming of our life in Wellington New Zealand (even though, it's really just a dream), I head on over to flickr and dream over the photo's of a life that we might lead one day.

New house dreams

We've finally decided to buy our first house together.

Since we live in probably one of the most sought after area's in the Western Cape, we unfortunately cannot afford to buy a house here.  It's just really crazy expensive for what you actually get.

When we went away to Hermanus over the weekend, we've came to the realisation that we will have to move away from Stellenbosch.

First, we thought of buying a house in the Northern Subburbs, but really, I was actually kind of down about it.

I know people say it's OK to live in Kuilsrivier, but seriously, I just can't imagine myself living there.

I must maybe explain to you that South Africa was taken by England, and even though we have been our own republic for about a hundred years now, the class system is still very much alive.  You do not want to live outside of your class.  (I know... it's 2011.  Just because nobody talks about it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist)

I also can't imagine sending our unborn children to a schooling system in Kuilsrivier.  No.  Can't do that. Ever!

So, after browsing the internet (got to love the internet!), I've found a lot of houses in Brackenfell and Kuilsrivier that match our price range, but zero love for these newly cheaply built houses that are so cramped for space.

And then the light bulb went off... what if we try Paarl? I'm sure we could get something there that's not too bad.

And Paarl has class.  Loads of it!  And legendary schooling.

So, I found an amazing old house which we could renovate.  I LOVE old houses!

This one was sold (which I actually cried about last night, since I actually could see us living there!), but we have till September to find a house.

I want to make it a white sanctuary and give it more love than anything I've ever given love to before.

I want to spend every cent I make on making it perfect and paying it off quickly.

I want to make it ours and make it pretty.

So that when it rains on a cold wintery night here in the Southern Hemisphere, I can cuddle up in J's arms and sleep tight, knowing that we live in a house filled with history and warmth.

Hermanus for a family weekend

This photo made me realise I have an African bum... even though I'm from European descent.  (I really need to get to gym!)

The most beautiful shrubs growing in the rocks.

Awesome rock formations made me realise how the earth was created... and how it couldn't just evolve, Someone is bigger than us!

This was amazing! A perfect line of white granite... 

Rough seas are my favourite.  Just can't stop listening to the sea.

Mountains in the distance

The Beach Club where we stayed for the weekend.

Victorian influence all over the architecture of the town. 

There's a permanent flea market which sells all kinds of stuff.

Hermanus has some amazing interior design shops.  I don't think the photo does the colourfull nature of the town justice.

This was too funny! Mr and Mrs Weimeraner driving a jeep! Aren't they just so pretty!

I really enjoyed our weekend trip to Hermanus.  The house was freezing, but we had such warm fun with my in-laws.