👟👠 Back in real-land. Urgh. (#87)

Hi ! It’s still November. I feel like time is flying and standing still. Make it make sense. This week I am thinking and writing about farm trips, new found freedom, Christmas trees, decluttering and men who tell you to “Go North”. - Eve D.❣️

Week in review…

☀️ I went into the African bush, survived, and had a fantastic time. Much more on that below. 

🚗 Micole got her driver’s license! Here she is, all happy and proud, with her new Fifi in the background (I think Fifi is also smiling?). This was a long time coming. I am suddenly not in charge of driving her anywhere, and honestly it’s like Christmas came early for me. I think I feel more freedom than she does 🤣 . She even drove Zac to gym for me. #Bliss. 

❄️ Notice how Micole is dressed like it’s the middle of winter and not the middle of summer, which it actually is? We have had torrential, freezing weather lately, and it’s been rainy and soggy. In fact, one of my walls in my yard collapsed due to the high winds 🙄 . Still, I am not complaining. Give me wind and rain over sweltering heat and humidity any day.

💪 I asked Zac what his accomplishment was for the week, since I am writing the newsletter and boasting about my kids, and he said I should tell you all that he managed to do 4 pull-ups and 16 pushups at the gym today. Given that both those numbers were 0 not that long ago, we’ll take it. 

🛍️ I ordered some stuff from Temu for kids to sell at the Christmas market (so they could meet the R1,000 challenge I set them a while back, if you remember). At the time of the order Temu said it would take 6 days to get here, which was perfect timing for the market next week, but then as soon as I paid they changed that to 12 days, which means…no stock for the market, and lots of excess Christmas stock! The new challenge for the kids is where to sell the stuff now. If any of you want Christmas fridge magnets, do let me know 😆 .

🎒 I finished teaching my maths student for the year! I’m not sure how well he’ll do, but he’ll certainly pass, and probably with a B or a C grade, which is superb given that he started off with 25%. I really enjoyed this little diversion this year. I’d love to teach math to a classroom of kids. Don’t think there is any path for me to be able to do this, though.

🎄 We put up the Christmas decorations. When I say we I mean the kids. The house is all pretty and festive, and Micole is in her element. As for me: I am listening to my Christmas music, wearing my Christmas earrings and looking through food catalogs and cookbooks to figure out what festive things we’ll be eating (answer: my sister’s food).

The Farm…

I had a glorious time at the farm. There is always something magical about being in the African bush, and the remoteness and isolated nature of this location adds to that ambience. As soon as I got there, I totally lost track of all time. Usually, I’m very good about predicting how much time has passed, and estimating what time it is right now, but every time I asked G what the time was, his answer always seemed arbitrary and also completely irrelevant. Who actually cares if it’s 15:30 or 17:30 if you don’t have to be anywhere, and have nothing to do? 

I took lots of stuff to keep me busy. I had visions of sitting on the outside couches, looking into the valley, and figuring out my 2026 goals, reading a book, writing (my poor, neglected book!). I downloaded podcasts and charged up my headphones, brought my iPad filled with downloaded articles and G even brought his laptop with downloaded movies. Ha ha HA!!! It will not surprise you to know that I did absolutely none of any of that. I am not quite sure what I did or where the time went, but I do know sleep played an important part. I was/am exhausted.

One significant thing that did happen: I walked. For six hours, up and down a mountain. And let me tell you..this mountain is steep. I am very proud of myself, and this hike was so much better than my previous one that nearly killed me, and yet in theory this one was so much more difficult. The obvious conclusion is that I cannot hike in high heat, which is what I did at Dome Pools (and when I thought I’d die). This farm hike was in cooler weather, and it was tough but do-able. G was much faster than me, and I convinced him to go ahead and leave me alone to walk at my own speed, which he eventually did do. That left me to set my own pace, not worry about holding anyone up, and allowed me to relax fully into the experience. And I loved it. The views were amazing, and there is a special counter-intuitive feeling of joy when doing difficult stuff. Also, big bonus: the actual destination of the hike was to go and see Bushman rock art. Surreal to know that humans roamed and lived off this land hundreds of years ago, and still felt it important to create art for prosperity.

I didn’t see any snakes or leopards, but we did have a near-encounter with baboons, which you should know are very dangerous animals, especially where dogs are concerned. We managed to manoeuvre ourselves and the pups to safety, and the only other fearsome creatures were scorpions and a bat that flew straight at me and made me scream.

Three days was not enough, and I could have easily doubled that. It becomes tricky with food supply, and it’s not totally relaxing because I am in constant worry about the dogs being eaten/bitten. If the farm did not have leopard it would be perfect, because I could then hike and walk on my own with the dogs without much worry. To be clear: I was never worried I’d be attacked by a leopard. This is almost unheard of, and the leopards do co-exist with the few people that live in the area. G has a worker, Tom, who looks after the farm and the trails daily, on his own, and he’s never had any issues with any animal. But it’s different for the dogs, obviously. And there are many dangers: we saw a pair of eagles circling above, and G said they could totally attempt to take Toby (the lighter dog). FFS. Luckily most animals still have some inherent fear of humans, so everyone keeps their distance. `

In conclusion: the farm is a special space. It humbles you, and breaks you down. This is both good and bad, and certainly messes with one’s head. The “real” world takes some getting used to, and shifted perspectives have to somehow be realigned again.

Random nonsense..

📽️ I watched a short video where a woman was motivating people to declutter, and she said something that I think is quite profound: when trying to sort through all your crap, do not ask “Do I need this?”. Instead, ask “Can I do without it?”. I tried this, and it turns out I can certainly do without more things than I thought I needed.

🗺️ I have a pretty good sense of direction, and can find my way to a destination by just looking at a map once or twice, but of course these days I just resort to Google Maps to guide me. And clever as this technology is, who thought it was a good idea to get the voice to say, as I am pulling out of a parking garage, to “Go East”. WT actual F? Is there an East sign somewhere in the sky for me to look at? (Zac would probably be saying “yes, it’s called the sun”). Have we lost the ability to say LEFT or RIGHT? And this creates bad habits! Like G needs to pick me up from a train station and he says nonsense like this:

😡 I posted something on Linkedin and my post got 58 views. Given that I have an audience of about 3,000 on that platform, that just pisses me off. It’s of no real consequence, and I am sure if I “posted more often” my results would be different, but I’m so tired of this version of the Internet. The good news is that I do believe it will implode soon (for better or for worse).

📷️ Related to the above, I also believe the online/digital world is coming full- circle. Sure, AI is everywhere etc, but I also think we are moving away from social media, and back to blogs (newsletters) and more analog stuff. Like this camera! I love it. (Kodak!)

🎅 Speaking of Christmas, I stumbled on Michael McIntyre’s Christmas skits…and he’s good! I’ve seen him live (he was just as awesome!!)..I appreciate his clean, genuine down-to-earth humour. He always makes me laugh out loud (below…the cellotape and the scissors bit..ha ha…that’s so my house!).

Life, and other truths…

Today would have been my mom’s 78th birthday. It’s still unbelievable that she is not here to spend it with us. I saw clips of Oprah’s interview with Laura Lynn Jackson who is the author of Signs and a new book Guided. I haven’t read either, but they are both about how the energy of your loved ones on the other side of life guide you on this side. I know there are a lot of sceptics (to each their own), but since we are really just talking about energy fields, I think this is scientifically grounded, not just la-la-land stuff.

What I watched…

A Merry Little Ex-mas. This was my first Christmas movie of the season! It was quite good, a Christmas movies go. The main character is played by Alicia Silverstone, and it’s heartening to see her evolve from Clueless and grow up with us. Here, she is newly separated, and is spending Christmas with her kids, her estranged husband and his new (beautiful) girlfriend. (Netflix).

Also watched The Boltimorons, which was my movie-date choice for this week. I don’t know how I stumbled across it, but I am so happy I did. I loved this movie! It’s got everything: brilliant script, fantastic actors, unusual storyline. It’s charming, and funny and will leave you with hope for better days. It’s also a Christmas movie, but mostly only because it takes place during Christmas. This movie won the 2025 SxSW Movie Award and I highly recommend it. Let me know if you watch it, and what you thought of it.

Also, didn’t get a chance to tell you that the week before we watched Good Fortune, with Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen and Aziz Ansari. It was an okay movie, that could have been scripted better. It’s sold as a comedy but I actually found it totally depressing. It’s about a gig worker (think TaskRabbit) who struggles financially and is trying to break out of cycle of poverty. Also, Keanu Reeves (who plays an angel) was awful in it, although I was told that that is just how he acts. Not how I remember The Matrix, to be honest, but maybe. Anyway, the movie is worth watching even if only as a social commentary and a reminder that we need to tip our service workers well because the corporations certainly do not look after them.

Looking ahead…

Three weeks before holiday kicks in and SO MUCH TO DO. So I’ll be doing it. Do not talk or distract me, because I have no will power to just focus and work. Already, I went to bed after 2am twice this past week and honestly, I’m too old for such nonsense. Hope you have an easier week than me!

Thanks for reading!

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