Sleepy Hello's

I am back in the land of the living. I spent the entire week last week buried under the covers. I was ill. Ill as in the flu ill. It was awful and horrible and not mention really nasty. I haven't felt so sick in a really long time. To be honest I am still not 100% ok - but I have to be fine right.


I have never slept so much ever. I always tell T, who by the way loves to nap and sleep during the day that I can never. The world will pass me by if I spend time sleeping during the day. He can't stop laughing at me telling me that the world has passed me by cos I spent 4 days in bed. Hmmm to be honest the way I was feeling I seriously didn't care if the world changed and I wasn't there to witness it.


I came in to work on Friday which was a mistake. I dragged myself in only to feel really awful and ended up leaving to go home early. Honestly it's made me lazy. I keep feeling that I now have to get in the groove of things again. But I think that's what made me ill. I have been at it like the duracell bunny just going on and on with no stopping. And now I feel like I have to recharge my batteries cos I just don't have the energy to get going again. Spending a whole week in bed sleeping does not do much for one's energy levels.

I woke up this morning with a feeling of dread and doom and gloom. I think changing jobs twice within 4 months is challenging and to be honest I am a little scared of my new role. My new boss is super cool and funky and I really like her but she is scary in a sense. She believes in me and I think that is what scares me. What if I screw up and end up letting her down. That is for me the scariest and is kind of overwhelming me at the moment.

Here is to new beginnings and hopefully happy endings. There are 5 months left until my wedding. If that isn't scary than I don't know what is....

Yummy Yummy

So I received this email on Wednesday afternoon:

I don't know if it's true or not but who cares.....

Please forward when you finish reading!

A little background : Neiman-Marcus, if you don't know already, Is a VERY expensive shop; e.g, they sell a typical $8.00 T-shirt for $50.00.

THIS IS A TRUE STORY

My daughter and I had just finished lunch at a Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas, Because both of us are such biscuit lovers, we decided to try the 'Neiman-Marcus cookie'. It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe. The waitress said with a small frown, 'I'm afraid not, but you can BUY the recipe. ' I asked how much, and she responded; 'Only two fifty - it's a great deal!' I agreed to that, and told her to add it to my bill.

Thirty days later, I got my VISA statement, and the Neiman-Marcus Charge was $285.00. I looked at it again, and I remembered I had only spent $9.95 for two sandwiches and about $20.00 for a scarf. At the bottom of the statement, it said, 'Cookie Recipe - $250.00'. That was outrageous! I called Neiman's Accounting Department and told them the waitress Had said it was 'two fifty', which clearly does not mean ' Two hundred And fifty dollars' by any reasonable interpretation of the phrase. Neiman-Marcus refused to budge. They would not refund my money Because, according to them; 'What the waitress told you is not our Problem.' and as you have already seen the recipe we absolutely will not refund your Money.' I explained to the Accounting Department lady the criminal statutes Which govern fraud in the state of Texas.

I threatened to report them To the Better Business Bureau and the Texas Attorney General's office. I was basically told: Do what you want. Don't bother thinking of how you can get even, and don't bother trying to get any of your money back' I said, OK, you've got my $250, and now I'm going to have $250 worth of fun.' I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the world with an e-mail account gets a $250 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus..... For Free. She replied, 'I wish you wouldn't do that.' I said, 'Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you RIPPED ME OFF!' and slammed down the phone. So here it is! Please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I paid $250 for this, and I don't want Neiman-Marcus to EVER make another penny from this recipe!

NEIMAN-MARCUS COOKIES (Recipe may be halved)

2 (500 ml) cups butter

24 oz. (680 g) chocolate chips

4 (1000 ml) cups flour

2 (500 ml) cups brown sugar

2 tsp. (10 ml) (Bicarb) soda

1 tsp. (5 ml) salt

2 (500 ml) cups sugar

18 oz (500 g) Hershey Bar (grated)(Cadbury chocolate for Australians & South Africans)

5 (1250 ml) cups blended oatmeal

4 eggs 2 tsp. (10 ml) baking powder

2 tsp. (10 ml) vanilla

3 cups (375 ml) chopped nuts ( optional ) .

......................

Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter

and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal,

Salt, baking powder, and Bicarb (soda). Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar, and nuts. Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet..

Bake for 10 minutes at (180 °C ) 375 degrees. ( The above quantities make approx 112 cookies )

START BAKING ENJOY !!! PLEASE KEEP THE RECIPE AND ALSO SEND IT TO EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW WHO HAS AN E-MAIL ADDRESS!

I really started craving them so I decided to go home and make them myself. I love choc-chip cookies and this one sounded really yummy...

Anyway they came out super divine.....

This n That

Today I officially hand over 3 months worth of work to the new person that has been appointed in my position. To be honest I cant wait. The past 3 months have been nothing but frutrating. I have learn't a great deal and it is this role that kind of catapulted me to where I am going. However I never felt part of the team. In the 3 monthst that I was in my role, I never once has a one-on-one with my manager, infact we had 1 team meeting where we discussed issues. I always felt like I was in the dark and the tasks that were passed on to me were all the skivvy and crappy work.

I haven't even officially started in my new role but already we have had 3 strat meetings that have made me feel that we have a purpose to work towards. I know that there is a great deal of hard work ahead but I am confident that it will be fine.

I had a cool weekend. I started Pilates on Saturday. Boy was I in agony the entire weekend. It works every muscle in your body especially the abs and thighs. It was fun and I will definitely be going again this Saturday. I spent a lot of time with T and even though we sometimes argue over silly things I really miss him when he is not around. It's his birthday on Thursday so I went shopping for a pressie. I always really battle as I never know what to get him. What does one get someone who has everything. I settled on this really great bracelet. It's silver with little links through it. I hope he likes it.

Sunday my mum and I trawled the China shops looking for chinese stuff for the bridal shower. I was also looking at things for wedding favors for my wedding. I must say that the one opposite Bruma Flea Market has some really nice stores with very minimal chinese junk. LoL. Yesterday I was just at home and ended up at the Oriental Plaza to look at some really nice Guess luggage. The owner of the shop was pretty insistent I take it and was dropping the price every minute. However the biggest bag that he had is really small and is just going to be very unservicable in the end. I still think that the Cellini range is the better option unless I can find a bigger bag that will match the one's he had. Getting married is one endless affair of shopping. New clothes, shoes, lingerie, luggage, wedding stuff - it is neverending. I must admit that it's fun though....

We went out for supper at this trendy new restaurant in Fordsburg yesterday. Its called Kashif's Fusion Food. The food was divine and the atmosphere is really different. I had the prawns which was divine. I was positively stuffed.

The Chef hard at work

The Menu

My Delicious Food

Hmmmm my mouth waters thinking about it...

I am off to make the great trek to my new office.....

Ideas Anyone

Ok. I am having a bridal shower for my cuz who is getting married later this year....

I need some help. I have everything planned, from the food, decor, theme and games.

I just need some insight. Traditionally with bridal showers or rather the one's I've been to is that the bride-to-be has to guess the gift. If she guesses it incorrectly, the person who's gift it is makes her do something silly. If she guesses it correctly - she has to make the guest who is giving her the gift do something silly.

I have come up with a few silly little things that I am going to put on cards and the person doing the silly thing will have to pick a card to determine what she has to do. I need some more ideas for silly little things. I don't want to go too raunchy - this is more of a family sort of shower and I don't want the bride or some of the family members to be embarrased.

Any ideas??????

Catching Up

Happenings in My So Called Life:

I have been promoted to a senior manager in my organisation. Sssshhh it's still under wraps, I am only supposed to officially know today, but my new manager called with the good news last night... Yipppeee. I guess the restructure worked in my favour.

I joined the gym. I cant believe how unfit I am.

T and I managed to sort out our differences.

The thief (Cellphone) apparently stole a colleagues diary. She returned it while later claiming that she must have picked up the diary by mistake when she collected a bunch of docs. Yeah Right!

I was on some stupid course this week hence me being so quiet. I was so bored cos it's stuff that I have done over and over again. I felt like Christina in Greys Anatomy. I cant help it if I am sooo smart ;)

Im meeting with the cake genie this weekend to decide on the wedding cake that I want.

I still haven't decided on a colour scheme. The ideas are a little mindboggling.

I cant wait to leave my current department. I seriously will not miss it.

I went for an interview last week for a position with one of the big four leading banks in SA. To be honest the brand itself does not excite me. I guess I am just biased after being with one bank since I was 9 years old. I know they were quite keen on me - well that is what the agency said. With the recent developments - I will be withdrawing my application today.

I am just so excited about the new position. I do have tons to be grateful for :)

Have a fantastic day!!!!