Neglect & Wordlessness

Dear Blog Readers

I know I haven’t been the best blogger over the past few weeks/months and for this I am very sorry. I do not mean to neglect you. Nor do I mean to withhold the goings on of my life. The problem is, you see, we are once again in the peak season for events (weddings, year end parties, etc) and after a full day’s work, the words escape me for posts. And whatever words can escape are poured into reviews for Girl Guides, and talking in my sleep. I kid you not!

Any suggestions as to what I can do to make the words flow and increase my energy levels?!

Another thing… I have been reading all the posts in my Google Reader but again can’t always find the words to write a witty comment. So know that you are being read. But just forgive me for being a little quiet…

Hugs & Kisses
Jessica Giggles

Versatile Blogger Love

A big hug and thank you to Twistygirl who awarded me this:

I have received this award before. And feel privileged to have received it again, a year down the line.

5 random facts about me…
1. My shoe size has changed recently. I’m not quite sure whether I’m just getting old or whether it’s because it’s winter and my feet have shrunk…
2. I am a terribly cheap date… One sip of wine and I’m completely toasted!
3. I have a competitive personality which I think stems from being the youngest of four kids.
4. I am fanatic about spelling and grammar. Correct spelling and grammar is so ingrained in me that I can’t read a menu without picking up mistakes.
5. My sweet tooth rules me. I will eat condensed milk out of the can to satisfy Miss Tooth!

And now to nominate five other deserving bloggers…
- Nicki
- Louisa
- Eliza & Yoga Therapy
- The Jackson Files
- Andrea

You know…

…you’re old when the movies being shown on TCM are movies that were made in your lifetime – you actually know them and have seen them (I’ve seen Bad Boys and City of Angels on the line-up)

…your day can only get better after starting it by cleaning up after the naughty doglets decided to ‘unpack’ a rubbish bag all over the garden

…you’re weird when you get I-won-the-lottery kinda excited because you were finally able to schedule a meeting between the venue, the caterers and the bride (the diary next week is almost fully booked and it’s taken many attempts to secure this meeting)

…you’re up-to-date with work when you’re looking for work to do to keep yourself busy

…your office is quiet when the lack of phone calls is directly proportional to the lack of emails

…it’s time to go make another cuppa tea when you’ve been staring at a draft post for so long that your fingers (poised at the keyboard for when inspiration strikes) are frozen and too cold to move

Is there anything I should know?

Hugs & Kisses
Jessica Giggles

Bedside Manners

Tanya tagged me in her recent blog about what my bedside table looks like.

As you can see I like my bedside table to be free of clutter. The only things on my bedside table are:
1. A lamp
2. My iPhone charging dock
3. My asthma spray (sometimes I suffer from asthma attacks during the night)
4. A pic of my sister and I on her wedding day (she and I are very close and this pic/frame was a gift from her)
5. A bottle of hand cream (which I liberally apply before I go to sleep)

What’s on your bedside table?

Hugs & Kisses
Jessica Giggles

Blogger Love

Wow! I’m so excited to receive more blogger love! A big hug and thanks to Gina and Cazpi who awarded me this:

Now for the rules… I need to tell you 7 things about myself you may not know, and then pass the award on to 10 blogs I have recently discovered and found to be deserving.

So, 7 things about me:
1. I love tea! Like really LOVE tea! But none of the herbal ones, only five roses!
2. I secretly love being sick because it means I get a lot of TLC and looking after…
3. But I also feel more guilty when I’m sick because I’m not used to not doing things for myself and getting looked after.
4. I used to drink my tea with no sugar, but recently I’ve started having one teaspoon per cup.
5. I love milk! And I find it’s the best thing to drink when I’m really thirsty.
6. I love baking but since I moved in with Gary I’ve not baked once since I haven’t bought any of the baking goodies needed (ingredients, baking trays, cake tins, etc) because there have been more important things to spend the money on…
7. I am in desperate need of a trip to the hairdresser but I just haven’t had the chance to pick up the phone and book an appointment, let alone actually make it to the place!

And now to nominate some other deserving blogs, I know it’s not 10 but hey…
The Jackson Files, Cath, Alet, Heather, Gillian, and Madi.

Beautiful Blogger Award

Yipeeeee! This is so exciting! My very first blogger award! I’d like to thank my mom and my dad and my fiancé and my doglets and…and…and… Actually I’d like to thank MamaMeeA who awarded this to me!

The rules say I have to share 7 random facts about me before nominating 7 bloggers I consider to be beautiful.

1. My absolute favourite song of all time is “Ice ice baby” by Vanilla Ice. I even know all the words!
2. My hair is naturally curly but I straighten it with my GHD to within an inch of it’s life every day. Oh the joy and time I’d save if I’d been born with straight hair!
3. I have such a sweet tooth that I recently ate an entire carrot cake on my own! Ok, so it took a week to eat it but only because I only had slices in the evenings after work. (I did think about taking it to work to share it, but in this case, sharing isn’t caring!)
4. I watched City of Angels for the first time last weekend. Apparently I was supposed to ball my eyes out, but I think all the fore-warning from my Twitter friends dried my tear ducts.
5. I own two gorgeous pairs of pink knee-high socks. One pair is made up of puzzle pieces in baby pink and bright pink.
6. I am addicted to my TV series. So much so, that I don’t know what I’d do without my PVR. Sad, but true…
7. I wear contacts because my eyesight is so bad. I’m actually so blind that when I don’t wear my contacts or glasses, I can barely see a fly on my nose. Ok, so maybe it’s not that bad, but I’m still quite blind!

And now to the nominations…
Alice, Ann, Cazpi, TwistyGirl, BananaRamaGirl, Hayley, and CamillaCams.

Hugs & Kisses
Jessica Giggles

102 random facts

I decided to take PinkHairGirl’s advice and try the hardest meme of all – random facts about me! It has taken a few weeks to think up so many random facts, so you’d better enjoy the read! Here goes…

1) I can cross my second toe over my big toe (both feet) with no help from my hands
2) My eyes change colour depending on what colour top I am wearing
3) I can eat with chopsticks with both hands
4) I have identical birthmarks on the inside of both my thighs
5) After a lot of crying, my eyes change to a dark emerald colour
6) I have two second names
7) I have never been on a diet
8) I have no idea how to make this not a smiley face with sunglasses
9) I am the youngest of four kids
10) I am 9243 days old
11) I am asthmatic
12) I have two scars on my tummy – one on the left from a mole removal, one on the right from my emergency appendix op
13) I love baking though I don’t have any baking goodies at my house
14) My school and varsity friends all know me for my chocolate brownies
15) I take a size 7 or 8 shoe – when I was growing up my brother used to refer to my shoes as skis
16) I despise tomato
17) I make the best spaghetti bolognaise
18) I can’t drink coffee (the real stuff) unless it’s severely weak and sugared
19) I used to be a gymnast
20) I have double jointed fingers
21) I have a lot of chicken pox scars
22) I am a hoarder
23) I don’t like eating salads (though I will pick out the avo, feta, cucumber and lettuce if I have to eat it)
24) I have great cleavage
25) I am easily irritated by people who can’t spell or use grammar correctly
26) I used to write a lot of poetry
27) I have two doglets – Layla the Pug and Chelsea the Basset Hound
28) I have a mixed heritage – my parents are from Swedish, German, Scottish and British decents
29) I love milk – low-fat to be exact
30) My favourite flower is the St Joseph Lily
31) I ‘invented’ a cheater’s way to make lasagne
32) If I had been born a boy, my name would have been Shaun/Sean/Shawn (not sure how my parents would have spelt it)
33) I have already picked out the names for my children
34) My sister and I are really close, finish-each-others-sentences close
35) I love Cadbury Top Deck and Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate
36) I used to volunteer at the Princess Alice Baby Sanctuary
37) I was nicknamed Gully by my family
38) I was nicknamed Giggles by my varsity friends
39) I have an ‘innie’ bellybutton
40) I am lucky enough to have an iPhone
41) I love being tickled softly
42) I am addicted to reality series on E!
43) I went to three different primary schools
44) I went to two different high schools
45) My GHD (hair straightner) is my bestest friend
46) I have a beauty spot on my big toe
47) I wear a medic-alert bracelet
48) I broke my ankle when I was in Standard 1
49) I had a swimming party for my 9th birthday and since I’d broken my ankle the week before, I spent the day watching everyone have fun without me
50) I’m a very bad liar
51) I am great at keeping secrets
52) I can touch type
53) I love reading but haven’t picked up a novel in a long time
54) I have an electric toothbrush
55) I go for a facial, pedicure, and waxing once a month
56) I was born two weeks premature
57) I weighed 2.5kg at birth (the weight of a packet of sugar)
58) I have a huge photo album that has photos from the day I was born
59) I love romance novels
60) I hate it when the bed’s not made
61) I have a shoe fund money box
62) I was born on a Monday (Monday’s child is fair of face…)
63) I got engaged on 21 November 2009
64) I taught my parents not to force-feed me when I was younger (I was forced to eat a spinach pie, so I shoved it all in my mouth, went to bed and woke up with it still in my mouth the next morning.)
65) I now eat spinach freely
66) I was taught to swim when my mom let go of me in the pool. Tried to stand, but it was too deep and so I almost drowned myself.
67) I was born at 12:01
68) I wear slightly padded bras because I don’t like the “smuggling smarties” look
69) I drive a boy car named Bullet (because I only ride boys )
70) I was bitten by my dog while climbing over our wall late at night (long story…)
71) I was born and bred in Johannesburg (except for a brief few years when I was in Witbank)
72) I have neat hand-writing
73) I met Gary at Billy The Bums in Fourways
74) I am still on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ cellphone system
75) I have a wealth of useless information stored in my brain
76) I have developed a stutter in my old age
77) When I was younger I was struck by lightning that passed through my metal bed
78) My hair is naturally a dark blonde
79) My mom is a Baronness
80) I’m a “glass half full” kinda person (well most of the time anyways)
81) I can plan the hell out of a piss-up in a brewery
82) During my school days I was teased with “can I have chips/mac-shake/big-mac with that” because of my surname
83) I was an au-pair during my varsity days
84) I drink my fruit juice half-and-half (half juice half water)
85) I like my water from the tap with no ice nor lemon wedge
86) I cannot eat lunch or dinner without something to drink in front of me
87) I studied BA Corporate Communication with a second major in Industrial Psychology
88) I am the queen of PVR (Gary hands the remote over to me to programme, and my parents phone me to come over to sort theirs out too)
89) I love strawberry milkshakes
90) I can be very indecisive
91) I love a hot bubble bath after a stressful day
92) My grandmother once told me I had gorgeous boobs (she had a brain tumor and died a few months later)
93) I have only one living grandparent – my grandfather who turns 92 this year (he is exactly one month younger than Nelson “Madiba” Mandela)
94) I have yet to finish my grandfather’s novel about his time in the POW camps
95) I have read all the Harry Potter and Twilight books
96) I can paint my own nails French manicure style though I don’t usually since my nails have their own gorgeous natural French manicure
97) I have a very low pain threshold
98) I can’t handle spicy food
99) I was so skinny at school that my one friend’s mom nicknamed me Annie (short for Anorexic) – we weren’t friends for long!
100) I have a very fast metabolism so I’m lucky enough that I can eat like a horse
101) I was a prefect in Standard 5 and Matric
102) I am now brain-dead after thinking up so many random facts

Random meme

I decided to take up today’s Female2Female blog challenge because I needed an easy assignment.

If I could be anywhere in the world, I would be lazing on a beach with a #pinkdrink in my hand.

In my kitchen cupboard is cereal, juice, rice, pasta and other odds and ends. (The monthly grocery shop is a few days away…)

On my desk is a short to-do list (well for the moment anyways) and a mass of events files.

Image in my head of welcoming a beautiful niece/nephew to love and spoil.

In the middle of my to do list is planning the perfect baby shower and paying deposits for the wedding.

I am dreading my contract review which takes place tomorrow or Friday.

Right now I want to be cuddling on the couch watching a movie.

I think it’s time for another cuppa tea.

Going to make that cuppa tea…