HALLOWEEN

I have finally come out of my cave and I have decided to update y'all.

Much has happened in the last few weeks, but I a

m going to concentrate on Halloween and Autumn.

Halloween was the shizness. I ate way too much sugar and as a result felt fat for days and days afterwards. In anticipation of the sugar binge I joined the gym! Woot for me. Really I joined because they have a pilates class twice a week that I wanted to join, but you have to join the whole friggin gym to be able to attend those classes. Good thing in the e

nd as they have a strange take on the term Pilates. It was a hybrid of pilates, yoga, horton and aerobics. Enjoyable nontheless, but a bit to hectic on this

damaged body. So I am limiting myself to one class a week and doing my own pilates sessions in the gym. Much to the amusement of the gym regulars as they are not accustomed to people taking over there floor space with a large ball and then s

tretching to ages at a time. I am doomed to elicit an irregular response at gyms. Oh well.

I do get derailed so very easily, sorry guys. Halloween. yes. I was in a state about what to wear...having left my trusty pink unitard in SA I was in costume limbo and felt very unprepared for these sorts of occasions. I mistakenly left it at home under the misguided impression that I was entering a new adult phase of my life where pink unitards do n

ot fit into ones wardrobe. I must have been insane. Honestly, I am lost without that thing and I have requested my mother to send it over immediately. So in the absence of the said uni I was stuck. I found a great silver mask and that was the e

xtent of my costume. Clearly a mask is not a full costume

and could be down right obscene in a teaching context. So I agonised for hours in front of my closet trying to figure something out...

You know those moments when you stand in front

of your closet and think "I have no clothes". AHHAHAHHHAH. It is such a terrible sinking feeling when that happens. It seems to be happening all the time at the moment. Especially as it is fast becoming Antartica outside. As a South African who was bred in a sub tropical environment such as darling little East London, I am genetically unprepared for such weather. Grahamstown had its cold moments. BUT IT WAS NOTHING LIKE THIS. I never want to stop wearing my red boots. oh dear. I am going shopping AGAIN this week end to make sure that I have enough warm clothing to last me for a while. We are planning on going skiing for Christmas - so warmth is imperative! I am the worst person to be around when I am cold. The w

orst. So I am simply making sure that I don't turn into a walking ice nightmare. I am so altruistic. really.

AHHAHHA. sidetracked again. apologies.

So, in distress I raided the school costume box in the hopes that there would be something to complement the mask. WOOP there was a clown wig.

Now I am not the biggest fan of clowns. In fact they scare me and unnerve me to the very core. I have not seen IT as I already had a fear of clowns and thought it wise not to feed that fear. But one must push past these fears when Hallow

een is upon one. So I did and I must say I was truly creepy. However, only the teachers and older

students found me scary - the littlies were enamoured and just loved this new Zoe Teacher. So that was a bit of a fail, but still fun. Danielle came as a Zombie. You will recall that Z is an issue for Korean's...so Danielle in actual fact came as a Jombie. A rather scary Jombie I might add. She glided down the passage saying "brains...brains" it was too too funny. I will forever call them Jombie's as I think it is a better term anyway.

Friday night we had wanted to have a chilled night in preparation for our big Halloween party on SAturday night. The best plans often go awry and we found ourselves at the loc

al Norea Bang (kareoke bar)...it was fantastic! We rocked that little room and sang until the wee hours of the morning. So Sat was spent nursing hang overs and trying to be a little bit productive on my behalf. I was so flippin excited for my first Halloween party I could ba

rely contain myself. I promptly arrived at Leigh's place for my make up appointment. She transformed me into the scariest clown ever. I was not recognised by many and had the time of my life as that freaky little clown. Danielle was a Zebra and Leigh was a Giraffe, So I felt right at home with a little game drive next to me all the while;) Sunday being the real Halloween the North Americans among us wanted to do something on that day too. Considering we had all hit Sat with a rather large stick we spent the day recovering and regrouped that night. Norae Bang was visited again and Monday found a rather croaky Zoe teaching the kindergarten

class. However that husky voice would probably have rocked Amy Winehouse - next time.

I think I can very safely say that Halloween was a resounding success in our little area. I love this holiday. How nifty, dress up and candy in one fun combo. Woop.

This Autumn, although excrutiatingly cold, is simply breath takingly beautiful. The trees have burst into flames and each one seems to want to outdo its neighbour. I have never seen such flamboyant foliage. The Gingko trees are like little sun beams all along the streets with their bright yellow leaves. They are complemented by the red, rust and dee

p bergundy leaves all around them in the other trees. I a gasp with joy each morning (the sharp intake of breath is partly caused by the freezing wind that hits me face too) as I walk to school. I am in love with Autumn.

So this is my long overdue update. Sorry it took me so long, I had a wobbly patch where I missed home more than anything and realised just how far away I am from everyone who means so much to me. The friends I have made here are so wonderful, they rallied around and made me feel less lonely. Which was heart warming and such a comfort. Although nothing beats

lonely. Nothing beats home though.

Love and peace to all of you special people. Keep being magnificent.

Couldn't resist putting this pic in. I took this in August, waaaayyy before Autumn struck, but this little tree just couldn't wait. Loved it and snapped it, those are just a sneak preview of what it actually looks like now.