If more men realised this, there may be more who do ballet!

  Now that is the kind of bucket I am talking about!

I turned 38 last week. Thirty-eight! I have since had a chance to reflect on my somewhat superficial and partly unattainable bucket list published earlier. Let me revise and summarise:

1. Drink champagne in Luxembourg.  Can actually check this off. Although I want to do it again (and planning to spend my 40th birthday in Luxies), I have done so twice already.

2. Go on another African safari. Basically the same as number 1. Have done it before, want to do it again (with a bit more luxury) but can check it off.

3. Learn to ski in Bamff. Seeing as I now have not one but two bum knees, apparently I have to shelve learning to ski or snowboard. But I still want to go to Bamff.

4. Have a (bit) part in the stage production of Grease. Who the hell am I trying to kid or impress here. I can’t sing to save a canary and can barely dance anymore (at one stage I could, you know!) so let us just scrap this completely…

5. See all my friends and family from around the world in one place at one time for a big party! This one is not completely do-able. I can see my friends and family and have a party but not all at once. So I will amend this to friends/family for the party, preferably both groups but different times and different parties will be fine.

6. Live in Tuscany. Ah, a dream for sure and one that I will just have to keep dreaming…if it never comes true…the idea of living in Tuscany will be enough to keep me going…

7. Balance my check book! AH HA! Check that off big time. Did it not once but twice so the first time was not a fluke!

8. Learn to surf (I know, I will have to overcome my fear of the ocean and sharks first!) Okay pal, forget that – with the news around of shark attacks and that video footage of the surfer desperately paddling away from a shark, this item on the bucket list is a gonner!

9. Learn to cook authentic Italian food. I have learned to cook about four dishes so on my way there – consider it checked…

10. Have a dinner party at home with John Travolta, Rubi Wax, Graham Norton, Bill and Hillary and John McEnroe as my guests (of course I would either cook my authentic Italian food or get a caterer!). Hey, no one can say I am not a dreamer – dreams are good you know – it is like a movie in your head…but lets face it…ain’t never going to happen!

11. Leave a legacy for my children… working on this one but it is top secret and I will not divulge anything yet…check back in three years or maybe thirty!

So I still have to think if I am going to add anything more and will write a completely revised list but frankly I am not in the mood for a bucket list but I have another list I think I want to write… it is my F%$#@* List (rhymes with bucket you idiot!). So here goes!

My F*&^#$ List:

1. I am not going to iron anymore unless it is something someone wants to wear now and it comes off the hanger or shelf creased! Life is too short to spend it behind an iron!

2. I will no longer give two hoots about the fact that my boobs now seem to be quite at home around my waistline! Bras are there for a reason and that is to uplift me every day. Hubby loves me and as long as he does not mind it will not matter (but you won’t catch me going to any topless beaches!).

3. No longer will I be concerned about doing housework on a weekend…that is my day job during the week and I will not take my work home with me on weekends!

4. I will go to my ballet class once a week and dance with the fifteen and sixteen year olds in the class and not worry what they think of the old duck at the barre with them. What I have forgotten they have yet to learn and while I can no longer jete across the room or do a triple pirouette, I know that once, twenty years ago, I could do it.

5. Scooping litter is a thing of the past. I have bought an automatic litter scoop and now will sit back and watch the scoop do the poop! The cats are thankful too – it scoops every ten minutes or so!

6. As summer draws to a close, I have only but a few weeks left to get over another obstacle…it is time to walk from the beach chair to the water’s edge proudly to go for swim and not try to cover up until my shoulders are submerged under water – which makes for a tricky task keeping the towel dry! If you don’t like what you see, stop looking!

7. I will not mope about not seeing the last Bon Jovi concert or stress about wanting tickets for another…dancing around in the kitchen on a Saturday morning to “You give love a bad name” in my PJ’s is enough for me!

8. Lastly (for now) another thing about housework…instead of trying to be supermom and supermaid all rolled into one neat little stress ball, I will deligate more…

There you have it…my bucket and f*&^$# list…all rolled into one…oh bollocks…have to iron Hubby’s shirt before work tomorrow!

I could hardly keep up with the news in the world this week. Our summer schedules have suddenly taken on a whole new dimension. The laundry now lies on the folding table, a forgotten pile of tumble dried entwined cotton and linen. The empty picture frames waiting for their fill of memories and family pics, lying abandoned on the dining room table; I think my kids think the generic family picture that comes with the frame when you buy it, IS actually our family back in South Africa.

The reason for all this newly found independence from household chores? The kids have started swimming lessons down by the lake. The younger one is at 10-ish and the older one is at 11:30 so I end up spending three hours down on the ‘beach’ at the water’s edge, pretending that I have no work to be done at home. I read a few pages of my book, eat a delicious slush, take a quick swim and then return home at around 1:30 just when the heat is getting to its peak and the beach starts becoming crowded. The timing is perfect. I am cultivating a very careful tan…it is amazing that you still burn (face it, when your skin changes color, it BURNS not tans) even when you are using sun protection factor 75!!!! The kids are as fair and unburnt as ever…three layers of SPF 75 works really well!

Last weekend was July 4th, and we spent the weekend quietly celebrating the independence of our new home. We had the obligatory BBQ. South African hubby, South African wife and a guest born in England and raised in Australia. We sat around watching all our American neighbors celebrating how they defeated the British and established their own country. We quietly observed these celebrations fearing some one shouting “The British are coming” and then proceeding to lynch the closest thing to the British which they can find (please read previous posts about how British/Australian etc I really am – anything but American). Fireworks are not permitted in our state but people travel down to other neighboring states to make purchases and then come home to light up their corner of a dark July 4th sky. They celebrate their American independence lighting their fireworks made in China, wearing their clothes made in Vietnam or Malaysia and at the end of the evening they get in to their Japanese cars and drive home to sleep on their beds made in Indonesia. Ah, independence is such a wonderful thing!

The rest of the weekend passed with much gardening being done, swims, baking, eating and the last of our little family of four suffering from a tummy bug Hubby brought home from his visit to China two weeks ago. I advocate sharing in my house – as wise Barney says, “Sharing is a special way of caring!”. But I hate it when Hubby takes it all so literally and feels that he has to share everything with us. He had it first (we put it down to jet lag), I got it a day later (we put it down to being exhausted), little one got it the worst on Thursday night (I could not put it down to anything) and then the older daughter came down with it on the Sunday. Thanks Mr Travelling Pants! We all got a little more of a taste of China than what we wanted.

So this week has been all about spending hours at the beach in hot humid weather, eating cool and delicious dinners and thanking the powers that be everyday that some bright spark had the brains to invent air conditioning! We had a huge thunderstorm tonight that was supposed to cool things down but that little plan did not really work out like it was supposed to. But another storm is brewing, getting ready for tomorrow night…after 18 years, I am putting my ballet shoes back on and attempting to at least look like a dancer. Whether I can actually do it, well that is another story for another blog…provided that my muscles do not completely seize up and totally incapacitate me!

It is a Thursday afternoon, actually evening, and I am sitting in a stuffy high school auditorium watching my daughter’s dance recital rehearsal. My youngest came at 3:30 and did her bit and then I took her home to dinner and dad was armed with the Wii.  My eldest is in a number of items in the show and has rehearsal from 3.30 all the way through to 8pm tonight. It is a long day but the girls enjoy it so much. All the make up, the hair is done, the costumes are organized. At least my kids’ costumes are organized. Young little Anna Pavlova’s costume is just one outfit, one hair piece, one pair of shoes and very little stage make up. I have a laundry basket for her and all her goodies are in there.

Older daughter A.K.A. Dame Margot Fonteyn is a little more complicated. She has three numbers, three different costumes, three head pieces, two sashes and two different pairs of shoes. I hate not finding things and definitely do NOT want to make an enemy of the girls’ dancing teacher so I have really jacked my game. Each costume is in a separate suit bag, marked in the costume and on the bag. Each head piece, different pair of tights, sash and shoes each has its own Ziploc bag inside the applicable suit bag. All suit bags are in the laundry basket together with snack, make up bag, hair and reading material, the DS and her cell phone. Okay so now you think I am totally anal about this and that actually:

1. I need to get a life,
2. I need to get a job,
3. I am seriously disturbed.

But you know, I do not do this because I am one or all of the above. I do it for my children and I will tell you why…

The rules of the studio are clear:

1. Keep all your costume pieces together and have all of them for dress rehearsal.
2. Have your hair in a bun with no wispy bits.
3. Have full stage make-up (big girls) and just the blush and lips for the really little ones.
4. Be on time…

The rules are simple and easy to follow. However, there are some parents who think that the rules don’t really apply to them. After all these are just kids and not really anything to take too seriously. They arrive late…one woman today did not do her child’s make up…another lost a head piece and was very blasé about that and the fact that the girl’s hair was not done…the last mother also was missing the rope from the bodice of the costume. The principal was horrified. And so was I actually.

You do these things and keep to the rules so that your children look the part. So that they don’t look like the odd one out with no hair done or costume pieces missing. I do it out of respect for my children and the hard work they do throughout an entire year of practices and going to dance class in the snow and the heat waves. I do it for them because I love them and I want them to have a good time.

I must be honest though on Monday, I was so wishing that the concert would just fly by. There is so much to organize and there is so much to juggle.  My eldest is fine…she loves all the action and excitement…it is the youngest one that is the most testy. She is not fond of all the schedules and deadlines but today she coped like a true little star performer.

I am sitting here watching the rehearsal. The kids are brilliant. Not just my kids…all the kids…they are living in each and every moment. The older girls are breathtaking and the young ones bring tears to your eyes. All their hard work is paying off and I am proud of each and every one of them and I am especially proud of my two girls…So to those mothers who could not care less…take one singular moment and realize just how sensational your children are!

*****

Please go to Just A Thought and watch the clip linked to Sylvie Guillem…