Bridget McNulty is a passionate writer fascinated by why people act the way they do. So fascinated, in fact, that she’s written a book about it.
// February 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Cape Town
Apologies for the blogging silence, but I’ve been at the Design Indaba for the last couple of days, and I’m experiencing extreme brain meltdown! So much information, so many pictures, so much incredible design… I’ll tell you ALL about it soon, I promise.
But right now I need a lie-down and some brain-numbing, please.
(Not sure what Design Indaba is? Check it out here: www.designindaba.com)
// February 25th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Decisions, Inspiration, Life (and the living of it)
I just had the most delightful lunch with a friend of mine, and we were talking about this recent realisation of mine that life opens certain doors and closes others, and if you can just listen, hard, to where you are being directed, you’ll end up in the exact right place.
What was so interesting, though, is that this morphed into a conversation about stress, and the un-necessity of it. In essence, what we figured out is that when you’re doing what you want to do, what makes sense to you and what you love, there’s no stress. It’s only when you swim upstream and try to force life into the mould that you think it should fit into that things get stressful.
I know this has been written about a million times before, but it just occurred to me and I thought I’d share it with you… Stress is an obvious sign to us that what we’re doing is not in alignment with what is right for us. And if we could just follow our inner voice, we’d stay in alignment more. Instead of seeing stress as a positive (or, at least necessary) by-product of being productive, let’s all learn to listen to it again – and stop doing whatever is causing it.
What do you think? A wise course of action?
// February 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life (and the living of it), Time
I had a bad night last night – not feeling well from around 7pm and then coughing all night so I couldn’t sleep properly… Not to mention feeling guilty for keeping my man awake, and trying to save the loudest coughs for when I wandered through to the lounge in the early hours of the morning!
So all in all, very little sleep. Which translates to a fuzzy head and no energy.
How do people with insomnia cope? I have one bad night and I nearly forget my name. How do they consistently cope with little to no sleep? I would be a dragon queen.
There are few things in this life I enjoy as much as curling up in fresh sheets, my head buried in a pillow, and drifting off to sleep… Mmmm…
I’m excited about going to bed tonight already!
// February 23rd, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Cape Town, Inspiration
I went to the Women’s Show in Cape Town yesterday, and it was a real treat. Not only because they were handing out small squares of excellent dark chocolate the whole time, but also because it was really rather inspiring to interact with so many go-getter women.
I was there, specifically, to be part of a discussion on stage all about how women need to stand together to help each other develop further, and how integral community work is in our lives. So often, I think, especially in South Africa, we tend to feel overwhelmed by all the millions of people who need help, and so instead of starting small and working together to create something bigger, we just don’t do anything at all. Spice4Life, the organisers of the forum I was on, are trying to change that, by offering easy, practical ways to get in touch with other women, whether it’s for networking, support, or to get involved in the community. Their tagline is ‘Connecting women with purpose.’ I love it! Go and visit them now! Now!!
I was also lucky enough to catch a performance of the up-and-coming singer, Black Porcelain. I felt like I was seeing (and listening to!) a younger incarnation of Nina Simone. She’s a local singer, packed full of promise, and I highly recommend a visit to her mySpace page to download a few tracks. You’ll find her at www.myspace.com/blckporcelain
So all in all, a pretty wonderful afternoon. Chocolate, inspiring women, and great tunes. What more could you ask for from a Sunday afternoon?
// February 19th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Decisions, Inspiration, Life (and the living of it)
I think I might finally be growing up.
One of the challenges I’ve always battled with is to see the far-reaching perspective when something happens. To see that in the grand scheme of things it might make sense for this to happen now, or not happen now, as the case may be. That even though certain things seem like the right choice, if they don’t pan out it’s because in the zoomed-out view that makes sense. The same way that sometimes you have to zoom out a camera to see the full picture.
I usually tend to think I know exactly what should happen, and if it doesn’t turn out the way I planned then I am not. a. pleased. young. lady.
But I’m learning! Slowly slowly catch a monkey. I’ve been opening a lot of doors lately, testing out new opportunities and saying ‘yes!’ to all the things that come my way. It feels really exhilarating and kind of curious – who knows which ones are going to develop into something, and which ones are going to fall by the wayside? Some of the doors open into fascinating rooms, and some seem to slam shut on the wind. Yesterday one of them slammed shut, and instead of feeling disappointed and upset about it, I just felt, “Oh. Okay. Well, if that didn’t work out, something else will. Perhaps it wasn’t the right time for this, for whatever reason. Not a big deal.”
And it wasn’t just me telling myself to feel this! I actually did. How freaking exciting.
I have to attribute some of this new calm to old Eckhart Tolle, though, and his ‘This too will pass’ mantra. I had it engraved on a ring, so that any time something happens I recognise that it is transient, that from a far-reaching perspective it might look totally different. (Is it possible that I haven’t blogged about ‘this too will pass’? Don’t worry, I will!)
Exciting stuff, this!
// February 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Blogs, Inspiration
And then vote.
Have you heard about ‘The Best Job in the World’? It’s a competition to work on an island near the Great Barrier Reef, doing small caretaking jobs (like fishing leaves out of the water) and being paid a fortune.
Here’s their description of the lucky winner’s office:
“In between travelling to various islands of the Great Barrier Reef, the Island Caretaker will live at Blue Pearl, a beautiful three-bedroom home on Hamilton Island featuring stunning views of the Whitsunday Islands, modern facilities and exquisite furnishings.
The bright, airy interior features three spacious bedrooms, two bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, state-of-the-art entertainment system, ceiling fans, air-conditioning and laundry facilities.
The Island Caretaker will enjoy Blue Pearl’s outdoor areas including a private plunge pool/spa with exceptional views, sun lounges, large balconies and the traditional Aussie barbeque. A golf buggy is also included with the house, so you can explore the island with ease.
This is the best of life above the Great Barrier Reef.”
What’s the catch? You have to create a 60 second video that sets you apart from the millions (literally) of other people vying for the job. Find out more at www.islandreefjob.com
A friend of mine has just submitted her video and it is HILARIOUS. Check it out and then rate her (i.e. give her 5 stars hint hint hint).
// February 17th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Cape Town, Life (and the living of it), Love
What a bad blogger I am! I didn’t even mention Valentine’s Day. My apologies.
I suppose it’s because Valentines has never been a huge deal for me. Which is odd, considering my passion for love and my collection of all things heart-shaped! I suppose I’ve always been part of the gang that thinks you should be loving and romantic every day.
That said, I do think sometimes we need a kick up the pants, and this year’s Valentines was a perfect example of that for me…
My man and I ended up celebrating on Friday the 13th, because my brother and sister-in-law and their adorable baby were staying with us and I said we’d babysit on Friday. So my man cooked me up an amazingly delicious feast – a bacon, baby potato and spinach leaf starter followed by a herb and sticky chicken salad and chocolate souffle. Oh yes. I said chocolate souffle. It was INCREDIBLE.
We had dinner by candlelight and played a fun game called “I love you more than…” which entailed finding things we love, and then saying how much more we loved each other.
For example, “I love you more than you love a bar of 70% dark chocolate that you don’t have to share with anybody.” (Me to him).
“I love you more than you love a ladybird landing on your finger.” (Him to me).
“I love you more than swimming in the sea.” (Me to him, but a stretch!)
It was fun, and silly, and so lovely to spend quality time with each other with nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. I think sometimes when you live together you have to work a little harder to make things romantic.. We have so much fun together, but it’s easy to forget to make things special.
And we exchanged little cute gifts, which was fun. I got two heart-shaped dishes for my kitchen, which I’ve been eyeing out for weeks!
I think what made this year’s Valentines so special was that I didn’t pretend I didn’t want to celebrate. Usually I say it’s not a big deal and we don’t have to get each other anything or make a fuss, and then I end up disappointed when I don’t get anything and there’s no fuss. This year I suggested we have a romantic dinner and get each other little tokens, and I was so happy!
Amazing, isn’t it, how sometimes you just have to be bold enough to ask for what it is you want?
On actual Valentines night my brother cooked us an incredible dinner (think carpaccio, freshly caught fish and calamari and chilli rolls!) and my man and I went to a superfun party and danced the night away. All in all, a day full to bursting with love…
How about you?
// February 16th, 2009 // No Comments » // Cape Town, Life (and the living of it)
Do you remember me writing about the fabulous Literacy for All project?
They provide books to young students in all eleven official languages, thereby increasing the likelihood that the students will grow to love books and enjoy reading – obviously a cause very close to my heart! I approached them because I wanted to offer a donation for their work, and they’ve replied with a specific school in desperate need. Here’s what they have to say…
“The answer seems to be to help a small school in the little town of Philadelphia which is about 25 km north of Cape Town. The contact was made at the request of a school subject advisor who is very supportive of our work. She felt this school, which is a very poor rural school with an excellent headmaster and enthusiastic staff would really appreciate and benefit from the help we could give. They have parallel Xhosa and Afrikaans classes (one of each for each of Grades 1 – 3.) From Grade 4 the numbers are smaller and they have only one class per grade and try to teach in English! No doubt English is the second language of the teacher as well. So it is not hard to see how problematic the literacy enterprise is in these circumstances.
We think that having a small to medium sized project like this (for donors giving say R50 to R5000) would provide a realistic target that would not take too long to reach and would be more personal.”
// February 12th, 2009 // 6 Comments » // Cape Town, Strange Nervous Laughter, book launch
I finally have an author pic that I love!
I liked the ones I used for the SA edition of Strange Nervous Laughter, but at the last minute the publishers didn’t use the one I’d chosen and used another one instead, so I didn’t love it. More than that, though, I didn’t think it really looked like me. It looked like an idea of me, but not like me.
Which has been my complaint with photo shoots all along – they pick out a facet of you, but not the real you.
At last, though, I have a photo that looks like me and that I like. Perhaps this is because my man took it, and he is not only a very talented photographer, but also knows me inside out! Here it is, what do you think? It’s going to be on the inside flap of my American books!! Hooray.
// February 11th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Decisions, Life (and the living of it)
So it would appear that 2009 is my year of adventure.
I began it (on the 3rd day) swinging through trees at the Karkloof Canopy Tours just outside Durban – most definitely one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. You get strapped into a harness and then you slide down a series of ‘foofy slides’ (essentially long metal ropes into the great beyond) above the trees and with nothing but your hand in a thick leather glove to stop your speedy descent. Check out my insanity here – http://www.karkloofcanopytour.co.za/
Next month I’m continuing the insanity by going sky diving (eek!) with my mom. We’ve always wanted to do it, and now it’s time to stop making excuses and actually jump out of a plane. Don’t worry, I’ll give you the full lowdown closer to the time!
Then in May I’m off to the USA for my book launch, a 3 week solo trip to visit all my friends and hang out in the good old USA again…
… and in September my man and I are going round the world! But much much more on that later.
Slightly less adventurous, but nevertheless cool, is my new hairdo. I decided that if I’m going to chop all my hair off for my round-the-world trip (which I am) I might as well do something interesting with it now. Bear in mind these are self-taken photos, so not much good!
Here was me with long hair (and a sad man who loves my hair long!)
Here’s me with my fab new haircut (although I haven’t styled it and have just jumped out the shower!)
I wonder what adventures are going to happen to me next?
