Another day in "Paradise"....

Today was a very long day, albeit we are at minimum daylight hours. My weekly visit to a different company, I don't think I have been this drained for a while. It seems as if the work ethic in that office is alive and well, eight and a half hours straight with no lunch break. The energy seems to come from somewhere. Where it really shows is when I sit in front of the telly after dinner. It has a hypnotic effect on me, and is so soothing I can be asleep as soon as the first batch of really bad commercials hit the screen. Sometimes though the adverts are better than the movie. My family are very self-contained and if the television was switched off we would not miss it. There are days where it is only turned on for the 7pm news, and then the various overseas news channels are also scanned for what is happening in the world. My daughter is working and studying, my son is studying in the morning and putting his skills to practice in the afternoons and is again glued to his computer in the evenings. The sitting room is quiet as they keep to their corners of the house. My father is perfecting his recording skills and is about to cut his first CD on his piano in his domain. I love to hear him playing, as it is very nostalgic and makes a house into a family home. He is very modest but he is getting better and better. I have learned something new on Excel today. (It sounds funny, but I believe it is good to learn one new thing every day no matter how small!).

Our domestic scene surrounding me is something like this: four dogs on various dog blankets and a sofa especially set aside for them, clean covers on a regular basis, and a little black and white cat, almost feral, is grooming the youngest canine member of the family. They both arrived on our doorstep in bedraggled and near death states, and have bonded in spite of their differences. Jed and Wally have warm winter coats on. The one bar of the gas heater is all they need to stretch out in blissful contentment. Oh and the poor long suffering man of the house is in a deep sleep, he's also taking a bit of a knock with the cold early mornings. I am so lucky that he brings me a cup of tea first thing. After that it is everyone to themselves. Routine is a great leveller in the realm of great expectations of what married life offers. Domestic bliss, not, I am mostly away from home, except to catch up on the weekends and to prepare for another week. There is no choice actually. Keeping our heads above water takes precedence, and I am keeping up with modern office technology, which is useful.

We go out to work everyday and the dogs guard the house in return for home comforts. We are glad we have our furry companions who go completely hysterical if they hear an unusual noise, day or night. One of our near neighbours was severely assaulted in his bed in the middle of the night recently by knife wielding assailants. I hope our dogs are alert enough to save our lives one day, something they appear willing to do every time somebody even touches our front gate or rings the doorbell.

There is so much political unrest and uncertainty at the moment in the north of our country, and on the home front there are hefty increases in our mortgage loans, prime lending rates, petrol and electricity. My boss is full of the woes of a pending collapse of the property industry. I have offered to work three days instead of four for the same pay to help with her budgetry constraints, lol. Of course none of the above is funny, but hey, while we wait for paydays, at least the time is slowing down for now. I am not capable of holding the world on my shoulders and I need all the energy I can get to make it through another working day. So for as long as the employment can last, bring it on! Perhaps one day I can lay me down and get a real rest. Wake me up when the movie starts though!!.

Tip for the day: It's not our job to carry the world alone on our shoulders, but if we all hold a tiny piece, perhaps we can make a difference in a positive and uplifting way.

So keep on smiling, love from Eve on the other side of "Paradise"