Carpe diem

There's something SO weird about how I live my life - there are two things that I absolutely love that I just keep putting off: playing my guitar, and blogging. I don't understand it at all. 

There's so much to write about, but I'll mention just a few. It's past 11pm, and I'm really tired. 

Towards the end of August, our school had a Wellness programme for the staff, and I was shocked to discover that my blood pressure was really high. Accustomed to having normal readings, I was quite alarmed. About a week later, I checked it again at a local pharmacy, and it was roughly the same. Then I had an experience one night, where I thought I was having a heart attack. The next day, I went to the doctor, who found my BP was still high, and that my heart rate was also elevated. I had a few tests, and nothing was apparent regarding the heart rate, but I was put on a tablet to bring down the BP. I also had to buy a monitor, to do daily readings. I'm just finishing my tenth week of that. This is all very new to me.  The BP is a lot better, mostly within the normal range, but the heart rate is still alarming.  

Thinking about my health and what could've contributed to my concerning readings, I'm convinced my job is at the heart of it (no pun intended). When I'm not at school, I sit for hours, doing schoolwork. And I know I've been comfort eating since I started living in this flatlet. So it's the stress of my job, my sedentary lifestyle, and my undisciplined eating. There's probably some hormonal stuff, as well as genetics,  and not forgetting ageing. 

So, as part of improving my health, I've become more mindful. I'm consciously trying not to stress as much at work (NOT easy), and I'm proud to say that I've started a weekly routine of taking a walk in nature. Every Sunday morning, for the past 5 weeks, I've done so. I would love to do it daily, but right now that's not possible.  

I'm also working on having better boundaries (linked to stress levels), and - another BIG thing in my life - getting enough sleep.  I've been doing the too-little-sleep thing for so many years, it's a real struggle to get to bed at a healthy time.  

Needless to say, I've become very aware of my mortality, and am trying to live my life with a healthy sense of carpe diem. Maybe my heart's beating so fast for a reason.

I had to take a big decision, recently, on a matter of principle, and even that was about wanting to live without ambiguity, and staying true to my values. 

I have two more days before my November exam marks are due, which means HOURS and HOURS of marking, both tomorrow and Monday. There's so much about our education system I just don't understand. Our school was denied permission to start our final exams on the same date that  neighbouring schools started theirs; as a result, we are really pressed for time, regarding submission of marks. With a fairly large contingent of our staff involved in marking matric exams, our window of time between the end of exams and the date they report to the marking centre is painfully small. This kind of man-made pressure is something I will never understand. It feels arbitrary and avoidable. So we're killing ourselves, trying to meet the deadline, and then when the others leave for external marking, a day or two later, we have way too many days to clean classroom cupboards.

I've been involved in a project called Quilting for Palestine, along with lots of other women. We knitted and crocheted squares in the colours of the Palestinian flag, and are now in the process of sewing them together. Next Saturday, on International Palestine Solidarity Day, we'll be showing the huge blanket in public.  It's been a deeply moving experience, so far, and I think next Saturday is going to feel a lot more so.         

I think I should end off now. This hasn't been an award-winning post, but maybe that's my problem - I don't want to do lukewarm, so I end up not doing anything.

Ok, I promise I will play my guitar and blog more frequently.

And life, while we have it, goes on.    

Oudtshoorn and Paternoster

And today, on 22 November, I'm finally posting something that's been sitting in my draft folder for months. It ends a bit abruptly, but I have no idea what else I wanted to write, back then.  Anyway, here goes.

~~~~~~

What do Oudtshoorn and Paternoster have in common? They were both visited by ME this year! :-) 

This year has been different in a number of ways, including that I've gone away for a few days in both school holidays, thus far. In the March holiday, along with three colleagues, I accompanied 38 high school kids to the 29th annual Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK). This trip, which included two long bus rides of about seven hours each, plus multiple short trips within Oudtshoorn, was made possible by the organisers of the KKNK, in partnership with the WCED. The participating schools were all Arts Focus schools, from previously disadvantaged communities. 

How did I get involved? One of our teachers (Drama) was unable to make it, so I was approached. I fall into that demographic of teachers with no dependants, so I'm occasionally asked to do things like this that may be inconvenient or difficult for people with families.  Sometimes it's really cool, like the KKNK one. 

We were accommodated in a school hostel, where we had most of our meals. With eight schools, and roughly 40 kids and 4 teachers per school, as well as officials from the Education Dept, we were about 400 in total. Female teachers and students stayed in one building, and male teachers and students in another.  Breakfast was punctually at 07h00, and within an hour, the first activity of the day commenced. Sometimes this was a workshop or rehearsal at the school, and sometimes it was hopping onto our bus (comfy, with an excellent driver), to attend a show at the festival. 

We saw theatre performances, ballet and modern dance, live music at the big 'feesterrein' (festival grounds), as well as art exhibitions and other fascinating things on display at the festival. Most things were in Afrikaans, and some of our kids struggled to follow some of the dialogue in the theatrical pieces. 

I could go on and on, but I'm timing myself for this post, because of my looming To Do list. School starts in two days, so I'm in planning mode. 

What were the highlights for me, besides feasting my eyes, for hours, on the different landscapes and mountain passes that fed my soul? (Yes, I enjoyed the bus rides!) Well, I really enjoyed being around the schoolkids and watching them shine in their different art forms - Visual Art, Drama, Dance and Music. I enjoyed walking around the town to the different art exhibitions, where I saw some incredible art (that we were not allowed to photograph, in most cases). I loved the show by Cape Ballet Africa, and I was moved to tears by the opera singing of Lynelle Kenned, who sang 'O Mio Babbino Caro' - an aria from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi - which my mother used to sing. But the highlight of my KKNK experience was the theatre piece 'Laaitie mettie biscuits', written and directed by Christo Davids. The cast of four kept us riveted for the entire performance. I actually don't know when last theatre has affected me that way. To the writer (who was there, in the audience), the cast, and everyone else involved in the production: Bravissimo! I would love to watch this production again. I highly recommend it as a piece of South African theatrical excellence. 

We left school on the morning of Monday 31 March, and returned on the evening of Thursday 3 April. Given that it was just a short school holiday, when we started the new term, on Tuesday 8 April, I felt like I needed a holiday. Having said  as much, I am very happy that I went, and happy that it sparked in me a desire to travel to more towns in the Western Cape. 

In this school holiday (we return to school in two days' time), my daughter treated me to a holiday in a seaside town called Paternoster. Cape Town has the luxury of two coastlines, with different oceans (Atlantic and Indian), and Paternoster is on the West Coast. Roughly two hours' drive from Cape Town, it is a fishing town that seems to derive quite a bit of its income from the tourism industry.  My daughter found a beautiful house, with all the creature comforts, where we stayed for three nights. The best part was spending time with my daughter, and the second best part was living 100m from the sea! We walked on the beach every day, and woke up and fell asleep to the sound of he sea. My idea of heaven on earth! 

On our way to Paternoster, we spent about two hours at !Kwah Ttu, the San Heritage Centre. It was impressive, to say the least, and I learnt a lot. I'd like to go back again sometime. 

On our way back, we stopped in Langebaan. another coastal favourite, where we attempted to walk on the beach but just managed to take a few photos, because it was so cold and windy. We did manage to find a little restaurant where we enjoyed our final holiday meal, and visit my former hairdresser, Roz, at her salon. (Now that I know how relatively close Langebaan is,.......)