The judges' decision is final.

Ladies and Bloggermen...Tadaaaah...

A sample picture of the dreaded new car:

The colour is wrong, but you get the idea.

Adventure! Yay!

I am embarking on an adventure! This is something I have never done before and I must say, I am nervous and exhilirated! Name them, I have them: butterflies, jitters, knots in my stomach, random bouts of nervous giggling and grinning. The list goes on.

What am I doing, you ask? Climbing Kilimanjaro? Bungee jumping? Getting married?

None of the above.

I am... drumroll, please!... buying a new car! All by myself, with my own money! Never have I been so nervous!

Honestly speaking, I should be less nervous. After all, I have bought property, for goodness' sake! I have taken on new jobs, gone overseas, passed crazy exams and finished a thesis. I went to Zimbabwe without blinking!

However, six or seven phonecalls and about twelve e-mails from dealers and insurers later (this is just the beginning, I fear) and I am a bowl of jibbering jelly. What is a balloon payment, anyway? Do you get a balloon when you pay? Do you give the dealer a balloon and get to pay less?

Let's not even talk insurance! One guy phoned and talked at me for ten minutes about a car I do not have yet! And then he finishes off by telling me that we will have to do it all again when I get the car, because it will all change!

So, I need some Chamomile tea and a long bath and, preferrably, to wake up when it's all over!

Back to the eating and the drinking.

Today was wonderful! Yet another testimony to the truth in Ecclesiastes. Having spent a day in the company of friends, just enjoying each other's presence and doing what girls do in the mall, I have again come to the end of the day feeling that life is worth it.

Bad things happen and people do terrible things to themselves and others, but life is worth it when you have people to love who love you.

Spend time with them, doing 'useless' things, having very little to show at the end of the day. Making money, being productive and contributing to society is ok, but it will never be enough. What you bring home from a day with cool people is always more than enough.

So far...

Been having some interesting revelations, or should I say, 'glimpses into revelations' - not profound, but hinting at something profound to come - since Lent started and I chose my fast.

I have always entered Lent with a sense of expectation. Some seasons have been amazing and others less so. This time it's a slow burn. Things are gradually revealed and new questions are opening new avenues of thought. Old, dormant relationships have reignited and taught me new things.

So, no fireworks and bursting into song this time, but I think what comes out of this season will be taking me to new depths of understanding in my relationship with the Lord and, consequently with people.

Can't wait!

Magic

I am watching "The Lake House" again, tonight. What a wonderful, poignant story. So unreal, but so enchanting, it doesn't even bother me that Keanu Reeves is not the world's greatest actor - although he is always fun to look at. Of course, it helps that Chicago is a beautiful setting for a movie.

Makes one believe in magic again.

Blogging about blogging, or metablogging

The thing about blogging is that you cannot take it too seriously.

If you are going to talk about yourself and your life and then broadcast it to the entire world in a forum that is as indiscriminate and broad as the internet, especially in the blogsphere, you have to know that funny things could come at you and anybody could comment on what you're doing.

I tried another "next blog" trip today.

Amateur and less than amateur photography and art is huge! Which I get. It's a great forum for putting yourself out in the marketplace - if you get noticed. I have seen some amazing and inspiring work in my many various trips through the blogsphere and love what it evokes in me. (I am saving to order some art from Rima Staines!)

Obviously, many people use blogging to present their world view or something in particular, like their religion, to others. That's great too! I love new ideas and seeing what makes others think and wonder. And if I don't agree with their ideas, I might still learn something.

I get that people should tell their stories, I mean, that's why I blog, to tell my story to the void and see what comes back. And it's not always amazing and inspiring. There are many blogs, like mine, that are essentially mundane - just a way of talking about whatever's going on in your head on any given day. Even famous authors' and thinkers' blogs are mostly run of the mill.

The bit I don't get is the blood and guts retellings of giving birth etcetera. Maybe I am not seasoned enough as a blogger, or not enough of a voyeur, but Eeuw! Don't get me wrong. I know that giving birth and having babies is miraculous and wonderful, but I don't really get that sense of wonder from the matter of fact bit about the gross things (Ugh, I obviously can't even articulate this very well, because... ugh!) and the unhelpful things the doctor said.

Why do we choose to tell some stories in the way we tell them? We all know birth is messy, but that's not the cool part! Why tell the story about something as holy, personal and miraculous as having your first child in a way that evokes anything but wonder?

See, this is my dilemma: I know the internet is indiscriminate and blogs are supposed to be whatever people make of them, as I said in the beginning, and it shouldn't bug me, but it bugs me!

My wish for today

Dear random blog reader

I feel compelled to let you know that I have one dear wish today. It is simply this: If you have noticed and looked at the blog, entitled "The Animalarium" because you spotted it on this blog, I will be happy today.

I think that Laura has the most impeccable taste and ability to select amazing images, especially from children's literature, and put them together in collections that continually blow my mind!

Do yourself a favour and browse around in there. You won't be sorry!

Hopefully yours

Heidi

Next blog

Here's an interesting little venture, for those with time to play around on the internet. The navbar of this blog allows you to navigate to whatever blog follows next on their list (which I have no idea how it is compiled). So, I try it.

Firstly, the blog that follows mine is blocked for reasons unknown, so that is a dead-end. So, I navigate to another blogspot blog and try again. What do I find?

Countless blogs by aspiring photographers (usually pretty cool), but with the emphasis on "aspiring", so mostly blurry and not so cool. Also, they are all in some Eastern European language - one of those with more consonants and strange characters than vowels! Not that I don't like those languages, but I think you get my drift. Thus, I have killed about a half an hour, discovered that photography is big in places with snow and that people there enjoy wearing red bikinis?!

So, if you have time to kill... You never know...