The Woodshed

On the eve of the World Cup final it appears to me that when the microscope is exchanged for the telescope, our rainbow nation seems to carry a single voice. Last night my wife and I acknowledged that we needed a little help with all the versus in our national anthem. Our daughter, Emma, knows the anthem and sings with effortless ease. We, on the other hand, are amongst the 30-something odd that start to hum along at the bits when it runs aways with you. We called upon Elda to help us out and practiced around the dinner table in the hope that tomorrow night at the final we wont embarrass the kids. This act united the household. We stood as a single unit, laughing at our thick tongues collectively. (BTW Elda needed as much assistance on the "Uit die blou" part .. so we laughed at that as well ..) There is something special in the air when a single event becomes larger than the individual sects. Only then is there nothing to grab the big picture and cause the crap. Hence the

If you're on facebook you would know that my family is away. This is the first time in almost 15 years that i have been alone. Really alone. For those that don't know I am blessed wth a beautiful wife and 4 kids. It's a noisy, messy household with laughter, tears and the proverbial "why you home so late?." But not this week. This week was different. This week my family went to Cape Town. I went Home Alone. So I avoided it. It's not fun going home to a big empty house. Yes. I was excited about the freedom. Yes. I thought that I would get some sleep. Yes. It seemed like a a wonderful opportunity to catch up on everything. Uninterrupted. The reality? I avoided going home. I stopped over at pubs. When I got home, it was exactly the same as as I left it, and I switched on all the lights, radio and every TV in every room. I connected my MacBook and got online as soon as possible. I blogged. I read. I watched CSI. I walked into every room and looked around. I also h

Thousands of things go right for you every day, beginning at the moment you wake up. Through some magic you don't fully understand, you're still breathing and your heart is still beating, even though you've been unconscious for many hours. The air is a mix of gases that's just right for your body's needs, as it was before you fell asleep. You can see! Light of many colours floods your eyes, registered by nerves that took our creator some millions of years to perfect. The interesting gift of these vivid hues comes to you courtesy of an unimaginably immense globe of fire, the sun, which continually detonates nuclear reactions in order to convert its body into light and heat and energy for your personal use. Did you know that the sun is located at the precise distance from you to perfect service? If it were any closer, you'd fry, and if it were any further away, you'd freeze. Here's another one of the sun's benedictions: It appears to rise over the east

I've found myself talking about tension a lot recently. I don't why. Maybe it's because people around me simply want to win. They feel so strongly about their point of view and that it's too precious to them not to be accepted. They fight. They argue. They do what it takes. Tension fills the air. At home there's tension: Why didn't you feed the dog? Why did your brother hit you? What did your sister say when you stole her doll? What sort of time is this to come home? At work there's tension: I told you do this 3 days ago! What has taken you so long? Didn't you get the mail? It's due today. If we don't have the presentation ready for tomorrow we're all done for. What I find interesting is that nobody seems to understand that tension isn't there to be resolved. It doesn't exist to be won. No-one realises this. Tension simply exists to be played with. Nobody wins ... or loses. What matters is how you play the tension. What did you do to

1. Dads are constant. We are always in the mood for sex. If we ever turn sex down we regret it immediately. And for weeks afterwards. On the rare occasion that we may have something else to attend to (see point 3.) we regret it instantly. If you are ever offended that we did not accept the proposition, find some comfort in the fact that we regretted saying no ... and are still regretting it. 2. Dads are young. I say this because we live through our young son(s) or daughter(s). We see the world through their eyes very very easily. More easily than you do. In fact, I think one of the reasons we decide to have children is because we need an excuse to be childlike. And this is the perfect one. The chance to spend an extra 15min studying the action figures. The opportunity to examine those extras that come with the Baby Born. Looking at the detail. Reading the packaging. Marveling at the advancement of the toy. We remember what it was like when we were young and we're living the mome

In my last post I felt ashamed that I had so much to say, but never actually sat down and wrote an entry, that I decided to think about The Woodshed as a regular publication rather than an open diary. So here I sit on a Monday evening after a jam-packed day with a Scotch thinking I should honour that contract. Let's start with an interesting insight. I often feel that intuition is like a muscle. The more you practice it, the stronger it becomes. Imagine signing up to your local Health Club and the only muscle you work out regularly is your intuition. Loyalty points are simply a windfall benefit. In a few weeks you would be following your gut and through some unexplainable miracle things would be working out for your greater good. Let's take a closer look. Have you ever had to make a decision that when you rationally weigh up the options there can only be one solution? You then make that decision because, hey, you'd be a fool not to. But although it was an obvious choice, yo

Part 3. I've always figured that blogging would make me happy. C'mon. The ability to be instantly published? The tools to make your word global? Every single letter! Every single thought - available to every single reader with a net connection and your blog address? Hurrah! Happiness. Not so. First of all: You have to have something relevent to say (and you have many relevant things to say thoughout the day - the only problem is that you remeber them when you have them ... not when you need them). Secondly: you need to set time aside to sit down and post. Time? Aside? WTF? ... is that? 4 Kids. Wonderful demanding job. Learning to play the guitar. I rest my case. So. I'm thinking this is the new strategy: Why not consider your Blog like a magazine of sorts? ... You know ... it's regular. Not this weird monster that always needs feeding ... but rather like regular controlled publication that is always there on a Monday morning. Sounds good innit? I've got LOADS of mat

I decided to claim my Blog. Which is silly really - because the Blog is mine afterall. So why should I claim it? Well .. I'm finally going to take technorati out for a spin and with the registration process I see that they can track and measure and remind and do all sorts of really really nifty things with my Blog. So I goes. ahem ... "I claim this Blog now!" Technorati Profile

I believe that we are all in the persuit of happiness. Each day we eat our wheetbix. Drink our milk and drive into the office to improve our lives. To get that bonus. To reach that goal. To be recognised. Awarded. Promoted. That will make us happy. Is that really the case? Is this it? I'm leaving that with you. But if you're thinking that this isn't the country to make you happy you should consider this: The twenty happiest countries are: Denmark Switzerland Austria Iceland The Bahamas Finland Sweden Bhutan Brunei Canada Ireland Luxembourg Costa Rica Malta The Netherlands Antigua and Barbuda Malaysia New Zealand Norway The Seychelles Other rankings: USA (23), France (62), China (82) Japan (90), India (125). Notice that our beautiful sunny South Africa doesn't feature. I guess a braaifleis isn't the ingredient to happiness ... funny that. I wouldn't have said so.

Last night I started. During the holidays I bought myself a Yamaha acoustic classical guitar. It wasn't expensive. Just the basics. And that's all I need at the moment. I had my first lesson. Printed off the net. You know. A beginners lesson. The basics. This is the nut. This the first fret. Here's the body. There's the hole. But when do you get to play?? Okay. Here is is. Practice your scales. Next there's the C, G and D Majors ... cool! :-) I even printed out Brown Eye's Girl. So I got off the ground. About 30min of strumming around until my finger's hurt. But today I had a thought. My non-calloused finger tips are serving as a constant reminder to the agreement I made myself last year. Learn to play. I'm conscious of them all the time ... like when a newly-wed groom notices his wedding band for weeks, even months after The Big Day. It reminds you of your commitment. I hadn't thought of that. And all along it was at my finger tips.

Let's start this year with a contract to ourselves. A contract that contains 4 principles ... or agreements ... we need to make with our family, our friends, our work colleagues ... with life. But the most important agreements are the ones we make with ourselves. In these agreements we tell ourselves who we are, how to behave, what is possible, what is impossible. One single agreement is not such a problem, but we have many agreements that come from fear, deplete our energy, and diminish our self-worth. These Four Agreements are an extract from the powerful book by Don Miguel Ruiz - a book that is almost always found by my bedside ... 1. Be Impeccable With Your Word Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. 2. Don't Take Anything Personally Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality,