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Xbox Kinect Challenge

A few weeks ago I was invited to participate in a bloggers challenge promo. Now, I get a LOT of requests from PR companies and others to try a product / do a review etc, but I very seldom do it because (a) I don't have the time, (b) blogging is a hobby for me, not something I do full time or for a living and (c) I think you would get rather bored with reading product reviews or hearing about all the freebies I got. <--I very seldom accept any because 'freebies' are seldom free - they often come with an expectation that you will punt the product*. 

But the invitation I got a few weeks ago interested me enough to say yes.  It was from Xbox Kinect and they were challenging five mommy bloggers to use a program called EA Sports Active on the Xbox to get fit and burn calories.  They would give each of us a Xbox Kinect and console to use and we had three weeks to follow the program.

GREAT EXCITEMENT!

I said yes to the challenge because there is always room to burn calories, because I've been thinking about getting the Xbox for the kids and lastly because I really like the PR company who did the pitch. They do good work and they 'get' social media.  

The cherry on top?  The winner would get to keep the Xbox and all the paraphernalia.  Woo hoo!

I was up against some pretty formidable competition.  Four other mommy bloggers who were each about a hundred years younger than me. Tarts.  I tried to get extra points for being aged but they were having none of it.

·         Gina Jacobson – @Gnat_J  - http://gnatj.com/

·         Tertia Albertyn –@Tertia - http://www.tertia.org/

·         Diane Long –  @RoundUpdates http://blogs.parent24.com/ImpatientLeo

·         Angel Conradie - @angelsmind - http://www.angelsmind.co.za/

·         Tamaryn Watkins - @emxi - http://www.exmi.co.za/

I learnt a lot from the challenge, but unfortunately none of it was related to the Xbox or the challenge. I failed miserably at it.  So miserably that I never got to pass begin.  The spirit was willing, the flesh was even willing but unfortunately I just did not have the time to participate. I am really sorry about that because I would have loved to keep the Xbox, it is so much fun! It really is amazing and is certainly the future of gaming, if not the future of exercise at home.  Remember those Jane Fonda work out videos?  Nothing like that ;-) 

I am also sorry because I feel like they could have given another mommy blogger a chance to participate instead of me who said yes initially but then didn't manage to participate. Tertia = BAAAAD.

To make me feel better, you all have to click on the links above and visit the other bloggers in the challenge and read their feedback.  And then you have to go out and buy an Xbox.  

If you do both of the above, I will post a picture of myself in my leotard and leg warmers doing the exercises in front of the TV.  The winner will get a signed copy of my Jane Fonda workout DVD. Or not.

*I did get a freebie the other day - a bottle of Bio-Oil from the lovely people at Bio-Oil.  No stalking, no expectations of anything. They just called me up and said "we would like to send you a little something, what is your address".  And a few days later there it was - a bottle of Bio Oil.  How sweet.  For not being a pest - they get a shout out.  Bio-Oil is THE best thing you can use for pregnancy, stretch marks and in my case, PIMPLE MARKS on my face.  (Hey! Do you think they saw my tweets about my acne outbreak and decided to send me some Bio-Oil..... Clever! Very clever!)

The Albertyns on Vacation

Up until about a year ago, we never went away on holiday.  For the first five years of our marriage, every cent we had went to our 'finance the next IVF' fund.  And then the twins were born and for the few years of their life I was too overwhelmed by BABIES! EVERYWHERE! to deviate from the routine too much.  And then about 18 months ago I was forced to go away on a business trip and the strangest thing happened - I had fun! It was actually quite ok to be away from home.  It was ok if I didn't sleep in my own bed, shop at my own stores or move more than 5 kms away from home.

Last year I went to London twice, India twice, Vienna and Singapore. We went to Hermanus for a few days and Umngazi for a week. We are going to Umngazi (stunning family holiday spot) for 10 days next month and guess what - I am not even going to take my laptop!!  CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!  I haven't been apart from my laptop for longer than 4 days in forever (and the four days was only because I was in hospital giving birth).  The Albertyns are seasoned vacationers now. 

However, we still don't take our holidays lightly.  We travel with heaps of provisions and paraphanalia.  We have a trailer and we take ALL our stuff with us.  Which is about as spontaneous as we can be. If we are prepared, then we have no problem with being spontaneous. 

We are in Hermanus at the moment, in a gorgeous apartment.  Or as Kate says "this place isn't lovely, its FABULOUS!"

The place really is fabulous.  A little pricey, but really gorgeous.  Check out the view.

This holiday tested us slightly. We had a couple of tense moments that made me want to shove someone off the balcony.  

It started well.  Arrived Friday night, unpacked, had wine (me), walked down to the rocks etc.

Saturday morning I bent down to pick Max and pulled something in my back.  As I felt the 'snap' in my back, I knew this was a biggie. I actually fell down and lay there for a while. Of course it being a long weekend, there was no physio around and so I toughed it out until the pharmacy opened and eventually got some medication. It was (and still is) bloody sore. I could hardly walk.  It is only when you can't do stuff that realize how much stuff you do. And I do a lot (all) of the baby stuff.  

Unfortunately for us, Marko does not react well to this type of thing. He takes any bad luck Very Personally. The universe clearly hates us if this happens to us.  Poor us.  Never mind that we are bloody lucky we can afford to stay in a gorgeous place etc, we are cursed blah blah.  While he was sympathetic towards me, he was a miserable fucking bastard most of the weekend.

He did do his best with the twins while I hobble around the apartment trying to convince Max that he should walk instead of me carrying him around.  Marko took the twins to the beach, to catch tadpoles etc.  Again, unfortunately, it seems the universe really does hate Marko because when he was out with the kids, Kate had an unfortunate incident involving a runny tummy, poor spincter control and a lack of ablutions close by. Oh, and apparently there was only one small, half empty packet of wipes in the bag. Oh deary dear. As you can imagine, this did wonders for his mood.

Oh, and then Max started with a very snotty nose last night.  By that stage, if Marko's lip hung any lower he would have tripped over it which would have saved me from having to throw him off the balcony. Luckily for us (him), he cheered up this morning and is once again in a good mood. Just in time for the trip home. Luckily for him, I am quite fond of him. VERY LUCKILY. 

But besides that, we've had a fantastic time. At least the kids had fun (and so did I, between back aches and sulks)

A different kind of Teddy

Not sure if they have this where you live, but here in Cape Town the Girl Guides Association offers a program called Teddies. It is basically Girl Guides for under 7s.  

"Teddies have fun!  They play games, paint, draw, make things, bake, sing, dance and listen to stories. They  also learn about caring for others, themselves and the environment,  whilst having fun. Teddies are 4.5 yrs - 7 yrs old."

There are meetings once a week and they do all sorts of stuff relating to the theme above. An eldery lady ("Mother Ted") runs the meeting, it is really sweet.  Each girl has to bring a teddy to the meeting which they put in the middle of the circle when they do their news sharing or whatever it is.

Unfortunately Kate does not have a Teddy.  Or a doll.  So last week she brought a big 'fluffy' orange snake to Teddies.  Which was bad enough, but at least it was kind of cute. This week she decided to bring her newest snake. A lifelike long rubber snake.  Poor Mother Ted must be thinking WTF is going on here!  (Actually, I don't think Mother Ted is the type of person to use the F word. She would probably be saying "oh deary me" or something like that. ODM. <--'oh deary me')

Here is Kate's 'teddy'.  Love that child.

Pizza Face

(Now updated with a few pics at the end)

You know how when you have lots of stuff to do and you get all motivated and productive and really knuckle down to tackle your workload? Yeah, me neither. Have lots to do and have zero energy.

So here I am instead.  Hello! What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this.

I have a photo shoot today for Living and Loving magazine. With all three kids.  Hold me now.

I do a monthly column for L&L.  They really are a fab magazine and ever since Tanya has taken over as editor, they really have produced some brilliant stuff.  Me being the pinnacle of their achievement of course.

I couldn't have picked a worse time for a photo shoot. I haven't slept properly for four nights due to a sick(ish) baby, I have FIVE ENORMOUS pimples on my face. FIVE! BIG ONES! It's like the Big Five, except it is pimples, not wildlife.  Did I mention I also have a sick(ish) baby? I hope they have some pretty brilliant photoshopping skills.

Poor Maxie boy has been sick since Monday. High temperatures but nothing else really.  When the fever meds are working, he seems absolutely perfect but as soon as they wear off his fever spikes to super high.  Took him to the paed on Monday who thought he had an ear infection.  He has been on antibiotics since Monday without any improvement so I took him back to the doctor today.  Poor baby had to get a big injection in his leg. He was very upset.  There are few things worse than having to hold your baby down as he sobs "no Mama, no" while some nurse pokes a big needle in his leg.  Poor baby.

The stylist for the photo shoot asked us for our sizes as they will provide clothes.  All she asked for is age. This is what she got in reply:

Adam = 6 years old, skinny and tall (wears age 6-7 top, 5-6 pants), size 13 shoe. Kate = 6 years old, slim and tall, wears age 7-8 girls clothes, shoe size 12. Max = 22 months – big boy so wears age 2-3, no idea what shoe size. None of my kids wear shoes.

My son Adam wont wear clothes with labels in (he has sensory issues), so if you have clothes you want him to wear we will need to cut the labels out or he will have to wear his own clothes

After six years I've finally got him to agree to at least TRY something on with a label (if I hold the label tightly in my hand so that it doesn't touch him), there is no chance in hell he will wear something for longer than 20 seconds if it has a label. Needless to say we are bringing our own clothes for Adam.

Right, I am off to pack our stuff and head out for the photo shoot.  Such a glamorous life we lead. If you follow me on Facebook or on Twitter, I'll send through a pic of us on the shoot.

Oh fuckity fuck, I'm late!  Got to go, no time to check for grammar / spelling etc. bye!

Here are some pics Rose took with my Blackberry (terrible quality, but you get the idea).  Can't wait to see the professional ones.  

PS the kids were very good. We were all just VERY hot as it was a winter (autumn) shoot in the middle of summer!

Athletics Day

I think Kate might have inherited my athletic abilities.  Hopefully Adam has inherited Marko's. 

 

Ageing Ungracefully

You know what really gets up my nose?  When you talk to people about things like plastic surgery / aesthetic treatments / Botox etc and their immediately reaction is "Oh I would NEVER do any of that - I want to age gracefully"

Darling, there is nothing particularly graceful about aging. It is a bloody brutal process.

I know some pretty graceful older women who just happen to have indulged in a little bit of 'help' here and there.  Sure, a frozen, over-stretched face is not graceful, but neither is a face that looks like an old leather couch.  Wrinkles might be natural, they might be beautiful but their presence or lack thereof don't determine how graceful you are. 

Good lord it sucks getting old. It's like my body waited until it turned 40 (and gave birth to my third (living) child) and said "hello gravity, my name is Tertia - lets get a little closer and have a chat".  Cracks and crevices are appearing all over the show. I even have wrinkles appearing in my eyebrows! MY EYEBROWS!!!  Is nothing sacred around here? 

As I stared at the crevice the size of the Grand Canyon between my eyebrows, I thought briefly about doing Botox. As is "farking hell, I should have started Botox 10 years ago already". If this crevice gets any bigger, my whole head might fall through the gap.  I've decided against it mostly because I just can't see myself injecting R3,000 into my forehead every second month.  I just don't have the money for that. And because I think its a pretty fruitless exercise.  At some point I would have to stop doing it and what the hell - I am 42 years old, there is no escaping that. You can delay the wrinkles, you can't escape them forever. I've decide I'd rather save the R3,000 every second month and learn to live with the wrinkles*.  Besides which, I know that getting Botox would just be a slippery slope into other things - next thing I would be expected to wear make up, have my hair done and stop wearing T shirts, shorts and flip flops.  I just can't take that chance.  Life is too short to wear make up or uncomfortable shoes ;)

Actually, there is no real point to this post (besides me having a little rant about the 'aging gracefully' chirp) except to say the following:

Just as we shouldn't judge those who choose to colour their grey hair, or wear a push up bra to add perkiness where there isn't any, we shouldn't judge those who decide to get a nip, a tuck or a bit of Botox here and there.  To imply that those who chose to get Botox / plastic surgery are 'ungraceful' is unfair and inaccurate.

Each to their own. If you are happy with your choice, no matter what it is, then I reckon you're about half way there to be graceful about this aging thing - no matter how (un)frozen your forehead is.

* As you know, I am not afraid of Botox (done twice before a few years ago) or plastic surgery (exhibit A - perky, fake boobs). At the moment, I've decided that I am done with that - but who knows! I might revisit it some day. Never say never my dears! 

Want sauce with that? That will be two bucks extra.

I am extremely fortunate that I am able to work from home. I have a gorgeous office at home - it has aircon, endless supply of free coffee (made by myself), uncapped internet... it's perfect for work except for one small thing.  One 22 month old small thing - my dear son Max who doesn't understand the concept of "leave mommy alone as she has to work".  

And so I often have to find coffee shops in which to work / have meetings / spend time between school drop offs etc.  I have a few favourite spots and this morning I went to one of them.  It is a small upmarket patisserie with a smallish menu. I often have breakfast there which I don't really mind paying a bit more for (almost double than I would at a standard breakfast place for two poached eggs, bacon, mushrooms and tomato) because it comes served with nice cutlery, a cloth napkin and a little bit of care. And because the patisserie is quiet (few patrons) so I can get some work done. 

I don't mind paying a bit extra for above average service and quality, but I do mind being ripped off.  For the first time this morning*, I checked the bill when it arrived and I saw that they had charged me R2 for HP Sauce. You know how when they serve your breakfast they ask "would you like any condiments with that?" Well, what I didn't know is that their sauce comes with a price.  

I was not amused.  I told the waitress I would like to speak to the owner, who came over to chat to me. He was quite pleasant, if somewhat unrelenting. I told him that in my long history of eating breakfast in hundreds of establishments I had never been charged for condiments and that I felt quite ripped off.  He told me that it is standard policy to charge for any condiments used. (Pardon? He is the owner - it is not 'standard policy', it is HIS decision). He tried to justify it by saying "we don't like to charge people for things they don't use and so we only charge if a customer uses the condiment". WTF!  I told him that if he charged R19,95 for a breakfast like the Spur or the Wimpy served instead of the R48 he charges then I could understand but this wasn't a 'no frills' service, this was the full deal. And as part of the full deal I would expect that using three drops of HP sauce would not come at an additional charge. 

It is not the R2, it is the principle of the matter.  Don't be an asshole about things.  You can make money by being decent, you don't need to be a doos.  And as I said to the owner, he should have used his initiative and thought (a) I was a fairly regular customer and (b) I never take the fried potatoes that come with the meal. That alone should save him his two bucks if he was that concerned with making his profit out of the meal.

The owner said he would take my feedback and consider it for future use, but I kind of feel he was merely stringing me along so that I would shut up and move on.

I don't often take a principled stand on things, but this just seemed beyond ridiculous.

What do you think?  Am I wrong?  Have you ever been charged for condiments?  

I am a bit sad about this because besides that fact that the restaurant is keen on robbing me blind, I kind of like the place. It is massively convenient for me as it is just down the road from the kids school and if I have a meeting in town, I first stop there to have breakfast and avoid the traffic. 

Let's see what happens next time.  If I go there and he charges me for the HP Sauce again, it will be the last time I go there. If he tells me that he has stopped doing this, I will let you know. It might be convenient but I am not going to be taken for an asshole.

In the meantime, if you are in Cobble Walk and you find yourself at the Silver Spoon Patisserie - bring your own condiments or have your food plain.  It will save you two bucks.

* I know, shocking. I never check the bill. I (perhaps foolishly) trust that most people are not going to rip me off. I would far rather trust and be disappointed that be suspicious and have to scrutinize every single thing. Even if it costs me R2.