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For some reason, all around me couples are splitting up and deciding life is better on their own or with someone new. Relationships seem to have become as disposable as ‘chicklets’. Very tasty and good to start off with, yet after a while they become stale and bland.

It makes me wonder if that’s how it’s supposed to be. After all, why bother recycling, if we can get something new or different. Something that helps us feel as happy as a small kid with a new toy ! Something that feels everlasting again, exciting and fun, like any new challenge does. Put that against your ragged old doll, and the choice seems crystal clear for some.

The pain caused by these decisions is, afterall, only momentary, and sometimes slightly one-side. Often we’re left scarred for life, in some way or other, yet we adapt, accept and keep going, because there simply is no other road to take.

It’s a strange feeling to be further along the road than some, yet behind on others. It’s even stranger that this has become such a frequented road in our modern day society. Seeing that people around me are having to go through the agony of separation and the despair of a broken heart and family, is frustrating to say the least. For many of us it’s so recognizable, and even though it is a well known fact that the ‘survival’ rate is high, the healing process takes time, so much time.

Is the grass truly greener on the other side ?!
Or does that field also need to be regularly looked  after,weeded, treated and appreciated ? I’m afraid the answer to this is a simple one, even so as human beings we can be so oblivious to the obvious.

I have desperately tried to explain the intricate consequences of these seemingly simple choices to those making them, but somewhere a point is reached when it’s impossible for them to ‘see’ things with their ‘old’ eyes and ‘former’ beliefs.

The newness blurs what is rather not seen.

To those of you out there going through hurtful break ups, and seeing no light at the end of the tunnel. Please know that one day, you will breathe again, the sun will shine again, and life starts blooming in your barren heart.
I know that it may be a meagre consolation when life and love seem wasted. But like after a great fire, or volcanic eruption when earth and soil become so much more fertile and prosperous, so do we after this ‘natural’ disaster!!

Cooking is one of the things I truly love doing, but since I am a very impatient and temperamental person, the recipes need to be quick and easy.

A few girlfriends and I were discussing our passion for preparing food and I noticed that they like to spend hours, if not an entire day, preparing, cutting and marinading their meals. I guess, like with everything in life, I just want it now, not yesterday, not tomorrow, but right now. I don’t seem to have the patience to let things simmer or slowly come to the boil.

I’ve often wondered if this is one of my strong points or a huge flaw. My enthousiasm takes me on the wildest rides, and even though I hate rollercoasters, I love these twists and turns, that take me to life’s unknown destinations.

A while back, I met someone online, with whom I felt a real connection, but he seemed hesitant to meet me in ‘real’ life, he told me that he knew himself well enough and couldn’t promise me much more than a few dates. I guess he too had a problem with long and complicated recipes. He was kind enough to call and tell me he didn’t want to cross the point of no return and felt we would be doing so by acquainting. Of course this triggered the utmost curiosity in me and I couldn’t stand him not wanting to even risk one date with me. So..I plucked up the courage and gave him a challenge. Guys are suckers for a good challenge ! 😉

I was on my way to Denmark for a short visit, and right before I stepped onto the airplane, I sent him a message telling him it was a shame he didn’t have the courage to meet me and that I believed in ‘No Guts, No Glory’ in life….

I flew to Denmark and on my return we had set a date.  🙂

As expected we hit it off like a house on fire and I had my first real crush on someone again !! It seemed a fairytale at first, all the important ingredients were there to make it a succesful recipe, but I left no time to marinade and simmer….. and so it was doomed.

Completely convinced that I had learnt my lesson I started dating again, only to keep making exactly the same mistake, leaving little to no time for things to set and rise. After countless attempts at this, my own motto seemed to have become ‘inglorious’ !!

I wonder if I’ll ever get the hang of it, as I’m not good with following instructions to the rule and maybe love and relationships are like pastry baking….you need to weigh and measure everything very carefully or else it’s a recipe for disaster.

So, for a change, I think next time, if I’m blessed with one, I will practice long and careful love marination….. !!! 😉

Enough on the men topic for a while….I need to catch my breath and re-focus ! 😉

Educating kids is not something that comes as easy as actually making them… It’s a blessing, and priviledge but it is also a tremendous challenge, as kids have a way of extracting your very worst traits, at times.
My day usually starts off pretty quiet…the alarm goes off a couple of times, giving me plenty of time to adjust to daylight. I wake my kids and whilst I’m taking a relaxing shower, they get dressed. (For those of you with small kids…yes this is possible at a certain point, as long as you train them well ! ;-))
Once dressed and ready they go downstairs for breakfast (or so, they’re supposed to). I check their rooms turn off lights where necessary (and after years of training and continuous reminders it is still necessary, yes),  and then join them at the breakfast table. On the best of days, we have a reasonably calm breakfast but on some days…..it’s like being an officer in the army trying to deal with all sorts of frontline crises. Screaming, hitting, fighting, and looks that can kill, seem to be the war weapons of choice. However patient I hope to remain… I don’t. Soon enough my shouting exceeds theirs and for a little while it will deceivingly seem as if we have made peace (this is like the eye of the storm, just a momentary state of quiet).

I start my drill at around eight in the morning…”brush your teath, comb your hair, put your shoes on, get your lunchboxes, wear your sweaters, hurry up, grab your bags, ….all your bags, please hurry up, move, move, move…we’re going to be late” (which we never are, as I’ve learnt to start all the commanding around early enough) !! I’m sure many of you recognize the drill. (Especially mothers as dads somehow seems oblivious to all of this commotion.)

In the car, the seat battle continues….I have banned them from the front seat only to realise that all I did was move the problem to the back seat. Once again fighting over who sits where and why. Usually by this time I truly explode and then we sit in silence until we nearly reach school, where I start telling the kids that this is the last time I want to have this kind of argument with them in the early morning. They sulk yet promise to behave. We all say our happy goodbyes.

At 3 thirty I park my car at the school in happy expectation of seeing my kids again. Whilst I chit-chat with my friends, I wait for the kids to walk out of school. As they are approach me, they each start their own story tyelling and all wanting to be heard first, then angry that I don’t pay enough attention, and so I end up in the car once again with 3 angry kids and me wondering how that happened in such a short walk to the car.

The homework battle is one that I do not seem to be able to win. Stuff is left behind in school, homework notebooks are forgotten, reading books suddenly disappear and of course the terrible grade on the exam paper wasn’t their fault, as they only got asked questions on topics they had never even discussed in school !! 😉

In the middle of this mayhem I usually try to make and serve a reasonably healthy and well balanced dinner. Now I have to say that my kids are pretty much omnivores, but I know of motthers who cook 4 different meals to cater to each and everyone’s taste.

After dinner the dessert discussion begins, now I am separated and as some of you may know this is when kids use all their guilt trip power on you, telling me that dessert at their dad’s house is a bowl of crisps !!! I’m very susceptible to feeling guilty but this is taking it a bridge too far !!! So, new rule is yoghurt or fruit for dessert and no room for negotiation.

Shower time…now this is when true signs of the battle field become visible..the top floor seems to have been hit by a series of towel and clothing bombs, leaving debris scattered around. No one is responsible of course as the opponent is always to blame ! Leaving me, the red-cross-type-Florence Nightingale to deal with the aftermath of this disaster.

This is all followed by another blast of drill-seargent-mom instructions…”put your pj’s on, brush your teeth, comb your hair, get into bed, take your medicine, quiet please….it’s time to sleep…no, no more water now, go to sleep !!”

And by 8pm this reccuring familiar battle ends….and I am left in a bombshell, with the knowledge that like in the movie ‘Groundhog Day’ tomorrow will bring exactly the same warfares, and so I prepare for the next boondoggle.*

*any military operation that hasn’t been completely thought out. An operation that is absurd or useless.

                                                                    24hrs in 2 minutes