All I Want for Christmas (in July!!) Is.....

Layla's molar-teething calmed in the night to allow us both a decent night's sleep - and today I have found a little bit of time to gather my thoughts after two weeks' worth of insanity. As I type, Layla sleeps upstairs, cocooned in a blanket our neighbour gave us when she was born. She is, physically, a petite little thing - still wearing 0 - 6 month clothes! What is NOT petite, however, is her personality - or her appetite for my undivided attention... When she's not teething, she can happily entertain herself for 30 minutes at a time - and then all she needs is a quick cuddle, some milk or a snack. But when she's teething? Oh dear... even putting her down on the ground amidst her mountains of toys automatically pushes her yelp/wail/screech button!

(Hours pass - and my irritability levels rise with no respite from the ceaseless demands of HRM.)

Craig arrived home at 8pm (19 minutes ago) and even though he's had a despicably long day at work, I beg him to please take our child off to bed so I can find a few moments to gather myself - and what remains of my sanity. (So if nothing makes sense, that's why!) On my last Soutpiel post, I received a tongue-lashing for writing such a short post - so here goes: let's hope I have enough time to write something worth sinking your teeth into ;)

Having recently read Julie & Julia, I've been inspired to do four things:
1. Write, write and write some more!
2. Get stuck into that recipe book that's been begging to be set free since I first annoyed my sister's high school Home Economics ethics with my butternut, feta and calamata olives idea!
3. Do as Julie Powell did by adding a 'donate' button to her blog/ (More about that in a moment.)
4. Recommend that you watch the film - but maybe skip the book. The deeper I got into the book, the more I disliked Julie Powell. With a toddleresque penchant for tantrums and something I can't quite put my finger on (selfishness? her revolting, cat-hairy housekeeping habits? the way she treats her devoted husband?) I almost wish I hadn't read the book at all... but the redeeming factors were that I found it a fabulous boost as a writer ("if she can do it, so can I") and also that I discovered Julia Child! Her memoirs about her life in Paris is definitely a book I'm putting on my birthday wish list - though perhaps not so her recipe books filled with too many recipes calling for boiling calves hooves down into aspic. (Blech!)

Anyway, to get back to Point #3. What with trying to launch myself into a freelance writing career, parallel to being Layla's adoring mommy, I haven't got a spare moment to earn the 250GBP I need to buy myself a netbook. Other thoughts I had were to take on a Saturday or a Sunday job, but Craig has to often work on one or both days of the weekend. So apart from having added Google ads to my blog, which earns me 1p a click, it seems impossible for me to get that kind of money together before we fly home to South Africa. (Once we're home, there will be no extra cash at all while we set up home all over again - and laptops are muchos expensive back home.) So... I am hoping that even if little amounts of even 50p get donated, that by the time June rolls around, I might be able to afford the new little laptop I need to keep my writing career flourishing! The laptop I'm currently writing on is beginning to show the feebleness of old-age... It is four years old - a relic from my divorce where all I got was my diamond ring: a nicely massive rock of champagne diamond ovalness, held in a platinum setting of little leaves and other pretty antique-style detailing -- all of my own design, and much lusted after by many a wandering woman's eye! Though it was valued at R42 000, my hunger to be free of the controlling mania of my ex-husband, I asked my dad to sell it for me on the Land Cuiser forum! Ha! Vengeance is mine, saith Lisa. The long and the short of it is that I got just enough money for it to buy myself a laptop. This laptop. It has been a lifesaver in so many ways... I was able to write myself out of a very dark, frightening depression. And while we've been living so far away from our families, it meant that we have been able to 'see' our moms and dads whenever we felt like it. And, most preciously, it meant that Layla and her late Granny Sally could meet - if only via the slightly murky magic of Skype. But the two of them shared a miraculous bond... to see the two of them talking to each, sunny with smiles and laughter, is a memory I take out every so often and shine with care and love.

Craig is back downstairs and it's time for me to be his wife, his friend, his Lisa, for awhile - so let me bid you the sweetest goodnight. Adieu, adieu, adieu, my friends!

PS. I found Julie Powell's original blog dating from 2002 - here is the link: http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/