Breakfast served to in inmates included decedent French toast, crispy bacon and a compote of berries.

MasterChef style… stacked to perfection

No appreciation from the inmates. My hard work ended up in a mushy heap of syrupy goo. Bacon was scoffed down, golden syrup dripping from the plates. The compote self-pitying itself in the condiment holder, ignored alone and cold.

So the look of this breakfast will change a bit second time around. I’m thinking a animal trough in the middle of the table, French toast (burnt ones and less perfect ones too) and Golden syrup carelessly squeezed over the heap. No knifes and forks and definitely no fine china or pods.

On the list of to do’s today is exercising. I have a medium size garden with some running space.

I inspired myself with a before picture – unfortunately no newspaper as proof of the date.

Geared up and got my eldest daughter to join me in the madness.

After 15 min I realized my garden is huge. It can double up as a rugby field. I ran around the edges from the top to the bottom and up again.

Oh my holy guacamole. I now realize why kangaroos don’t have boobs. With all the jumping and running they will knock themselves out. Running is a hazard. It should come with a warning label.  “Don’t try this at home if you don’t have access to an oxygen tank”

Out of breath, sweating and wobbly knees I stood at the top looking down on the pit of hell. Junior next to me couldn’t hold her laughter and without hesitation told me that old people shouldn’t be doing things that might kill them.

So 2 things ticked off my list for the day.. Breakfast done, exercising done…

Next sorting out the garage. We moved in a few months ago. Swapping the hustle and buzzle of the city life in Pretoria for the quieter suburban life of Hartbeespoort.

Im originally from Brits. This is on a need to know basis only. It’s like family in jail. You know about them but you don’t talk about it.

I spent 4 years in the UK in Oxford right after highschool. It was bliss. Quiet like Stellenbosch. Beautiful scenery, old buildings and the best fish and chips served in the pub down the road.

Coming back and moving to Pretoria changed me. I became fighting fit, looking for opportunities and getting out there. Working my ass off to make a living. Started my first business Décor Pro. Décor for any event. I quickly learned the skills of flower arranging. I worked too much and played too little. I was at least consistent by not being present for all my children’s first or second birthday parties. I spent them setting up events and creating memories for other people.

10 years later I started Purple Carrot my online jewellery company. In the past 4.5 years I watched so many you tube videos and did a bunch of online courses on how to run an online empire. This is a story for another day though.

My kids should call me Aunty over Decembers. This is the busy season for both companies. I work 14– 16 hours daily. I leave the house before they awake, only come back when they are in bed. My poor hubby plays both mother and father in this part of our production called : “The lives of the DuPlessis family”.

So one day we sat talking and realized that something’s gotta give. I cannot continue leaving he house at 6am with the kids just to be in time for school. We cannot return after 6pm just because traffic was horrific. It wasn’t fair towards the children. So the idea of a countryside house came up.

A couple of months later we moved to Harties, enrolled the kids in the local schools and now having all the activities not more than 3km from each other.

It was daunting. It was scary and sometimes it’s still unreal.

BUT it was the best decision we’ve ever made.

Out of this painful up and go, time was born. We have time to be with each other. It now takes us 8min to drive to school in the morning instead of 75 min.

A reminder of our old life is 99 packed boxes. Stuff that we don’t really need…

Opening the garage this afternoon I took one look at the stacked boxes and decided that this needs a  day with my batteries fully charged. I rescheduled this activity to Monday’s list. No one should unpack boxes on a Sunday….

We spent the rest of the day binge watching movies, I started reading a brillian new book… I am my brand  by Kubi Springer

…See old people should do stuff that could potentially kill them.. like unpacking boxes. I had enough exercise for one day.