Monday, July 19, 2010

Random Thoughts' Monday: Madness and Mayhem

It's official - the winter break has kicked in! To me this means more work since I'll have a little man on my hands almost 24/7. Kids are a lot of work, seriously. You think when they're out of nappies and eating on their own, you're pretty much off the hook. Uh, not exactly, no... Who actually makes the food they'll eat, eh? Now, when you know I am an absolute zero at cooking... I can make my way around a kitchen, but cooking for pleasure? That for me is an oxymoron! The blokes in my house always wish they could channel some Nigella Lawson into the vibes, but sadly for them, that ain't happening!

I'm not expecting to get much work done this week. At least not during the day. Maybe in the evenings I won't be so knackered as to just want to crash asap. Hope makes the world go round, innit?

So what did this weekend see?

Beach - yup, that's a pic of the one we managed to hit yesterday. For an insane weekend, the sun has been out and shining like there was no tomorrow (actually hasn't been any tomorrow since today is cloudy, rainy, and cold!). I've got a family of beach afficionados, while me... I prefer to remain comfy in the car or in the canvas tent, reading. That's the beauty of a smartphone - it supports PDF files! Actually touch the water? Not for me - I've got a cat's affinity to getting wet!

So sat down and kept an eye on kiddo while the man went snorkeling. Kid's there with all his beach gear, and he wants to build a sand castle. "Want some help, sweets?" Rolling eyes in reply. "Of course not," you crazy, loony woman who won't even come out in the sun! No, I'm not a Goth, in case you're wondering.
Have you ever watched a child building a sand castle? It always amazes me. They do everything so perfectly, and you just have to catch the happiness on their face when they lift a bucket and find out they've made a perfect sand cake-- sorry, perfect castle tower!
It doesn't matter to them that the high tide will wash it all away. What matters is they're making the best castle they can and enjoying themselves in the process, proud of what they set out to achieve.

Is that a lesson us authors should try to learn? Write as we want and how we want, be proud of our work, and not think too much right now of the high tide of the market/publishing industry?



Families - let's talk about them. Utter mayhem and chaos generators! I come from a big family. Actually, my parents do. I've got hoards of uncles, aunties, cousins, nephews, nieces, grankids (lol, yeah. My parents are the youngest kids in their families, and I was a late baby. That made the generations a little off-synch!). For all we're 'big', we meet maybe once a year, at events such as weddings. I'm not really used to the concept of 'big entourage'.
Not so for my hubby's family. His dad is the patriarch, and for their clan, every opportunity is good enough to gather and make merry! Yesterday, they sprung a surprise birthday gathering for one of the aunts. Everyone was there. It was cramped, it was loud, it had every current member of each generation in a tiny house. Should've been absolute hell, because I am not a social/party animal. I'm quite shy and reserved in public.
But strangely, you know what? I enjoyed this meeting. Why? The joy on the face of the auntie, the tears in her eyes when she realized everyone had converged to her place to celebrate her birthday.
I thought to myself - that's what families are for, and you know what, this gave me a big big high that is still taking me through.



From Mauritius with love,

Zee

2 comments:

Chicki Brown said...

Sounds like a wonderful weekend. My family was like that when I was growing up. I loved our big gatherings where my grandfather did all of the cooking. We had about 30 cousins. Those times were really precious.

Zee Monodee said...

It was very good, Chicki. I love hubby's boisterous family! They're always a riot.
Lol, my FIL has 6 sisters and 2 brothers, and each has an average of 3 kids. Now most of the cousins have 2 kids too, so the total really adds up!