I've been away from the blogging world for a long time. A very long time. I don't know why that is, but for many years I have felt as if my creative juices and love of writing has been diminishing, and now I somehow feel that it has dried up completely.
I know that even after this post I will probably be away for a similarly long period of time. It's not a case of not having much going on in my life right now, but a case of too much going on.
My older brother is about to go through a divorce, and has already separated from his wife, who happens to be a friend of mine since we were about 10 or 11 years old. At the moment he is fragile and needing lots of contact and support from family, especially as he is temporarily living with my father in Mossel Bay while he sorts himself out, but he is slowly, bit by bit trying to put himself back together if not for her, then for himself. I have long been meaning to write a post about him and his wife, and in fact was in the middle of mapping out their story when I got the news that she had instituted divorce proceedings and that he would have to move out by a certain date. Their story is complicated, and one which makes me feel guilty and appreciative at the same time because of the contrast between our standards of living.
At the same time, Boyfriend has lost his job due to the sub-company he was working in not being altogether successful. He loved his job, the people and the atmosphere, but his boss felt that the company was running at a loss and wanted to shut it down. He'd given the company a period of grace just to keep an eye on things, but sadly the situation hadnt improved. Thank goodness it isnt a reflection on Boyfriend as a number of people had worked in that particular position and hadn't seemed to make a difference to the amount of money and success the company was making, but sadly he was the last to have that job, and therefore the one to lose it. He was paid out three months salary and told that they would understand if he chose not to come to work to finish out the month. So, now he is now looking for a new job, and has been for the last month or so, our funds slowly depleting each day. I dont know what we are going to do if he doesnt find one soon. One of the job ads he's applied for sounds like it might be promising since he's passed through the first interview, but he just needs to wait on the more senior person to phone him to arrange a second interview. My brother has gone for an interview as a job as a Guesthouse Night Manager where he would be offered accommodation, and since he doesnt want to live there as he's already organised to live with us, he's waiting on them to let him know if they are prepared to increase the salary as he would then have a rent expense as opposed to having free accommodation with them. Im crossing my fingers for the both of them, as well as my older brother in Mossel Bay who is also applied for a number of jobs.
I know that even after this post I will probably be away for a similarly long period of time. It's not a case of not having much going on in my life right now, but a case of too much going on.
My older brother is about to go through a divorce, and has already separated from his wife, who happens to be a friend of mine since we were about 10 or 11 years old. At the moment he is fragile and needing lots of contact and support from family, especially as he is temporarily living with my father in Mossel Bay while he sorts himself out, but he is slowly, bit by bit trying to put himself back together if not for her, then for himself. I have long been meaning to write a post about him and his wife, and in fact was in the middle of mapping out their story when I got the news that she had instituted divorce proceedings and that he would have to move out by a certain date. Their story is complicated, and one which makes me feel guilty and appreciative at the same time because of the contrast between our standards of living.
At the same time, Boyfriend has lost his job due to the sub-company he was working in not being altogether successful. He loved his job, the people and the atmosphere, but his boss felt that the company was running at a loss and wanted to shut it down. He'd given the company a period of grace just to keep an eye on things, but sadly the situation hadnt improved. Thank goodness it isnt a reflection on Boyfriend as a number of people had worked in that particular position and hadn't seemed to make a difference to the amount of money and success the company was making, but sadly he was the last to have that job, and therefore the one to lose it. He was paid out three months salary and told that they would understand if he chose not to come to work to finish out the month. So, now he is now looking for a new job, and has been for the last month or so, our funds slowly depleting each day. I dont know what we are going to do if he doesnt find one soon. One of the job ads he's applied for sounds like it might be promising since he's passed through the first interview, but he just needs to wait on the more senior person to phone him to arrange a second interview. My brother has gone for an interview as a job as a Guesthouse Night Manager where he would be offered accommodation, and since he doesnt want to live there as he's already organised to live with us, he's waiting on them to let him know if they are prepared to increase the salary as he would then have a rent expense as opposed to having free accommodation with them. Im crossing my fingers for the both of them, as well as my older brother in Mossel Bay who is also applied for a number of jobs.
Just before he'd lost his job we had given our notice to our landlord, who happened to know of a student looking for a place to stay right then. She had initially turned the student down, but said that she would phone her right away to let her know that we had given our notice. Since plans were already made that my brother would be moving back down to Cape Town from Bloemfontein to live with us, and since our notice had already been given and a new tenant found, we had to continue looking for a new place. Its a pretty nerve-wracking thing looking for places to rent and meeting prospective landlords when one of you has just recently lost a job, not to mention actually filling out a lease application form or signing a lease agreement. All lease agreements are different and request different information. Our previous lease required personal and employment details of both of us, but thank goodness the lease we have recently signed only asked for the details of the person who's account would be debited with the rental amount, and thats me. We both let off a mental sigh of relief at that.
Next we had to tell my brother, so that he could make an informed decision about whether he still thought it a good idea to move in with us. We put it off and put it off until Boyfriend eventually confided in him. Of course my brother and I havent told my mom because she'll just worry about it. In fact, we havent really told anyone. So far there are only six of us who know about it, and that includes Boyfriend and I. The other three who know are Boyfriend's parents and sister, who were especially not to know about it. They found out by mistake when one of the parents phoned Boyfriend's ex-office and was told he wasnt there. When they asked to leave a message for him they were told that he wouldnt be coming back because he no longer worked there. Shock was followed by copious amounts of tears on his moms part as expected, followed by countless questions and an eventual shouting match when Boyfriend felt that she was being too pushy about applying for jobs. I hate the way he reacts to her efforts to help motivate him to stop procrastinating, but she can be a little too pushy in her need to help. Hence why we didnt want them to know.
Despite our precarious financial situation, my brother decided to go ahead with the plans to move in with us, and booked his flight down. He arrived on Wednesday last week and is now looking for a part time job so that he can go to college but still earn enough money to be able to contribute to our rent and have some spending money to his name. So its now three men in my life on the job hunt, as my older brother living in Mossel Bay is also looking for a job as he hasn't has one in almost three years, the entire time he has been married. But that is part of his story, which I will continue to work on and possibly publish here on this blog as I had intended.
This weekend we are moving into our new place. A house. Finally. I think I've had quite enough of flats and garden cottages. Finally some space! A big back garden! A decorative front garden! Being allowed to have a dog! In our free time we have been doing some frantic gardening, trying to make the place look attractive and more like a garden than say, a little bit of wilderness, and I'm proud to say that we're doing a rather good job of it. Luckily we wont have to worry about the rent being paid each month, now we just have to worry about where our food is going to come from if Boyfriend doesnt get a job soon.
So this week is going to be filled with packing and sorting if we can just find some boxes. Since the two men of my household are out of jobs at the moment I have delegated the task to them, but they seem adamant to procrastinate as much as possible as when I phoned to check on progress before lunch they were "looking for boxes", but ended up looking at bikes. When I then phoned them at 3:40 they were yet again apparently "on their way to look for some boxes".
Men.
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P.S: Happy 85th Birthday Gran! I'm looking forward to chatting to you later on this evening!
