Word of the Week

This is definitely something I suffer from :)

Thanks to Time and a few Moths.

I'm famous...

...but not really :)

I recently wrote an article for the Occupational Therapy Association of South Africa and have my very first article published in the Focus Magazine that comes out once every 4 months.

It's probably just because they are in desperate need of articles and also because I know the editor really well.  But who cares? :)

Here is my article:

The madness continues...

Yesterday as I passed one of our lady's with Alzheimer's walking with her caregiver, we started chatting:

OT:  "Hallo Mrs H, are you talking a walk?"

Mrs H:  "Well, I have been walking, haven't I?"

OT:  "Yes you have" :)

Mrs H:  "I'm just like Felix, you know."

OT:  "Felix the cat?"

Mrs H: "No, Felix man.  That person with hair over here and here"  pointing to different parts of her body. "You know, Felix.  Sometimes you see him and sometimes you don't"

OT:  "I'm not so sure I know Felix Mrs H"

Mrs H:  "You do know him. I know you know him.  It's like they sing in that old English song..." she breaks into song and dance "Felix, Felix hu hu ha ha Felix Felix ho ho he he"

OT: really intrigued by this Felix song "I will go look for this song and then hopefully we can sing it together when I see you again?"

Mrs H: "That will be wonderful.  I can read music you know..."

OT:  "Well, let's hope I find it then.  Enjoy your walk Mrs H. See you tomorrow."

Mrs H:  "Thank you"

She walks off, mumbling to her caregiver;  "Who the hell was that?!"

* I couldn't find an old English song with Felix in it anywhere.  I did however find out that Felix the Cat is indeed from the very early days of television.  I will try and find that song and see if it brings back any memories.  Read more about Felix's history here.

Do you have any special memories of Felix the Cat?

How to be a chartered accountant...

Today I was busy with one of my resident's nail care when we had the following discussion.

H:  Do you know what the job requirements are to be a chartered accountant?

Me:  I don't believe I do H, do you know?

H:  Yes I do. Let me tell you.

You need to be charming
You need to be elegant
You need to be dignified
You need to have integrity.
And you need the wisdom of a chartered accountant.

Me:  Wow, that sounds like great qualities to have H.

H:  You cannot be a chartered accountant without it.  My husband had all those qualities and he was the best chartered accountant I have ever known.

I think we can all strive in whatever occupation we do to have these qualities.  Maybe just wisdom in a different area :)

Here are some interesting mind maps of famous people's qualities done by Mind Map Inspiration.  A really cool site if you like mind maps.

New York Day 8 and 9

Day 8 - My least favourite day in New York

All the late nights and funny eating finally got to me and I really wasn't feeling well on New Year's Eve.  We walked around a bit in Times Square, looking at how they getting ready for the evening's event.  We were on our way to do our planned activities for the day, but had to take a rest in Grand Central Station as I couldn't go on.  So we went to fetch our bags from Hotel Pensylvania and we went to our hotel for the evening - the Hotel Jane in Greenwich Village...Here are some photos I managed to take on the way to the hotel.

The Jane is a beautiful old hotel.  Some of the negative points:  miniature rooms, bunk beds and a heating system that worked overtime.  But we slept and ate some sushi and watched the beginning of the New Year on TV.  Even though we couldn't be in Times Square and even though I felt sick, I still got to kiss my favourite person at 00h00 which makes everything better.


Day 9 - my most favourite day in New York

I was still not feeling 100%, but it was our last day in NY, so I decided to brave the outside world again. I  just love Greenwich Village.  First of all - no tourists :) (well except maybe two tourists) and it really is so charming and beautiful.  We decided to just have a chill day and do whatever we feel like at whatever pace we feel like doing it.

First we went to look at the river view right next to the hotel.  So beautiful :)

A get-better-soon-kiss from Jaco :)

Another view of The Jane

An awesome coffee shop we discovered on our adventures.

Very bohemian like and they've got the same poster of a Jacques Tati movie that we have in our house.

A beautiful street view

I love these little penguin decorations in the display window.  Most shops here, we discovered only open at 11h00 AM.

I wish our homes had stairways like these.  Lots of romantic gestures can happen here I'm sure...

Having fun in the streets :)

Lots of  cute restaurants and coffee shops all over

This house got stuck in Halloween (or they just really hate Christmas)

We had brunch at a place called "The Place".  It was really nice and we were joined by lots of people with hangovers from the previous night.

Outside "The Place"

After exploring Greenwich Village, we decided to go to Little Italy.

On Mulberry Street

Some Sophia Blackall art as a window display,  I love her and follow her blog Missed Connections.  You can check it out here.

Interesting wall art :)

We didn't eat here, but the food is apparently amazing

Jaco and one of his favourite shows

You can buy awesome movie posters here - mostly of Italian actors and movies :)

For our last trip before we had to leave for the airport , we decided to go to Brooklyn

The Brooklyn bridge peaking out

No time for movies, but would have loved to see Hitchcock

Beautiful Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Promenade was the perfect ending to our NY trip

We then had to rush off to catch the train to the airport to be on our way to the airport and to Paris :)  What a wonderful time we had in The City that Never Sleeps!

New York Day 6 and 7

Our two-day city pass

Day 1 

After the trip we were quiet tired, so we had a bit of a sleep-in the next day.  Then we were ready for some new adventures with a 2 day city pass...

We found Winnie the Poo in Herold's Square

 We went to the Empire State Building and waited in a queue for what we thought was to go up to the observatory on the 86th floor, but that was actually for the New York Skyride...  That was a bit lame and a waste of time, but we did learn some interesting things... Unfortunately we didn't have time to wait in yet another queue to go up to the actual observatory...

When we got out it was snowing again.  Yay :)  

 We met up with some friends who also happened to be in NY and had some of Junior's famous cheesecake together

After that we went on a short tour of Radio City Music Hall and even got to see a bit of the Christmas Spectacular Show.  It looked amazing.


Then we were off to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) to see some beautiful artwork

I really liked this piece even though I can't remember who painted it.

Wow wow wow! Nothing can express the feeling of seeing a Van Gogh up close and personal.  I could stand there for hours. We got a fridge magnet of Starry Starry Night so that we can look at it everyday :)

I love "The Scream" done by Edvard Munch.  The colours used are really amazing.  We got a fridge magnet of this too :)

This was my favourite of the night also done by Vincent.  I think it's beautifully sad.


I also found this poem Sorrow when reading up about the drawing.

Sorrow

BY EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

Sorrow like a ceaseless rain

      Beats upon my heart.

People twist and scream in pain, —

Dawn will find them still again;

This has neither wax nor wane,

      Neither stop nor start.

People dress and go to town;

      I sit in my chair.

All my thoughts are slow and brown:

Standing up or sitting down

Little matters, or what gown

      Or what shoes I wear.

Back to the Rockefeller Center to buy tickets for the next morning to do Top of the Rock.

I like this photo :)


Then we were on our way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Monet - definitely also one of my favourites after Van Gogh.  His work is so so beautiful!

Admiring another Van Gogh up close and personal

We saw lots and lots of beautiful paintings and some I am not so sure about.  One of my favourites of the day was the Andy Warhol Exhibition.  He was crazy I'm sure, but I love his work.  I was memorized in a room called floating pillows.  I would stay there for hours if Jaco didn't eventually pull me away.  We weren't allowed to take photos, but I got this one of the internet.

 This is from an Andy Warhol exhibition in Pittsburgh

Some beautiful scenery in the streets of New York


Day 2

Top of the Rock - panoramic views

Next we were off to Battery Park for a boat trip to see the Statue of Liberty  

Our first view of the statue

So beautiful!

We got really close, but unfortunately we couldn't get off on the island as they were still doing construction work after Hurricane Sandy

Battery Park after we got off from the boat.  I bought a nice fake LV handbag next to the road for cheap :)  I love a good bargain.

Then we were went all the way across town to Harlem for a Sunday Gospel brunch at Sylvia's.  What an amazing place - even if you wait in a queue for more than an hour. (unfortunately we were not the only tourists that knew about it)

The gospel singer doing her thing at Sylvia's. I loooved this music.  Made me realized once again that in my heart I am actually black. Akere :)





Enjoying fried chicken, ribs, corn bread and yams.

Since we were in Harlem we decided to visit the Cathedral of St John the Divine.  What a beautiful and huge cathedral!

Having some quiet time in the Cathedral after a long day.


We had 2 wonderful days exploring the city with our pass. We would have liked to do much more, but seeing that we visited New York in the busiest time of the year, the other tourists made our lives difficult and we couldn't get to everything.  Guess we will just have to go back again one day :)