Rain, more rain and brain drain

It's easy to blame everything on the weather.  Especially in rainy season when there're torrential downpours that knock over trees which fall on power lines and cut out the power.  Heavy rain on a tin roof is deafening.  It's hard to hear yourself think.  But it doesn't rain all the time, and most of the rain comes during the night when you are trying to sleep.  So it would be unfair to say it's because of the rain and blame it on the weather.
Maybe it's age that's making my brain foggy.  Or maybe it's the high moisture levels in the air from the rain that's making some brain cells go mouldy.  You see, it really is the weather!  I knew it, it couldn't be me!
Actually, I think it is because as a part-time writer you have to juggle so many things that it's easy to allow yourself to be distracted.  You have a demanding full-time job, a home to run, children to manage, strange diseases to cope with, and on top of all that you have to keep on writing and still find time to do your own marketing.  Seriously, there are only so many hours in the day.
Maybe I should blame it on my Kindle.  Since I got that damn thing I can't stop reading.  Books are so easily available and so cheap.  Goodness, some are even free!  When I have the time to write, I'm reading.  The Kindle should take all the blame.

But I guess sending the wrong books to the winners of my Goodreads Giveaway was all me.  I had run two Giveaways simultaneously.  One for Defective the book I published last year to give it a bit of a push; and the other for C U @ 8 the book I have just released.  Stupid me sent all winners C U @ 8!  I felt like such a fool.

I have three books waiting to be worked on.  Two still in the research stage, but one ready to be written.  But for some reason the spikes on my running shoes seemed to have got stuck in the starting blocks, and instead of racing to the finish line I am struggling to get started.  Maybe I need to just step out of the shoes and run barefoot!

Parasites in Paradise

The weather seems undecided on whether the rainy season is going to start, or if the temperature will just keep rising until we start to melt. I think I’ve already started to melt, like a huge ice-cream in the summer heat, drip by drip. It’s hard to believe that at this precise moment, there are places in the world where it’s cold and snowy. I’m grateful I’m living with tropical heat, although making a snow-angel in the snow does sound tempting.


Unfortunately, my up and down, but mostly down stomach has started to get to me, and the headaches have become quite stressful. After feeling so rotten on Wednesday, I left school early and nipped over to Doctor Makupa down the road. Blood tests seem to indicate I have a touch of Malaria, but the good doc’s convinced I have a parasitic infestation of Giardia. Now, research on the internet shows that this is a delightful little parasite that resides in fecal matter, which I have obviously consumed through having ice-blocks made from contaminated water, unwashed vegetables or the like. Virtually impossible to pin down the source. The good news, is that I won’t die. The bad news, is that until it’s out of my body I’ll feel crap. Now these little parasites aren’t too keen to leave. After the blood test, the lab techie gave me a little plastic bowl, a kitchen towel and a toothpick and pointed me to the bathroom in the corner. Unsure as to what the role of the kitchen towel and toothpick was, I locked myself in the closet bathroom and attempted to squeeze out something for the lab techie. Unfortunately, hearing the laughter and chatter of the lab techies on the other side of the door put me off my stride and I was unable to perform. Usually, I am able to produce urine samples on demand, but scatological ones were beyond my reach. They took back the little plastic bowl, and instead gave me an old pill bottle with a very small opening and a toothpick and instructed me to fill it in the comfort of my own home. I was perplexed as to how exactly I was going to pop my parcel into a bottle with such a narrow opening, and the function of the toothpick still evaded me. However, as has been happening, straight after dinner my stomach needed a workout and I had to race to the bathroom. I only just made the toilet seat, let alone having time to try and hold the small pill bottle underneath me and aim my fecal matter into the narrow opening. After sorting myself out, I found myself kneeling before the porcelain throne armed with the toothpick, and trying to harpoon the smaller floating bits. I inadvertently discovered what the toothpick was for, when I speared a floater and managed to whisk it straight into the container without messing. Proud of my achievement, I realised that this wasn’t anything anybody else would really appreciate.

Other than that it was another week in paradise. The IB Evaluation team came and went, the one evaluator is at Northside School in Botswana and is going to organise a speaking engagement there for me when I drive down in June. I’m starting to get excited for my big road trip, and after discovering that the new bridge is built between Tanzania and Mozambique, I’ll be returning via Mozambique. Otherwise, things are quite busy at school now I’ve taken on the big inter-schools swimming gala which will be held on the 1st May, and have just been elected as Chairman of the Staff Association. And on top of all that I’m still working like mad on my new book, Not Telling.

I’ve decided to do a book give-away on my Facebook Fan page, so if you haven’t yet become my fan on Facebook, now’s the time to do it. The poster is below.

Otherwise, have a great weekend and new week ahead. Been snowing on Mount Kili but not affecting us down here.

Love

Cindy