As someone very close to me is quite fond of saying, most people can’t comprehend a vision: they need to see, touch, taste, something tangible. I may not be a visionary, but I can see a vision. Yesterday I saw the future, I could literally see construction going on, and a bunch of houses. It’s a strange thing for me, because I can look at an empty field and see possibility and can’t see how others can’t, but then again if I encounter a boulder in my path I go around it and I guess most people have a hard time with that, too. It is always so difficult to try and see at the world as other people do! Usually, I don’t try because I would just fail and also, what is the point? Understanding, and I mean fully understanding, the world as I see it is something I can’t even do more than 5% of the time, so it’s a bit of a losing battle to try and understand too much of how others see the world.
We were out touring sites for potential affordable housing developments and, it’s not really possible to get together with this one guy who was out touring around with us today without getting a couple of good insights. The one not directly related to the project that I’ll share is that he told me most businesses don’t work on paper, and he could have been speaking words out of my own mouth in saying that you just need to get in there and try things, see what works, and what doesn’t, and then do the detailed business planning. But it’s a big challenge: you need to do enough legwork that you don’t waste time and money doing something stupid, but obviously you can’t sit and plan everything to the n-th degree. Funny, too, we were talking later about this guy and how he really didn’t need to accompany us today on these site tours. But, he had his reasons, some of which we know and some of which we can only presume.
Oh and while I’m on the subject? Blue Downs has some storefronts like something out of the American wild, wild west! Too cool!
So. That aside, this has been an interesting end to the week. Wednesday most of the organisation was out in Khayelitsha at the GrowZone build. I stayed behind at the office with our HUB host, trying to get a planning session in among hosting a corporate that had rented out some space. Well, I’ll admit it’s somewhat calming to be doing dishes and turning off the lights on the last day of the year. I spent the rest of the day doing what can really only be described as admin, in the worst sense of the word. Necessary admin, but admin nonetheless…
I did have the pleasure of meeting this woman who kind of shocked the heck out of me by coming out with a couple of statements that rocked my world a little bit. It’s always shocking when someone makes a global statement and it applies very particularly to you! I also learned yet another reason I shouldn’t drink…
Speaking of drinking, Wednesday evening was the end of year heart braai at Peter and Mandy’s place. Well, we learned that the dogs don’t respond either to no or to nie when there is meat involved (imagine that…) and that my liver remains legend. Some of us planned a FoodTents hiking/camping trip, some others of us planned to take over the world, the words “I can’t even look at you without smiling” were spoken, and the children only broke one glass. I learned that I should never get on the wrong side of my one co-worker who apparently has semi-magical powers because he’s in IT (and I believe it, too!).
I also started a very interesting conversation about the power of the brain, and continued it Friday. So it’s a myth that we only use 10% of our brain (usually we don’t use more than about this at any one time just like we don’t usually exercise all our muscles at one time), but similar to the interval training you can do with your brain to focus on one thing rather than getting distracted by other things, I wonder if you could train yourself to use more of your brain all at once. This is all I’m not sure about, is are the things I am doing now to expand myself physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally all that I could be doing, or am I doing things (other than drinking, of course …) that are counter-productive? The other interesting aspect is other animals: to what degree are they often using a greater proportion of their brain at any given time than we humans? The 10% myth aside, if we consistently use less, that implies first of all that we might have the power to use more, but also raises the interesting question of how we evolved in such a manner: what is the evolutionary advantage?
Following the braai, I met up with some friends at the Biscuit Mill Christmas market. And, since it’s the Biscuit Mill, ran into a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in ages, drank a coffee stout which was quite good, and took a pretty hilarious photo that you can see above. I also bought a gift for my little brother, so the market served its purpose!
Thursday was a public holiday. I started off with a nice yoga session that gave me good opportunity to practice putting myself in the zone. Yeah holding your arms extended at a 60 degree angle for 6 minutes could, in theory, be hard, but it’s actually not if you know how to do it properly. The afternoon provided a nice opportunity as well for mind over matter as I took my friend who left town the next day (Friday) hiking Table Mountain (her idea). We hiked the simplest but most boring route (Platteklip Gorge), and I was supremely amazed at how easy I found the hike. Actually, I think I barely broke a sweat from exertion (a little bit from temperature). Pretty cool. Sadly it was cold and windy up top and everything was closed, so we took a few photos and charged back down the mountain.
The hike was great, though: we talked a lot about work (she had been interning), and my relationship with certain individuals at work and outside of work. This woman is very insightful, and she gave me food for thought in two particular areas that I’ve had my brain cranking on ever since. Yep.
I stopped by the gym briefly to foam roll so my legs would recover better (it worked like a charm!), and practiced a negative handstand pushup (quite hard), and chatted to some of the guys there before I had to run off. Dinner at Bombay Bicycle Club was beyond lovely, and I took the opportunity to eat things I don’t normally eat. Surprisingly I feel ok, but I won’t be doing that again anytime soon!
The rest of the evening was pretty chill, coffee and laying on a roof deck checking the stars and the outline of Table Mountain. Then I went home to sleep because I was tired!
Friday morning I dropped my friend at the airport, sat in traffic (!), and the rest I’ve already talked about. Then, instead of going right to the beach like a good girl, I accepted an invitation to have some wine. Three plus hours later, I finally left to pick up my friend and go to the beach. In the interim, I got a thorough psycho-analysis that was scarily accurate based on my answers to a series of questions about how I visualized a forest and certain objects I found within the forest. During a certain part of this in particular I was thinking “oh, so true, SO true …” I also shared the story of laughing uncontrollably at the thought of only working four hours a day, and got the same exact reaction (both times I brought it up, actually!). There is something a bit contagious here, I think. I also got pushback on my long-held opinion that I’m an intellectual snob. Now I’ll need to mull this one over…
Anyhow, much-needed beach time. Practiced my freestanding handstands, which are getting much better! This is apparently also a way to attract the attention of people walking along the beach. They either come over and say “is that all you’ve got?” (to which what to do but demonstrate handstand pushups), or come over to compliment you. But eventually I got sick of this and took a nap, followed by dinner at home then out again to a house party in Vredehoek to catch up with a friend who is in town for a few days. Second night in a row laying on a deck looking up at the stars, but this time discussing econometrics!
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