A little while ago I was telling you how so many of my friends and family seem to have this weirdly mistaken view of my life. They seem to think I live a sheltered and cushy life with no work but everything given to me on a silver platter.
Well guess what, everything is not always as it seems!
Yes, I do live with my parents and they work flipping hard, but so do I. I sometimes jokingly tell friends the "Dad does all the hard labour around the farm, I deal with the clients and mom looks after us." Truth is, that is actually how it is.
Before you ask, when we say we live on the farm and are working out on the farm, no we do not farm anything but horses. We breed em, we train em, we feed em, we fix em, and we ride em. And yes that does take up a ton of our time. My dad, like I said before, he does most of the hard physical labour, works between 4 and 8 hours a day caring for the horses, fixing fences, finding them, ensuring they are all healthy, feeding them and so on. Sometimes he only gets in from working around 8 or even 9pm.
Mom, well she used to do a ton of the work with the horses, but she is getting on in years (no she's not old, but no middle aged woman should be doing such hard physical labour) and so Dad and I have taken on a lot of that work. Fortunately for us, mom does a ton of house work and cooking and looking after us. No the house is not always the neatest and cleanest, but I'll literally murder anyone who blames my mom for that! She still works a lot with the clients, she still has pet projects that she would like to do, and me and dad are seriously high maintenance to look after, we're like the messiest people you will ever meet. So actually the house is a mess because of us. And if I'm being so honest I'll tell you straight that anyone who actually likes to clean house is either a German, or has a mental issue.
Then there's me, I work with the clients. I do 95% of the admin and advertising, as well as being guide for most of the groups. Thankfully we have a few lovely ladies who are responsible and good enough riders that can help out with some of the guiding. Oh yeah, and I am busy trying very hard to also start up my own business, so that also requires quite a bit of my time and efforts.
So that's just work life, but come on, life never revolves solely around work. At least not for me and my family.
So that's just work life, but come on, life never revolves solely around work. At least not for me and my family.
You want to know how busy my life is and why I cant actually spend Saturdays and Sundays chilling with friends? Well I don't have such a thing as a "typical day" in my life. Day to day things change pretty radically.
But, week to week my schedule is somewhat, well, schedualed. Out of holiday season it generally goes something like this:
Tuesday
I will normally try to be up and in Isipingo on a Tuesday by 9am to do bible studies and evangelizing. Remember, I did tell you I am one of Jehovah's Witnessses... By 12 I'll stop for a break and a bite to eat. Then I'll get back into bible studies until at least 3pm. Possibly I'll go pick up a few essentials from he shops and head home.
Then once I'm home it's supper & admin, I normally spend an hour or two on admin. I'll cchill out, watch some tv or read a book and head to bed. I have cronic insomnia, so I may stay awake even till 2 or 3am.
I will normally try to be up and in Isipingo on a Tuesday by 9am to do bible studies and evangelizing. Remember, I did tell you I am one of Jehovah's Witnessses... By 12 I'll stop for a break and a bite to eat. Then I'll get back into bible studies until at least 3pm. Possibly I'll go pick up a few essentials from he shops and head home.
Then once I'm home it's supper & admin, I normally spend an hour or two on admin. I'll cchill out, watch some tv or read a book and head to bed. I have cronic insomnia, so I may stay awake even till 2 or 3am.
Wednesday
Wednesday is fairly a repeat of Tuesday. With the exception that in the evening I do some bible reading and studying instead of admin.
Wednesday is fairly a repeat of Tuesday. With the exception that in the evening I do some bible reading and studying instead of admin.
Thursday
Repeat of Tuesday and Wednesday
Friday
Now we start to get complicated. Friday is the start of the weekend in Durban (its a holiday town, and most of the city gets off of work by midday on a Friday) and thus our clients are starting to get edgy and want attention. So Friday morning if I'm awake early enough, I'll head out to Isipingo and do a couple of hours of what us JWs call table witnessing/street work (this generally includes standing on a pedestrian busy section of side walk with a table full of bible based literature and magazines). By midday I'd be home to work. I' be finding and fetching horses, feeding and brushing them. Tacking up (the process of putting saddles and bridles on) and welcoming clients. Once the horses are ready and the clients are signed in, then its getting them all onto their assigned horses and getting the ride going, by this time its often 2 or 3pm. So off the ride goes, I'm guiding, instructing riders how to ride, showing the way, preventing falls to the best of my ability (I'm really lazy, you see I would prefer to prevent falls because when people fall, then I have to jump off and check on them and get them back onto their horses. Much easier to just not let them fall.), and being the paparazzi with taking photos. We ride to the beach, and along the beach. Sometimes we'll stop and have a bite to eat and take the horses swimming, other times we'll do a photoshoot at the beach, still other times we'll just head straight home. Once we get back to the farm, its getting riders off, untacking horses and downloading the photos.
By the time the clients leave its normally about 7pm, in summer its sometimes as late as 9pm!
But the work ain't quite done yet. There's still admin to be done. So for the next two or three hours I'll be sitting behind a computer sending emails. The one part of my job that I hate is telling clients that they are over our weight limit and thus cannot ride. It sucks to tell someone they're too fat to go horse riding, even if I do it in a diplomatic way.
By 10 or 11pm I'm shattered and heading to bed with crossed eyes. Unfortunately I probably still wont sleep till at least 2am.
Now we start to get complicated. Friday is the start of the weekend in Durban (its a holiday town, and most of the city gets off of work by midday on a Friday) and thus our clients are starting to get edgy and want attention. So Friday morning if I'm awake early enough, I'll head out to Isipingo and do a couple of hours of what us JWs call table witnessing/street work (this generally includes standing on a pedestrian busy section of side walk with a table full of bible based literature and magazines). By midday I'd be home to work. I' be finding and fetching horses, feeding and brushing them. Tacking up (the process of putting saddles and bridles on) and welcoming clients. Once the horses are ready and the clients are signed in, then its getting them all onto their assigned horses and getting the ride going, by this time its often 2 or 3pm. So off the ride goes, I'm guiding, instructing riders how to ride, showing the way, preventing falls to the best of my ability (I'm really lazy, you see I would prefer to prevent falls because when people fall, then I have to jump off and check on them and get them back onto their horses. Much easier to just not let them fall.), and being the paparazzi with taking photos. We ride to the beach, and along the beach. Sometimes we'll stop and have a bite to eat and take the horses swimming, other times we'll do a photoshoot at the beach, still other times we'll just head straight home. Once we get back to the farm, its getting riders off, untacking horses and downloading the photos.
By the time the clients leave its normally about 7pm, in summer its sometimes as late as 9pm!
But the work ain't quite done yet. There's still admin to be done. So for the next two or three hours I'll be sitting behind a computer sending emails. The one part of my job that I hate is telling clients that they are over our weight limit and thus cannot ride. It sucks to tell someone they're too fat to go horse riding, even if I do it in a diplomatic way.
By 10 or 11pm I'm shattered and heading to bed with crossed eyes. Unfortunately I probably still wont sleep till at least 2am.
Saturday
Its been a long week but it ain't over yet. Saturday I have to be up and bright eyed and bushy tailed for our meeting which starts at 9am. Its at a local Kingdom Hall and we have bible based discussions and focus on what we learnt in certain portions of the bible. We also learn how to preach the bible to others. Unfortunately I'm half asleep through most of this and battling to just keep my eyes open. We finish about 11am and then its straight home to work.
We get home and jump to action, having lunch and getting horses ready. My Saturday afternoon is much like my Friday afternoon, working with horses and clients, doing a ride, coming home and doing admin. Again we normally finish off with clients between 7 & 9pm and I do do admin until about 10. If I'm lucky, there's something worthwhile watching on tv. Then its back to bed.
Its been a long week but it ain't over yet. Saturday I have to be up and bright eyed and bushy tailed for our meeting which starts at 9am. Its at a local Kingdom Hall and we have bible based discussions and focus on what we learnt in certain portions of the bible. We also learn how to preach the bible to others. Unfortunately I'm half asleep through most of this and battling to just keep my eyes open. We finish about 11am and then its straight home to work.
We get home and jump to action, having lunch and getting horses ready. My Saturday afternoon is much like my Friday afternoon, working with horses and clients, doing a ride, coming home and doing admin. Again we normally finish off with clients between 7 & 9pm and I do do admin until about 10. If I'm lucky, there's something worthwhile watching on tv. Then its back to bed.
Sunday
Sundays I'm supposed to wake up early and go out to do some preaching work, but normally I sleep in. After a week like I'v had I battle to get up in the morning. But by 11:30 I need to be at our Kingdom Hall again for our weekly Bible discourse and Watchtower Study. But Sundays are the stressful day, because as we finish the closing prayer, we have to rush out the door for work.
We only finish at 1pm, and clients are due at the farm at 3pm. That means getting changed, making& eating lunch, and preparing up to 12 horses ready within 2 hours. Its pretty stressful ok.
Again, the afternoon is much like a Friday & Saturday afternoon, and only finishing working around 9 or 10pm.
I'll crawl into bed shattered from the week by about midnight.
Sundays I'm supposed to wake up early and go out to do some preaching work, but normally I sleep in. After a week like I'v had I battle to get up in the morning. But by 11:30 I need to be at our Kingdom Hall again for our weekly Bible discourse and Watchtower Study. But Sundays are the stressful day, because as we finish the closing prayer, we have to rush out the door for work.
We only finish at 1pm, and clients are due at the farm at 3pm. That means getting changed, making& eating lunch, and preparing up to 12 horses ready within 2 hours. Its pretty stressful ok.
Again, the afternoon is much like a Friday & Saturday afternoon, and only finishing working around 9 or 10pm.
I'll crawl into bed shattered from the week by about midnight.
Monday
While millions around the world wake up and moan that its Monday yet again, my favourite day of the week is Monday. Because Mondays are my day! I sleep till at least 11am on a Monday. I rest, and relax. Catch up on my blogging and other social networking. But in the afternoon I do the final Admin for the week, cover everything I had ignored earlier in the week. If I'm really lucky, we even get to go spend some time at a nature reserve or doing GeoCaching. Then its home and we do some Bible Reading as a family.
While millions around the world wake up and moan that its Monday yet again, my favourite day of the week is Monday. Because Mondays are my day! I sleep till at least 11am on a Monday. I rest, and relax. Catch up on my blogging and other social networking. But in the afternoon I do the final Admin for the week, cover everything I had ignored earlier in the week. If I'm really lucky, we even get to go spend some time at a nature reserve or doing GeoCaching. Then its home and we do some Bible Reading as a family.
And that ladies and gentlemen is my week in a nutshell.
If its peak holiday season however, then Tuesday- Sunday my afternoons are pretty much all the same, doing horse riding.
Now, next time someone calls me lazy for sleeping in, or says that my life is easy, I wont be held responsible for clouting you over the head (remember I work with horses, so I have the strength to do that...). But by and large, I try mighty hard to be peaceable.
Imperfection, exhaustion and stress does make me rather "blowy-uppy", but I do try to be a good girl.
And half of the stuff I do I don't get paid for, but I volunteer. All the time I spend preaching and teaching people the bible, that's volunteering. When I go work on construction sites, that's out of my own pocket, volunteering. So its not exactly like I'm doing all of this to reach being a millionaire or get into the Forbes 500 list.
Well, its been a rough couple of months with the flu, and my schedule has been topsy turvy. But I'm trying to get back into the regular swing of things. I spent most of today (Wednesday) in bed, typing out this blog and downloading apps onto my new phone (Samsung galaxy star). But now I gotta go get back to real life.
Later peeps.
Later peeps.
