A Naartjie is a dangerous fruit...

This morning I had a meeting in Peter Place at 08h30 until 09h30. As soon as the meeting was over I jumped into my car and made my way to the Naartjie store at the Epsom Downs shopping centre. I'm such a regular there even the security guard knows my name.

I had to go. I mean I got an URGENT sms on Wednesday saying that their new stock is available on Thursday. Best I could do was to get there Friday. Emma should be their poster-child she has so many Naartjie outfits and today was no different. Even with a 25% discount, thanks to Your Baby & Toddler magazine, I still managed to spend over R1000 on non-essentials. As I was paying I told the gorgeous sales lady that I would have to hide the packet in the car and slowly bring things out one by one, claiming "This old thing? Emma's had it for ages!" when Mark asks if that's new...

So I'm already thinking of the excuses I can use when I get interrogated and cross-examined about this unnecessary shopping spree. Below are the Top 10 excuses women (and mothers) use when buying things that weren't needed:

No.1 - It was on sale...of course it was and so it just had to be bought
No.2 - I needed cheering up...of course you did. A slab of chocolate wouldn't have done the same job
No.3 - I deserved to treat myself...because the other three outfits, bottle of perfume and shoes weren't a treat. They were more of a necessity
No.4 - I've wanted it for ages...of course you did dear
No.5 - I haven't bought anything new in ages...that you've seen because I hide all the packets away
No.6 - I never spend much on myself...because the three outfits, bottle of perfume and shoes weren't actually for me
No.7 - I'll get a lot of wear out of it...until I see the next got to have item
No.8 - I really need it...because the 15 other white shirts I have look nothing like this
No.9 - I saved money elsewhere so I deserved to splash out...spending the money I saved plus another R1000
No.10 - I need it for a party...that I probably won't go to because I'm so exhausted from all the shopping I've done

Any of these sound familiar?

Because Mark never buys Emma's clothes he's not familiar with what's in her cupboard, spilling out of the drawers onto the floor, so I can, if I move quickly enough, get the price tags off, dispense of the packet and sneak them in amongst other clothes OR I leave them in the car and take an item out one day at a time. I also use the "it was on sale" on him as well as the "I just knew how cute Emma would look in it".

It's getting harder though, now that Emma is quite verbal. He'll ask if he's seen an outfit before and I'll say "yes" with 150% conviction. Emma will do a ballet twirl in her new gear and say "no, it's new daddy". My response to that is "just how much can you trust what a toddler says?"

I also use the fact that she is quite a physical child and loves playing in the water and dirt, so one change of clothes is never enough. "Well then, do we really need 25 pairs of leggings, five swimming costumes and seven hats?" Yes we do love...yes we do.

Another one of my more frequently used excuses is "but it was the last one...that just happened to be in the size and colour I wanted!"

And of course there's a whole lot of 'what if' purchases. What if she gets invited to a princess party and needs an outfit with a tutu? What if we get an invite to a cherry-picking theme party and she has nothing to wear? What if she has to do a recital in the next two weeks and we don't have anything smart enough for her to wear? What if we get robbed and ALL of her clothes are taken...this a good hiding spot? That's the excuse I use when Mark finds the various packets in the car boot. What if Emma goes on a safari and I don't have cargo pants for her? What if I leave her denim jacket at some one's house? At least the other 10 will be here.

Next purchase will need to be a new cupboard because it was on sale I needed cheering up I deserved it I've wanted it for ages I haven't bought anything new for changes I never spend much on myself I'll get a lot of use out of it I really need it I saved money on something else I need it for a party. I might also have to buy a bigger car so I can hide the cupboard in there for a few days...

http://colourgiggles.wordpress.com/

Found this awesome blog site today - thanks http://colourgiggles.wordpress.com/ - gonna be spending a lot of time here. Via colourgiggles I also found http://www.lifes-a-journal.com/ which has the prettiest quotes and images...

A few of my faves so far -

No Strings Attached

No this is not a post about a faulty tampon but rather the movie starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman. Mark was out last night and I was bored with 'all the offerings' on a certain Pay TV channel, so I used the video-on-demand function and ordered this 'chick flick'.

Firstly I love love love Ashton. I'm convinced if he lived in my neighbourhood we'd be shagging and also I think Natalie Portman's cute. I've always believed that at some point in my life I might have looked a teeny tiny little bit like her...even if it was in my mother's womb. So there you go...

The movie is based on the premise that two people can have a strictly physical relationship, be friends with benefits, so to speak. Let me tell you...this doesn't work. Years ago, before the phrase 'friends with benefits' existed I had a similar arrangement with a work colleague. Then the term for what I was doing was 'slut' but it was the best time of my life.

While I was still at school I used to have to catch the bus from Jeppe High School into town and then catch the connecting bus home. One day I had to stay after school for detention and so I ended up getting to the bus terminal in town after 4pm...that's when I spotted him. He was standing at MY Bus stop waiting for MY bus. It was love at first sight for me. I was in love with this stranger. So much so I started taking up extra mural activities at school so I could be in town the same time as him. We never spoke. He never so much looked in my direction.

And then I started my first job. I was in matric, had no idea what I wanted to do with my life so when a friend told me she was going to FNB for an interview I thought I'd drag myself along. I got the job and was to start in January the following year. Please try and guess who my manager was at my new job? I'll give you a clue...bus stop guy who I was in love with!!!!! I walked into the office with the HR person and she said to him, let's call him BSG (bus stop guy), "BSG, this is Melinda. It's her first day and you're going to have spend a lot of time training her." Oh how the heavens smiled on me that day. I was going to get paid to hang out with huge crush every single day, and some Saturdays (if our schedules allowed).

I'm not sure how it started or when it did but soon he and I were spending more and more time together. He was in a long term relationship and I was still dating my high school sweetheart. He told me from the start that he wouldn't leave his girlfriend for me, but he really liked me and if I agreed to it we could rendezvous every now and then...with some ground rules. We would never ever tell anyone. We would not fall in love. We would never ever whisper those three words to one another and either one would have to be prepared to walk away at any time. "Sure" I said, not giving any thought to what that all meant.

We had this arrangement for a while. Easily over three years. He stayed with his girlfriend, while the sweetheart and I broke up. I hooked up with guys at varsity, had one night stands, saw one or two seriously, all the time still seeing BSG. He knew about all the men in my life and would often pass comments like "That's why I don't want anything serious with you. I'll be one of those guys you throw away when you get bored."

I think there might have been one night where we looked into each other's eyes and both had those three words on the tips of our tongues. But the moment passed and we never mentioned it again. Then came the day one of us had to walk away. He announced he was getting married and that the set up we had would have to end. "Sure" I said, still not realizing what that meant. And then I realized I had fallen head over heels in love with him and he still saw me as the FWB...

I remember the day he got married. My mom (a florist then) had done the flowers for the wedding so I knew the venue, the date, the time. I stood in front of my mom's full-length mirror in her room, with a hair brush for a mic and sang Wham's "Last Christmas", tears pouring down my cheeks.

We chat every now and then and he's still happily married with two children. My mom runs into him because they stay in the same area but I haven't seen him for years. I think about him often and wonder what could have been if we had done away with the rules of our engagements. And then I come back down to earth with a bang. I was the one that got thrown away...

It's the little things that count...

like a friend remembering your birthday or someone wishing you good luck for an important moment in your life. It's being able to share special days with special people and it's getting little notes xxx

Thank you Tanya and Max for the awesome note. It was an honour for Emma, Mark and I to be there