A Winter Post

OK - don't fall over now - I know I have already posted once today but after reading some of the winter posts over at Always Josefa - I thought I would add a winter post.

I feel the cold and I hate being cold. For many years I felt guilty when I was cold and got rugged up (yes, I should have included this in my "I Don't Feel Guilty" post but I forgot).  I felt like I was a big wuss and should just tough it out.

Then I realised that, honestly, if I was cold, I was cold, and it didn't matter a rat's butt whether anyone else was cold or not.  While I don't like being cold - I do love the opportunity to wear warm and comfy trakkie daks when I get home from work.  I do love the opportunity to use the colourful range of scarves that I own.  I do love the opportunity to wear the lovely jackets that I have bought since coming to the Gold Coast (yes, I know it doesn't get that cold on the Gold Coast - please see the second parargraph above !!!)

The first year we moved here, there was a cold spell during May of about 4-5 days where the temps got down to around about 5° - to say I nearly died is an understatment.  The coldest it ever got in Durban was probably about 14°-15° and then I thought I was dying from the cold.  We had no heaters.  We had no clothes warm enough to cope.  We lived in a tiled rental house with no rugs.  I froze my butt off.  I would drive to work looking like the Michelin man - wearing just about all the clothes I possessed that would fit on top of each other.  I do recall coming home from work and saying to A "If this is what May is like, we have to move.  There is no way I can live through winter."  We spoke to lots of people who assured us it was very unseasonal and so we stayed.  And bought clothes to suit.  And bought heaters to suit.  And when we bought our home, we put in reverse cycle aircon - we don't use either often but it is so nice to have just to take the chill off the air in the mornings and the evenings when we need to.

Now that I am more prepared for the cold, it is easier when I go out - I take jackets with me.  I have been known to go to a Suns game with a long sleeve T-shirt, my Suns shirt, a hoodie, a puff jacket that we bought when we went to NZ, a blanket, gloves and a scarf.  The good thing is that as a rule, I am generally not cold - unless A isn't there, sitting next to me adding to my warmth (or lack of it !!!).  We also have two jumpers (each) in the back of the car - just in case - A knows two things (OK - he knows lots of things but he especially knows these two things) - I wear twenty-five (or more) pairs of cranky pants if I have to wait somewhere and don't have anything to read OR I get cold !!!!  He is well prepared.

I would love to live somewhere where I could actually see the change of seasons in the trees - but in order to do that I would need to live where the winters are colder and I don't know if I could handle that.  So, for now, I will enjoy looking at photos that other people post of the trees changing colour and losing their leaves and be happy that I don't have to rake up and dispose of said leaves !

Whenever winter hits and wherever you are - rug up, snuggle down and stay warm !

Have the best day !

TFTD : You have to be brave and take chances. Don't live life in fear of what comes next. That's not what living is about.

Conversations with ........

The lovely Josefa at always Josefa is hosting her monthly linky - "Conversations with ....." - this month it is conversations with my hairdresser.

Due to the fact that my hair has always been extremely straight, when I find a good hairdresser who knows how to cut straight hair, I tend to stick with them rather than try someone new.  For all that I am not really fussed about clothes or shoes, I cannot stand my hair being badly cut !

Anyway, the hairdresser that I went to when we first arrived in Australia was a lovely lady BUT it got to the point where she was too vain to wear glasses and I would get home and have to give myself a tidy up trim because there were bits and pieces all over the place that she had missed.

Then, through a fellow therapist, I found another hairdresser.  Someone who worked from her salon at home.  Someone who worked a couple of evenings a week.  Someone who could cut straight hair.  And I went to her.  What I didn't know was that she could talk the hind leg off a donkey !!!  She doesn't keep quiet from the minute you walk in there to when you leave which can be a little annoying when sometimes, after a day at work, I just want peace and quiet.  Never mind, she can cut straight hair and so I put up with it.

I have probably been going to her for about 8 or 9 years now and in all that time I have only ever really had my hair trimmed - until 2011.  In the past I have had hair styles from pixie to bobs to half way down my back, to Princess Di side sweeps, peanut perms, highlights, lowlights, semis - I have never been blonde and I have never dyed my hair but other than that I have pretty much given most things a try - except with her.  With her I had only ever had my hair trimmed and a semi put through it.

In January 2011, I applied for and was appointed to the job that I am currently in.  My hair was half way down my back.  Thick, dark and in really good condition.  A week before I was due to start in this role, I decided a change was as good as a holiday, new job, new hairstyle - so made an appointment and went to see her.

After telling her what I wanted, she spent the next 20 mins checking to make sure that was what I really wanted.  I don't know if she was trying to convince me or herself but I told her I wanted to go ahead with it.  Eventually she obliged and I went from having hair half way down my back to a pixie cut.  Luckily my weight was down at the time and so it really suited me.  The first day at my new job they didn't recognise me when I walked in the door as my hair had been long at both the interviews that I had been to !!!

I have never seen anyone so nervous to cut my hair as she was that day.  My theory is that it will always grow back so, be daring and see what happens.

Thanks Josefa for hosting - always good to have a lovely linky to prompt me !!!!

Have the best weekend - to those on the Gold Coast, I believe we are in for another wet weekend which sucks big time.  I want some sun to come out !!!

TFTD : Don't change so people will like you.  Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.