Jodene is the co-founder of:
and founder of:
Published February 21st, 2011
For those of you who don’t live in the land of the traditional South African meat dish called boerewors. It’s a sausage that means ‘farmer’s sausage’ and it’s beyond yummy. The reason why it’s so important to introduce you to it or tease my fellow South African’s with the thought of it is because boerewors is never eaten alone. It’s alway surrounded by far too many other yummy things and carbo-overload is top of the list.
Yesterday wasn’t the most eventful as activities go. Wake up … eat! Blog … eat! Watch a movie … eat! Have lunch … um! and so the day went on. I’m not directly pointing a finger at my sister and brother-in-law but they did cook all the food the whole day. Who can blame the bride who hasn’t been having the best food time before the wedding so post occasion she’s having her favourite things.
There’s no gun to my head, but the new relationship I’m forming with food, I am finally getting quantity and ‘desires’ right. NOT YESTERDAY.
It’s official … we go into autopilot of old patterns. I could actually hear myself saying to me that I didn’t want to eat that or I had had enough of eating that, but I just kept going. So I gave myself a gift … I watched the old me consume me!! I didn’t get mad or frustrated with myself. I remember this happening twice in my life before. Once when I quit smoking and once when I was obese and started to deal with it.
I remember sitting in front of the mirror and watching myself inhale smoke like an alien had landed from Mars. Even though I had smoked since I was about 16, it became totally foreign to me.
The second time it happened … well that was the last day I ever ordered 2 hamburgers, 1 packet of large chips, one tub of fried calamari and an ice cream. Yes … that was my quantity of comfort food.
Yesterday wasn’t nearly as insane but it was mad enough. It also gave me one of the greatest gifts I’ve given myself in a long time and one just as powerful as the other two moments that were life-changing. I know it was so impactful because of how I woke up this morning … fearless of ever going back!!!!
The timing is perfect because other fearful things are starting to creep up and I would usually hide behind food.
I’m not great at traveling on my own … not even to a new building a few minutes away from home. No jokes … but my dad left me in a restaurant when I was about 6 and I thought he was never coming back. There were no cellphones in those days and what seemed like nearly the whole day was under and hour … for a little girl to think her daddy forgot her. For some reason that freaked me out for all eternity and I have this crazy notion that I will get lost and never be found again! Yes … I’m 37 and it might be time to get over that.
So this week I’m going to a meeting where I am going to follow directions and find my way through buildings and next month I am flying to Cape Town all by myself too! For a girl who wants to travel the world and tell my ‘project me’ story … I thought it was a good time to start!! No addiction to cradle me …
With courage, consciousness & a sense of humour
Published February 17th, 2011
I’ve never denied being a little wacky. Seriously, a person who blogs every day of their lives has to be a sandwich short of a picnic basket. Yes, I’m talking to all of you daily bloggers. Sometimes my wackiness is a fun distraction for my brain that works too hard and other times it’s genuine unhealthy thoughts. Mastering the art of ‘project me’ is finding my way of giggling at the latter and making it the brains distraction anyway.
What the hell am I on about? Sometimes I wonder myself. However, this particular chaos is caused by the exciting buildup to my change in hair colour (which I totally love) and the unexpected bill one my hair was done. I am a believer that you have to spend money to make it., but holy cow. Gulp … it was basically all my grocery and entertainment money for the month. Granted, I’m not a lavish spender (that’s a valid point for a dating site me thinks) and I never regret money spent, BUT I’m too scared to wash my hair.
It’s ok … you can roll your eyes like everyone else or burst out laughing like the rest but this chick is making this colour laaaaaaaaaaaaaaast! So while distracting my brain from the really scary things (which I will get to now) I have been plotting and scheming how to get away with washing my hair once a week. I kid you not … my brain does this. It’s a plan sure to fail but it’s comforting my ego that is living on a shoestring for the remainder of the month. If my plan were to work I’m thinking I could eat well for the months of March and April 
Day 1 … wash hair and wear it down.
Day 2 … I could wing another day down or hold it all together with a clamp
Day 3 … definitely another clamp day
Day 4 … pony tail
Day 5 … scraped back bun
Day 6 … scraped back super greasy bun
Your thoughts?
You’re right … let’s put my brain to better use, like taking my career to another level.
It’s been playing on my mind for so long that I’m not sitting on something insignificant with my talents but the ‘how’ of it all has been freaking me out and putting on the brakes. Thanks to my incredible friends, followers and family I have had no choice but to get over my crap and realise that it’s time to do something … anything … as shit scared as I am. I’ll tell you why I’m afraid before you even get a chance to ask. Because whenever I think of making it out there as a blogger or speaker I think of the millions of others and feel like a tiny little guppy in a very big ocean. That’s why.
I may as well stop ‘project me’ right now if I give into those fears and so I decided to do what I’ve been talking about for far too long … open ‘project me’ up to the world. Let others tell their story and watch it snowball because I would much rather hear a story from the everyday person on the street than the millionaire or guru. It’s always been my plan and I don’t know what I’ve been waiting for … so in a few hours I will be launching my first ‘Your Project Me Story’.
I posted an event on Facebook … which my dearest followers don’t all read properly but that’s besides the point … and opened it up to everyone around the world to tell a ‘project me’ story of their own. My gesture in return is to sponsor that page with a product/brand/charity or tool to market yourself. Of course it was an anxious day … waiting and wondering if anyone would reply. Wow … the response was overwhelming and I am so excited to share some magical ‘project me’ stories through the months that follow.
The day got bigger with my confirmation of the first ‘project me interview’ with an incredible social networking business man who has developed one of the best social networking tools that I feel South Africa has to offer. That’s a few days away, but in the meantime I’m on the hunt for ‘the heroes of business/sport/entertainment/charity/awareness and care the world over to tell their stories in the newly launched section of ‘project me’ too. Once again, I held my breath waiting for one of my heroes to respond to me and when I got my, “I would be honoured” I felt the snowball effect begin (in a good way).
This morning I’m still more afraid of washing all the colour out of my hair than posting my first ‘Your Project Me Story’ and that’s a good sign because I know better than anyone else that fear is the greatest fuel of all. So it’s posting blog, sending interview questions to the first of many heroes and then off to wash this greasy, tangled but very brightly coloured hair.
I hope your day is just as scary
With courage, consciousness & a sense of humour
Published February 2nd, 2011
Treated like a princess by Twinkletoes
Your eyes have not deceived you. I am blogging at a crazy hour. It’s barely 6am here in the Southern Hemisphere but I have such an exciting day ahead of me that I’m not surprised I couldn’t wait to jump out of bed and get started.
It’s just a pity that the shops I need to go to, friends I need to chat to and siblings I need to ask a little help from are all still asleep or closed. So you have me for me a while otherwise I know I’m gonna make noise loud enough to maybe wake a sibling
For the first time since I did a Thanksgiving dinner, (back in 2004 after my family home with my business in it burned down) I am opening up my home to my friends for a sacred event. We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in South Africa, hence the big mention. Actually, most things in the Southern Hemisphere are a little odd when it comes to tradition, so brace yourself for Christmas in July down the road.
My life is an open book. Well it has to be to blog freely like this, yet the only thing that I held very private (not necessarily for the right reasons) was the fact that I am a practicing … um … I never know whether to say Pagan, Wiccan, Goddess Girl, Free Spirited Soul … it’s all labels anyway. Whatever I am, I work with the moon and follow the earthly festivals that are correct for my hemisphere. I am stressing that because when everyone celebrates Halloween in October here I want to go nuts … it’s a Winter festival, but that’s only important to me. This year I decided to share it with my friends and let the world in to the last sacred thing that I have not shared. Well, that’s what friends do, isn’t it?
Tomorrow’s blog will be all about the festival, but traditionally I wake up and hold the energy of the day with me until I do my traditional rituals at the end of it. So I’m up, with much excitement and I’m thinking about what I want to carry with me into the next quarter of my year. All I can think about is my friends.
Family might be rocky, boys might break my heart, money might be hiding and health might be temporarily fragile … but my friends are incredibly solid. My friends are magical. I am one of the luckiest women but I might just think that it’s natural to be so blessed with friends.
Then I walked into Twinkletoes’ house yesterday for what I thought would be a simple breakfast with a friend or two. Only Twinkletoes would have put on a lavish spread the way he did. I can’t remember when last I was so flattered by an act of kindness straight from the heart. Once again, in mid mouthful of an elaborately scrumptious breakfast, I had to remind myself that this is special and not always just what friends do. Thank you Twinkletoes for being beyond a precious friends.
Then there are the other precious friends, like Irvie, who I truly do adore after I’ve calmed myself down and adjusted to his personality. I think I spend my life reflecting back and then saying a little ‘sorry’ to my wildly passionate friend. For me, this is totally natural too … to be able to tell a friend off then make it all better and then tell them off a few weeks (ok days) later. That’s what friends do, isn’t it? No secrets. No telling someone else that your friend drove you a little nuts by misunderstanding your personality or by doing something straight from the heart. I do love and adore you for every little crazy thing you do Irvie. Thank you for thinking me worthy and sharing me with the world … us Librans can be a little over protective of our hearts at times.
Then there are the rest of my amazingly precious friends who so openly wanted to share tonight’s festivities with me. No one rolled an eye or said WTF when I sent out an invite for an unusual evening. No matter if their religious or spiritual views differ, everyone is gather to share something so precious to me. I can’t say that’s what friends do because it’s not something I have done before.
Yesterday my friend Nikki, who I have never met, never spoken to and never hugged, posted a little video of the snow falling. I don’t think I even noticed the snow because I clung to hearing her voice … I can’t believe I bumped into her blog somewhere down the line and now we have a bond that outshines times and space.
Robbie wasn’t a work yesterday and all we do is say ‘Hi’ on Facebook or send cheeky comments to each other’s Twitter … yet my day was totally incomplete.
All these unusual moments are the gift I have given myself in friendship and not necessarily what friends just do. It has been a huge ‘project me’ realisation to get that I created these friendship and just how different they might actually be
It fascinates me, that at a time of such reflection, just how chaotic my life is and yet I feel the stability of friends helping me hold it all together. Now that’s what friends do …
With courage, consciousness & a sense of humour
Published January 24th, 2011
Times are trying, I’m not gonna kid myself or paint a pretty picture. Not even kitty is a bundle of joy now that she’s turned into Jack the ripper and keeps jumping onto the parrot’s cage. There’s proof that we will always be who we intrinsically are. Kitty might be a bundle of cute and cuddly fur but she’s a hunter at the end of the day.
I’m a surviver and a glass half full girl, but it doesn’t make some days any easier.
Both days I shopped till I nearly dropped and for a body that hasn’t moved many muscles in over 6 months you had better believe that it was major exercise. This morning I have a different kind of ache with muscles and nerves letting me know just how much I pushed myself. I was determined to! I got everything I need for the wedding … including the bra.
At the same time I decided to finally buy the scale that my dedicated SlimLab sponsor, Niel, has been asking me to get. I’ve adjusted to the fact that weight is just a scientific number and I need to see if the science of my formulas is working.
I also finally bought myself something totally cute. I can’t tell you though because it’s for next Wednesday Lammas ceremony with my friends and I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but there will be pics, I promise!
Dashing around the shops and knowing that I have a little money to do with what I please had me drooling for a compilation Country music CD. Yes, I’m still in the arch ages of CD and don’t have the bandwidth to download music yet. All my friends are doing it and I’m about to jump on the bandwagon when we move and I can get some uncapped bandwidth … welcome to South Africa.
With gym coming back into my schedule and the fact that music is vital for my peace of mind and sanity, all I wanted was a little bit of a few of my favourites. I can’t afford to be buying each of my favourites JUST YET so maybe just a CD that had a handful of great artists with fantastic songs from last year would have been ideal. A little Keith Urban, Rascall Flatts, Kenny Chesney and a dash of Martina McBrida, Sugarland and not forgetting some Tim McGraw. Not in this town … sorry for me!
I get my Country fix from a satellite music channel so I can’t choose what I want to hear. I am a fan of all my faves on my Facebook so I get messages like “Martina just released her new album” and I know I might hear a song or two in about a year or two. It’s frustrating enough but to be guided to half a row of Country compilations and to have Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash staring back at me is just vomit! I think the last time they imported a compilation was 1982! When I asked for anything more recent the dude actually looked at me as though I had fallen off a bucking horse, legs in the air.
It’s Monday … not the best one, but I’m doing everything in my power to pull it together and be productive. I think I’m gonna walk into Greggie’s house and burst out crying but then it’s sort myself out for a big meeting with my super sponsor, Bruce Young. I have changed on the blog to make and little tweaks hear and there. I need to be focused and it would be so much easier if I had a little Country on my Ipod! The most frustrating thing is that what is so simple for the rest of the world is so tedious in mine!
Oh, while I’m complaining (which I hardly ever do … lol) Youtube is not blocking videos too, so it’s dwindling more than you will ever know.
This one’s still around for me … Number 1 at the moment, Kenny Chesney Somewhere with you!
With courage, consciousness & a sense of humour
Published January 20th, 2011
Today’s post was supposed to be entitled Laugh, cry, sigh, ice cream! I have been anticipating blogging all day and have so much to share with you about yesterday but it’s another day in South Africa.
If you are anywhere else in the world that might need a little explaining. The weather is perfect and I am sitting in the gorgeous apartment of my dearest friend, Twinkletoes.
The African kicker though is that my electricity at home went off just after 10pm last night. The not having electricity part is pretty normal, but for it to be off for so many hours is now just pathetic (oooh, I think I just ranted for the first time on my blog!) So mom and I were rescued by Twinkletoes who fetches us and plugged everything in at his quaint apartment. Blackberry’s and laptops are all charging … hallelujah!! Unless something very exciting happens in the short few hours left of the day I might not have much to blog about tomorrow because no electricity and offline for hours doesn’t generate much news.
Yesterday was a different story though. It was jam packed with emotion, events and project me moments. Now that the builders have moved onto the property the wake up call is the sound of banging, crashing and workmen shouting instructions to each other. Now I’m up earlier, but with all the exciting plans I don’t seem to be minding all that much. Once I’ve finished blogging in the morning I find I have time for a whole lot of other ideas to flow and am getting more comfortable with the routine that doesn’t have to revolve around the blog. I can’t believe how much of a role the blog is now playing in the business and it’s been an incredible exercise to prepare press packs, work so closely with my stats and brainstorm ideas to turn the blog into a stable income for the business. Yesterday will filled with a new concept that we are working on and I can’t wait for the big reveal. It’s just a little difficult to hold onto that excitement when the home that my father built for us is being torn down around me. All my boxes that have been in storage don’t have space there anymore and now I see them being left hanging around the entrance, shoved into cupboards and piled up on the outside patio! Talks of how, where and when of the move are also weighing on me and I keep on having to drag my mind back to the excitement and enthusiasm of the day. That’s why I Tweeted and Facebooked that no matter what the priorities of the day where, ice cream was the order of the day.
Twinkletoes came to the rescue again and we threw together an impromptu dinner where the food was just a sideline for the big ice cream finale. I always say that ice cream can solve the world’s problems and my theory was pretty much proved right last night. I don’t hold many elements of shame still, thanks to all the ‘project me’ work I have done one myself. However, living with my mom is something I seem to still battle with.
Because of this I haven’t had many friends over in the year and a half I have been home and then created chaos by stressing that I don’t want to move with my mother in the next few months. I don’t have any private space and this isn’t great for a single 30-something year old girl with needs and a sponsor who owns an adult store. My friends are very open and we always end up getting completely inappropriate when we get together. No, we don’t strip down naked in front of each other, but we do share stories about who we stripped down naked in front of.
When I live alone my home is very open and I have lost a lot of that since moving back to my mom (for all the right reasons!) Last night everything changed though … there Twinkletoes, Greggie, my mom and I had dinner together. I gave myself a pep talk in the morning and decided to get over my crap and ask them for dinner. I didn’t invite my brother or sister to the table even though they live there and I battled with that too. Yet, we ended up having one of the best nights I have had in years. There was nothing my friends couldn’t say in front of my mom and the whole time I was wondering why I shouldn’t have done this years ago? That settled my mind instantly and I feel chilled that I will be able to move with my mom. We are more like friends now and there is no part of me that is disrespectful, so what the hell have I been carrying on about?
If you’ve been following my blog you will also know that it’s not like I choose to share my space with fleeting shags either. I realised something else last night. While the candles were lit, the dinner was prefect and the ice cream was served fit for a king, I repeated the thing that I always say: “Whoever gets me will be very lucky!” For the first time I understood what I was saying. I wasn’t asking myself where this person in my life is. I was stating that he’s out there and wondering why I just haven’t let him in yet? No pressure of course … but maybe it’s time to think about just how powerful I am!
With courage, consciousness & a sense of humour
Published December 24th, 2010
I have just finished a phone conversation with my best friend whose final word of advice for me was “stay away from coffee tables!” That seems like an odd statement but another thing that my best friend said to made me realise that I might just have the perfect Christmas gift for you. You see, I’m supposed to be having a really crappy day for a whole lot of reasons, yet when I share my drama with Greggie he is folder over with fits of laugher. Continue reading
Published December 15th, 2010
The traditional maypole of Pagan descent.
I’ve done a little bit too much sitting at the computer today but the temptation was too much to resist. Firstly, I know that we are heading to silly season and less people are going to be online and opting to read blogs over drinking eggnog and eating turkey. Secondly, everyone is going on holiday and won’t be online to talk to as much. Considering that I have done my seaside holiday and I don’t get a holiday away from a commitment to daily blogging. I decided to indulge in both blogging and chatting today.
Granted, I did have to take an anti-inflammatory for the first time in nearly a month, but I’m also coughing like a … um, what do you cough like? Continue reading
Published October 19th, 2010Today was the second session of body stress release therapy and I woke up with three burning concerns. Insomnia, midnight starvation and where is the leaking spinal fluid now?
In my world those were my only concerns when I woke up. My most natural anticipation was making it through a day without a pain pill or being able to sit for a period of time without eventually having to deal with an increasingly painful nerve being pinched in my spine and traveling all the way down to my toes. Continue reading
Published August 4th, 2010As personal as ‘project me’ is, I’ve jumped on my little soap box often enough and waved my patriotic South African flag. I waved it when people were annoyed at the Springboks and I waved it again despite not having the most fabulous world cup experience and maybe a little too proudly defended my country when everyone was saying the vuvuzelas where annoying.
In my aspirations to be a writer and blogger, it can be an extremely tough journey. Continue reading
Published August 3rd, 2010
Picture the scene. I’m sitting at my desk with my cellphone on loudspeaker while I wait for someone at customer services to pick up the phone and, well, serve me. I’m sure it’s been over 20 minutes already and I can’t exactly put down the phone considering my query has been going on for 6 months. Yes, you heard right .. 6 months to sort out the change of banking details from my old business bank account to my new one.
I’m not the best at admin and usually forget that I’m the customer and should be receiving service. I also battle with tedious tasks and most certain don’t cope well with incompetency. Continue reading
