Waitressing is Boring

There's nothing quite like waitressing to remind me of how much I dislike waitressing. This is actually something that is very easy for me to forget.

Me at work! Very happy, because
I was serving my Grammy. :)

Short term, I enjoy being a waitress. I like people, I like making people happy. I learn new things about interacting with people every day, and I often do my job so well that I can change the course of somebody's day, simply by making their dining experience entertaining. This is great! But like I said... I enjoy it in the short term. Doing it for almost a year gets incredibly boring. 

Unfortunately (and fortunately), waitressing at Pomodoro, I make a fair amount of money. Working four shifts a week, I earn enough to pay the rent, my car insurance and my retirement fund at the end of every month. I can afford a few big shopping trips for groceries, petrol to pump into my car, and enough gas and electricity to meet all of our needs. There's even extra money every month for coffee at the Hoekwil Cafe, breakfast at Skotteljons a few times, and take-away pizza once or twice a month. Living expenses are not something that I need to worry about, because I know that I'll earn more than enough. 

Why is this unfortunate? Because all of this earning money results in stagnation. Every office job that gets advertised pays less and expects more. I don't want to work every day of the week! I like only working four days, and never having to take my work home with me. So, instead of making a plan to earn money by doing something more rewarding, instead of leaving my soul-crushingly boring job, I just keep on doing the same thing, week after week.

I'm writing this now, because I've finally made a decision to do something about it, and to make a change. That change involves writing every day to keep in practice - something that this blog helps with very much. It involves working on my children's poems faithfully, so that I can publish them soon and start selling my creative work. And it involves finding writing work, which may not be as fulfilling as bringing my own ideas to life, but will still feel much better than waitressing. 

So to tie up this post, I'll end with my goal for the end of this year: to be working two shifts a week, and earning the rest of my money through book sales and freelance writing. 

A Quick, Slightly Boring Update

Francois and I were planning to do a proper cycling trail in Saasveld yesterday, but we decided against it for now. I'm still not able to stand and cycle at the same time, and that would make the extra-bumpy trail particularly painful to experience.

Cycling along the driveway, just so Francois can take
a picture of me... Proof that I really can ride my bike!

Instead, we went for a ride around Wilderness. It was really relaxed, and gave me the opportunity to learn how to start cycling from a standing position (as opposed to starting with my bum on the seat). I enjoyed navigating the sidewalks, dodging people and dogs, trying not to scratch parked cars and narrowly missing various poles (most of the time).

Me again! Still in the driveway. But cycling!

Well... I enjoyed it after the initial extreme nervousness, anyway.

Unfortunately, after the cycle, I was so kaput that I couldn't bring myself to write anything for my blog. So I skipped a day. :(



What I did do was make really yummy pumpkin and spinach soup. We bought a HUGE crown pumpkin for R30 from Fruit and Veg City, which Francois massacred artfully using his manly muscles. I wouldn't have been able to tackle that pumpkin... It was ridiculously hard. So we had fresh pumpkin (I used less than a quarter of it), and spinach that I bought for R15 from the local veggie-selling hippie in Wilderness (which I used about a third of). Woo! Cheap, ridiculously tasty soup!

It looks weird because spinach makes things
look weird. But I promise it's delicious!

I'm going to roast the seeds that were scooped out of the pumpkin to make a crunchy snack. I might post a picture of them here when I do... But that may not happen, for two reasons:

1: If I fail miserably and burn them or something, I won't post a picture out of sheer embarrassment and depression. (I'm kidding. I probably will, because it'll be funny.)

2: If they're amazingly delicious, we'll probably eat them all before I can grab my camera. (I'm not kidding about this one.)

Okay, I think I'm done with this post. Hopefully I'll think of something more interesting to write about tomorrow... Any brilliant topic ideas are always welcome, by the way. :P