I love the Sound of Deadlines as They Go Swooshing By

Bloganuary day 27

Today’s prompt: what are the pro’s and cons of procrastination

Well…as the queen of procrastination, I am certainly qualified to answer that question I think 🙈😂. Let’s start with the pros.

One of the main pros is that my house is never cleaner than when I find myself procrastinating about studying or writing a report in particular. While I am busy cleaning, my brain also gets a chance to think through some things especially if a report is due. Another pro is that I might find that if I leave some tasks for long enough, when I am eventually ready to start, the task is no longer required because circumstances have changed.

A key con is that I stress yourself out about a pending deadline but I continue to procrastinate anyway until the last second. It’s like I am paralysed and can only be released just before the deadline. I don‘t do my best work because everything is now done in a hurry. Procrastination is often just a form of self-sabotage. Well for me anyway. I do it when I am super nervous about how something will turn out.

Do you have any pros or cons to add? That’s it from me. Bye for now.

Parlez-Vous Français?

Bloganuary Day 26

Today’s prompt: What language do you wish you could speak?

Do I have to choose just one? There are actually quite a few that I wish I could speak. South Africa has 11 official languages and I am only fluent in one. 🤯🫣 I have a basic appreciation for Afrikaans and I can greet in Zulu and Sotho. I love Sotho though and would love to learn it. To my ear it can be quite lyrical and I love the way the Sotho’s roll their R’s. I do need to learn Zulu as it will help me understand a large portion of our consumers.

There are 5 other languages that I would love to learn.

Languages that would serve me well in the rest of Africa are French, Portuguese, Arabic and Swahili. I have always wanted to learn French so I have finally started on Duolingo this month. It’s starting to get more difficult but I am up for the challenge. I love the romantic nature of it. I also love Arabic. It’s also quite a lyrical language, well to my ear anyway, so I enjoy listening to people speak it. The Arabs also strike me as very passionate people and I can hear it their language. I loved interacting with Egyptians in particular. They have such awesome energy and are very down to earth.

Spanish is the other language that I would love to learn. Spanish speakers are so expressive and they seem to speak with the bodies as well when they are passionate about something or angry. I watched the first 10 minutes of Money Heist dubbed in English and then I had to switch to Spanish with subtitles. English just doesn’t work with their body language and facial expressions.

Well that’s it from me. Au revoir!

Still I rise – Maya Angelou

Bloganuary Day 25

Today’s Prompt: What is a song or poem that speaks to you and why?

I love the sassiness of Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise”. Whenever I read it, I read it in her voice simply because I love the way she recited it. It speaks to me on so many levels. I have been bullied. I have cried my heart out because I had not been invited to events by friends to protect the ego of another who was insecure about me. I have been looked down upon because I am a single mum and because I am not rich. Then of course there is the fact that I am a female and a person of colour working in the corporate world in a country where I am not black enough for some and of course, not white enough for others.

When I read this poem, I am reminded that despite all this, I still rise. I am able to stand on my own two feet and create a home for my son as a start. I know I do not do it alone. God has my back and surrounds me with the most amazing people to keep me rising and it is because I have realised this, I can now walk confidently through life. 

Still I Rise
BY MAYA ANGELOU

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Maya Angelou, 
"Still I Rise" from And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems.