Fifth Anniversary!

Simply Shanah made five years! Wow!
I remember my very first post and the day I decided to put some of my life’s experiences on an open platform like it was yesterday. So many memories both good and bad, so many tear filled (but you wouldn’t know that), angry and depressive posts like life’s endless storms.

I chanced upon the above quote several months back and it made me re-think the purpose of Simply Shanah. It made me want to give it an overhaul, a different purpose and entirely a new focus. But that would have entailed losing a lot of who I am in black and white. The experiences I have been through that are just snippets on my journals and the little odd bits that I keep sharing. It is a true depiction of my life – all over the place and I wouldn’t change any of it anytime soon.
If I had gone through with the revamp, I wouldn’t be able to look back and gauge how much I have grown as a person in thought and writing. I also wouldn’t have concrete reminders of some of the painful situations in my life and how I overcame them. I mean; there is a period where there were hardly any depressed posts, well until recently of course. This is something because I am that girl… perpetually on the brink of depression and fortunately I have learnt how to deal with it more successfully than yesteryear.
Five years of Simply Shanah! If the feedback from friends and the readers is anything to go by; I have grown in my writing and the readership is amazing at this point. It takes a lot of energy to string together two words to form a coherent thought for a blog post and I admire those who do so on a regular basis unlike I. I barely have the time anymore and because of it my other baby is performing dismally.
Right now, at this moment in time, I am trying to get back to the basics and do what needs to be done especially for the things I care about most: this, my art and other baby not forgetting my French. Something was taking up too much of my time and it wasn’t in anyway constructive at all. In fact, I let myself be caught up in it and ended up losing the person I was before it. I am wholeheartedly trying to get back to that person because that girl knew who she was.
On that note; Happy happy anniversary to my first baby Simply Shanah!!! :) Thank you for reading and sharing the odd posts now and then.

We Don't Always Get What We Wish For... 08/11/2014

I wish he'd let me forget him.

I wish I'd had 6months to a year to get over him and the feelings he arouses in me.

I wish he'd never reached out at a point where his name was becoming a distant memory.

I wish I never felt this way about him knowing it cannot be.

I wish I didn't have to deal with the thought of 'us' again when I'd just buried it.

I wish my heart didn't ache with thoughts of him.

I wish I had the strength to cut him out of my life once and for all.

And most of all; I wish he wasn't who is.

It'd make the loss of him much easier.

But we don't always get what we wish for.

 Xx Shanah.

I have this habit of making little notes on my phone 50% of the time because it is always at hand and this is one of them. The downside of writing on the phone is the lack of time to make necessary transfers. I get to it a little later than I should. The notes are either deleted or sequestered away on email but often deleted during general clean up sessions at the end of the year when the feelings/mood that inspired them is nonexistent.

Frightful Nights!

Aside from the times where I fall really sick and feel as if at death’s door, I have had quite the couple of frightful nights that have to do with a burglar or two.
In my room, there are two large windows I leave open whenever going to bed at night. I leave a partition of both windows open due to the unbearable heat we’re experiencing of late. I never draw the other half of the curtains too just the net and that’s it. So, there I was in the wee hours of 1/03/2014 turning around in my mosquito netted bed with the thought to close the windows because it had turned quite chilly. On turning, who do I notice AGAIN not only peeping into my room but actually pulling the window netting aside to take a hard look? A Burglar!
You won’t believe how I actually sat up in bed and asked the guy to get the hell away if he knew what’s good for him. Despite this dose of bravado, I was really frightened to the extent of being cold all over with a seriously pounding heart. I gave myself a few moments to calm down, crept slowly out of bed, drew the curtains – without closing the windows then proceeded to go to my parents’ room and wake my dad up. I’m so glad he is a light sleeper because he didn’t waste anytime and went straight for his firearm.
As I was busy telling them what had happened, my mum kept talking in this really loud volume yet me and dad were whispering. I kept thinking, ‘what the hell is wrong with her?’ When my dad left to patrol the house, I decided to leave mum by herself. I couldn’t understand what she was on with the loud talk.
After my dad’s patrol of the entire house, I asked him to come into my room and stand by while I closed the windows because I was quite frightened. He was of the notion that it’s OK to leave them open and the burglar probably wanted to take his car apart and had left, but after the scare I had? I wasn’t having none of that! All this happened around 3am!
The first time this happened, my windows were open then too and that time, I only gave a scream from my bed and the parents came running.
Our neighbors surprise me sometimes. They know my dad is armed and dangerous yet there is still someone out there who loves to take the risk? Granted, the fence on the side of my room is a little lower which is temptation but, for what? Why are you risking your life for a few measly things? I say neighbors because burglars never come from far. It is always someone from the neighborhood never from afar.
I should really stop the habit of leaving the windows open when going to bed too. What if the burglar shoots me dead and proceeds to go about his business the next time? God forbid!!!!

The Car boot Experience.

I had the opportunity to go check out the so called ‘car boot sales’ that happen on a regular basis abroad after so much convincing. I hardly make plans over the weekend and I abhor impromptu, drop of the hat plans. I need to mentally prepare for anything I have planned and impromptu stuff leaves me in a confused state of mind which automatically happened.

Those who know me well can tell when I am absolutely confused. I change clothes more than thrice and the rest of the day ends up as such. On this particular day; it was expected. I changed more than thrice, hardly had any money on me to spend frivolously and on top of that, I kept thinking of the novel I had been in the middle of. With a lot of convincing and coercion, I gave in to my aunt’s pleas and escorted her to the car boot sale.
Naturally, I was fascinated. The concept is people sale stuff out of the boots of the cars at relatively cheap prices. The main issue here is; it is supposed to be used stuff or something you own and don't want anymore like old novels etc. Apparently that is how it is supposed to be but with Africans, something of this sort has to work in their favor.

The number of cars parked at the venue was promising unlike the prices and some of the merchandise. The merchants brought stuff from their boutiques, shops, stalls and sold at the usual price they normally sale at in their line of work. Those who understood the concept and I guess well travelled sold at pocket friendly prices whilst others hiked the prices. What I found amusing was that most of the merchants were iPhone, iPad and Tablet holders. Naturally, you are bound to wonder whether you can afford the price of the product being sold by someone of that calibre.
As we looked around making inquiries here and there with my aunt, I regretted being unprepared. I’d spotted a lot of jewellery I wanted yet I had no money on me. Thankfully, my aunt gave me a bit to spend and thus, I purchased these earrings as a memento. And with that, the little excitement over my first car boot sale experience wore off as the day dragged on.

I let my aunt wander around as I went to find a place to sit, relax and people watch. She found me after a long while and coerced me into buying a notebook and a card holder with the money I had left. Overall, it was OK. I guess as the years go on and people get to know what car boot sales are all about, it will catch on and prices will be what they are expected to be- LOW!