First Day: Weekend Coffee Share… hello and welcome to this week’s coffee! Grab whatever beverage you want and let’s get started.

What is “First Day”?

The “first day” refers to the first day of work or the first day of school. The 2 often coincide here in ZA when most parents return to work on the day their kids start their school year. That was this past week.

It was also the first working day of the year for me as well. It was a slow week full of planning and getting re-orientated once again to a new routine. Chè also returned to work and our mornings became different. Morning coffees have become rushed, and my first meeting of the day is at 8:30, daily.

The Weather

I still made time for reading and journalling. The weather has been warm and humid and rainy. The rain is good as it’s filling the dams again. The Vaal Dam that serves the greater Johannesburg area was down to 24% full, and now it’s at about 57% full. South Africa is a water scarce country so we tend to track these things closely.

The ground is damp and the grass is green and growing a lot. The greens are many and diverse and it’s a very beautiful time of the year.

This Week

I’m running 2 training workshops this coming week. I’m looking forward to this again, it’s something that I greatly enjoy doing.

The year has started!

Well, that’s it for today. I hope that you have a wonderful week ahead.

Cheers,

Regina

This post is part of Natalie the Explorer’s Weekend Coffee Share challenge. Click here to see more coffee shares. They’re always such fun!

Read my last week’s coffee share post, here.

Ponder or think? Welcome to this week’s Weekend Coffee Share, although it’s not an official one because Natalie is away this week. I thought I’d do one anyway as a weekly ritual that gets me out of my head.

So come on in a grab some coffee or other hot or cold beverage!

The past 4 weeks of holidays have been like: what day is it? Is it Wednesday or Sunday? How long ago was Christmas…? Oh gosh, look at the time, is it time for dinner yet (while opening the fridge for the 100th time that day).

I’m sure you’re getting the general idea.

How wonderful it is! I spend the whole year very cognisant of time that it’s incredibly freeing to not have time as an organising constant for a bit.

And be chaotic for a bit too!

This week was more reading. And relaxing.

And following the LA fires which is not relaxing at all. How tragic they are – people being on alert to evacuate, deciding what to take and what to leave, seeing pets left behind (this is so heartbreaking). I follow mostly on Instagram as I follow many people in that area and it’s heartening to see communities and volunteers come together to help. People sharing help resources. Firefighters from all over the country helping, even from other countries, Mexico and Canada. The planes catching water in the bay to drop on the fire. These are some of the images I’ve seen and that are playing in my mind at the moment.

Substack

I created a Substack and I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. I got a bit of FOMO since many people are on it, so I decided to create one. So it’s there.

I have this site which is very general; it has no niche. When one is a generalist it becomes not so easy to decide on what to specialise in. Something to ponder on.

Ponder or think?

What an interesting word “ponder” is. According to the Oxford English Dictionary is occurs about 5 times per 1 million words.  Earliest known use is in the Middle English period (1150-1500), quite an old fashioned word and still in use today albeit rarely compared to the word “think” which occurs 600 times per 1 million words. It’s even older than “ponder” and can be traced back to the Old English period (pre-1150).

Even though “think” is older than “ponder” it sounds more modern and not so formal, don’t you think? Or is it ponder?

This coffee share has turned out to be more stream of consciousness than coffee share. I think/ponder I’ll end off here. I hope you’ve enjoyed the coffee at least.

Until next time.

Indulge in last week’s coffee share – Weekend Coffee Share: The December Edition 2024 Style.