Some High School Memories

I've recently been in touch with an old friend from high school who I haven't been in touch with for ages. The night after I chatted with her, I had the most vivid dream of being back at high school. 

It was early morning and time for Chapel - the only problem was that I didn't have my school uniform! Luckily I had my car and keys to my car on me and since I lived literally 5 minutes from school, I figured no prob, I could zip home, put on my uniform and still be back in time for Chapel. 

When I woke up that feeling of being back at school and ready for Chapel lingered with me for ages and it got me thinking to some of my high school memories, so I figured I would share some of them with you:

• 5am swimming training where we would all pitch, bleary-eyed and dive into a cool pool. Walking back up to the house after training with our slops squeeking the whole walk back.
  
• Sitting on a blanket on Front Lawn with a few friends during rest, just chilling, chatting, reading, drawing.
  
• Lining up for Chapel on cold Winter mornings when the bell went, bundled up in our tracksuits, various coloured house ties peeking through our scarves and breathing out clouds of white "mist" that would fog up my glasses.
  
• Finding my friend, Alice, who had the warmest hands and standing there with my cold hands between hers, warming them up.
  
• Walking arm-in-arm to lunch, chattering away with a friend or two, hoping that lunch would be yummy.
  
• Monday morning art practical sessions, where everyone would share what happened on their weekends - exciting stories and plans already forming for the next weekend out.
  
• Being busy from the moment you open your eyes until the moment you go to bed.
  
• Friends taking "runs" in the vlei. Which meant they were actually coming to visit me and be in a home. We would sit on the veranda, drink some tea or coffee and eat some yummy home-made treats. Sometimes, we would have an early supper and then sneak people back in time for prep.
  
• The interhouse activities: swimming, athletics, drama, music, public speaking...
  
• Sports events in the afternoons and over weekends with our busses often stopping off at the Mc Donalds for us to get some sort of treat, before heading back to school.
  
• Giggling during maths lessons - trying to understand what everyone else was talking about. It was probably one of my least favourite subjects, which is ironic considering my career choice!
  
• Debates during english that got heated but were always interesting.
  
• Learning about different cultures and lines of thought during our art history lessons and our art teacher encouraging us to always draw our weekly sketches from real life objects, not photographs, so that we would learn how to read and interpret form from 3 dimensions in to 2 dimensions.
  
• Drawing a leaf for every single first biology lesson of the year from grade 8 to matric and the big purple book that we used in grade 11 and matric.
  
• Chats with our afrikaans teachers where we discussed a lot more than afrikaans. Those dreaded afrikaans orals.
  
• Science lessons where we our teacher taught us that a good way to learn was to listen, read his notes from the blackboard and then copy them into our own notebooks so that by the time we came to learn for tests, we had read the information at least 3 times before that. And experiments.
  
• One-on-one Comp Sci lessons (I was the only girl to take the subject for matric) where I would finish off my work quickly and then spend the rest of the time chatting with my Comp Sci teacher about other interesting technology or whatever happened to be of interest that day.

My friend, Alice, and I at some fun school event :)

Goko and Family

Some of the family at Goko's 85th Birthday Celebration in 2007 (I think there's only about half of us here!)

We celebrated the life of my gran, Goko, last weekend after she passed away on the last day of November. I was amazed and touched by how many people were at her funeral. All of her children were there. Her two nieces and nephew were there. All of her grandchildren in South Africa were there, along with their spouses, partners and great-grandchildren. All of the family living overseas were remembered and sent through wishes on the day of the funeral.

At the funeral I spoke a bit about Goks - my sweaty eyes may have got the best of me, but here's what I said for those who may have missed it the first time and family who live far away.

As a tiny tot I remember going to visit Celeni; playing witchy-witchy with my cousins
using the extra-long hose-pipes that Goks used to keep her garden looking beautiful.
I remember walking through the garden with Goks, pulling up carrots and searching for
poppers, then sitting down for tea and crumpets.
When she moved to Golden Pond we would go for walks around the pond, searching

for ducks eggs and fishing for tadpoles. 

When I was in high-school, about Grade 9, Goks came to collect me from school one

day. She zoomed up to the front stairs in her little blue bakkie to collect me. As soon
as I had dumped all my paraphernalia in the back and got into the bakkie, Goks attempted

to zoom away again. However, instead zooming away from the stairs, we found ourselves 

zooming up them instead! The little blue bakkie got lodged half-way up the stairs, with

wheels spinning in mid-air and unable to move. Luckily a bus-load of girls had just pulled

up seconds after we got lodged on the stairs and in a combined effort a bunch of 

us managed to heave the little blue bakkie back onto solid ground. Goks thanked the 

girls for lending a hand and then we zoomed off, with not a hint of embarrasment.

Goks approached and overcame life's challenges like we overcame our encounter

with my school stairs - head first, quick to make a plan and once the problem

was solved, it was forgotten and life as normal carried on.
She didn't suffer fools and I was told on a few occasions to "stop being such a galoot" 

when I was being particularly foolish. She is also the only person I know that called

armpits, "quaps" - I hope that this has rubbed off on some of my family members.

Goko was an incredible grandmother and all of us knew that she would be there for

any important events in any of her grandchildren's lives - from birthdays to weddings

to school grandparents days, we knew Goks would be there. I think the fact that so many of her grandchildren have travelled huge distances to be here today is testament to the love

that each of us received from her.

In her last few years with us Goks lost a lot of the energy and spark that

characterised her and I think the whole family felt this. Goko's death is the end of an era

for our family, however she will live on in our hearts. In mine she will forever be a 

spritely, energetic, no-nonsense, rusk baking, white-haired grandmother

who helped to shape my life as well as the lives of all my cousins, leaving a legacy

that is up to us to continue. 

After the service we all gathered at Anna, my late great-aunt's house to celebrate a special gran, honour her memory and enjoy special family time together in a style that Goks would have been so proud of. That gathering was just like every other family gathering - kids were running around, playing up a storm and exploring the beautiful fairy-tale garden. The grown-ups were chatting up a storm, catching up on family news and enjoying each others company. The only difference between this event and my family memories is that this time I was one of the grown-ups whereas in the past I was usually one of the kids. Whether the past or present, the one constant was the feeling of family and belonging to a group of people who will be there for the milestones in one's life. I hope that as time goes on we can continue and pass down that strong family bond to the generations coming through.

Goko and Anna had such a strong sense of family that my dad's cousins are like aunts and uncles to us and their kids are like cousins to us. I feel so lucky that my family really do enjoy spending time together. We all have our differences and we don't see each other all that often any more, but when we get together we have such fun and share stories that keep us laughing for hours. 

We were taught by Goko and Anna the importance of presence. For important family event Goks and Anna were there. Birthdays, Christmas, Easter, weddings, births, christenings and other events were all occasions to celebrate and come together as a family. That presence allowed us to build our relationships and is the reason that at the time of her funeral, so many of us made an effort to be there. 

I think that many of us began to miss Goks even before she passed away. In her last few years she slowly morphed into someone who battled to recognise family members and spent most of her time sleeping in bed. Her death was a blessed release and now allows us remember her as she is in our memories - a lively old lady and beloved mother, grandmother, aunt and friend.

At Goko's 90th Birthday in 2012 - surrounded by family and friends

The Time We Lived In A Snow Globe Town (Part 2)

Jobs

So, the main reason for our trip to Vail was to work, ski and earn some money so that we could travel the States for a month before coming back to South Africa.

I worked two jobs while I was there. The first was my "full time" job - I worked at the Spa as a receptionist and Kids For All Seasons (KFAS) attendant. I also got a second job at the local cinema, called the CineBistro, after I injured myself on the mountain and had nothing better to do.

More Four Seasons Bears
The Spa was down the stairs on the left, past the swimming pool and through the glass doors on the other side.

At The Four Seasons, when there were no kids to look after I answered the phones

"Thank you for calling the Spa at Four Seasons. This is Cath speaking, how may I help you?" 

was the constant greeting I gave to anyone calling the Spa.

We aimed to answer the phone within 3 rings which is a lot more

difficult than it looks when you've got people standing in front of you wanting to 

check in for appointments, others tying to check out and pay their bills, 

someone wanting to know whether they should buy x or y item from the store

and 2 or 3 different phone lines ringing! 

Don't ever underestimate the power that a receptionist holds to juggle

multiple tasks, all the while keeping a smile on their face.

took bookings, called people to remind them of their appointments, wrote reminder cards for guests at the hotel, gave tours of the ladies locker room and assisted anyone who was interested in buying something from the Spa Shop. I also sometimes had to cover or uncover the loungers by the swimming pool. When it's snowing outside and each lounger cover in literally an ice block itself, it wasn't an easy task! 

When there were kids for me to look after, I got to spend my time painting, playing wii, drawing cartoon characters for kids to colour in, reading books, watching Disney movies or the Disney channel and basically doing cool kids stuff. Sometimes the kids were demanding but most of the time they were lovely. It was awesome being able to be like a kid again.

There were some kids who were very demanding. One insisted we play the same game over and over again - for FIVE hours straight. Then she came back the next day to do the same thing! Another one got very sulky whenever she lost a game on the wii. But most of the kids were good fun and only there for a few hours at a time.

Me and some of the KFAS/Front Desk girls, one of our therapists and
some of the girls boyfriends. All proud Four Seasons employees!

I worked with an amazing team of 2 spa managers, a lot of therapists, a hairdresser, front desk ladies, KFAS attendants and locker room attendants. Everyone else was American, other than myself and some of the locker room attendants, who were South American. 

Everyone at the Spa was very interested in South Africa and what it was like. I was able to show them some pictures of my life and hopefully one day, one or two of them will come to visit me in South Africa! There was one therapist who had been to South Africa and we chatted a lot about the wines that we had to offer, it was awesome to meet an American who knew South African wines and wine farms!

My other place of work - the CineBistro was the most awesome movie theatre I have ever been to! You'll read more about it in a later post. But for now, I'll leave with with the idea of "Dinner and a Movie" all in one. Frosty also got a job there which was a lot of fun as we got to see a bit more of each other.

We had some awesome managers at CineBistro as well. I was a front desk person again. This time my duties included answering the phone, recieving customers and assisting them to buy tickets, giving advice on the movies that were on show (even if I hadn't seen them!), ushering guests into the theatre and showing them their seats, making sure the entrance doors were clean and all the floors were swept and preparing the theatre before hand with menus and cutlery. Frosty mainly ran food to the guests in the theatre and cleaned the theatre afterwards to make it ready for the next guests.

This sculpture sat right in front of the CineBistro doors. Since they were
glass, I spent a good few hours looking at this sculpture. At night it lit up and used to
seamlessly morph from one colour to the next.

The perks of the job were awesome as well - free movies for you and a friend, free popcorn and soda any time you wanted and discounted meals!

I worked front desk with one old guy who worked to keep himself busy. I'll always remember his favourite reply whenever anyone asked him how he was doing, was

"I'm just peaches and cream thank you very much!"

There was a lovely Jamaican girl who I also worked with. She loved getting Frosty to come and chat to her and say "ice" because in our South African accent, it sounded just like "ass" to her ear. We laughed a lot over that. 
One of the runners was an awesome South American guy and his little son used to come and visit us quite a lot. He was the cutest little guy and all of us used to fawn over him!

The Time We Lived In A Snow Globe Town (Part 1)

Almost two years ago, I was lucky enough to live in a snow globe town for a few months. Before I go any further, I want you to image the following: a snow globe with swirling white pieces flying everywhere, glittering lights shining out of beautiful buildings and huge evergreen trees dotted around everywhere. Got a picture in your mind? Good. Now take a look at the pictures below:

Vail Town - View From One Of The Resturaunts

The heated pathway, (yes, you read right. In case you missed it the
first time HEATED PATHWAY!!!) into Vail Town. The Four Seasons
Hotel Baby Bear is on the bottom left.

It all started in 3rd year when I started saving all my tutoring money for an overseas working holiday before entering the working world. At the beginning of 4th year a friend recommended Vail and so our preparations began. I started getting in touch with friends who would be keen, researching travelling companies (we chose CCUSA) and then e-mailing companies to see if they would be willing to hire a bunch of South Africans. Myself, Frosty, Russell, Jono and Kimon were lucky enough to get hired by the Four Seasons Hotel Chain for their Vail hotel and thus, on the evening of the 16th December 2011 we found ourselves starting off life in Vail.

During one evening stroll back from a dinner quite late into the season, one of our American colleagues, Chris, mentioned that living in Vail felt like living in a snow globe - which is the perfect description for the town and way of life. His description has stuck with me vividly and I now when I think of Vail, I always remember it as a snow globe town.

Here are some reasons that living in Vail felt like living in a snow globe.

• There's no traffic allowed through the town, so to get anywhere you either walk or take one of the free Vail buses, if you need to go slightly further. 
• All the town buildings are beautifully maintained and in part of the town, the side walks are heated to allow you to walk easily from the big hotels into town itself.
• Everything is close together.
• There are amazing ice sculptures, metal sculptures and brightly lit trees everywhere you look.
• The buildings are continually covered by a blanket of snow.
• You can walk around in the middle of the night and feel completely safe.
• Vail is far from cities and so you feel slightly removed from the harsh realities of life.

Vail began as a dream for a ski resort in the late 1950s and by 1962 Vail opened for it's first skiing season. Since then, it's become a skiing mecca over the winter months and during the summer months it offers a wide variety of adventure sports and activities. I've only ever seen the wintery side of Vail, but I would love to return and see the summery side of Vail as well!

Old Girls Drinks and Nostalgia

A little while ago I went to an old girls drinks in Joburg and it was the first time since leaving school that I've been in a room packed to the brim with females since I left high school. I've been out of high school for a longer (only by a year) period of time than I was in high school. 

Wow. I had forgotten what it's like to be in an estrogen storm. High pitched squeals and chatting at speeds that would put an F1 driver to shame. I remember that guy friends from our brother schools would stare in confused bewilderment as girls from school chatted so quickly that after 5 minutes they had no idea what we were actually talking about. This time, the only man there was the current headmaster and I hope, for his sake, that he has mastered the technique of speed listening.

There were about 15 or so of the girls from my year there and it was awesome to see what everyone had achieved. Some were working, some were still studying. Some were working while studying. Girls have matured and life has happened, but underneath the more "grown up" exteriors, I could still see glimpses of the girls I went to high school with.

It made me nostalgic. For sprawling on a blanket on front lawn during rest. For afternoon sessions - swimming, hockey, judo, golf, music. My friends coming on runs through the vlei - and then bunking out popping in to my house for a cup of tea and chat on the veranda. For those winter mornings before Chapel, standing outside bundled in a scarf and padded jacket, breathing out white clouds and warming each others hands. 

Typical swimming events - cold and miserable

Hockey Team and coach

Chapel

Monday morning art sessions where, if you listened, you heard all the gossip from the previous weekend. For our start of the year "all-girls" social where 2nd formers were introduced to the school spirit and general craziness. For DMCs and sharing dreams for the future. For end of year Christmas lunch then jumping-into-the-pool-with-blue-dresses-going-mud-sliding. For keeping busy from dawn until dusk. 

Playing dress up on the last day of school

For spending all day with friends. Dressing up for any and all occasions. For house mothers. For awesome teachers who dealt with all the girly-hysteria on a daily basis and carried us though our studies. Prep sessions where old Mrs B could be heard admonishing late-comers throughout the classroom block. And later in the evening, you would hear her heels, click-clacking through the corridors making sure work was being done. Weekend adventures and Friday night SCA sessions in the green shack. 

SCA in the Green Shack

Giggling over boys and peoples latest crushes. Learning to dance for Chanel Ball. The beauty and radiance of matric ball - front lawn covered with girls in white dresses and proud parents taking pictures. 

Matric Ball

Girls and partners at pre-drinks at my house

Waitressing at older forms dances - and getting to eat any delicious left-overs. Tea-time snacks. The privilege of being able to go to "The Ville" on free afternoons during the week- and then meeting up with the guys who were there for extra Maths lessons. For the excitement of the big school-boy rugby matches where you went to watch rugby see and be seen. Participating in and observing interhouse events - drama, music, sport, art, public speaking. Interschools newspaper quiz with a winning team combination. For the feeling of possibility and for knowing no limits.

Interhouse music competition

Tea at the Ville

Some sort of fun day

At one of those infamous interschools rugby matches

Chilling on the front lawn

Visitor to the art classroom

Art class antics

Sports dinner

Last day of school