Dizzy Dee

I’ve found it rather interesting to know that there are now companies that rate your credit card. Online. Whilst you’re doing a transaction online. What basically happens is that they compare various bits of information of the person logged into the specific site, to that which is associated with the credit card, at the bank which its registered.

Basically, this would stop people from using other people’s credit cards, and they will only be allowed to use their own. If all your details are matched, you can pretty easily get a really low score (which is good). But if for instance your credit card is regsitered in the US, you registered your account for the specific online service in Bulgaria, and your IP is in Mauritius, then your credit card will be a “bad credit card“, and you it will get a really high score, which might prevent your transaction from being processed.

This is to ensure that you don’t commit fraud. Which is fair. But now, you might be using a credit card like in the above scenario without being a fraud. In that case, you’ll have to prove it though, afterwhich you will be white listed.

I never realized there was so much politics behind the scenes, but I find it really interesting though.

So if your credit card is declined somewhere online, and you’re not a fraud, feel free to contact their customer support and explain the situation. If they are confident that you’re telling the truth, they will white list your card, and you’ll be able to use it.

You know, these last few weeks of my life have probably been the most hectic ever. I don’t think I’ve ever stressed so much. I have tons of things to remember. Lists are great, but they you have remember where you put those, and what the hell it means when I wrote “serviette rings” - did I write that because I didn’t have enough, because I have to pick them up, drop them off, or WHAT? And who is suppose to help me with this mess?

I have so many people who offer to help, and I really wish they could, but sorting out the mess in my head is something only I can do. I need to sit down and make a plan … think of things bit by bit, analyze it, and then get a plan to get everything done. Thing is, I don’t have time? I have 8 days left, I know, but I work 8 hours a day, and I spend another hour and a half traveling each day (if I’m lucky). When I get home I have to cook and clean, and organize everything in the new home which I haven’t already organized, and then I’m so exhausted that I need to sleep else I won’t be able to get up the next morning at 5am.

You may have noticed that my sentences are extremely long and don’t have much punctuation marks in them but that is exactly how I feel - like I just can’t get a break - like I just have to keep going without being able to stop and take a breath, and wait till I feel like I can carry on.

I need to plan a handover at work for the time that I’ll be out of the office for the honeymoon, and right now, I don’t have time for that either, I just have too much work to do as it is, and I feel like I can’t keep my head above water.

I just can’t wait until its the big day, and I can relax and enjoy everything. I just can’t wait anymore.

I should’ve taken more leave for next week, instead of just taking Friday off, and I will still see if I can get something like that, but I bet it won’t be easy, since I still have so much to do at work.

I hope you all are not getting bored yet You might ask why I keep blogging if I have so many things to do, and so little time, but this is my little piece of sanity and I can truly vent here. With a cup of tea or some water, my music, and just sharing my thoughts and frustrations… It makes my days bearable.

Some people feel alive when they deal with stressful circumstances like these - its what they live for. Me? I don’t like all this planning and that. I’m a ’stop-and-smell-the-flowers’ kind of girl. I like to do what I FEEL like, and right now, I feel like doing absolutely nothing.

Have you ever had to deal with Accident Claims at work?  While I was in England, working in a vegetable & salad factory, I cut my finger whilst trying to prep lettuce… It was a disaster. We worked on a production line, and when the supervisor saw my blood all over the place she was close to hysterical. LOL

She yelled at everyone to stop working, in the typical high pitched voice with British accent which I’d come to know so well, and even become fond of.  The panic stricken staff all put down their knives obediently, then stood at least a meter away from the line, which was already stopped after the supervisor had hit the emergency stop button.  Most of the staff being Iraqi or Indian, and not always understanding the Brits so easily, they didn’t quite know what had happened, but they knew there was blood, and that the supevisor was yelling - not a good combination.  The supervisor was an over weight woman, that somewhat resembled a man, as she had a beard (unshaved), and every now and again you could see her mustache surfacing (she shaved that).  People were scared of her really.  Petrified might be a better way to describe this.

Luckily I worked on the line with a lot of friends, one of who was nice enough to escort me to the first aid room. He had to support me while walking though, as I felt a little faint - I can’t handle the site of blood My boyfriend walked about 100 meters from us while we were on our way to the first aid room, and though we waved at him, he just waved back. LOL. I wonder why it never occurred to him that something strange was going on, since I was walking whilst literally hanging on to another guy. LOL. I guess he really must have trusted me?

I’m terribly scared of getting stitches, but when I got to the first aid room, they said I needed to go to the hospital. STITCHES. I was so panicky, but eventually agreed to go. Good thing they only gave me sterri-strips instead, but I had to brave myself for a tetanus injection.

Accidents at work happen so quickly. I never planned to cut myself, promise. I was however booked off for 2 weeks (for cutting my finger?), and I got compensated by the factory, firstly for injury at work, and then I still got my salary.

In South Africa I don’t think it works like that. You’d need to have yourself insured specifically for something like that. If you’ve had an accident at work, and you weren’t insured for it, you can always turn to KeyPoint legal services, as they special in helping people claim for accidents like these.

When we think of weddings, we all have the most idyllic pictures in our minds. The beautiful bride. Lovely scenery. A cozy atmosphere for the tables that are all neatly set. Flowers. Flower girls. Happiness and laughter. Family photo’s. There’s generally a good vibe going around there do’s - lol.

I guess I’ve been pretty blind about it too, so I won’t blame anyone who takes it all for granted.

You have absolutely no clue what its like if you haven’t been through a wedding yet. And if you used a wedding planner, sorry, you’re disqualified.

Weddings take planning. Immense loads of planning. From the word go. I never thought that deciding on a date could be such a big issue. But I promise you that you will know exactly when I mean when you get there.

You have to keep in mind all your family who lives far away - will they be able to make it to your wedding? Then the season. What type of wedding do you want? Spring, fall? This will determine what flowers are available, and also what type of dress the bride will be wearing.

Once the date is set, after both parties have listed all the pro’s and con’s of WHEN the wedding will be held, you have to start thinking of invites. Invites will be determined by your colour scheme, or theme. Now, you also have to think about WHO you’re going to invite. This is bound to cause some strife between the couple, and between the couple’s families. Families always want to invite loads of people that the couple doesn’t really know, and doesn’t really care to have at the wedding.

The people who are invited will most probably be determined by the people who pay for the wedding. For instance, if the couple pays for the wedding themselves, they won’t easily let their minds be changed by parents who want to invite long lost aunts. But now the tricky thing is, if the parents pay for the wedding, they have a huge say in who’s being invited.

Traditionally the bride’s father pays for the wedding, but I guess these days people are ignoring almost all traditions, so this one went along with the rest. Honestly, its easier if the couple pays for the wedding themselves.

Once you’ve come to an agreement with each other, as well as made peace with the families, the guest list can be finalized. Remember, this is NEVER cast in stone. Never ever assume that your guest list is FINAL. A finalized guest list just doesn’t exist. Ever.

We’ve had some pretty interesting happenings around our guest list. First of all we drew it up with about 60 guests. Perfect. I always wanted a small wedding! Problem #1? I didn’t invite half my family. LOL. I guess we’re not very close with a lot of people in my family, and I really didn’t want people there who just want to comment on the whole “do”.

My folks weren’t very happy about this, which I could understand, so we adjusted the list a little, and added some more family from my side. Great. My fiancé’s family are all pretty close, so we couldn’t get away with leaving people out really. Asif that wasn’t enough, some of the people who were invited, invited their OWN guests along with them. I guess it wasn’t done on purpose, or to be strange or anything, but they just assumed that we had invited their kids and their whole entourage. Great. We have some extra faces. People we haven’t even ever MET!? Arrrrgh! Fine, we get ourselves together again, we make peace, and practice our smiles for the uninvited guests.

Once your guest list is setup, and you have chosen the colour scheme or theme for your wedding, you’re ready to start with the invites. You might make these yourselves, or perhaps you’d prefer having these made. If you have the spare cash to have them made, good for you, but note, you might not realize how much the whole wedding is going to cost. Don’t be too stingy, but also don’t throw around your money like you have found a pot of gold.

Personalizing invitation can be very costly if you’re not doing this yourself, but it adds a nice touch to the invite. We did ours this way, but we also made them ourselves. When you make personalized invites, make sure to make a couple extra “general” invites - just in case you forget someone, and also to keep in your wedding album.

Finally the RSVP date comes, and though a lot of people don’t RSVP on time, we eventually get everyone’s replies. We realize that we’re going to have some empty seats, and make use of this opportunity to invite friends who we would love to have there, but who weren’t on the initial list either because we forgot about them (sorry ), or because we didn’t think we had the space. Now this is where the “general” invites come in handy. My sister and her family RSVP’d, saying they won’t be able to come since they live in the US. I was very sad, but made peace with it. 12 days before the wedding they get told that they now have the opportunity to come. I’m absolutely ecstatic that they’re coming, but realistically speaking, we have to make some adjustments. Extra seating, gifts, place names etc, etc, etc. Its all good though - I would change it all over twice if it meant they could be here.

Now you have your guest list filled up to the max, and you’re ready to have a the wedding?! You think you’re ready to book all the equipment you’re going to hire, i.e. chairs & crockery etc. BIG MISTAKE. If you want your max to be 90 guests, allow for about 5 people to still pitch up that you haven’t invited. Sometimes you forget about someone until the last minute, and other times people are just really rude and pitch without being invited. Its always safer to have a buffer. Also remember to hire some extra chairs etc. in case something breaks. You don’t want your guests to be without a main meal just because their plate broke.

Now we have to start thinking of table gifts, place names, a table planner, and decor. Decor can be pretty easy, but also tricky. You don’t want to crowd the table with lots of little fairies and stuff (I’m not having any fairies on my wedding, but some people actually like this), but at the same time, you don’t want the tables to look too bare. You have to think about vases, and flowers, and which flowers are in season, and who’s going to arrange them, and who’s going to pick them up, and when you need to get the vases to the people who are arranging the flowers. All of this has to be done in time, but not too long before, else the flowers will wilt. Same with the table gifts - ours specifically. We have chocolates, and these need to be set on the tables, before the guests arrive, but not too long before so that they melt. *sigh*

While all of these arrangements are happening the wedding dress is the bride’s top priority. Whether you’re hiring, having your dress made, or making it yourself, its stressful. I was fortunate enough to have my fiance’s Mom offer to make my dress, and she finished this week - she did such an incredible job, and I’m really excited about it!!

The groom’s clothes might be a bit of a fuss as well, that’s if you want him to wear a waist coat. This will have to be made to match the colour scheme of the wedding. Personally I don’t like waist coats at all, so my groom won’t be wearing one. (I keep wanting to call a waist coast a petty coat instead… I guess its cause English isn’t my first language, but come to think of it, the groom wood look equally weird wearing either one of those. To me that is )

Once the bride and groom’s outfits are decided on, you need think of your entourage… First you have to choose these! It might sound easy, but I can assure you its not even close to that. You’ll always have people who feel they should rather have been chosen. Either that, or the people who you have chosen will want to take over the whole show. They might try to design their own clothes, changing colours to something that doesn’t vaguely match the colours you’ve chosen for the wedding. The worst I’ve heard of recently, is that the maid of honour wanted her dress made exactly like the bride’s, just in a different colour. What the heck is up with that? I would slap that maid of honour and tell her to wake up, and see that its not her wedding. Yeah, I know, I won’t do that, but the little person inside me feels like doing that.

I’ve been very fortunate to have an excellent, supportive, and very cool bridesmaid. I’m not going to have a maid of honour and bridesmaids and all that. Just one bridesmaid is fine. Really. Her dress is nearly finished, and though I gave the main idea for the dress she chose her own fabric and some extra trimmings. I was at first a bit upset that I didn’t see the fabric before she bought it, but in the end, she has good taste, and it will look good. No use fussing about the small things. At least her dress won’t look anything like mine!!

The flower girls are a total different issue. I was going to use my two nieces, but since they live in the US and wasn’t coming to the wedding, I asked my fiancé’s cousin. Needless to say she is ecstatic. Now, after hearing that my nieces will in fact be here, we had to do some chopping and changing. We’re having three flower girls now, but the two nieces are not here long enough in advance to make the dresses. I’ve decided not to let this bother me, and my sister will just have to get the dresses in the US. Its one of those things that cannot be changed by worrying.

Apart from those three, we’re inviting a family which has five kiddies; four of which are girls. All four are dressing up really nicely. They would also love having something to do. Shame, I feel so sorry for them, cause I really don’t have something for them to do!? They even worked out a dance!! LOL. This is just too funny. So many people are planning things for MY wedding without me knowing it. Mmm… And I thought just the honeymoon was supposed to be a surprise? :O

Oh well, I can imagine if I was little, I would’ve loved to dance at a wedding too? So they can do their little routine while we’re busy taking family photo’s - its bound to entertain the guests who are waiting in one way or another

Now, I have 10 days left, and I honestly don’t know what to stress about anymore. I’ve worried, and wondered, and imagined everything over and over and over. I’ve spent my nights rolling around trying to think of things I might have forgotten.

My head is too full. But it feels like its stuffed with cotton candy… Sticky, and like a I can’t get anything out of it which makes much sense. I don’t know if that was a good comparison. Or maybe I didn’t explain the comparison well… Like I said. I cannot think straight anymore.

The most important things to organizing a wedding? I guess… To NEVER under estimate the cost. NEVER under estimate the work & planning. And once everything is done, try to relax, and just sit back and enjoy.

That’s not a very easy task though. I will let you know how it went, and if I was able to do just that.

In the end its about spending the most amazing day of your life with the people who you love. The people who care for you, and the people who you want to share in this very special event.

Just something amusing for those of you who are from South Africa. I found this picture really funny.  Especially how the lions’ faces are manipulated to portrait Jackie Selebi & Jacob Zuma…

We all know how important training can be in the corporate world. Businesses usually want to see proof of your competence, and they want it on paper.

This is the best way for most businesses to make sure that they don’t hire someone who’s a fake. Someone who pretends to know what they talk about.

I heard recently of a person who even faked their qualification on their CV!! Obviously they got fired as soon as the company caught them out, but with Sales Training UK you won’t need to lie on your CV anymore. For those more honest people, you will have something worthwhile to add to your qualifications!

I noticed now that I haven’t posted anything with a decent image recently. I would love to spend time on the net looking for something, but as you know, my time is limited. If you need some cool wallpapers, have a look at DeviantArt and Social Wallpaper

For the people who you love, take time to say “I miss you“. Take time to let them know that you care for them. Sometimes those are the moment which they remember for a lifetime.
We all know how quickly circumstances can change, and how we can wish we had rather told someone how much we care for them. I know myself, that I need to concentrate on this more. And that I need to spend special attention on taking time for MAKING special moments with the people close to me.

Maybe you know what I’m talking about, and maybe you try to show your love, but we can usually all improve ourselves on this. If you had to die today, would your family and friends know that they were really loved by you. Would they have good memories to hold onto for the rest of their lives? If you feel like you need some romantic ideas to let your better half know they’re appreciated, see what you can find on the internet, but first of all, remember to tell them you love them!

Another e-mail forward…

The other day my neighbor, who is blonde, came running up to me in the driveway just jumping for joy! I didn’t know why she was jumping for joy but I thought, what the heck, and I starting jumping up and down along with her.

She said, “I have some really great news!” I said, “Great. Tell me why you’re so happy.”

She stopped jumping and, breathing heavily from all the jumping up and down, told me that she was pregnant! I knew that she had been trying for a while so I told her, “That’s great! I couldn’t be happier for you!”

Then she said, “There’s more.”

I asked, “What do you mean ‘more’?”

She said, “Well, we are not having just one baby. We are going to have TWINS!”

Amazed at how she could know so soon after getting pregnant, I asked her how she knew. She said….

“Well, that was the easy part. I went to Wal-Mart and they actually had a home pregnancy kit in a twin-pack. Both tests came out positive!”

Living in SA, its pretty hard to be without a motor vehicle. For me, it would be close to impossible to continue working if I didn’t have a car. I suppose in the US its pretty much the same. However, while I was in the UK I never owned a car, and never needed one. The public transport is just so good, that you really don’t need your own means of transport.

Unfortunately we have to face the reality of living in larger countries, with public transport that isn’t developed as well as we’d like.

If you need to refinance your car, have a look at RateGenius. Their customers save an average of $60 or more off of their current monthly car payment, and on average reduce their interest rate by 3.5%.

They have an automated system for quick turn-around of refinance applications, check it out Auto Refinance on their site.

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