DOING LIFE

ON A BIT OF A SAD NOTE

- Monday, 16 July 2007

For those of you who are regular passersby on Doing Life, probably would have caught on that my darling hubby, Conroy had recently finished another era in his business career by successfully mediating and effecting the sale of all 28 Shell Autoserve service stations in South Africa to McCarthy, resulting in most of the Shell employees being taken over by McCarthy as well.

He has accepted an offer as General Manager of the Distributor Management Team, responsible for distributors in Africa, of which there currently are 7 (incl. Mauritius) of Toyota Tsusho Africa http://www.ttaf.co.za/Automobile.asp on 4 July which he just could not refuse . This is a division of Toyota responsible for vehicle exports to the rest of Africa including Mauritius. Unfortunately, their head office is right in the middle of Sandton, Johannesburg. So, yes you have guessed right, the worst case scenario is true. The Kloof Fouries are relocating to Johannesburg. I am so proud of hubby. He truly deserves this fantastic opportunity that has come his way and I support him wholeheartedly in this new venture.

But, in the same breath I am sooooo very sad and heartbroken having to leave behind so many friendships formed during the 5,5 years we have been Durbanites. My scrapbooking students have become true friends over the years.

Conroy officially starts working for TTAF on Monday 13 August 2007. A great deal needs to happen in a very short space of time. I actually just don't want to think about it - will just get myself into a tizz. We have to sell our house in Kloof; buy a new house in Johannesburg; get all our worldly belongings safely from Kloof to Johannesburg; resigning from AlexanderCox where I have been their fulltime legal secretary and bookkeeper for more than 5,5 years and saying goodbye to my bosses and colleagues; say goodbye to all my beloved scrapbooking students and dear friends; leave my home executive of more than 5 years, Rose, behind; bid goodbye to my facial consultant Shani and my hair engineer, Ulrike - all this happening in a space of two months, perhaps three months.

On the other hand there are a tiny bit of good news as well, especially for my scrapping students. Starting out in J'burg, I am not planning to hold a full time job in the business world, for the first time in 23 years - just cannot imagine all that free time belonging just to myself.

Actually I am planning to put all this free time to a good cause and passion of mine i.e. Scrapbooking. I am planning to create one double page scrapbooking kit (everything included i.e. comprehensive notes, all the supplies, a photo of the layout, etc.) every month. So to all my KZN students (as well as other die hard scrappers out there), if any of you are interested in having a kit a month being posted to you, please let me know to put your name on my distribution list for the kits.

Some of you have also probably noted that I will be coming to Durban on Saturday, 19 January 2008 and Saturday, 14 June 2008 to host two scrapbooking days at Makaranga Garden Lodge. So please make a note of these two dates in your diaries. If any of my students need supplies, let me know and I will try and have it available at these two scrapping days.

If anyone of you are perhaps visiting Johannesburg, you are most welcome to contact me for a private lesson. I will be teaching scrapbooking from home again in Johannesburg (on a fulltime basis) and will attempt to build up a clientelle there. So if anyone of you have friends or family who scraps or are keen to begin scrapping, I would appreciate it if you could perhaps put in a good word for me.

NB: To the TP Gang - there is perhaps an off-chance that our new possie will have some lockers and sleepover facilities for you die hard scrappers! So please feel free to visit.

A Huge thank you, hug and a kiss to all my loyal supporters/students - you have all been exceptionally kind and friendly to me over the years and we will definitely be in contact either through DOING LIFE or at my scrap days!

- The Blue Room City Hopper Singing Off