Susan Mac Nicol's Blog, page 51
December 13, 2012
The day I was mistaken for a prostitute..
I’m very much a person for looking forward. I try not to live in the past and when today is over, that’s it. You can’t get it back, you can’t change it so why bother. Instead all you could do is learn from the milliseconds that have passed then go out and try and make today better or at the very least, stay out of trouble.
Having said that, there are some rather funny incidents in my past that make me chuckle when I reflect back on them.
One of them was my very first day on a new job, in the middle of the suburb of Hillbrow, in Johannesburg, SA. Hillbrow then was a teeming metropolitan city, full of concrete buildings, very vibey African stalls and the inevitable beggars . I’d been at my new job with the unlikely named ‘Taj Mahal Jewellers’ for the rather paltry time of three hours, working the outdated switchboard, cutting my boss, Mr. Himelsein, (who looked like Danny de Vito) off about half a dozen times as I learnt which lead to plug where. His partner and lady friend, Ms. Greengar, hissed at me to be more careful. She was a fairly large and imposing presence and I was pretty scared of her.
I decided to take a break from thoroughly irritating my new boss and his partner with my miserable efforts to be like Mary Printz, (you can read about her here http://nyti.ms/QWYJHz ) and went out to buy a sandwich at a nearby shop.
I managed to get there, buy my bacon and avocado baguette and started to make my way back to the office. There was one problem. I couldn’t remember where it was. Ask anyone that knows me and they will tell you that I have a shocking sense of direction. My husband says if he simply puts me on the opposite of a street that I’ve just walked down, I wouldn’t have a clue where I was. That is true and I cannot in all honesty dispute that.
So I wandered up and down the busy Hillbrow streets, walking from one street corner to the next (I bet some of you are familiar with where this is going now) and generally getting more and more nervous that I was going to be late back. The formidable Ms. Greengar would not have taken that lightly.
Imagine my consternation when a man sidled up to me and engaged me in conversation.
“How much?” he hissed at me out of the corner of his mouth as he looked around him furtively.
I looked down at the bacon and avocado baguette I held in my hand.
“Err, about two rand fifty,” I stammered and he blinked, looking at me as if I was the crazy one.
“Jussus. That’s cheap.” he said doubtfully but with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
I blinked back. By now I was getting the impression the sandwich was not was he was interested in. I could feel my hands grow clammy and I stepped back.
“Are we talking about the sandwich?” I whispered feebly. He stepped back, light dawning in his eyes as he realised he might just have made a terrible faux pas.
“No. I wasn’t talking about the sandwich,” he stammered. “Forget it, I’m sorry. I think made a mistake.”
The man turned tail and walked as quickly as he could in the opposite direction leaving me with a baguette and a distinct feeling of both relief and pride. Relief that I had escaped unscathed from what could have been a very tricky situation and pride that someone had actually offered to pay for my –ahem- services.
Needless to say, I did eventually find my way back to the office, I was late, I continued to cut Mr. Himelsein off and eventually they promoted me to the large walk in safe at the back of the jewellery manufacturing section to look after the lovely sparkly bits of jewels, gold and silver that the artisans used to make the jewellery. This was definitely more my forte.
December 10, 2012
December 9, 2012
Interview with Deborah Palumbo
I did a guest post for fellow author Deborah Palumbo, whose is the author of nine self published books on Amazon. Read all about her and her books here.
December 5, 2012
Thank you for the follow m'dear! :)
Pleasure is all mine!
December 4, 2012
A glimpse into my world of music
I recently did an online quiz to see what my music said about me. You can do the same quiz here
http://www.outofservice.com/music-personality-test/
The result was that I enjoy the ‘reflective and complex music preference dimension.’
I obtained a very high score for this and apparently it tells me the following about me. I’m open to new experiences, am creative, intellectual and enjoy trying new things. Politics wise I’m a liberal. Wisdom, diversity and fine arts are important to me. Financially I’m supposed to be fairly well off and apparently I’m ‘sophisticated’. After a hard day of work, if I’m not listening to music or reading a book, I enjoy documentary films, independent, classic of foreign films. I’m also tagged as having energetic and aggressive music preferences, meaning I enjoy enjoying taking risks and engaging in thrilling experiences. I am dominant, imaginative and energetic. Freedom, independence and excitement are important to me. I like watching action, science fiction, fantasy, war and horror movies.
Not a bad synopsis actually. Apart from the fact I’m not well off, (yet), I don’t really enjoy documentaries, and I’m also not a thrill seeker, the above is actually spot on. The sophisticated tag is still being debated.
This is a selection of the type of music you’ll find on my Samsung Note Smartphone.
It’s a pretty eclectic mix of music. I hate pop, not fond of rap unless it’s Plan B, love rock and Indie music, and will tolerate some dance music.
In no order of preference, here is the music I listen to with some links to some of my favourite songs and bands
Foo Fighters Rope http://bit.ly/ihcTxK
Kasabian Re-Wired http://bit.ly/qs60IV
The Killers Human http://bit.ly/7xH1so
Arctic Monkeys Teddypicker http://bit.ly/9qlofn
White Lies Holy Ghost http://bit.ly/iWVWrg
Oasis Dig out Your Soul http://bit.ly/exbce
Noel Gallagher If I had a Gun http://bit.ly/oaqiCD
Beady Eye Wonderwall http://bit.ly/SdZ5VQ
30 Seconds to Mars Time to Wake up http://bit.ly/rGRAp
Muse Undisclosed Desires http://bit.ly/1qLZEr
Alex Clare Too Close http://bit.ly/ebx6Er
Jace Everett Bad Things http://bit.ly/1DnW5T
Band of Skulls Devil takes Care of his Own http://bit.ly/wBGeFd
Incubus Admiration http://bit.ly/YM0GKm
Institute Bulletproof Skin http://bit.ly/VNbTI
The Heavy Short Change hero http://bit.ly/gEnR4h
Plan B Welcome to Hell http://bit.ly/fcuY4f
The Wombats Tokyo http://bit.ly/dkrtYL
Dimitri Shostakovich Symphony no 5 http://bit.ly/Audhj8
The second part of the radio interview with Tracy Cooper- Sunday...
The second part of the radio interview with Tracy Cooper- Sunday Live- Southend radio 105.1 FM as promised. But if you pop over to my website, the files are loaded there too. They’re called Benedict1 and Benedict2 - these aren’t my file names, but the ones saved by the radio station. They’re just as obsessed as we are with him, it looks like ..
December 3, 2012
Second part of the radio interview
Unfortunately it looks like Tumblr will only let me upload one audio file per day. That’s a little unfortunate…
I’ll have to post the second bit tomorrow, so stay tuned.
The first few minutes of my radio interview with Tracy Cooper...
The first few minutes of my radio interview with Tracy Cooper from Sunday Live, Southend 105.1 FM. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad to say I managed to get another task ticked off my Bucket List.
Be warned, the interview was very much Benedict Cumberbatch focused, as we discussed him as the inspiration for the leading man, Bennett Saville, in my romance novel, ‘Cassandra by Starlight’.
I hope you enjoy it!
December 2, 2012
My radio interview today
I had my radio interview today with Tracy Cooper on Sunday Live- Southend Radio 105.1 FM. It was a great experience and you can read the full story by clicking the link above. As soon as I get the audio files of the interview, I’ll post them as well.
I do wish this was coming true right now. The papers have a lot...
I do wish this was coming true right now. The papers have a lot to answer for in giving me high expectations of myself…
