you have to believe there are kisses and laughs and risks worth taking

Quote from David Levithan, How they met and other Stories

Janet, Michael's niece from the UK, has left town.  It was so great getting to know her, taking some time off work and doing some touristy things in my own town.  I met Janet once years ago when she came to Cape Town for 4 days for her grandfather's funeral.  It was a brief meeting and only through blogging over the last year have we started to get to know each other better.  I was slightly nervous about the meeting as we have conversed really well online and in emails and I was hoping that we would have the same connection in "real life".  I should have had no fears, we hit it off immediately and it was wonderful spending time with her.  The week included some time in the sun in Kalk Bay with lunch (and wine) at the Brass Bell, vintage shops and bookshops, Constantia wine-tasting, initiating her hard with meeting the whole family (twice), sushi, wine, walking in Stellenbosch (in the cold), vintage shops and bookshops, wine, lunch, pizza, wine, fabric shopping and plenty of talking. (I think I spied a look of relief on her face as she nestled down in her cabin (alone and with her Kindle) on the Premier Classe train from Cape Town to Johannesburg on Saturday morning :)).

 Kalk Bay on Monday

Beyerskloof on Friday

Safe travels back home Janet and come back soon!!

We visited quite a few bookshops. Boy, does Janet read.  It has made me realise how little I have read lately and I am trying to rectify it.  She recommended a couple of books to me (and which I bought) and I am thoroughly enjoying the first of the three.  However, in a bookshop in Kalk Bay the book below caught my eye.  It looked familiar and I realised that I had bought a copy, but had never read it.  It took a bit of searching yesterday and eventually I found it.   

Have any of you read it?

At a glance it looks like a boy meets girl, fall in love, one party cheats, lots of heartbreak, same old same old but presented in a totally different format - as a dictionary. Why couldn't I have thought of this for my book?

I have only done a quick skim through it (I am trying hard to only read one book at a time).  I had a look at David Levithan's website and found some inspirational stuff to share. (He also wrote Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist)  It must be the weather but I seem to be going through a cheesy and romantic time, blubbing away on my own watching pretty average movies on my laptop with sweet morals and getting teary looking at old photographs.  Old age or what?  (It's the weather, I say)

Here are a few bits from the book and I hope I don't spoil it for you, if you want to read it, or for myself (when I read it).

Beautiful


indelible, adj.


That first night, you took your finger and pointed to the top of my head, then traced a line between my eyes, down my nose, over my lips, my chin, my neck, to the center of my chest. It was so surprising, I knew I would never mimic it. That one gesture would be yours forever. 



Oh my word, beautifulness


libidinous, adj.


I never understood why anyone would have sex on the floor. Until I was with you and I realized: you don't realize you're on the floor.


(Sorry Mom, I didn't write it (but I wish I did)!!) 


corrode v.


I spent all this time building a relationship. Then one night I left the window open and it started to rust.

:(



abstraction, n.


Love is one kind of abstraction. And then there are those nights when I sleep alone, when I curl into a pillow that isn't you, when I hear the tiptoe sounds that aren't yours. It's not as if I can conjure you up completely. I must embrace the idea of you instead.


:( (sniff)


misgivings, n.


Last night, I got up the courage to ask you if you regretted us. "There are things I miss," you said. "But if I didn't have you, I'd miss more".


yearning, n. and adj.



At the core of this desire is the belief that everything can be perfect.


Love it!!

livid, adj.


Fuck you for cheating on me. Fuck you for reducing it to the word cheating. As if this were a card game, and you sneaked a look at my hand. Who came up with the term cheating, anyway? A cheater, I imagine. Someone who thought liar was too harsh. Someone who thought devastator was too emotional. The same person who thought, oops, he’d gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Fuck you. This isn’t about slipping yourself an extra twenty dollars of Monopoly money. These are our lives. You went and broke our lives. You are so much worse than a cheater. You killed something. And you killed it when its back was turned.


Hectic

Okay, bedtime.  Off to finish my book, so that I can get stuck into "The Dictionary".