Get Fresh at the Weekend

When Mel & Kim sang this back in the 80’s and I was a teenager, I remember associating it with partying. Or maybe meeting someone you got all goosepimply with at some house party. But now, at age 35, it feels more like an anthem I should sing weekly. Somehow, years ago I didn’t mind working weekends. Lately, I really get testy when I have to illustrate or design while everyone else seems to be having breakfast or lunch with friends at the resident pavement cafe. It’s a funny thing. When I’m working at my desk, I frequently fantasize about cuddling up to my pillows and reading a book. That’s what weekends are for, right? To get fresh again. I doubt Mel & Kim meant it like that, but I’m going with that theory on my part.

Another thing while I’m on the topic of getting fresh in general is that it feels like I haven’t washed my hair since the turn of the century. That’s because I’m on deadline a lot lately and I’m one of those weird girls who can’t wash her hair without blow drying it properly. You know, lifting the roots and curling the tips and finger brushing with a dash of hair wax. Rather time consuming. Possibly the underlying gist of the old excuse, “I can’t make it tonight – I have to wash my hair.”

I’m a nocturnal by nature. My creative juices and the ability to transmit them onto paper don’t happen before lunchtime. I work anything from a 12 to 16 hour day on everything from my administration to cartooning. During the week, I’ll pack in nights so late that I’m listening to the mid-afternoon show via streaming audio on a radio station in Chicago. But come the weekend, I’ve become like the masses I opposed so vehemently only 6 years ago. Pah, I thought, there’s work to be done! Er, actually...there's quality time out to be had. Tis the sabbath.

Then I moved up to Johannesburg and spent my first year not knowing anyone, living in someone’s backyard and crying my heart out on Saturday mornings when I’d come home alone from the mall and seen families and friends having breakfast and coffee, groups of friends walking together and laughing or couples standing looking into shop windows.

Don’t take time out to relax for granted. I put in a couple of extra hours tonight because, come rain or shine, tomorrow morning, Sunday, I’m meeting friends for breakfast. And then I’ll come home and get through the deadline I’m on. I can spare the time...