Hello there, goeie dag, guten tag, dumelang, Здравствуйте, aloha, ciao, cześć, hola, hyālō, konnichiwa, marḥaban, merhaba, namaskar,namaste, nǐ hǎo, olá, salãm, salut, sawubona! Meet the author & expect the unexpected round every corner: 

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Her name is Thalita, meaning 'little girl'

A Heyoka adult now, and a buoyant whirl

Afrikaans her home language: her English not superb

Afrikaans an expressive language: they joke and chirp

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South Africa is called the Rainbow Nation: multicultural beings

Everyone has loved, lost, cried & laughed: multifaceted feelings
The Rainbow Nation she loves...... people a mixed bag of rarity
The Rainbow Nation she wishes... people to join for prosperity

 

No matter the many hardships they endure

Humour their cushion and hope their manure

No matter the 7star theater of national dramas

SA’s open spaces and weather their Bahamas

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No matter the gloomy international publicity

SA’s humans presuppose Divine Synchronicity

No matter the global 7star theater of propagandas 

Gaia’s humans a multitude of KungFu Pandas!

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           may

Integrity & Strength

            be

Humanity’s Wavelength

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The poem above is from my humour & wit eBook Rename Me! which is available in the online store. I thought it to be a suitable intro to myself and my website too.

 

On an outward, worldly level: As I look back on my life, there has always been a parallel track of sports and creative endeavours as the main themes. Herewith a short summary, because in truth I could write volumes about how the low's in my life have, by millions of donkey miles, far outweighed the high's. Thank goodness for the tons of donkey-like-stubbornness in me (and many others), to have refused to give up on going after aspirations and vocational interests and drives.

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* Regarding my sports background: I've earned Springbok Colours - South African National Colours - in 3 different sports. At school, at the age of 15 (1988), I was chosen for the South African Junior / Schools team, to compete in Europe, in long jump. But, there were some heavy demonstrations shortly before the time and the trip was cancelled. The reason for the demonstrations was due to apartheid here, then. And, the (crooked) rule is that if you do not physically compete overseas, then your national colours are not officially awarded, even though you made all the "grades" and were chosen for the team... So, these Junior Springbok Colours in long jump was unofficial. This and many other unfortunate circumstances lead me to stop with athletics a few years later. My best achievement in the long jump was 6.05m at 15 years of age. Another challenge at school was the fact that I was in 3 different high-schools, due to my sport and my coach of then moving to another province as well. 

 

While studying my BA Degree (Sport Science & Psychology), I met a wonderful  couple who were Masters Springbok Powerlifters and I started training with them. This was in 1992. Before this I've NOT trained with weights in the past. For athletics we used to run and pull old tyres with bricks inside, etc., but these old style methods proved its worth, because after 2 years of dedicated weights training, I achieved official Junior Springbok Colours in Powerlifting. The sport of Powerlifting consists of squat, deadlift and bench press. We competed in Ohio, USA, that year at the Powerlifting World Championships, where I came 2nd. Again some politics were involved... At that time there were various local and international governing bodies for Powerlifting. So, even though I came 2nd at that World's, I cannot say that I'm utterly proud of it, because it was not against the best of the best - due to various governing bodies. The next year I joined the other governing body. But, because you have to pay your own way to all events in Powerlifting, I could not afford to attend the 1995 World's. So once again my national colours that I've now qualified for in the new governing body, was not officially awarded. After that I stopped doing Powerlifting too, because of not having the funds to compete at international events. I loved the deadlift most of all the lifts! At the 1994 World's I've done a 170kg / 375 pounds deadlift, but my official South African Junior Deadlift record stood for over 20 years at 160kg, on a bodyweight of around 63-65kg, at age 21/2.  

 

I did however, start training long jump again. By now I was finished with my studies and working (gym instructor, admin jobs, etc). I still dreamed of making it big in sport... I had to train after a full day's work, which I made the best of, but South Africa only having outdoor tracks, made it hard in summer, which is our rainfall season. And, in winter, the track where I could train had no lights after dark, plus it closed at dark... After-work-hours in the winter, plus travelling to the track, gave you about an hour's training time. Not enough. So, after another 2 years of training I finally hung up my spike shoes. Of course this decision was accompanied with rivers of tears and why's. 

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In these years after not having competed in any specific sport, I did keep training heavy weights in the gym. In 1998 the news reached my ears that women will now be included in the Commonwealth Games and Olympics, in the sport of Olympic Weightlifting. Olympic Weightlifting is one of the oldest sports, but only men has been on the programme in these Games, prior to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. I started making enquiries as to how and where I could learn the technique of the Olympic lifts, which are Snatch and Clean & Jerk. I  then found a wonderful coach . At this time I lived in the north of South Africa and my new coach lived in Johannesburg - about 260km apart. (I moved to Johannesburg and closer to my coach in early 2000.) For 2 years I went for coaching only when I could afford the trip to go and see him for a few days. I mainly trained on my own these first 2 years, and again, after 2 years of training the Olympic Lifts - in the middle of 1999 - I was chosen for the South African senior team to compete at the 1999 All Africa Games, and awarded my Senior Springbok Colours. I got my official Senior Springbok Colours for 4 consecutive years, from 1999 - 2002 (age 26 to 30), came 5th at the 1999 All Africa Games, got a silver medal at the 2001 African Continent Championships, and gold at the same champs in 2002. I broke and held many South African records in those times too. I also received the trophy for 4 consecutive years for best overall female weightlifter in South Africa (bodyweight to weights lifted ratio).  I loved the snatch lift the most! Technically it's the most difficult of the two lifts, but oh man, the most exhilarating feeling when executed perfectly and with your maximum weight overhead!!!

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Due to this sport being an Olympic sport, your travelling expenses to big events were covered by the federation. But, no other monetary rewards exist in South Africa for any of the 'smaller' sports. In all these years that I trained and competed in Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting, I had a full day job and trained in the evenings. It was hard and spicy... like our nickerball sweets of the good old days. The blessings this time round was that my new sport was indoors and the time of day and weather not an obstacle, plus international competitions' travelling expenses paid for. The reason why I stopped doing Olympic Weightlifting (at the end of 2002) is a story that's got everything to do with internal and national politics. Yes, for the 3rd time in 3 different sports 'politics' were ruining not only my (potential) sports career, but also that of many other athletes, whom I knew back then. Then, from 2015 to 2017 I  trained hard again... My personal aim was to train well, get my lifts up to a good standard (for my age) and just 'end' my sports-what-not's on as high a note as possible in a couple of masters competitions - I felt that I owe myself at least that, because the masters competitions are based on merit! But, a whole lot of new-yet-the-same-old-crap rained down on me again, and after another 2 years of hard training I had to stop training again! As a side-note: it's interesting how many time-periods, other efforts of mine, or 'accidents' manifested in 2's, 3's, 5s' or 7's.

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The sports injuries I've had through the years could fill another couple of pages, but the short version of these is that Infinite Life taught me bit-by-bit how I could heal my own body / injuries by desire, will power, focus, discipline and patience. Here is one example: When I just started training the Olympic lifts, I had no access to proper Olympic lifting equipment: I trained with old-style iron weights and a normal bar. Those old-style bars could not rotate like an Olympic bar rotates, for wrist purposes. Well, back then I did not know squat about any of the finer do's and dont's of the Olympic Lifts and its equipment. So, one night while training clean pulls from the rack, there was a very loud "bang" sound on the execution of my one rep; everyone in the gym heard it! There were even guys thinking it was a gunshot from the street nearby. This bang sound was just before the thump sound of my bar and iron weights dropping on the floor. As the bar dropped to the floor and I heard everyone asking and wondering what that bang sound was, I heard myself -  in a daze - say to them aloud: "That was my hand!" My left hand was hanging loose and life-less on my arm, like an old rag. After a couple of days it was so painful and swollen that I had to go to a specialist for tests, to find out what's going on. The doctor told me and showed me on the medical monitor how all the small ligaments in my hand and wrist were torn & some detached, he said that they can take out a little bone from my hip and put it into my wrist, to restore some stability and movement. I was also informed that this kind of "fixing" the injury would forever take away the ability of my wrist being able to do normal rotations, meaning.... I would not have been able to do many exercises in the gym ever again, let alone compete in a sport so heavily dependent on wrist movements, like Olympic Weightlifting. In my heart the desire for healing my wrist completely and competing in Olympic Weightlifting in the future, was far greater than "believing" what the specialist told me. Those desires, plus the disguised blessing of not being able to afford that suggested operation / not being able to afford medical aid/insurance, were the main ways by which Infinite Life started teaching me Her natural ways of healing... you already know the outcome of this story. Even after all these years, I'm still baffled at that loud bang sound of ligaments tearing off, all at once.  

 

As for the present: I would love to train the Olympic lifts again, just because I really miss and love the training and the people. It's unfortunately still quite a story here in South Africa, to get a place to train, with the proper equipment - especially when you're in a smaller town. I've also completed the Brown 1 kyu belt in Karate, at school... (this is the belt just before a black belt.) I've always been very busy with many things at once. Oh, and... it's been many, many years too that I just love practising freestyle dancing in my lounge - to melodic Trance, Techno, 1980's music, club remixes of the 1980's music, Country- and Afrikaans music - I'm constantly having my own theatre show at home, just for myself so far, haha... I used to play the clarinet and recorder at school too, plus completed Grade V in music theory back then. Although I'm rusty on music theory, I started learning to operate DAW software - for the creation of electronic dance music. I would love to create the music of my soul! But, currently I'm still learning this software... it's going to take effort and patience to master it and create some great music.

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* Regarding the parallel track of creative endeavours: I personally create all of the designs of all the sportswear, accessories, fabrics and other products in my online store. In short, I've practised (and am self-taught in most of) the following: garment and general sewing, quilting, crochet, hand- and machine embroidery, creative writing, digital designing, mould-making and cold casting with resins & fillers, pewter relief work, basic clay sculpting, basic handyman types of work, soft sculptures (with fabrics and other soft materials), figurines and miniatures, miniature gardens, clothes and patterns for Barbie dolls, some wire work, leather work, neon and glow-in-the-dark creations, basic upholstery. I sew and make most of my own clothes, and that which I buy gets a serious personalization re-do or add-on's. I really enjoy working with and creating things with my hands! When I was 11, my sister and I was the flower-girls to a wedding of a couple in our hometown. As a thankyou-gift, they gave me a children's baking recipe book, and that's where my love for baking started! I often bake something. But, cooking... mmm, not fond of that chore at all, haha! Furthermore, I love nature, animals, outdoor activities and especially gardening. I have a deep love for succulents and cacti. One has to look at them from up close, to get mesmerized by their textures and patterns. From afar its easy to think they are boring plants...

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*  On an inward, Soul-level: I've learned many, many valuable lessons in this life and I've also made mistakes, like everyone else. As a summary of my inner path: it's been about 17 years now that I've made a mammoth effort to re-attain True Selfhood, and study truth and higher knowledge in most aspects of life. Deep Gratitude to all the truth-digging people out there from whom I've learned so much via their websites, books, presentations, talk shows, etc. It's definitely far better to be armed with truth, however uncomfortable, terrible or unbelievably fantasy-like it may be. Truth truly is stranger (and more wondrous) than fiction...

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Lastly: This website is my ONLY website and I'm only on Pinterest and an artist page on Facebook. My beloved soft sculptures / art toys can be viewed on my blog, and or ordered from: facebook.com/Art-Toys-by-ThalitaG

Any other profiles or info about me and my creations, will thus be fake / imitated! Use the buttons in the header on a PC, or look in the menu on a mobile device - to go to these directly. 

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