If you really knew me...

Man, I have to be honest, when I first started seeing these posts spreading across the blogosphere like a field on fire, I was one of the mice who tried running away from it. But in recent days a few things sprung up in my head that I wanted to share, just random every day things. And now it has found form in this 'If you really knew me..' post. Bleh.

So, if you really knew me:

~ You'd know that I barely ever wear jewellery. If I put it on, you know I'm glamming it up.

~ You'd know that I have a scar on my shoulder of which I am very self-conscious of, and that because of this, I rarely wear short/no sleeves.

~ You'd know that when people ask me why I have the scar, I tell them that I was shot in a mugging, as I have a similar - but smaller - scar on the exact same spot on my chest. But you would also know that it was actually two malignant moles that had to be removed.

~ You'd know that I love snakes! And any reptile for that matter. But bring a cricket close to me, and you'll get a whole different story. My fear started after an ugly mother of a mole cricket jumped into my shirt once, and I couldn't get it out! Shit scary stuff.

~ Also, you'd know better than to leave me in a dark room all by myself. Or to switch off the lights in the house when I'm alone somewhere. Want to hear a banshee scream? Then switch off those lights.

Turning off a light by myself also makes me run, real fast. It kinda looks something like this.

~ You'd know that my two dogs, Mila and Jethro, are really my children. I speak to them as Mommy {ha, this is so much weirder when I write it down} and when people come and visit I tell my pups to say hullo to auntie-so and uncle-such.

~ You'd, unfortunately, know that as much as I can be nice and loving and caring, I can also be double that in my bitchiness. Worst is, that I don't always realise that I am being a bitch. 

~ You'd know that I am getting married to my best friend in 199 days. That's 6 months and 15 days from now. 

~You'd know that I am almost blind without my glasses - night blind too - and when I forget my glasses at home, and have to drive home after dark - I use the car in front of me's lights as guidance.

~ You'd know that I like a good bottle of whiskey, wine and a good bout of curse words.

~You'd know that I hate to have my feet covered when I sleep. Hate it.

~ You'd know that I love sticking my fingers in other people's food and picking the yummy stuff. But that I hate it when people do it to me. 

~ Do you know me better now? Good. haha ~

 

Speculations and assumptions

I have noticed that as soon as you reach a certain age in your life - particularly in your twenties - that people always make the assumption that you are pregnant when you say you are nauseous. That's the first thing they jump too. Why is this?

Truth is, I had low blood sugar, because I didn't eat enough breakfast this morning (eet jou pappies!) and also didn't feel like eating my store-bought sandwich, as it {after buying and opening it - and not reading the label} had mustard seeds and gherkins on it. Yuck. So I was left in my dizzying state of nausea and complained to my friends, with a few people overhearring - everyone's first reaction was - oh my goodness are you pregnant? No!

I'm still not ready for kids by a long haul. Even if they are damn cute.

Speaking of children, my canine-child Mila gave me a heart failure on Saturday. I though she was stolen and was hysterically ugly crying in the car, when I was actually supposed to keep my eyes open and search for her. I apologise to the SPCA guy who I cursed and called an idiot.

Turns out that, while we were away from home, Miss Mila had greeted the neighbours over our six feet wall, as she always does. A thunderstorm was brewing, and while greeting them, a huge thunderclap struck. Apparently staffies fear thunder. All my staffies have. She jumped the fence and was chilling, cozily,  with them the entire afternoon.

I swear, I would probably still be ugly hysterical crying if I didn't find her.

Image via weheartit ::  linking up here

Karma - does it exist?

Do you believe in Karma? The Hindu law states that every act done, no matter how insignificant, will eventually return to the doer with equal impact. Good will be returned with good; evil with evil.

And since Hindu’s believe in reincarnation, karma knows no simple birth/death boundaries. If good or evil befall you, it is because of something you did in this or a previous lifetime.

As a Christian, I don’t agree with the latter, but I think that there are some biblical principles that could be tied up with karma.

In Luke 6 Jesus talks to his disciples and teaches them about loving your enemies. He states that you should “²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you . . . ³⁰give to everyone who asks you and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you.

There, in verse 31, is where I find the connection to karma. Do unto others, as you would like to be done unto you.

It is this verse that keeps me motivated to help people – I don’t do it to get shine, or to have something good happen to me in return. I also will not go into detail about this, because I am not here to brag about it, I would like to show you the kind acts that has been returned to me.

Card dilemma

A week or two ago I had a really hectic workout session in the gym, with a personal trainer. I eventually threw up. It might have been exhaustion, or the fact that I had been off sick the week before, with sinusitis. Point is, this nausea continued for a little while, which meant that I was moving very slowly.

In the meantime, Flip phoned me and said that he had also become ill and that I should buy some soup for dinner. I also wanted to get him some MedLemon, to speed up recovery. In my grocery bag, there were also some fruits. All of this equated to about R100 {about $11}.

The day before I received a new bankcard, and at the till, I tried to pay with this card. It declined about four times, before I decided to walk with my stiff and nauseated body to the other side of the mall to withdraw money. I had success.

However, you would note that I had to walk to the other side of the mall, at a very slow pace, it took me about ten minutes. By the time I returned to Woolies, a mid-30’s lady was waiting outside for me. “Did you come right my dear?” she asked. I answered yes, and asked why. She answered: “Well, I was waiting here for you to see if you came right, because if you didn’t, I would pay for your things.”

I nearly started crying. How nice of this lady to reach out to me like this! I phoned my mom, messaged my friends. I was dumbfounded. And it was awesome.

I did pay for my own stuff, don’t worry.

Another gym story

My second story is much shorter, but also gym related. I have really long and thick hair, which is sometimes more a curse than a blessing. Getting that problem sorted today.

Anyway, on this particular day, my hair was being extra thick and extra stubborn and I couldn’t get into a proper bun or ponytail, it was just all over the place. A lady in the dressing room sees me struggling with this thick mess on my head and hands me two extra hairbands.

“Here, you have them,” she says. “I can see you are struggling.”

I put my hair into a tight braid and had a fantastic workout.

……..

Doing nice things, doing unto others, as I would like to receive, should not just be a motivator for me – but to everyone. It’s the happiness that I got out of moments like these that will keep seeing me picking up strangers that are struggling next to the road and give them a lift, or dop other nice things.

Do something nice today. You might get more joy out of it than the person you are helping. 

image via weheartit

My thoughts on this movie...

This weekend I watched Moonrise Kingdom for the first time, and while I am left a little more than confused, I still loved it. Wes Anderson is definitely one of my favourite directors, and I will definitely watch his movies over and over again. I cannot count the number of times I have watched The Royal Tennenbaums, one of my all time favourite movies, or Fantastic Mr Fox. 

This guys is nothing short of genius - this movie too. Although I think these kids are a bit crazy; I loved the young love that blossomed, the random gnome-like narrator, the director's trademarks and the dysfunctional family. Best!

What this movie did to me though, is give me the sudden urge to escape to a 16-mile island, with an old battery-operated record player, and camp. {Honeymoon hint Flip. And it should be a luxury tent.} Or, it could be fort in my own house.

I found some inspiration on Pinterest for my urge. Perhaps I will build a fort in my living room tonight. Flip and I usually love building a Christmas bed in front of the tv, especially if its too hot in our bedroom, as their is aircon in the living room. 

I have reached the point beyond desperation

Dear everyone, who is anyone, with facebook, could I please ask you to like this photo on Facebook?

CLICK on the photo to LIKE

It's my Mila, when she was s till a tiny little baby!

I can win one of these very awesome custom drawings of her. 

So please help me win by liking it!

Staffies are cuter than bulldogs! and a bulldog is currently leading!

Wine tasting in the Cape

As our country is so famous for its splendid wine, and we were in the wine making capital, Flip and I visited our favourite wine maker Durbanville Hills for a bit of a wine tasting. Flip always spoils me with a few bottles, that he buys from the farm, when he goes to Cape Town for business. I was really curious to see the place of origin of my favourite libation.

Can you spot me in one of the pictures above? Haha. On this particular day, and I am guessing on any other day too, there were a number of delicious wine tasting options - a normal tasting' one paired with chocolate - R60 for five wines and five chocolates and wine paired with biltong, which was R70 for the five pairs.

It's a real treat and something different to try. Just don't do it in a hurry, you might end up drunk.

For the animals, or the children - you choose

Do you love animals and want to show your support? Or perhaps education or disabilities is dear to your heart? Perhaps you are a part-time social worker and try to do good as much as you can?

Then I have good news for you, you can show where your heart lies by wearing it on your shoe.

A new initiative called Tekkie Tax allows you to choose the charity you want to support.

For the first time ever, South Africa will have an annual fundraising event where you can choose what welfare sector will benefit from your donation:

~    Animals  ~

~  Basic Community Welfare  ~

~   Children  ~

~    Disability ~

~    Education  ~

Tekkie Tax will be an annual fundraising campaign for a large mix of carefully selected welfare organisations, schools and institutions in South Africa.  

 I received a press release from the organisers.

The first Tekkie Tax campaign will take place on 31 May 2013.   During the month of April & May, members of the public will be asked to get a Tekkie Tax sticker for a R10 donation from any of the participating outlets or participating welfare organisations.

There will be 5 different kinds of stickers, each representing a beneficiary sector. People will be able to choose which of the 5 sectors they would like to support (Animals, Basic community welfare, Children, Disability or Education) by buying one of those sector's stickers.  

It’s as easy as…

Get permission from your office to participate in the Tekkie Tax campaign on Friday 31 May 2013.

Promote the campaign with our free publicity material: posters and brochures to ensure that each person in the office will know about the campaign and gladly participate

Choose the beneficiary sector/s you and your colleagues would like to support and get the appropriate stickers: Animals, Basic community welfare, Children, Disability or Education. Ensure that each of your colleagues have one.

Wear your tekkies!  Now that you each have a sticker, show the world where your heart lies by wearing your sticker and your favourite pair of tekkies on Friday 31 May 2013.

Annelise de Jager project organiser said that “as experts in our field of service we know that running a fundraising campaign is expensive, labour intensive and holds a lot of risk factors for the organisation running it. Now we have brought together a mix of the most accountable welfare organisations in the country to do one big campaign where the public has the choice of whom they want to benefit by their donations.  This will save a lot of money and will create a platform for organisations that normally do not have the infrastructure to organise this kind of campaign.”

 The campaign is endorsed by some of the biggest and most accountable NGO’s in the country:

•               ChildWelfare SA

•               SOSChildren's Villages

•               SpecialOlympics SA

•               Alzheimer’sAssociation

•               Hospice

•               EndangeredWildlife Trust (EWT)

•               ChildhoodCancer Foundation SA (CHOC)

•               SouthAfrican Woman's Federation (SAVF) 

and the list goes on . . .

All our beneficiary organisations render a service in South Africa. They have been carefully selected, handpicked and we checked them out carefully to ensure that no matter which sector your choose to support, your donation will be used in the best possible way.

..................

Please spread the word and help raise awareness and funds for a cause close to your heart. 

It's worth it.

I know that I will definitely sponsor an animal welfare, as animals do not have a voice.

image via weheartit

Friday Fancies: in love with Lace

Tomorrow I am going for my first wedding dress fitting, and to be honest, I have been taking calming pills like they are sweets. If I'm this bad now, how on earth am I going to cope the actual week before the wedding, or the day of?

We might have to invest in horse tranquilisers. Just saying.

In honour of today's Friday Fancies with it's lace theme, I am sharing some beautiful lace wedding dresses. Although I still have no idea what sort of dress I am going to wear, or choose, I have gathered a few pretty lace wedding dresses from Pinterest. 

Get ready to drool some.

 

 

 

 

Conversations with Flip

I love reading the really funny things Megan, over at Across the Pond, and her English now-husband come up with in conversation. It made me a little more attentive to things Flip say, because he always says the weirdest and funniest things. These are some of the very strange things that comes to mind.

{Our house is on a corner with two stop signs. One Sunday night I got a bit irate}

M: It's late, why are there so many cars driving past our house at this time?

F: They all went to buy McFlurries, my love. 

{While blowdrying my hair, my ring gets tangled in my hair, so I take it off. Enter Mila}

M: Baby, we nearly had to schedule an emergency operation with Mila's vet appointment this afternoon. She almost swallowed my ring.

F: Well, then you would have had to carry Mila on your finger all day.

{While preparing dinner}

M: The potatoes are ready, will you please mash them?

F: Mash. Mash. Mash. Mash. You can just call me Lionel Mashi.

{While on the topic of food, one evening I made boerewors}

F: Look what I found in my can of sweet corn. 

{Boerewors pieces sticking out of can}

{On Facebook}

My status: You know it's time for a haircut when your hair gets too heavy and it hurts when you put it in a bun. 

Flip comments: Don't you have food? Why are you putting your hair in a bun?

The Mother City

I spent this weekend in good old Cape Town, the first time in 13 years. I was there last on a school tour. My verdict: meh. As an adult, I took in a lot more as an ignorant and wide eyed child - and I might get a lot of hate for this- but I prefer Joburg.

To me, it always feels like there is an eternal fight between the two cities; creativity wise mostly. And I have had this mad desire to move there because all the lifestyle magazine are based there and the picture that was sold via the internet, blogging etc was just sublime! But I hated the traffic, and the wind!

This is also probably every Gautenger's - or Valie's - complaint about the Mother City. Seriously, you guys down there cannot drive! That urban legend that the Cape is so chilled out and that everyone drives like they are on sabbatical, so true! I think everyone smokes fynbos down there.

Anyway, it wasn't just all complaints! I love the Western Cape {I wasn't in CT CBD itself - combination of traffic and people driving to slow that just kept me away} and would visit it much, much more now. But live there? You can keep your mountain. haha

More posts to come this week.

{PS: linking up here}