Gillooly's farm

Today, the beau and I visited Gillooly's farm to check out the local craft market. There wasn't much to see, so we headed off to Mrs Sippi Blues  and had a drink or two. What a lovely day!

I even made a new friend! Her name is Sandy and she is the friendliest, most lovely little Staffie this side of Gauteng. She loved being patted and even jumped on our table a few times! Lovely little puppy!

Unfortunately, I did not wear sunscreen and for the ten minutes that I did not sit under the shading, while looking at the ducks and babels, I got sunburnt! Boo

Tribute to the greatest dog in the world

I know that everyone loves to say how their dog is the smartest thing on earth and how they know all the tricks in the book and everything that goes with great dogs. Well, I would like to tell you about my mutt, my little beautiful rottweiller x staffie which understands every single word spoken to her.

I got Liefie as condolence present from my Dad in 2000, after my dog Lola was stolen. A colleague’s staffie had been slutting around and out came the most atrocious things (according to the colleague). The first thing I did when I got her was cry. Balling my eyes out! She was the most beautiful thing, so tiny, so round, such lovely beady black eyes! I fell in love!

At first, I dubbed her Roxy. But after calling, and her responding to, Liefiekind and Liefiewoef, my family decided that she should hail Liefie. And being the stubborn 12-year old that I was, I insisted that she should be trained. The best choice of my life. Not only were the dog trained, but her owner as well. It helped me understand dogs better, even though I am secretly a dog whisperer. (My mom always said that I am absolutely fearless when it comes to dogs, even holding tightly onto a growling rottweiller).

But coming back to the centre of the story, Liefie certainly has a personality of her own and will throw little tantrums when she does not get her way. For instance, she loves biting the water as my mom waters the garden. Now, being an old dog with a bit of arthritis, my mom has outlawed water biting! Her response to try and tell my mom how frustrated she is, is to bite the grass and pull out lumps of grass and mouthfuls of ground at the same time. She then stomps on the grass with her front paws and starts clawing at it, until she gets her way. Little Brat! But I love my love to pieces and I have never loved a dog as much as I love my Liefie. She is an absolute angel!

She also loves her ball! From the minute you open your eyes, to the minute you go to sleep, she will put the ball in front of you because she wants to play! 

Tanzania

Last year October, I went on a business trip to Tanzania! What a lovely country, nestled between the big blue sea and the world renowned Serengeti, this country is definitely worth visiting. I would love to go back someday with the beau and maybe have a weekend pitstop in Zanzibar and visit the eons old Masai Mara in Kenya. The country is rich in culture, rich in friendliness, poor in crime (or at least as I experienced it), and rich in game and birds, which to one of our fellow journalists was an absolute paradise.

This country is vast, and Mwanza, or Rock City, was one of the highlights, but the Serengeti was the biggest highlight of it all. The Lion King soundtrack kept playing in my head the whole time though :) We also had the luxury of residing on the banks of Lake Victoria. However, the lodge's generator switched off at 22:00 in the evenings. I have never experienced such sincere beauty, listening to the hippos and the crickets, seeing that many stars! It was lovely!

What a hoot!

This weekend, my friend Tracy thought we should have a little photoshoot to show off my owls...

I must admit that she got a bit frustrated with me as I couldn't stand still for long enough. I kept telling her that I am a writer, most definetely not a model! HA! Well, I'll let you be the judge of my modelling skills...

Worst lunch ever...

With month's end winking, and me scraping in the last cents I have found under the mats and in between the seats in my car, I managed to buy a packet of chicken and mushroom flavoured two minute noodles, only to come into the office kitchen and be greeted by an over-worked microwave heaving it's last breath (much like many other things in this office.)

So, I decided to pour some hot water over it and just let it soak for a few minutes. Hot water noodles isn't the same as nuked noodles :(

If only I had remembered to pack last night's left over pasta with delicious, yet salty, mushroom and ham sauce. Sigh.

Dear John...

I just got these little treasures in an e-mail and thought I would share it...made me smile :)

Dear Noah,
We could have sworn you said the ark wasn't leaving till 5.
Sincerely, Unicorns

Dear America,
You produced Miley Cyrus. Bieber is your punishment.
Sincerely, Canada

Dear Yahoo,
I've never heard anyone say, "I don't know, let's Yahoo! it..." just saying...
Sincerely, Google

Dear Saturn,
I liked it, so I put a ring on it.
Sincerely, God

Nice things happen to nice people

Yesterday I experienced an unsolicited act of kindness, after December has delivered a few blows from society.

We are moving in about a week and a half and I panhandled the local Pick 'n Pay for a couple of apple boxes to start packing. I was in the delivery area and asked the logistics manager if I may take the boxes. "Sure my sweetheart," he says.

As if he was right beside me, a young black man grabs all the boxes and asks where to? If only everyone in life could be this nice. I believe in karma, and think that the nice things I try to do to people are finally coming around.

In December though, a beggar called me a very crude Afrikaans word because I did not have any money to give him. Well, I'm sorry Mister I'm-too-lazy-to-work, perhaps you should go and mow some lawn and make a hundred bucks.

This is when I still had dark hair. I sometimes can't decide whether I want to be blonde or dark haired, but either way I always want the opposite of what I have.

Owly owls

I have a semi obsession with owls and as a Christmas present from my loveliest, I got an owl necklace. (I will probably put up some pics after the weekend) But I have collected a few brilliant and unique owl pieces, which frightens some people or really prickle their interest. They look quite similar to these ones, which photos I have not taken.

If only...

If I were ever allowed to have a credit card, this being banned by both the mother and the beau, I would be able to do such awesome shopperies. Such as these plates, from the etsy shop JimboBart.

 

Websites, friends, people you don’t know and their cats were telling my beau and I about the absolute gorgeousness of this little bellybutton fluff sticking out of Thailand's navel and that we should make sure that we hydrate a lot, as it might be a bit warm. Granted. But no one told us that it would be so ungodly, yawning crows and vulture circling hot!

That said, I was sitting there, quarter to nine in the evening, in the quiet of Phuket. In the background the wind was playing with some bamboo charms, someone was grinding and sawing to finish their shop, and a few crackers had illuminated the night.

I was sitting outside on a veranda, with only my skin and my shoes, determined that I was the first person on earth who set a record for the least-sleep-while-traveling-back-in-time-too, ever!

We left our South Africa at seven the previous morning, and I had not closed my eyes for 36 hours straight. Well, still sitting in front of the computer, I came to the conclusion that my body and brain were to tired to sleep. Or perhaps it was because of the impenetrable slut named heat!

On our way to our hotel, it seemed that the bigbird just made a twelve-hour detour to KwaZulu-Natal. Banana trees, shrubbery, and hellfire’s oven left open. Following a daunting trip in a (Thank God!) air-conned taxi, through some areas that makes Soweto look like a five star resort, we had arrived at our hotel. Pleasantly surprised by the serenity and the beauty of the area it was hulled in, but dog tired just the same, we had to wait another hour before we could be booked in, because, you see, we were too early. That heat!

At last, we were booked in and the beau and I tried to close our eyes, which only lasted half an hour. (I set the alarm for two hours, but my biological clock was effed). So I got up and painted the town red. (Partly because I was so red from heatstroke!)

Our hotel!

“Durban with a roof” says the beau. Dare to enter the market and every human calls you to buy something from them, even though you have just bought exactly the same thing from his neighbour. Fifty stalls, ‘n pair of Fillafong slops, one chocolate Cornetto smeared Megan (that’s me), two straw hats and two pairs of Raybans later, the beau and I realised that Phuket isn’t entirely walkable, even though it looked the size of a dime on the map.

Challenge accepted! Soon we were on our way to Phatong beach on mopeds. Never in my life have I seen such a whoresnest of electrical cables AND Phuket’s traffic – utterly motherless! (Which is actually my sort of heaven. There is nothing I enjoy more than the rush of traffic and having the odd brawl with a taxi.) However, this was an entirely different scene. 

Whoresnest of cables

There was not one working traffic light and four million scooters were traveling in the direction that Sa Wat Dee Ka was sending them (latter means Hello! in Thai, but that’s almost all you hear). Then you had the thirty three thousand red tuk-tuk’s to pardon. Their owners would shout the price of the taxi and that we should take a ride with them, while on our scooters! Well, add a broken speedometer, and a fretful beau and you have one interesting ride.

On our way back to the hotel, I came across a roadblock and was pulled over because I am clearly a tourist. The pigs asked me for my license, which I left at the hotel for safety reasons. But a little white lie can’t hurt.

“It’s in my boyfriend’s backpack. I don’t have any pockets.” (Which I really did not have, being half naked in a sheer blue dress and a bikini). Meanwhile, I lost the beau in this can of worms called traffic and I hoped that he was still behind me. Which he was. With a fine of 300 baht, I was arrested while the beau drove off to withdraw money. But I won’t stop here. In Afrikaans I told him to pretend that the license was in his backpack all the time. He then had to pretend that when coming back from withdrawing money that it was in his wallet, he did just not realise it. The pigs weren't very easily convinced. But then! Puppy eyes, it works!

The pigs

Later we had dinner, mine being a seafood pizza, and I would have loved to have an old SA favourite to wash it down.

“Wot is zavna dwy?”

Beautiful Thailand

Quiet strike

Owing to the rain, there has been absolutely no interesting events in my life, apart from me being sick on Sunday morning at 3:00 am and sitting in front of the telly, watching absurd shows and crying as I felt sorry for myself. We had a corporate braai on Saturday, for the beau's work, but it wasn't anything I ate or drank that made me sick. Oh, and there was this cute almost two-year-old who wanted me to pick her up and when I tried to put her down, she would start hollering like a cat in heat. It didn't bother me though, I think I am a bit broody at the moment, and if I were married and not six years shy of my goal age to become a mother, I would certainly have a baby now. They are just soooo freakin cute. We had one in the office this morning too, I nearly died, so pretty!

Well, to sidetrack my thoughts from my maternal instinct and premature motherhood, I will tell you about last year September, when the beau and I went to Phuket for a little breakaway.

Cause it's hot, hot, hot!

I don't feel like I have experienced summer yet. The other day, Monday I believe, I sat in our office with a nice woolly jacket and a cashmere (just had to lay it on you) scarf. During lunch time, I drifted off to the local Pick and Pay to buy some foodies and a nice ice tea. I was shocked by the amount of people walking around in short skirts and strappy tops.

They either thought that I was crazy as a bat or sick and I thought "What kind of summer or you having?" I was a bit jealous by their seemingly self heating abilities and wish that I could also have strutted around in short skirts and strappy tops. Maybe our office is too cold? Maybe it has been raining too much? Maybe Johannesburg is conspiring against me, too keep me cold and fat. Ha! Well, apparently the Cape isn't having the same problem:

Painting patch up

Yesterday, I gave my drawer cabinet its second coat, which it pretty much needed. But with all the rain pouring down in Johannesburg, I was in quite a hurry to finish painting and as I moved on to the last panel, I bumped the dustbin on which the can of paint was resting on. HORROR! Black paint strew all over my hands, legs, feet and the tiled floor I was painting on.

At first, my beau and I had a little laugh about it and I tried to salvage as much paint as I possibly could pick up with my paintbrush. And then I had a mini breakdown. While watching my boyfriend cleaning the mess, with a towel I had received as part of a set for my 21^st birthday, the tears just came flowing. I cried like an infant, feeling like the world’s biggest fuck up – fuck up covered in paint, that is. But thanks to the angel that is my lovely beau, the mess was cleaned up, and while tears still rolled down my face, he cleaned my hands with turpentine.

The cupboard is still not finished, as the rain hampered us to sand off the last three drawers. So, the

score is currently: one cabinet – painted; two drawers – painted; one drawer – standing miserably alone without any paint; three drawers – with all attachments and paint. Sigh!

Paint it black! (Hair and make up compliments of 'Saturday morning just woken up' - PTY ltd)

The ugliness!

The original paint and knobs. Not very pretty!

So the story begins

My boyfriend and I have been living together for a few months now and recently tried to buy a house. To our disappointment, followed by a mild depression from yours truly, the banks of South Africa would not grant us a loan. Bahambug on toast with jam!

But, luckily I had the festive season to recover from the mild sadness and search for some lovely, lovely places that we would call home next. I am happy to say that in three weeks we will be moving to a quaint complex on the border of Bedfordview and I am terribly excited to move!

The old yellow brick house were we lived will forever hold a special place in our hearts, as we had many debauch get togethers around the fire in the lapa. However, I can vouch that I will not miss the countless times that I have been thrown, clothes and all, into the swimming pool. Even in winter!

Getting to the point, I have been struck by a smooth criminal. Ha! Just had to put that in. But really, I have been bitten by the decorating bug, or am being haunted by my childhood decorating ghost, returning to once again haunt the drawers of my mind and inspiring me to be creative once more. I have thus started to focus my attention on an old drawer cabinet which I have inherited from a previous flatmate who moved to Namibia. The pictures will tell the rest of the story.

(PS: I am not wearing any make-up and the hair has had four days of unwashed hell, so I do not look at my most beautiful.)

Blogging seriously now

Before I start, let met just start by saying that every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. And thus, I have absconded from micro-blogging platform which we all know as tumblr.

With no offense to the micro-blogging world, the festering hearts of teenage girls and art (rather fart) of following some people based on the fact that they would promote you, just did not appeal to me anymore. So I have pulled up the stakes and relocated to the big people blogging world. Welcome to it!

So! If you fancy something you see or would like to share something lovely with this girl, please post a comment or drop me a mail.