I went to Durban this weekend and I forgot to go to the beach

Yes, I forgot to the beach. How daft is that? But let met tell you why I forgot to go to the beach. I got up early Saturday morning, I guess it was about five in the morning, I don't think I was awake until we got onto the aeroplane. We flew down. Got a one way ticket to Durban.

But we never even thought about checking the weather and I phoned my mom at half past six the morning to find out about the temperatures. It sounded cold. As soon as we got off the plane, we cancelled our hotel reservation. In short, the weather was kak. It was raining, the skies were grey, it was cold, yet humid. So we came back on Saturday afternoon.

How did we get back in Johannesburg you ask? Flip bought himself this baby.

We were both so excited about the bakkie that we almost drove straight home, and never even considered sticking our toes in the water! I am a bit angry at myself, throw in some sadness too. I mean, who forgets to go to the beach when they fly to the coast?

As for the bakkie, it's a dream! I got to drive the last three hundred kilometres home. However, it was quite scary. We drove through Van Reenen's pass, which was so misty that we couldn't see the car in front of us. There was an accident involving three 18-tonners. It was hectic. And then when the sun came out, it baked both Flip and I into sleepiness. I was nodding time to time, taking really long blinks. And I was driving! IT'S SCARY!

Luckily we got home in one piece!

Taking breaks and then trying to blog!

I have been quiet for a while, I just felt the need to have a little time of my own.
Not that I had a lot of time. I threw myself into my gym commitment, daily two hour sessions!
I still haven't seen any results, but apparently Patience isn't just a name for a number of black South African women.

I took some time to read a book. I think I might write a review about it. It was really a sweet book.

Right now, I'm in bed. In the living room. I had an appointment with a chiropractor today. She couldn't get my body to crack, but I feel relieved. She even did a little acupuncture. I just want to spread the word people, acupuncture is the business! She stuck the needle in a muscle that was unbelievably tense. And it just eased up. She also adjusted me a bit. Wow! You wouldn't understand the pain I was going through, apparently caused by stress and sitting at a desk for millions of hours, but the relief is just so immense! I want to tell the world about the wonders of chiropractors! They are like angels on earth.

The other day I came across this really ridiculous article.

The company outlined its "Office Environment Standard" in a memo emailed to employees in Brisbane this month.

The etiquette memo states:

Mining giant BHP Billiton has defended as "effective" its strict office etiquette policy, which bans workers from eating pungent food, throwing jackets on their chairs or putting Post-it notes on their monitors or keyboards.

- Post-it notes are to be removed from your monitors and keyboards at the end of the day;

- Other than workstation identification and first aid or fire warden signage, nothing is to be placed on workstation dividers, walls or doors at any time;

- Additional clothing must be stored in designated storage areas during the workday and not on chairs or at workstations;

- Food must not be eaten at your work station;

- No food that emits strong odours is allowed;

- Mobile phone ring tones kept at low volume and forwarded to voice mail when out of office; and

- No iPod or MP3 players to be used in the office.

Company spokeswoman Samantha Stevens said the policy had been implemented for a "couple of years" across all BHP Billiton offices in Australia.

No employee had complained to the best of her knowledge.

"It's a pretty straightforward, effective policy, which has been in place for some time across our offices, partly because we all travel so much," she said.

Ms Stevens said the office etiquette policy was designed to accommodate employees travelling between offices or "hot desking" and ensure the security of information.

"It's pretty common in open plan environments to have ground rules so people can work happily and co-operatively in a clean space," she said.

It is understood employees' cleanliness is monitored by the office cleaners.

The tone and volume of employees' voices and their language is supervised by senior company executives.

BHP Billiton in April leased more than 6000 square metres in the "Blue Tower" at 12 Creek Street, Brisbane, to house its expanding coal operations in Queensland.

The company also has in excess of 7300 square metres of office space in Riparian Plaza.

Ms Stevens said the Brisbane memo was reflective of policies across all BHP Billiton offices.

 Take a look at what my desk looks like.

• 

I'm practically breaking every single rule. I cannot function without music. I would never be able to give that up. You can ask anyone who has known me longer than two minutes. I always have my earphones in, I always have music playing in my car and at home there is always music.

I either turn the radio on, or put the tv on one of the music channels. Much to the chagrin of Flip. He likes music , but not as much as I do. And sometimes I would want to listen to music, okay all the time, and he would like to watch some dumb show such as "How It's Made" or Ironchef and then we get irritated with each other. I'm a brat.

What rules does your company have in terms of office etiquette?

Hi there!

I have been quiet long enough i suppose. Did ya miss me? Well, did ya? Hahaha.

This is just a short post, from my phone, so no pictures involved. I would just like to tell you that I'm still here. I already have a few post lined up, a couple of interesting things happened lately. And I will post about it, starting tonight! Yay! It is now 9:30 in the morning, so you'll have to give me a few hours before I can blog from my laptop again. Looking forward to it!

Friday Fancies: First Impressions

I have to admit, I am kind of addicted to this link up now. I had so much fun designing my outfit last week, and having to do it again this week was just as great. 

This week's theme was 'back to school' but for some reason, my brain eventually mapped it out as First Impressions and this is what I came up with. 

It is very loosely based on what I wore on my first date with Flip.

And you can consider it to be a 'back to school' outfit if you are Serena van der Woodsen. 

What do you guys think? Did I win?

My favouritest (yes, that is a word, according to the life and times of Megan Wait) item of this whole outfit would have to be the Alexander McQueen clutch. How seriously amazing is it?

You can check out my Polyvore to find out about the rest of the things I used.

Make sure to check out the other outfits at long distance loving and you might even want to link up yourself. 

Do it, you know you want to.

xoxo 

(It just felt like I needed to sign off with that. Staying with the Gossip Girl theme and all)

Cookie cutter galore

Sticking with my last post's theme of cookies, which attracted a lot of bon vivants, I though I would look for interesting and cute cookie cutters. I found them all on Pinterest, after looking on some buyable options on Etsy, but not particularly seeing anything I like.

These are crazy and quirky! My birthday is only four months away, so if anyone thinks they have nothing cooler to do than look for funky little cookie cutters in shops, feel free to buy me some! Hahaha

I love this the most!

Last font update: My blog is a royal mess with fonts. Can we pretend it supposed to look like this?

Homemade goodness!

I was feeling a bit hungry today, waiting for lunch time and not really feeling like I wanted to get up and eat rice krispies at half past twelve. You can either have breakfast for breakfast, and breakfast for dinner.

But I don't believe in breakfast for midday munchies.
But then again, if you haven't had breakfast at all, Rice Krispies at half past twelve could still count as breakfast right? 

Point is, I didn't have breakfast, regrettably. If I don't have something to eat, I get nauseous and I develop a terrible headache. Probably coffee induced as well. I should have had the breakfast. This got me thinking that I want to bake.

So tonight, I looked for some delicious treats I might want to try out this weekend. I am planning on having a no fuss, no frills weekend, with just me/myself and Flip/himself. These are some funky things I discovered over at Smitten Kitchen. Recipes and pics are all courtesy of this amazing website.

Oreos are my absolute biggest weakness, along with cheese naks and coffee. And pizza. And bacon and eggs. Okay, I love me some good food. And oreos just happens to be one of them. I die. And poor Flip. If the craving hits, he has to go in search of some oreos for me. I pity him the day I am pregnant and craving. He'll have to work twice as hard. Hahaha. Poor man

I'm going to try this recipe

Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies
For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar [see recipe note]
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg
For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.

1. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.

1. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

1. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

1. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. 

Store them in a container and take them to work for lunch. That's probably what I would do. 

 

 

Lastly, dip into a big great glass of milk and recite the oreo ad:

"Mmmom...m-om, mmm, mom says chocolate isn't good for dogs, but you can have the rest of my milk."

Just an afterthought, I was eating real store bought oreos while writing this. Flip took one look at the screen and walked to the kitchen to get us a packet of oreos. I trained him well. Hahaha! Also, I give up with the font at the moment. It chooses its own colour and makes itself italic. I swear it. I changed the font back to one of the normal fonts and this is what came out. I sigh.  I have no idea what’s going on here. HELP!

Log jam..I wish I was this cool

Lately, I have been seeing these little critters on Nickelodeon quite often.

At first I thought, geeze, what crazy hell of a cartoon is this?

And why would anyone watch this? Nevermind children!

But it has a rhythm.

And as my brain would have it, the brain that is solely fed by music, the little wolf’s singing and their awkward rhythm got stuck in my head.

I googled it today, and saw there was a lot more videos on youtube that have not shown on Nickelodeon yet.

Yes, I am addicted to Nickelodeon.

I thought this video was so funny that I actually cried laughing.

Enjoy.

(if it doesn't show here, just click through)

Oh, and just a little housekeeping and a small apology for all the changing in fonts.

I was playing around with fonts I would like to use here.

And I finally decided on Century Gothic.

Problem is, Century Gothic is not a default font for blogger, and I trie.d adding it to my CSS code, but it didn’t work either.

So, I started changing some of the posts to the new font, but geeze, way to drive yourself crazy as duck!

From here on, all my posts will be in this font.

Celebrating a martriarch

She was the first person I ever saw as I opened my second-old eyes.

Even though I can't remember the occasion, I'm sure she still looks at me the same way she did back then.

With love, with pride. I was her baby daughter.

I'm sure I looked at her as the most important person on earth.

She is still the most important person in my life.

She guided me with soft hands, that, as the years passed by, started to carry the wrinkles and scars of caring.

The soul that sprouted me.

The mother that made me the person I am today.

She taught me to question life,

to think with an open mind and make my own discoveries.

She never tried to inhibit my personality,

never tried to calm down the crazy bundle of child I had been.

She let me live the way I wanted to live,

but still pointed out the wrong from the right,

the good from the bad.

She let me learn through experience.

I am thankful for that.

She was a beacon of safety,

my sanctuary,

my refuge.

When life was tough, and I didn't understand it,

my mom would take me in her arms and hold me tight.

She often worded her dolefulness at the process of life,

causing me to grow up and no longer fit on her lap in a cradle position.

She wanted me to stay her baby child.

But if I didn't grow up, I would not be able to appreciate the mother she had been,

the mother she still is.

I am thankful for every drop of coffee she has made every morning,

as she woke me up to get ready for school.

I am thankful for every morsel of food she has cooked so lovingly for her little family of four.

I am thankful for every note of lullaby she sang to me as a little one.

I am thankful for every scrape she fixed with a kiss and a scold.

I am thankful for her eccentric ways to get over a broken heart.

I am thankful for her teaching me to be nonconformist.

I am thankful that she is my mother!

And I am thankful that my family is able to celebrate another year of our mother's love today.

Happy birthday Mamma!

May our family be blessed with many more years of your presence

and may each year of ripening be the best year of your life.

I love you with all my heart.

Ps, I'm glad you enjoy your birthday present so much already!

(We got her a coffee machine. My family is addicted to coffee and drinks an average of 9 cups a day, per person.)

Well, it's Friday Fancies

 

Yes, it's Friday afternoon and you can say that I'm waiting for the proverbial 'school bell' to ring.

This means I'm actually waiting for five o'clock so that I can go and have a jam-packed weekend.

But before that starts, I have to wait.

And while I'm  waiting, I thought I might join a few bloggers in their Friday afternoon ritual.

Linking up with {av} from  {long distance loving}

As far as I understand it, you should choose any outfit you like, no matter the price.

I chose an outfit I would wear if I didn't have any hangups with my body.

I think I would have been able to put this outfit together slightly cheaper than the pieces I chose.

Oh and the theme was red, but I'm seriously not a red fan.

To me, it's an aggressive colour. So I kept it minimal.

I made this set on Polyvore.

So just click on the link and you can see the brands and prices.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend ahead filled with lots of adventure and crazy things.

I have not the faintest clue what the title means.

I know it means something in one of our official 11 languages.

But not the foggiest.

Anyhoo, we have a winner for the giveaway! I took pictures of how I chose the winner, but it was rather boring. What I can tell you is that I did at my desk, at work, so it makes for interesting backgrounds. I wrote down all the names of the people who entered, and then put the little pieces of paper inside a shocking pink hardhat. I stole it from a mine visit. I also witnessed a real live gold pour in the hardhat. And then I jumbled everything around for a few seconds, stuck my hand in there and this was the result.

.

It saved my life

I'm not one to talk about fashion and beauty and hair products, because quite frankly,

it freaks me out!

I really couldn't be bothered by products...I rarely buy something out of the ordinary.

Which means I rarely buy something I haven't bought for the past 23 years,

or at least, the past five, since I've only been buying my own stuff in the last five years.

But the other day, I asked Flip out on a date. 

And being the lazy bones I am, I didn't wash my hair that morning.

He was coming to the mall, in which my office building is situated, directly after work,

so there was no time for me to go home and make myself half human.

I hate it when I'm impulsive.

So, lunch time came and I went down to Clicks to buy some baby powder.

They say that baby powder removes the greasiness in your hair. Yuck.

I couldn't bare the thought of walking around with white powder in my hair.

People might think I have a serious case of dandruff or lice. Double yuck.

And then I asked my friend if there wasn't anything else I could use.

And we found this:

(I'm actually singing in that 'angel chorus' you hear on tv when something awesome happens)

Dry Shampoo.

I mean, how clever have people become these days?

I hate having to wash my hair everyday,

but I also hate looking like I just spent the night on a park bench with a bottle of wine as my only company.

And then this darling came along.

It is the best thing since, well, showers.

Which I didn't have this weekend.

So this was awesome!

They say on the bottle that it's also ideal for people who colour their hair, 

as the colour lasts so much longer with fewer washes.

Thank you Tresemme for being so clever!

Unfortunately, I lost it already.

I think it might be in my car. 

I just haven't gone through the trouble to look for it.

I also haven't washed my car after Oppikoppi. 

Blikaspaai is still covered in dust. 

It's a crying shame.

Oppikoppi #2!

As much as this festival is about music, I don't think it would have been the same without the people.

At Oppi, the slogan 'The weirder you are, the better' counts.

I met a few interesting characters in the four days there.

They provided some good laughs.

No idea!

Spongebob!

Guys wearing boxes as hats. As if the hats they are wearing isn't hatty enough.

We also saw two apparently straight guys in kilts making out. I have a photo, but I thought I would spare you the details.

Oh, and I forgot to add that this is another thing I can tick off my bucket list: Attend Oppikoppi.

Oppikoppi #1!

Three words:

Dirty, drunk, drugs.

This is probably the best way to describe the past weekend. Although I didn't divulge in the last one, I did roll around in the dust like a pig and had Smirnoff Storms and bugs (the shooter, not an insect) for breakfast. 

Oppikoppi Unknown Brother beat the living daylights out of me and Flip.

Much like a big brother, the fest teases you with ample drinking opportunities, a plethora of grease and dust covered foodstalls, and five stages, which would make any manic music fan (read Megan) go crazy!

But then, like the big brother, it can throw a few punches. Punches, such as the cold! Holy dust! We had -5 degree sleeping bags, and yet the cold managed to penetrate through our blanket and our sleeping bags. The first thing we did on Saturday morning was drive into town and stock up on blankets. Other people also went to town, but stocked up on booze.

The second punch is the dust. Yeah, it was a punch, but luckily it didn't hurt to much. Although I am struggling to breathe now, as a result of a dust/cold induced cold. I'm always sick.

 My little off roadster. He loves dirt roads. I think he's an off roader in disguise.

And then comes the hardest blow, the one that knocks you down and leaves a bruise to prove it. 

The hangover. 

I don't recall really having a hangover. Perhaps it was because I was never really sober. I sound like such a debauch person, but people must understand that this is Oppikoppi. I don't normally drink like this. I don't normally drink at all. 

Flip having breakfast

The festival's highlight to me was dancing with Flip and our other friends while listening to South African legend David Kramer. We laughed and sung out loud, hugged random people and just felt a feeling of happiness. It felt like the whole Koppi was there to watch him.

Such an awesome show. Such a brilliant artist.

The lowest point of the whole festival was when an MC at another stage openly declared how he was high on acid and how he wants to see everybody naked. This stage was running a bit late, waiting for David Kramer's show to finish up and the MC thought it funny to shout: "Shut the Fuck Up" to the other stage over and over. 

Seriously, if you can't respect other people's music, you shouldn't be a damn MC in the first place. 

The sun set on yet another very successful Oppikoppi 

and I will never attend another one in my life,

 until next year :)

I'll post some of the fest photos and the very wacky people we met tomorrow. 

Remember the giveaway.

I'm back from Oppikoppi & guestpost

This post was supposed to be up on Friday, but technicalities made it impossible. I thought I would say hi! I'm back from Oppikoppi! Posts about this will come soonish. Since this post was written for Friday, I thought I would leave the words as they were typed originally. enjoy

Hey people! I'm leaving for Oppikoppi soonish, and I am so excited.
Would you believe that our power went out last night and I couldn't pack anything.
Just teaches me not to leave anything till the last minute!

Luckily, I have a guest post lined up.
It happened entirely by accident. Breeanna and I were chatting via email and the thought just came to me that I should ask her.
I simply love her stunning photography skills.

Here she is:

Hello there! I'm Breeanna from A Brilliant Melody. Thank you to Megan for inviting me over to her lovely blog for the day! I’m so excited to be here and share my passion of PHOTOGRAPHY!

Last year my wish came true when I bought my first ever DSLR camera, the Nikon D90. I had been using a point and shoot camera for years and I felt like I need something more to let out the creativity hiding inside me. Megan wanted me head on over here and share some things I’ve learned as a new photographer.

So here are 4 important things I’m taking from my personal experience and giving over to you.

1) The best way to learn is by using manual mode.
My camera is always in manual mode, and even though it may take more time to get the shot, it helps me learn. Every mistake I make is a new lesson learned (even though at the time it may be frustrating).




2) Lighting is key
Using natural light is my favorite. It gives things a very soft and natural appearance. I hardly ever use the flash. It’s also important to know what time of day has the best light (for me I like morning or evening). Direct sunlight can wash out your subject, so find a nice shady spot. In a few weeks I’m attending a seminar on using natural light in portraits. I’m excited to learn more!




3) Take a lot, I mean A LOT of pictures!
If you take 10 pictures of the same thing, there’s more of a chance that one will turn out how you like. That’s the beauty of using a digital camera! Also the more you take, the more experience you get!



4) Have fun and be creative
If the shot is not working out, it can be frustrating. Try a new spot or angle. Take pictures of things you don’t normally take pictures of. Mix it up and just have fun! Taking pictures is very relaxing for me, especially if it’s just me and my camera out alone.



Well, I hope my experience of learning about photography has helped or inspired you in some way. Thanks again Megan for having me over!

Thanks Breeanna for stopping over!
I might use some of these tips for the weekend.
Hope everyone has a lovely Friday and an AWESOME weekend!
I know mine is going to be FANTASTIC!
See you on Tuesday, or maybe Wednesday.
Oh, and don't forget to enter the giveaway.

Reaching a milestone and saying thank you!

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe that I have a 101 followers already!

I feel so blessed to have so many people interested in the things I write about.

I really never would have expected to come this far.

And I have to say, I made it without sponsoring any other blogs.

But here I am, and here you are.

And to say thank you, I decided to have a little giveaway.

One lucky lad-eh or guy-man

(ha! it would be funny if a guy entered)

can stand the chance to win this:

I walked around in Body Shop and smelled and probed at everything.
These were the smells I liked most.
Perhaps I liked it because I'm a nutty person.
Geddit?
Nutty as in crazy. Okay? No.
Anyhoo, I must say that I am very jealous of the winner, because I have never in my life bought anything for myself at Body Shop, I only buy gifts there, but only because I have an extremely senstive skin and can't risk using any funny products I have not been using since I was a baby. I get all kinds of funny rashes.
Overshare much?

But you don't!
So enter and stand the chance of spoiling yourself to oblivion with these yummylicios products.
This is not a product review. I haven't used it myself.
But it smells great!

How to enter:
Be a follower of this blog with Google Friend Connect! (Click "Follow" in the upper nav bar and follow with Google/Blogger, Twitter, Yahoo, or Aim!) and then leave a comment with your email address! (This is just one entry!) You must do this entry first to be eligible for additional entries!

 

To gain additional entries, you can blog, tweet, update your status on Facebook with a link over to the giveaway.

These all count as extras, but you have to let me know that you did this by commenting on this post.  

The winner will be announced by next week.
Good luck.