We are moving!

This is mine. Not only is it mine. It is ours. It is Flip and I's first house. That we bought. Together!

We have signed the papers earlier this month, but I wasn't sure whether I wanted to post about the house yet, as I was (still am) not a fan of how the house is painted and didn't want to blog about it until I got all the colours under control. And as you can see, the stupid lazy-ass municipality didn't want to do maintenance in the region, so they decided to tar everyone's pavements. I hate this! It's so morbid and ugly and..and I need everything to be green, not black damn it. With respect to The Rolling Stones.

However, I will remain positive! This not only gives me free reign to let loose on my creative side and go crazy with my mad inherited gardening skills and creative ideas, but also a number of blog posts to come up in the new year of befores and afters as I make over our new house into a dream home! Who's with me?

I'm planning to break up the tar in the front, if the municipality gives me the permission, and create a gorgeous, lush garden with lavender, agapanthus, crawlers, ground covers, a few lollipop trees and a heck load of grass! As for the colours I want to paint the house and walls, I will keep that under wraps for now.

Pros of the house is pretty much everything! Including a lovely view over the city, as it was built on a hill (as you can detect from the slope of the wall). We are moving in at the end of January and in the meantime I am forcing all my loved ones to buy me vouchers for paint or decorating stores for my birthday, which is this Saturday.

No, it's not vain, it's smart!

(PS: I stepped on a bee yesterday running around in my mom's garden. It still hurts like hell.)

The other day I found this video through a link on facebook that was shared by a blogger that she found on another blogger's blog.

It's amazing!

I couldn't help but share it with you all. Only question is, how did they stop themselves from eating all those jellybeans? Maybe the answer lies in the 'How they did it' video. Check it out!

The amazing thing is that this project took over two years to complete, the patience! There is a lesson in there for us all. And over 228 000 jellybeans were used. The temptation! Good thing I wasn't on set. This may have resulted in 'death-by-jellybean'. Either that, or I would have been on a sugar rush for two years.

Tori Amos in South Africa

"Let's just pretend that we are all sitting in my lounge, just having a good evening. I'll take some requests, I got them here. And even if I don't play them tonight, I'll play them another night," she said.

The crowd reacted with cheers, perhaps a few tears were shed by the most die-hard fans. Tori Amos was in South Africa and I was there.

"I wrote this song for a friend of mine some years ago, when he was having a pretty rough time. That's when you know who your real friends are, when you're not popping champagne bottles and not making people's face pretty anymore. That's when you know who the cunts are, and there's a lot of them. There is some good one's too," she laughed as she started playing Taxi Ride on her piano.

Amos, who effortlessly switched between keyboard and piano, wowed the crowd with old favourites such as Bells For Her, where she ambidextrously played both piano and keyboard, Virginia and Cloud sleeping on my Tongue.

The intimacy of the concert delighted all senses, gripping the eyes in spectacular backdrops accompanied by the harmonic wailing of Amos's vocal prowess. The crowd was often stunned into silence, her voice transcending and whispering. Anticipation.

She still managed to surprise the listener, with little foxes slipping into her well known lyrics, mostly in the form of curse words. The crowd cheered in delight, every single time she cursed.

The esoteric singer never ceases to amaze. She uses normally perceived imperfections, the things our voice teachers always warns us against, such as swallowing and breathing heavily in her act. This wasn't on my bucket list, but it sure as hell should be!

It is hot! I haven't really felt the heat, as I am stuck in the office most of the time, and in there I wear a nice thick jacket. In short, it is bloody cold with the aircon! But for those odd days that I am not in the office, oh let's call it weekends, I need something to cool me down.

Enter Pick 'n Pay's idea! It is almost ridiculously healthy as it is almost sugar free! Perfect for those weight watchers, like me. Yay fruit! Yay summer! You can use almost any fruit that is in season, but avoid fruit that oxidises, such as apples and pears.

Ingredients:

250 ml artificial sweetener
............................................................................................................
750 ml water
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500 grams mixed frozen berries
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250ml granadilla pulp
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Method to the healthy madness:

• Heat sweetener and water in a saucepan to dissolve. Cool.
• Blitz berries until smooth. Stir berries and granadilla through syrup.
• Place in a shallow container and freeze.
• Mash every hour to break up ice crystal until it forms a slushy mixture.
• Serve immediately in glasses with straws or tall spoons.

Enjoy!

For kids, use some extra fun straws, like the ones showed above.

• 
  

How's this for being spoilt?

My good friend Eleanor spoilt me with a visit the other day. We rarely get to see each other, as our schedules are always colliding.

Luckily, she was in the vicinity after an event (yes, she is also a journalist) and we decided to go al fresco.

Focus on what you can give to a friend, not what you can get out of a friendship - anon

I am so happy to have spent some time with one of my besties. 

When bad goes to worse goes to shit

This weekend was supposed to be  a breakaway for Flip and myself. We both had pretty hectic and rough schedules the past few weeks and we were planning to go to Parys, in the Free State to have a rest. Its about an hour's drive from Joburg, so it was ideal for a weekend.

We booked a place at the Smilin Thru Resort, expecting a blissful retreat and a lovely little cottage to stay in. I would never in my life recommend this place. It was the pits. It was absolutely horrible. The environment was nice yes, as our cottage was wedged between the Vaal river and a swimming pool, but this cottage looked like it hadn't seen humans in years. Gross. So I phoned my mom to tell her about how shit this place is. Luckily, I did.

Yesterday morning, I got a very mysterious phone call from my brother, asking to speak to Flip and I immediately thought that something was wrong, something had happened, but Flip wouldn't tell me. I phoned my mom to find out, and she immediately started crying. She had driven over my dog.

This is my baby. Her name is Liefie. I got her in 2000, after another dog of mine was stolen. She is the love of my life, the absolute most loved possession I have ever had. And here I thought she was dead. My world fell apart. I couldn't stop crying. In my state, I understood that they already put her to sleep and I didn't even get the chance of saying goodbye. It tore me apart.

But after non-stop crying for about an hour, even in the shower, I sobered up enough to phone my mom again and ask her what happened exactly. She was still alive! And still at the vet's, although, she was drugged to keep the pain away. We got in our bakkie and cancelled our stay. The somewhat two hour drive took us about an hour and fifteen minutes. I still had the chance to say goodbye.

We went to the vet and I sat with her for a while, trying to get her to drink some water and eat a beeno. The latter she ate with vigour! My mom and I then discussed Liefie's tendency to not pee when she's indoors and we carried her outside so that she can go to the loo. My wonderful dog stood up! She stood up all by herself, even though she had a broken bone and she walked around. She proved that there was still so much fight and so much life left in her that it would just be unfair to put her to sleep.

My parents are both pensioners and are at home most of the time. So my mom decided to amputate the broken leg, as it has been broken in multiple places and an operation will just cost a lot of money and her leg might not even properly heal. My wonder dog is going to have only three legs after tomorrow, but at least she is still alive! However, she is still in danger, as there is a lot of swelling and we aren't quite sure what the full extent of internal damage is, but the doctor says he doesn't think there is any internal damage.

I will accept it when she dies of old age. That's different. To quote my mom: "You and I are still going to chew old bones together."

Romantic movie date

Romantic comedies are any girl's vice. The predictablity, the twelve step equation to eternal love and happy-ever-afters, the boy-meets-girl-falls-in-live-but-fights-against-it-story. However, One Day, with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess doesn't follow this worn out recipe.

Yes, it is romantic and yes, it has it's funny moment, but it is not a romantic comedy. It is just...perfect.

Even those who steer well clear from this genre of movies will enjoy this masterpiece. It is dark, it tugs at your heart strings, it makes you think about the important things and what really matters in life.

The film follows one day, the 15th of July, which bears significance for the two main characters Dexter & Emma. You meet them as they meet each other and for the next two hours, get glimpses of human life for the next fifteen years of your life. It drags through the difficult times and lights you up in the blithe moments.

Be prepared to take a few tissues with you and be sure to watch it with someone you love dearly. I did.

Coulrophobia. The fear of clowns. It’s something I’ve been harbouring with me for nearly twenty years. I have evidence in form of a photo. Taken at my third birthday party. My parents hired a clown and I cried every time the clown came near me. See, I was scared of clowns long before I even met Pennywise the Clown, better known as It.

And yesterday night, at the circus, they surrounded me. Just to give you an idea of how scared I am of clowns; I was directing my friend to the marquee on the phone and a clown materialized next to me. I froze. I couldn’t speak.

Yes, I know. Why did I go to the circus if I have such an irrational fear of clowns? For one, Flip warned me that there would be clowns and I thought I could handle it and two, I don’t recall to have ever been to a circus, so we decided to go.

What fun it was! Children packed the front rows and screamed from laughter at the antics of the clowns. My friend and I joined in.

I found that clowns aren’t that scary, as long as there is a whole ten meters between us. And I sort of feel sorry for them. According to Wikipedia, the irrational fear of clowns is escalating, which means that clowns are becoming a rare species.

One clown doesn’t make a circus, and so we saw an array of astounding acts (how’s that for assonance?), ranging from animals, including elephants, tiger, poodles and ponies to acrobats and magicians.

I love that it was clean and innocent, engaging fun! Am I cured of my coulrophobia? No. I just read up on the clown doll urban legend again.

PS: we were not allowed to take photos, but I managed to slip a few in, thus the bad quality.

My bucket list: Kings of Leon

Or as my cousin likes to put it: ‘Queens of Lyonne’. He isn’t a fan, but admitted that they should be commended for sounding live like they do in studio, unlike groups such as the Black Eyed Peas. I won’t go into what he calls them. It’s in Afrikaans and it’s rude.

I have been a fan of Kings of Leon since I first heard Charmer, from the Because of the Times album. I absolutely freaked when I first heard the song, I believe it was in 2007. So I can’t go around gloating that I have loved them forever, like many people do. It’s like a competition sometimes. “Oh no, I’m a bigger fan that you are, because I have listened to them since forever, which is like seven years now.” Well, hoorah for you!

However, I do like to distinguish myself from the commercial crowd who only realised that there is such a band as the Kings of Leon when they heard Sex on Fire. They are the ones who kept quiet when the less-than-known songs were played.

I agree with my cousin, they are commendable for sounding amazing live! No doubt, they are absolutely excellent in what they do and are really good looking and good sounding. Sigh, Caleb Followill! Nonetheless, I found the show to be a bit bland. Perhaps it was because I was seated and not with the standing crowd, which my feet are thankful for.

But in the days before the concert, radio stations and interviews created certain expectations, including that Mr Followill is a bit abusive with the crowd and likes to rowdy them up by cursing and so forth. There was none of that.

“But!,” argues some of my friends, “it wasn’t about the stage persona but rather about the music.”

“Yes, I agree,” I argue back,” but then if it was only about the music, I could have stayed home and listen to my iTunes.”

Everyone to their own. I guess I enjoyed it nonetheless. Something I can tick of my bucket list.