Simi's awesome bachelorettes!

So on Friday I didn't post  my myriad plans for this past weekend as my sister's bachelorette's was going to be a surprise :)

Friday night I took off from the studio to prep Anni's folks house (thanks guys!!) and arrange things ... sort out games, prizes, and gifts. Due to inclement weather (I think Thursday's hail and rain and 95 recorded accidents amounted to something rather more than inclement) we decided not to set up the fairy lights, chinese lanterns, and feathers/feather boas and wooden table and chairs on the Thursday and Friday. Which means I had to be at Anni at 7:30 on Saturday morning. Eep. Needless to say I escaped the early morning as I had to go past the Oriental Plaza in Centurion to aquire more feather boas and fairy lights. The theme was Burlesque and the decor needed to match!

Ooh la la!

After rushing to Anni's (thanks to Miche and Anni's ballies and Dyson and Louie) and helping them set up I rushed back to Simi to fetch her for manis and pedis. We made it just in time and then went for lunch with Anni. Simi was suspicious but her bachelorette fears were allayed when we really did just fetch Anni and go for lunch. Mythos in Design Square was YOMSH!

A disarmed and food-heavy Simi unwittingly aided our plans by suggesting we go inside and say hi to Anni's mom. As Anni pulled open the garage door, 13 crazy, colourful, sexy women screaming freaked the crap out of both Simi and I. I nearly had an anurism. I'm not sure why I was so shocked I did know they'd be there :)

Supplies!

All the girls dressed up AMAZINGLY! Looking super hot and fancy ... we had some drinks, played Know your groom and got on to the serious business of the now infamous Anni & Tess photo booth!

Photo booth 

When the Bare Butt Butlers arrived another round of photo booth happened ... those poor men!

Mr Buttler

 

They were very lovely ... nice guys, can cook food, serve drinks, have fun, AND they had nice bums!! Roxy next time I'll remember to keep an eye on you. I'm just saying.

Herril even made them dance! The bachata/kizomba/salsa/merengue lesson was AWESOME! Thank you so much Mr Herril!! Not sure my mom has ever seen me dance like that hehe ... but I'm sure she'll be fine :)

Dyson did an awesome job of the music and Louie was very delightfully sweet and the fireman's outfit and lack of clothes on his upper body somehow didn't detract from his general loveliness. If only he was ten years older.

My mom might've been a little enthusiastic too.

Shooter rounds, bottomless hubblies, penis paraphernalia, punch, crazy masks, awesome music, and FANTASTIC company made for an unforgettable evening. Except for Shaye and Claire who forgot some things.

The gifts were to die for :) thank you to everyone for beautiful things, craploads of fun, and a general ricockulous time!

Mwah mwah also to you Anni you are the BEST CO-BRIDESMAID ever!!

The end.

Xx

Post-weekend review

Dance Cafe I do love you :)

I couldn't possibly have had more fun than I did on Saturday night! Photoshoots, line dancing, random people :)

Add some lil' shorts and chequered shirts and cowboy boots and a pair of handcuffs and it's perfect ;)

And so much of dancing! Love you all!

The massage was divine my mom and I were in some earthly heaven ... those stones were so hot and so lovely on skin! Going back next week for a mani and pedi*. Ooh la laa.

Church was stirring and beautiful and I love how Ross preaches. No BS, no making every thing sound nice or easy. Just good solid Bible-based conversation.

Cresta was once again a haven of perfect service, happy salespeople not trying to sell to me, and general helpfulness and kindness. If you ever experience bad service ... just visit Cresta for a morning. They'll fix you. I don't know what it is - it's like a Cresta culture; every shop does it, it's not a random Forever New/Queenspark/oh-you're-going-to-be-spending-a-lot-of-money type of service. It's genuine.

That said I missed my braai** but did get to spend the rest of the day with someone sweet and I got a special present :)

That is all.

* Wow. How much MORE poppie can you get?
** I had a sad.

This weekend!

So this weekend (as a friend of mine does weekly) I've decided to post my upcoming plans ... just for fun.

Friday: farewell drinks for a colleague (means I get to leave the office NOW and go chill at Fire and Ice Melrose Arch)
Friday later: Salsa social at Dance Cafe! Best Friday night by far ;)

Saturday morning: haircut! Love how short it is the first day!
Saturday morning later: hot stone massages and lunch with Mom (Mother's Day present)
Saturday afternoon: teach sister's fiance to dance
Saturday evening: Dance Cafe's 5th birthday party! Wild wild West style! Yeeeee-Haaaah!

Sunday morning: Church :)
Sunday after church: shopping at Cresta (hearts) with Jo
Sunday after shopping: Braai with friendy and friendy family
Sunday after braai: dancing with Simi and Kyle
Sunday night: MAYBE see my poor boyfriend :)

That is all!

Xx

Black and white Bat for Lashes dress

So while the formal let's-write-a-blogpost-thing is distressingly challenging to get round to ... I thought I'd instead quickly proffer some gorgeous specimen or other I'd hunted down and killed.

Sort of.

My gorgeous friend Kershia introduced me to Bat for Lashes not long ago (and I thank her profusely for doing such) ... and she caught my eye socket immédiatement. I like how she styles herself and she's just lovely and seems fun. Anyway the black and white dress she's wearing below is simple and striking and I love it.

Sorry I don't know whose photo this is that I'm using I apologise profusely and assure you I'm not making any money off it.

That is all. Oh and her music's pretty cool too.

That is all.

New Year's Resolutions Schmesolutions

So a quick note to quietly decree my continued annoyance at every single newsletter, blog post, update including anything relating to the New Year. It's the friggin 18th already.

"So it's a new year!" (Um yes I've been living on a Gregorian calendar for 27 years I'm quite aware it's a new year) ... "Time for new beginnings!" (Hush now stop compensating for all the crap you failed to do in all the time you've been living).

I'm so bored of it - and irritated.

Even my good undetermined wolf friend has turned determined: http://thewolfpackofone.blogspot.com/2012/01/phoenix-on-hog.html. Although I do admire his proactivity.

The End

The secret life of an intellectual poppie

What is a poppie?


A poppie is an overdone, hyper-girlie Platteland princess :) More or less - something akin to calling an English-speaking girl a Barbie. Now I've been called a Poppie numerous times ... at res the girls called me Poppy (they were mostly from Zim so not Afrikaans-speaking hence the slight phonetic adaption) and I actually quite liked it. At Rhodes I went through an excelling phase which petered out through Honours and another excelling phase which petered out as I progressed through Masters. Which reminds me I need to re-register for 2012.

in•tel•lec•tu•al/ˌintlˈekCHo͞oəl/
Adjective: Of or relating to the intellect: "intellectual stimulation".
Noun: A person possessing a highly developed intellect.

What is intellect?
in•tel•lect/ˈintlˌekt/
Noun: The faculty of reasoning and understanding objectively, esp. with regard to abstract or academic matters.

Ahem: so an intellectual is a person who has a highly developed ability to reason and understand (we know there is no objectivity) abstract and academic stuff (I firmly believe stuff is a very important academic word).

Thank you Google for all that help, can you fix my speaking-to-people conundrum now? And it is a conundrum. It’s the challenge between high-brow and popular (not that the popular can’t be intellectual). Choosing what to say to whom, coming back to life after academia and people who don't use (never mind understand) words like 'lithe'; 'ethereal'; or 'diaphonous' ... you have to get real and simplify your language, your subject, and your vocabulary.

So what to speak about? Obviously you ask questions about their lives, interests … but I was all socio-political, see-another-side, mild feminist: what was that and who could relate? I had a something up my sleeve though: a sneaky penchant for fashion. I could talk about delicious department stores in Thailand, the subtleties of Gaga’s latest, and a most gorgeous vintage purse from Victoria, Australia (a delightful treat from a wandering sister thoroughly aware of my taste).

The subjects I know well include studies (boring or inaccessible); work (boring); gym (boring); and dancing (somehow non dancers never find as much delight in this topic as I). When I've eliminated talking about those boring things ... all I have left is, "You should just SEE the leather boots I bought - I could lick them they're so gorgeous!" ... and it's only taken one quizzical and I'm-trying-hard-to-look-like-this-is-relevant stare to make me seriously question ever making another statement about my fashion status quo.

I'm smart, knowledgeable, I have hobbies and studies and I travel and am not shy to open my mouth - I love meeting people and I love learning ... how can I so often find myself with a mouthful of nothing to say to a new acquaintance, or old school friend? Fine I don't have the time for a genuine interest in worldwide politics and global warming, but I know what frakking and geo-fencing involve.

I’m going to blame globalisation and the interweb. If there wasn’t so much information and stuff to do and ways to do it – it wouldn’t be so challenging to find people with at least one similar activity/interest/pursuit as you.

I have thus determined to expand my range of topics, knowledge, and experience by doing some new interesting things and reading a little more widely. The end (of stilted cautious conversation hopefully).

Pay someone who can write Mail and Guardian

So you'd think that people that can actually do some research should be writing for the Mail & Guardian right?

Write.

Wrong. Incorrect. Fail. Picked up this online today: http://mg.co.za/article/2011-09-30-different-storylines-help-students-face-ethical-dilemmas/ ... and was particularly interested because storytelling is an incredibly powerful thing in the lives of children and adults - it's one of the reasons media production is such a critical thing to get right. It's also a reason why funding/commissions should be channelled to those who are getting it right (like http://clockworkzoo.com/ ... http://twitter.com/#!/laurenbeukes).

My point is highlighted by the fact that the Mail & Guardian has chosen to publish this average piece of he said she said, instead of taking the opportunity to publish a quality, polished, insightful, researched journalism slash opinion (as we're used to the M&G doing) ... that could offer people insight on what's going on in their country/world ... their own kid's lives (i.e., why aren't they paying me to write?).

Kids need alternative stories to give them options - to allow them to make choices that haven't been made before. We allow our children (by not providing them with locally-produced quality content [including fiction]) to grow up thinking that what they see happening everyday in the stories they're exposed to (television/news/school textbooks/parents' ways of doing things), is how things simply are. If we keep allowing our children to understand the world this way, we will always end up with the world this way (xenophobic, racist, elitist, … and full of hurt).

How do we give them alternatives? We give them choices: we speak with them, we give them opinions and make sure they know that these are opinions. In the light of the ‘article’ in the M&G referred to above, we give our teachers access to information and the stories themselves. We fund television that addresses the daily realities of our children. We create television that shows them themselves, and not Australian, American, Japanese and French stereotypes of what boys and girls should be.

Anyway … you don’t have to pay me I’ve already written this article for free …